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From 45,000 Miles on the Road to a Michelin Star: The Catbird Seat’s Tiffani Ortiz & Andy Doubrava
Published 4 months, 3 weeks ago
Description
From the Road to the Restaurant: The Catbird Seat's Next Chapter
Intro / About the Episode
Host Nycci Nellis sits down with Chefs Tiffani Ortiz and Andy Doubrava — the husband-and-wife duo leading the newest era of Nashville's acclaimed tasting-menu restaurant, The Catbird Seat — to talk about life on the road, zero-waste cooking, regenerative agriculture, and what it really means to build a restaurant around your values.
About the Guests
Chefs Tiffani Ortiz and Andy Doubrava met at the French Culinary Institute in New York before eventually reconnecting on a Malibu farm — literally living in a teepee among wild parrots — where their shared passion for agriculture and sustainability took root. After years cooking in restaurants across Los Angeles, they left brick-and-mortar life behind to launch Slow Burn, a nomadic culinary project that took them through 42 states and more than 45,000 miles with two dogs, a Subaru, a cargo trailer, and a traveling larder. They now lead The Catbird Seat in Nashville, where their road-forged philosophy of fermentation, preservation, and zero-waste cooking shapes one of the country's most talked-about tasting-menu experiences.
"We refuse to commit to one style. And I think that's kind of the beauty of Catbird Seat — the chefs are always rotating, just like our ideas and the produce and ingredients we use are always rotating." — Chef Tiffani Ortiz
"It's leadership with high standards, but also a lot of empathy." — Chef Andy Doubrava
"What fascinates me most is how personal this all is — the preservation, the use of every part of the ingredient, the way they balance high-level with playfulness." — Nycci Nellis
The Catbird Seat: A Culinary Institution Reimagined
Since opening in 2011, The Catbird Seat has operated as a kind of culinary incubator — a place known for rule-breaking, intimacy, and creative freedom, built around an iconic U-shaped counter. Under Ortiz and Doubrava, the restaurant has relocated to a striking new home in Nashville's Paseo South Gulch and entered a bold new chapter. The result: a Michelin star, a James Beard nomination for Outstanding Restaurant, a New York Times nod, and a reputation as one of the most exciting dining experiences in the country. The new space retains the signature counter (now with a few more seats) and adds a wine lounge that's unlocked new possibilities for larger celebrations and future programming.
Slow Burn: 45,000 Miles and a Traveling Larder
Before Nashville, there was the road. Ortiz and Doubrava spent years conceptualizing, then executing, a nomadic zero-waste restaurant they called Slow Burn — a pop-up project that brought them through 42 states, into farm kitchens, foraged forests, and restaurant residencies across North America and beyond. They drove with two dogs, preserved as they went, and cooked their way into some of the continent's best kitchens. The project was equal parts case study in sustainability and creative liberation — a way to study how food systems, waste challenges, and culinary cultures differed from region to region. Everything they learned is now embedded in the walls (and jars) of The Catbird Seat.
Falling in Love on a Malibu Farm
Their origin story sounds like a movie: two culinary school acquaintances who reconnected years later while volunteering on a Meyer lemon orchard tucked into the canyon off PCH — overlooking the ocean, sleeping in a teepee, surrounded by wild parrots. It was their first real hands-on agricultural experience, and it changed how both of them thought about food, sourcing, and responsibility. From there, they embarked on a two-month farm tour through the South and back to California, cooking for farmers, learning from homesteaders, and laying the philosophical groundwork that would eventually become Slow Burn — and then The
Intro / About the Episode
Host Nycci Nellis sits down with Chefs Tiffani Ortiz and Andy Doubrava — the husband-and-wife duo leading the newest era of Nashville's acclaimed tasting-menu restaurant, The Catbird Seat — to talk about life on the road, zero-waste cooking, regenerative agriculture, and what it really means to build a restaurant around your values.
About the Guests
Chefs Tiffani Ortiz and Andy Doubrava met at the French Culinary Institute in New York before eventually reconnecting on a Malibu farm — literally living in a teepee among wild parrots — where their shared passion for agriculture and sustainability took root. After years cooking in restaurants across Los Angeles, they left brick-and-mortar life behind to launch Slow Burn, a nomadic culinary project that took them through 42 states and more than 45,000 miles with two dogs, a Subaru, a cargo trailer, and a traveling larder. They now lead The Catbird Seat in Nashville, where their road-forged philosophy of fermentation, preservation, and zero-waste cooking shapes one of the country's most talked-about tasting-menu experiences.
"We refuse to commit to one style. And I think that's kind of the beauty of Catbird Seat — the chefs are always rotating, just like our ideas and the produce and ingredients we use are always rotating." — Chef Tiffani Ortiz
"It's leadership with high standards, but also a lot of empathy." — Chef Andy Doubrava
"What fascinates me most is how personal this all is — the preservation, the use of every part of the ingredient, the way they balance high-level with playfulness." — Nycci Nellis
The Catbird Seat: A Culinary Institution Reimagined
Since opening in 2011, The Catbird Seat has operated as a kind of culinary incubator — a place known for rule-breaking, intimacy, and creative freedom, built around an iconic U-shaped counter. Under Ortiz and Doubrava, the restaurant has relocated to a striking new home in Nashville's Paseo South Gulch and entered a bold new chapter. The result: a Michelin star, a James Beard nomination for Outstanding Restaurant, a New York Times nod, and a reputation as one of the most exciting dining experiences in the country. The new space retains the signature counter (now with a few more seats) and adds a wine lounge that's unlocked new possibilities for larger celebrations and future programming.
Slow Burn: 45,000 Miles and a Traveling Larder
Before Nashville, there was the road. Ortiz and Doubrava spent years conceptualizing, then executing, a nomadic zero-waste restaurant they called Slow Burn — a pop-up project that brought them through 42 states, into farm kitchens, foraged forests, and restaurant residencies across North America and beyond. They drove with two dogs, preserved as they went, and cooked their way into some of the continent's best kitchens. The project was equal parts case study in sustainability and creative liberation — a way to study how food systems, waste challenges, and culinary cultures differed from region to region. Everything they learned is now embedded in the walls (and jars) of The Catbird Seat.
Falling in Love on a Malibu Farm
Their origin story sounds like a movie: two culinary school acquaintances who reconnected years later while volunteering on a Meyer lemon orchard tucked into the canyon off PCH — overlooking the ocean, sleeping in a teepee, surrounded by wild parrots. It was their first real hands-on agricultural experience, and it changed how both of them thought about food, sourcing, and responsibility. From there, they embarked on a two-month farm tour through the South and back to California, cooking for farmers, learning from homesteaders, and laying the philosophical groundwork that would eventually become Slow Burn — and then The