About this podcast
Your fusion of food and entrepreneurship, The Perfect Bite brings you inspiring conversations with chefs, restaurateurs, CPG brand founders, food tech founders, and more in the food and beverage industry, highlighting their experiences and how they've cooked up something new. From emerging brands to established business owners, you'll learn from the best entrepreneurs in food, beverage, hospitality, and agriculture about how they started their businesses, what problems they're solving, the tough times they've overcome, and their best advice for entering these industries or starting your own business. We end each episode with the world's best and hardest question: What is your perfect bite?
Episodes
The newest 20 of 86 episodes
- How Rye Bunny's Jon Sybert and Jill Tyler Walked Away From a Decade of Success to Build Something Better · 1 h 4 min · Episode 84After a decade running Tail Up Goat, one of DC's most celebrated tasting menu restaurants, Jon Sybert and Jill Tyler did something most restaurateurs would never consider: They…
- How Donnie Madia Changed the Way Chicago Eats · 1 h 2 min · Episode 83This episode is sponsored by Vermont Nut Free Chocolates. Get 20% off your order through December 31st with code PERFECTBITE at vermontnutfree.com. This episode is also…
- Hill Top Hospitality Rewrites the Rules of Utah's Food Scene · 1 h 2 min · Episode 82This episode is sponsored by Vermont Nut Free Chocolates, your new favorite 100% tree nut and peanut nut quality chocolates. Get 20% off your order through December 31st with…
- How Dominique Leach Brought Fine Dining to Chicago BBQ · 1 h 6 min · Episode 81Chef Dominique Leach is a pit master, fine dining veteran, food entrepreneur, community builder, and the woman behind one of Chicago's most celebrated barbecue restaurants…
- Black Lagoon's Erin Hayes and Kelsey Ramage on Spooky Cocktails · 56 min · Episode 80They rented a cursed venue in Toronto with a leak and a fire alarm. They put everything they had into it. And by the end of the first week, there was a line around the block…
- In the Mood to Bake with Alex George of Lily P Crumbs · 58 min · Episode 79She named her brand after her geriatric dog. She started her Instagram account while in chemotherapy and called it Cooking with Cancer. She photographed her own cookbook in her…
- Chef Kevin O'Donnell on Freestyle Italian Cuisine in Newport · 1 h 3 min · Episode 78He was sixteen years old, court-ordered to an alternative school in Rhode Island, looking for a way to pass the time. A retired Johnson & Wales chef named Andy ran a vocational…
- Ashok Selvam on Ravenous and the Food Media Renaissance · 1 h 1 min · Episode 77About 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…
- Jaju Pierogi: 10 Years of Polish American Pride and Dumplings · 58 min · Episode 76Their 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…
- Avishar Barua on Agni, Joya's and Honoring Columbus · 54 min · Episode 75Just 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…
- Mira's Manny and Gina Ocasio Are Putting Buffalo on the Culinary Map · 52 min · Episode 74Some 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…
- Takeaways: The Savory Protein Bar the World Needed | Ash Baxter · 1 h 0 min · Episode 73She 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…
- Yama Seafood: 50 Years of World Class Seafood | Nobu Yamanashi · 49 min · Episode 72Kingo 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…
- James Beard Winner Chef Sarah Thompson Brings Coastal Mexico to Vegas · 54 min · Episode 71She 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…
- Zingerman's Bob Bennett on Culture and 22 Years of Leadership · 46 min · Episode 70Some 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…
- BLiS Gourmet on Great Lakes Caviar, Wild Flavors, and Giving Back · 56 min · Episode 69Because 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…
- Rita Sodi and Jody Williams: Iconic Food, Life and an Empire of Community · 40 min · Episode 68Some 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…
- Norman Fenton's Cariño is a Love Letter to Mexico, Family, and Purpose · 1 h 3 min · Episode 67You 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…
- BONUS EPISODE: LIVE! From the 2026 James Beard Awards Red Carpet · 1 h 40 min · Episode 66On 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…
- Foodbevy: Building a Community of 5,000 CPG Founders · 1 h 0 min · Episode 65Some 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…
