On the outside, it’s an exclusive dinner inside a fancy restaurant in the North Loop that only a few can afford to attend.
But Gavin Kaysen’s Synergy Series, which lures internationally renowned chefs to his hometown restaurant Spoon and Stable, tells a deeper story of life, hospitality and the way food creates connections. Kaysen gives Twin Cities diners access to these chefs, including Sean Brock, Kristin Kish, Daniel Boulud and more, inside his second self-published book "The Synergy Series" (May 2025, $50).
Each section highlights a year of dinners, which began in 2016, with help from editor and photographer Bonjwing Lee. Chefs share thoughts on their careers and the menu served, and offer a recipe of significance for home cooks.
Presented as a whole, the book holds up a mirror to the culinary community that informs Kaysen’s storied career while building bridges to future generations of cooks.
Chef and restaurateur Emeril Lagasse, next up on the Synergy Series circuit, calls the book a “tool for learning the importance of mentorship and building relationships in the culinary industry.”
But perhaps the most poignant entry is from the 2022 dinner with James Kent. Kaysen described the chef, a close friend, as having “an electrifying way of brightening any room he walked into.” Kent unexpectedly passed away in 2024, and Kent’s wife Kelly wrote lovingly of her late husband, echoing the sentiments of the kinship and her gratitude for the way the hospitality world surrounded her family in their loss.
Each dinner and entry is personal to the chefs, who oftentimes share the vulnerability behind their success and failures while setting a table for larger conversations around food. Find the book online at gavinkaysen.com.
