From The Ground Up

Greg Baxtrom always knew wholeheartedly that he wanted to be a chef. He grew up in a small town in Illinois watching Rick Bayless on CBS and took his first gig in the industry at Wendy’s at the young age of 15. In 2016, after years of working at some of the most well-known restaurants, such as Alinea, Per Se and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Greg opened up his first spot in Brooklyn, Olmsted. And just a few years later, Greg opened up his second restaurant, Maison Yaki. Unfortunately, the pandemic has required Greg to constantly reinvent his restaurants in an attempt to keep his businesses afloat. Despite the harsh realities of the pandemic, Greg has managed to focus his efforts on supporting his community that he cares deeply about. In this special two-part episode, we cover how Greg worked his way up to Sous Chef at Alinea under Grant Achatz, how he learned about thoughtful and responsible cooking from Dan Barber at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, how the culmination of Greg’s career experiences led to the opening of Olmsted, operating a food bank during the pandemic, creating a platform for other chefs by running the black entrepreneur series out of Maison Yaki and the impact of this ever-changing, unpredictable climate on his own restaurants and the industry as a whole.