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Photos by Heather Willensky
How did each of your careers as chefs begin?
Dan: I worked many jobs as a kid, from caddying at a golf course to hosting at a local waterfront restaurant to delivering pizzas in high school. I never intended to pursue a career in restaurant work. School was never a great fit for me, and that led me to drop out. After school, I had no clue what my path was. That took me to Brooklyn naturally, and my first kitchen job at L'industrie Pizzeria, where I worked with Massimo in the early stages of L'industrie. That was a great experience and led me to pursue working in bigger restaurants. Pizza was my first passion so I went on to Roberta's, where I stayed for about five years and moved my way up from line cook to eventually Executive Sous Chef. I left for a year to be a part of the opening of Gage and Tollner, which was a truly amazing and hard experience. After that, I returned to the Roberta's family to open Foulwitch.
Brendan: Growing up in Colorado, I worked a wide range of jobs—from ski instructor to camp counselor—long before I ever imagined becoming a chef. My first restaurant job was at a local hot dog stand, and I immediately fell in love with the energy, intensity, and rhythm of the industry. That experience led me into a professional kitchen as a line cook, where I realized cooking was something I wanted to pursue seriously. After leaving Colorado, I moved to Montana, where I had the opportunity to work under two incredibly talented chefs who challenged me creatively and became influential mentors in my development. I later spent six months in Copenhagen, staging at Amass and Kadeau. My time there completely reshaped the way I think about food, hospitality, and the possibilities of the industry. From Copenhagen, I moved to New York City with little more than a duffel bag and began working at Per Se and Aska. After several years in Michelin-starred kitchens, I found myself drawn toward a more relaxed, collaborative, and creatively driven environment, which eventually led me to Roberta’s. I started as a line cook and worked my way up to Chef de Cuisine of Events and Development for the company. After leaving Roberta’s, I helped as Head Chef at Libertine while we were building out Confidant.
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Tell us about your seasonally-focused restaurant, Confidant!
Confidant is a collection of experiences for us. Along the way, we took on a lot of different cooking styles, found flavors we both enjoyed, and found our voice. This voice is still evolving and hopefully will continue to for a long time. We aim to rotate out chunks of our menu every 8-10 weeks, hopefully more frequently during spring/summer. We are heavily focused on East Coast produce and working with local purveyors for all our proteins. Our goal has always been to make exciting food that we would want to go out and eat. We are two best friends who have the same goal of opening a restaurant together. Confidant is an amalgamation of our careers. We can't wait to see what the future has in store.
What’s your favorite part about the New York culinary community?
It is highly connected. I think people outside the industry view the culinary scene in NY as an absolute beast, which it is, but it is also super tight-knit. We are all part of a vast network of like-minded individuals. We all have mutual friends or connections and have, in one way or another, crossed paths. I'd say that's what makes it so special, we all look out for each other the best way we can. I don't want to speak for everyone, but I'd like to think that we all want the same thing. We are driven by passion and the daily grind. I just hope that we can make this a better place for the future of our industry, keep pushing to create high-quality food, and take care of our people to the best of our ability. These are trying times, now is the time to value all the connections and make this industry better every day.
We love that you are both close friends, business partners and creative collaborators. How has working together to develop the menu for Confidant been?
We've always worked really well together. Brendan is my left hand, and I'm his right, which works well since he's a lefty and I'm a righty. But quite literally, he spins one way, and I go the other. Developing a menu together is great because we balance each other out. Often one of us will come up with a dish, and we work together to improve it. We share the same interests and the same goal of making great, high-quality food.
Congrats on your new location in Brooklyn Heights! What can customers expect from this new space and menu items?
We love it here and intend to stay for a long time. We hope guests can expect excellent service, food and beverage. A constantly evolving menu and a restaurant always trying to improve upon the experience of the guests and staff. We take great pride in our work, and we hope everyone feels that when they walk through the doors.
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