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Chef Andre Natera on the business and craft of the restaurant industry.

Run the Pass with Chef Andre Natera is a food industry channel exploring the business and operational forces shaping the restaurant sector, from supply chain pressures and food technology to shifting consumer trends and concept development. Chef Natera brings a working culinary professional's perspective to topics that matter to operators, executives, and foodservice buyers. On MarketScale, the channel serves food and beverage professionals who want both creative and commercial context.

34 episodes

Channel Brief·Run the Pass with Chef Andre Natera · 34 episodes

Updated Sep 23, 2021

Restaurant industry pivots demand culture, staffing, and innovation.

Run the Pass documents how pandemic and long-term structural shifts force chefs and restaurateurs to rethink staffing, sustainability, scaling, and brand-building. The channel grounds its argument in named leaders solving these problems in real time.

Run the Pass argues that restaurant success now depends on solving structural problems beyond cooking: workforce management, sustainability, scaling, and personal brand-building through media. The channel proves this through interviews with working chefs and entrepreneurs solving these exact problems, showing that culture, technology, and strategic positioning matter as much as food.

Drawn from How Anthony Bourdain Inspired a Banker to Crea… and 5 more →

“The key to success is media. Building a channel for your fans to engage with furthers brand and their experience.”
Tiffany Derry, episode 16

By the numbers

12 restaurants

culinary operations overseen by single chef in community project

4 brothers

founded and grew Chronic Tacos fast-casual brand

9 cities

traveled to by chef Byron Gomez post-pandemic

10,000+ residents

in The Village neighborhood where Junior Borges oversees 12 restaurants

What the channel argues

InsightHospitality staffing complexity drove creation of Hyre, a workforce management software.→

InsightPandemic forced restaurants to pivot to pickup, to-go, and new revenue streams.→

InsightTiffany Derry grows restaurant empire through smaller footprints without hefty price tags.→

InsightChef Omar Flores discusses how restaurants scale and what COVID changes will stick.→

InsightMathew Peters, only U.S. winner of Bocuse d'Or, said he never wanted competitions.→

What you'll learn

•Pandemic forced chefs to abandon dine-in models and test pickup, to-go, and new revenue streams permanently.

•Building personal media channels and fan engagement is now table stakes for scaling restaurant brands.

•Workforce management software and staffing culture solve as much business value as menu innovation.

•Sustainability in meat and seafood has become a credibility signal for high-end chefs.

•Restaurant scaling requires solving culture first, not just adding locations or capital.

What to do about it

→Audit whether your restaurant has a media strategy or personal brand channel; if not, begin with a podcast, social series, or customer engagement platform.

→Map your staffing pain points and evaluate whether workforce management software like Hyre could reduce turnover or recruitment complexity.

→Revisit your supply chain for sustainability claims on meat and seafood; align with a credible expert or certification if serving upmarket customers.

Who and what shows up

Tiffany Derry

Celebrity chef, Top Chef and Bar Rescue

Demonstrated how media presence and smaller-footprint restaurant models scale brands without heavy capital and how fans engage when given a channel.

Barton Seaver

Chef and seafood sustainability expert, National Geographic explorer

Shifted from high-end kitchen work with Jose Andres to seafood literacy and education, modeling how chefs reposition around sustainability.

Mathew Peters

Chef, only U.S. winner of Bocuse d'Or

Won competitions despite never wanting to; showed how competitive pressure changed his approach to restaurant work and standards.

Omar Flores

Chef, Texas food scene

Discussed scaling restaurants and which COVID changes will stick, grounding the channel's thesis in real multi-unit growth.

Eropa Stein

CEO, Hyre

Founded workforce management software after encountering hospitality staffing complexity, proving that tech solves structural labor problems in restaurants.

Questions this channel answers

How do restaurants scale without sacrificing quality or culture?

Scale through smaller footprints with lower capital requirements, like Tiffany Derry's model, while maintaining a strong culture foundation and strategic vision, as discussed by Omar Flores and Atticus Garant.

How Can Restaurants Scale to Meet New Demand? →

What did restaurants learn from the pandemic that will stick?

Pickup and to-go models, meal kits, fermentation, and diversified revenue streams became permanent, not temporary. Chef Gabe Erales and Omar Flores discuss which trends endure.

How Anthony Bourdain Inspired a Banker to Create a Culin… →

How do chefs build personal brands and restaurant empires?

By building media channels and fan engagement platforms that amplify their reputation, as Tiffany Derry demonstrated through Top Chef, Bar Rescue, and restaurant media.

Will Every Restaurant Have a Celebrity Chef? →

What drives turnover and burnout in restaurant kitchens?

Long hours in hot kitchens, COVID health concerns, and layoffs created compounding stress. Internal medicine physician Hemalee Patel addressed this on episode 5.

Addressing Burnout In The Restaurant Industry →

How important is sustainability to high-end restaurant positioning?

Sustainability is now central: Barton Seaver shifted from kitchen to seafood literacy and education; Cara Nicoletti, a fourth-generation butcher, reconsidered meat sustainability.

How a Fourth Generation Butcher is Ready to Help People … →

Best place to start

Will Every Restaurant Have a Celebrity Chef?Tiffany Derry's media-driven scaling model and smaller-footprint strategy crystallizes the channel's core thesis: brand and culture beat capital in modern restaurants.

How the Hospitality Staffing Landscape ChangedEropa Stein's Hyre software solves the structural staffing problem the channel names as central to post-pandemic restaurant success.

Topics:Workforce management and hospitality staffingRestaurant scaling and multi-unit operationsSustainability in meat and seafoodPersonal brand and media channelsFood truck and alternative concepts

Themes:Restaurant success now requires solving talent and culture, not just food.Personal brand and media channels are primary scaling levers for multi-unit growth.Sustainability and sourcing credibility are non-negotiable for premium positioning.