The Perfect Bite

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! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Their grandfather worked at his Polish deli until he was 87. Their uncle is 75 and still running it. Nobody in the family told them the business was a good idea. And that didn’t stop Vanessa and Casey White from building one of the most beloved Polish American food brands in the country.Vanessa and Casey White are the co-founders of Jaju Pierogi, a Polish American frozen pierogi brand they started in 2016 from their grandfather's handwritten deli recipes, scaled through New England farmers markets and brewery pop-ups on $70 Amazon griddles, grew through a COVID meal kit delivery service that hit 2,000 orders in six weeks, and have now brought to Whole Foods nationwide, Fresh Market, and upcoming Target locations in the Midwest. For those who didn’t grow up having these delish bites, pierogi are Polish dumplings. Jaju is their grandfather's name in Polish. His legacy lives on in every bag.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Vanessa and Casey for one of the most honest, funny, and genuinely moving CPG founder conversations The Perfect Bite has ever had. From growing up on a boarding school campus in Western Massachusetts eating endless buffets while their mom's kielbasa was the most requested dish at every gathering, to scaling a frozen food business without a single dollar of outside funding, to walking away from Shark Tank rather than take a deal that did not work for them. From the pineapple and cheese pierogi that their grandfather's deli loved but the market did not, to the gluten-free pierogi and the skillet meal coming next, this is a conversation about legacy, grit, community, and what it actually looks like to build something real over ten years.In this episode, we cover:Growing up Polish-Irish American on a boarding school campus in Western Massachusetts where their parents were not particularly great cooksA mom whose kielbasa was the most requested dish at every summer gathering on the CapeA grandfather who worked at his Polish deli until he was 87 and whose handwritten recipes launched an entire companyGoing to their grandfather's store to get those recipes and discovering that a handful of salt means something very different when the hand belongs to your grandfatherWorking in the deli from middle school on Saturdays where Vanessa got blamed for every mistakeCasey at Bentley studying business while Vanessa studied Italian and French The gap in the Boston pierogi market that kicked everything offStarting on a kitchen table scaling 500-pierogi recipe trial and errors down to 40 and handing them to friends in Ziploc bagsThe deli in Beverly, Massachusetts that let them rent the space on Sundays as a kitchenSelling out 40 boxes of pierogi in an hour at their first farmers market and writing down everyone's name and address to hand deliver the restBuilding the brand at New England breweries on two four-foot tables and $70 Amazon griddlesCOVID: a Google Form for pierogi meal kit delivery that went from seven expected orders to 275 by Tuesday morning and 2,000 deliveries over six weeksPurchase orders quadrupling overnight as people stocked their freezers during lockdownGoing national at Whole Foods and building out regional distribution before ever touching outside fundingAppearing on Shark Tank: the application process, the boot camp prep, pitching at 5:30 PM after being there since 11 AM, and walking away without a dealMr. Wonderful saying potstickers and pierogi are the same and why that upset everyoneThe ongoing challenge of educating a national audience about pierogi while competing with the surge in Asian frozen food optionsUnit economics, the reality of retailer fees and slotting costs, and why sustainable beats unicornThe Mrs. T's comparison: $60 million in annual sales and 70 years in business is a completely valid version of successThe skillet meal coming next: pierogi, kielbasa rounds, and sauteed onions in one bagGluten-free pierogi now availableLaunching in 298 Target locations in the MidwestVanessa turning 40 and planning a pierogi party trip to Berlin with friends from their communityCasey's pride: hearing "Jaju" used as shorthand, knowing his grandfather's legacy lives onAdvice for founders: test the concept while keeping your day job, and understand you will mop the floorsFind Vanessa, Casey, and Jaju Pierogi:Website: jajupierogi.comInstagram, TikTok, and Facebook: @jajupierogiAvailable at Whole Foods nationwide, Fresh Market, Big Y, New Seasons, PCC, Yokes, New Leaf, Lazy Acres, Harmons, and many more co-ops and regional storesComing soon: 298 Target locations in the MidwestMerch available on the websiteSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Just because a dish is well executed does not mean it has to feel stuffy. And just because you have culinary school training and a Michelin-starred kitchen on your resume does not mean you cannot dedicate your career to making dining the most fun part of someone's day. That is exactly what Avishar Barua is doing in Columbus, Ohio. And Columbus has never tasted better.Avishar Barua is a two-time James Beard Award semifinalist and the founder of Agni and Joya's, the two Columbus restaurants that make up Serious Fun, his restaurant group built around one beautiful and completely genuine philosophy: that serious hospitality and joyful dining are not opposites. They are the point. Agni is a tasting menu experience in the Brewery District where you can find a happy meal course and keeps candy at the bar. Joya's is a fast casual spot in Old Worthington where the chicken sandwich is messy and magnificent. Both feel like home. That is entirely on purpose.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Avishar for one of the most wide-ranging and genuinely joyful conversations The Perfect Bite has ever had. From a Bengali American childhood in Columbus where he survived entirely on candy and his mom's strategically disguised rice balls, to a pre-med track at Ohio State that gave way to an organic chemistry A and a culinary epiphany. From a stage at Mission Chinese Food under Danny Bowien where he bought salt and vinegar chips for a dish and thought he was being hazed, to an unpaid stage at WD-50 where he got his ass kicked daily and then got hired. From a legendary taco at Service Bar that landed him in Food and Wine and on Top Chef Season 18, to the quiet, patient decade of building something in Columbus that honors the city, its immigrant restaurants, and its people, rather than trying to be New York.Columbus is Columbus. That is his whole philosophy. And it is more than enough.In this episode, we cover:Growing up Bengali American in Columbus surviving on candy, junk food, and his mom's strategically disguised rice ballsThe first memory of food he actually loved: Chinese food and chow fun noodlesDiscovering cooking in college out of necessity: a foil pan, chopsticks as a roasting rack, and a library cookbookCombining his biology and psychology degrees into a way of thinking about food and peopleHis brother's restaurant Eight: his first kitchen, where mac and cheese was made with bechamel and pot roast was actually burgundy braised short ribThe Columbus State ACF chef apprenticeship that let him work and learn simultaneouslyThe Mission Street Food cookbook that inspired him to pack up and move to New YorkStaging at Mission Chinese Food under Danny Bowien: buying salt and vinegar chips for a dish and thinking he was being hazedMission Chinese Food getting shut down by the Department of Health Walking down Clinton Street and into WD-50, sitting at the bar alone, and getting a bonus dessert courseThe unpaid two week stage at WD-50 and getting hired despite not being the fastest or most technically precise cookBeing at WD-50 for their James Beard Award, the Gelinaz 10-year anniversary dinner, and their closureReturning to Columbus, joining Middle West Spirits and Service BarThe cheesy brisket crunch taco: a Taco Bell inspired dish made with paratha that landed in Food and Wine and got him on Top Chef Season 18His TED Talk about the tacosWhy he believes Columbus chefs who blame their city for poor staff are simply not doing their jobHonoring the strip mall restaurants he grew up going to: Mi Li, Quang, Main MoonThe philosophy behind Agni: a tasting menu that includes a happy meal course and keeps it funJoya's: a fast casual spot built around genuine hospitality in a space with a lot of seatsBengali adda: the culture of hospitality that informs how both restaurants treat their guestsWhat Serious Fun might do next: wholesale production, white labeling, more halal and pescetarian-friendly menu itemsBeing a James Beard Award semifinalist in both 2024 and 2025 and what that means for ColumbusAdvice for founders: good things take time, the worst decisions are the ones made under pressureFind Avishar, Agni, and Joya's:Agni: 716 South High Street, Brewery District, Columbus. Wednesday through Sunday 5 PM to 11 PM. Reservations recommended. Walk-in bar seating available.Joya's: 657 High Street, Old Worthington, Columbus. Open six days a week.Instagram: @avishar, @dineatagni and @eatatjoyasRestaurant group: Serious FunSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Some things feel like fate. Manny Ocasio was working at Zahav during a rare lunch service when Gina walked in looking for her friend. They barely spoke. Months later Gina walked into a bar and Manny was sitting there. Everything unfolded from that moment. And now they run one of Buffalo's most exciting new restaurants together, as partners in life and in business.Manny and Gina Ocasio are the executive chefs and partners of Mira, a Mediterranean restaurant that opened in Buffalo's in November 2025, built around the simplest and most beautiful philosophy: the best quality ingredients, the simplest preparation, and food that makes you feel like you are sitting by sparkling Mediterranean water even when there are two feet of snow outside.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Manny and Gina to chat everything from Gina's Italian American New Jersey childhood where her mom made everything from scratch including baby food, to Manny's Buffalo upbringing where both parents worked in restaurants and he resisted the family path right up until the moment he started washing dishes at 15 and never looked back. From Gina's years at CIA and Del Posto and Sqirl in Los Angeles, to Manny's formative time at Manresa at 17 years old. From meeting at Zahav, to moving to Buffalo during COVID, to building Mira around a Josper grill from Spain, hand-made culurgiones, and a kitchen crew that has been there since day one.This is a conversation about what it looks like when two people decide to do life together. Completely.In this episode, we cover:Gina growing up in a New Jersey Italian American household where her mom made everything from scratch including her baby foodManny growing up in Buffalo with a dad who was a chef and a mom who was a server, resisting the restaurant world right up until the moment he started washing dishes at 15Gina naturally gravitating toward pastry and baking from her mom's kitchenManny drawn to savory cooking for the same reason he struggled in school: learning with your hands, working through mistakes, being self-taughtManny obsessing over the Manresa cookbook and the Mind of a Chef episode featuring David Kinch, sending weekly emails to the restaurant until he got a responseLeaving Buffalo at 17 for a position at Manresa: the first time really traveling alone, figuring out logistics in Los Gatos, and the surreal experience of cooking in a kitchen he had only ever seen in videosGina's CIA experience in baking and pastry: the Apple Pie Bakery, cooking for the whole school, and the pressure that set the bar for everything that followedGina at Del Posto for four years before a Brooks Headley event in LA led her to eat at Sqirl and change the entire trajectory of her careerWhat Sqirl taught Gina: freedom with baking, whole grains, California produce, letting go of some rulesWhat California permanently installed in both of them: a philosophy of seasonality, local sourcing, and not doing much to a beautiful ingredientWhat they miss most about California: Manny the timing and length of the seasons, Gina a specific persimmon that a friend brought to SqirlMoving back to the East Coast: Gina to open a restaurant in Philly, Manny to Zahav and Jean-GeorgesGina recognized as Best Pastry Chef by Philadelphia MagazineZahav winning Outstanding Restaurant the year Manny was thereMeeting at Zahav during a rare lunch service: Gina looking for her friend, Manny at the door, and months later reuniting at a barMoving to Buffalo during COVID and the timing that made it all click: Manny's friend leaving the chef position at Grange Restaurant Group, a pastry job opening for GinaBusiness partners Caryn Dujanovich and Brad Rowell: the owners of Grange Restaurant Group who trusted a 23-year-old Manny to run their kitchen and eventually became co-founders of MiraThe Mira name: born from the Spanish kitchen word that means look but means everything, the universal kitchen version of jawnThe restaurant Mira took over: an iconic Buffalo location that operated for over 40 years that Manny grew up going to for breakfastThe Josper grill from Spain: the first thing they bought and the piece of equipment everything at Mira is built aroundSignature dishes: beef tartare, culurgiones (Sardinian potato dumplings in fresh tomato sauce), and anything from the Josper grillThe team that has been there since day one and the culture they are buildingBuffalo in summer: the busy patio season where nobody leaves because the summers are so shortStaying even-keeled and working through the daily crises of restaurant ownershipWhy Buffalo deserves to be on the food travel list: the Bills, Niagara Falls, proximity to Toronto, and a city that is genuinely finding its own identityA cookbook they keep talking about putting in real food they are proud ofAdvice for founders: surround yourself with people who share your vision, and put yourself in situations for someone else before you do it for yourselfFind Manny, Gina, and Mira:Address: 1081 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New YorkWebsite: mirabuffalo.comInstagram: @mirabuffaloSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

She spent six years evaluating CPG founders from the other side of the table, sitting in boardrooms at TRUFF and Erewhon-backing growth firms while secretly thinking she would never be the one to jump. And then she ate one too many chocolate flavored protein bars at midnight in a finance office and finally said enough.Ash Baxter is the founder of Takeaways, a savory puffed protein snack bar that she spent two and a half years developing, launched for pre-order on June 10th, started shipping June 24th, and has already sold 45,000 bars in its first month. She is a former investor at Stripes and Sky Partners, a Stanford D1 rower who had to make weight as a coxswain and learned the protein to calorie ratio at age 13 from her mom's nutrition plan, and the person who genuinely cannot carry on without a tin of Maldon salt in her bag.The concept behind Takeaways is elegant: Cheese is the savory chocolate. The flavors are indulgent, the macros are table stakes, and the brand is built around joy rather than nutrition—12 grams of protein, 120 calories, three grams of fiber, and characters called Slice Slice Baby, You Cheddar Believe It, and Pepper Jacked who all live in Takeaways Town.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Ash for a genuinely fun and insightful conversation about what it looks like when a CPG investor becomes a CPG founder, including the concept study that showed 85% of protein bar consumers would buy Takeaways, the food scientist who told her "cheese is the savory chocolate," her fiancé's mom who turned out to be the real product development genius, and the private equity firm in Chicago that has placed three orders in one month without knowing they are Takeaways' best customer so far.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in San Francisco in a food and wine obsessed family whose road trips were planned entirely around eatingA first job bio that listed an Acme sourdough baguette and an oaky chardonnay as favorite foodsBecoming a coxswain at age 12 for Marin Rowing after a chance encounter with her sister's boyfriendLearning the protein to calorie ratio at age 13 from her mom's nutrition plan and carrying that philosophy ever sinceThe protein bar addiction that started at boarding school in New Hampshire when she lost her "nutritionist" momStanford, D1 rowing, and a Stanford Women in Business club that introduced her to StripesSix years as a CPG investor at Stripes and Sky Partners: fashion, beauty, food, and beverageBeing on the board of TRUFF and learning the most important lesson in CPG: amazing product first, alwaysHow TRUFF's founders built an Instagram following before they built a productMeeting mentor Mark Ramadan, founder of Sir Kensington's and former CEO of Hu Chocolate, through the TRUFF boardWorking crazy finance hours and eating five chocolate protein bars a day until she could not take it anymoreThe aha moment: TRUFF in cottage cheese was getting out of hand so she started tinkering in the kitchenHer fiancé's mother, an incredible chef and baker, iterating on recipes from Washington state while Ash was in BostonWhy she brought in food scientist Barb Stuckey and gave her life savings to the food science teamThe moment Barb told her "cheese is the savory chocolate" and everything clickedA concept study showing 85% of protein bar consumers would buy Takeaways and 70% would not change their sweet bar behaviorWhy Takeaways says "puffed snack bar" not "protein bar" on the packagingLaunching nut-free and why that matters for schools, offices, and familiesCharacters: Slice Slice Baby, You Cheddar Believe It, and Pepper Jacked, all residents of Takeaways Town45,000 bars sold in the first month, number one in bars and jerky at Pop Up Grocer since July 10thGoing into Foxtrot locations and Oakville Grocery in the Bay AreaA private equity firm in Chicago placing three orders in one month as their best customerInvestors: BFG (Boulder Food Group) and Rocana Venture PartnersFirst hire Mackenzie Lukas, formerly of Hormble, joining as a game changerWhy she raised before going to market: To debate the thesis rather than prove the numbersAdvice for founders: Be obsessed with your own product and be your biggest evangelistFind Ash and Takeaways:Website: eattakeaways.comInstagram, TikTok, and social: @eattakeawaysAvailable to purchase online and at select retailers including Pop Up Grocer and FoxtrotSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Kingo Yamanashi bought his first bluefin tuna for a dollar from a recreational fisherman. He did not have a refrigerated van. He did not speak English. He did not know how to break down a tuna or even have a scale to weigh it. He just put it in a van with some ice, drove it back to New York, and let the chefs cut whatever they wanted while he calculated the weight by feel.That was 1977. Today, Yama Seafood is the purveyor behind the seafood programs at Le Bernardin, Masa, and more of the most celebrated restaurants in the world.Nobu Yamanashi is the president of Yama Seafood, the New Jersey based Japanese seafood company his father built over nearly 50 years. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Nobu for a conversation that covers the full arc of a remarkable family legacy: from a father who chased bluefin tuna migration patterns up and down the Northeast coast and taught fishermen how to bleed their catch properly so he could pay them more, to a son who started as a warehouse worker cleaning drains and re-icing salmon before he ever touched a spreadsheet. And then modernized the entire operation with an ERP system he implemented in February 2020, moments before the pandemic hit.This is a conversation about legacy, reinvention, and what it means to carry a family business into its next generation without losing the soul of what made it extraordinary in the first place.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in New Jersey in a fully Japanese household where Nobu did not speak English until age four or fiveBento boxes in a 1980s lunchroom when bento boxes were decidedly not coolA father who brought home kilos of gifted caviar and ate it on crackers with his kids without caring about the priceWorking at Quiznos in high school for six dollars an hour and eating meatball sandwiches made from the end piecesA financial media startup that did not work out, followed by corporate roles at Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce that accidentally taught him everything about the ultra-luxury marketWhat selling Rolls-Royces taught him about access, scarcity, and demand that he still applies every day at Yama SeafoodJoining the family business as a warehouse worker: cleaning drains, picking and packing, re-icing salmon, going on deliveriesThe pen and paper fax machine order system that required seven or eight people an hour of administrative prep every single dayImplementing an ERP system in February 2020, one month before the pandemic, and why that decision may have saved the companyCOVID: going from 1,000 plus orders a week to 50, turning a million dollars of fresh seafood into community fish boxes sold below cost just to generate cashBuilding Yama Seafood's direct to consumer business from a Squarespace website he made himself during the pandemic55% repeat customers and a community of home sushi enthusiasts who have become genuine brand advocatesHow his father pioneered bringing year-round bluefin tuna to New York by flying fish in from Hawaii to close the seasonal gapWhy Nobu made the decision to eat tariff costs rather than pass them to restaurant partners during the most recent economic pressureThe leadership turning point during COVID when he asked his team to take pay cuts to stay open and serve the restaurants that needed themBeing a trained tuna carver and producing private events for Rolls-Royce and Moët HennessyPlans for a new warehouse with a test kitchen, a speakeasy omakase counter, and a destination for chefs and guestsLearning to work on the business rather than in it: a seven year journey to trusting his teamTaking his daughters to Japan for the first time to connect them with the family and culture that built everythingAdvice for founders: keep fighting, roll with the punches, and never stop improvingFind Nobu and Yama Seafood:Website: yamaseafood.comE-commerce: shop.yamaseafood.comInstagram: @yamaseafoodLinkedIn: Nobu Yamanashi (daily posts)Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

She didn't want to move to Las Vegas. She moved anyway for a restaurant that was supposed to open March 16th, 2020. And then she stayed, kept pushing through two years of pandemic uncertainty, and built something so extraordinary that just the other month she became the 2026 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: Southwest, the first time Las Vegas had been recognized on the James Beard platform in 15 years.Chef Sarah Thompson is the executive chef of Casa Playa at Wynn Las Vegas, a coastal Mexican restaurant she opened in September 2021, now approaching its fifth anniversary. She is also the 2026 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: Southwest, the first time Las Vegas has been recognized on the James Beard platform in 15 years. And host Sarah Perkins met her on the red carpet a few weeks before this conversation, already knowing she was talking to someone extraordinary!In this episode, Sarah tells the whole story. From a mom who has organized every Bon Appétit magazine from 1989 to 2022 by year in the basement, to a decisive 17-year-old who knew exactly what she wanted and went straight to the Culinary Institute of America right out of high school. From learning the French brigade system at school while sneaking into New York City on weekends to eat at Eleven Madison Park and Momofuku Ssam Bar, to learning to break down fish at Marea, to having her entire creative understanding of cooking transformed by Wylie Dufresne at Alder, to the turning point of her entire career working under Daniela Soto-Innes at Cosme, where she knew nothing about Mexican food and had her palate completely transformed.And then a phone call to come to Las Vegas for a restaurant slated to open March 16th, 2020, which tells you everything you need to know about what happened next.Casa Playa is Sarah's love letter to coastal Mexico, built in the Nevada desert, sourcing corn from Masienda and mushrooms from a hydroponic farm in Las Vegas, and employing a kitchen where four of six chefs are women. It is also a restaurant that is about to add a tasting counter with eight to ten seats and two seatings per night, and a chef who has no intention of slowing down.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in the suburbs of Boston with a mom who collected every Bon Appétit magazine from 1989 to 2022 and organized them by yearFamily dinners every night and discovering that not everyone did thisGoing straight to CIA out of high school and spending weekend trips eating at Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern, and Momofuku Ssam BarLearning to be a line cook at Marea under Amador Acosta and working the fish roast station for a yearWylie Dufresne at Alder teaching her to think about food completely differently and use parts of her brain she never knew she hadWalking into Cosme knowing nothing about Mexican food and having her entire palate transformedThe flavors, the community, the communal feeling of Mexican cuisine and why it always brought her backTraveling to Mexico City, Oaxaca, and the Yucatan during her Cosme yearsMasienda: working with them for 15 years since Cosme was their very first restaurant customerMoving to Las Vegas to open Ilio with Daniela Soto-Innes and Enrique Olvera, slated to open March 16th, 2020Wynn Las Vegas asking her to stay and build her own coastal Mexican restaurant from a blank briefCasa Playa opening September 2021 and approaching its fifth anniversaryBuilding a kitchen where four of six chefs are women and more than 50% of the team is femaleWhy female cooks and leaders gravitated to Casa Playa without her actively seeking itBeing the only female executive chef at Wynn Las Vegas when she arrived, now one of fourThe Women's Hospitality Initiative in Las Vegas: from 40 people to 90 to 100 across two annual eventsSourcing: corn from Masienda in Mexico, mushrooms from Desert Moon hydroponic farm in Las Vegas, produce from Santa Monica Farmer's MarketMaking all tortillas, tostadas, and tamales in-house from heirloom cornThe Wynn Las Vegas's warehouse, lobster tanks, and the infrastructure that supports a property of this scaleGoing from shame about living in Las Vegas to fierce pride in what is being built thereWorking on a tasting counter: eight to ten seats, two seatings, showcasing masa and seafood in a more elevated formatThe 2026 James Beard Best Chef: Southwest win and what it means for her young team and the city of Las VegasUpcoming: Chef's Table Festival in Park City August 13 through 16 and Wynn Revelry by Chef's Table September 18 through 20Advice for founders: do not give up, take risks, and do not let the fear of the unknown stop youFind Sarah and Casa Playa:Instagram: @sarahcthompson_ and @casaplaya.wynnCasa Playa at Wynn Las Vegas: wynnlasvegas.com/dining/fine-dining/casa-playaChef's Table Festival: Park City, August 13 through 16Wynn Revelry by Chef's Table: September 18 through 20Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Some people spend their careers looking for the right place. Bob Bennett found his 22 years ago and never looked back.Bob Bennett is the head chef of Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan, one of the most beloved and respected restaurant institutions in the Midwest. He started as a line cook before The Roadhouse even opened its doors, helped paint the outside of the building that summer, survived a soft opening of 300 people with one day of training, and has been there every day since. What keeps him? The team, the culture, the guests, the sourcing obsession, the philosophy that food and hospitality can change people's lives, and a co-founder who still walks through the restaurant almost every single day in year 45 of the business.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Bob for a conversation that covers everything from mac and cheese out of a box in the mid-80s to sourcing whole hogs from a farmer 30 minutes away in Milan, Michigan. From studying sandwich menus instead of attending psychology classes at Eastern Michigan, to sitting in front of US senators explaining that without the Restaurant Revitalization Fund there would be no more sandwiches for them. From the open book management philosophy that makes Zingerman's feel genuinely different, to the no drama culture that keeps the average Roadhouse staff tenure at eight or nine years in an industry known for burnout and turnover.This is a conversation about what happens when a business genuinely means what it says about people first, and what 22 years of that philosophy actually looks like from the inside.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in the mid-80s with mac and cheese, Hamburger Helper, and microwave cookbooks alongside family restaurant outings that introduced him to mussels and good seafoodThe importance of people at the table more than the food itself, including 20 person family gatherings around an island bar eating KFCStarting at Mongolian Barbecue with four friends around a circular grill for tips and frozen soup cubesStudying psychology at Siena Heights, Eastern Michigan, and community college while working in restaurants and reading sandwich menus in classA friend bringing him to stage at Zingerman's Deli and immediately falling for the energy of the lineThe Roadhouse opening managed by Alex Young and how Bob got in the doorKnowing only three of five French mother sauces in his interview and still getting the jobHelping paint the outside of the Roadhouse building on scaffolding that summer before it openedA "soft" opening of 300 people with one day of training on September 15thHow the Roadhouse menu has evolved while holding true to its American Southern coreSourcing whole hogs from Neil Bastian in Milan, Michigan, 30 minutes away, with 150 hogs raised a yearDahardi sourcing Tellicherry black pepper directly from farmers in IndiaThe open book management philosophy: sharing all numbers with all staff so everyone has the full pictureThe no drama culture: treating each other with kindergarten rules and having human conversationsAverage Roadhouse staff tenure of eight to nine years in an industry known for 90 day churnMaria Mendez: a server who was there on day one and is still there many years laterAri Weinzweig, co-founder of Zingerman's, still walking through the Roadhouse almost every day in year 45ZingTrain: the Zingerman's leadership and management training program that has spread nationwideThe Independent Restaurant Coalition: from pandemic Zoom calls with senators to fly-ins on Capitol HillWhy the independent restaurant industry is a bipartisan community resource that employs the second or third most people in the USThe spinning wheel of challenges facing independent restaurants: inflation, mergers, immigration policy, and rising ingredient costsSouthern Foodways Alliance symposium as an annual source of inspiration outside the buildingA ridiculous cookbook collection as a primary learning toolAnn Arbor as an emerging food destination with Miss Kim, Echelon, Knight Steakhouse, and moreWhat Bob is most proud of: the people in his kitchen every single dayAn upcoming No Kid Hungry charity dinner in July and farm dinners in Ann ArborAdvice for founders: ask for help, because the results are so much grander than struggling through aloneFind Bob and Zingerman's Roadhouse + Deli:Instagram: @chef.bob.bennett, @zingermansroadhouse, @zingermansdeliFacebook: Bob BennettZingerman's Roadhouse: zingermansroadhouse.comZingerman's Deli: zingermansdeli.comSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Because life is short. That is what BLiS stands for. And after 23 years of bourbon barrel aged maple syrup, wild Great Lakes caviar, smoked soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegars, and tamari built from a single forager's obsession with wild flavor and zero waste, it is hard to argue with the philosophy.Chef Steve Stallard and Sarah Sherman are the co-owners of BLiS Gourmet, a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based artisan pantry brand that started with a bucket of live brook trout, a handful of barrels sourced from a trip to Kentucky, and a conviction that the most extraordinary flavors in the world are hiding in nature and in the bottom of a good bourbon barrel.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Steve and Sarah for a conversation that is as layered and complex as a BLiS product itself. From Steve's childhood garden where he learned what a perfectly ripe heirloom tomato actually tastes like, to washing dishes at 14 while fishing and hunting everything he could find, to watching Grant Achatz walk through his kitchen at 17 years old and knowing immediately he was watching a future superstar. From Sarah's flight from pilot training to nursing school to bartending, and the moment she shoved her foot in the door at BLiS and never looked back. And from a bucket of brook trout roe that started an entire Great Lakes caviar program, to bourbon barrels reused so many times they eventually end up as planters for petunias.This is a story about respecting what nature gives you, building a business around the life you want to live, and finding that the most loyal customers in the world are the ones who have tasted the difference and can never go back.In this episode, we cover:Steve's childhood in an organic garden his dad kept expanding with "cheap child labor"Sarah's childhood with PBS, Julia Child, open fire camping cooking, and a dad who snuck something spicy into every recipeSteve washing dishes at 14, hunting and fishing, and a Lithuanian group at a convention center who fed him smoked eel and blood sausage and changed his palate foreverThe moment at a Dow Chemical club kitchen where a bucket of live brook trout led to Steve teaching himself to cure roeDriving to Kentucky, knocking on distillery doors, and putting $3,000 worth of maple syrup in a bourbon barrel to start it allHow the barrels get reused: syrup, then vinegar, then fish sauce, then tamari, then beer aging, then cut in half as garden plantersSarah meeting Steve at wine dinners through a mutual restaurant connection, bonding over mushroom hunting, and shoving her foot in the BLiS door 15 years agoWorking together for over two decades: the sibling dynamic, the chair kick signal, and "don't sink the ship"BLiS flagship products: bourbon barrel aged maple syrup and wild Great Lakes roeWild char roe versus wild steelhead roe: the flavor profiles, the colors, and why they sell theirs frozen for maximum freshnessGrant Achatz at 17 years old in Steve's program kitchen: knowing he was watching a superstar before anyone else didHow to actually order BLiS caviar: call them directly for availability and shipping coordination for maximum freshnessNine years working with the culinary arts program at Lakeland Correctional Facility and the James Beard Award winning documentary about Coldwater KitchenThree Specialty Food Association Fancy Food Show gold awards, including the Colicchio AwardBrand refresh driven by glass bottle availability and keeping prices accessibleNew: automated bottling and labeling equipment that will allow BLiS to co-pack small batch runs for early stage CPG foundersWhat is coming next: private label services and a potential new caviar SKU in October or NovemberMichigan as a food destination: the Great Lakes bounty, Detroit's resurgence, and the first American Culinary Federation Conference coming to Grand RapidsWhat they are most proud of: creating careers, mentoring people, and the relationships that go far deeper than the productsFind BLiS Gourmet:Website: blisgourmet.comInstagram and Facebook: @blisgourmetTo order caviar: Call directly for availability and shipping coordinationSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Some restaurants feel like places. Via Carota feels like a person. Warm, unhurried, deeply intelligent, and completely unconcerned with trends. That’s not an accident. It is the direct result of two women who have spent decades building exactly the places they wanted to eat in, and refusing to compromise on a single detail along the way.Rita Sodi and Jody Williams are the co-owners of I Sodi, Via Carota, Buvette, Bar Pisellino, Commerce Inn, Officina 1397, and Officina del Bere, among the most beloved and respected restaurant and hospitality concepts in New York City. Rita came from Florence via a career in fashion and denim, with a Tuscan childhood where her mother cooked everything from the garden and nothing arrived out of season. Jody came from California via a “fend for yourself” household, a hotel steward job she did not fully understand when she applied for it, and nearly six years cooking in Italy, three in Reggio Emilia and three in Rome.They met over asparagus. They fell in love and went into business because the only way to see each other was to open a place together. And they have been building community and their lives ever since.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Rita and Jody for a conversation as rich and layered as their famous green salad. They talk about the Tuscan food rituals that shaped Rita's entire philosophy, the Diana Vreeland quote that guided Jody's early career ("The eye must travel"), the eight tables at I Sodi whose menu has barely changed in 18 years, and what it means to ask yourself "How do we feel?" before every single business decision.They also share exclusive details about fire roasted coffee coming from outside Florence in September, a new patisserie and forno expanding Bar Pisellino, and their new Via Carota sparkling cocktail line. And they share what it means to get old with your customers, including a second generation guest who used to come to the bar as a boy with his mother.In this episode, we cover:Rita growing up in Tuscany with a mother who fed the family from the garden every single dayJody growing up in a single mom California household, fighting over fudge, and cooking her London broil on a hibachi as a kidRita's career in fashion and denim in Florence: the Big E vintage Levi's, the passion, and the pivotJody knocking on a hotel door in San Francisco and asking what a steward job actually wasJody's six years in Italy: three in Reggio Emilia, three in Rome, and falling completely in loveDiana Vreeland's "the eye must travel" and how travel shaped both of their careers and palatesHow Buvette on Grove Street started as a place Jody could sustain herself creatively with big ideas and modest meansRita opening I Sodi with eight tables and a menu that has barely changed in 18 yearsMeeting over asparagus and realizing they were going to do life together, restaurants includedVia Carota, the “green monster” salad, and building a place where they wanted to eatHow they ask "How do we feel?" before every single creative and business decisionBar Pisellino: opening with no bar stools, teaching themselves mixology, traveling the world to learnVia Carota Craft Cocktails: bottling negronis and sparkling cosmos so anyone can have their quality anywhereOfficina del Bere: the bottle shop and the Italian art of drinkingOfficina 1397: named after the year the Renaissance began and what that means to themExclusive: fire roasted wood coffee from outside Florence coming in SeptemberExclusive: a new patisserie and forno expanding Bar Pisellino with bomboloni, biscotti, and savory itemsGetting old with their customers: a second generation guest who used to come as a boyWhy they never plan, never follow trends, and always figure it out as they goWhat they are most proud of: their relationship, the restaurants, and becoming part of people's livesTheir advice for founders: be open to where opportunities take you and just go for itFind Rita, Jody, and their concepts:Via Carota: @viacarota | viacarota.comI Sodi: @isodinyc | isodinyc.comBuvette: @buvettenyc | ilovebuvette.comBar Pisellino: @barpisellino | barpisellino.comVia Carota Craft Cocktails: available online (drinkviacarota.com) and at select retailersCommerce Inn: @commerceinn | thecommerceinn.comOfficina 1397Officina del BereSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

You can taste the love someone puts into their cooking. And the opposite is true too.Norman Fenton is the Michelin starred, James Beard nominated chef and co-owner of Cariño, a modern Mexican restaurant in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood that is, in every sense, a love letter. A love letter to his wife Karina and their sons. A love letter to her family in Quintana Roo. A love letter to Mexican cuisine, culture, and the Latino community that has shaped his entire career and life.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Norman for a conversation that traces an extraordinary arc: From a 14 year old in Detroit cooking purely for a paycheck, to a transformative scallop dish that revealed food could be art, to the demanding kitchens of Alinea Group and five and a half intense years at Schwa under Michael Carlson, to a spontaneous decision to drive his car from Chicago to Tulum, Mexico rather than fly it abroad, which changed the entire trajectory of his life.That decision led him to WILD, to his now wife Karina, to a years long immigration process he describes candidly and emotionally, and ultimately to Cariño in Chicago, where nearly every single object inside the restaurant, from the chandelier to the place mats, was handmade by artisans Norman personally knows and has visited in Mexico. Nothing in the restaurant was ordered. Everything was sourced directly, with intention, and with the explicit goal of putting money directly into the hands of the families who made it.Norman also opens up about Cariño's ongoing commitment to Latinos Progresando, a Chicago nonprofit focused on immigration support for the Latino community, through their monthly Tacos and Friends guest chef taco omakase dinners, which have raised nearly $40,000 in two and a half years. And he shares an exciting first look at Molino Los Hermanos, a forthcoming tortilleria and casual sister concept opening at the end of summer right next door to Cariño.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in a non-food family in Detroit where special occasions meant Red Lobster and Morton’s SteakhouseStarting in restaurant kitchens at 14 purely to earn moneyThe hazelnut crusted scallop dish from mentor chef Derick Watson that changed everythingYears at Andiamo learning real in-house butchery and pasta productionBecoming a de facto executive chef in his early 20s and learning leadership the hard wayDeciding to leave Detroit for a Michelin market and choosing Chicago Staging and working at The Aviary and The Office under Alinea GroupExperiencing kitchen toxicity firsthand and the moment that changed his trajectoryHis first ever Michelin starred meal at Schwa and immediately falling in love with itFive and a half transformative years at Schwa under chef Michael CarlsonFinding his culinary voice through nostalgia, emotion, and personal memoryThe decision to drive his car to Tulum, Mexico rather than pay to fly it to Japan or FranceMeeting his now wife Karina and learning Spanish to fall in love with her properlyBecoming executive chef of WILD under business partner Karen YoungThe pandemic, years of commuting between Chicago and Tulum, and a son born mid chaosBrass Heart, a Chicago restaurant whose menu organically became more and more MexicanThe phone call that closed Brass Heart and the business plan Karen and Norman built on the spotDesigning Cariño: nearly every object in the restaurant handmade and sourced directly from artisans in MexicoThe personal stories behind the framed photos in the restaurant bathroomSingle origin heirloom corn and direct relationships with farmers in Oaxaca and beyondThe four and a half year immigration process for his wife and the toll it took on his familyTacos and Friends: a monthly guest chef taco omakase dinner series benefiting Latinos ProgresandoNearly $40,000 raised for immigration support in two and a half yearsWhy he believes money and voice are the most powerful tools for changeBeing a James Beard finalist and what it means for the broader conversation around Mexican cuisineAn exclusive first look at Molino Los Hermanos: a tortilleria and casual sister restaurant opening end of summerAdvice for founders: sacrifice yourself to your craft and give it everythingFind Norman and Cariño:Instagram: @carinochicago, @chefnormdoeCariño: 4662 North Broadway, Chicago, IllinoisLearn more about Latinos Progresando: @latinosproTacos and Friends: monthly guest chef series, details on Cariño's InstagramSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

On June 15th, 2026, The Perfect Bite went live from the red carpet of the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. As an official press credential holder, host Sarah Perkins spent two hours on the carpet meeting, interviewing, and asking the world's best and hardest question to some of the most celebrated names in food, hospitality, and beyond.From the Humanitarian of the Year to lifetime achievement legends, from a chef putting Anchorage, Alaska on the map, to a restaurateur flying his entire Cleveland team to Chicago, this is one of the most special and spontaneous episodes The Perfect Bite has ever produced.This episode features interviews with nominees, honorees, past winners, award committee members, and food industry luminaries from across the country, all sharing what brought them to Chicago and, of course, their perfect bites.Timestamps below to let you choose where you want to hop to in the episode!Timestamps:0:00 - Welcome and intro from the red carpet at the Lyric Opera of Chicago0:30 - Who was James Beard? A brief history and foundation overview2:00 - The James Beard Foundation mission and 35 years of awards3:30 - The 2026 presenting sponsors, partners, and award programs4:00 - CHIRLA: Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, 2026 Impact Award winners. Perfect bites: pozole and mom's enchiladas7:30 - Nikki Fas: Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service nominee. Puerto Rican flavors, pineapple cocktails, and a perfect bite of tostones with garlic11:30 - Damian Diaz: No Us Without You, 2026 Humanitarian of the Year. On representing the immigrant community and a perfect bite of abuelita's enchiladas verdes16:00 - Nathan Bentley: Best Chef Pacific Northwest nominee, Altura, Anchorage Alaska. On elevating comfort food and a perfect bite of the sweet prawn biscuit21:00 - Belinda Chang: Two-time James Beard Award winner, now creating luxury hospitality experiences. On magnetic nails, Lady Gaga concerts, and a perfect bite of crème fraîche with Lipton French onion dip, lumpfish caviar, and a potato chip26:00 - Johnny Hernandez: Best Chef Mountain nominee, Denver, traditional Mexican cuisine. On representing Denver and Mexico and a perfect bite of molote in the Centro Historico in Oaxaca32:00 - Finn Walter and Audrey Walter: Best Chef Texas nominee, The Nicolette, Lubbock Texas. On a burgeoning food scene and a perfect bite of green chile posole from Old Mexico Grill in Santa Fe37:00 - Chris Shepherd and Lindsey Brown: Southern Smoke Foundation, 2026 Impact Luncheon honorees. On mental health access for hospitality workers and perfect bites of the Monteverde meatball and a homemade grilled cheese45:00 - Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate: Best Chef Mid-Atlantic nominees, Honeysuckle, Philadelphia. On memory, storytelling through food, and perfect bites of acorn bread and the first strawberry from the farm53:00 - Lee Anne Wong: 2026 James Beard Awards Committee member. On the diversity of this year's nominees and a perfect bite of tonkatsu from Budagumi in Tokyo57:30 - Andrew Zimmern: Host of the 2026 James Beard Media Awards, Substack author of Spilled Milk. On overcoming nerves and a perfect bite of a fried chicken thigh1:02:30 - Ope Amosu: Best Chef nominee, ChòpnBlọk, Houston, modern West African cuisine. On making culture accessible and a perfect bite of Buka stew1:06:00 - Sam Toia: President and CEO, Illinois Restaurant Association. On keeping the James Beard Awards in Chicago through 2028 and culinary tourism1:10:00 - Joe Cash: Best Chef Southeast nominee, Scoundrel, Greenville South Carolina. On classic French bistro in a burgeoning food city and a perfect bite of pristine uni1:13:00 - Michael Tusk: Outstanding Chef nominee, Quince, San Francisco. On Joe Sasto's time at Quince and a perfect bite of a croque monsieur at Harry's Bar in Venice1:22:30 - Erick Williams: Virtue, Chicago. On Midwest nice, team-first hospitality, and a perfect bite of Nancy Silverton's pizza dough recipe1:23:00 - Nancy Silverton: 2026 James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award winner. On not going anywhere and a perfect bite of crusty, flavorful bread1:30:00 - Vinnie Cimino: Best Chef Great Lakes nominee, Cordelia and ROSY, Cleveland. On bringing the whole team to Chicago and a perfect bite of the bread service at Monteverde1:37:00 - Historia: Filipino pop-up, Las Vegas. On marrying journalism and food to bring Filipino origin stories to life1:38:30 - Closing reflections, Soul and Smoke in the press room, and Mayor Brandon Johnson arrivingSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Some people learn about the food industry from the outside. Jordan Buckner learned it from all sides at once, and then built the community he wished had existed while he was figuring it out.Jordan Buckner is the founder of Foodbevy, a community and resource platform now reaching over 5,000 CPG founders and food and beverage professionals, and of Joyful Co., a corporate gifting company built around emerging CPG brands. But before all of that, he was a fifth grade entrepreneur selling Airhead candies out of his cargo pants, a high schooler running a student-operated coffee shop with a $4,000 grant, an architecture student with two degrees from Michigan and Illinois, and the founder of not one but two simultaneous CPG businesses: ChopBox, a meal kit company, and TeaSquares, a green tea energy snack that made it into Whole Foods Chicago in its first four months.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Jordan for one of the most candid, educational, and genuinely warm conversations about what it really takes to build in the CPG space. From a childhood surrounded by entrepreneurship on every side, to the night he collapsed on his kitchen floor in a panic attack and his wife helped him see that TeaSquares had to end, to the decision to build Foodbevy with an intentional stress level of 2 out of 10 and no plans to sell, Jordan is one of the most honest voices in food and beverage today.He also pulls no punches on the structural realities of the CPG industry: Why it is stacked against brands from the start, how distributors and retailers hold all the leverage, what AI is actually doing for small founders right now, and why building a personal mission statement might be the most important thing any founder can do before building a product.In this episode, we cover:Growing up surrounded by entrepreneurship on every side: a grandmother with a grocery store, a dad with grocery stores in Chicago, and a mom who got her culinary degree and ran a catering businessSelling Airhead candies out of cargo pants in fifth grade and his mom's leftover cookies in high schoolOpening a student-run coffee shop at Whitney Young High School with a $4,000 grant from the parents associationStudying architecture at University of Michigan and University of Illinois with a dual MBAWhat architecture taught him about creativity within constraints and entrepreneurshipChopBox: a meal kit business born during an internship in Michigan, run out of his mom's commercial kitchenTeaSquares: green tea energy snack bars made from puffed millet, almonds, and pepitas that got into Whole Foods in four monthsWhy having too many points of differentiation created a moat that kept customers out rather than competitorsRunning two CPG businesses simultaneously and almost everything himselfThe night he fell to his kitchen floor in a panic attack and finally realized something had to changeShutting down TeaSquares during COVID after corporate office revenue disappeared overnightWhy the CPG industry is structurally stacked against brands: retailers, distributors, and leverageSuja paying $1 million in slotting fees and getting cut six months laterOne point of differentiation being the right answer instead of white spaceFounding Foodbevy during COVID with a small membership fee and a founder meetup modelFounding Joyful Co. with a COVID relief box for first responders that became a corporate gifting businessHow Foodbevy has evolved: 250+ podcast episodes, webinars, articles, and a retail buyer directoryThe shift in CPG from e-commerce back to retail and what that means for founders right nowAI for CPG brands: three founders using Claude to build dashboards, sales analysts, and full business softwareHis conscious decision to run Foodbevy at a stress level of 2 out of 10, with no plans to sellHis daughter at age three pretend-negotiating with UPS and running her own art marketCreating a personal mission statement as the foundation of every business decisionFind Jordan and Foodbevy:Website: foodbevy.comInstagram: @foodbevyLinkedIn: Jordan BucknerJoyful Co: joyfulco.comSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

In a world full of AI generated images, there is still nothing quite like a photo that makes you stop scrolling and say: Is that for real?Laura Scherb is the founder of Page and Plate Studio, a food photography and styling business that brings CPG brands, cookbook authors, and editorial projects to life through imagery so textural and rich it practically pops off the page. She is also the co-founder of Kitchen Sink Studio alongside pastry chef Emily Spurlin, a board member of Les Dames d'Escoffier of Chicago, and a two time IACP Photography Award finalist whose still life recreation of a 1600s oil painting stopped Sarah cold the first time she saw it.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Laura for a warm and detailed conversation about what it actually takes to create the images that sell cookbooks, CPG products, and entire brands. From two grandmothers who shaped her relationship with food in completely different ways, to dying mashed potatoes green as a kid, to a decade long journey from governmental disaster relief consulting to picking up a Canon Rebel and never looking back, to the strobe lights that finally unlocked her signature style.Laura also pulls back the curtain on what a five day, 35 recipe cookbook shoot actually looks like, how she prices her work fairly for both herself and founders, and why she believes investing in real photography is always worth the wait. Plus a peek into Kitchen Sink Studio's culinary retreats, including an upcoming trip to Normandy with eight women this fall.In this episode, we cover:Two grandmothers, two completely different food philosophies, and how both shaped Laura's path into foodDying mashed potatoes green, pink, and blue as a kid and an early lesson in edible colorStudying writing at Carnegie Mellon and picking up her first camera, a Canon Rebel, while travelingA career detour into governmental disaster relief consulting and what it taught her about professionalismStarting the Page and Plate food blog, pairing books with meals, and dabbling in cateringThe moment she realized photography was the piece brands needed mostGoing all in on Page and Plate Studio in 2017 with a six month bet on herselfLil' Bucks and Emily Griffith: An early client relationship that has lasted nearly a decadeThe trial and error of self-teaching photography, manual settings, Capture One, and artificial lightingHow strobe lights and learning to manipulate light unlocked her signature textural styleWhy travel and changing scenery keeps her creative inspiration freshBehind the scenes of a commercial CPG shoot versus an editorial cookbook shootWhat a five day, 35 recipe cookbook shoot actually looks like, recipe by recipePricing fairly: Flexible payment structures and understanding where founders are coming fromPaying it forward: How other women photographers helped her get startedTwo IACP Photography Award finalist pieces, including a recreated 1600s oil painting still lifeKitchen Sink Studio with Emily Spurlin: Culinary retreats in the Driftless region of Wisconsin and an upcoming trip to NormandyHer honest take on AI in food photography and content creationAdvice for founders: find your people and ask for helpFind Laura and her work:Instagram: @pageandplatestudioKitchen Sink Studio: @kitchensinkstudiosWebsite and portfolio: pageandplate.comSubstack: pageandplate.substack.comSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Some people spend their entire careers supporting others before they finally step into the light themselves. Adrienne Cheatham spent eight years at Le Bernardin, years supporting Marcus Samuelsson at Red Rooster and Street Bird, and a lifetime believing she was meant to be the operational person behind the scenes. And then a call to Top Chef and a family gumbo challenge changed everything.Adrienne Cheatham is a Michelin-starred chef, James Beard Media Award nominated cookbook author, Food Network personality, and co-host of The Chef's Cut podcast alongside Top Chef co-finalist Joe Flamm. And now she is launching something brand new: Eating History, a deep-dive food history podcast she is co-hosting with her husband Stephen Bailey, with its first season dedicated entirely to the origins and history of pizza.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Adrienne for one of the most layered and beautiful conversations The Perfect Bite has had yet. From a childhood of chaotic, massive family gatherings with a mom from a family of twelve and a dad from a family of fourteen, to cooking Christmas cookies in batches for a solid week because they were too broke for gifts, to faxing her resume to Charlie Trotter's kitchen and ending up at Le Bernardin instead, to finally finding her voice through her family's Southern food heritage on Top Chef and pouring all of it into her cookbook Sunday Best.This is a conversation about what happens when someone who spent their whole career making other people shine finally gives themselves permission to be the person out front. And about what a marinara pizza and a husband who nerds out about history on his morning walks can do to change the entire direction of your life.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in a big, chaotic Chicago family where food was always a massive, joyful productionHer mom's famous "restaurant night" where leftovers became a candlelit dining experienceWhy her parents refused to let her go straight to culinary school and what journalism and business classes taught her insteadGetting her internship at Le Bernardin by faxing, mailing, and physically showing up with her resume for three weeksEight years at Le Bernardin, becoming exec sous chef, and copy editing Eric Ripert's cookbook Why she stayed past the one-year anniversary that most cooks treated as their exit dateLeaving Le Bernardin after a toxic kitchen situation and being recruited by Marcus SamuelssonBeing pushed out front by Marcus before she was ready: The New York Times documentary, meeting Gail Simmons, the De Gustibus demoTop Chef: Going in without watching the show and not knowing who she was as a chef yetThe gumbo challenge that changed everything: Winning with her mom's recipe and discovering the Sunday Best conceptThe real story of Southern fried chicken and why it was only made a few times a yearSunday Best: Writing the cookbook to honor her family's history, her grandfather, her mom, her mixed heritageThe James Beard Media Award nomination and what it meant to have her family's stories recognizedThe Chef's Cut podcast: Why Joe Flamm was always the obvious co-host choiceEating History: Co-founding a podcast production company with her husband Stephen and deep diving into the history of pizzaBarbecue Brawl on Food Network: Her first long-term showWhat it felt like to realize she is now actually a founderAdvice for founders: Perfect is the enemy of progress, just get startedFind Adrienne:Instagram: @chefadriennecheatham, @chefscutpod, @eatinghistorypodThe Chef's Cut: Available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTubeEating History: Available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTubeSunday Best cookbook: Available wherever books are soldBarbecue Brawl: Airing on Food Network nowSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

He broke his back snowboarding, got stuck on his couch, and found the Food Network. Thirteen minutes after submitting his MasterChef application, a producer called him. And he never slowed down from there. Josh Gale is the founder and private chef behind The Chef Out West, a Canadian food creator and MasterChef and Beat Bobby Flay veteran whose bold, unapologetic, in-your-face food philosophy has taken the internet by storm. After years of corporate tech sales, a decade running restaurants in Vancouver, and a string of celebrity private cheffing gigs, Josh committed fully to content creation at the start of 2025, posting six pieces of content a week for three months. Two months in, a high-protein pistachio ice cream video went to a million views overnight. Everything changed.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Josh for a conversation that is as bold and energetic as his food. From buttered noodles and Shake 'N Bake in a non-food family to obsessing over Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals on his couch, to accidentally building a 100,000 person Facebook following he didn't even know existed, to partnering with his life partner Mackenzie to run one of the most exciting creator businesses in the food space right now. Josh is building a business that lets him play hockey twice a week, go camping on summer weekends, and never miss a birthday again. And his food is an exercise in maximalism the whole way through.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in a non-food family and not discovering food until his 20sSix years in corporate tech sales and the square peg, round hole feelingBreaking his back snowboarding and finding the Food Network on his couchObsessing over Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, and Bobby Flay during recoveryCooking every day, feeding his friends, and building an early Instagram followingGetting called 13 minutes after submitting his MasterChef applicationQuitting his job before he even went on the showMasterChef as a kid in a candy store moment and total confirmationThe origin of The Chef Out West nameBeat Bobby Flay and the lobster-stuffed ravioli with crispy capers that judge Christian Petroni called an exercise in maximalismA decade running restaurants in Vancouver from cook to head chefPrivate cheffing for celebrities and saying yes to everyone except himselfWhy saying yes to every client in 2024 felt exactly like being back in a restaurantCommitting to content creation at the start of 2025 with a three-month deadlineThe high-protein pistachio ice cream video that went to a million views overnightKorean marinated eggs on rice and the momentum that built from thereThe three revenue streams powering The Chef Out West: brand deals, Facebook and YouTube view monetization, and website ad revenueAccidentally discovering 100,000 Facebook followers and the passive income that followedMackenzie and the creative-technical partnership that makes everything workThe digital cookbook planned for end of 2025 and the print cookbook to followDoing only one or two things at a time really well as a key operating standardBuilding a business around a life, not a life around a businessAdvice for founders: start the thing, film the content, make today day oneFind Josh and The Chef Out West:Website: thechefoutwest.com (burger blueprint, recipes, stories)Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok: @thechefoutwestCrispy Edges: their insider communitySubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

If you have been sleeping on Cleveland, Chef Vinnie Cimino is here to wake you up.Vinnie is the co-founder of Cordelia, one of Cleveland's most beloved restaurants, and the brand new ROSY, a wood-fired neighborhood spot that opened just seven weeks before this conversation. He is also a three-time James Beard Award nominee, a community anchor through the Cleveland Family Meal Project and Food Conscious, and one of the warmest, most thoughtful voices in the Midwest food scene today.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Vinnie for a conversation that covers the full arc of a remarkable career. From a childhood surrounded by big Italian-Slovenian family gatherings and his grandmother's restaurant in Kent, Ohio, to working at Greenhouse Tavern under Jonathon Sawyer, to pop-ups and vagabond cooking during COVID, to answering a mysterious Indeed ad posted by his future co-founder Andrew Watts that simply said he wanted to open the next great Cleveland restaurant.Cordelia, now approaching its fourth year, is exactly what it sounds like: a warm hug. Grandma's dining room meets James Beard-level cooking, with family photos on the walls, vintage 1950s silverware, and a seasonal menu built entirely around what local farm partners bring through the back door. ROSY is Cordelia's sibling, but generationally different: old world techniques, live fire cooking, and an Adriatic and Balkan-inspired menu in a 50-seat neighborhood space where 80% of guests just walk in off the street.And running underneath all of it is Vinnie's guiding philosophy: hospitality starts inward. Take care of your team and they will take care of your guests. It sounds simple. In practice, it looks like buying James Beard Awards tickets for almost 50 members of his staff, rolling out PTO for part-time employees, and his team eating cake together the day his nomination was announced while he was away cooking a benefit dinner across the country.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in a big Italian-Slovenian family with a grandmother who ran her own restaurant in Kent, OhioHis first mid-rare steak in college and the moment food really clicked for himGetting pulled into a kitchen at Russo's in Peninsula, Ohio and never really leavingTaking a $30,000 pay cut with a one-year-old and a new house to pursue cooking for realWorking his way up to CDC at Greenhouse Tavern within 10 months of joiningPop-ups, cooking in people's homes, and vagabond cooking during COVIDReconnecting with Andrew Watts through an Indeed ad looking for a chef co-founderOpening Cordelia: the inspiration, the vintage silverware, the family photos on the wallsA seasonal menu built around what the farms bring in, not the other way aroundWhy Cordelia's menu changes frequently while 40% stays as beloved staplesPartnering with 23 to 25 local farms including The Chef's Garden and a mushroom farm in DetroitThe "everyone's got the chef's table" feeling at ROSYROSY's Adriatic and Balkan-inspired wood-fired menu and the 50-inch wood-fired grillThree James Beard nominations and what it means to the whole teamShutting both restaurants down for Beard weekend so almost 50 staff can go to ChicagoCleveland Family Meal Project during COVID and how it has evolved into Food ConsciousA senior living facility in North Ridgeville centered around healthy food and cookingRolling out PTO for all staff, including part-time, because hospitality starts inwardWhat he is most proud of: watching young cooks become sous chefsHis advice for founders: the hardest part is starting, so just start at square oneFind Vinnie and his restaurants:Cordelia: 2058 East 4th Street, Cleveland | @cordeliacleROSY: 2912 Church Avenue, Hingetown, Cleveland | @rosy.restaurantVinnie on Instagram: @chefvinnieciminoSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Some brands set out to sell a product. Diaspora Spice Co. set out to change a supply chain, honor a culture, and bring the most potent, story-rich spices in the world into home kitchens across America. Nine years in, they are doing all three.Sana Javeri Kadri is the CEO and founder of Diaspora Spice Co., a regenerative spice company built on a singular mission: put money, equity, and power into the best spice farms across South Asia and bring wildly delicious, hella potent flavors to your everyday cooking. Asha Loupy is Diaspora Spice Co.'s recipe editor and co-author, the woman behind some of the brand's most beloved and obsessively cooked recipes, including the strawberry cardamom bars that reliably spike website traffic every spring.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with both Sana and Asha for a conversation that covers the full arc: from a 23-year-old Sana buying a 350-kilogram turmeric harvest with her first ever tax refund and storing it in a co-op basement in Oakland, to selling out in four days and waking up to 700 orders after a New York Magazine gift guide mention, to building a company that now works with 100+ regenerative farm partners across South Asia and pays 3.9x above commodity price. And now, a cookbook that took five years, three months of travel across 10 Indian states and Sri Lanka, 14 languages, and one very memorable pumpkin chutney discovered in a kitchen in Kashmir as the cameras were packing up.Asha's origin story is equally delightful: she cold-walked her resume into Market Hall Foods after college, worked her way to the cheese department because that's where all the cool people were, and eventually slid into Sana's DMs with a photo of perfectly pleated cumin lamb dumplings with a turmeric wrapper that changed both of their lives.This episode is one of the most joyful, warm, and genuinely inspiring conversations The Perfect Bite has ever had. Two Bay Area women who love good food, care deeply about the people who grow it, and have spent nearly a decade proving that spice can be a vehicle for justice, storytelling, and extraordinary flavor.In this episode, we cover:Growing up with food: Sana eating all the graduation snacks at preschool, and Asha dictating recipes to her mom at age fourSana's time at high school in Italy and working on a vineyard and olive grove at 15Asha cold-walking into Market Hall Foods and gravitating to the cheese departmentThe turmeric latte trend that sparked Sana's curiosity about who was actually growing the turmericBuying a 350kg turmeric harvest with a $3K tax refund and storing it in a co-op basementSelling out in four days and waking up to 700 orders after Julia Turshen's New York Magazine mentionBuilding trust with farm partners by paying quadruple the commodity price on timeHow Asha slid into Sana's DMs with perfectly pleated dumplings and changed the trajectory of the brandThree months traveling across India and Sri Lanka for the cookbookThe pumpkin chutney discovered at the last possible moment in a kitchen in KashmirWhy they brought in regional cookware for every studio shoot (Kerala clay pots, Manipuri black pottery, Kashmiri copper)The strawberry cardamom bars that spike website traffic every springBusting myths about South Asian cooking: you can make most recipes in the cookbook with six spicesAn exclusive tease: Diaspora Spice Co. is opening a store (location and timing TBD)The Padma Lakshmi collaboration returning later this yearAsha's solo cookbook "Dinner Season" coming June 2027!Advice for founders: just start and get a good therapistFind Diaspora Spice Co.:Website: diasporaco.comInstagram and TikTok: @diasporacoAvailable in about 900 independent stores across the U.S, including Whole Foods CaliforniaThe Diaspora Spice Co. Cookbook: available wherever books are soldSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

What if food media got the Puck treatment?That's the question Max Tcheyan asked and Caper is the answer. Max is the CEO and co-founder of Caper, a new food and hospitality media company built on the premise that the food world deserves the kind of serious, insider, character-driven storytelling that business gets from Puck, that sports got from The Athletic, and that Hollywood gets from Vanity Fair. The characters are there. The stories are there. The journalism just hasn't caught up yet.Max knows how to build this. He was one of the earliest employees at Bleacher Report, grew The Athletic from startup to New York Times acquisition, and co-founded Puck, the subscription media company covering Hollywood, fashion, politics, and business with a talent-led model that changed how premium media gets built. Now he's applying everything he learned to the world he loves most: food, restaurants, and hospitality.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Max for a conversation about what Caper is, why it needed to exist, and how he's building it. The founding team is a genuine Avengers assembly: journalists from The New Yorker, the New York Times, Artnet, Eater, and Bon Appétit who are equity partners in the business, not just employees. The editorial philosophy is built around what Max calls the "power triangle" of food: the hospitality groups (producers), the chefs and restaurants (actors), and the behind-the-scenes agents, the publicists, real estate players, consultants, and advisors, whose influence on food culture nobody is covering yet.There's also an underground chef competition happening in undisclosed New York City locations that sounds like Top Chef meets an underground rap battle. And yes, a podcast and video strategy is coming.This is one of the most forward-thinking conversations about the future of food media and food storytelling we've had on The Perfect Bite. If you care about what food journalism can become, and what food entrepreneurship looks like when it's treated like a tech startup, this one is for you.In this episode, we cover:Growing up with a northern Italian mother and grandmother and the Bolognese that got frozen and shipped to collegeThe double meaning behind the name Caper: the ingredient, the adventure, and why it elevated the brandDropping out of law school to join Bleacher Report as employee number five in 2007Building growth marketing before "growth hacking" was even a termThe Athletic: building a pure subscription model that sold to the New York TimesCo-founding Puck at TPG and what the talent-led subscription model taught himWhy food media felt like sports media in 2016 and why that was the signal to buildThe "power triangle" of food: hospitality groups, chefs/restaurants, and the agent classWhy the agent class in food, the publicists, consultants, designers, and advisors, is the most underreported story in the industryBuilding Caper's founding team: Emma Orlow, Chris Crowley, and Annie ArmstrongWhy equitizing journalists changes everything and protects editorial integrityThe subscription plus advertising model and why multiple revenue streams matterPartnering with Loewe as the first ad partner and the signal it sendsUnderground chef competitions in undisclosed New York locations: the events strategyExpanding beyond New York through contributors and category-anchored storytellingThe podcast and video strategy coming in the back half of the yearHis advice for founders: the hardest thing is to start, and the journey is the rewardFind Caper:Website: caper.mediaInstagram: @caper.mediaSign up for free or join as a member - two subscription tiers availableMax on LinkedIn: Max TcheyanMax on Instagram: @mtchecheSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Some brands feel like they were always meant to be national. Killer Brownie is one of them. But it took a 40-year journey, a nurse-turned-founder, and a tagline born from a dad sneaking Oreos to his kids to finally make it happen.Chimene Mayne-Ross is the CEO of Killer Brownie, a gourmet brownie brand born out of Dorothy Lane Market, the legendary Dayton, Ohio specialty grocer her father built, that has grown over 500% since 2019 and is now coast to coast in Target, Kroger, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, and more. But Chimene didn't come into the business straight from the family table. She spent 25 years as a nurse first, building the people skills, the regulatory knowledge, and the leadership foundation that would make her the right person to take Killer Brownie national.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Chimene for a conversation that is warm, wise, and full of the kind of generational founder insights you rarely hear in one place. From a childhood of carob instead of chocolate (her mom was a health nut ahead of her time) and Oreos snuck by her dad (who always said "sometimes you gotta live a little"), to writing a proposal for her dad at 45 years old, hiring her husband as COO, growing from 300 Instagram followers to 135,000, going through two rebrands, and landing a partnership with Irresistible Foods Group, the family behind Kings Hawaiian, that has accelerated growth without ever touching the product.This is a story about slow, steady, intentional growth. About knowing who you are and refusing to be diluted by trends. About the tagline that made Chimene cry because it was her dad's phrase all along. And about what it really means to be a third generation founder who takes something beloved and makes it her own.In this episode, we cover:Growing up with a health nut mom who served liver and onions as an afterschool snack and a dad who snuck them OreosThe family legacy: Dorothy Lane Market, Dayton's beloved specialty grocer since the 1940sWhy she chose nursing over the family business at 22 and what 25 years taught herJoining Killer Brownie in 2013 and writing a proposal to her dad for the chance to grow itWhat makes the original Killer Brownie so special: caramel, layers, and a gooey texture unlike anything elseCurrent flavors: cookie dough, caramel macchiato, Mexican hot chocolate, the Brookie, the Kitchen SinkGrowing 500%+ since 2019 and the three hires that made it possibleThe rebrand journey: two rebrands, and how the latest finally felt like coming homeThe "Live a Little" tagline that made Chimene cry because it was her dad's phrase all alongWhy she's unapologetically a dessert brand in a world of protein bars and fiber snacksQuietly cleaning up the ingredient list since 2013 without ever making it the brand messageThe Irresistible Foods Group acquisition and why the Kings Hawaiian family was the right partnerWhy "distraction leads to dilution" is her north starTaking Killer Brownie to Antarctica and feeding the expedition teamReading 20 books a year and why lifelong learning is her most important leadership toolHer goal: advising female founders and third generation family business ownersAdvice for founders: start with your purpose, know your why, and be prepared to workFind Killer Brownie:Website: www.killerbrownie.com (with store locator and direct to consumer ordering)Instagram/TikTok/Facebook: @killerbrownieAvailable at Target, Kroger, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Mariano's, and select retailers coast to coastSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

He hated pasta as a kid. Now he's the self-proclaimed Prince of Pasta, the Ruler of Rigatoni, the Sultan of Spaghetti, and one of the most exciting chef-turned-CPG-founders in the food industry.Joe Sasto is the founder of Tantos pasta chips, co-founder of Ripi Foods frozen pasta, author of “Breaking The Rules,” and a familiar face across Food Network, Top Chef, and Netflix competitions. But what makes Joe's story genuinely compelling isn't the resume: it's the mustache, the energy, the happy accident that turned a forgotten tray of dried pasta in a Beverly Hills walk-in into a snack brand heading to Targets nationwide.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Joe for a conversation that covers the full arc, from growing up in the Midwest with a mom who served pasta with sauce on top (never married into the noodle), to landing on the pasta station at Quince because a cook was "unwillfully ejected,” to the moment he realized that cooking competitions aren't about ego, they're a sport. From building Tantos out of an accidental kitchen discovery, to getting Ripi Foods into Whole Foods nationwide with an exclusive Cacio e Pepe flavor, to teasing a potential pizza restaurant in New York, Joe is always moving, always building, always with a sauce splatter video ready to go on Instagram.This episode is packed with genuinely useful CPG insights, including a helpful retail tip about exclusives that could change how you approach your next buyer meeting. And plenty of pasta puns. Because that's just who Joe is.In this episode, we cover:Growing up hating pasta and how he ended up on the pasta station at QuinceCalifornia farming, Lazy Bear, and why he still thinks California has the world's best produceHow Top Chef changed everything and why he'd never go back (but also maybe would)The evolution from ego-driven competition cooking to approaching it like a sportThe happy accident: finding dried-out pasta in a Beverly Hills walk-in and inventing TantosMeeting co-founder Sean through Instagram DMs and building the brand togetherBreaking The Rules: years of cookbook doubt, writing it anyway, and the black garlic Caesar that everyone makesRipi Foods: fresh frozen pasta, Whole Foods nationwide, and an exclusive Target launchThe retail exclusives tip: why pitching exclusive SKUs to big box retailers gets you in the doorDream collaborations: Matty Matheson for Ripi, and the search for the perfect "pasta chip girl"Why surrounding yourself with smart, powerful women is the key to everythingTreadmill running, cop dramas, and THC beverages as the perfect wind-down comboWhat he's most proud of: the headspace shift and the people around him nowA potential pizza restaurant in New York City, details coming soonAdvice for founders: find a co-founder who fills your voids, not one who mirrors themFind Joe and his work:Instagram: @chef.joe.sastoCheck out Joe’s new YouTube channel: Make Mama ProudBreaking The Rules: available on Amazon or signed copy via link in bioRipi Foods: Whole Foods nationwide | www.ripifoods.comTantos: Amazon and grocery stores nationwide | www.tantossnacks.comSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

What is Big Dip Energy? You’re about to find out!Alyse Whitney is a food journalist, cookbook author, Netflix judge, and certified Dip Queen who has spent nearly 15 years building one of the most distinctive voices in food media. Over 1,000 bylines. Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Rachael Ray Every Day. Managing editor of Chrissy Teigan's Cravings. Ina Garten's cell phone number on hand. And a cookbook, Big Dip Energy, that she wrote, art directed, propped, and styled in nine months while convincing her publisher to let her include a "compundium" of puns at the back.Oh, and she's launching a new podcast and YouTube show called Dippin' In! And she announced it here first!In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Alyse for a conversation that is unlike any other on The Perfect Bite. It covers the Korean American adoptee who started cooking for her family at 12 because she thought their Shake 'n Bake pork chops were boring, the entertainment journalist who burned out writing 15 articles a day recapping Scandal, the food writer who got Ina Garten's cell phone number after a day of cooking together, and the Netflix judge who filmed her first ever TV appearance in Spanx while on her period in Albuquerque.Alyse is maximalist in every sense, from her food, to her style, her personality, and her puns, and this conversation is a masterclass in what happens when you finally stop trying to make yourself smaller and just show up as the fullest possible version of yourself.In this episode, we cover:Growing up as a Korean adoptee with non-cooking parents and becoming the family chef at 12The gateway food memory: making kimbap with her Korean Big Sib mentor programWhy she got into dips (Hint: she almost choked as a baby because she hated chewing)Subscribing to Bon Appétit alongside J14 at age 12Burning out as an entertainment journalist writing 15 articles a dayGetting a job at Cooking Channel because she was nice to someone at her Bon Appétit internshipGetting Ina Garten to be Bon Appétit's first ever guest editor and cooking together in the HamptonsBeing laid off from Rachael Ray Every Day and landing the Chrissy Teigan Cravings jobHer first TV appearance on Easy Bake Battle with Antoni Porowski: in Spanx, on her period, in AlbuquerqueGetting called at 9:30am to replace a COVID-positive judge on Nailed It! by 11amBecoming a recurring judge on ChoppedBig Dip Energy: Writing the manuscript in three weeks and art directing every pageHer ADHD diagnosis and why she chose a 9-month book deadline over 18 monthsBeing unapologetically maximalist after years of trying to hide herselfHer Cherry Bombe Jubilee talk "Good Fat" on loving people the way we love butterWhy she's finally treating herself like a brandEXCLUSIVE: Her new podcast and YouTube show Dippin' In!, announced here first!Advice for founders: Be authentic, show up, and stop making yourself smallerFind Alyse:Website: www.alysewhitney.comInstagram: @alysewhitneyYouTube: @alyse.whitneySubstack: Dippin' In! (Launching soon! Linked in her Instagram)Big Dip Energy: Available wherever books are soldSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

What do you do when the thing you've dedicated your entire career to becomes the thing that's making you sick?Chef Monica Glass spent years working in some of the most celebrated kitchens in the country, including Gotham Bar and Grill, Le Bernadin, and the Ritz Carlton Philadelphia, mastering the art and science of pastry. And then she was diagnosed with Celiac disease. The flour she had been breathing in and baking with every day was the very thing destroying her health.She could have walked away. Instead she did something much harder: She stayed, and she figured out how to do it differently.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Monica for a conversation that is equal parts inspiring and deeply personal. Monica shares the journey from a childhood garden in Maryland where her grandparents grew rhubarb and tomatoes, to moonlighting in Deborah Racicot's pastry kitchen at Gotham Bar and Grill after her PR job, to passing out at Union Square Farmers Market from the lowest iron levels her doctors had ever seen, to opening Verveine Cafe and Bakery, a fully gluten-free, dedicated safe space in Philadelphia, alongside her co-founder and mentor Chef Ken Oringer.And that's before you get to WLDFLR, her gluten-free flour and baking mix line that she's been quietly building from her basement (yes, literally, 14,000 pounds of flour was delivered to her driveway in the snow). Or the 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef that found her in a Costa Rican rainforest trying very hard to be phone-free.Monica's story is about inclusion. About food as medicine and joy simultaneously. About building a space where nobody has to feel like a burden at the table. And about the remarkable things that can happen when you refuse to let a diagnosis define the ceiling of what's possible.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in Maryland with grandparents who grew rhubarb, tomatoes, and berries in their gardenHer dad's crockpot meals, Sunday dinners, and the through line of food as familyFrom Penn State to New York City PR and gravitating toward the food clientsMaking a list of top 10 chefs she wanted to learn from and knocking on doorsMoonlighting at Gotham Bar and Grill under Deborah Racicot, turning it down twice before finally saying yesWhat Eric Ripert taught her about knowing every person's name on day one at Le BernadinThe Celiac diagnosis: years of being dismissed by doctors, passing out in Union Square, and finally getting answersLosing her mother to ovarian cancer and how the stress may have triggered the Celiac geneLearning to recreate gluten-free versions of everything she loved, without telling anyone they were gluten-freeOpening Verveine Cafe and Bakery with Chef Ken OringerThe Picknic allergen software on their site that lets guests filter the menu by their specific needsWLDFLR: the gluten-free flour and baking mix line born in her home kitchenGetting 14,000 pounds of flour delivered to her driveway in the snow and carrying it to her basementThe 2026 James Beard semifinalist nomination that found her in a Costa Rican rainforestWhy she never advertised Verveine as gluten-free and why that was the right callHustle culture, burnout, and why she finally blocked off Mondays for herselfHer two adopted tiny Chihuahuas Quill and StewieAdvice for founders: build the thing that solves your own problem, and standards are your superpowerFind Monica and her work:Website: www.chefmonicaglass.comInstagram: @chefmoniVerveine Cafe: @verveinecafe | www.verveinecafe.comWLDFLR: @wldflr_glutenfreeSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Some guests walk into a conversation and immediately make you feel like you've known them forever. Emery Whalen is one of those people.Emery is the CEO and co-founder of QED Hospitality, a nine-restaurant group with locations across New Orleans, Nashville, and Kentucky that is doing something increasingly rare in the hospitality industry: Putting people first, actually meaning it, and building a business around that belief that has lasted a decade.QED stands for "quod erat demonstrandum,” Latin for "Thus it has been proven." It's a punctuation mark at the end of a mathematical theorem, and for Emery and her co-founder Chef Brian Landry, it was a declaration: They weren't going to talk about doing things differently. They were going to prove it.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Emery for a conversation that covers the full arc of a remarkable life in food, hospitality, and community. From growing up in New Orleans with a mother who accidentally served potpourri-garnished fish, watching Hurricane Katrina reshape her entire future, teaching French and Spanish in New Orleans public schools through food, and co-creating a culinary scholarship program and micro-loan fund for Louisiana farmers, Emery arrived at restaurant ownership not because she wanted to, but because she realized it was the only way to do things the way she believed they should be done.QED’s first restaurant Jack Rose is a love letter to New Orleans—maximalist, warm, full of sequins on a Saturday night. And when COVID hit, instead of closing the doors on their team, Emery spun up a telehealth customer service operation in less than a week to keep every single employee working. The image of a sous chef navigating electronic medical records, and a grandmother in New Jersey sending cookies to a Nashville bartender who helped her reset her iPhone, says everything about the kind of organization QED is.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in New Orleans with a grandmother whose house always turned into a partyWhat makes New Orleans cuisine unlike any other regional food in AmericaHurricane Katrina, Princeton, and the city that shaped everythingTeaching French and Spanish through food and why leaving teaching was one of the hardest decisions she's ever madeMINO (Made in New Orleans): the culinary scholarship program she co-createdMicro-loans for Louisiana farmers and the milk farmer who started it allMeeting co-founder Chef Brian Landry and being wooed into entrepreneurship she didn't wantWhat QED stands for and why they chose the nerdiest name possibleSpinning up a telehealth customer service company in less than a week during COVIDThe "be nice or leave" policy and how she enforces it gracefullyNine restaurants in ten years and what comes nextBrian Landry's upcoming cookbook: Recipes paired with profiles of Bayou Bar musiciansWhat people get wrong about Southern food and why it deserves more respectHer advice for women and minority founders being underestimated: take great pleasure in itThe best advice she's ever gotten: Ask people outside your industryFind Emery and QED Hospitality:Instagram: @emerywhalen, @qedhospitalityWebsite: www.qedhg.comVenues throughout New Orleans, Nashville, and KentuckySubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Eric Skae is the CEO and co-founder of Carbone Fine Food, the fastest growing pasta sauce brand in America. In just five years, Carbone Fine Food has gone from zero to over $130 million through the register, adding an average of 156,000 new households every single month. And before that, Eric ran Rao's, where he took it from the number six pasta sauce brand in America and set the foundation that would eventually make it the number one premium sauce in the country.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Eric for one of the most candid, educational, and genuinely fun conversations The Perfect Bite has ever had. Eric doesn't sugarcoat anything— not the $3.2 million personal loss he absorbed when his first brand, New Leaf Iced Tea, went through hard times, not the shareholder battle that forced the sale of Rao's, and not the very specific competitive mindset he brings to a category he has now shaped twice.What makes Carbone Fine Food special isn't just the branding. It's all about the product. Open kettle cooking. Italian tomatoes from southern Italy. Monthly taste sessions with chef Rich Torrisi. Eric personally tasted every single batch in year one, logging 100,000 miles on United without leaving the country. That obsession with quality is the moat and he knows it!This conversation covers the full picture: The origin story of building Carbone Fine Food from a handshake deal with Chef Mario Carbone to shelves in five months, why the brand's marketing flywheel is PR, event, and social rather than TV spend, how Costco became their biggest trial driver, what he thinks about the premiumization of pantry staples, and what's coming next, including a brand new Italian chili crunch launching in July that he previewed for the first time right here on The Perfect Bite!There's also a conversation about tariffs, board dynamics, founder lessons, and what it actually means to stay unapologetically true to your brand in a world where every trend is trying to pull you somewhere new.If you love Carbone Fine Food, the Carbone brand, work in CPG, or are building anything of your own, this one is unmissable.In this episode, we cover:Growing up in a big Irish family where food meant togetherness20+ years in beverage and how the fundamentals of CPG are simpler than people thinkFounding New Leaf Iced Tea, losing $3.2 million in 2008, and rebuilding in his fortiesThe call that led to meeting Mario Carbone—and saying yes immediatelyBuilding the brand from scratch: recipes, branding, co-packing, and shelves in five monthsTasting every single batch in year one and logging 100,000 miles domesticallyMonthly taste sessions with Rich Torrisi and why consistency is the real productThe marketing flywheel: PR, events, and social over TV spendCarbone Beach, Post Malone, Alex Cooper, Jimmy Fallon and pop culture authenticityWhy Mario Carbone is a superpower advantage6,000 Costco demos planned for this year and why trial is everythingHousehold penetration growing from 0.08% to 4% in two yearsThe premiumization of pantry staples and how generational shifts are driving itWhy he refuses to add fiber or protein to the sauce ("Add a piece of steak")EXCLUSIVE: Italian chili crunch launching July 2025! Look for the green and red flavorsHis take on tariffs, Italian tomatoes, and solving for quality no matter whatPicking the right board and why smart advisors beat cheerleaders every timeStaying frugal on someone else's money: flying coach and staying at Fairfield InnsHis advice for new foundersWhat's next, including a potential return to his original brand, New LeafFind Carbone Fine Food:Website: carbonefinefood.comAvailable at most major retailers nationwideInstagram: @carbonefinefoodSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

In this special Podcasthon episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Jake Tepperman, founder of Chicago Food Rescue, a nonprofit that rescues fresh, perishable food — produce, baked goods, prepared meals — from grocery stores, corporate offices, restaurants, and events, and delivers it directly to community organizations that feed people in need. No physical location. No warehouse. Just a network of volunteers, a powerful app, and a mission that is quietly changing how Chicago thinks about food waste and food access.Podcasthon is the world’s largest annual charity podcast event in mid-March. Podcasters around the globe are releasing episodes to support non-profits and causes they believe in. Jake and Sarah discuss how a Shabbat dinner tradition and seven years working at 412 Food Rescue in Pittsburgh led him to bring this food rescue model to Chicago — and what it took to build it from scratch in just a year and a half.Jake is one of those founders who isn't doing this for the glory. He's doing it because he saw a disconnect — a city full of food and people going hungry — and realized his background in supply chain and logistics was exactly what was needed to bridge it. In 2025 alone, Chicago Food Rescue completed over 1,100 rescues, moving more than 250,000 pounds of food and providing the equivalent of 208,000 meals across 44 nonprofit community partners.This conversation covers the mechanics of how food rescue actually works, the difference between food rescue and food banking, what it has looked like on the ground in Chicago as SNAP access was threatened, and why Jake believes hunger is not a supply problem — it's a logistics problem.It's also just a really lovely conversation about what it means to show up for your community, build something from nothing, and let the work speak for itself.In this episode, we cover:Growing up with Shabbat dinners and the family table that shaped his relationship with foodHis corporate career, early volunteering in Pittsburgh, and finding 412 Food RescueBuilding emergency food response infrastructure during COVIDWhat makes food rescue different from food banks and food pantriesHow the three-way coordination between food donors, volunteers, and nonprofit recipients actually worksThe Chicago Food Rescue app — and how it removes every barrier to volunteering2025 by the numbers: 250,000+ pounds of food, 208,000 meals, 1,100+ rescuesWhat happened in Chicago as SNAP restrictions tightened — and why food rescue is only part of the solutionHow one organization saved $40,000 in food costs and hired a caseworker because of food rescueHis advice for anyone starting something new: just start, even before you have it all figured outHow to get involved:Download the Chicago Food Rescue app (Google Play or App Store) to volunteer or set up a food rescueFor more information and to donate: chicagofoodrescue.orgInstagram/Facebook/LinkedIn: @chicagofoodrescue_Want to become involved with Podcasthon? Head to podcasthon.orgSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

What if instead of waiting for a big brand to buy you out, you just built something bigger on your own terms?That's exactly what Stefanie Garcia Turner, Regina Trillo, and Jocelyn Ramirez did when they merged their three beloved brands - Tuyyo Foods, Nemi Snacks, and Todo Verde - into one powerhouse under the Tuyyo Foods umbrella. And the food industry is paying attention.In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with the full executive team behind Tuyyo Foods 2.0 for a conversation that covers everything: Growing up with food as an act of love, building brands that push back against tired stereotypes of Latino culture, and why three solo founders decided that coming together was the boldest move they could make.Stefanie spent nearly a decade at Whole Foods before launching Tuyyo's original agua fresca mixes, a better-for-you answer to Kool-Aid, inspired by her grandmother's grapefruit tree and her love for the powdered drink format. Regina left a legal career in human rights to found Nemi Snacks after being struck by how underrepresented and stereotyped Latino food was on American grocery shelves — and how a nopal cactus chip could change that. And Jocelyn launched Todo Verde in LA after years as a social justice professor and chef, bringing taco seasonings inspired by real Mexican flavors to a market that had settled for cornstarch and mild spice packets for way too long.They met through trade shows, DMs, and a shared fellowship. The merger idea was planted on an airport ride back from Texas, and within months it was a reality. No big buyout. No waiting around. Just three women who decided to grow better together.This one covers the exciting stuff and the real stuff — what it actually takes to merge three companies, how to communicate with co-founders when things get hard, what it means to keep showing up for your community in a moment when so much feels scary, and the single Mexican tablescape vision that has retailers buzzing.In this episode, we cover:How food showed up as love in each of their families growing upStefanie's journey from Whole Foods and The Honest Company to founding Tuyyo FoodsRegina leaving law to create Nemi Snacks and finding nopal farmers in MexicoJocelyn's pivot from social justice professor to chef, cookbook author, and Todo Verde founderHow they each met and what planted the seed for the mergerThe nitty gritty of merging three CPG brands — attorneys, operations, finance, brandingWhy they landed on Tuyyo (spoiler: "tú y yo" means you and me)The Mexican tablescape vision: chips, agua fresca, taco seasoning, and a new mole paste coming soonHow they're showing up for their communities right nowWhat fills each of their cups — and how they've built a culture of vulnerability togetherConnect with Tuyyo Foods:Website: tuyyofoods.com (launching soon with all products + store locator!)Instagram: @tuyyofoodsNemi Snacks: @nemisnacksTodo Verde: @todoverdelaSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

Rachel Mansfield is one of those people where listing her titles doesn't even do her justice — OG food blogger, recipe developer, cookbook author, CPG investor, and now founder of cadootz!, the kids' snack brand that's checking every box health-conscious parents have been begging for. Oh, and she's doing most of it alongside her husband Jordan, while raising three boys and renovating a 90-year-old home. Casual.In this episode, Rachel gets real with host Sarah Perkins about the winding, messy, beautiful road that got her here — from baking box-mix birthday cakes in high school, to getting fired (her word, not ours) from a PR job at 25 with 10K Instagram followers and a big dream, to building a brand that now reaches millions of people who just want to eat well without it feeling like a chore.We talked about it all: the moment Jordan convinced her to start a recipe blog instead of selling overnight oats on the streets of Manhattan (truly iconic), what she's learned as an investor in 25+ CPG brands through grt sht Ventures, and why she is not launching new cadootz! flavors quite yet—even though everyone keeps asking.Rachel also gets candid about navigating fertility challenges in public, the pressure of running a platform where it always looks like you have it together (she does not, and she'd like you to know that), and why she thinks "balance" is kind of a myth—but also why that's okay.This one is for the founders, the creators, the parents trying to figure out how to feed their families something better, and honestly anyone who's ever been told no and had to figure out what comes next.In this episode, we cover:How getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to Rachel's careerBuilding a food and lifestyle brand from scratch in the early days of Instagram + influencersWhat she learned about brand partnerships — then vs. nowLaunching cadootz! and her cookbook More, Please! in the same week (accidentally)Working with your spouse: the real talk on what it's like and how they make it workInvesting in 25+ CPG companies through grt sht Ventures and what she's seen go wrongWhy she's going slow and steady with cadootz!'s retail strategyOn sharing the hard stuff online: fertility, overwhelm, and keeping it realWhat fills her cup: heated sculpt classes and a really good SancerreHer closing advice for anyone thinking about putting themselves out thereConnect with Rachel:Instagram: @rachlmansfield (no "e" in Rachl!)Website: rachlmansfield.comSubstack: @rachlmansfieldcadootz!: @cadootzsnacks | cadootz.comPre-order More, Please! at rachlmansfield.comSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

From sommelier to restaurateur to hospitality consultant, Liz Mendez has built a career rooted in community, beverage expertise, and reinvention.In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Liz Mendez, founder of Aldea Hospitality, to talk about building sustainable careers in the restaurant industry, the rise of non-alcoholic beverage programs, and what it really takes to open — and close — a restaurant.Liz shares her journey from Chicago wine professional to opening the beloved Spanish wine bar Vera, the lessons learned from entrepreneurship, and how she now helps hospitality professionals design more balanced careers through consulting, education, and her concept of the “hospitality hyphenate.”This conversation covers:Becoming a sommelier and working in Chicago restaurantsOpening and running a Spanish wine bar focused on sherryThe realities of restaurant ownership and closing a businessTransitioning into consulting and hospitality techBuilding Aldea Hospitality and coaching industry professionalsThe rise of non-alcoholic and dealcoholized wine and Liz’s refocus on these productsCreating sustainable careers in hospitalityWhy community and mentorship matter in entrepreneurshipWhether you’re a restaurant owner, beverage professional, or founder in food & beverage, Liz shares practical advice on building a creative career that evolves over time.To learn more about Aldea Hospitality, visit www.aldeahospitality.com. You can follow Liz on social media @mendezmusings. Subscribe to Liz’s Substack The Luncheonette!Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

When I say Swedish hot dogs will change your life, it’s true! And they did for techie turned chef Amelia Eudailey. In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with chef and entrepreneur Amelia Eudailey, founder of the cult-favorite pop-up concept Hej Hej (pronounced “hey hey”!). Known for its Scandinavian-inspired hot dogs, Swedish candy, and playful menu, Hej Hej has built a loyal following through pop-ups, catering, and creative storytelling—all before opening a traditional restaurant.Amelia didn’t follow a typical culinary path. After working in tech and startups, she pivoted into food, working as a line cook at the famed Octavia, and began testing her concept through pop-ups while still working full-time. Today, she’s growing Hej Hej into a recognizable food brand while exploring the future of brick-and-mortar, merchandising, and community-driven hospitality.This episode is a candid look at building a food business from scratch and learning through experimentation.In this conversation, we discuss:Launching a Swedish hot dog pop-upWhat makes Swedish hot dogs and food so specialTransitioning careers into food entrepreneurshipTesting a concept before opening a brick-and-mortar spaceBuilding a brand through pop-ups and communityRevenue streams beyond a brick-and-mortarUsing Substack and social media to grow an audienceDeciding when (or if) to open a permanent spaceStaying creative while building a sustainable businessAmelia’s story is a reminder that there’s no single path into the food industry — and that entrepreneurship often starts with simply trying.TPB listeners, we have a special code for you to grab Hej Hej merch or Swedish candy mixes on Hej Hej’s site! Use code ‘PERFECTBITE’ on www.chefhejhej.com for 15% off your order of $25 or more through March 15, 2026.To learn more about Hej Hej and find out about future pop-up dates, visit www.chefhejhej.com. You can follow Hej Hej on social media @chefhejhej. Subscribe to Amelia’s Substack Hotdog Hustle!Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

How do you build a lasting career in food when media, platforms, and business models keep changing?In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with food writer, editor, cookbook author, and media entrepreneur Chandra Ram to talk about building a career that evolves with the industry instead of resisting it.From restaurant PR to leading Plate Magazine for over a decade, working at Food & Wine, and now running her own independent publishing and consulting work, Chandra shares what it takes to stay adaptable in ever-changing food media.This conversation explores:How to build a career in food media todayWhy there’s no single path into the industryTransitioning from traditional media to independent workCookbook writing and editorial strategyBuilding a portfolio career across platformsWhy showing your work matters more than waiting for permissionChandra’s story is a reminder that sustainable careers are built through experimentation, adaptability, and consistently putting your work into the world.Whether you’re a writer, chef, founder, or creative entrepreneur, this episode offers practical insight into building a career that evolves with you.Subscribe to Chandra’s Substack Another Bite with Chandra Ram! You can learn more about her past work and purchase any of her cookbooks at www.chandraram.net. You can follow Chandra on Instagram @chandrasplate. Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

What does it actually take to build a better ingredient for professional kitchens?In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Susannah Schoolman, founder of Tourlami, to unpack how deep culinary experience can become a real competitive advantage in entrepreneurship.Susannah shares how her background as a classically trained pastry chef revealed a major gap in the plant-based market: vegan butters that simply didn’t work in professional baking and kitchen environments. Instead of settling for “good enough,” she spent years testing, iterating, and engineering two plant-based butters designed specifically for lamination, pastry, and high-heat applications in professional kitchens.This conversation explores:How lived kitchen experience can uncover real product-market fitWhy Tourlami offers multiple functional butters, not a single catch-all solutionThe five-year R&D journey behind building a credible food ingredientThe mindset shift from chef to founderWhy early-stage founders should prioritize performance over brandingThis episode is a must-listen for food founders, chefs considering entrepreneurship, and anyone building a product meant to perform under real-world conditions.You can learn more about Tourlami at www.tourlami.com. You can purchase Tourlami for your own kitchen at Chef’s Warehouse locations across the U.S and Canada and on Webstaurant Store.You can follow Tourlami on social media @tourlami and Susannah at @itsschool_man. Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

What does it really take to build a food business from the ground up — and keep it alive for over 16 years?In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Mindy Crosato, founder of Decadent Creations, Collective Kitchen, and Collective Market in Hillsboro, Oregon. Mindy shares her raw, honest entrepreneurial journey — from a personal rock-bottom moment at age 20 to becoming a “Chopped” champion, bakery owner, and the largest private employer in downtown Hillsboro.Mindy opens up about:Why getting fired, failing out of school, and a breakup pushed her to trust herselfStarting a bakery business at farmers markets with just $500How winning Chopped accelerated her growth overnightThe realities of scaling a handmade food businessWhy she built a commissary kitchen to help other food entrepreneurs succeedHow community, mentorship, and persistence matter more than perfectionThis conversation is a masterclass in food entrepreneurship, creative risk-taking, and building businesses that serve both people and place.If you’re a baker, chef, maker, or aspiring founder — this episode will leave you inspired to start before you feel ready.You can learn more about Decadent Creations at www.decadentcreations.com and visit the bakery and the Collective Market in Hillsboro, Oregon. You can follow Decadent Creations @decadentcreationspdx, Collective Market @collectivemarketpdx, and Mindy @mindcrosato.Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

This week’s episode is our first ever MINI BITE! You get to learn so much in a shorter episode length. Enjoy!Building a food or CPG company is never easy—and finding the right investors can be just as challenging. On this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Nate Cooper, founder and managing partner of Barrel Ventures, to talk about what it really takes to build, fund, and scale successful food and beverage businesses.Nate shares his journey from growing up in a food-industry family to helping launch LYFE Kitchen, co-founding Wise Apple, and eventually becoming an early investor in brands like Olipop. Along the way, he breaks down how founders should think about fundraising, why not everyone needs to love your product, and how venture capital actually works behind the scenes in food and CPG.This conversation covers:How Nate transitioned from operator to food-focused venture capitalistLessons learned from building and shutting down a startupWhat makes a food or CPG brand investableWhy niche audiences matter more than mass appealThe future of functional beverages, CPG consolidation, and emerging categoriesHow founders should approach investors—and what not to doWhy resilience, network, and long-term vision matter more than perfectionWhether you’re building a food brand, exploring venture capital, or just curious how investment decisions are made in CPG, this episode offers a candid, insider look at the business of food.You can connect with Nate on LinkedIn or email him at [email protected]. You can learn more about Barrel Ventures and its portfolio companies at www.barrelvc.com. Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

Thanks for being a supporter of The Perfect Bite! I’m gathering info about what you love about the show on this quick survey—I’m picking 5 random recipients for a $10 Starbucks gift card through Tuesday, January 20, 2026! You can fill it out here. Thanks! Now back to the episode! Setting a table is about more than plateware and linens—it’s about intention, connection, and creating a sense of place.In this episode of The Perfect Bite Podcast, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Kira Corbin, founder of Standard Affair, to explore how a lifelong love of food, prop styling, and visual storytelling evolved into a modern homewares brand rooted in sustainability and timeless design.Kira shares her journey from working on food and lifestyle shoots for major publications to launching Standard Affair, a line of ceramic dinnerware and linens designed to elevate everyday meals while reducing waste. The conversation covers everything from the emotional power of the table to the realities of entrepreneurship, creative pivots, and why persistence matters more than perfection.In this episode, you’ll learn:How Kira transitioned from prop styling and magazine shoots to founding Standard AffairWhy table settings play a powerful role in hospitality and connectionHow sustainability and recycled materials shape Standard Affair’s production processWhat it takes to pivot careers and “kill your darling” to make space for growthTips for creating meaningful, intentional dinner parties at homeWhy persistence—not talent—is often the key to entrepreneurial successWhether you’re a creative founder, food-media professional, or someone who loves gathering around the table, this episode offers inspiration for building something beautiful and meaningful.You can purchase Standard Affair and learn more at www.standardaffair.com. TPB listeners can get 10% off your purchase with code ‘PERFECTBITE10’! You can see more of Kira’s work at www.kiracorbin.com. You can follow Standard Affair on Instagram @standardaffair and Kira @kiracorbin. Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

What if non-alcoholic drinks were just as complex, cultural, and satisfying as craft cocktails?On this episode of The Perfect Bite podcast, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Benno Nelson, co-founder of Five Corners Beverage Company, a Chicago-based brand crafting deeply flavored, globally inspired non-alcoholic canned drinks for adults.Benno shares how his journey into sobriety — paired with a lifelong love of food, beverage, and global storytelling — sparked the idea for Five Corners. Rather than creating sugary substitutes or imitation cocktails, Five Corners honors traditional non-alcoholic drinks from around the world, focusing on the five foundational tastes: salty, sour, bitter, savory, and sweet.This episode explores the evolution of the non-alcoholic beverage movement, why Chicago is the perfect testing ground for innovative drinks, and how intentional flavor design can create true alternatives—not compromises.In this episode, we discuss:Why non-alcoholic drinks deserve depth, culture, and storyBenno’s sobriety journey and how it shaped Five CornersThe inspiration behind flavors like Salted Lemonade and SangritaHow global beverage traditions influenced Five Corners’ recipesBuilding a beverage startup intentionally and locally in ChicagoWhy non-alcoholic menus are additive — not cannibalistic — for restaurantsLessons in entrepreneurship, patience, and community-driven growthTo learn more about Five Corners or order your own packs around the country, head to www.fivecornersbev.com. Get 10% off your online order with code ‘BITE’!You can purchase and experience Five Corners Beverage at retailers, restaurants and venues throughout the Chicago area. You can follow Five Corners on Instagram @fivecornersbev.Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

What makes a restaurant, winery, or culinary space truly memorable? It’s not just the food — it’s the experience.In this episode of The Perfect Bite podcast, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Maryam Ahmed, founder of Maryam + Company and partner at PLAYTE Kitchen, to explore how experience design, community, and equity intersect across the food and beverage industry.Maryam shares her journey from hospitality operations and wine education to founding a consulting firm focused on inclusive, impactful experiences. From her work at the Culinary Institute of America’s Copia campus to launching hands-on culinary programming in Napa at PLAYTE Kitchen, Maryam breaks down how thoughtful design can foster connection, belonging, and long-term sustainability in hospitality.This conversation dives into food as a unifying force, the future of experiential hospitality, and what it truly takes to build spaces where everyone feels welcome.In this episode, you’ll learn:How experience design shapes guest connection in food and beverageWhy community and equity must be embedded into hospitality systemsThe role of education in creating meaningful culinary experiencesHow PLAYTE Kitchen is reimagining hands-on cooking classesWhy authentic and diverse leadership matters in food, wine, and hospitalityYou can visit PLAYTE Kitchen in Napa, California and sign up for classes at www.playtekitchen.com. You can follow PLAYTE Kitchen on Instagram at @playtekitchen.You can learn more about Maryam + Company at www.maryamandcompany.com. You can follow Maryam + Company on Instagram @maryamandcompany and Maryam @goodfriendsgoodfood.Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

On this episode of The Perfect Bite podcast, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Emily Groden, founder and CEO of Evergreen waffles, the better-for-you frozen waffle brand now sold in more than 8,500 grocery stores nationwide.Emily’s story is anything but traditional. After graduating from Yale and Harvard Law School, she became General Counsel for The Alinea Group—one of the most innovative and prestigious restaurant groups in the world. But it was pregnancy, motherhood, and a podcast on frozen waffles that sparked an idea that would change her career — and the breakfast aisle — forever.In this episode, Emily shares how she built Evergreen waffles from her home kitchen into a nationally distributed CPG brand, all while staying true to real ingredients, thoughtful sourcing, and steadfast business and nutrition values.In this episode, we discuss: • How Evergreen waffles was born from motherhood and necessity • The leap from corporate law to food entrepreneurship • Lessons Emily learned working at The Alinea Group and Tock • Building a frozen CPG brand with real, whole-food ingredients • Scaling manufacturing, retail distribution, and supply chain • Why shooting your shot — even with a cold email — matters • The challenges and rewards of building a Midwest-based CPG brandPerfect Bite listeners—get 15% off your Evergreen order on eatevergreen.com with code ‘TPB15’! Visit www.eatevergreen.com to shop, learn more, and find store locations with product near you. You can follow Evergreen on Instagram at @eatevergreen. Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

On today’s episode of The Perfect Bite Podcast, host Sarah Perkins sits down with globally renowned chef Paul Liebrandt — the boundary-breaking culinary artist known for plates that blend British punk attitude with Michelin-level precision.Liebrandt became a media and industry legend early — earning three stars from The New York Times at age 24, starring in an Emmy-winning HBO documentary, and redefining fine dining with an unmistakable creative identity.In this deep and unfiltered conversation, Paul opens up about: 🍽 How English boarding school, Chinatown markets, and early memories shaped his palette 🔥 Why chefs must protect creativity in the age of social media & AI 🤖 His stance on technology vs. the irreplaceable “human intuition” of culinary craft 📈 What most restaurant operators misunderstand about marketing today 🧠 The psychology of taste and why diners are really coming to fine dining restaurants 🌍 His experience working across London, Paris, New York and Asia — and where the industry is heading nextWhether you’re a chef, founder, hospitality professional, or creative of any kind, this episode is a masterclass in artistry, excellence, resilience, and staying true to your voice — even in a noisy world.You can learn more about Crumpet Management and Paul’s work at www.paulliebrandt.com. You can follow Paul on Instagram at @paulliebrandt. Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

In this episode of The Perfect Bite Podcast, host Sarah Perkins sits down with pastry chef, food writer, and cookbook author Justin Burke, whose debut cookbook Potluck Desserts is redefining what comfort baking — and queer food — really mean.Justin shares their remarkable journey from self-taught baker and restaurant pastry chef to becoming a nationally recognized voice in food storytelling, and how writing about food through a queer lens unlocked a mission of community, identity, and chosen family.From pop-ups that unexpectedly went viral, to the emotional process of bringing a cookbook in the queer food space to life over 10 years, to building a platform rooted in authenticity rather than algorithm-chasing, Justin offers wisdom for creatives and entrepreneurs across every field.In this episode you’ll hear: • What queer food really is — and why it has nothing to do with ingredients • The cultural history of queer potlucks and how they shaped Justin’s cookbook • How to build a creative career without “staying in one lane” • Why authors and creators should focus on community over competition • Advice for anyone writing a book or building a brand from scratchYou can purchase “Potluck Desserts” at your favorite local book stores or any national bookstore chains. You can follow Justin on Instagram @justintsburke and subscribe to his Substack “Taste This.”Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

In this very special LIVE episode of The Perfect Bite podcast, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Kathleen “Katalina” Day, founder of Katalina’s Café, Columbus’s iconic brunch spot known for its Latin-leaning, Southern-slanted comfort food and 3 million-plus famous Pancake Balls™.Recorded in front of a live audience tasting Katalina’s delicious menu, Sarah and Kathleen talk about how a tiny corner café turned into a three-location local empire, the story behind her signature dishes, and what it really takes to run a restaurant for 15 years through recessions, pandemics, and changing dining trends.From Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives to community-driven growth, Kathleen shares her journey of creativity, grit, and heart — all while serving a multi-course tasting menu inspired by her roots in the South, travels in France, and love of Latin flavors. In this episode, you’ll hear:The real story behind the famous Pancake Balls™How Katalina’s built a cult following in ColumbusWhat it’s like to be featured on Diners, Drive-Ins & DivesHow Kathleen blends Latin and Southern influences into one brandThe hardest lessons from 15 years in hospitality — and how she keeps goingYou can visit Katalina’s locations throughout Columbus in the Harrison West, Clintonville, and Bexley neighborhoods. You can learn more at www.katalinas.com. You can follow Katalina’s on Instagram at @katalinascafe and Kathleen at @katalinaday. Thank you to the event’s beneficiary Freedom a la Cart for teaming up with us and to our sponsors for the evening, including Middle West Spirits, Rose Bredel, Milligan’s maple syrup and Premiere ProduceOne. Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

In this episode of The Perfect Bite Podcast, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Beth Le Manach, creator of Entertaining with Beth and author of Entertaining 101. Beth shares how she turned her love of home cooking and hosting into a thriving digital media brand — from her early days at Scripps and Food Network to building a YouTube channel with over 600,000 subscribers. They explore the journey behind Entertaining 101, the art of making guests feel at home, and Beth’s lessons from 13+ years in the creator economy. From surviving long days as a mompreneur to creating content that feels elevated yet accessible, Beth reveals what it really takes to build a sustainable media brand around food, joy, and storytelling.You’ll learn:How Beth transitioned from corporate media to food creator entrepreneurshipWhat makes content relatable and evergreenThe secret to building loyal communities onlineHow to monetize across YouTube, Substack, and booksBeth’s tips for stress-free entertaining and creating your “perfect bite”Grab Beth’s new book, Entertaining 101, now available at Anthropologie, Amazon, and anywhere books are sold.You can follow Beth on YouTube, Instagram, Substack and more @entertainingwithbeth. You can buy Entertaining 101 and learn more from Beth at www.entertainingwithbeth.com.Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Catherine De Orio — food & lifestyle media personality, former host of “Check, Please!” Chicago, executive director of the Foundation for Culinary Arts, and founder of Casa De Orio, a new media brand celebrating la dolce vita.Catherine’s journey is one of reinvention, resilience, and creativity. From her early years in an Italian-American family where food focused on connection and nourishment, to her transition from litigator to culinary school graduate to national TV host, she shares how she’s turned every chapter into an opportunity to grow, serve, and create.We dive into how she built a career at the intersection of culinary arts, media, nonprofits and entrepreneurship, how she’s shaping the future of culinary education through the Foundation for Culinary Arts, and what inspired her newest venture — Casa De Orio, a digital platform and lifestyle brand focused on food, design, travel, and finding beauty in everyday life.In this episode you’ll learn:How Catherine transitioned from law to food & lifestyle mediaThe origin story behind Check, Please! and how it shaped her careerHow food, family, and heritage shaped her creative voiceThe mission of the Foundation for Culinary Arts & the “Yes, Chef!” culinary camp programWhat inspired Casa De Orio & the future of digital lifestyle brandsAdvice for creatives on trusting your path and finding alignmentTo learn more about the Foundation for Culinary Arts and support its mission, you can visit www.foundationforculinaryarts.org. You can follow FFCA on Instagram at @f4cachi.You can learn more about Casa De Orio at www.casadeorio.com and follow on Instagram @casadeorio. Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Chef Logan Neisel, the creative force behind North Coast Culinary Group — known for his innovative Prologue Dinner Series pop-ups and private dining experiences in Cleveland.Logan’s approach to food blends fine-dining precision with personal storytelling, drawing on history, culture, and art to craft meals that are as thought-provoking as they are delicious. From his culinary beginnings to curating one-of-a-kind experiences, Logan shares what inspires his menus, how he brings a sense of art and history to every dish, and why he believes food should make you feel something.In this episode, you’ll learn:How Chef Logan Neisel approaches pop-ups and private dining as immersive art formsThe stories and history behind his most memorable dishesHow artistry, intention, and emotion guide his creative processWhy intimacy and storytelling matter more than ever in modern diningThe evolution of Midwest food culture through a fine-dining lensWant to join Logan for one of his Prologue Dinner Series events? Get 10% off your tickets with code PERFECTBITE here. You can follow Logan on Instagram @chef_lone, @northcoastculinarygroup, and @prologuedinner_cle. Head to this link to see where Logan will be serving his next dinner in Cleveland.Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen!Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Chef Zubair Mohajir, the creative force behind Lilac Tiger, Coach House, Mirra, and Sarima Café—four of Chicago’s most inventive and culture-forward restaurants.Zubair’s journey is anything but traditional. Born in Chennai, India, and raised in the Chicago suburbs, he went from a career in finance to the kitchens of Jean-Georges, Bouchon, and even Gaggan in Bangkok. His story spans immigration, resilience, mentorship, and the reinvention of Indian cuisine paired with other cultures for a new generation.He shares how his South Indian roots shaped his culinary identity, how he built community-driven restaurants rooted in collaboration and culture, and how he’s using food to challenge stereotypes about Indian cuisine.You’ll Learn:How Zubair transitioned from finance to fine diningLessons from working at Jean-Georges and staging at Gaggan in BangkokThe origins of Wazwan, Lilac Tiger, Coach House, Mirra, and Sarima Café to James Beard nominationsHow Top Chef changed his perspective as a creative entrepreneurWhy collaboration is key in the restaurant industryHis reflections on culture, immigrant identity, and culinary reinventionYou can visit all of Zubair’s venues throughout Chicago. To learn more, visit www.chefzubair.com. You can follow Zubair on Instagram @zubairmohajir. You can follow his restaurants @lilactigerchi, @mirrachicago, @coachhousechi, and @sarimacafe. Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

When Mark and Gail Elvidge’s son Tanner had a life-threatening reaction to peanuts, they knew they had to make a change. What started as a way to keep their family safe became Vermont Nut Free Chocolates, a pioneering allergen-friendly confectionery brand founded in 1998.In this inspiring episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Mark Elvidge, co-founder of Vermont Nut Free Chocolates, to talk about building a beloved brand for families with food allergies — and why safe, great chocolate is for everyone.Mark shares:The origin story of Vermont Nut Free Chocolates (and how early online sales helped them grow)What it means to create allergen-friendly sweets without sacrificing tasteHow they grew from their home kitchen to nationwide distributionChallenges of cocoa pricing, tariffs, and scaling artisanal production todayTrends in allergy-friendly CPG and where the market is headingHis advice for entrepreneurs about resilience, “gettoitiveness,” and listening to your customersIf you or your loved ones have ever struggled with food allergies, work in the CPG or chocolate space, or just love entrepreneurial stories (and chocolate!), you won’t want to miss this conversation.Want 15% off your Vermont Nut Free order? Use code PERFECTBITE at checkout or follow this link: https://www.vermontnutfree.com/discount/PERFECTBITEYou can purchase Vermont Nut Free Chocolates at www.vermontnutfree.com or use the website's Store Locator to find a retailer near you. You can follow Vermont Nut Free Chocolates on social media at @vermontnutfree.Learn more about the FARE PACT Alliance here.Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter on Substack!

What if dinner could be fresh, delicious, and stress-free—without hours in the kitchen?In this episode of The Perfect Bite podcast, host Sarah Perkins sits down with David Rabie, co-founder and CEO of Tovala, the smart steam-powered countertop oven and meal service that reimagined home cooking. From humble prototypes to being named one of Oprah’s Favorite Things, Tovala has grown into a national brand that’s changing the way people cook at home.David shares the full journey:Growing up with home-cooked meals and discovering the power of foodEarly career lessons at Veggie Grill and running a frozen yogurt chainThe “aha moment” that sparked Tovala’s smart oven technologyNavigating Y Combinator as a food + hardware startupLanding on Oprah’s Favorite Things list and scaling nationallyBalancing fundraising challenges, consumer trust, and profitabilityHis best advice for entrepreneurs in food tech and beyondWhether you’re a foodie, a startup founder, or someone looking for smarter ways to cook at home, this episode is packed with insights on innovation, perseverance, and building a consumer brand that lasts.You can order a Tovala oven and sign up for the meal service at www.tovala.com.Follow Tovala on Instagram at @tovalafood and your other favorite social media platforms. Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for the newsletter on Substack! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when you mix hometown pride, bold flavors, and decades of CPG experience? You get Local Style Potato Chips, Chicago’s favorite foods reimagined in snackable form. This week on The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Laura Gardner, founder of Local Style, to talk about her journey from Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo to launching a startup that has Chicago buzzing.Laura shares how memories of eating Better Made chips with her grandmother and a honeymoon in Japan enjoying unique chip flavors sparked the idea for Local Style, how she brought iconic flavors like Italian Beef, Chicago Hot Dog, Deep Dish Pizza, and Hot Giardiniera to life, and why entrepreneurship in her 40s was the right move.We also dive into:How Local Style exploded from 12 to 140+ retailers in just four monthsWhat it’s like to build a business with your spouseLaura’s viral Local Style packaging dress at the James Beard AwardsThe power of Chicago pride in food entrepreneurshipHer advice for anyone ready to finally take the leap into building their dreamIf you love snacks, debating Chicago foods, or entrepreneurial stories full of resilience and creativity, you won’t want to miss this episode.To learn more and order Local Style nationwide, head to www.localstylechips.com. You also can order Local Style on Here Here Market nationwide at www.hereheremarket.com. Follow Local Style on Instagram and Tiktok @localstylechips.Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for the newsletter on Substack! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Food is heritage, healing, and storytelling — and in her new cookbook Dal Chawal, Sapna Punjabi brings all of that to life.In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Sapna Punjabi — registered dietitian, culinary educator, and founder of beSPICED— to talk about her journey from Mumbai to Texas, how Ayurveda shapes her philosophy of food, and the inspiration behind her debut cookbook Dal Chawal.Sapna shares:Why she wrote Dal Chawal and how it celebrates Indian food traditionsEveryday ways to bring Ayurveda practices into your kitchenThe importance of rituals, family, and storytelling in foodHow she built a business rooted in heritage and wellnessThis episode is a beautiful reminder that food is more than fuel — it’s connection, culture, and healing.👉 Dal Chawal is available now wherever books are sold.You can learn more about beSPICED, Sapna’s products, Dal Chawal, and her courses at www.bespiced.com. You can follow Sapna on Instagram @be.spiced and her YouTube channel. In California? View Sapna’s upcoming book tour dates and locations here! Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and visit our site www.theperfectbitepod.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I was so honored to join Colleen Silk on Hospitality Bites! You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Captivate. Read more about our chat below: In this episode of Hospitality Bites, host Colleen Silk sits down with Sarah Perkins, Cherry Bombe member, founder of Perkins Creative Consulting, and host of The Perfect Bite podcast.Sarah shares her journey from working as the “phone girl” at a pizzeria to building a career rooted in storytelling, creativity, and entrepreneurship. From being ahead of her time in the fashion swap era as a younger, successful startup founder, navigating the tech space, to now finding happiness and success in sharing conversations with strangers turned friends.Together, Colleen and Sarah explore the heart of the food and beverage industry: connection, storytelling, and the power of personal journeys.What We DiscussedSarah’s first job in hospitality (and what being a pizzeria “phone girl” taught her).How childhood storytelling and writing shaped her career.The role of food media and consulting in amplifying voices in hospitality.Why human connection is the heartbeat of hospitality.Colleen’s own shift from the front-of-house to food media.The shared values that make the hospitality industry unique.Episode TakeawaysHospitality is about more than food—it’s about caring for people and creating connection.Storytelling is a powerful tool for elevating food and beverage businesses.Everyone takes a different path into hospitality, and each story has value.Transitioning from hands-on roles to media or consulting can open new creative doors.Passion and community fuel the food and beverage industry.Chapters01:35 Introduction and Background 02:12 Early Career and Education05:40 Founding the Fashion Rental Startup 08:29 Transition to Food and Beverage 09:24 Becoming a Marketing Consultant 13:32 Podcasting and Storytelling 16:46 Challenges and Lessons Learned 27:29 Future Goals and Aspirations  #HospitalityBitesPodcast #HospitalityEntrepreneur #WomenInHospitality #HospitalityLeadership #FemaleFounders #FoodAndBeverageIndustry #CherryBombe #PerfectBitePodcast #BusinessOfFood #FoodStorytelling  About Hospitality Bites:Hosted by Colleen Silk, Hospitality Bites is an honest and restorative space for voices within the hospitality industry. More than just a podcast, it serves as a storytelling platform for changemakers, risk-takers, and hospitality professionals who are approaching their work in innovative ways. Each episode features guests ranging from chefs to advocates and media personalities, focusing on mental and physical health, personal experiences, and the realities of thriving in the hospitality industry and beyond.New episodes of Hospitality Bites drop every Monday, now proudly under the Walk-In Talk Media umbrella.Watch the full episode on YouTube the following week.Want to get involved or learn more? Visit HospitalityBites.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.