Industry Night: David Nayfeld & The Answer to "Dad, What's For Dinner"

Chef David Nayfeld built his career in some of the world's most celebrated kitchens — Aqua, Cru, Eleven Madison Park, and Joël Robuchon, before returning home to San Francisco to create Back Home Hospitality, the restaurant group behind Che Fico, Bubbelah, Via Aurelia, and more.

But in this episode of Industry Night, the conversation goes far beyond restaurants.

We talk about how becoming a father inspired his first cookbook, Dad, What's for Dinner?, and how family life changed his relationship with cooking, leadership, ambition, and hospitality itself.

David shares how growing up as the child of Russian Jewish immigrants shaped his connection to food, the influence of Jewish and Cucina Ebraica traditions in his restaurants, and the lessons he carried from some of the industry's most intense kitchens into building a more thoughtful restaurant culture today.

We also dive into: cooking FOR your kids vs cooking WITH your kids, restaurant mise en place applied to family life, why not every dinner needs to be aspirational, evolving restaurant leadership, fine dining, hospitality, and identity, and the emotional side of feeding people.

This is a conversation about restaurants, yes, but also about family, culture, and what it really means to nourish people.

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