Culinary Characters Unlocked

Chef Melissa Perello on winning a Michelin star, then walking away from fine dining to cook HER way

Mesmerized by the chefs see saw on TV, chef Melissa Perello fell in love with cooking as a child. Her mom still talks about the leg of lamb she made from a cooking show r

Chefs Jack Gingrich and Chris Weber on taking a legendary farm-to-table restaurant into the future.

Their Washington state restaurant boasts of doing farm to table since 1986 and is credited with helping define Pacific Northwest Cuisine. It even has its own farm, and wh

Chef Ana Sortun on introducing Americans to the wonders of Turkish cooking—and no, it isn’t the same as Greek

Chef Ana Sortun knew as a teenager that she wanted to cook. At 16 she decided to move to France for culinary school. It changed her life. But so did another trip many yea

Chef Spike Gjerde on making less money to feed us better, and why farm to table is “more or less dead”

James Beard Award winning chef and restaurateur Spike Gjerde has totally re-thought the way restaurants ought to be feeding us. He’s obsessed with doing things his way, b

Chefs Kari Lauritzen and Sonya Sanford on helping Americans turn cooking from a chore to a pleasure

Kari Lauritzen and Sonya Sanford met and became best friends when both were private chefs in Los Angeles. Now they are coaxing non-cooks into the kitchen and teaching hom

Chef Travis Herbert on the bold flavors that earned him a James Beard finalist nomination, and the culinary inspiration of his Montana childhood

Chef Travis Herbert began cooking with his grandmother as a child, but it was sharing a chairlift with a chef at a Utah ski resort that got him into the business. Now he’

Chef Star Maye on the path from prison to champion on Chopped

Chef Star Maye has had a remarkable rise through the culinary world. Born in a small Alabama town, this self-described “black, queer single mother” went from a small Alab

Chef Andrew Black on the journey from his grandmother’s kitchen in Jamaica, to the Ritz in Paris, to winning a James Beard award in Oklahoma City

Chef Andrew Black got his first cooking job in his native Jamaica in his teens. That began a stellar career that took him to the Ritz in Paris and the Peabody in Memphis.

Chef Renee Erickson built a restaurant empire from the bounty of the Pacific Northwest

As a child, Chef Renee Erickson would go salmon fishing with her father. And fruits and vegetables came from the family garden. She’s taken that grounding in the fabulous

Chef Zak Baker on cooking in Milwaukee the way they really do in Italy

Chef Zak Baker cooks what he calls Midwest Italian and it's unlike anything most folks have ever had before. It began when he first went to Italy and was thrilled by the

Chef Kathy Fang on innovating Chinese cuisine and keeping a family legacy alive

Chef Kathy Fang pretty grew up in her parents’ legendary San Francisco Chinese restaurant, House of Nanking. She tried a career in business but couldn’t escape the pull o

Chef Zach Midgett on why he left the legendary French Laundry to cook in Lincoln, Nebraska

When he was in his teens, Zach Midgett found a refuge from problems at home by working in a suburban Philadelphia restaurant. He started as a dishwasher, fell in love wit

BONUS EPISODE—2026 James Beard Award Winning Chefs Sarah Thompson, Dave Baren, and Nok Suntaranon

On this special bonus episode, we revisit great conversations with three chefs who just won James Beard awards. Nok Suntaranon’s Thai restaurant Kalaya won 2026 Outstandi

Chef Lonie Murdock on reimagining Caribbean cooking with dishes like Oxtail Wagyu and feeding the Obamas

Chef Lonie Murdock learned to cook from her Jamaican grandmother. After years in other professions, she opened a Caribbean popup in Toronto, turned it into a highly succe

Foraging chef /owner David Jackman of a Bon Appétit 2025 Best New Restaurant

Canadian chef David Jackman faced hurdle after hurdle getting to cook in the U.S., from being unable to afford culinary school to problems getting a visa that would allow

Chef Ellie Parker on winning Hell’s Kitchen and her new job as an Executive Chef for Gordon Ramsey

Chef Ellie Parker grew up in Las Vegas where she’s had a meteoric culinary career—cooking on the strip at age 17, helping Martha Stewart open her first restaurant, Execut

Chef Matthew Timoszyk on his year-long quest to cook dishes from almost every country on earth

Chef Matthew Timoszyk first encountered global flavors while serving in the Air Force. He went on to cook in restaurants and as a personal chef before beginning a massive

Chef Christina Theofilos on opening a Greek restaurant and bakery with no culinary background at all and then being singled out for a Michelin Guide award

Christina Theofilos was raised in a Greek-American family in Tampa, learning to cook Greek specialties from her mother and her yiayia (Greek for grandmother). After gradu

Double Episode – Third generation owner Dino Figaretti on his James Beard award winning Italian restaurant and importer Nate Bradley answers every question about olive oil

Dino Figaretti’s nearly 80-year-old Italian restaurant in West Virginia was born from his great grandmother’s homemade pasta sauce. Now it’s been named a 2026 James Beard

Husband and wife Johnny and Kasie Curiel on building a Michelin-star-winning restaurant empire in the blink of an eye

Johnny and Kasie Curiel met working in the restaurant business, got married, and opened a restaurant of their own. Then, they quickly began opening a series of restaurant