Olive Garden To Olamaie: Chef Amanda Turner On Menus, Autonomy, And Pokémon Wisdom

Hosted by Kerry Diamond
Produced by Catherine Baker and Jenna Sadhu
Edited by Jenna Sadhu
Music by Tralala, “All Fired Up”

Amanda Turner was drawn to kitchen life and wanted to move from front of house at Olive Garden to back of house, but was turned down because she “was a woman and didn’t speak Spanish.” So she headed to culinary school (“out of spite”) and found her calling. Today, Amanda is the chef de cuisine at Olamaie, a fine-dining restaurant in Austin where the menu is reflective of her upbringing, autonomy is prized, and the Pokémon theme song kicks off every service. 

Amanda joins host Kerry Diamond to talk about her early days at corporate culinary concepts like Chuck E. Cheese, her time in Japan, and working with Olamaie’s chef/owner Michael Fojtasek. She also shares more about her love of gaming and how Dungeons & Dragons factors into one of her pop-ups. 

Thank you to OpenTable for supporting this episode. Learn more about the Cherry Bombe + OpenTable Sit With Us community dinner series here. 

Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. This episode was recorded at 5th Street Studio in Austin. Subscribe to our newsletter and check out past episodes and transcripts here. 

More on Amanda: Instagram, Olamaie Restaurant, The Fiery Talon pop-up