767: Chai Pani Is a James Beard Outstanding Restaurant. Molly Irani Says the Culture Did It.

This Is TASTE

Molly Irani cofounded Chai Pani with her husband Meherwan Irani in Asheville in 2009—at the peak of the recession, with no restaurant experience and serious doubts. Sixteen years later, Chai Pani is a James Beard Outstanding Restaurant winner, and Molly has written Service Ready, a memoir about what it really takes to build a culture people want to work in. We talk about building a restaurant with hope and a binder of family recipes, and what “mindblasting” service actually means in practice.

Also on the show we have a great conversation with Rashad Frazier, author of the terrific new cookbook Cook Out.

Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠   

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More description

Molly Irani cofounded Chai Pani with her husband Meherwan Irani in Asheville in 2009—at the peak of the recession, with no restaurant experience and serious doubts. Sixteen years later, Chai Pani is a James Beard Outstanding Restaurant winner, and Molly has written Service Ready, a memoir about what it really takes to build a culture people want to work in. We talk about building a restaurant with hope and a binder of family recipes, and what “mindblasting” service actually means in practice.

Also on the show we have a great conversation with Rashad Frazier, author of the terrific new cookbook Cook Out.

Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠   

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2026-04-29 70 min
Listen elsewhere

Available Results

Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Transcript

No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in

Chapters

No chapters available.