Culinary Characters Unlocked
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.
All Episodes
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 40
SMALL TOWN CHEF AND RESTAURANT OWNER CARA TOBIN ON HER NOMINATION AS AMERICA’S BEST RESTAURATEUR IN THE UPCOMING THE 2025 JAMES BEARD AWARDS. Ep 40
Cara Tobin got her first restaurant job at the age of 17, by lying about her cooking experience in the job interview—she had none at all. In the years that followed she went to culinary school, graduating number one in her class, then worked her way up the cooking ladder at several restaurants before falling in love with Eastern Mediterranean cuisine when she worked at Oleana in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now she is cooking that cuisine at two restaurants she co-owns in Burlington, Vermont—Honey Road and The Grey Jay. And she and her business partner have been named finalists for the title of America’s Outstanding Restaurateur in the 2025 James Beard awards, which will be announced in June.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 39
Executive Chef Andre Bienvenu on his quarter century at the legendary Joe’s Stone Crab and his unexpected second chapter as a restaurant owner. EP 39
Chef André Bienvenu spent more than a quarter-century as executive chef at America’s highest grossing independent restaurant, Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami Beach. He considered that the pinnacle of his long career and was looking ahead to retirement, but those plans changed dramatically. Given an unexpected opportunity to partner on a new restaurant, he began a second chapter in his professional life, now as an owner, opening Catch & Cut in Fort Lauderdale, an old school seafood and steak restaurant that became an instant hit. He does things his way—a reservation book instead of an iPad, an obsession with running a civilized kitchen with no shouting, and of course his own take on stone crab.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 38
Food & Wine Best New Chef Karyn Tomlinson on her invention of “Grandma Chic” cuisine - EP 38
Named a Food & Wine Best New Chef for 2024, Karyn Tomlinson has won raves for her restaurant Myriel in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her menu, combining elements of French, Nordic, and Midwestern cuisines has been dubbed “Grandma Chic.” A major advocate of local, seasonal cooking, she sources all her ingredients from local farms, which she visits every week. But she is pragmatic about getting people to eat better, encouraging them to simply do as well as they can (and she herself admits to enjoying a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios after work).
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 37
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – MARY NGUYEN – EP 37
After coming to the United States from Peru in his teens, Diego Sanchez found a sense of belonging in restaurant kitchens. He cooked under some of the world’s greatest chefs before striking out on his own and now owns his own restaurant on the Jersey shore, 39 Degrees North in Manahawkin, NJ—a diner he has reimagined his way, adding items like handmade gnocchi and lomo saltado to the traditional diner menu.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 36
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – MARY NGUYEN – EP 36
Chef Mary Nguyen grew up in a Vietnamese immigrant household in Denver, went on to work as an investment banker, then decided to make a major career change—into the world of food. She began by working three culinary jobs at once, and becoming one of America’s first female sushi chefs, before opening the first of several restaurants in her hometown, including Olive & Finch, which is now a growing restaurant group. It offers chef-driven, scratch-made food without the fine dining prices.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 35
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - JOHN FRASER – EP 35
Michelin star winning chef John Fraser worked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Thomas Keller, and in some of the most storied restaurants in France, before opening a restaurant of his own and then continuing to build a culinary empire. He has won Michelin stars at two different restaurants, including the vegetarian Nix in New York city. His restaurants focus on a range of cuisines, including French, Greek and Turkish, and vegetable-focused California style cooking.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 34
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – SHEILA AND DUFFY WITMER– EP 34
Sheila and Duffy Witmer bought the Pioneer Saloon in Ketchum, Idaho nearly half a century ago. And they’ve kept it a jam-packed favorite ever since, with scores of repeat customers including Clint Eastwood, Sandy Koufax, and Ernest Hemingway’s grandchildren. The menu is beef-heavy, featuring steaks and their legendary prime rib. And scraps from preparing the prime rib are the key ingredient in the Jim Spud, a massive twenty-two ounce baked potato stuffed with teriyaki beef, cheese, sour cream, caramelized onions and more.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 33
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED –CARLOS GAYTÁN – EP 33
Carlos Gaytán has earned a Michelin star (the first Mexican-born chef ever to receive one) at two different restaurants. He is noted for combining regional Mexican cooking with classic French techniques. After working his way up from dishwasher in a hotel kitchen, he now owns restaurants in Chicago, Mexico, and recently opened several in the Downtown Disney District adjacent to Disneyland. He has appeared on Top Chef and as a judge on numerous cooking competition shows in the U.S. and Mexico.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 32
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – ADRIAN MILLER - EP 32
Called the Soul Food Scholar, Adrian Miller is renowned for his knowledge of African American and southern cooking. Author of multiple books, he won James Beard awards for two of them: Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time, and Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. Yet culinary history was not his original career path. He was a lawyer, worked for the Clinton White House, and then for the governor of Colorado, before turning to culinary research. His findings are profound and often surprising. Our conversation ranged far and wide – from the white history of chitlins, to vegan soul food, the German origins of chicken and waffles, and how, in his words, mac and cheese became “so black.”
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 31
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - KATIE BUTTON - EP 31.
Chef Katie Button is a James Beard winner for her Asheville, North Carolina Spanish restaurant Cúrate, which is the flagship of her restaurant group. Button discovered her deep love for food when she was living in Paris, studying for a master’s degree in biomedical engineering. The awakening was so profound that she changed careers, worked for two of the world’s greatest chefs, Ferran Adrià and José Andrés, before opening tapas-based Cúrate, then building a culinary empire that includes a Catalonian restaurant, a Spanish market, European tours, a cookbook, and more. She is heavily involved in helping the Asheville community rebuild after massive flooding from Hurricane Helene.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 30
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - CHEFS MELISSA REAGAN AND STEPHEN GONZALEZ - EP 30
Melissa Reagan and Stephen Gonzalez met at Culinary School in Austin, Texas two decades ago, then followed their own culinary journeys through a variety of restaurants. Today she’s cooking at an upscale restaurant in North Carolina (but by contract she can’t name it) and with supermarkets challenging many restaurants by offering meals cooked on site, he is working for the H-E-B grocery chain, a major player in Texas. Both feel deeply about getting average folks cooking at home. Which is the impetus behind their Food for Thoughtcast podcast. We discussed that and much more about the world of food—now and in the future.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 29
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – NOK SUNTARANON – EP 29
Nok Suntaranon remembers eating like royalty growing up in Thailand, even though her family was poor, thanks to her mother’s skills in the kitchen. And it’s the food of her childhood that she is cooking at her Philadelphia restaurant Kalaya, named for her mom, which she did not open until the age of 50. She had been enjoying life as a housewife but says there’s only so much Pilates, yoga, and lunching a person can do. Just a few years later, she won the 2023 James Beard Award as best chef in the mid-Atlantic. She’s been featured on Top Chef. She’s written a cookbook, Kalaya’s Southern Thai Kitchen. And she contends that Philadelphia is now America’s number one food town.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 28
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF MATT VAWTER – EP 28
Named the 2024 James Beard Awards best chef in the mountain region, Matt Vawter began his culinary education going to restaurants with his grandparents and being taken into the kitchen to meet the chef. He got his first cooking job at the age of fourteen and worked his way up to big success in his hometown. Born in the Breckenridge, Colorado area, Vawter began culinary school while still in high school, cut his teeth in Denver working for celebrated chef Alex Seidel, then came back to Breckenridge to open Rootstalk, featuring local and impeccably sourced ingredients. It was a big hit and soon thereafter he opened Radicato, his Colorado take on Italian.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 27
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 27
Victoria Shore grew up in an adventurous culinary family (few American kids fall in love with Basque food but she did) and ended up cooking professionally because she could not get the job she wanted, culinary journalist, without kitchen experience. She’s always loved to cook—she was the kid making French fries in her dorm room—and has now worked her way up from positions in catering and restaurants to become the Executive Chef of all the restaurants at the Thompson Savannah Hotel in Savannah, Georgia. She discusses, among other things, the unique challenges of a hotel restaurant competing with celebrated fine dining establishments in a food forward town.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 26
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - CHEF MICHAEL GULOTTA - EP 26
Born and raised in New Orleans, Michael Gulotta began cooking for his family at the age of nine. He grew up to attend culinary school in his hometown, then trained under legendary chefs in Europe, before coming back to N’awlins and opening three restaurants that combine, to varying degrees, Asian, Italian, Cajun, and Creole flavors. He is a five-time James Beard Award semifinalist who has drawn raves from the most esteemed culinary publications. And he runs “no yelling, please-and-thank-you” kitchens.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 25
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – AMELIE KANG – EP 25
Amelie Kang grew up in northern China, moved to Beijing, and then to the U.S., where she graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. She worked for Michelin starred chefs, before going on to open the Málà Project in New York, where she offers food as eaten in China, and a more upscale dining experience than the typical American Chinese restaurant. Which makes her a pioneer in the movement being called Chinese 2.0.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 24
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL – EP 24
Despite never having trained as a chef, Christopher Kimball has taught millions of Americans how to become better home cooks. He started a magazine devoted to perfecting recipes, turned that into the America’s Test Kitchen media empire, then moved on to found another, Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, which includes a magazine, a TV show, a podcast, cookbooks, and more, and has expanded Kimball’s work to perfecting recipes from many other countries.
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 23
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – EP 23 – MARISSA GENCARELLI
Born in Mexico, Marissa Gencarelli was working a corporate job and had never run a culinary business, when she and her husband opened a Tortilleria in Kansas City. Using traditional methods, combined with creative brilliance, their Yoli Tortilleria won the 2023 James Beard Award as America’s Butstanding Bakery
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 22
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF NICHOLAS BAZIK – EP 22
Budding academic turned touring musician turned chef turned restaurateur, Nicholas Bazik is striving for the top of the culinary world at his new restaurant Provenance, which is shaking up the food world in Philadelphia amid his audacious claim that there’s never been a restaurant like this in that city before, and where standards and equipment are so high that chefs are clamoring for a job there. And wait ‘til he tells you about his Rolls Royce of ovens!
- CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - EP 21
CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF MATTHEW GRAY – EP 21
Chef Matthew Gray’s wild ride through life landed him in paradise. From touring with legendary rock bands in his youth, to studying at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in London, cooking for the stars in Hollywood, reviewing restaurants for Hawaii’s biggest newspaper, running food tours in Hawaii, and now hosting his own podcast, 50 tastes of Gray. Our conversation ranged from the real reason celebrities hire private chefs to the delights of Spam musubi.