Emmy Winner, International Acclaimed Journalist, Executive Producer, Food & Travel Lover, and Creator of the Beloved Show "Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives" David Page takes us deep into the world of chefs, restaurateurs, and everything "foodie" from the nationally and internationally awarded to the locally loved on
Culinary Characters Unlocked
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Ashwin Vilkhu’s Master’s thesis was a roadmap to get his family into the restaurant business by opening Saffron in New Orleans. He and his father were named semi-finalists for the 2025 James Beard award as Best Chef South for their cooking there, marrying Indian cuisine with New Orleans favorites. And now they’ve added a second restaurant just down the street, The Kingsway, where as Executive Chef he’s combining New Orleans cooking with a range of other Asian cuisines. Both spots received recommendations in Michelin’s first guide to the American south.
Sue Zemanick decided she wanted to become a chef when she was fourteen and began cooking professionally at fifteen. Her love of seafood, nurtured at the Culinary Institute of America, brought her to New Orleans, where she worked at Commander’s palace and Gautreau’s, where she rose from line cook to Executive Chef, before opening her own place, Zasu, creating a menu featuring seafood, global flavors, and multiple variations of the pierogies her grandmother used to make. The night Zasu won a Michelin star she wasn’t at the ceremony she was working, which she says was a good thing since diners immediately rushed in and the kitchen was slammed.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 82
Chef Ashwin Vilkhu on merging New Orleans cooking with the Indian cuisine he grew up with, and then with a variety of Asian flavors, at two Michelin-recommended restaurants at the same time. - EP 82
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Ashwin Vilkhu’s Master’s thesis was a roadmap to get his family into the restaurant business by opening Saffron in New Orleans. He and his father were named semi-finalists for the 2025 James Beard award as Best Chef South for their cooking there, marrying Indian cuisine with New Orleans favorites. And now they’ve added a second restaurant just down the street, The Kingsway, where as Executive Chef he’s combining New Orleans cooking with a range of other Asian cuisines. Both spots received recommendations in Michelin’s first guide to the American south.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 82
Chef Ashwin Vilkhu on merging New Orleans cooking with the Indian cuisine he grew up with, and then with a variety of Asian flavors, at two Michelin-recommended restaurants at the same time. - EP 82
Sue Zemanick decided she wanted to become a chef when she was fourteen and began cooking professionally at fifteen. Her love of seafood, nurtured at the Culinary Institute of America, brought her to New Orleans, where she worked at Commander’s palace and Gautreau’s, where she rose from line cook to Executive Chef, before opening her own place, Zasu, creating a menu featuring seafood, global flavors, and multiple variations of the pierogies her grandmother used to make. The night Zasu won a Michelin star she wasn’t at the ceremony she was working, which she says was a good thing since diners immediately rushed in and the kitchen was slammed.
Chef Perry Hoffman and his partners are turning the small northern California town of Boonville into a culinary destination. He grew up in the restaurant business, as a young child helping his grandmother in the kitchen of the French Laundry in Yountville, California, which his grandparents founded, and cooking in his uncle’s Boonville Hotel and Restaurant after high school. He went on to a high-level cooking career, winning a Michelin star, before returning to that hotel in Boonville, earning rave reviews and a Michelin recommendation for the tasting menu he’s offering there. And now he’s expanding, opening a more casual California/Italian restaurant across the street and an ice cream shop, where many of the home-made flavors are created with local fruit.
Bethany and Dano Heinze recently received a Michelin star for their Charleston Restaurant Vern’s. He’s the chef. She handles front of the house and a superb wine program built around little-known family-owned vineyards. Their innovative seasonal menu features unique and creative presentations of local produce and charcoal grilled proteins sourced straight from the farm. They’ve been working together for years first under Sean Brock at the groundbreaking McCrady’s in Charleston, then at the legendary Animal in L.A. Now back in Charleston, they’re making a major impact on that renowned culinary city.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 79
Husband and wife restaurateurs Bethany and Dano Heinze on winning a Michelin star at their Charleston restaurant, why it isn’t fine dining, and how they set such a high bar at an affordable neighborhood favorite. - EP 79
Ken Frank was a pioneer in the creation of fresh and local California cuisine as a young chef in Los Angeles. He became famous not just for his food but also for standing up to and calling out restaurant owners he says didn’t live up to his standards. He’s won a Michelin star 14 times at his own restaurant in the Napa Valley, where he’s still in the kitchen five days a week. And he’s become America’s leading truffle chef, with a lot to say about the allure of that fungus and why truffle oil is an abomination.
Maeve Webster is the woman big companies rely on to understand what’s happening and what’s about to happen in the culinary world. A trained chef and former café owner, she is president of the culinary research firm Menu Matters and in this episode she predicts the next hot cuisine not one you might expect, explains how restaurateurs have gone wrong chasing trends, why consumers are becoming bored with restaurant menus, and calls for a return to hospitality in the hospitality business at the same time she advises restaurant owners to simply tell some diners, “No, we can’t give you what you want.”
Mixologist Mariena Mercer Boarini invents 300 cocktails a year as Master Mixologist for Wynn Resorts, North America. She supervises the drinks programs at nearly 40 venues at Wynn’s flagship in Las Vegas, treating drinks as culinary creations, collaborating with chefs to match drinks with specific dishes, and often employing incredible molecular gastronomy techniques. She explains some of her best loved cocktails, explains how and why mocktails are exploding, and tells us what’s hot now and what to expect in the future.
Born in Jamaica, now living in Buffalo, Chef Darian Bryan has elevated Jamaican cuisine to the fine dining level at his restaurant, and through his work as a private chef. He has also amassed a roster of Buffalo Bills NFL players including MVP QB Josh Allen as clients, as private chef for some, preparing ready-to-heat meals for the special dietary needs of others, and as a special event caterer for many. He is engaging, entertaining, and an inspiration—from a childhood of poverty without electricity or running water, to a first job in America at Denny’s, to shining in culinary school, to successful chef and restaurateur.
Eater Editor-In-Chief Stephanie Wu is probably the most influential person in American food. She was raised in the Taiwan capital of Taipei, one of the world’s great food cities. After college in New York, she began a meteoric magazine career that now sees her in charge of the editorial content at Eater, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary, and has grown from a single blog focused on dining in New York to an online culinary juggernaut with a national edition, multiple city editions, and a host of related media ventures. She sees her mission as helping Americans find the next great meal and this episode is filled with unique knowledge, insights, and predictions about every facet of American dining that only she can provide.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 74
Eater Editor-In-Chief Stephanie Wu on the newest trends in American food, what’s ahead, the Eater 38, and what it’s like being the person so many Americans rely on to decide where and what to eat. - EP 74
Chef Jordan Rubin got into sushi by accident when the sushi chef’s assistant didn’t show up for work at the restaurant where he was making salads. From there, he’s worked his way up to owning his own sushi restaurant, Mr. Tuna, and being named a 2025 Best New Chef by Food & Wine. That climb began when he turned a hot dog cart into a sushi cart and began peddling sushi and sashimi on the streets of Portland, Maine. He says he wants to offer something for everyone including untraditional flavors and sushi burritos, while focusing on the freshest, highest quality, sustainable seafood prepared in the most traditional Japanese way.
Matt Rebhan is the third-generation owner of his family’s Alpine Steakhouse and Butcher Shop in Sarasota, Florida. And a master of making the turducken a turkey stuffed with a chicken, stuffed with a duck, which runs circles around a plain ol’ turkey for Thanksgiving. He first got national exposure for his turducken on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives back in 2007 and now sells hundreds each holiday season. He’s also got plenty to say about red meat what to buy and how to cook it and the challenges of the restaurant business today.
A Michelin starred brewery! Cousins Jared Rouben (a graduate of both culinary school and brewing school) and Jeremy Cohn began by opening Moody Tongue Brewing in Chicago, then expanded into restaurants. The one they run above their brewery, featuring a hyper-seasonal tasting menu with a beer pairing for each course, has earned a Michelin star. And their sushi restaurant in West Palm Beach, Florida has a Michelin Guide recommendation.
Meet The Host
David Page
David Page is a long-time journalist who reinvented food television when he created Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. He is also an author, having written the award-winning book Food Americana, which explores the creation of American cuisine from the foods of other countries and cultures. Now he’s talking with some of the most important and entertaining figures in the food world on Culinary Characters Unlocked. Previously, Page spent many years in news, producing for both NBC and ABC and covering some of the world’s most important events, (even walking through the Berlin Wall the night it opened).
