PODCAST · arts
Maître d’ Diaries
by Erica Cantley
Maître d’ Diaries is an award-winning front of the house industry podcast hosted by two OG New York maître d’s, Dante Camara and Erica Cantley. We take you behind the podium, between the tables, and inside the minds of the people who welcome and serve you in your favorite restaurants. You’ll meet industry pros, hear stories of dining room nightmares, service successes, and luxury excesses, get tips on how to be a good guest, find out how the people who take care of you take care of themselves, and learn what restaurant behavior we think needs to be 86ed.
Episodes
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S4 - Episode 12 - Paz Altamirano
How do you get the help and support you crave to grow in your profession, and as a person? Have you ever wished you had a mentor? Or two or three? Listen to our chat with Paz Altamirano for some great tips and inspo on how to find and activate MENTORSHIP in your life. You’ll hear about: ~ How Paz...
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S4 - Episode 11 - Arnold Rossman
Is it possible to age into rather than out of the business? As we gain experience and perhaps take on leadership roles within our restaurant groups, is the concept of work life balance even viable for chefs and restaurant managers? Our guest Arnold Rossman is an industry legend and a veritable...
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S4 - Episode 10 - Mardee Bennett
It’s no secret that some of the best front of the house players started out as English majors and thespians. Which comes first, a penchant for performance and storytelling, or the need for a paying gig? For sure the dining room can be a stage. The curtain rises when the door opens, and no matter...
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S4 - Episode 9 - Alexandra Tierno Payard Morris
People get into the hospitality business from all different angles, and it's not uncommon for someone to start as a host or a bus boy to make a little extra cash and end up on a totally different career path than they expected. Our guest Alexandra Tierno Payard Morris started with a B.S. in...
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S4 - Episode 8 - Emanuel Moosbrugger
When you work in restaurants you join an extended community of colleagues, ex-colleagues, and people your colleagues used to work with. These folks all over the world are connections and networks just waiting to happen. EMANUEL MOOSBRUGGER is one of those friends I never worked with but was...
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S4 - Episode 7 - Alison Arth & Kimberly Belle
How do you become a better restaurant manager? THAT’S AN ISSUE! Have we lost the art of the clear? THAT’S another ISSUE, along with many others we discuss in this episode of the Maître d’ Diaries Podcast with guests ALISON ARTH & KIMBERLY BELLE. Between cultural reckonings and shifts in workforce...
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S4 - Episode 6 - We're Booked with Paul Freedman
Welcome to another WE’RE BOOKED episode of the podcast with scholar and professor PAUL FREEDMAN. Paul Freedman is the author of Ten Restaurants That Changed America, an essential historic tome for passionate restaurant fans as well as people fascinated by business success stories and the…
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S4 - Episode 5 - Jenna Norfleet
Ever wonder how someone might go from being a psych major to clearing tables, to being a Michelin-star bartender? Join us for our chat with JENNA NORFLEET, head bartender at Francie in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Jenna’s front of the house career path epitomizes how sometimes the restaurant job you...
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S4 - Episode 4 - Andrea Zana
Welcome to our first DESTINATION HOSPITALITY episode with our guest ANDREA ZANA, the general manager of the Hotel Il San Pietro in Positano on the Amalfi Coast of Italy. Listen in to hear what it’s like to be part of the operational family that runs one of the world’s greatest resort hotels, how...
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S4 - Episode 3 - Ahris Kim
This episode we welcome Ahris Kim, the Director of Operations for NA:EUN Hospitality, the multi-award-winning group behind Atoboy, Atomix, and NARO in New York. Ahris, born in Seoul, Korea, and chats about the opportunity to combine her career passions and her heritage, the impact of the awards…
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S4 - Episode 2 - Ronan Duchêne Le May
With passion, partnership, and maybe a soupçon of beginners’ ingenuousness Ronan Duchêne Le May and his wife chef Alexia Duchêne opened Le Chêne, a très chic, très Parisien restaurant on Carmine Street in the West Village in less than six months. Incroyable! Listen in to our chat with Ronan to…
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S4 - Episode 1 - Daryl Coke
We are kicking off Season 4 with the iconic Daryl Coke, who runs the beloved wine programs at NYC’s Ernesto’s and Bartolo’s, and a deep dive into Spanish and Basque restaurants and wines. Daryl has been in New York for the past 16 years working at some of the city’s most beloved cult restaurants...
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S4 - Teaser Season 4
Maître d' Diaries is back! Season 4 brings you more NYC front of the house folks, like Daryl Coke of Ernesto's and Bartolo, Ronan Le Chêne of Le Chêne, Ahris Kim of NA:EUN Hospitality, and Jenna Norfleet of Francie, along with the return of “That’s An Issue,” “We’re Booked,” and a new episode...
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Jake Shipley - FULLY COMMITTED
Back in the year 2000 the Cherry Lane Theater hosted the premier of Becky Mode's side-splitting, lightening-paced one man show, "Fully Committed", and restaurant reservationists in basements and broom closets all around town felt seen. And maybe not a little bit exposed. An updated version of the...
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S3 - Episode 13 - Melba Wilson
We are so happy to welcome New York Restaurant World Legend, Melba Wilson, to Maître d’ Diaries. Restaurants are all about creating community. The community that is fostered in dining rooms, across tables, in bars and lounges, AND the community we build INSIDE the restaurants where we work. One…
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S3 - Episode 12 - Tatiana Mejia
You meet the best people working in restaurants! Case in point, this episode’s guest, Tatiana Mejia, maître d’ at Michelin-starred Francie in Brooklyn, and a dear friend. Folks come to restaurant work via all different paths, many of us finding the right balance of physical activity, mental...
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S3 - Episode 11 - Roger Raines
Ever wonder what it was like booking out a restaurant ON PAPER, before the dawn of online reservation platforms? At Maître d’ Diaries one of our raisons d’être is building a bridge between restaurant industry old guard and the vibrant, essential Next Generation populating the new post-pandemic...
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S3 - Episode 10 - Olivia Salomon
You meet some of the best people in the restaurant business. Folks like our guest Olivia Salomon, a server at Le Veau d’Or in New York City, who find joy and satisfaction taking care of other people and helping create memorable experiences for them. Whether it’s a warm welcome at the door or a...
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S3 - Episode 9 - Tom Piscitello
Tom Piscitello is a New York maître d’ legend! He ran the door at some of the city’s best Italian restaurants, including Coco Pazzo, Babbo, Beppe, A Voce, and Ci Siamo. Tom joined us from his terrazzo in Sicily, where he and his husband now live the semi-retired life of private hospitality…
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S3 - Episode 8 - "We're Booked" with Andrew Friedman
Welcome to our 3rd “We’re Booked” episode. Our guest is author, cookbook collaborator, and podcast host, Andrew Friedman. Andrew has made a career chronicling the life and work of some of our best chefs, and is currently collaborating on a memoir with Daniel Boulud, to be published by Grand…
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S3 - Episode 7 - Sarah Morrissey
Fasten your seat belts for a spirit-driven ride through NYC modern cocktail culture with the beloved, legendary, Sarah Morrissey who worked on the front lines of the cocktail revolution in New York from almost the beginning. Recorded one Saturday over bagels pre-service at Le Veau d’Or, where...
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S3 - Episode 6 - Bradley Knebel
A “We Can Transfer That” episode happens at least once a season on Maître d’ Diaries. These episodes are designed to highlight the many transferable skills one can hone working the door and floor of a restaurant. It's sort of a "how did you get from there to here" interview that showcases the...
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S3 - Episode 5 - Sabrina Marte
Maître d’ Diaries is a front of the house industry podcast designed to build community with other dining room professionals, foster pride in the art of hospitality, share stories from the front lines, facilitate conversation among OG restaurant folks and the Next Gen, and address the very real...
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S3 - Episode 4 - Raj Vaidya
Join us this episode as we step away from the welcome and into the wine cellar for our chat with Raj Vaidya, whose career trajectory has taken him from a bagel shop in New Jersey all the way to being Chef Daniel Boulud’s International Wine Director, and now collaborating with Daniel Johnnes, as…
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S3 - Episode 3 - Paris Pryor
Paris Pryor has been hearing about Maître d’ Diaries since long before we launched. In fact, her passion for the business and for hearing stories about restaurants past and present helped inspire our inception. Erica and Paris met while opening the Michelin-starred Francie in Williamsburg…
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S3 - Episode 2 - Tizzy Beck
Welcome to our chat with Tizzy Beck, maître d’/manager at the Waverly Inn in the West Village. Tizzy is one of those people you meet and say, where have you been all my life? She’s a personality powerhouse, a native New Yorker and a born host. She's been featured in the New York Times for helping...
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S3 - Dante & Erica - Season 3 Opener
Dante and Erica look back at 2024 and the holiday season in NYC. We talk about our aspirations for 2025, the physical challenges of doing a job that has us on our feet most of the day, what it’s like to do a restaurant brand refresh in a popular 15 year old restaurant, and what it means to have a...
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When POTUS Comes to Dinner - ELECTION WEEK Bonus Episode
Maître d’s have a lot of great stories, and sometimes we get to meet really interesting people while just doing our jobs. In honor of ELECTION WEEK we’re offering up a wholly positive, but still dishy behind-the-scenes story of what happened when President and Mrs. Obama came to dinner at…
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S2 - Episode 12 - Leslie Brenner
Welcome to the 2nd “We’re Booked” episode of Maître d’ Diaries, a front of the house restaurant industry podcast. On our “We’re Booked” episodes we chat with authors who write about restaurants and restaurant life, and the specialty book sellers who collect and curate the books we long to own and...
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S2 - Episode 11 - Preston Lee
Thanks for joining us at Maître d’ Diaries, and welcome to our first “That’s an Issue!” episode. At Maître d’ Diaries we spend a lot of time thinking about the management of dining room operations and how we could do it better. While we are well past Covid–knock on wood–our industry is still very...
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S2 - Episode 10 - Shari Bayer
“We Can Transfer That.” If you’ve spent much time in restaurants, you’ve no doubt heard or used the phrase “We can transfer that,” which refers to transferring a drink tab from the bar to a table. Do you ever look at people with really cool restaurant-adjacent jobs they seem to have crafted to...
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S2 - Episode 9 - Barry Wine
Get ready for a serious OG Alert. You’re about to spend some time with restaurant legend Barry Wine of the famed Quilted Giraffe. American cuisine and fine dining–along with the concept of signature dishes going viral–can be traced to the Quilted Giraffe, which opened almost 50 years ago in 1975....
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S2 - Episode 8 - Tina Vaughn
Get ready for a guest and a restaurant that are unapologetically analog. Building community among our FOH colleagues is the primary reason we started Maitre d’ Diaries, so it’s fitting that wine & spirit OG and self-proclaimed connection artist, Ryan Looper, launched us on the trail to meet the...
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S2 - Episode 7 - Cherif Mbodji
Cherif Mbodji’s passion for hospitality is deeply rooted in his upbringing in Senegal. When he came to America in 2000 to attend the University of Michigan, he had no way of knowing that homesickness for the liveliness and generosity of his big family in Senegal would lead him to a career in...
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S2 - Episode 6 - Andrea Needell
Meeting a kindred spirit like Andrea Needell is exactly why we started this podcast. Andrea is the bar director and general manager of Clay, an American farm to table restaurant located in the space once occupied by the historic Perks Jazz Club in Harlem. Clay is a neighborhood restaurant that...
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S2 - Episode 5 - Luis Terreros
This summer we were lucky to catch up with Luis Terreros while he was on a break between his position as opening AGM of Cafe Carmellini and taking on the new role of General Manager at Chef Michael White’s soon to open, much anticipated restaurant, Santi. Luis hails from Cuenca, Ecuador, and has...
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S2 - Episode 4 - Traceena Lynch
Tomorrow, September 5, 2024, New York City public school students head back to the classroom, so what better date to drop our episode with the multi-talented Traceena Lynch? Traceena is a senior at Food & Finance High School in NYC, and thanks to the professional training programs run by the...
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S2 - Episode 3 - Jorge Escudero
These days restaurant gatekeepers come in all shapes, sizes, and sartorial styles, but our guest Jorge Escudero is cut from the fine cloth of what many of us might consider a classic maître d. Jorge has welcomed guests at iconic establishments over the years, including The Beatrice Inn, The 21...
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S2 - Episode 2 - Caprice Benedetti
Welcome to our energized interview with Caprice Benedetti, a woman of a certain age who’s in the middle of her first foray into hospitality. At an incredibly high level. We started Maître d’ Diaries because we wanted to build community, connect with more FOH folks, and bridge the OG / Next Gen…
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S2 - Episode 1 - John Winterman
It’s the Grand Opening of Maître d’ Diaries, Season Two, and we are kicking off the season with the man, the legend, the Brad Pitt of Cheese, John Winterman. Long before the restaurant Ever in The Bear there was Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, where a pre-Silver Fox John Winterman cut his fine…
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Season Two - Trailer
Welcome to Season Two of Maître d’ Diaries! We are a Front of the House Industry podcast that takes you behind the podium, between the tables, and inside the heads of the people who run your favorite restaurants. Take a listen to our trailer for a taste of what’s to come in Season Two, including...
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BONUS EPISODE - Cherif Mbodji on Hurricane Beryl
Four years ago in the great unknown landscape of 2020 Aaron and Victoria Bludorn, Cherif Mbodji, and their team–many imported colleagues from New York City and the Dinex (Daniel Boulud) Diaspora–opened the much celebrated Bludorn restaurant in Houston, Texas. A little less than four years and two...
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Episode 12 - Dante & Erica Interview Each Other
Welcome to the final episode of Season One of Maître d’ Diaries. Like most restaurants, the podcast has taken much longer to get up and running than we could have imagined, with lots of starts and stops, largely out of our control. To wrap up Season One we figured it would be a good time for you…
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Episode 11 - Pop Up with Robynne Maii in Honolulu
Aloha and welcome to our first Pop-Up episode of Maitre d’ Diaries the Podcast, where we record interviews from our visits to colleagues in restaurants around the country and the world. On Dante’s most recent visit home he had lunch at Fete in Honolulu with his dear friend and sustainability...
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Episode 10 - Aspen Maye
Aspen Maye, Food & Beverage Manager at the Arlo Hotel in Williamsburg, is relatively new to the hospitality business, but she’s a quick study and has already put a lot of thought into how to run a door, make people feel welcome, and add some silliness into training her front of the house team....
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Episode 9 - Drew Nieporent
We are so honored to welcome Drew Nieporent to MaÎtre d’ Diaries! Drew is one of America's great restaurateurs. He has been an integral player in the NYC food world landscape for decades, supporting the community, making connections, and always bringing the good time and warm welcome. Drew has...
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Episode 8 - Maddy Maldonado
Maître d's may be the gatekeepers, but here at Maître d' Diaries we will frequently step away from the door and talk to front of the house hospitality professionals who play all different roles in executing the service in restaurant operations. Join us this episode for our chat with Maddy...
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Episode 7 - We're Booked! with Matt Sartwell of Kitchen Arts & Letters
Welcome to the first episode of We're Booked! where each season we will chat with people who write books about restaurants! Where better to kick off this deliciously decadent series than at the venerable Kitchen Arts & Letters, the world renowned bookstore opened in 1983 by the legendary Nach...
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Episode 6 - David Viana & Neilly Robinson of Lita & Heirloom Kitchen
It's been quite a year for Chef David Viana and Managing Director Neilly Robinson, partners in New Jersey's Heirloom Kitchen, Heirloom at the St. Laurent Social Club, and the systemically innovative, vibrantly delicious, Lita. Last summer we visited David and Neilly six weeks after Lita, their...
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Episode 5 - Bonus Episode with Sal Lamboglia
One fine August afternoon Dante & Erica met up at Cafe Spaghetti and had the fortuitous pleasure of running into chef/owner Sal Lamboglia, who gave us a preview of their new venture, Swoony's. Of course we pulled out the microphone to record the impromptu visit! Listen in to hear about Sal and...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Maître d’ Diaries is an award-winning front of the house industry podcast hosted by two OG New York maître d’s, Dante Camara and Erica Cantley. We take you behind the podium, between the tables, and inside the minds of the people who welcome and serve you in your favorite restaurants. You’ll meet industry pros, hear stories of dining room nightmares, service successes, and luxury excesses, get tips on how to be a good guest, find out how the people who take care of you take care of themselves, and learn what restaurant behavior we think needs to be 86ed.
HOSTED BY
Erica Cantley
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Maître d’ Diaries have?
Maître d’ Diaries currently has 56 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Maître d’ Diaries about?
Maître d’ Diaries is an award-winning front of the house industry podcast hosted by two OG New York maître d’s, Dante Camara and Erica Cantley. We take you behind the podium, between the tables, and inside the minds of the people who welcome and serve you in your favorite restaurants. You’ll meet...
How often does Maître d’ Diaries release new episodes?
Maître d’ Diaries has 56 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Maître d’ Diaries?
You can listen to Maître d’ Diaries on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Maître d’ Diaries?
Maître d’ Diaries is created and hosted by Erica Cantley.
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