Culinary Consulting for Restaurants, Hotels & Brands

15 Consecutive Michelin Stars · 5× James Beard Award Finalist · Iron Chef America Winner · Jean Banchet Chef of the Year · StarChefs Mentor Award 2024
A smiling man with short gray hair wearing a dark gray shirt and a black apron, standing in a rustic setting, possibly a restaurant or cafe.

Andrew Zimmerman works with restaurants, hotels, and food and beverage brands to build exceptional culinary programs — from the first concept sketch to the first guest. His approach is holistic, hands-on, and grounded in 25 years of Michelin-starred execution. Whether you're launching something new, elevating an existing program, or looking for a culinary partner who has seen what excellent looks like from the inside — this is where that conversation starts

Services

  • People reviewing architectural blueprints on a wooden table, with a calculator, a pen, a ruler, and a laptop nearby.

    Concept Development

    Building compelling culinary identities from the ground up.

  • Chef Zimmerman hand using tweezers to carefully place garnish on a plate with a piece of cooked steak and vegetables.

    Menu Design & Development

    Creative, executable menus across any format or price point.

  • A male chef in a white chef's coat chopping ingredients on a green cutting board in a professional kitchen.

    Kitchen Layout & Equipment

    Designing kitchens built for efficiency and excellence.

  • Person using a stylus to draw diagrams and flowcharts on a tablet screen in an office workspace with a desktop monitor, sticky notes, potted plants, and a keyboard.

    Operational Strategy

    Workflows, cost control, and systems that sustain quality at scale

  • Group of six smiling people wearing brown aprons, posing outdoors in front of green bamboo, one person holding an orange tabby cat, some making peace signs, in a setting with string lights overhead.

    Team Training & Development

    Leadership coaching and culinary skills development for kitchen teams at every level.

  • Andrew Zimmerman in a blue shirt and black apron preparing ingredients in a kitchen studio, with a digital calendar display showing Wednesday, January 25, in the background.

    Brand Partnerships

    On-camera talent, recipe development, and product consulting.

Let's build something

"Sepia knows exactly what it is — glittering without boasting."

— Jeff Ruby CHICAGO MAGAZINE, 2017

"Proxi elevates global fare with thoughtful dishes, expert design details and impeccable service."

— Morgan Olsen, Global Food & Drink Editor TIME OUT CHICAGO ★★★★★, 2017

"Andrew Zimmerman's cuisine is firmly grounded in the 21st century."

— MICHELIN Guide Inspector MICHELIN GUIDE CHICAGO

CURRENT PROJECT

A Partnership with Cure Co. to Develop an Iconic Food & Beverage Program for a New Boutique Hotel in New Orleans

Andrew is currently collaborating with Cure Co. — the James Beard Award-winning bar group behind some of New Orleans' most celebrated cocktail destinations — to develop the full food and beverage program for a new boutique hotel in one of America's most dynamic culinary cities.

At the heart of the program is a restaurant concept loosely inspired by the classic Madrid martini bar — intimate, convivial, and built around the idea that a perfectly crafted drink and exceptional food belong in the same room. Andrew is translating that spirit into something distinctly New Orleans: grounding the concept in local ingredients, Creole influences, and the city's deep culture of hospitality.

Andrew's scope spans the full program — kitchen design and equipment selection, menu development across multiple formats, concept creation, staff training, and operational strategy. The goal is a dining experience that feels rooted in its city, refined in its execution, and worth coming back to.

Apartments with ornate metal balconies decorated with hanging pots of green plants and flowers. The building has green shutters and brick walls.

Kitchen Design & Equipment Selection

A great kitchen is engineered before a single dish is cooked. Andrew worked closely with the hotel team to design a kitchen built around the specific demands of the concept — optimizing flow, station layout, and equipment selection to support both high-volume service and the precision of a refined dining program.

Menu Development Across Multiple Price Points

Andrew developed a full suite of menus spanning the hotel's dining formats — from casual daytime offerings to an evening program rooted in the Madrid martini bar concept. Each menu is designed to feel cohesive as a whole while giving guests a range of entry points, with the same commitment to flavor and craft running through all of it.

Concept Creation

The concept had to do two things at once: feel authentically New Orleans and carry the spirit of a Madrid martini bar — intimate, convivial, and food-forward. Andrew worked with the Cure Co. team to develop a program that honors both, creating a dining identity that is rooted in its city without being a replica of it.

Operational Strategy

A well-conceived menu means nothing if the operation behind it can't deliver consistently. Andrew is working with the hotel team to build the systems, workflows, and training structures that will allow the program to perform at a high level from day one — and sustain that standard long after opening.

Tell me about your project

Local Sourcing & Sustainability

The Madrid martini bar concept gives the menu a clear point of view — but New Orleans gives it its soul. Andrew has built the program around local fish, seasonal produce, and regional proteins, supplemented by breads, pastries, and specialty items sourced from nearby artisan makers. The result is a menu that carries a distinct culinary identity while staying genuinely connected to the city it calls home.

The New Orleans project represents Andrew's consulting practice at full scope — concept, kitchen, menu, operations, and sourcing working together as a single program. It's the kind of engagement he's built to do, and the kind of result he's built to deliver.

PHILOSOPHY

A Holistic Approach to Culinary Consulting

Great food programs don't succeed on menus alone. Andrew's consulting practice is built on the belief that concept, kitchen, team, and operations have to work as a single system — and that getting any one of them wrong undermines everything else. That's the standard he held at Sepia for 16 years, and it's the standard he brings to every engagement.

Andrew is accepting new consulting engagements for 2026. Whether you're opening a restaurant, building a hotel F&B program, or looking for a culinary partner who brings Michelin-starred standards to every project — the conversation starts here.

A chef drizzling dark sauce over a medium-rare steak on a white plate, garnished with greens, with mashed potatoes and caramelized onions.

Start the Conversation

Ready to build something exceptional? Start the conversation below.