The Dinner Party Showcasing NYC's Next Great Chefs
The Dinner Party Showcasing NYC's Next Great Chefs
At The Lineup, talented line cooks are elevated to restaurateurs for a single night, and you get to indulge in the experience
Today’s post comes to you from Nina Friend, whose writing appears in Vogue, Air Mail, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and other publications. Her story below is part of our broader November theme: The Influence Appetite.
Imagine a restaurant that’s open for one night only, with a playlist that’s as curated as the wine list. Now imagine that this restaurant is dreamt up by a line cook, someone who otherwise spends their days stirring sauces or plating pasta. For one night, this line cook steps into the shoes of an executive chef, creating a five-course menu that melds their training with their aspirations. And when they go back to work the next day, although they might be carrying out someone else’s dreams in the meantime, they’ll be one step closer to achieving their own. This is the idea behind The Lineup, a dinner series that shines a spotlight on line cooks, betting on this often-overlooked community as the future of the restaurant industry.
“With the traditional hierarchy of a restaurant, unless you know an investor or you've worked in the industry for a really long time, oftentimes you can't really have the opportunity to be creative” said Elena Besser, founder and culinary director of The Lineup. “That can cause cooks to burn out or leave the industry, so I thought, how cool would it be to create an opportunity for these cooks to be executive chef for the night?”
Besser launched The Lineup in February 2020, alongside creative director Jackson Cook and content director Graham Burns. They relaunched this past September with three dinners cooked by some of New York City’s brightest culinary talent: Agness Kim, sous chef at Bonnie’s; Nadine Ghantous, sous chef at Rolo’s; and Jonathan Vogt, line cook at The Four Horsemen.
The Lineup differentiates itself from other pop-ups by offering young cooks the chance to think like a restaurateur, from building a menu to designing the tablescape. Since each dinner depends upon a line cook who ordinarily works at a restaurant elsewhere in the city, The Lineup invites each cook’s executive chef to attend their dinner. “It's the least we can do for them offering up their talent for this program,” Besser said.
There’s an electricity that pulses throughout the room during these dinners — a feeling of excitement that evokes the anticipation of a new restaurant on opening night. And yet, there’s a whole different layer of energy when a line cook’s executive chef comes in, sits down, and eats. Besser said, “You can tell that when their boss walks in, they are laser focused on making sure that they have the best experience possible.”
Although The Lineup has experienced rejection from executive chefs, the team works to convey that this opportunity is a win-win. “We see this as a way for a chef to give one of their employees an opportunity to grow without actually having to do so within the restaurant,” Cook said. “And it costs them nothing.”
Most of the time, chefs have been supportive, sometimes even nominating their own talent. Take Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli of Don Angie, who attended Jonathan Vogt’s dinner earlier this fall (Vogt used to work at Don Angie). Afterward, they approached The Lineup team, wanting to get one of their cooks involved. Fast forward to December: The Lineup is kicking off its next round of dinners with Don Angie sous chef Drew Johnson, who will showcase a menu that combines Caribbean flavors with Italian techniques.
In this second season of Lineup dinners, Johnson will be followed by Ali Ghriskey, executive sous chef at K’far, who will bring her wealth of experience cooking under Missy Robbins and the late Floyd Cardoz to a menu filled with nostalgia. The last dinner of 2023 will feature Philipp Kharabarin, chef de cuisine at Ensenada, who draws upon his eight years in the kitchen at Cosme in an unexpected hybrid of Mexican and Russian cuisines.
For each of these chefs, and the ones that preceded them, The Lineup is a chance not necessarily to show off, but to show up — and to showcase what the future of dining can be. “This isn’t a look what I can do moment,” Ghriskey said in a video on The Lineup’s TikTok. “It’s a look what I love moment.”
These dinners also contribute to the societal interest in understanding and appreciating the life of a restaurant cook. “With shows like The Bear coming into play and becoming such an important part of the cultural zeitgeist, everyone wants to see inside,” Besser said. “We've been really excited to bring the back of house vibes to the front of house.”
The Lineup team has big plans for 2024. They want to host dinners on a quarterly basis, expand to different cities, and feature other industry professionals like up-and-coming bartenders. Yet more than anything, The Lineup wants to keep elevating and celebrating line cooks, and in the process, influencing food and restaurant culture as we know it.
“Come to the dinners,” Besser said, “and taste the future of dining in New York.”