Culinary Consulting for Restaurants, Hotels & Brands
15 Consecutive Michelin Stars · 5× James Beard Award Finalist · Iron Chef America Winner · Jean Banchet Chef of the Year · StarChefs Mentor Award 2024
Andrew Zimmerman works with restaurants, hotels, and food and beverage brands to build exceptional culinary programs — from the first concept sketch to the first guest. His approach is holistic, hands-on, and grounded in 25 years of Michelin-starred execution. Whether you're launching something new, elevating an existing program, or looking for a culinary partner who has seen what excellent looks like from the inside — this is where that conversation starts
Services
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Concept Development
Building compelling culinary identities from the ground up.
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Menu Design & Development
Creative, executable menus across any format or price point.
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Kitchen Layout & Equipment
Designing kitchens built for efficiency and excellence.
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Operational Strategy
Workflows, cost control, and systems that sustain quality at scale
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Team Training & Development
Leadership coaching and culinary skills development for kitchen teams at every level.
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Brand Partnerships
On-camera talent, recipe development, and product consulting.
CURRENT PROJECTA Partnership with Cure Co. to Develop an Iconic Food & Beverage Program for a New Boutique Hotel in New Orleans
Andrew is currently collaborating with Cure Co. — the James Beard Award-winning bar group behind some of New Orleans' most celebrated cocktail destinations — to develop the full food and beverage program for a new boutique hotel in one of America's most dynamic culinary cities.
At the heart of the program is a restaurant concept loosely inspired by the classic Madrid martini bar — intimate, convivial, and built around the idea that a perfectly crafted drink and exceptional food belong in the same room. Andrew is translating that spirit into something distinctly New Orleans: grounding the concept in local ingredients, Creole influences, and the city's deep culture of hospitality.
Andrew's scope spans the full program — kitchen design and equipment selection, menu development across multiple formats, concept creation, staff training, and operational strategy. The goal is a dining experience that feels rooted in its city, refined in its execution, and worth coming back to.
Kitchen Design & Equipment Selection
A great kitchen is engineered before a single dish is cooked. Andrew worked closely with the hotel team to design a kitchen built around the specific demands of the concept — optimizing flow, station layout, and equipment selection to support both high-volume service and the precision of a refined dining program.
Menu Development Across Multiple Price Points
Andrew developed a full suite of menus spanning the hotel's dining formats — from casual daytime offerings to an evening program rooted in the Madrid martini bar concept. Each menu is designed to feel cohesive as a whole while giving guests a range of entry points, with the same commitment to flavor and craft running through all of it.
Concept Creation
The concept had to do two things at once: feel authentically New Orleans and carry the spirit of a Madrid martini bar — intimate, convivial, and food-forward. Andrew worked with the Cure Co. team to develop a program that honors both, creating a dining identity that is rooted in its city without being a replica of it.
Operational Strategy
A well-conceived menu means nothing if the operation behind it can't deliver consistently. Andrew is working with the hotel team to build the systems, workflows, and training structures that will allow the program to perform at a high level from day one — and sustain that standard long after opening.
Local Sourcing & Sustainability
The Madrid martini bar concept gives the menu a clear point of view — but New Orleans gives it its soul. Andrew has built the program around local fish, seasonal produce, and regional proteins, supplemented by breads, pastries, and specialty items sourced from nearby artisan makers. The result is a menu that carries a distinct culinary identity while staying genuinely connected to the city it calls home.
The New Orleans project represents Andrew's consulting practice at full scope — concept, kitchen, menu, operations, and sourcing working together as a single program. It's the kind of engagement he's built to do, and the kind of result he's built to deliver.
PHILOSOPHYA Holistic Approach to Culinary Consulting
Great food programs don't succeed on menus alone. Andrew's consulting practice is built on the belief that concept, kitchen, team, and operations have to work as a single system — and that getting any one of them wrong undermines everything else. That's the standard he held at Sepia for 16 years, and it's the standard he brings to every engagement.
Andrew is accepting new consulting engagements for 2026. Whether you're opening a restaurant, building a hotel F&B program, or looking for a culinary partner who brings Michelin-starred standards to every project — the conversation starts here.
Start the Conversation
Ready to build something exceptional? Start the conversation below.