Culinary Characters Unlocked
by Culinary Characters Unlocked
Latest episode
Chef Rochelle Daniel and her husband, front of house chief Michael…
Chef Rochelle Daniel and her husband, front of house chief Michael…
About this podcast
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. New episode every Tuesday.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 126 episodes
- Chef Rochelle Daniel and her husband, front of house chief Michael Hopper, on blowing up fine dining in Flagstaff, Arizona · 35 minChef Rochelle Daniel survived an almost brutal kitchen culture on the way up to hone her innovative fine dining skills. Her husband Michael Hopper brings that same creativity to…
- Chef Nick Zocco on shocking diners with an experience they’ve never had before · 41 minAfter growing up in New Mexico and diving deep into southwestern cuisine, Chef Nick Zocco went to work for Bobby Flay in Las Vegas. A decade later, he went on Bobby’s TV show…
- THE COUPLE THAT BUILT A CULINARY EMPIRE · 39 minWhen Joanne Chang was hired as pastry chef at one of Christopher Myers’s restaurants, the connection was instant. Years later, friendship turned into marriage. Along the way they…
- Chef Loryn Nalic on winning a James Beard Award cooking a cuisine few Americans have ever tried · 34 minChef Loryn Nalic married into a Bosnian family in St. Louis and fell in love with their food. She explored it further, traveling to Bosnia and the surrounding Balkans region…
- Chef Ryan Roadhouse on winning a James Beard Award on his NINTH nomination. And studying sushi in Japan · 42 min2026 James Beard Best Chef Northwest & Pacific Ryan Roadhouse is celebrated for marrying Japanese techniques and traditions with fresh local ingredients to create extraordinary…
- Executive Chef Katie Reicher on loving burgers while cooking at a historic vegetarian restaurant · 32 minKatie Reicher runs the kitchen at one of the most historically important vegetarian restaurants in America, Greens in San Francisco. But she insists she’s cooking for everybody…
- Chef David Bancroft on the journey from 5th grade entrepreneur to successful restaurateur. And on inventing chicken fried bacon · 43 minChef David Bancroft got into the food biz early, selling jerky to his classmates in elementary school until he got busted by a teacher. He went on to become a force in southern…
- Kyle and Amanda Lussier—he’s the James Beard nominated chef, she runs front of house—on bringing fine dining to a small Minnesota town that’s never seen it before · 42 minKyle and Amanda Lussier spent five years overcoming challenges to open their own restaurant, The Pines. And speaking of challenges, they did it in a small northern Minnesota town…
- Chef Melissa Perello on winning a Michelin star, then walking away from fine dining to cook HER way · 32 minMesmerized by the chefs see saw on TV, chef Melissa Perello fell in love with cooking as a child. Her mom still talks about the leg of lamb she made from a cooking show recipe…
- Chefs Jack Gingrich and Chris Weber on taking a legendary farm-to-table restaurant into the future. · 36 minTheir Washington state restaurant boasts of doing farm to table since 1986 and is credited with helping define Pacific Northwest Cuisine. It even has its own farm, and what they…
- Chef Ana Sortun on introducing Americans to the wonders of Turkish cooking—and no, it isn’t the same as Greek · 44 minChef Ana Sortun knew as a teenager that she wanted to cook. At 16 she decided to move to France for culinary school. It changed her life. But so did another trip many years…
- Chef Spike Gjerde on making less money to feed us better, and why farm to table is “more or less dead” · 38 minJames Beard Award winning chef and restaurateur Spike Gjerde has totally re-thought the way restaurants ought to be feeding us. He’s obsessed with doing things his way, building…
- Chefs Kari Lauritzen and Sonya Sanford on helping Americans turn cooking from a chore to a pleasure · 39 minKari Lauritzen and Sonya Sanford met and became best friends when both were private chefs in Los Angeles. Now they are coaxing non-cooks into the kitchen and teaching home cooks…
- Chef Travis Herbert on the bold flavors that earned him a James Beard finalist nomination, and the culinary inspiration of his Montana childhood · 34 minChef Travis Herbert began cooking with his grandmother as a child, but it was sharing a chairlift with a chef at a Utah ski resort that got him into the business. Now he’s got…
- Chef Star Maye on the path from prison to champion on Chopped · 37 minChef Star Maye has had a remarkable rise through the culinary world. Born in a small Alabama town, this self-described “black, queer single mother” went from a small Alabama town…
- Chef Andrew Black on the journey from his grandmother’s kitchen in Jamaica, to the Ritz in Paris, to winning a James Beard award in Oklahoma City · 36 minChef Andrew Black got his first cooking job in his native Jamaica in his teens. That began a stellar career that took him to the Ritz in Paris and the Peabody in Memphis. When he…
- Chef Renee Erickson built a restaurant empire from the bounty of the Pacific Northwest · 39 minAs a child, Chef Renee Erickson would go salmon fishing with her father. And fruits and vegetables came from the family garden. She’s taken that grounding in the fabulous foods…
- Chef Zak Baker on cooking in Milwaukee the way they really do in Italy · 38 minChef Zak Baker cooks what he calls Midwest Italian and it's unlike anything most folks have ever had before. It began when he first went to Italy and was thrilled by the food…
- Chef Kathy Fang on innovating Chinese cuisine and keeping a family legacy alive · 42 minChef Kathy Fang pretty grew up in her parents’ legendary San Francisco Chinese restaurant, House of Nanking. She tried a career in business but couldn’t escape the pull of the…
- Chef Zach Midgett on why he left the legendary French Laundry to cook in Lincoln, Nebraska · 39 minWhen he was in his teens, Zach Midgett found a refuge from problems at home by working in a suburban Philadelphia restaurant. He started as a dishwasher, fell in love with…
