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
A smiling man with short gray hair wearing a dark gray shirt and a black apron, standing in a rustic setting, possibly a restaurant or cafe.

Andrew Zimmerman works with restaurants, hotels, and food and beverage brands to build culinary programs that actually perform. Twenty-five years of experiencte and Michelin-starred execution is the context. Your project is the focus.

Crafting Culinary Concepts, Kitchens & Teams That Perform

  • People reviewing architectural blueprints on a wooden table, with a calculator, a pen, a ruler, and a laptop nearby.

    Concept Development

    Building compelling culinary identities from the ground up.

  • Chef Zimmerman hand using tweezers to carefully place garnish on a plate with a piece of cooked steak and vegetables.

    Menu Design & Development

    Creative, executable menus across any format or price point.

  • A male chef in a white chef's coat chopping ingredients on a green cutting board in a professional kitchen.

    Kitchen Layout & Equipment

    Designing kitchens built for efficiency and excellence.

  • Person using a stylus to draw diagrams and flowcharts on a tablet screen in an office workspace with a desktop monitor, sticky notes, potted plants, and a keyboard.

    Operational Strategy

    Workflows, cost control, and systems that sustain quality at scale

  • Group of six smiling people wearing brown aprons, posing outdoors in front of green bamboo, one person holding an orange tabby cat, some making peace signs, in a setting with string lights overhead.

    Team Training & Development

    Leadership coaching and culinary skills development for kitchen teams at every level.

  • Andrew Zimmerman in a blue shirt and black apron preparing ingredients in a kitchen studio, with a digital calendar display showing Wednesday, January 25, in the background.

    Brand Partnerships

    On-camera talent, recipe development, and product consulting.

Let’s build something

"Sepia knows exactly what it is — glittering without boasting."

— Jeff Ruby CHICAGO MAGAZINE, 2017

"Proxi elevates global fare with thoughtful dishes, expert design details and impeccable service."

— Morgan Olsen, Global Food & Drink Editor TIME OUT CHICAGO ★★★★★, 2017

"Andrew Zimmerman's cuisine is firmly grounded in the 21st century."

— MICHELIN Guide Inspector MICHELIN GUIDE CHICAGO

CURRENT PROJECT

A Partnership with Cure Co. to Develop an Iconic Food & Beverage Program for a New Boutique Hotel in New Orleans

Andrew is collaborating with Cure Co. — the James Beard Award-winning bar group behind some of New Orleans' most celebrated cocktail destinations — to build the full food and beverage program for a new boutique hotel in one of America's great culinary cities.

The restaurant concept takes loose inspiration from the classic Madrid martini bar: intimate, convivial, built around the idea that a great drink and exceptional food belong in the same room. Andrew is translating that spirit into something distinctly New Orleans, grounding it in local ingredients, Creole influences, and a city that takes hospitality seriously.

His scope covers the full program: kitchen design, 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 and worth coming back to.

Apartments with ornate metal balconies decorated with hanging pots of green plants and flowers. The building has green shutters and brick walls.

Kitchen Design & Equipment Selection

Andrew worked closely with the hotel team to design a kitchen around the specific demands of the concept, optimizing flow, station layout, and equipment for both high-volume service and refined execution.

Menu Development Across Multiple Price Points

From casual daytime offerings to the evening dinner program, every menu is designed to feel cohesive while giving guests a range of entry points. The same commitment to flavor and craft runs through all of it.

Concept Creation

The concept had to feel authentically New Orleans and carry the spirit of a Madrid martini bar at the same time. Andrew worked with the Cure Co. team to develop a dining identity rooted in its city without being a replica of it.

Operational Strategy

Andrew is building the systems, workflows, and training structures that will allow the program to perform consistently from day one and hold that standard long after opening.

Tell me about your project

Local Sourcing & Sustainability

The menu is built around local fish, seasonal produce, and supplemented by breads, pastries, and specialty items from nearby artisan makers. New Orleans doesn't need much dressing up. The job is to honor what's already there.

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.

PHILOSOPHY

A 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 & 2027. 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.

A chef drizzling dark sauce over a medium-rare steak on a white plate, garnished with greens, with mashed potatoes and caramelized onions.

Start the Conversation

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