@notyetachef

As Jake Potashnick prepares to open his tasting-menu restaurant, Feld, next year, he stages the occasional pop-up in his apartment above the West Town restaurant, grapples with plumbing and electrical issues, and entertains his nearly 70,000 followers on TikTok. Just don’t call him a TikTok chef, he implores: “I don’t record myself cooking.” Rather, he chats amiably about, say, dishes meant to be licked off the plate (there’s one at EL Ideas), the worst thing he ever ate (candied salmon dessert sushi in Italy), and his time as an extra in The Bear. This 30-year-old superfoodie has wanted to be a chef since age 7, when he would serve his parents cereal at “Chez Jake” in the family’s Lake View kitchen. An avid student of dining, he fills his TikTok with stories about how to make legendary culinary creations like the egg at Arpège in Paris or, locally, Alinea’s Hot Potato Cold Potato. Potashnick also peppers the feed with a running video diary of the build-out of Feld, with tables surrounding the kitchen like theater-in-the-round. It’s a pleasure to eavesdrop on this smart, opinionated chef in progress thinking out loud.