Warriors' Table

Steve Murphy sits down with Chef Michael. A friend, a former right-hand man, and one of the very few people who watched everything unravel in real time. Recorded at the orchard that became an unlikely refuge during the darkest chapter of Steve's life, this conversation isn't a polished retrospective. It's two people finally naming what actually happened: the disappearances, the wedding that almost fell apart, the Instagram post that became a before-and-after line in the sand, and the quiet, nightly battle one person fought alone just trying to hold the team and his friend Together.Michael doesn't soften it. He talks about watching a sharp, meticulous chef start dropping details, about choosing silence over confrontation because he knew pressure wouldn't bring Steve back faster, and about the cost of being the buffer between a falling-apart leader and a crew that needed answers he didn't have.This is a conversation about loyalty without control, about what it actually looks like to hold space for someone in crisis, and about the strange, specific kind of peace a place can offer when nowhere else feels safe. If you've ever sat in your car in a parking lot after a shift and didn't know why This one's for you.⚠️ This episode touches on themes of mental health crisis and personal struggle. Listener discretion advised.

On this episode, we sit down with Chef Clark Myers Owner of Provisions JH in Jackson Hole. Inside his own kitchen for the first time.Clark's path started in Southern California, ran through national parks, Big Sky, and Lake Tahoe, and landed him as executive chef of Jenny Lake Lodge before COVID forced a pivot: a dinner delivery business with a friend that grew into a full catering company and bakery.We get into what actually breaks chefs the grind mentality, micromanaging your team into dependence instead of empowering them, relationships that quietly fall apart because the kitchen always comes first, and the drinking culture that becomes the default escape valve in this industry. Clark's three months sober and talks candidly about why.This one's about camaraderie over competition finding the other chefs in your city who are going through the same thing, and realizing you're not the only one in the weeds.If you've ever felt like this business slowly closes you off from everyone around you, this episode is for you.

At 9,500 feet above Jackson Hole, right after plating dessert for 20 people, Chef Andrew Blake sat down and told the truth.no script. no prep. just two chefs coming off a six-course private dinner on top of the Butte and a conversation the industry doesn't usually have out loud.Chef Andrew has worked in michelin three-star kitchens with 10 chefs screaming down his neck. he's owned four restaurants, struggled in all of them, and pulled through. james beard award. five diamond. five-star mobile. esquire top 10. and behind all of it pressure, addiction, survival.in this episode:— why everyone calling themselves a chef today is getting it wrong— what 15-18 hour days do to a person over time— why addiction runs deeper in kitchens than almost any other industry— the real reason labor is impossible to find in Jackson Hole— why consistency is the only thing that separates a warrior from someone who quitsthis wasn't a planned sit-down. this was two warriors catching their breath after service and deciding that what they just lived through was worth saying out loud.Buckle up. there are a lot more stories where this came from.🎙️ subscribe so you don't miss the next witness🔪 WydahoWarriors.comwydaho warriors · as iron sharpens iron · proverbs 27:17

Episode 2 of The Warrior's Table — Season 2: "The Witnesses" | Chef Brentopens with the first sit-down. Chef Brent, Steve's peer and fellow chef, takes the stand.This is the episode about the first disappearance. September 2023. Chef Steve was drowning — running a business, navigating a marriage in distress, holding too much for too many people. Brent saw it before Steve did.So Brent did something most friends wouldn't. He made a wager: $100 to disappear. To turn off the phone. To leave the weddings, the clients, the partnership, the dream that had quietly become the thing that was destroying him.Four weeks later, Steve sent visual confirmation from another state. Brent paid the $100. He calls it the best money he's ever spent.In this episode, Brent talks about what it looks like to watch a friend drown. What it means to throw someone the rope without pulling on it. And why "I'm fine" is the most dangerous sentence a chef can say.If you've been watching someone you love say "I'm fine" for too long — this episode is for you.—🔪 TAKE THE FREE KNIFE CHECK ASSESSMENTA 30-minute confidential self-assessment for chef-owners. Shows you exactly where your blade has gone dull — before it breaks.→ wydahowarriors.mysamcart.com🎙 BOOK A FREE CLARITY CALL WITH CHEF STEVE→ paperbell.me/wydaho-warriorsCRISIS RESOURCES:988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988Crisis Text Line — text HOME to 741741If you are in immediate danger, call 911.—ABOUT THE SHOW:The Warrior's Table is a podcast for professional chefs reclaiming their identity, mental health, and longevity beyond the line. Hosted by Chef Steve Murphy — CIA-trained chef, founder of Wydaho Warriors, and survivor of his own collapse. Recorded in Victor, Idaho and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. As iron sharpens iron — Proverbs 27:17."I'm fine is a cop-out. Any guy who tells you 'I'm fine' is lying — because he's not."— Chef Brent

Season 2 of The Warrior's Table opens with a confession: this podcast isn't about Chef Steve Murphy anymore. It's about what the people around him saw when he was the last person who could see it.In Episode 1, Steve hands over the microphone. He names what no one in the restaurant industry wants to name out loud: chefs are 1.4 times more likely to die by suicide than workers in any other profession. He talks about his own two disappearances, the moment he contemplated taking his life, and the people standing at the edges of his life who saw the collapse before he did.This season, those witnesses sit down each in their own room and tell you what they saw. Some in quiet places. Some in kitchens. Some in the middle of the fire.If you're a chef-owner running on fumes, this episode is the one to start with.—Take the free Knife Check Assessment — a confidential self-assessment that shows you exactly where your blade has gone dull, before it breaks: wydahowarriors.mysamcart.comBook a free Clarity Call with Chef Steve: paperbell.me/wydaho-warriorsIf you or someone you know is struggling, you are not alone:988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988Crisis Text Line — text HOME to 741741—The Warrior's Table is hosted by Chef Steve Murphy and produced by Wydaho Warriors, a community for chefs reclaiming their identity, longevity, and brotherhood beyond the line.Follow: @wydahowarriors on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube."You are a warrior who hasn't found his table yet. This is your table, Chef."

Chef, we made it. Season 1 finale.10 episodes. More miles than I can count, more therapy than I planned on. And before we close this season, I need to give you the whole program in one sentence:Male chefs are 1.5x more likely to die by suicide than any other profession. I almost became part of that statistic. This is why this table exists.Your assignment for closing Season 1:Write down one thing you're grateful for that came out of your hardest season. One thing that broke you. One thing that built you.

Every chef inherits a knife block. Not from culinary school. From the family kitchen.Steve Murphy sits with the question most of us spend a lifetime avoiding: what did our fathers hand us, and what are we handing to our kids?This is the story of Dennis; Steve's father, a Nabisco brands cookie salesman who worked six days a week for 36 years in Coos County, New Hampshire. A steady man. A faithful man. A man who didn't veer from the path in front of him. And the inheritance Steve realized he'd been living without ever picking up a single knife to examine it."I am the risk I have chosen to become. I am consciously reshaping those lessons. Not to undo Dennis. But to honor him by doing the work he did not have a language for."Steve also tells the story of skiing with his youngest son, Grayson, the day before recording this episode and the moment on that mountain when he chose a different knife than the one he was handed.Your assignment before the Season 1 finale: look at your own inherited knife block. Pick one knife you're grateful for. Pick one that needs sharpening. Just see them clearly. That's the beginning.Episode 10 is the Season 1 finale. Don't miss it.Wydaho Warriors is a brotherhood for professional chefs built by Chef Steve Murphy in Victor, Idaho. Knife Check Assessment available at wydahowarriors.com.

Every warrior has a love story. This is MineSeptember 2023. The Oregon coast. A little yellow church. And a woman named Shannon who found me deep in the middle of my own disappearance.Right girl. Wrong time.This episode isn't about regret. It's about what love teaches a man who is still finding himself, and why you cannot offer your whole self to someone else until you've done the work of finding your whole self first.Chefs Feels Too. 🎙️🔥#ChefLife #ChefBurnout #ChefMindset #CulinaryWellness #ChefMentalHealth

March 3rd, 2026. Steve Murphy walked away from the partnership that built him. 🎙️Not out of anger. Out of love.Love for his boys. His health. The version of himself he is still building.The last mask was the hardest one to take off —but the moment it came off, everything changed. 🔥"I had to be myself. Because the people who are meant to be at my table were waiting for the real me to show up."EP. 07 — Be Myself. And That Is Enough.🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss EP. 08 — The One That Got Away.

As chefs, we're often reduced to what our bodies can produce — the long shifts, the hot lines, the plates that go out no matter what. But we are more than that.In this honest, unfiltered conversation, we sit down at the Warrior's Table to talk about something we rarely admit out loud: the emotional weight we carry behind the apron. The exhaustion that isn't just physical. The moments when the hardest battle isn't the dinner rush — it's the war happening inside us.Because sometimes we burn out not because we're weak, but because we feel deeply. And sometimes, the demons we fight the hardest are the ones wearing our own face.This is a brief but powerful reminder that acknowledging what lives within us — the doubt, the darkness, the struggle — is not a sign of failure. It's the first step to becoming who we're meant to be. Not just as chefs. As people.You are not just your output. You are not just your kitchen. You are a whole person — and that matters.Pull up a chair. This one's for you. 🔥Warrior's Table is a space for chefs and humans who are done pretending everything is fine. Real talk. Real people. Real struggle. Real growth.

WARRIORS' TABLESeason 1 | EP.05 — Chef Knife Set: No Friends in the Industry4,297 days.From opening the doors on April 1st, 2014, to closing them on January 5th, 2026 — this episode reflects on the hard lessons that come from building something with people you trust… and discovering that not everyone is meant to stay.In this raw solo monologue, Steve Murphy talks chef-to-chef about one of the truths no one teaches in the hospitality industry: boundaries are essential.Friendship, family, and business can become complicated when the pressure of the kitchen meets real life. Learning to set clear boundaries may cost relationships, but it also opens the door to healthier ones.Because every chef carries a knife set.And boundaries might be the most important tool in it.

WARRIORS' TABLESeason 1 | EP.04 — Rebuild Your Kitchen: The Next 30 Years Start NowRebuilding doesn’t start when everything collapses.It starts before you even realize something is breaking.In this episode, Steve Murphy reflects on a pivotal encounter with a chef named Michael — a moment that, in hindsight, became part of the foundation for a rebuild that hadn’t officially begun yet.Through the lens of kitchen culture and real-life experience, Steve introduces the idea of the four kitchens every chef must tend: mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual.Because true rebuilding isn’t about changing your environment or pushing harder through the chaos. It’s about creating an uncracked foundation and building new habits that can sustain the next chapter of your life.The next 30 years don’t begin when life becomes perfect.They begin now.Runtime: ~8 minutesFormat: Solo Monologue | No Filter

Season 1 | EP.03 — Feel No Ways: The Sticky BlameIn this solo episode, Steve Murphy reflects on one of the heaviest burdens chefs and leaders carry: Blame.After a season of burnout, broken partnerships, and personal collapse, Steve shares what it means to finally stop running and sit with the silence. The episode explores the impossible pressure of trying to please everyone, the freedom of letting that weight go, and the power of forgiveness — first for yourself, then for others.Sometimes the greatest shift doesn’t come from pushing harder.It comes from finally putting the weight down.Welcome to the Warrior’s Table.About Us:https://wydahowarriors.com/

Silence is a feeling of peace that we sometimes forget because we are in the middle of so much chaos and so many responsibilities. When I decided to step away from all the noise of my “successful” life, I was able to experience a beautiful moment of reconnection with something greater than myself — and with myself.About Us: https://wydahowarriors.com/services/⁠September 15th, 2023, I disappeared. Not metaphorically. Not I mentally checked out. I meant I was gone. No one knew where I was. I didn't want anyone to know. And honestly, part of me didn't plan on coming back. Here's what makes this even harder to say out loud. I went dark right in the middle of peak wedding and event season. All around me, literally all around me, people were celebrating, toasting, dancing, cutting cake, and I couldn't be any part of it. I couldn't perform it. I couldn't fake it one more time. If you're a chef who's ever stood in the middle of someone else's best day and felt absolutely nothing, well, this episode is for you. This is a Idaho Warrior Warrior Table, and I'm Chef Steve Murphy. And this is an episode I never thought I'd record. And to be honest, I've never done content or podcasts or any of this other bullshit in the past. And so this is literally my first attempt. So let me paint you a picture of who I was before September 15th. CIA graduate, chef and owner, single dad, big beautiful home, white picket fence. Built a catering company with my soon-to-be ex-brother-in-law from scratch in Teton Valley, Idaho. On paper, I had it together. Behind the scenes, I was crumbling. This business partnership unraveled in ways that took more than just money. And at home, the one place a man is supposed to be able to come and exhale, my marriage was ending. We had been separated, and she wasn't living with me now for about six months. That's not a blowup, not one single moment. Just a slow, painful unraveling happening in the background of every fourteen to sixteen-hour day shift. And every morning, I was still waking up, putting on the chef coat, firing up the line, and pretending. Because that's what we do, right? We don't talk about it. We don't slow down. We push. We grind. We tell ourselves the next season will be different. And it wasn't. It got worse.

It’s a difficult process to have to leave everything behind. On the surface, it seems like you’re running away from your responsibilities — from yourself, from your life, from your family, from your circumstances — until you finally understand that you were simply too exhausted to keep going.In this first episode — my very first podcast — I share this and much more. It’s not about boring you with the story of a chef who burn out in the middle of the “success” of his career. It’s a call for us to come together and understand why you feel the way you feel: the monotony, the environment, the people around you — everything becomes overwhelming until you feel like you have to run.And chef, that’s okay.

A place to escapeAre You Burnt ?