Small Talk: What do you do and how did you start doing it? 

Maxime Pradié: I am the Chef of Zimmi's in the West Village and a new dad ◡̈ 

My father was a chef, so I suppose I was born into a love of food and cooking. But I first started cooking with my Mamie (grandmother) who was from Brescia, Italy but moved to France when she was 8. I spent summers at her house in Arcachon with lots of family - my mom, my sister Charlotte, and our aunts, uncles and cousins. 

Much of our time together revolved around food, and I loved watching my grandmother cook. We spent a lot of time around the table in the courtyard, trimming beans, playing cards, peeling garlic, eating hot crêpes and saucisses, and having Mamie’s Pastasciutta every Monday. That's the genesis of my love of cooking and showing love through food. 

When I was 19 I started cooking in restaurants, and that's about the only thing (professional and otherwise) I've done since then. 

ST: What does a typical day look like for you and how do you decide what to wear each day? 

MP: Our son Émile is 4 months old so he wakes up really early. Certain days I wake up with him -  most days Kimya wakes up with him, but we alternate so one of us can get some rest. If I'm the early riser, I usually put on a comfortable robe (I love my Frette robe), have coffee, play with Émile, read to him, feed him his bottle, and put him down for a nap around 9. After that I relax and try to plan my day (but not start actually working yet). 

If it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday, I will go to the Union Square Farmer's Market to shop for produce for Zimmi's. I usually get there from 10:30am-11:30am. I'm almost always at the restaurant by 12. I check in with the team and devise a plan for the day, have meetings with the managers, cooks, etc. If I'm lucky I spend the rest of the afternoon cooking. Often I spend it doing the things that actually make the restaurant work (scheduling, ordering, food costing, HR, jack-of-all-trading, etc...)

I wear what's comfortable, so I wear shorts, Birks (clogs), and a white t-shirt with a standard porter shirt. If I like something, I buy many versions of the same thing, so my shorts are usually the same Polo shorts I've been wearing for years, or the black Small Talk drawstring shorts. I used to wear these incredible Bragard kitchen clogs, but they were discontinued in the US. I thought they were globally discontinued until two weeks ago when my newly hired Sous Chef walked in with a pair he bought in France. 

ST: What are your favorite and least favorite parts of living in New York? 

MP: Favorite: my friends, jazz at The Ear Inn on Sunday, Gallagher's Steakhouse, Bread and Salt Bakery, Union Square Farmer's Market, Sunn's (restaurant), my son being a NYer, Bonnie Slotnick, Spring and Fall, Astoria, the Chelsea Flea, going to the Met Opera with Kimya, Grand Central Oyster Bar, the hot dog at McSorley's, Arturo's, Riverside Drive, the Ferry, fast Citibikes, Central Park with Kimya and Émile, St. Luke's Garden, Spa 88, running on the East River, leaving New York

Least: how far it is from my family in France, (and everything else everyone hates about living here).

ST: Can you tell us about one (or any combination) of the following things you consumed recently and can't stop thinking about? 

• Song/Album

MP:  Dave's Street Starz Freestyle, it's insane. Time After Time live in Belgium 1964 by Chet Baker, and The Head Hurts but the Heart Knows the Truth by Headache

• Dish (or bite of food) 

Carosello melon from Capo Rosso farm. It's a muskmelon that's picked early and eaten in its green state, as you would a cucumber. Fresh savory and cherries from the market are the other shouts. Homemade kabob and saffron rice Kimya's family made last weekend. 

• Book

I'm bad at reading for leisure. I reference cookbooks a lot for my work so I will say anything by Richard Olney and Recipes from Provence by Andrée Maureau, which are wonderful with handwritten recipes.  

• Piece of art

I bought a bowl by midcentury potter J Williams from the Chelsea Flea yesterday. I can't stop touching it and am excited to look at it when it's out of my view. 

• Movie 

Always for Pleasure by Les Blank

• Something you just witnessed out in the world

Émile (my son) observing/admiring a tree canopy 

• Piece of clothing

I love Massimo Osti's vision, so old Stone Island, CP Company, and Boneville. 

ST: My favorite thing about your approach to so much of what you do is the intentional incorporation and celebration of the home styling (both in cuisine and atmosphere) passed down to you from family, specifically your family in France. How do you view your role in stewarding and translating that sense of style here in New York?

MP: Thank you Nick and Phil . My father was a big antiquer and died when I was young. The apartment I grew up in was filled with a collection of his old pieces and furniture, so that definitely influenced my appreciation for old, beautiful things. French people in general tend to value the handmade, artisans, and history, and I grew up with that understanding of beauty. New York tends to have more irreverence towards those things, even though there's still so much of them here. I just apply those values and that appreciation to this city. 

When I was a kid, my aunt Teeno used to take me and my sister to fleas - there was one on 12th and B, the one in the Aqueduct at Howard Beach, and on Broadway and Howard. Now in Manhattan there's just the Chelsea flea, which is still amazing (people constantly tell you otherwise). Kimya and I go just for visual treats. 

The appreciation for artisans, craft, handmade work, and history in New York has definitely diminished in my lifetime. So for me, part of cooking and engaging with the craft and the handmade is to preserve beauty and add more of it to New York. 

There's so much shit in the world
There's good, bad, mad, sad, ugly, happy
But I just love beauty 

- from The Head Hurts but the Heart Knows the Truth by Headache

Happy cooking,
Maxime

All photos by Christian Michael Filardo.

Small Talks is an ongoing Q&A series featuring friends and members of the greater Small Talk family whose work we consume and admire. Stay tuned for more...