Danny

V 2.0 I would gladly learn how to make a burger yesterday, to feed today, so that we can make a better for all tomorrow! (aka.. we are in utter shock-itude that we got nominated for a @beardfoundation ) There are not enough words, letters, emojis, memes, or expressions across 2 restaurants and 5 languages that can express how grateful we are for all of you. To be able to represent what Columbus means to those who have come before, continue to grind it out today, and are preparing for a better tomorrow is an incomparable and frankly, a little frightening feeling. The feelings have all the places, but it seems like today they get to stay here (where it is 12, but it def feels like -2), in our home, Columbus, alongside our awesome peers, and everyone that continues to show gratitude,attitude, and grit that represents where we came from, where we are,and how we hope to contribute to our industry. Trying our best to execute stuff that dreams are made of?It ain't easy. We are often told it is impossible, and soloing it very well might be, but we aren't alone. We have a team,we have a community, a city, a state, and an entire industry that is the advancement of what we grew up around and strives to make tomorrow better than yesterday, and even the rigors of today. We're still in disbelief but have learned that it is not always about our reactions. Not all our feelings have to be accurate,or take our mind over or require impulsive action.Sometimes we can accept them, let them chill in the backseat and enjoy a deep breath. It allows us to stop for a second and appreciate how awesome everybody around us truly is, how exciting it is to be part of a dynamic environment in pivotal moments, and accept that it is both a blessing and a literal honor. Thank you to everyone who is on board with trying to make a better future for those who will come after us, pushing for a better tomorrow, learning from yesterday, today! Thanks JBF for including us, @danthebaker , @lawbirdbar , and the hundreds of peers in our industry putting it out there all day every day for the future of hospitality, and our city in fostering a fruitful, fun, and philanthropic future focused around food -AB

Y’all really woke up and chose CHAOS (and breakfast) (and fun dining) (and… me? 👨‍🍳) (and then more chaos ?!). @columbusunderground just dropped their Best of 2024 🏆, and somehow we ended up in a quadruple crown 👑 situation that has me questioning reality in 4 “best” ways: 🥇 Best Breakfast - @eatatjoyas (because y’all truly understand the life-changing power of a perfect paratha 🫓 & dialed-in spro ☕ in the mo’) 🍷✨ Best Fine Dining AND Restaurant - @dineatagni (proving you can be fancy, accommodating, fun AND somehow voted twice?!) 👨‍🍳 Best Chef - Apparently me 🤔 (proving it’s getting harder to dodge compliments and y’all can be wrong). The gratitude is so overwhelming it’s like that time you (legally) downloaded a file, hit 99%, and someone picked up the phone 📞, forcing a full reboot. 😅 TBH—these wins? Not mine; they belong to every single person who shows up daily to make magic: ✨ The prep squad turning produce into poetry ✨ The FOH, making “organized chaos” look effortless, with a smile. ✨ The accounting heroes keeping us running ✨ The dish team, keeping us clean! ✨ The managers, tackling the daily impossible wit humor ✨ The drivers, dropping the goods w/dance ✨ The design team, making it seem intentional ✨ The investors, continuing to believe And YOU, Columbus, you beautiful, persistent, chaotic food & drink lovers—thank you for seeing what we’re trying to do (we’re still figuring it out too 🤷). For believing in our obsession over the perfect scrambled egg 🍳, for vibing with our “fun dining IS fine” energy, and for sliding into our DMs about everything from tea leaf fermentation to “why does your rice hit tho?” 🍚 We’re just out here trying to feed & treat people like they’re the best thing since sliced bread 🍞 (yes, GF counts), make authentic memories, and create food that feels like home 🏡. Thank you for letting us do what we love, Columbus ❤️—we owe it all to YOU. If you drop your fave dish or memory from Joya’s or Agni (or me I guess?!), below 👇—our team would love to feel that dopamine, and might reward a few of you with something super cool! Please Like, Share, and Follow so we can continue to invest in our digital presence!

🤦‍♂️On impostor syndrome & reality checks: 😳 I've been thinking a lot about self-doubt lately. Even after an incredible year, with recognition I never imagined possible, that voice in my head still whispers,'Are you sure you belong here?' (Plot twist: the voice sounds suspiciously like what some folks have indeed told me) Truthfully, being recognized alongside chefs I've looked up to for years feels surreal. Most of the time, I still feel like that wannabe, learning recipes from my books, YouTube, and hoping to catch something from my mom, trying my hardest not to burn rice or ruin the legacy of generations past. (Regarding Rice: it probably would have been better to err on overcooking in many publicly documented cases.) What helps me? Remembering that this feeling may well be universal, relatable even; from line cooks to executive chefs, servers to bartenders, researchers to leading experts, we all face moments of doubt. And maybe that's okay, and we can face it together. Maybe it keeps us learning, growing, and pushing to be better. (Though I would  welcome fewer late-night menu rewrites and quintuple checking potential media posts? Just me?!) Perhaps I’m not qualified to give advice (there it is again!), but to anyone in our industry feeling like they're not enough: your voice, your food, your story - they matter. Keep cooking. Keep creating. The doubt doesn't go away, but we get stronger at carrying it. Plus, those moments of uncertainty often lead to our most creative dishes, or the most entertaining disasters (Remember that time I almost burnt the apartment down and it got us here?).

3xRecap. 3xSpoilers Three chefs went home Sunday. Three! The kitchen lost a quarter of who was left in one shift, and each goodbye was its own specific gut punch. Here's what I want you to know about them. @mollyyeh — The only person on this show to play Carnegie Hall AND break down a chicken. Walked into a black-tie challenge, said out loud "I'm not a black tie girl," and made a farm chicken pot pie in a tiny cast iron. Some chefs would have tried to be someone else for the camera. Molly stayed exactly like Molly all the way to the door, and I respect that more than any plated quenelle I've attempted to make myself feel fancy. To do that while being an ultra kind Midwesterner sharing stories and recipes with everyone? Completely humbling. It takes a different kind of confidence to be yourself in front of judges. I'm still working on mine. @chefmichele — Executive chef at @gedneykitchen , Beat Bobby Flay winner who now judges Beat Bobby Flay, mother of every clam chowder in New England. Here's the part you have to sit with: Michele was the first chef eliminated on Season 2 of this show. She walked back in for Season 3. Voluntarily. To do it again. That's not a redemption arc, that is a chef looking the universe in the eye and saying "try me." I look up to her. I hope to be half as fearless. Cooking near her made me stand up straighter on instinct. That's the chef I want to be. @chefrobynalmodovar — Chopped AND Cutthroat Kitchen winner (same year, which is absurd), food truck pioneer, full force of nature. Real talk: when I first met Robyn I was a little confused and scared — how can someone possibly contain so much energy, was she going to flip out on me, or just do a flip? By the end of her shift I was dancing in my own head, quietly asking "what would Robyn do?" on every plate. That's not a personality, that's a current. Some people walk in and the wattage goes up. Robyn was that. To all three — thank you for sharing the kitchen with me. This week was especially painful; watching people who've completed goals I'm still dreaming of go home brought back impostor syndrome full bore. This kitchen is quieter without you in it, and not sure I love it.

WEEK 3. RESOURCEFULNESS. 8PM TONIGHT! Honest moment: this is the first shift that felt like my actual life. Speed was a panic. Strategy was a chess game I'd never played. But resourcefulness? Resourcefulness is the language I grew up in. It's what every Bengali aunty has ever done with whatever was in the fridge plus the mystery Tupperware in the back. It's watching my mom take a chicken, a potato, an onion, and a bottle of ketchup and turn them into the culinary equivalent of a warm hug. I have tried to recreate this dish three times. It is never as good. She refuses to tell me what's in it. In an immigrant household, resourcefulness isn't a skill you develop. It's the default setting. It's a love language. And quietly, that same impulse is the whole thesis of @dineatagni . Different room. More fire. Same exam — take what's on the table and make it taste like home. So when @chefericadjepong walked in to judge — a chef who built his career on the Ghanaian Twi word *Sankofa* (look back to move forward), who used his Top Chef finale to tell the story of the transatlantic slave trade through food, whose cookbook is titled *Ghana to the World*, who has spent his entire career using food to tell stories most kitchens won't touch — I did not have to wonder if he'd understand what we were doing. The man literally wrote the book on cooking that answers the question: what do you do with what you've got? TONIGHT at 8/7c, Shift 3: Resourcefulness. One bag of ingredients. Three distinct dishes. Hours seven and eight, fatigue sneaking in, the kitchen starting to smell like every restaurant kitchen smells at the end of a long day. I won't spoil anything (still no strongly worded email from @foodnetwork , still trying to keep it that way) but I will say this — I felt at home for the first time in this competition. Maybe that's a good sign. Maybe I'm about to find out it isn't. Real question for you: what's the most resourceful dish you've ever pulled off? The one where you opened the fridge, said a quiet prayer, and somehow made dinner anyway? Tell me. I want to read these. Watch with me tonight on @foodnetwork . Hosted as always by @chefsymon and @choibites . #24in24

WEEK 2. SPEED/SPOILERS Quick programming note first: @leeannewong used her Golden Knife on ME specifically. A Top Chef Season 1 OG used her one free shot to steal time off my clock. I am honored. I am also in therapy about it. Lee Anne, legend, I will absolutely return the favor next time. (Hawaiian Airlines, please do not seat us together.) There's a specific kind of weird about saying goodbye to chefs you only just met but somehow already wanted to feed for the rest of your life. Two went home Sunday. Both deserved more time on the show. Here's what I want you to know: @cheflexgrant chose to make MOLE in 24 minutes. For the non-cooks: mole takes hours, often days, often a grandmother. Doing it in 24 minutes is essentially trying to whisper a love letter through a megaphone. The fact that Lex went for it instead of playing safe tells you exactly how she cooks for the Mavericks (Carmelo Anthony's performance chef, btw) — full commitment, no shortcuts, you eat what she would feed herself. Jamaican-rooted, Jersey-born, "Eat Like an Athlete. Live Like a Legend." It is not a tagline, it is how she walks. That tenacity rippled through the whole kitchen — you catch yourself standing up straighter, cooking braver, just because she was in the room. @cheftrimell — Marine. Father of SEVEN. (Seven children. This man has done more meal-planning before 9am than most chefs do in a year.) Grew up cooking with his grandmother in Chicago, served his country, came home, and went straight into the kitchen. His motto is "God / Family / Food / Repeat" and you feel it in him within three minutes of conversation. His smile — the genuine kind, the kind you can't fake under hot lights and a 24-hour shift — is going to stay with me forever. He just opened @trust_gr in Grand Rapids — a 24-seat, 7-course tasting menu titled (and I'm just going to let this sit) Trust. The kismet: built a 24-seat restaurant. Walked into a kitchen of 24 chefs. Some people are just running the right numbers. If you're near Grand Rapids — GO. Reservations only. Tell him I sent you so he can charge me extra later. To both of you, thank you for the day. The kitchen's quieter without you in it.

SHIFT 2!!! 🫣 Made it past Shift 1, which feels less like an accomplishment and more like my body refusing to admit it had absolutely no idea what just happened. Real talk: the camera does NOT capture how fast a Bengali aunty cooks. If you've ever watched my mom make luchi while also folding laundry and judging your life choices, you understand the bar. But until you stand in a kitchen with a clock the size of a billboard counting against you, while @chefsymon who has set the bar in Ohio for amazing chefs that are our inspirations to do better, stares at your station, you don't actually know your own speed. (Secret: I am slower than I think I am. Please do not tell my mom.) Sunday at 8/7c we're back for Shift 2: SPEED. @judyjoochef judging. Iron Chef. GR alum. Written more cookbooks than I've cooked Mondays. Also, and this is the part that actually gets me, someone whose career quietly told a generation of us (the kids whose lunch got "what is THAT") that our food belongs in any room, on any table! Cooking for her is a different kind of pressure. The good kind. The kind that asks: is this what your mom would put on the plate? Team relay race, 15-minute fast-food dish, two chefs going home. I won't spoil anything (truly do not need a strongly worded email from @foodnetwork ) but I will say this — that face up top? That's the face I make when something didn't go to plan and it's time to will a new reality into existence. (Chef stuff. Also therapy stuff. Also probably the thesis of my entire career.) Real question for you: what's a dish your mom (or whoever taught you) can make in 10 minutes that you somehow cannot replicate in 2 hours? I find this to be 1000% RELATABLE.

Day 51 of offering @avishar ’s favorite sparkling water: Agua de Piedra What’s so great about ADP? 1. It’s an aggressively effervescent mineral water with pleasant, creamy bubbles that wash over your palate with every sip 🌊 2. It gets filtered through ancient limestone and volcanic rock in the Huasteca Basin (yes, we like it so much that we import it from Mexico 🇲🇽) 3. It just feels cool, man. Come by and let us pour you a glass of the champagne of waters, but be warned: it may just ruin all other spicy H2O for you. 🥂 P.S. We used show water for the video so we could save more ADP for the dining room 😉 Best sparkling water?

SPOILER ALERT… Many of you asked about the tributes I used to do on Top Chef. 24 in 24 was a chance to reflect; now a core memory! I'm grateful to everyone who shared a moment with me. A little something about each: @tuktuklex — Imagine growing up being called an ABCD: isolated, helpless, judged by your own. Now imagine flipping your haters off and blasting through what's never been done with sass and class — a beacon for Desi Americans everywhere (with sick ATK gigs along the way). Awesome. @chef__zito — "Allora." Chef was the kindest, most inspirational, and most quietly confident — the way masters wish they were. If you could symbolize your best trip to Italy as a person, this is him. Hoping to taste the pizza one day! @theguavastory — Culinary badass with the skills and stage presence of Bruno Mars. If I could pull off ¼ of what she's done at her age, I'd be a lot cooler. Her strong POV inspires me to be more me. @anthony_iracane_ — Best stage voice in the game, exudes confidence while the rest of us would have our heads on fire. Cooler in person than on TV — and the guy works on water! @maryamishtiaq — In awe of a fellow desi who turns every challenge into a success story that reinforces her identity. Something we can all learn from. olivia_ostrow — Remember when we went on TV for the first time on that grocery show? Wild to reconnect with a long-lost friend who witnessed the great trailer upchuck of GGG. @chefmariamazon — Will never emotionally recover from losing my culinary support mama so soon. She's the chiltepin to my taco — without it, it's still a taco, but why?! @arazada — The Man, the Myth, the Armenian Legend. Cooler in person than the badass videos he makes. Wish I had time to learn how he grinds it out. @chefshota — Since we locked eyes (despite the height difference) twice in TC18 Ep 2, Shota's taught me to value myself more than I value myself. Our Harold and Kumar pop-up taught me to embrace my quirks and stay humble through the grind. @chef_crisbrown — My station partner. Your support and conversation got my dish done with zest and confidence. Too soon — looking forward to taking you on in Smash Ultimate FT10. Next time.

Columbus chef Avishar Barua, owner of @eatatjoyas in Worthington and @dineatagni in the Brewery District, will appear this weekend on @foodnetwork 's 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing. Read more on our site at the link in bio! Photo by @t_johnson144

24 in 24: last chef standing. season 3. premieres sunday 4/26 at 8pm on @foodnetwork . somehow, i am one of the 24. here's what i can say: this thing is exactly as unhinged as the title suggests. twenty-four chefs. twenty-four challenges. zero sleep. you walk in as the guy from columbus, ohio, standing next to chefs whose cookbooks are on your shelf, and the only useful move is to stay yourself. that took me a minute to figure out. rules say i cannot tell you what happens. i signed things. legally binding things. i'm guessing y'all have some questions tho. stuff i can answer: what it actually feels like to cook on the promise of no sleep. whether @jettila is as nice in person (he is). whether @chefsymon ever stops moving (he does not). whether @choibites is as sharp as you think (sharper). whether @mollyyeh is as kind as she seems (kinder). whether i packed snacks (no. there was only enough room in my roll for insecurity and regret). stuff i cannot answer: literally anything you actually want to know. questions? comments? I'm open. take a swing. i'll answer what isn't in a contract. columbus — this one's because of you. see you sunday!

spent a week in fort worth at @goldeesbbq i went to learn barbecue. came home thinking about something else. the class was supposed to be 5 days. became 6. nobody called a meeting. it just kept going. (i think none of us wanted it to end 😿) here's what i thought i was showing up for: trimming to aerodynamic perfection, fire management, the science behind a brisket that texas monthly called the best in the state and that 8 million people watched a documentary about. all of that is real. watching someone trim after ten thousand reps makes you feel like you've been cutting meat with oven mitts your whole life. but what actually happened was different. every single person on that team is the real thing. kind, curious, warm, never stop asking why not, and they make the hardest things in the world look completely accessible. i'm so grateful for each of them. accessible, by the way, does not mean easy. it took me approximately 4,583 attempts to relearn how to season something they showed me effortlessly once. patient and encouraging all the way to the one that was almost passable, somewhere in there. (seasoning in s passes looks as cool as it sounds.) watching fire at goldee's is its own thing. reading a pit — not a probe, not an app, just the color of the coals and the behavior of smoke — takes an attention i don't fully have yet. i'm still working on it. the brisket is the best i've ever had. the fat renders so clean it doesn't feel like you're eating something heavy. now it makes complete sense why. i started a student, and left as a friend — they even named a sausage after me. twice. (swipe. yes! that's a real menu board!) they've set my inspire fire ablaze — i have to ask, has anything done that for you? an experience, a person, a place that changed how you see what you do. i'd really love to know. And... are y'all ready to host Goldee's this summer in CBus?