— Michael Baun

This is a fair question. I think the, the main thing to keep in mind is if you want to, um, meet the chef and sit down and talk with this person that, uh, you wanna do this during the slow period of the day, which is commonly between the lunch and dinner service, uh, period. So it's gonna be, you know, maybe, uh, early to mid-afternoon. Um, but, uh, otherwise start out with an email, you know, introduce yourself and, um, you know, what topic it is that you wanna discuss. And then when you find that person that is, um, you know, willing to sit down with you and talk about their menu and their approach to cooking, and, and hopefully, you know, we're talking about a restaurant that you're familiar with and the food that you like, that you want to, uh, delve a little bit deeper into, you know, with this conversation with, uh, the chef, uh, and then just, uh, you know, ask 'em what works best for them in terms of a meeting time. And, um, I think, uh, you know, you, uh, you'll, you'll, you'll have your date, uh, as it goes. All right. So, yeah, enjoy that process. I've done that many times, uh, over the decades when I want to have a, uh, an informational meeting with somebody to learn more about their view on a particular topic. So I think, um, what you're doing is not unusual, um, but just be aware of the timings that might be most convenient for the chef.