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Ed Baumstein spent most of his life working as a certified public accountant. He says he spent most of his time using the right side of his brain – but nearly 20 years ago, he noticed something.
During a recession that affected his company and called for some cuts, he said it felt important to keep his company’s Christmas party.
“I said, ‘we’re going to have everybody to my house, and we’ll have a potluck dinner competition,’” he said. “And I was just amazed at the way that our employees embraced this so enthusiastically.”
“They came through the door. They were proud. They were carrying their dishes. These are dishes they serve around their family kitchen, maybe their grandmother’s recipes, and they laid it out on the buffet table. And then during the course of the night, I would watch as they would look around the corner to see whether their dish was getting eaten or not. And so that kind of left an impression on me.”
He ruminated on this thought for nearly twenty years before bringing the idea to fruition at the reality show restaurant Recipe Philly.
“The restaurant is called Recipe Philly because it is based on home chefs from the Philadelphia area that competed to get their home-cooked meal on the menu of a real, live-operating restaurant, which is Recipe Philly,” he said. “So, the design of the restaurant is all tied to everything Philadelphia and everything kind of home cooking mindset.”
The space itself is very Philly – combining murals of places like the Italian Market and City Hall with decorations like cookbooks from Philly’s only cookbook shop, Binding Agents.
“We wanted to honor the local community and the Philadelphia spirit as much as possible,” said Rory Balkin, the restaurant’s marketing director. “So not just the people who contributed to the menu, but the vendors that we selected to contribute to could be decor.”
The reality show
Baumstein said the reality show concept helps visitors connect to the personalities behind the meals in the restaurant.
“In any other food competition that you watch, you follow the stories of the people, you get connected to individuals, and then at the end you get a winner, and then you move on to the next show, and you never hear about that person again,” he said. “Right here, after you find the winners, and there’s 31 of them, there’s not one. And you can actually come and taste their food in a real place.”
He explained the process of finding contestants took some time. He networked with others throughout the city – including Adam Sandler when he was in town filming Hustle – and eventually found a production company, a casting company and investment funding for the concept.
“Our casting agent, named Carolyn Sheets, put out a casting call and surprisingly, we had over 1,000 people respond to her, and they all lined up across the street at the Convention Center, all the way around the block.”
And from there, Baumstein said the group whittled this down to just sixty contestants who participated in the reality show.
Kiera Esposito was a contestant on the show. She was contacted by the casting director – and felt the opportunity fit her needs perfectly.
“I’ve always dreamed of doing some sort of cooking competition show,” she said. “I just haven’t been able to with being a mom and being at home with my kids. And when I found out this one was going to be right over in Philly, which is where I work, I was like, ‘I have to do this.’”
Now 33, Esposito said she has been cooking since her early 20s.
“I would watch YouTube videos all day long and try to teach myself,” she said. “I would watch Food Network, and at about 21, I started cooking for friends and family. I had this thing called ‘basement dinners,’ where my girlfriends would all come over, and I would set up this old, round brown table that was passed down from my mom in my childhood home’s basement and I would print out menus, and I would cook my different recipes that I was trying out for my friends.”
From there, Esposito has continued to post her culinary journey on her social media accounts and connect with others to share her recipes.
For the competition, she submitted a pork dumpling pasta. Although her dish was not selected as a permanent dish on the menu, she said she believes in what the restaurant is doing.
“The journey itself was great, but this wasn’t my door to be in,” she said. “And I think right now, it’s going to open up other opportunities because I had a great experience and I met great people. Everyone part of that project was amazing.”
Esposito was one of sixty original contestants that got chosen to participate in the reality show.
Baumstein explained that there were tiers of competition – which meant there were multiple winners in multiple categories.
“We had 60 people that went through the competition, and there were 31 winners,” Baumstein said. “Each winner got $1,000 and got the name of their recipe on the menu. We then took 16 of the 31 who made the best dishes, and we put them in pods of four each, and then gave them a category to cook what we called signature dishes.”
The pod with the best signature dish won that round – leaving each of the four pod members with $5,000. From there, the four pod members competed to create the main “Philly dish” – and had their chance at winning $10,000.
Baumstein said he felt a strong connection to the contestants and their home-cooked dishes.
“When you hear some of the stories of of these contestants and what they’ve been through, and the love that they put into their dishes, and the people around them that support them, and how meaningful it is to them to have their name on the menu that somebody can taste their grandmother’s dish that passed away 20 years ago that they love more than anybody in the whole world, to have that recipe on a menu where people can eat it, the emotion is overwhelming,” he said.
The show itself will feature high-profile judges and will be hosted by American Idol’s Josh Randall.
“We have Chef Jennifer Carroll, who you may know from Top Chef All-Stars,” said Balkin. “She also has her own private dining business, and she does walking tours in the city. We have Chef Clara Park, who is a Chopped champion, and she has her own cooking school here in Philadelphia. And then Josh Eats Philly.”
The show is still in post-production, but the restaurant’s opening will give visitors a taste of what they can expect to see in the show.
The restaurant
The 175-seat venue on 1401 Arch Street is no small space. Chef Andy Revella is the restaurant’s operating partner and Baumstein’s self-described “right-hand man.”
Revella has developed menus for iconic spots like Bennigan’s and Rainforest Cafe. Now, he is helping to oversee the restaurant and create a more “green” kitchen.
“This is the kitchen of the future, but the future is now,” he said.
He explained that kitchen features like copper pipes, saltwater cleaning solutions, and alternative grease trap devices help to keep the kitchen more fire-retardant and eco-friendly for customers and the environment alike.
“I had to design a kitchen before I knew what the menu was, but I made a few changes after I saw some of the contestants,” he said.
The restaurant’s menu will feature the home-cooked recipes that reality show contestants brought to the competition.
This includes things like Shrimp Tostadas, a Vietnamese Chicken Salad, a Cajun Chicken Alfredo, Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf, and more. You can view the final menu on Recipe Philly’s website.
