Meet Joshua Weissman | Chef/Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joshua Weissman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joshua, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
Work-life balance is such an interesting topic of discussion. I think people don’t actually mean what they say about it when they bring it up. To most people work life balance really means they want to have a discussion about how much time they have away from their work or their jobs. It’s almost solely focused on leisure time. It’s never about the quality of enjoyment of the work that they do. I think everyone should take a step back from that question and truly ask themselves what would be a meaningful life for them that’s going to genuinely make them happy and feel fulfilled. The happiest people I know have much less “work-life balance”. So I think if we can all identify those things that make us happy, then you should try to balance your life and build it in a way that you are doing more of the things that make you happy, and get as close to eliminating the things that make you unhappy as you can. For me personally, every aspect of my life I built from nothing. I built the things around me that I wanted to be around me, and I made sure that those things made me happy. So it’s hard to identify a balance when I feel like no matter what I’m doing, even if it’s in the trenches doing hard work, I am filled with gratitude and happiness to do it and therefore my life feels balanced. That’s not to say that every single moment feels like that. Life has a funny way of making you learn how to balance new situations. Not every single day of my life is perfect, but by focusing away from the idea that I constantly need a break, I then know I have control and power over the things that happen in my life and that feeling alone feels balanced. But it’s also okay to sometimes feel a little TOO busy or overwhelmed, I just think you gotta choose to live in the present day and be self-aware enough to call a hail merry but not in a way that you are masking a true problem in your life. So short answer: do things that make you happy and you will naturally find the balance in your life you’re looking for but also don’t forget to reflect and be grateful.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started my career at a very young age. I knew cooking was going to be a big part of my career when I was maybe 8 years old. I started cooking when I was 4 or 5. I committed myself to cook professionally when I was 16 and I did everything I could to get my hands on anything food. I didn’t go to college by choice and instead went to work in restaurants right away. After spending the majority of my life getting really good at cooking, I didn’t feel I needed culinary school so I skipped that as well. I don’t look back on that with any form of regret whatsoever and I feel it’s driven a lot of my happiness and enjoyment through the process of growing my career. My life has truly been built and designed by me (still “under construction, I’m just really in the very beginning stages of my life), but doesn’t exist without the unbelievable support of my family.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well assuming the area is Austin, and I was able to find time to dedicate that week to them…. I would probably start them at my house. The morning would start with a nice brunch prepared by me, fresh breads out of my pizza oven plenty of bacon, soft scrambled eggs maybe an array of cheeses and salamis. Fruit for balance of course. Frankly I’d love for their first day to be spent in a very relaxed state with minimal effort to kind of ease into the fun packed week. So day 1 would mostly be, eating and cooking at my house, coffee shop trips, maybe some movies, I might destroy their entire ego in halo. The rest of the week would be spent gathering with friends in the area, going out to nice dinners, one day would be spent in the outdoors maybe stand up paddleboarding on Lady Bird Lake, a visit to the greenbelt. I think a trip up to lake travis for wakeboarding would be a good choice too. But the most important thing is every single thing we do, under any circumstance, must have endless amounts of incredible food sround us at all times.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My parents, my fiancee, and my family. At the end of the day everyone you work with in your life is looking out for themselves to some extent. You already need to be able to operate and perform otherwise you are making their lives harder. It is the undying support, constant conversations through some of my toughest battles that my parents, family, and fiancee are always there no matter what. Those are the people that helped me really get started. Now for those who have helped me along the way and have been hugely impactful in the process of growing, of course my biggest advocate is a close friend as well as the Vice President of my company Vicram Chatterjee. He’s been here almost since the very beginning, and has been the only person I’ve seen put in the same work ethic as I would in what we do. I also feel indebted to the teachings and opportunities brought to me by my managers Josh Cohen and Brian Sokolik, who have equally been mentors for me in both business and life. All of my reps at UTA like Ali Berman, Mahzad Babayan, Kirby Van Erkel, and of course Brandi Bowles who has been a huge help with my book!

Website: www.joshuaweissman.com

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