Ashok Selvam on Ravenous and the Food Media Renaissance

About six weeks after winning the James Beard Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award, Ashok Selvam was laid off from Eater Chicago. He had been there for over a decade. He was the only full-time staff member. His fingerprints were on every single story, every headline, every post. And then his supervisor sent a message asking him to check his email.What happened next is one of the most genuinely exciting food media stories of the past year.Ashok Selvam is a co-founder of Ravenous, a worker-owned independent food and culture publication that launched May 1st, 2026, built by five journalists who collectively decided that the future of food media did not have to look like what they had just left. Alongside co-founders Jaya Saxena, Amy McCarthy, Courtney Smith, and Francis Dumlao, Ashok has spent the past year building something that sounds deceptively simple: a publication where the writers own the work, get paid fairly, write what they actually care about, and push each other toward better stories without a publisher filtering the results.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Ashok for one of the most wide-ranging and honest conversations about food media, journalism, and what it actually means to build something from scratch after a career-defining moment of change. From a South Indian household on the northwest side of Chicago where his physician parents cooked in creative and improvisational ways, to newspaper journalism at Syracuse in the era of paste-up and Xacto knives. From covering happy hour legislation and building chicken wing maps at Eater, to the morning of August 6th, 2025, when he went to the gym, logged in to check assignments, and got the message asking him to check his email.This is a conversation about identity, independence, what happens when your greatest asset is your flexibility and that flexibility is taken for granted, and how five journalists decided that the price of great journalism is a lot cheaper than going without it.In this episode, we cover:Growing up on the northwest side of Chicago with South Indian physician parents who cooked creatively and improvisationallyA dad who made his version of fried rice with basmati rice and ground beefA mom who made a mystery chicken marinated in yogurt and paprika that may have had Goan Portuguese originsThe comfort food outside the immigrant household: Carson's Ribs and his son who now calls it "the rib store"Deciding on newspaper journalism at Syracuse much to his parents' chagrin, including paste-up duties and Xacto knivesThe slow burn romance with food writing as a vehicle for covering Chicago and bringing people togetherBeing a six foot two left-handed Brown guy in Chicago food media and how standing out became an assetStarting as a freelancer at Eater Chicago, staying part-time just under the benefits threshold, and eventually becoming deputy city editorBeing the only full-time staff member at Eater Chicago while his fingerprints were on every single storyThe happy hour legislation story that opened his career and his relationship with sources like Bill Jacobs at PieceThe mandatory advertorial problem The James Beard Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award win and the Malort shot he took backstage in front of Padma LakshmiThe warning signs before August 6th: Big layoffs in 2024, being asked to cover Detroit and the Twin Cities, being told to feed the app, not write storiesThe morning of August 6th 2025: the gym, the log-in, the email, the Slack, the goodbyesWhy his son's reaction to the news was the thing he was least prepared forColleagues already plotting with a code name: Chomp Chicago, named after the fictional Eater stand-in from The BearThe Zoom meeting where Amy and Jaya expected Ashok to be the local journalism purist and were relieved when he was notThe five who committed: Ashok, Jaya, Amy, Courtney, and FrancesRavenous launching May 1st with a story in Defector about women-owned sports bars and a headline Ashok is particularly proud ofWhat Ravenous is not: no maps, no roundups, no Substack, no Eater 2.0What Ravenous is: essayists, reporters, food culture writers who push each other toward better and deeper storiesFrances's marketing and social media expertise and why that skill is as important as any editorial voiceBlue Sky as a surprisingly strong platform for their audienceThe subscriber and sponsorship model, what funds actually go toward, and why libel insurance is on the listThe Vatican restaurant story: two Chicago restaurant owners working with Pope Leo to open outside Vatican CityThe bagels and private equity story, the cheese enchilada ode, the Japanese baseball sushi push popThe difference between wearing the editorial hat and the sales hat and knowing when to switchErick Williams of Virtue reminding Ashok he needs to be better at promoting himselfThe one-year fundraising campaign and what it means to ask for support without apologyAdvice for founders: you cannot compartmentalize when you are building something, and you always have to be a salesperson no matter whatThe Ravenous shirts his son wore to the Obama Center and why that moment meant everythingFind Ashok and Ravenous:Website: weareravenous.com (subscribe free or paid, Sunday and Wednesday newsletters, stories Tuesdays and Thursdays)Instagram: @feedravenousLinkedIn: RavenousAshok on Instagram: @shokdieselEmail: [email protected] to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! 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