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Growing up in a big family helped chef Joe Flamm learn the importance of speaking up. If you desired to be heard in his house, you needed to be loud and have something interesting to say. That upbringing helped prepare the final The best chef winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award for a Celebrity Chef in the Age of Social Media.
These days, it is not just the stars who are there to spread the word. It’s anyone who has a story to inform. Chef Flamm shares a personal perspective on his work and life—not only food, but also family and fun.
“I’m a chef, a husband, a Southsider, a Bears fan, a Sox fan,” he said of many features of his life. In other words, don’t go onto his social media accounts and expect a perfectly curated feed. “I’m not perfect, and that’s what makes it fun.”
Taste of TV
Chef Joe Flamm is currently the culinary director Group Day Offwho runs Chicago restaurants Rose Mary and BLVD Steakhouse. Before opening his first restaurant, Rose Mary (named for his grandmother Mary, a culinary inspiration), Joe Flamm worked with several well-known Chicago chefs, including Stephanie Izard at Girl and the Goat and Tony Mantuano at Spiaggia.
It was while working as a sous chef for Stephanie Izard that Flamm got his first taste of television. He was chosen to cook with her on the Food Network’s Iron Chef competition show. “It was so overwhelming, the adrenaline was pumping,” Flamm said of cooking in front of a large television audience. And when the dust settled after the Iron Chef competition, he knew the media was for him. “I thought, ‘That was cool. I have to do that again sometime,’” Joe Flamm said. Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef.
Little did he know that in a few years he would get one other likelihood to seem on a cooking show – this time on an even larger stage.
While working at Spiaggia, Chef Flamm was invited to collaborate with Bravo The best chef season 15 in Colorado. He won the season. “It was just a crazy experience,” he said of winning The best chef.
When Joe Flamm left Spiaggia to take the plunge and develop into a restaurant owner, he knew he desired to forge his own path. That meant, for Rose Mary, he desired to pivot the menu from the traditional Italian cuisine he’d been cooking. “I didn’t want to leave Spiaggia and open Spiaggia. I wanted to create something of my own.”
Rose Mary combines Croatian cuisine with her Italian heritage. Flamm calls it “Adriatic drinking food.”
Shortly after opening the restaurant, Chef Joe knew he would have to prove himself to some customers who were skeptical of his ability to cook Balkan food the way they knew it back home. “Balkan hospitality is like skepticism with friendliness,” Joe Flamm joked.
Some raised eyebrows when they saw his name and menu together. “It’s not the cuisine I grew up with. It’s the cuisine I’ve adopted over the last 14 years of my relationship with my wife Hilary. I did a ton of research, I read as much as I could,” he said of marrying into a Croatian family.
“I think I have more Croatian cookbooks than anyone else in the United States,” he said at the conference. Toast booth at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago. “I love this food and I wanted to be able to cook it and tell this story. I always say I hope I’m doing a great job. I’m still learning about it. I’m still growing at it.”
Joe Flamm said the exertions paid off when he learned how his food had moved people and pushed Balkan cuisine forward in America. “I had a woman come in when we opened and she started crying,” he said of a particular customer experience.
About Restaurant Influencers
Restaurant Influencers is an initiative from Toast, an advanced restaurant management and sales system that helps restaurants improve their operations, increase sales, and provide higher guest experiences.
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