John Tesar is an award winning chef, TV personality, cook book author, and restauranteur. With a career dating back five decades Tesar, who received classical French training at La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in Paris, began cooking at Club Pierre in Westhampton, NY before making his way to the Big Apple where he worked along side Anthony Bourdain at Supper Club. He would eventually trade the NYC for Sin City to work with Chef Rick Moonen at RM Seafood in Las Vegas. In 2007, Tesar embarked on another major move to Dallas, Texas where he would to take the helm at the ritzy Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek; and eventually go on to open the revolutionary Knife Steakhouse.

Opened in 2014, the chef-driven restaurant has continued to be recognized for reinventing the steakhouse experience. Most recently Knife's pimento cheeseburger was featured as Best Burger in Dallas on The 50 Greatest Burgers list for Texas Magazine and Best Steakhouse by D Magazine's "Best of Big D's" list. Always looking ahead for the next project, Tesar announced he is working with Flatiron Books and Macmillan on a book, Knife: Modern Steak and All American Meats, that will be published in spring 2017.

We chat with chat about his career, his love of Texas beef, and how he has dealt with the COVID19 pandemic.