How a Spot on 'The Montel Williams Show' Sparked a Restaurant Power Brand for This Miami Chef Chef Adrianne Calvo discusses building confidence on national TV, turning guests into loyal customers and the power of storytelling in the kitchen.
By Shawn P. Walchef Edited by Jessica Thomas
Key Takeaways
- A national TV appearance on "The Montel Williams Show" at just 19 changed everything for Calvo.
- Early social media posts led to handwritten notes from diners, which she saved and called “love letters to a chef.” That feedback became a powerful reminder of why the work mattered.
- To try and build funds to attend culinary school, Calvo entered cooking competitions to earn scholarships. She then wrote a cookbook at 18 to stand out and raise funds.
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Chef Adrianne Calvo didn't plan to become one of the most influential chefs in Miami or anywhere. In fact, her journey started by mistake.
"I was incorrectly placed in a culinary arts class in high school," she tells Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef of Cali BBQ Media. "Total accident. But when Johnson & Wales came in to do a demo, I felt like they were speaking directly to me. That was my lightning strike."
What followed was a full-on pivot. Calvo started entering culinary competitions to raise money for college. Her food began winning on taste, not trends. No smoke or foam, just flavor. One judge urged her to write a cookbook of her winning recipes. She was only 18.
"I didn't even want to do it at first," she says, laughing. "But then I was like, no, I am going to do this." The result was Maximum Flavor, her first of many cookbooks.
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That book ended up in the hands of a producer for The Montel Williams Show. One phone call (and three hang-ups because she thought it was a prank from a friend) later, she was flown to New York City as Williams' youngest-ever cookbook author guest. What she didn't know was that it would also be his final show. She cooked scallops live on-air, unaware that he hated them. He took three bites and stunned the room:
"For 45 years I've hated scallops," Williams said at the time. "This girl made me love them."
That moment catapulted Maximum Flavor sales and gave Calvo the capital to launch her first restaurant at just 22 years old.
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Love letters to a chef
Opening night wasn't glamorous. "I hid under the bar sink," she admits. "I had a full-on meltdown. But the only way out was through."
Her first location was a 3,000 square foot storefront in a quiet neighborhood, far from the kind of place people expected to find a buzzworthy restaurant. "If you're coming to the restaurant, you're coming to eat there," she recalls. "There was nothing around us."
No liquor license, no built-in foot traffic, just a flood of people on opening night and a 22-year-old chef overwhelmed by the weight of it all. "I remember thinking, what have I done?" she says.
But she and her team got through the night. "It was a blur," she adds. "I don't remember that night at all, just little pieces of it."
The restaurant's growth came from long hours, great food and meaningful guest experiences. But social media gave her something more. It helped her connect beyond the four walls. Her manager, Mike, encouraged her to start a Facebook page.
Calvo began sharing nightly specials and behind-the-scenes photos. "One night, a server came to me and said, 'A table wants this dish you posted today.' That's when I realized social media could expand the experience beyond the plate."
What followed was a flood of handwritten notes from guests on the backs of receipts. Encouragement. Praise. Thanks.
"They knew I was back there 12 hours a day on the line," she says. "Those messages were my fuel. I call them love letters to a chef. I'd post them [and] save them because they're a testament to all the blood, sweat and tears."
Today, Calvo has more than a million Instagram followers, an award-winning podcast and runs multiple concepts, including Cracked by Chef Adrianne, which is currently at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
But the foundation remains the same: Tell a story, stay authentic and cook like you mean it. "You don't need to reinvent food," Calvo says. "You just need to make something people will crave long after the plate is gone."
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