Thomas McNaughton

Everything here runs on electric.

I talked to their CEO, Thomas McNaughton.

He said basically, when you said like electric oven to him like 10 years ago, he was like, he thought of like an easy bake oven, you know, like a toy.

And I didn't realize how evolved the technology really is.

And the two people who have built what Flower and Water Hospitality Group has become are today's guests.

Thomas McNaughton, co-chef, founding partner and CEO, and Ryan Polnau, co-chef and culinary director.

Together, they run Flour and Water, Penny Roma, Flour and Water Pasta Shop, Flour and Water Pizzeria, Flower and Water Foods, which is our new consumer packaged goods business.

And we're partners in Trick Dog.

So, um, you know, I, I started kind of in that area, and then ended up, you know, down in Bologna.

I had a friend, you know, another mentor and, and good colleague of mine, you know, who, who's a chef in San Francisco, Thomas McNaughton, um, of Flour + Water.

Um, so he, you know, he had put me in touch with where he trained in, in Bologna at this little, you know, it's called a laboratorio, so just a pasta, you know, laboratory, if you will, and they just lo- they roll all the pasta with the mattarello and, you know, everything's handmade.

And so yeah, that was, that was a real highlight for me.

Had a, a wonderful meal at Flour + Water Pizzeria.

Um, to remind folks, this is from the co-chefs Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow, uh, of Flour + Water.

And, and really I'd not been to their pizzeria.

I've been to Flour + Water before.

Line cooks plop chicken wings in deep fryers.

And CEO Thomas McNaughton assembles a margherita pizza.

So it's like, it's really kind of sauce in the middle.

It's a bustling, full-service kitchen, but one thing you won't find here, a single gas flame.

kitchen.While Berkeley's natural gas ban was defeated in the courts, the state is making progress.

In 2024, California mandated that many kinds of new construction be built ready to go all electric.

[bell dings] [oven door clanks] At Flour + Water, CEO Thomas McNaughton says he sees a future where gas is no longer an option.

We have never said, "Oh man, I really wish we had a six-burner all gas range."