From Reef to Latuli, Chef Bryan Caswell’s Big Return

Tinfoil Swans Podcast

Spotify

On this episode

2009 F&W Best New Chef and Houston icon Bryan Caswell opens up about single fatherhood, second chances, and his comeback with Latuli — plus the “redemption lies tomorrow” mindset reshaping his kitchen, and the time he sneaked into Jean-Georges Vongerichten‘s kitchen and came out with a job.

Meet our guest

2009 F&W Best New Chef Bryan Caswell is best known for translating Gulf Coast flavors into refined, deeply personal cooking. He rose to prominence at Reef restaurant in Houston after formative stints with Jean-Georges Vongerichten and kitchens in Barcelona, New York, Hong Kong, and the Bahamas. Caswell’s career has spanned fine dining and casual concepts, all rooted in a fierce respect for Texas seafood and seasonality. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and a two-time James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: Southwest. He now leads Latuli, the Memorial-neighborhood restaurant he co-founded with Allison Knight, marking a celebrated return to Houston’s dining scene in May 2025. Caswell is an avid fisherman and has competed on Iron Chef and hosted the Food Network show Best in Smoke.

Meet our host

Kat Kinsman is the executive features editor at Food & Wine, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerves, host of Food & Wine’s Gold Signal Award-winning podcast Tinfoil Swans (currently a finalist in the Folio Awards), and founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she was the senior food & drinks editor at Extra Crispy, editor in chief and editor at large at Tasting Table, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She won a 2024 IACP Award for Narrative Food Writing With Recipes and a 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoir, and has had work included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Best American Food Writing.

She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won a 2011 EPPY Award for Best Food Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and moderator on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is the former vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.

Highlights from the episode

On his childhood dream

“I wanted to be a game warden, live in the country, and get on a boat every day for a living. Duck hunts were these huge deals. You went somewhere, you stayed somewhere that was usually in a swamp or a bog. You got up early, got on a boat, went into a blind, and waited with everybody in a line. There’s this communal thing — people talking and telling jokes — and the food was part of it. I was in a duck blind when I was five years old. I didn’t carry a gun until I was nine. People always say, ‘Nine? No way,’ but it’s a different cultural thing for me. When I went to high school, I had a shotgun in my truck every single day. It wasn’t considered dangerous. It wasn’t loaded and we never pulled them out because after school, we’d go straight out and dove hunt or duck hunt during the season.”

On his father pushing him to set professional goals

“I told my dad I wanted to go to the Culinary Institute of America. He did a little due diligence and said, ‘I’m going to send you, but what are your goals?’ I said, ‘I want to open a restaurant.’ He goes, ‘No, what are your professional goals?’ He went into his office, came out with a Food & Wine Best New Chefs issue, threw it down on the table, and said, ‘These are the things you need to aspire to.'”

On walking into Jean-Georges’ kitchen uninvited

“My buddy Quinn Hatfield, who was working at Jean-Georges said, ‘We need a garde manger, because I’m moving to hot apps, so why don’t you come in?’ I asked, ‘To the front door?’ He said no, drew me a map on a napkin and told me to go to the back area. The security guard’s name is Fred. Wear your stuff. Have your knives. Just flash an ID and say, ‘Hey, Fred,’ and walk through. 

Next thing you know, I’m in the bottom kitchen in the prep area. I get my bravado ready. I’m like, ‘Chef, I want to work for you. I hear you have a spot. My name’s Bryan Caswell.’ And he’s just like, ‘Nice to meet you’ and walks away. I thought I totally screwed up. I turned around and then there was Quinn. He stopped him and said, ‘Chef, this is the guy I was telling you about.’ He introduced me to [2003 F&W Best New Chef] Gabriel Kreuther, who was the chef de cuisine. They gave me a job, all because I had the guts to walk in.”

On caring for his father and son at the same time

“Helping take care of my dad was the single hardest thing I’ve ever done but at the same time, the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. He was such an amazing father to me. I’m a single dad to a son who was part of it. It’s really interesting when you’ve got an 80-year-old and a six-year-old fighting over cookies at the table. 

We lived at my bay house the entire COVID break. My father — who even though he was going through dementia could still bait a hook and still fish — spent 80 days on the water that year. It didn’t happen with me and my dad, and it won’t happen with my son and his son. That kid got so much education out there on the water. He became the saltiest little kid you ever saw, throwing up a five-foot cast net perfectly at six years old.”

On the daily cycle of being a chef

“I’ve always said that the best thing about what I do — no matter how bad I mess up today — redemption lies in service tomorrow. You could be terrible today, but tomorrow could be your greatest service. You work so hard striving for perfection, knowing full well that it’s unobtainable, but that’s the only thing that you’ll settle for.”

About the podcast

Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a new series of intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting interviews with the biggest names in the culinary industry and beyond, sharing never-before-heard stories about the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made these personalities who they are today.

This season, you’ll hear from icons and innovators like Roy Choi, Byron Gomez, Vikas Khanna, Romy Gill, Matthew Lillard, Ana and Lydia Castro, Laurie Woolever, Karen Akunowicz, Hawa Hassan, Dr. Jessica B. Harris, Wylie Dufresne, Samin Nosrat, Curtis Stone, Tristen Epps, Padma Lakshmi, Ayesha Curry, Regina King, Antoni Porowski, Run the Jewels, Chris Shepherd, Tavel Bristol-Joseph, Paola Velez, Bryan Caswell, Harry Hamlin, Angela Kinsey, Hunter Lewis, Dana Cowin, Edward Lee, Cassandra Peterson (a.k.a. Elvira), Ruby Tandoh, Phil Rosenthal, and other special guests going deep with host Kat Kinsman on their formative experiences; the dishes and meals that made them; their joys, doubts and dreams; and what’s on the menu in the future. Tune in for a feast that’ll feed your brain and soul — and plenty of wisdom and quotable morsels to savor.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen and follow on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

These interview excerpts have been edited for clarity.

Editor’s Note: The transcript for download does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.