Q&A Cafe: The Restaurant as Respite, an Interview with Eric Ziebold

It will air next Friday, July 15, but today we taped a Q&A Cafe interview with Eric Ziebold, the James Beard Award-winning chef and owner of the conjoined restaurants Kinship and Metier, which opened this year on 7th Street across from the DC Convention Center. We started by noting the violence of the past two weeks, from Bangladesh to Dallas, and including Istanbul, Iraq, Baton Rouge, Minneapolis and Dallas, and how restaurants often serve as the refuge  - he called the experience a "respite" -- from the madness of the world (though we know, in Paris, and Bangladesh, they were targets). In a normal, sane world, my point would make sense, but ....

We started there and went on to explore Eric's journey from Ames, Iowa, to Washington by way of the kitchens of Jeff Buben, Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller. It's quite a magic carpet ride and you'll want to watch the whole hour-long conversation. Next Friday, 8pm, Channel 16.