Habit & Co. Names Chef Olivia Tiedemann Third Culinary Resident

Habit & Co. has named chef and content creator Olivia Tiedemann its third culinary resident, continuing the hospitality brand's strategy of rotating chef partnerships to drive menu differentiation and audience engagement.

Tiedemann is known for her direct, no-nonsense culinary style and a following built on dry humor and candid kitchen perspectives. Her residency at Habit brings a steakhouse-inspired menu to the concept — a format that tends to resonate strongly with diners seeking bold, protein-forward dining experiences at a time when premium beef and chop-house flavors are driving significant momentum across the restaurant industry.

Why Chef Residencies Matter

The culinary residency model has gained traction among independent and boutique hospitality operators as a way to generate repeat visits, earn press attention, and test new menu directions without the commitment of a full rebrand. By cycling in chefs with established personal brands and social audiences, venues like Habit & Co. effectively borrow built-in communities of engaged food enthusiasts — a low-cost customer acquisition strategy in an era of rising marketing expenses.

Tiedemann's dual identity as both a working chef and a digital creator makes her a particularly useful collaborator for a concept looking to extend its reach beyond its physical footprint. Chef-creator crossovers have become one of the more reliable tools in modern restaurant marketing, blurring the line between content and hospitality in ways that drive both online discovery and in-person covers.

Program Trajectory

With three culinary residents now on record, Habit & Co. appears to be maturing its residency format into a consistent programmatic pillar rather than a one-off publicity play. For operators watching the model, the key variable is whether rotating chef identities can build cumulative brand equity for the host venue — or whether each residency essentially resets audience expectations from scratch.

Tiedemann's steakhouse lens offers Habit a menu narrative with broad appeal and strong check-average potential, two factors that matter considerably as the food and beverage industry navigates persistent cost pressures on both the labor and ingredient sides. How the residency performs — in traffic, social reach, and average spend — will likely inform how aggressively the brand expands the program going forward.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.