Culinary Characters Unlocked

By Culinary Characters Unlocked

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... more

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FAQs about Culinary Characters Unlocked:

How many episodes does Culinary Characters Unlocked have?

The podcast currently has 82 episodes available.

Culinary Characters Unlocked episodes:

September 09, 2025 2025 James Beard Best New Restaurant Award winners Jeanie Janas Ritter and Chef Adam Ritter on combining French techniques with Minnesota ingredients and risking everything to open a restaurant where others went bust
Classically trained chefs Jeanie Janas Ritter and Adam Ritter shared a culinary journey working at great and Michelin-starred restaurants throughout the US and internationally before coming back to their midwestern roots and working in Minneapolis, first for someone else, then taking the risk of opening a place of their own. Their venture, Bûcheron, French for lumberjack, was an instant hit, embracing the French bistronomy movement that marries fine dining with comfortable surroundings. And they embrace a further marriage—French techniques
and Minnesota ingredients in creating a menu that features such standouts as Fois gras, venison tartare, even eel. And yes, they were recently named the Best New Restaurant in America in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

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49min
September 02, 2025 Portland Chef Cathy Whims on the secrets to cooking in Italy, being tutored by the legendary Marcella Hazan, and helping turn Portland, Oregon into a culinary force
Chef Cathy Whims was at the forefront of the culinary revolution in Portland, Oregon and decades later she retains that position there. Her Nostrana Italian restaurant continues to dish up the kind of regional cooking truly enjoyed in the small towns and villages of Italy, bolstered by great Oregon ingredients, and her pizza is listed among America’s fifty best. She reminisces about truly discovering Italian cooking on her first visit there, and about being taught by Marcella Hazan who, after dining at Whims’s first Portland restaurant, invited the chef to study with her in Venice. Whims now owns multiple restaurants in Portland and recently released her first cookbook.

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40min
August 26, 2025 2025 James Beard Best Chef-Texas Thomas Bille on creating great food through the lens of a first generation Mexican American, risking everything on a dream, and rebuilding after losing it all
Chef Thomas Bille describes his cooking at his suburban Houston restaurant Belly of the Beast as driven by “a love for food that warms your soul and speaks to our ancestors.” A child of Mexican immigrants, Bille grew up with great food – his father was a professional chef and his mother a fabulous home cook – and as a self-described latchkey kid he was making French toast and spaghetti for himself by the age of 8. He went on to attend cooking school, then got most of his experience in Los Angeles before moving to Texas and opening Belly of the Beast. He was on the verge of financial disaster when, finally, recognition came, and with it, the crowds. Then he had to rebuild after a hurricane ravaged his restaurant. In awarding Belly of the Beast a Bib Gourmand, the Michelin Guide, noted that the “twists and turns” in his Mexican inspired cooking, “make for immensely satisfying courses that feel bold and balanced.” And where else will you find Wagyu birria?

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38min
August 22, 2025 Bonus Episode - A visit to Brennan's for the art and theatre of Banana's Foster
This special bonus episode comes from the folks at Gravy, a production of the Southern Foodways Alliance. Gravy shares stories of the changing
American South, and in this episode, producer Eve Troeh takes us to Brennan’s, an iconic restaurant in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter, where spectacle and tradition come together over a flambé pan. At Brennan’s, servers don’t just deliver dessert; they ignite Bananas Foster tableside in a performance perfected over decades. But behind the fire and flourish is a demanding skillset and an old-school apprenticeship that’s anything but simple. We meet the servers who’ve mastered the flame, and explore how this tableside ritual continues to evoke an era of elegance, even as restaurant culture evolves. For more stories from
the South, follow Gravy wherever you get your podcasts or visit
southernfoodways.org.

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22min
August 19, 2025 Pitmaster Ali Clem on winning a Michelin star for her barbecue restaurant, and her remarkable rise from selling her barbecue from a trailer
Ali Clem says she was shocked when her La Barbecue restaurant in Austin, TX was recently awarded a Michelin star. She was mentored by members of a legendary Texas barbecue family, the Muellers of Louis Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas and married founder Louis Mueller’s granddaughter, LeAnn Mueller. They worked together until Mueller’s
untimely death and Clem now runs the restaurant alone, honoring the legacy of Mueller and her family through the barbecue she is making today. And unlike many in the barbecue world in Texas, she is excited about pushing the envelope, experimenting with new flavors and dishes, even making pickles and the Korean favorite, kimchi.

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36min
August 12, 2025 2025 James Beard Award winner Nando Chang on Peruvian-Japanese cuisine, the threat to immigrants in the food world, and how hip-hop changed his life
The Chang siblings, born in Peru, emigrated to the U.S. as children, and now living in Miami, have locked up the James Beard award for Best Chef South for two straight years. Valerie won last year for her cooking at her Peruvian restaurant, Maty’s. Her older brother and co-owner Nando just won the 2025 award for what he does at his restaurant within that restaurant, the Michelin-star-winning Itamae AO. It is a ten-seat counter at which he serves his interpretation of the Peruvian-Japanese cuisine known as Nikkei, based mostly on raw fish and highlighting bold flavors. Chef Chang did not attend culinary school. In fact, he began working in restaurants to subsidize a music career that he pursued throughout his twenties before turning to the culinary side full-time.

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41min
August 09, 2025 Chef and restaurateur Nicholas Fanucci on his career at legendary Michelin-starred restaurants and his journey from the top to a food truck to a restaurant of his own
Born in Cannes, France, and raised in a food-centric French-Italian family, Nicholas Fanucci has run some of the greatest and best-known restaurants in America, including the French Laundry, Bouchon, Le Cirque, Le Bec-Fin, and more. Previously, he worked in Europe at legendary establishments including Alain Ducasse’s Louis XV. The restaurants he has worked at have amassed a total of more than 20 Michelin stars. His journey has been remarkable, including one arc that took him from GM of The French Laundry, to cooking in a food truck, to his current incarnation as the
owner of two restaurants in L.A.

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40min
August 05, 2025 Chef Yotaka “Sunny” Martin and her partner/husband on bringing her Thai cuisine to America and, with no restaurant experience, winning the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest
Chef Yotaka Martin had never heard of the James Beard awards until she was nominated for the 2024 competition. She grew up in a small village in the north of Thailand and has only been in the U.S a few years. But she is well aware now. She didn’t win last year but she was just named the 2025 James Beard Best Chef Southwest for her cooking at the Phoenix restaurant Lom Wong, which she runs with her husband Alex. They met after he visited Thailand while in college and fell in love with the country, then with her. Their travels throughout Thailand and elsewhere in Asia fueled their mutual love of food, and they developed a vast knowledge of
regional dishes rarely seen in the U.S., which they now feature. They are
committed to spreading not just food knowledge but also cultural understanding and encouraging the enjoyment of food to bring people together, which is a hallmark of Thai cuisine.

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43min
July 29, 2025 Chef and restaurateur Tyler Akin on re-opening his family’s favorite restaurant from his childhood and cooking a world of cuisines

Acclaimed Philadelphia restaurateur Tyler Akin recreated his childhood memories by re-opening the restaurant where his family celebrated big occasions—the Green Room, in the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington,Delaware. He grew up watching his southern grandmother in the kitchen. He went to law school (his father was a lawyer and later a judge) but dropped out to attend culinary school. His talent was obvious — he staged at José Andrés Minibar in Washington and worked for other noted chefs before opening a variety of restaurants with cuisines and influences from Corsica,
Sardinia, Croatia, Israel, France, Vietnam, Thailand, and more.

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40min
July 22, 2025 Two Michelin star winning chef Suzette Gresham on battling restaurant world misogyny and finding the soul of a cuisine
Chef Suzette Gresham has been a pioneer in fighting for the place of women in the long-male-dominated world of high-end cooking for forty years. And she’s also one of the greatest chefs working today. She holds two Michelin stars at her San Francisco restaurant Acquerello, where her seasonal tasing menus sparkle with the freshest, often unusual, dishes such as rabbit- mortadella filled cappellacci and quail with fennel confit.

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52min

FAQs about Culinary Characters Unlocked:

How many episodes does Culinary Characters Unlocked have?

The podcast currently has 82 episodes available.