Food and Wine Best New Chef Jordan Rubin on the unique sushi restaurant he started as a food cart and combining sushi tradition with bold and unexpected flavors
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Jordan Rubin got into sushi by accident when the sushi chef’s assistant didn’t show up for ...
Master of the Turducken Matt Rebhan on creating the ultimate Thanksgiving item, three generations in the food biz, and how to pick and cook the perfect steak.
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Matt Rebhan is the third-generation owner of his family’s Alpine Steakhouse and Butcher Shop in Sa...
Cousins Jared Rouben and Jeremy Cohn on adding a restaurant to their brewery – and winning a Michelin Star
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A Michelin starred brewery! Cousins Jared Rouben (a graduate of both culinary school and brewing sch...
Chef Amy Mehrtens on cooking at a New Orleans legend, then moving on to run a NOLA kitchen of her own and getting creative with that city’s classics
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up in a military family, Chef Amy Mehrtens explored new tastes in various places around the ...
Cleveland Chef Vinnie Cimino on being named a Food and Wine 2025 Best New Chef for re-inventing midwestern cuisine
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Northern Ohio native Vinnie Cimino is reinventing traditional midwestern cuisine as “modern grandm...
Chef Diane Moua on her restaurant being named 2025 Food and Wine restaurant of the year, featuring a cuisine most Americans have never heard of – Hmong cooking
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Diane Moua grew up a child of refugees in the tight knit Hmong community, which at the time lim...
Chef Kyle Knall on training at legendary restaurants, then opening his own place and helping turn a spotlight on an unexpectedly hot dining city.
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After training under legendary southern chef Frank Stitt, then working his way up to sous chef at Ne...
Baker Kelly Jacques on being named a 2025 Food and Wine Best New Chef, and on her unique baked takes on New Orleans favorites
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
New Orleans baker Kelly Jacques was just named a Food and Wine Best New Chef for 2025. After making ...
Le Cirque and Spotted Pig alum, Chef Casey Wall on opening a hot new French/Texan hybrid in Austin after fifteen years as a successful restaurateur in Australia.
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Casey Wall cut his teeth at New York’s legendary Spotted Pig and Le Cirque, before moving to ...
A double helping of great restaurants off the beaten path: The chef behind a Colorado restaurant you have to ski or snowshoe to get to—and the owners of a James Beard Award winning family favorite in Alaska
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a double helping of great eating off the beaten path. Erica Curry, who runs the Tennessee Pas...
2025 James Beard Best Chef in NY state Vijay Kumar on bringing a little known southern Indian cuisine to his Michelin-starred restaurant the New York Times ranked #1 in NY
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Born in southern India, a region rarely represented on Indian restaurant menus in the U.S., Chef Vi...
Chef Kelly Franz on the challenge of coming home to a legendary Charleston restaurant to take it into the future without discarding its storied past
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Kelly Franz developed her taste for great food growing up in Europe as part of a military famil...
2025 James Beard Awards Outstanding Restaurant co-owner and master sommelier Bobby Stuckey on featuring amazing food from an Italian region few people have ever heard of
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bobby Stuckey entered the culinary world as a teenaged dishwasher and worked his way up through a ra...
2025 James Beard Best New Restaurant Award winners Jeanie Janas Ritter and Chef Adam Ritter on combining French techniques with Minnesota ingredients and risking everything to open a restaurant where others went bust
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Classically trained chefs Jeanie Janas Ritter and Adam Ritter shared a culinary journey working at g...
Portland Chef Cathy Whims on the secrets to cooking in Italy, being tutored by the legendary Marcella Hazan, and helping turn Portland, Oregon into a culinary force
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Cathy Whims was at the forefront of the culinary revolution in Portland, Oregon and decades lat...
2025 James Beard Best Chef-Texas Thomas Bille on creating great food through the lens of a first generation Mexican American, risking everything on a dream, and rebuilding after losing it all
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Thomas Bille describes his cooking at his suburban Houston restaurant Belly of the Beast as dri...
Bonus Episode - A visit to Brennan's for the art and theatre of Banana's Foster
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This special bonus episode comes from the folks at Gravy, a production of the Southern Foodways Alli...
Pitmaster Ali Clem on winning a Michelin star for her barbecue restaurant, and her remarkable rise from selling her barbecue from a trailer
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ali Clem says she was shocked when her La Barbecue restaurant in Austin, TX was recently awarded a M...
2025 James Beard Award winner Nando Chang on Peruvian-Japanese cuisine, the threat to immigrants in the food world, and how hip-hop changed his life
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Chang siblings, born in Peru, emigrated to the U.S. as children, and now living in Miami, have l...
Chef and restaurateur Nicholas Fanucci on his career at legendary Michelin-starred restaurants and his journey from the top to a food truck to a restaurant of his own
09 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Born in Cannes, France, and raised in a food-centric French-Italian family, Nicholas Fanucci has run...
Chef Yotaka “Sunny” Martin and her partner/husband on bringing her Thai cuisine to America and, with no restaurant experience, winning the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Yotaka Martin had never heard of the James Beard awards until she was nominated for the 2024 co...
Chef and restaurateur Tyler Akin on re-opening his family’s favorite restaurant from his childhood and cooking a world of cuisines
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Acclaimed Philadelphia restaurateur Tyler Akin recreated his childhood memories by re-opening the re...
Two Michelin star winning chef Suzette Gresham on battling restaurant world misogyny and finding the soul of a cuisine
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Suzette Gresham has been a pioneer in fighting for the place of women in the long-male-dominate...
Third generation Seattle restaurant owner Mark Canlis, on keeping the highest standards while remaining fresh after 75 years
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On Food and Wine’s list of America’s top restaurants for 2025, Canlis came in at number two. Tha...
Michelin award winning chef Julia Momosé on creating the tastes she grew up with in Japan at her Chicago restaurant Kumiko, and the mixology that just won her a James Beard award
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Born and raised in Japan, Chef Julia Momosé developed a respect and love for hospitality watching h...
Classically trained boundary-shattering chef Jordan Kahn on simultaneously holding Michelin stars at two different restaurants, and his singular approach to storytelling through food
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Pioneering chef Jordan Kahn holds Michelin stars at two different Los Angeles area restaurants— tw...
Chef Anita Jaisinghani on creating a wildly successful Indian diner in Houston, Texas
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Anita Jaisinghani grew up in India and, while she loved food, she didn’t make it a career at ...
Michelin star winning chef Laurent Tourondel on his restaurant blowing up on Tik Tok
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Laurent Tourondel is a Michelin star winning French chef who opened an affordable New York steakhous...
Chef Marisa Baggett on shattering expectations as a female, Black, Jewish sushi chef, and redefining sushi her way
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Marisa Baggett had never seen sushi, never tasted sushi, when a customer asked for it at her Starkvi...
Chef Eric Levine on turning Brooklyn favorites like hot dogs and knishes into elevated culinary masterpieces— and on achieving celebrity and success while repeatedly battling cancer
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Eric LeVine was so taken by cooking that before he even attended culinary school, he wrote a le...
Owner Amy Mills on secrets behind the iconic barbecue restaurant founded by her father, a barbecue legend
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amy Mills grew up surrounded by barbecue. Her father Mike Mills owned 17th St. Barbecue in Murph...
James Beard award winning chef Alon Shaya on making a splash in new Orleans—not with Cajun or Creole cooking, but with Israeli food—and on becoming a sweet-tea-loving southerner
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
James Beard Award winning chef Alon Shaya, born in Israel and raised in Philadelphia, was cooking fo...
Chef Alycia Wahn Martindale on Michelin recognizing her new Toronto restaurant; cooking Creole, Caribbean, and Latin American flavors north of the border; and why she’s scratch-making her own butter and bacon
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Alycia Wahn Martindale is cooking up southern flavors north of the border at Conejo Negro (Blac...
Katz’s Deli owner Jake Dell with the inside story of the 137 year-old American institution and having Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal back to re-do their famous movie scene
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Often cited as America’s best deli, Katz’s has been a lower East Side institution in New Yor...
Small town chef and restaurant owner Cara Tobin on her nomination as America’s best restaurateur in the upcoming James beard awards
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cara Tobin got her first restaurant job at the age of 17 by lying about her cooking experience in th...
Executive Chef André Bienvenu on his quarter century at the legendary Joe’s Stone Crab and his unexpected second chapter as a restaurant owner
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef André Bienvenu spent more than a quarter-century as executive chef at America’s highest gros...
Food & Wine Best New Chef Karyn Tomlinson on her invention of “Grandma Chic” cuisine
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Named a Food & Wine Best New Chef for 2024, Karyn Tomlinson has won raves for her restaurant Myriel ...
Chief Diego Sanchez on marrying fine dining and the classic American diner and the Peruvian food he grew up with
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After coming to the United States from Peru in his teens, Diego Sanchez found a sense of belonging i...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – MARY NGUYEN – EP 36
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Mary Nguyen grew up in a Vietnamese immigrant household in Denver, went on to work as an invest...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - JOHN FRASER – EP 35
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Michelin star winning chef John Fraser worked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Thomas Keller, and i...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – SHEILA AND DUFFY WITMER– EP 34
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sheila and Duffy Witmer bought the Pioneer Saloon in Ketchum, Idaho nearly half a century ago. And t...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED –CARLOS GAYTÁN – EP 33
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Carlos Gaytán has earned a Michelin star (the first Mexican-born chef ever to receive one) at two d...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – ADRIAN MILLER - EP 32
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Called the Soul Food Scholar, Adrian Miller is renowned for his knowledge of African American and so...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - KATIE BUTTON - EP 31
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Katie Button is a James Beard winner for her Asheville, North Carolina Spanish restaurant Cúra...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - CHEFS MELISSA REAGAN AND STEPHEN GONZALEZ - EP 30
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Melissa Reagan and Stephen Gonzalez met at Culinary School in Austin, Texas two decades ago, then fo...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – NOK SUNTARANON – EP 29
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nok Suntaranon remembers eating like royalty growing up inThailand, even though her family was poor,...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF MATT VAWTER – EP 28
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Named the 2024 James Beard Awards best chef in the mountain region, Matt Vawter began his culinary e...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF VICTORIA SHORE – EP 27
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Victoria Shore grew up in an adventurous culinary family (few American kids fall in love with Basque...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - CHEF MICHAEL GULOTTA - EP 26
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Born and raised in New Orleans, Michael Gulotta began cooking for his family at the age of nine. He ...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – AMELIE KANG – EP 25
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amelie Kang grew up in northern China, moved to Beijing, and then to the U.S., where she graduated f...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL – EP 24
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Despite never having trained as a chef, Christopher Kimball has taught millions of Americans how to ...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – EP 23 – MARISSA GENCARELLI
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Born in Mexico, Marissa Gencarelli was working a corporate job and had never run a culinary business...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF NICHOLAS BAZIK – EP 22
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Budding academic turned touring musician turned chef turned restaurateur, Nicholas Bazik is striving...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF MATTHEW GRAY – EP 21
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Matthew Gray’s wild ride through life landed him in paradise. From touring with legendary roc...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF BJ DENNIS - EP 20
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Charleston Chef BJ Dennis is a rare voice in the food world, an authority on Gullah Geechee cooking....
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – THE BUSALACCHI FAMILY – EP 19
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Busalacchi came to America from Sicily as a child and grew up to share his family recipes with a...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF PREETI WAAS - EP 18
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Born in southern India and with no culinary training, Preeti Waas is a two- time James beard award n...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – GREGORY GOURDET - EP 17
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
He’s won three James Beard Awards in a row—Best Cookbook, Best Restaurant, and the 2024 award as...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – ZIGGY GRUBER - EP 16
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Born into a prominent delicatessen-owning family in New York and trained in London, where he worked ...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – PAUL SMITH - EP 15
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Classically trained at the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Paul Smith won the 2024 James Beard A...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED –MARTHA SANDERS HOOVER - EP 14
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After law school and a stint as a sex crimes prosecutor, pregnant with her third child, and with no ...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - CHEF JOHN SHIELDS - EP 13
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chef John Shields and his wife, Chef Karen Uri Shields, recently won a third Michelin Star for their...
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - SARAH SIMINGTON - EP 12
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Simington has changed breakfast forever. She invented Cap’n Crunch encrusted French toast. A...
CHEF DONALD YOUNG - CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED EP 11
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chicago chef Donald Young won a Michelin star before he turned thirty. Mentored by legendary chef Ro...
THE 2FOODTRIPPERS - CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED EP 10
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Daryl and Mindi Hirsch met over bagels, discussed his obsession with cheese, and as their relationsh...
JENNIFER JASINSKI - CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED EP 9
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Jennifer Jasinski is a powerhouse restaurateur whose Denver restaurants offer French, Spanish, ...
TONY GEMIGNANI- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED EP 8
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tony Gemignani is one of the leading figures in the world of pizza. His pies were just named sixth b...
ANNE QUATRANO - CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED EP 7
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chef Anne Quatrano is the Grande Dame of the culinary scene in Atlanta, where her restaurant empire ...
DAVID STANDRIDGE - CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED EP 6
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David Standridge, who just won the James Beard award as best chef in the northeast, honed his skills...
DAVID PAGE TALKS WITH CHEF STEPHANIE IZARD - CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 5
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The first woman to win Top Chef, who also won Iron Chef and was named James Beard best chef in the G...
DAN BARBER - CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED EP 4
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
He’s got the Michelin stars, he’s got the James Beard Awards, he’s been named by Time Magazine...
CHRISTINA NGUYEN - CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED EP 3
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fresh off her 2024 James beard Award as best chef in the Midwest, Christina Nguyen talks with David ...
Legendary restaurateur Drew Nieporent is David Page’s guest. CCU - EP 2
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Legendary restaurateur Drew Nieporent is David Page’s guest. The New York Times said he may be the...
Culinary legend Nancy Silverton is David Page’s very first guest. CCU - EP 1
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Winner of a Michelin star, and James Beard awards for Best Chef, Best Pastry Chef, and Best Restaura...
A sneak peek at our first episode
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A sneak peek at our first episode, dropping August 27th 2024 with legendary Los Angeles chef Nancy S...