Drew Nieporent: The Restaurateur Who Remade New York

John welcomes Drew Nieporent, the celebrated owner-operator behind Nobu, Tribeca Grill, and Montrachet, to discuss his new memoir, “I’m Not Trying To Be Difficult: Stories From the Restaurant Trenches.” Nieporent describes his role in transforming the stuffy, fussy, French-focused fine dining culture of New York in the 1970s into the dynamic, freewheeling, scene-driven atmosphere that took hold in the late 1980s; how his fabled partnership with Robert De Niro and Nobuyuki Matsuhisa spawned a globe-spanning culinary empire, but not before his partners cut him out of the business; and how, although the restaurant industry managed to survive Covid, it was changed forever (and not for the better) by the pandemic.