The Line

On today's special 100th episode of theLINE welcome Chef Alon Shaya. Born in Bat Yam just south of Tel Aviv, he moved to Philadelphia as a young boy and had a tumultuous childhood filled with anger rebellion and a lack of direction. With the help and guidance of his high school culinary arts teacher Donna Barnett, he found his calling.  After working in both Italy and the United States Chef Shaya has quickly garnered acclaim for his cooking in New Orleans. He has been nominated for five James Beard Awards and was named the "Best Chef, South region" while at Domenica in 2015, and Shaya won the James Beard award for "Best New Restaurant" in 2016.  He was selected as one of "50 People Who Are Changing the South" by Southern Living magazine in 2015, and one of the "50 Most Influential Jews in America" by The Forward. He recently formed Pomegranate hospitality with his wife Emily which operates Saba in New Orleans and Safta in Denver located at the Source hotel. In this episode we discuss the importance of mentors, finding your own voice, new beginnings and achieving happiness in the culinary world. 

Photo Courtesy of Rush Jagoe

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Chef Victoria Blamey changed course, leaving her college in Chile and enrolling in Culinary school. After graduating, she worked at some of the top restaurants in the entire world, including Mugaritz, The Vineyard at Stockcross, and Interlude. After moving to NYC she worked at Atera and Corton, as well as at Il Buco Alimentari. Deciding it was time to forge her own path and culinary identity, she revitalized Chumley's and received a glowing 2-star review from the NY Times. Now as executive chef at Gotham Bar & Grill, Chef Blamey has reached new heights and acclaim, including a 3-star review in the New York Times, and an 87 out of 100 from New York Magazine. On this episode of theLINE we dig into her extensive resume, discuss which jobs over the years meant the most to her, and the pressure of taking over the kitchen of a NYC institution. 
 

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On today's episode we welcome Jay Wolman the executive chef of LaLou in Prospect Heights, a recently opened restaurant with a focus on natural wine. Jay has come up through some of the most important kitchens in New York and on this episode he shares his experiences working extensively in the Tarlow family of restaurants as well as working at Hart’s and King in Manhattan. He draws culinary inspiration from French, English and Italian cuisine and works heavily with produce he buys right down the road at the greenmarket.

Photo Courtesy of Michael Harlan Turkell 

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Today on theLINE we’re talking about restaurant projects big and small, expensive and... less expensive with today’s guest Jake Leiber. He is the chef/partner along with chef Aidan O’Neal at Greenpoint bistro Chez Ma Tante which opened a few years back to rave reviews. Chez Ma Tante received a 92 from NY Magazine, two stars and a critics pick from Pete Wells in he NYTimes and 4 stars from Robert Seitsma on Eater. After their success at Chez Ma Tante, they recently joined up with Jon Neidich from Acme to to flip Reynards inside Williamsburg’s Wythe Hotel into the new Le Crocodile.

Photo Courtesy of Liz Clayman 

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Today's episode features Moonlynn Tsai, co-owner of Kopitiam. After working in the Bay and LA restaurant scenes she moved to NYC in 2018, partnering with chef Kyo Pang to invigorate the new larger version of Kopitiam. The restaurant, located on the Lower East Side of New York, received a 2018 James Beard Semifinalist nomination for Chef Pang, a 2018 critic pick from Pete Wells in the NYTimes where he called it “almost unfailingly terrific” and in 2019 the restaurant was named a Bon Appetit Magazine Hot Ten restaurant. On today's show we’ll be talking about growing up in restaurants, choosing a business partner, running a hot restaurant and the cuisine of Kopitiam.

Photo by Chelsea Louise Kyle

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Chef Katie Button, the chef and co-owner of two restaurants in Asheville, North Carolina: Cúrate Tapas Bar and Button & Co. Bagels, was born in South Carolina and raised in New Jersey. Chef Button has worked for Jose Andres and Ferran Adria at elBulli before returning to the South to open up her restaurant Curate in 2011 with her husband Felix. The restaurant and Katie have received tons of accolades: she was a finalist for the James Beard Rising Star Chef Award in 2014, and a nominee for the Foundation’s Best Chef: Southeast Award in both 2018 and 2019. She was also named one of Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chefs of 2015 and Curate was most recently recognized as one of Esquire’s 40 Most Important Restaurants of the Decade.

Image courtesy of Curate/Katie Button.

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Santiago Perez was born in Mexico City. He received a chemical engineering degree and then somewhere along the way decided investment banking was the right fit. At the age of 29 he was working at UBS in NYC and decided he wanted to open up a restaurant. Cosme, now open for 5 years has only increased in popularity as time goes on, increasing the fame and influence of chef Enrique Olvera and catapulting chef Daniela Soto-Innes to chef stardom. In 2017 they opened Atla, both chefs now partners. And with Santiago they will all open 3 west coast restaurants in 2020. Iin Los Angeles (Damian and Ditroit) and one in Las Vegas (Elio). On today's episode we talk about why being an investment banker is the right or wrong background for opening a restaurant, how he connected with his massively talented creative chef team and how to maintain consistency and structure while expanding to have bi-coastal operations.

The holiday season is all about food and community. There’s no better time to show your support for food radio by becoming a member! Lend your voice and help HRN continue to spreading the message of equitable, sustainable, and delicious food – together, we can change minds and build a better food system. Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate today to become a crucial part of the HRN community.

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Chef Daniel Burns is responsible for helping develop aspects of the culinary programs through research and development for arguably the two most influential chefs in the world Rene Redzepi and David Chang at Noma and Momofuku respectively. He was raised in Halifax and received degrees in mathematics and philosophy at Dalhousie University and went on to work at some of the most influential restaurants in the entire world. Before working as the head of research and development for the Momofuku restaurant group here in NYC, chef Burns cooked at The Fat Duck and St. Johns in England and he built and ran the pastry program at Noma in Copenhagen. In 2013 he opened Torst in Brooklyn with partners from Evil Twin Brewing and 12% imports, two heavy hitters in the beer world. Torst which means thirst in danish had a small  restaurant in the back called called Luksus where chef Burns served a tasting menu alongside beer pairings. Luksus earned a Michelin Star in 2014 and is the only restaurant to do so pairing only beer with the menu.

Photo Courtesy of Daniel Burns

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Today's guest is Chef Charlene Santiago executive chef at Canal Street Oysters, the newly opened American oyster bar which is owned by the restaurateurs behind The East Pole, East Pole Fish Bar, and Pizza Beach. Charlene is almost a lifelong New Yorker having arrived here from the Philippines when she was 5 years old. Her path took her to the French culinary institute and then she put in some serious time in NYC kitchens working alongside some tremendously talented chefs like Terrance Brennan at Picholine, April Bloomfield at the Breslin and Christina Lecki at Reynards. Today we talk about growing up in Washington Heights, sourcing seafood and how long is the right amount of time to stay at a job.

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My guest today is Nick Bognar, who is the chef and owner of Indo, the modern Asian restaurant in St. Louis. Indo combines styles of mainland Southeast Asia, joining Nick’s Thai background and formal Japanese training. At just 27, Nick was nominated for the James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef of the Year for his transformation of his family’s restaurant, Nippon Tei. He opened Indo in June 2019.

Join Heritage Radio Network on Monday, November 11th, for a raucous feast to toast a decade of food radio. Our tenth anniversary bacchanal is a rare gathering of your favorite chefs, mixologists, storytellers, thought leaders, and culinary masterminds. We’ll salute the inductees of the newly minted HRN Hall of Fame, who embody our mission to further equity, sustainability, and deliciousness. Explore the beautiful Palm House and Yellow Magnolia Café, taste and imbibe to your heart’s content, and bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences and tasty gifts for any budget at our silent auction. Tickets available now at heritageradionetwork.org/gala.

Photo Courtesy of Spencer Pernikoff

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