Matt Brown loves to cook. That may seem obvious given he’s spent the last 20 years as a chef. But many chefs don’t cook between shifts…not Matt. He loves nothing more than cracking open a cookbook, a bottle of wine and spending a day off grilling in the summer or roasting in the winter. 

Matt got his start at pizzeria as a teenager and spent time at several other spots in Sacramento that are no longer in existence (Matt swore their closing wasn’t his fault.) After moving to Idaho for five years to work as a chef and a stint in Napa he returned to Sacramento to work at 58 Holding Co. and then The Golden Bear where he made a name for himself cooking some of the best food in town at the unassuming Sacramento favorite. 

Today Matt is a part owner and head chef at Bodega Kitchen and Cocktails where he has dived deep into research and cookbooks to find all sorts of Puerto Rican and Caribbean inspired recipes that he and his team could put their own spin on. They have termed it “California Pan Caribbean” cuisine, and it’s delicious. 

Check out Boega’s website and Instagram

Visit the podcast website at dineonesix.com

Follow us on Instagram

Comments, questions or suggestions? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]

Taylor Lovelace is the head chef at J.J. Pfister Distilling Company but her love affair with cooking started when she interned at The Kitchen while in culinary school. It was actually years before when she would chauffeur her parents to the famed restaurant that she got to try the food when the staff would feed her the menu in the back of the restaurant while her parents dined. 

Taylor went on to hit Sacramento hot-spots like Localis, Echo and Rig and Camden Spit and Larder before landing at J.J. Pfister as the head chef. Now she spends her time elevating sandwiches and salads into saucy flavor bombs. 

We answer many important questions in the episode from which is better: waffles or pancakes? What does M.C.B. stand for? And what makes a good sandwich?

Check out JJ Pfister’s website and Instagram

Visit the podcast website at dineonesix.com

Follow us on Instagram

Comments, questions or suggestions? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected] 

In place of a usual episode, Max and Neill take turns asking each other food questions to give you insight into the minds of your favorite local food podcasters!

What food are you embarrassed to say they don't like?

What's the one meal you would make to impress someone?

If you could only eat one cuisine for the rest of your life what would it be?

And more!!

This episode is in place of an episode that was supposed to be with Polo Adamo of Adamo's Kitchen but the audio was lost during a computer crash. Please go and try Adamo's for some of the best Italian food Sacramento has to offer!

Adamo's kitchen

Visit the podcast website at dineonesix.com

Follow us on Instagram

Comments, questions or suggestions? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]

Eddie Torres learned the power of food connecting families at an early age when he would have Sunday dinners with more than 20 members of his extended family, most of whom lived in the same apartment complex. But it wasn’t until the great recession, which buckled the car industry where he was working, that he decided to go to culinary school. 

After school he bounced around town until making his way to Ella pretty quickly, starting at the bottom and working his way up to the line. Then, he heard from his boss that Kelly McCown was taking over at The Kitchen and looking to build his team. Eddie tried out and ended up working at The Kitchen for 6 years, working his way up to sous chef.

Eddie talks about the intensity, the craft, the precision and the joy that it took to work at one of Sacramento’s most prestigious restaurants. 

Today he  is back working with his good friend Ben Roberts who owns Pizza Supreme Being helping put out some of the best pizza in Sacramento, while he works on his own concept of a Puerto Rican inspired restaurant. 

Photo courtesy of @jamiecardenasphotographer

Eddie’s instagram

Visit the podcast website at dineonesix.com

Follow us on Instagram

Dennis Sydnor first fell in love with cooking in his family home, smelling bbq and parker house rolls that his dad made. Then when he got his first kitchen job back in Cleveland at 17 he realized that his ability to cook impressed the girls and gave him some juice as the new kid in town. 

Soon he moved to the front of the house and fell in love with hospitality and being front and center watching people experience what he knew would become lifelong memories. Eventually, he longed to get back into the kitchen and moved back to Sacramento and went to culinary school to prove he was serious about getting behind the line. 

He has worked all over town including Grange, Red Rabbit, JB’s Lounge, Smokey Oaks, 1022 and even Golden One Center before setting out on his own during COVID doing pop ups and catering under the name Renegade Dining while also serving the students at a beauty school in Natomas. 

We get into his whole past and his hope for the future, as well as his amazing experience as the winner of an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen on Food Network which you’ll have to see to believe. And now you can on the Discovery+ app!

Follow Dennis on Instagram @dennissydnorjr and Renegade Dining @renegade_dining 

Dennis’ episode of Cutthroat Kitchen is on Discovery Plus in season 13 titled “Mission Impastable”

Visit the podcast website at dineonesix.com

Follow us on Instagram

Comments, questions or suggestions? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]

Max and Neill sit down with Rebecca Campbell, owner and chef of Sac City Brews in Tahoe Park. 

They talk about Rebecca’s unconventional and even accidental move to running a kitchen. It’s not often you find someone with two Masters degrees running a kitchen, but she has taken her background in community development to create an amazing spot for the neighborhood of Tahoe Park and frankly for all of Sacramento. 

She talks about how growing up on a small farm in the foothills gave her an appreciation for the small farmers she works with today and how it took her years to realize that she is actually not just analytically minded but also a very creative person and it shows in her food. 

And we talk a lot about the creative twists on classics like: tater tots, nachos, wings, paninis and more.  

Visit Sac City Brews website and Instagram 

Visit the podcast website at dineonesix.com

Follow us on Instagram

Comments, questions or suggestions? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]

Greg Desmangles got his start as so many do, in the dish pit of a family owned restaurant. But from his first weekend working on his feet all day bussing tables and washing dishes during beer week, Greg knew he wanted to be in a kitchen. 

Greg went on to stage at Taylor's kitchen soaking up all he could before going back to his uncle's restaurant Pangaea Beir Cafe and working prep.

Today Greg has helped the family business grow to four restaurants, including Pangaea, Urban Roots Brewing and Smokehouse, Bawk! and  Cerveceria at The Shack.

Greg oversees all four operations and he tells Max and Neill how he got deep into the world of BBQ and hopes to plant a flag as nationally recognized BBQ spot right here in Sacramento.

Resources from episode:

Greg's Instagram

Bawk

Pangaea Beir Cafe

Urban Roots

Cerveceria at The Shack

Visit the podcast website at dineonesix.com

Follow us on Instagram

Comments, questions or suggestions? Email me at [email protected] or [email protected]

Listen to Bondolio episode about olive oil

Today we talk about the wild world of cheese! How does blue mold bloom? Does what the animal eats change the taste of cheese? Strange food combinations to eat with cheese, headless spiders that create a rind on cheese. All these questions and odd facts are answered and discussed with our guest Julie Cassotta. 

Julie is a Certified Cheese Professional and one of only eight people with that certification in Sacramento. That means she knows her stuff when it comes to cheese. 

Julie creates gorgeous cheese and charcuterie boards year round under the name Cellar Door Platters and built her small business through social media to where she is a full-time cheesemonger. 

We also talk about stops she had at Block Butcher Bar, Whole Foods and Franquet.

Check out The Dine One Six on Instagram and our website

Episode resources: 

Check out her website to order your holiday cheese board! 

Julie’s Instagram

Here are all the cheeses we talked about!

-Smokey Blue from Rogue River Creamery

-Vacherin Mont d'Or 

-Jasper Hill Creamery in Vermont- Harbison

-Bailey Hazen Blue Jasper Hill creamery with dark chocolate

-Langres (cheese you pour champagne on)

-Mimollete (Halloween cheese)

Chris Sinclair fell in love with cocktails when a salty San Francisco bartender schooled him on what a real martini was. Since that moment Chris has dedicated his life to teaching other aspiring bartenders and guests, wherever he has worked, the art of the craft cocktail. 

Chris is from New York but has made Sacramento his home having spent the last decade working at the likes of Red Rabbit, La Cosecha, Kasbah, Sail Inn, Jungle Bird and more. He is also the founding president of the Sacramento chapter of the U.S. Bartenders Guild. 

Chris loves good food, good drinks and a good time and he has a reverence for the feeling and emotions a good cocktail can create. Yet as you’ll hear, there is zero pretense to his love of booze and bartending. 

Note: This episode does contains some strong language and one NSFW story.

Bodega’s website

Good Bottle website

Good Bottle podcast

Sources discussed:

Camper English’s blog

Visit the podcast website at dineonesix.com

Follow us on Instagram

Jonathan Kerksieck has been working in restaurants in Sacramento for 30 years. He got his start making pizza at original Pete’s out of high school. He considered culinary school but a conversation with Rick Mahan when he was working at Paragary's and set his course on learning to cook by working long hours in kitchens all over Sacramento. 

After all that training, head chef jobs, running hotel food programs and even doing food research and development, Jonathan met an old colleague who helped him open Cacio in the Pocket/Greenhaven neighborhood. 

Jonathan said it’s “like the Cheers” of the neighborhood, only Cheers wasn’t serving delicious Italian cuisine. 

Cacio website, Instagram, Facebook

Sac Bee top 50 restaurants

Visit the podcast website at dineonesix.com

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram

Comments, questions or suggestions? Email me at [email protected]