By Way of Introduction...

 Hello, readers!  This is Jesse Sutton, speaking for myself and my partner, Nate Whiting.  Welcome to Hot Dogs and Caviar.  We are a couple of Charleston-based chefs, with careers derailed by the current plague situation, and we are trying to make the best of it.  We have always wanted to find a way to share our culinary knowledge (and opinions...  Good Lord, do we have opinions), and maybe have some fun doing it, but as professional chefs, we really never had the time to get too deep into anything like this.  Now, the industry slowdown caused by the pandemic has created a scenario where we have, for the very first time, a little free time on our hands, and we are bound and determined to make good use of it.  This blog will, apart from being fun in its own right, serve as a home to visual aids for our upcoming podcast.  We are working on a book!  How cool is that?  These are troubled times, but we've got lots of things happening.

Quick bios:

Nate is from Rochester, NY.  He's been a restaurant professional ever since his dad told him he didn't get to play after school anymore, it was time to wash some dishes.  A graduate of Johnson and Wales (motto: a lotta Johnsons, a lotta whales), he worked around Charleston, while also doing stages at Da Vittorio (in Bergamo, Italy), Le Bernardin, and Inn at Little Washington.  He eventually came to the Woodlands Inn (easily the best five star, five diamond restaurant in Summerville, SC), where he rose through the ranks from line cook to executive sous-chef, before ultimately succeeding Tarver King (the baddest man alive) as executive chef.  After Woodlands, he ran the kitchens at Tristan, 492 King, and Juliet.  He currently runs Linear Cuisine, a Charleston-based private catering company.

Jesse Sutton is from Carrboro, NC, although if it's convenient, he is also from Chicago or New Orleans, depending on who's asking.  He has been cooking professionally ever since his girlfriend at the time told him he could not borrow another $20, and to get a goddamn job.  He attended Kendall College in Chicago (motto: a drinking school with a culinary problem), before working around Chicago and New Orleans.  A career highlight was a six-month stage at Trio under noted avant-garde sorcerer Grant Achatz.  Eventually settling in Charleston, he was Nate's exec. sous-chef at Woodlands, before reprising the role at Tristan.  He ran the dear, departed Social Wine Bar, spent time as a general manager, learned to cook real barbecue at Poogan's Smokehouse, and, since coronavirus hit, has been taking advantage of his newfound free time to learn new culinary techniques and catch up on 3 years worth of Saveur and Art Culinaire.