Commander’s Palace’s Ti Martin Wants to Start a Hospitality Revolution

Tinfoil Swans Podcast

On this episode

Ti Martin — along with her cousin and co-proprietor, Lally Brennan — is ensuring that the family’s 131-year-old New Orleans restaurant Commander’s Palace is living up to its legacy and moving into the future. At the 2024 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen this past June, Martin joined Tinfoil Swans for a spirited conversation about kicking down doors, the gift and responsibility that comes with running an iconic family business, why hospitality and service are not the same thing, and how to get people dancing in the dining room.

Meet our guest

Ti Adelaide Martin is the board chair and co-founder of the New Orleans Culinary & Hospitality Institute (NOCHI); author of Commander’s Kitchen, In the Land of Cocktails: Recipes and Adventures from the Cocktail Chicks, Commander’s Wild Side; and has been co-proprietor of the 131-year-old Commander’s Palace with her cousin Lally Brennan since 1997. Martin opened Picnic Provisions & Whiskey in 2018, and in 2016, she produced a documentary about her mother, Commanding the Table: The Ella Brennan Story with an accompanying book, Miss Ella of Commander’s Palace.

Meet our host

Kat Kinsman is the executive features editor at Food & Wine, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerves, host of Food & Wine’s podcast, and founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she was the senior food & drinks editor at Extra Crispy, editor-in-chief and editor at large at Tasting Table, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She won a 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoir and has had work included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Best American Food Writing. She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won a 2011 EPPY Award for Best Food Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and moderator on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is the former vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.

Highlights from the episode

On competition and camaraderie in New Orleans

“We compete. I’m watching what you’re doing. You’re watching what I’m doing. But we love each other. Maybe it’s the hardships we’ve been through. But we don’t steal each other’s employees. We are a tight-knit community. We are all really good friends. To me, New Orleans is like another family member in that you could kill your family member sometimes, but you’d do anything for them. I think we all feel so strongly about our city, that that’s what pulls us together.”

On sweating the details

“We need to start a hospitality revolution, and we’re going the wrong way. This country has got to get more serious about this. And the way you do that is you work at it. My cousin Lally Brennan and I literally stand in team meetings and model body language. I mean, you could stand there, just brush by guests, or you can literally just step out of the way a little bit and let them know they have the right of way. All these little things add up to that.”

On making every meal an occasion

“It matters almost more to me that the plumber comes on his anniversary, and they are treated like a king and a queen. I don’t care who you are, or if you’re coming frequently, or for a special occasion or not. I feel very democratic about it. If you come in the restaurant, I’m excited. I’m going to do special things. But I don’t want the table next to you to feel any different, so we really work hard at that.”

On the joy of jazz brunch in its birthplace

“If you come to jazz brunch — this is where it was created — and don’t have a good time, there’s something wrong with you. I mean, we blow it every now and then, I promise you, but when we’re doing it right — more often than not — there’s second lines that break out. People are dancing around the room.”

On how to get hired at Commander’s Palace

“I hire for two different things: If you don’t have an innate desire to please, you probably need to be in another industry. That matters most. In other ways, I’m looking for intellectual curiosity. You don’t have to be the world’s smartest person, but you have to be curious.”

On the difference between hospitality and service

“Heart and feeling — and it is about how you make people feel. I’m sorry but a lot of places I go, I call that food drop-off. That’s not service. You just happen to bring the food to where I happen to be sitting. Hospitality is every single thing that any business organization or person does to affect how their client, or customer, or guest feels — from your website to the goodnight at the end of the evening. It is a hard thing to go to your board and say, ‘Hey, hospitality is up 30%,’ but you have to work at it. With what’s going on in our world, I feel like that mission in my life is even more important than ever.”

About the podcast

Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a new series of intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting interviews with the biggest names in the culinary industry, sharing never-before-heard stories about the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made these personalities who they are today.

This season, you’ll hear from icons and innovators like Daniel Boulud, Rodney Scott, Asma Khan, Emeril and E.J. Lagasse, Claudia Fleming, Dave Beran and Will Poulter, Dan Giusti, Priya Krishna, Lee Anne Wong, Cody Rigsby, Kevin Gillespie, Pete Wells, David Chang, Cheetie Kumar, Christine D’Ercole, Channing Frye, Nick Cho, Ti Martin, and other special guests going deep with host Kat Kinsman on their formative experiences; the dishes and meals that made them; their joys, doubts and dreams; and what’s on the menu in the future. Tune in for a feast that’ll feed your brain and soul — and plenty of wisdom and quotable morsels to savor.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen and follow on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

These interview excerpts have been edited for clarity.

Editor’s Note: The transcript for download does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.