Best Chocolate Chip Cookie in NYC: Culture Espresso Co-Owner Johnny Norton on "Savor with Tiffany Pham"

Johnny Norton, Co-Owner of Culture Espresso, is a 2026 Savor Honoree for Excellence in Chocolate Chip Cookies. For more, view here: savortheuniverse.comForty bakeries were invited. Two hundred judges. A blind taste test, an open bar, and a few Michelin-starred kitchens in the field. Culture Espresso won first place, and Johnny has been hanging his hat on it ever since. "It was also a great opportunity to tease our friends in a Michelin-starred kitchen that one day they'll catch up."The recipe hasn't changed in seventeen years.Tiffany Pham sits down with him over the cookie that keeps winning. He is clear that there is no trick to it: "no shtick other than really high quality." French ingredients, small batches all day so nothing sits, and a flat refusal to get more efficient. People have told him for years he's foolish to use an ingredient that expensive, or that a machine could replace half the staff. "We haven't made a single stride towards efficiency."The route there was not a bakery. He was a bookseller, then a teenage drummer who toured with punk bands and worked in cafés between tours. He got obsessed with coffee in the years before you could learn it on Instagram, when you had to find a secret coffee wizard and train with him. He was young and could not get a lease in Midtown on his own. His business partner Jody LoCascio had met the landlord of this building in a bar and been offered a good deal on it, and Johnny talked his way in with a pitch to run the coffee program.The idea he keeps returning to is one he borrowed from the Eameses: the best, for the most, for the least. He knows a six-dollar cookie isn't the least. "But I'd like to think that both Eames and ourselves made it as fair as we could while trying to make it as best as we could."Savor with Tiffany Pham, a Representation production, is a companion to the television docuseries premiering May 2027. Cinematography by: Kym Pham.CHAPTERS00:00 Meeting Johnny: "the best chocolate chip cookies in New York"00:36 "Cookies are like pizza and bagels"00:49 Forty bakeries, two hundred judges, one blind taste test01:32 Teasing the Michelin-starred kitchen02:11 "No shtick other than really high quality"02:34 The crunch on the outside03:36 "We haven't altered this recipe in 17 years"04:03 A group effort, and Jody's sourdough04:57 "The longer I was a barista, the better a barista I wanted to be"05:17 "We were going to be way too serious. Only coffee."05:58 Seeking out the best ingredients06:39 "We haven't made a single stride towards efficiency"07:04 Small batches, and waiting five minutes07:53 Punk bands, touring, and working in a cafe between tours08:36 Before Instagram: finding a secret coffee wizard09:17 Signing a lease in Midtown at 2409:56 "Coffee felt like the working man's wine"11:00 Meeting Jody through a drummer12:01 The Eames idea: the best, for the most, for the least12:49 "If it ain't broke": on burrata, and not chasing a trend14:07 Three stores in 17 years, all within three blocks15:11 Fourteen-hour days, and delivering cookies by bicycle through COVID15:55 "Now I have a one year old that is the light of my life"16:51 The chemical engineer he met over nachos18:21 Mornings with his son, and the scone he's chasing19:39 Rapid fire: pho at Two Wheels20:48 Burger: Red Hook Tavern, and J.G. Melon21:28 Noodles: Xi'an, and the COVID noodle kits22:26 Cinnamon roll: Sunday Morning. Pizza: Christy's in Greenpoint23:40 The bookseller, and the cookbook he's still writing24:34 The Harvard shirt, and a ninth grade dropout24:58 "I used to be embarrassed. Now I don't care"25:52 "Better than I had ever imagined it would be"26:10 The Rolex, and what his father never had27:57 On kids, and saying goodbyeABOUT CULTURE ESPRESSOCulture Espresso: cultureespresso.com🎬 The Savor with Tiffany Pham docuseries premieres May 1, 2027🌐 savortheuniverse.comClick here to view the episode transcript.