The Perfect Bite

Just 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 not mean you cannot dedicate your career to making dining the most fun part of someone's day. That is exactly what Avishar Barua is doing in Columbus, Ohio. And Columbus has never tasted better.

Avishar Barua is a two-time James Beard Award semifinalist and the founder of Agni and Joya's, the two Columbus restaurants that make up Serious Fun, his restaurant group built around one beautiful and completely genuine philosophy: that serious hospitality and joyful dining are not opposites. They are the point. Agni is a tasting menu experience in the Brewery District where you can find a happy meal course and keeps candy at the bar. Joya's is a fast casual spot in Old Worthington where the chicken sandwich is messy and magnificent. Both feel like home. That is entirely on purpose.

In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Avishar for one of the most wide-ranging and genuinely joyful conversations The Perfect Bite has ever had. From a Bengali American childhood in Columbus where he survived entirely on candy and his mom's strategically disguised rice balls, to a pre-med track at Ohio State that gave way to an organic chemistry A and a culinary epiphany. From a stage at Mission Chinese Food under Danny Bowien where he bought salt and vinegar chips for a dish and thought he was being hazed, to an unpaid stage at WD-50 where he got his ass kicked daily and then got hired. From a legendary taco at Service Bar that landed him in Food and Wine and on Top Chef Season 18, to the quiet, patient decade of building something in Columbus that honors the city, its immigrant restaurants, and its people, rather than trying to be New York.

Columbus is Columbus. That is his whole philosophy. And it is more than enough.

In this episode, we cover:

• Growing up Bengali American in Columbus surviving on candy, junk food, and his mom's strategically disguised rice balls
• The first memory of food he actually loved: Chinese food and chow fun noodles
• Discovering cooking in college out of necessity: a foil pan, chopsticks as a roasting rack, and a library cookbook
• Combining his biology and psychology degrees into a way of thinking about food and people
• His brother's restaurant Eight: his first kitchen, where mac and cheese was made with bechamel and pot roast was actually burgundy braised short rib
• The Columbus State ACF chef apprenticeship that let him work and learn simultaneously
• The Mission Street Food cookbook that inspired him to pack up and move to New York
• Staging at Mission Chinese Food under Danny Bowien: buying salt and vinegar chips for a dish and thinking he was being hazed
• Mission Chinese Food getting shut down by the Department of Health 
• Walking down Clinton Street and into WD-50, sitting at the bar alone, and getting a bonus dessert course
• The unpaid two week stage at WD-50 and getting hired despite not being the fastest or most technically precise cook
• Being at WD-50 for their James Beard Award, the Gelinaz 10-year anniversary dinner, and their closure
• Returning to Columbus, joining Middle West Spirits and Service Bar
• The cheesy brisket crunch taco: a Taco Bell inspired dish made with paratha that landed in Food and Wine and got him on Top Chef Season 18
• His TED Talk about the tacos
• Why he believes Columbus chefs who blame their city for poor staff are simply not doing their job
• Honoring the strip mall restaurants he grew up going to: Mi Li, Quang, Main Moon
• The philosophy behind Agni: a tasting menu that includes a happy meal course and keeps it fun
• Joya's: a fast casual spot built around genuine hospitality in a space with a lot of seats
• Bengali adda: the culture of hospitality that informs how both restaurants treat their guests
• What Serious Fun might do next: wholesale production, white labeling, more halal and pescetarian-friendly menu items
• Being a James Beard Award semifinalist in both 2024 and 2025 and what that means for Columbus
• Advice for founders: good things take time, the worst decisions are the ones made under pressure

Find Avishar, Agni, and Joya's:

• Agni: 716 South High Street, Brewery District, Columbus. Wednesday through Sunday 5 PM to 11 PM. Reservations recommended. Walk-in bar seating available.
• Joya's: 657 High Street, Old Worthington, Columbus. Open six days a week.
• Instagram: @avishar, @dineatagni and @eatatjoyas
• Restaurant group: Serious Fun

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Some 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 into a bar and Manny was sitting there. Everything unfolded from that moment. And now they run one of Buffalo's most exciting new restaurants together, as partners in life and in business.

Manny and Gina Ocasio are the executive chefs and partners of Mira, a Mediterranean restaurant that opened in Buffalo's in November 2025, built around the simplest and most beautiful philosophy: the best quality ingredients, the simplest preparation, and food that makes you feel like you are sitting by sparkling Mediterranean water even when there are two feet of snow outside.

In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Manny and Gina to chat everything from Gina's Italian American New Jersey childhood where her mom made everything from scratch including baby food, to Manny's Buffalo upbringing where both parents worked in restaurants and he resisted the family path right up until the moment he started washing dishes at 15 and never looked back. From Gina's years at CIA and Del Posto and Sqirl in Los Angeles, to Manny's formative time at Manresa at 17 years old. From meeting at Zahav, to moving to Buffalo during COVID, to building Mira around a Josper grill from Spain, hand-made culurgiones, and a kitchen crew that has been there since day one.

This is a conversation about what it looks like when two people decide to do life together. Completely.

In this episode, we cover:

• Gina growing up in a New Jersey Italian American household where her mom made everything from scratch including her baby food
• Manny growing up in Buffalo with a dad who was a chef and a mom who was a server, resisting the restaurant world right up until the moment he started washing dishes at 15
• Gina naturally gravitating toward pastry and baking from her mom's kitchen
• Manny drawn to savory cooking for the same reason he struggled in school: learning with your hands, working through mistakes, being self-taught
• Manny obsessing over the Manresa cookbook and the Mind of a Chef episode featuring David Kinch, sending weekly emails to the restaurant until he got a response
• Leaving Buffalo at 17 for a position at Manresa: the first time really traveling alone, figuring out logistics in Los Gatos, and the surreal experience of cooking in a kitchen he had only ever seen in videos
• Gina's CIA experience in baking and pastry: the Apple Pie Bakery, cooking for the whole school, and the pressure that set the bar for everything that followed
• Gina at Del Posto for four years before a Brooks Headley event in LA led her to eat at Sqirl and change the entire trajectory of her career
• What Sqirl taught Gina: freedom with baking, whole grains, California produce, letting go of some rules
• What California permanently installed in both of them: a philosophy of seasonality, local sourcing, and not doing much to a beautiful ingredient
• What they miss most about California: Manny the timing and length of the seasons, Gina a specific persimmon that a friend brought to Sqirl
• Moving back to the East Coast: Gina to open a restaurant in Philly, Manny to Zahav and Jean-Georges
• Gina recognized as Best Pastry Chef by Philadelphia Magazine
• Zahav winning Outstanding Restaurant the year Manny was there
• Meeting at Zahav during a rare lunch service: Gina looking for her friend, Manny at the door, and months later reuniting at a bar
• Moving to Buffalo during COVID and the timing that made it all click: Manny's friend leaving the chef position at Grange Restaurant Group, a pastry job opening for Gina
• Business partners Caryn Dujanovich and Brad Rowell: the owners of Grange Restaurant Group who trusted a 23-year-old Manny to run their kitchen and eventually became co-founders of Mira
• The Mira name: born from the Spanish kitchen word that means look but means everything, the universal kitchen version of jawn
• The restaurant Mira took over: an iconic Buffalo location that operated for over 40 years that Manny grew up going to for breakfast
• The Josper grill from Spain: the first thing they bought and the piece of equipment everything at Mira is built around
• Signature dishes: beef tartare, culurgiones (Sardinian potato dumplings in fresh tomato sauce), and anything from the Josper grill
• The team that has been there since day one and the culture they are building
• Buffalo in summer: the busy patio season where nobody leaves because the summers are so short
• Staying even-keeled and working through the daily crises of restaurant ownership
• Why Buffalo deserves to be on the food travel list: the Bills, Niagara Falls, proximity to Toronto, and a city that is genuinely finding its own identity
• A cookbook they keep talking about putting in real food they are proud of
• Advice for founders: surround yourself with people who share your vision, and put yourself in situations for someone else before you do it for yourself

Find Manny, Gina, and Mira:

• Address: 1081 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York
• Website: mirabuffalo.com
• Instagram: @mirabuffalo

Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen!

Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

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She 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 never be the one to jump. And then she ate one too many chocolate flavored protein bars at midnight in a finance office and finally said enough.

Ash Baxter is the founder of Takeaways, a savory puffed protein snack bar that she spent two and a half years developing, launched for pre-order on June 10th, started shipping June 24th, and has already sold 45,000 bars in its first month. She is a former investor at Stripes and Sky Partners, a Stanford D1 rower who had to make weight as a coxswain and learned the protein to calorie ratio at age 13 from her mom's nutrition plan, and the person who genuinely cannot carry on without a tin of Maldon salt in her bag.

The concept behind Takeaways is elegant: Cheese is the savory chocolate. The flavors are indulgent, the macros are table stakes, and the brand is built around joy rather than nutrition—12 grams of protein, 120 calories, three grams of fiber, and characters called Slice Slice Baby, You Cheddar Believe It, and Pepper Jacked who all live in Takeaways Town.

In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Ash for a genuinely fun and insightful conversation about what it looks like when a CPG investor becomes a CPG founder, including the concept study that showed 85% of protein bar consumers would buy Takeaways, the food scientist who told her "cheese is the savory chocolate," her fiancé's mom who turned out to be the real product development genius, and the private equity firm in Chicago that has placed three orders in one month without knowing they are Takeaways' best customer so far.

In this episode, we cover:

• Growing up in San Francisco in a food and wine obsessed family whose road trips were planned entirely around eating
• A first job bio that listed an Acme sourdough baguette and an oaky chardonnay as favorite foods
• Becoming a coxswain at age 12 for Marin Rowing after a chance encounter with her sister's boyfriend
• Learning the protein to calorie ratio at age 13 from her mom's nutrition plan and carrying that philosophy ever since
• The protein bar addiction that started at boarding school in New Hampshire when she lost her "nutritionist" mom
• Stanford, D1 rowing, and a Stanford Women in Business club that introduced her to Stripes
• Six years as a CPG investor at Stripes and Sky Partners: fashion, beauty, food, and beverage
• Being on the board of TRUFF and learning the most important lesson in CPG: amazing product first, always
• How TRUFF's founders built an Instagram following before they built a product
• Meeting mentor Mark Ramadan, founder of Sir Kensington's and former CEO of Hu Chocolate, through the TRUFF board
• Working crazy finance hours and eating five chocolate protein bars a day until she could not take it anymore
• The aha moment: TRUFF in cottage cheese was getting out of hand so she started tinkering in the kitchen
• Her fiancé's mother, an incredible chef and baker, iterating on recipes from Washington state while Ash was in Boston
• Why she brought in food scientist Barb Stuckey and gave her life savings to the food science team
• The moment Barb told her "cheese is the savory chocolate" and everything clicked
• A concept study showing 85% of protein bar consumers would buy Takeaways and 70% would not change their sweet bar behavior
• Why Takeaways says "puffed snack bar" not "protein bar" on the packaging
• Launching nut-free and why that matters for schools, offices, and families
• Characters: Slice Slice Baby, You Cheddar Believe It, and Pepper Jacked, all residents of Takeaways Town
• 45,000 bars sold in the first month, number one in bars and jerky at Pop Up Grocer since July 10th
• Going into Foxtrot locations and Oakville Grocery in the Bay Area
• A private equity firm in Chicago placing three orders in one month as their best customer
• Investors: BFG (Boulder Food Group) and Rocana Venture Partners
• First hire Mackenzie Lukas, formerly of Hormble, joining as a game changer
• Why she raised before going to market: To debate the thesis rather than prove the numbers
• Advice for founders: Be obsessed with your own product and be your biggest evangelist

Find Ash and Takeaways:

• Website: eattakeaways.com
• Instagram, TikTok, and social: @eattakeaways
• Available to purchase online and at select retailers including Pop Up Grocer and Foxtrot

Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!



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Kingo 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 break down a tuna or even have a scale to weigh it. He just put it in a van with some ice, drove it back to New York, and let the chefs cut whatever they wanted while he calculated the weight by feel.

That was 1977. Today, Yama Seafood is the purveyor behind the seafood programs at Le Bernardin, Masa, and more of the most celebrated restaurants in the world.

Nobu Yamanashi is the president of Yama Seafood, the New Jersey based Japanese seafood company his father built over nearly 50 years. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Nobu for a conversation that covers the full arc of a remarkable family legacy: from a father who chased bluefin tuna migration patterns up and down the Northeast coast and taught fishermen how to bleed their catch properly so he could pay them more, to a son who started as a warehouse worker cleaning drains and re-icing salmon before he ever touched a spreadsheet. And then modernized the entire operation with an ERP system he implemented in February 2020, moments before the pandemic hit.

This is a conversation about legacy, reinvention, and what it means to carry a family business into its next generation without losing the soul of what made it extraordinary in the first place.

In this episode, we cover:

• Growing up in New Jersey in a fully Japanese household where Nobu did not speak English until age four or five
• Bento boxes in a 1980s lunchroom when bento boxes were decidedly not cool
• A father who brought home kilos of gifted caviar and ate it on crackers with his kids without caring about the price
• Working at Quiznos in high school for six dollars an hour and eating meatball sandwiches made from the end pieces
• A financial media startup that did not work out, followed by corporate roles at Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce that accidentally taught him everything about the ultra-luxury market
• What selling Rolls-Royces taught him about access, scarcity, and demand that he still applies every day at Yama Seafood
• Joining the family business as a warehouse worker: cleaning drains, picking and packing, re-icing salmon, going on deliveries
• The pen and paper fax machine order system that required seven or eight people an hour of administrative prep every single day
• Implementing an ERP system in February 2020, one month before the pandemic, and why that decision may have saved the company
• COVID: going from 1,000 plus orders a week to 50, turning a million dollars of fresh seafood into community fish boxes sold below cost just to generate cash
• Building Yama Seafood's direct to consumer business from a Squarespace website he made himself during the pandemic
• 55% repeat customers and a community of home sushi enthusiasts who have become genuine brand advocates
• How his father pioneered bringing year-round bluefin tuna to New York by flying fish in from Hawaii to close the seasonal gap
• Why Nobu made the decision to eat tariff costs rather than pass them to restaurant partners during the most recent economic pressure
• The leadership turning point during COVID when he asked his team to take pay cuts to stay open and serve the restaurants that needed them
• Being a trained tuna carver and producing private events for Rolls-Royce and Moët Hennessy
• Plans for a new warehouse with a test kitchen, a speakeasy omakase counter, and a destination for chefs and guests
• Learning to work on the business rather than in it: a seven year journey to trusting his team
• Taking his daughters to Japan for the first time to connect them with the family and culture that built everything
• Advice for founders: keep fighting, roll with the punches, and never stop improving

Find Nobu and Yama Seafood:

• Website: yamaseafood.com
• E-commerce: shop.yamaseafood.com
• Instagram: @yamaseafood
• LinkedIn: Nobu Yamanashi (daily posts)

Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

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She 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 pandemic uncertainty, and built something so extraordinary that just the other month she became the 2026 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: Southwest, the first time Las Vegas had been recognized on the James Beard platform in 15 years.

Chef Sarah Thompson is the executive chef of Casa Playa at Wynn Las Vegas, a coastal Mexican restaurant she opened in September 2021, now approaching its fifth anniversary. She is also the 2026 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: Southwest, the first time Las Vegas has been recognized on the James Beard platform in 15 years. And host Sarah Perkins met her on the red carpet a few weeks before this conversation, already knowing she was talking to someone extraordinary!

In this episode, Sarah tells the whole story. From a mom who has organized every Bon Appétit magazine from 1989 to 2022 by year in the basement, to a decisive 17-year-old who knew exactly what she wanted and went straight to the Culinary Institute of America right out of high school. From learning the French brigade system at school while sneaking into New York City on weekends to eat at Eleven Madison Park and Momofuku Ssam Bar, to learning to break down fish at Marea, to having her entire creative understanding of cooking transformed by Wylie Dufresne at Alder, to the turning point of her entire career working under Daniela Soto-Innes at Cosme, where she knew nothing about Mexican food and had her palate completely transformed.

And then a phone call to come to Las Vegas for a restaurant slated to open March 16th, 2020, which tells you everything you need to know about what happened next.

Casa Playa is Sarah's love letter to coastal Mexico, built in the Nevada desert, sourcing corn from Masienda and mushrooms from a hydroponic farm in Las Vegas, and employing a kitchen where four of six chefs are women. It is also a restaurant that is about to add a tasting counter with eight to ten seats and two seatings per night, and a chef who has no intention of slowing down.

In this episode, we cover:

• Growing up in the suburbs of Boston with a mom who collected every Bon Appétit magazine from 1989 to 2022 and organized them by year
• Family dinners every night and discovering that not everyone did this
• Going straight to CIA out of high school and spending weekend trips eating at Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern, and Momofuku Ssam Bar
• Learning to be a line cook at Marea under Amador Acosta and working the fish roast station for a year
• Wylie Dufresne at Alder teaching her to think about food completely differently and use parts of her brain she never knew she had
• Walking into Cosme knowing nothing about Mexican food and having her entire palate transformed
• The flavors, the community, the communal feeling of Mexican cuisine and why it always brought her back
• Traveling to Mexico City, Oaxaca, and the Yucatan during her Cosme years
• Masienda: working with them for 15 years since Cosme was their very first restaurant customer
• Moving to Las Vegas to open Ilio with Daniela Soto-Innes and Enrique Olvera, slated to open March 16th, 2020
• Wynn Las Vegas asking her to stay and build her own coastal Mexican restaurant from a blank brief
• Casa Playa opening September 2021 and approaching its fifth anniversary
• Building a kitchen where four of six chefs are women and more than 50% of the team is female
• Why female cooks and leaders gravitated to Casa Playa without her actively seeking it
• Being the only female executive chef at Wynn Las Vegas when she arrived, now one of four
• The Women's Hospitality Initiative in Las Vegas: from 40 people to 90 to 100 across two annual events
• Sourcing: corn from Masienda in Mexico, mushrooms from Desert Moon hydroponic farm in Las Vegas, produce from Santa Monica Farmer's Market
• Making all tortillas, tostadas, and tamales in-house from heirloom corn
• The Wynn Las Vegas's warehouse, lobster tanks, and the infrastructure that supports a property of this scale
• Going from shame about living in Las Vegas to fierce pride in what is being built there
• Working on a tasting counter: eight to ten seats, two seatings, showcasing masa and seafood in a more elevated format
• The 2026 James Beard Best Chef: Southwest win and what it means for her young team and the city of Las Vegas
• Upcoming: Chef's Table Festival in Park City August 13 through 16 and Wynn Revelry by Chef's Table September 18 through 20
• Advice for founders: do not give up, take risks, and do not let the fear of the unknown stop you

Find Sarah and Casa Playa:

• Instagram: @sarahcthompson_ and @casaplaya.wynn
• Casa Playa at Wynn Las Vegas: wynnlasvegas.com/dining/fine-dining/casa-playa
• Chef's Table Festival: Park City, August 13 through 16
• Wynn Revelry by Chef's Table: September 18 through 20

Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!



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Some 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 Ann Arbor, Michigan, one of the most beloved and respected restaurant institutions in the Midwest. He started as a line cook before The Roadhouse even opened its doors, helped paint the outside of the building that summer, survived a soft opening of 300 people with one day of training, and has been there every day since. What keeps him? The team, the culture, the guests, the sourcing obsession, the philosophy that food and hospitality can change people's lives, and a co-founder who still walks through the restaurant almost every single day in year 45 of the business.

In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Bob for a conversation that covers everything from mac and cheese out of a box in the mid-80s to sourcing whole hogs from a farmer 30 minutes away in Milan, Michigan. From studying sandwich menus instead of attending psychology classes at Eastern Michigan, to sitting in front of US senators explaining that without the Restaurant Revitalization Fund there would be no more sandwiches for them. From the open book management philosophy that makes Zingerman's feel genuinely different, to the no drama culture that keeps the average Roadhouse staff tenure at eight or nine years in an industry known for burnout and turnover.

This is a conversation about what happens when a business genuinely means what it says about people first, and what 22 years of that philosophy actually looks like from the inside.

In this episode, we cover:

• Growing up in the mid-80s with mac and cheese, Hamburger Helper, and microwave cookbooks alongside family restaurant outings that introduced him to mussels and good seafood
• The importance of people at the table more than the food itself, including 20 person family gatherings around an island bar eating KFC
• Starting at Mongolian Barbecue with four friends around a circular grill for tips and frozen soup cubes
• Studying psychology at Siena Heights, Eastern Michigan, and community college while working in restaurants and reading sandwich menus in class
• A friend bringing him to stage at Zingerman's Deli and immediately falling for the energy of the line
• The Roadhouse opening managed by Alex Young and how Bob got in the door
• Knowing only three of five French mother sauces in his interview and still getting the job
• Helping paint the outside of the Roadhouse building on scaffolding that summer before it opened
• A "soft" opening of 300 people with one day of training on September 15th
• How the Roadhouse menu has evolved while holding true to its American Southern core
• Sourcing whole hogs from Neil Bastian in Milan, Michigan, 30 minutes away, with 150 hogs raised a year
• Dahardi sourcing Tellicherry black pepper directly from farmers in India
• The open book management philosophy: sharing all numbers with all staff so everyone has the full picture
• The no drama culture: treating each other with kindergarten rules and having human conversations
• Average Roadhouse staff tenure of eight to nine years in an industry known for 90 day churn
• Maria Mendez: a server who was there on day one and is still there many years later
• Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of Zingerman's, still walking through the Roadhouse almost every day in year 45
• ZingTrain: the Zingerman's leadership and management training program that has spread nationwide
• The Independent Restaurant Coalition: from pandemic Zoom calls with senators to fly-ins on Capitol Hill
• Why the independent restaurant industry is a bipartisan community resource that employs the second or third most people in the US
• The spinning wheel of challenges facing independent restaurants: inflation, mergers, immigration policy, and rising ingredient costs
• Southern Foodways Alliance symposium as an annual source of inspiration outside the building
• A ridiculous cookbook collection as a primary learning tool
• Ann Arbor as an emerging food destination with Miss Kim, Echelon, Knight Steakhouse, and more
• What Bob is most proud of: the people in his kitchen every single day
• An upcoming No Kid Hungry charity dinner in July and farm dinners in Ann Arbor
• Advice for founders: ask for help, because the results are so much grander than struggling through alone

Find Bob and Zingerman's Roadhouse + Deli:

• Instagram: @chef.bob.bennett, @zingermansroadhouse, @zingermansdeli
• Facebook: Bob Bennett
• Zingerman's Roadhouse: zingermansroadhouse.com
• Zingerman's Deli: zingermansdeli.com

Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!



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Because 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 tamari built from a single forager's obsession with wild flavor and zero waste, it is hard to argue with the philosophy.

Chef Steve Stallard and Sarah Sherman are the co-owners of BLiS Gourmet, a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based artisan pantry brand that started with a bucket of live brook trout, a handful of barrels sourced from a trip to Kentucky, and a conviction that the most extraordinary flavors in the world are hiding in nature and in the bottom of a good bourbon barrel.

In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Steve and Sarah for a conversation that is as layered and complex as a BLiS product itself. From Steve's childhood garden where he learned what a perfectly ripe heirloom tomato actually tastes like, to washing dishes at 14 while fishing and hunting everything he could find, to watching Grant Achatz walk through his kitchen at 17 years old and knowing immediately he was watching a future superstar. From Sarah's flight from pilot training to nursing school to bartending, and the moment she shoved her foot in the door at BLiS and never looked back. And from a bucket of brook trout roe that started an entire Great Lakes caviar program, to bourbon barrels reused so many times they eventually end up as planters for petunias.

This is a story about respecting what nature gives you, building a business around the life you want to live, and finding that the most loyal customers in the world are the ones who have tasted the difference and can never go back.

In this episode, we cover:

• Steve's childhood in an organic garden his dad kept expanding with "cheap child labor"
• Sarah's childhood with PBS, Julia Child, open fire camping cooking, and a dad who snuck something spicy into every recipe
• Steve washing dishes at 14, hunting and fishing, and a Lithuanian group at a convention center who fed him smoked eel and blood sausage and changed his palate forever
• The moment at a Dow Chemical club kitchen where a bucket of live brook trout led to Steve teaching himself to cure roe
• Driving to Kentucky, knocking on distillery doors, and putting $3,000 worth of maple syrup in a bourbon barrel to start it all
• How the barrels get reused: syrup, then vinegar, then fish sauce, then tamari, then beer aging, then cut in half as garden planters
• Sarah meeting Steve at wine dinners through a mutual restaurant connection, bonding over mushroom hunting, and shoving her foot in the BLiS door 15 years ago
• Working together for over two decades: the sibling dynamic, the chair kick signal, and "don't sink the ship"
• BLiS flagship products: bourbon barrel aged maple syrup and wild Great Lakes roe
• Wild char roe versus wild steelhead roe: the flavor profiles, the colors, and why they sell theirs frozen for maximum freshness
• Grant Achatz at 17 years old in Steve's program kitchen: knowing he was watching a superstar before anyone else did
• How to actually order BLiS caviar: call them directly for availability and shipping coordination for maximum freshness
• Nine years working with the culinary arts program at Lakeland Correctional Facility and the James Beard Award winning documentary about Coldwater Kitchen
• Three Specialty Food Association Fancy Food Show gold awards, including the Colicchio Award
• Brand refresh driven by glass bottle availability and keeping prices accessible
• New: automated bottling and labeling equipment that will allow BLiS to co-pack small batch runs for early stage CPG founders
• What is coming next: private label services and a potential new caviar SKU in October or November
• Michigan as a food destination: the Great Lakes bounty, Detroit's resurgence, and the first American Culinary Federation Conference coming to Grand Rapids
• What they are most proud of: creating careers, mentoring people, and the relationships that go far deeper than the products

Find BLiS Gourmet:

• Website: blisgourmet.com
• Instagram and Facebook: @blisgourmet
• To order caviar: Call directly for availability and shipping coordination

Subscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

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Some 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 direct result of two women who have spent decades building exactly the places they wanted to eat in, and refusing to compromise on a single detail along the way.

Rita Sodi and Jody Williams are the co-owners of I Sodi, Via Carota, Buvette, Bar Pisellino, Commerce Inn, Officina 1397, and Officina del Bere, among the most beloved and respected restaurant and hospitality concepts in New York City. Rita came from Florence via a career in fashion and denim, with a Tuscan childhood where her mother cooked everything from the garden and nothing arrived out of season. Jody came from California via a “fend for yourself” household, a hotel steward job she did not fully understand when she applied for it, and nearly six years cooking in Italy, three in Reggio Emilia and three in Rome.

They met over asparagus. They fell in love and went into business because the only way to see each other was to open a place together. And they have been building community and their lives ever since.

In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Rita and Jody for a conversation as rich and layered as their famous green salad. They talk about the Tuscan food rituals that shaped Rita's entire philosophy, the Diana Vreeland quote that guided Jody's early career ("The eye must travel"), the eight tables at I Sodi whose menu has barely changed in 18 years, and what it means to ask yourself "How do we feel?" before every single business decision.

They also share exclusive details about fire roasted coffee coming from outside Florence in September, a new patisserie and forno expanding Bar Pisellino, and their new Via Carota sparkling cocktail line. And they share what it means to get old with your customers, including a second generation guest who used to come to the bar as a boy with his mother.

In this episode, we cover:

• Rita growing up in Tuscany with a mother who fed the family from the garden every single day
• Jody growing up in a single mom California household, fighting over fudge, and cooking her London broil on a hibachi as a kid
• Rita's career in fashion and denim in Florence: the Big E vintage Levi's, the passion, and the pivot
• Jody knocking on a hotel door in San Francisco and asking what a steward job actually was
• Jody's six years in Italy: three in Reggio Emilia, three in Rome, and falling completely in love
• Diana Vreeland's "the eye must travel" and how travel shaped both of their careers and palates
• How Buvette on Grove Street started as a place Jody could sustain herself creatively with big ideas and modest means
• Rita opening I Sodi with eight tables and a menu that has barely changed in 18 years
• Meeting over asparagus and realizing they were going to do life together, restaurants included
• Via Carota, the “green monster” salad, and building a place where they wanted to eat
• How they ask "How do we feel?" before every single creative and business decision
• Bar Pisellino: opening with no bar stools, teaching themselves mixology, traveling the world to learn
• Via Carota Craft Cocktails: bottling negronis and sparkling cosmos so anyone can have their quality anywhere
• Officina del Bere: the bottle shop and the Italian art of drinking
• Officina 1397: named after the year the Renaissance began and what that means to them
• Exclusive: fire roasted wood coffee from outside Florence coming in September
• Exclusive: a new patisserie and forno expanding Bar Pisellino with bomboloni, biscotti, and savory items
• Getting old with their customers: a second generation guest who used to come as a boy
• Why they never plan, never follow trends, and always figure it out as they go
• What they are most proud of: their relationship, the restaurants, and becoming part of people's lives
• Their advice for founders: be open to where opportunities take you and just go for it

Find Rita, Jody, and their concepts:

• Via Carota: @viacarota | viacarota.com
• I Sodi: @isodinyc | isodinyc.com
• Buvette: @buvettenyc | ilovebuvette.com
• Bar Pisellino: @barpisellino | barpisellino.com
• Via Carota Craft Cocktails: available online (drinkviacarota.com) and at select retailers
• Commerce Inn: @commerceinn | thecommerceinn.com
• Officina 1397
• Officina del Bere

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You 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 modern Mexican restaurant in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood that is, in every sense, a love letter. A love letter to his wife Karina and their sons. A love letter to her family in Quintana Roo. A love letter to Mexican cuisine, culture, and the Latino community that has shaped his entire career and life.

In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Norman for a conversation that traces an extraordinary arc: From a 14 year old in Detroit cooking purely for a paycheck, to a transformative scallop dish that revealed food could be art, to the demanding kitchens of Alinea Group and five and a half intense years at Schwa under Michael Carlson, to a spontaneous decision to drive his car from Chicago to Tulum, Mexico rather than fly it abroad, which changed the entire trajectory of his life.

That decision led him to WILD, to his now wife Karina, to a years long immigration process he describes candidly and emotionally, and ultimately to Cariño in Chicago, where nearly every single object inside the restaurant, from the chandelier to the place mats, was handmade by artisans Norman personally knows and has visited in Mexico. Nothing in the restaurant was ordered. Everything was sourced directly, with intention, and with the explicit goal of putting money directly into the hands of the families who made it.

Norman also opens up about Cariño's ongoing commitment to Latinos Progresando, a Chicago nonprofit focused on immigration support for the Latino community, through their monthly Tacos and Friends guest chef taco omakase dinners, which have raised nearly $40,000 in two and a half years. And he shares an exciting first look at Molino Los Hermanos, a forthcoming tortilleria and casual sister concept opening at the end of summer right next door to Cariño.

In this episode, we cover:

• Growing up in a non-food family in Detroit where special occasions meant Red Lobster and Morton’s Steakhouse
• Starting in restaurant kitchens at 14 purely to earn money
• The hazelnut crusted scallop dish from mentor chef Derick Watson that changed everything
• Years at Andiamo learning real in-house butchery and pasta production
• Becoming a de facto executive chef in his early 20s and learning leadership the hard way
• Deciding to leave Detroit for a Michelin market and choosing Chicago 
• Staging and working at The Aviary and The Office under Alinea Group
• Experiencing kitchen toxicity firsthand and the moment that changed his trajectory
• His first ever Michelin starred meal at Schwa and immediately falling in love with it
• Five and a half transformative years at Schwa under chef Michael Carlson
• Finding his culinary voice through nostalgia, emotion, and personal memory
• The decision to drive his car to Tulum, Mexico rather than pay to fly it to Japan or France
• Meeting his now wife Karina and learning Spanish to fall in love with her properly
• Becoming executive chef of WILD under business partner Karen Young
• The pandemic, years of commuting between Chicago and Tulum, and a son born mid chaos
• Brass Heart, a Chicago restaurant whose menu organically became more and more Mexican
• The phone call that closed Brass Heart and the business plan Karen and Norman built on the spot
• Designing Cariño: nearly every object in the restaurant handmade and sourced directly from artisans in Mexico
• The personal stories behind the framed photos in the restaurant bathroom
• Single origin heirloom corn and direct relationships with farmers in Oaxaca and beyond
• The four and a half year immigration process for his wife and the toll it took on his family
• Tacos and Friends: a monthly guest chef taco omakase dinner series benefiting Latinos Progresando
• Nearly $40,000 raised for immigration support in two and a half years
• Why he believes money and voice are the most powerful tools for change
• Being a James Beard finalist and what it means for the broader conversation around Mexican cuisine
• An exclusive first look at Molino Los Hermanos: a tortilleria and casual sister restaurant opening end of summer
• Advice for founders: sacrifice yourself to your craft and give it everything

Find Norman and Cariño:

• Instagram: @carinochicago, @chefnormdoe
• Cariño: 4662 North Broadway, Chicago, Illinois
• Learn more about Latinos Progresando: @latinospro
• Tacos and Friends: monthly guest chef series, details on Cariño's Instagram
• 
  

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On 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 holder, host Sarah Perkins spent two hours on the carpet meeting, interviewing, and asking the world's best and hardest question to some of the most celebrated names in food, hospitality, and beyond.

From the Humanitarian of the Year to lifetime achievement legends, from a chef putting Anchorage, Alaska on the map, to a restaurateur flying his entire Cleveland team to Chicago, this is one of the most special and spontaneous episodes The Perfect Bite has ever produced.

This episode features interviews with nominees, honorees, past winners, award committee members, and food industry luminaries from across the country, all sharing what brought them to Chicago and, of course, their perfect bites.

Timestamps below to let you choose where you want to hop to in the episode!

Timestamps:

0:00 - Welcome and intro from the red carpet at the Lyric Opera of Chicago

0:30 - Who was James Beard? A brief history and foundation overview

2:00 - The James Beard Foundation mission and 35 years of awards

3:30 - The 2026 presenting sponsors, partners, and award programs

4:00 - CHIRLA: Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, 2026 Impact Award winners. Perfect bites: pozole and mom's enchiladas

7:30 - Nikki Fas: Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service nominee. Puerto Rican flavors, pineapple cocktails, and a perfect bite of tostones with garlic

11:30 - Damian Diaz: No Us Without You, 2026 Humanitarian of the Year. On representing the immigrant community and a perfect bite of abuelita's enchiladas verdes

16:00 - Nathan Bentley: Best Chef Pacific Northwest nominee, Altura, Anchorage Alaska. On elevating comfort food and a perfect bite of the sweet prawn biscuit

21:00 - Belinda Chang: Two-time James Beard Award winner, now creating luxury hospitality experiences. On magnetic nails, Lady Gaga concerts, and a perfect bite of crème fraîche with Lipton French onion dip, lumpfish caviar, and a potato chip

26:00 - Johnny Hernandez: Best Chef Mountain nominee, Denver, traditional Mexican cuisine. On representing Denver and Mexico and a perfect bite of molote in the Centro Historico in Oaxaca

32:00 - Finn Walter and Audrey Walter: Best Chef Texas nominee, The Nicolette, Lubbock Texas. On a burgeoning food scene and a perfect bite of green chile posole from Old Mexico Grill in Santa Fe

37:00 - Chris Shepherd and Lindsey Brown: Southern Smoke Foundation, 2026 Impact Luncheon honorees. On mental health access for hospitality workers and perfect bites of the Monteverde meatball and a homemade grilled cheese

45:00 - Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate: Best Chef Mid-Atlantic nominees, Honeysuckle, Philadelphia. On memory, storytelling through food, and perfect bites of acorn bread and the first strawberry from the farm

53:00 - Lee Anne Wong: 2026 James Beard Awards Committee member. On the diversity of this year's nominees and a perfect bite of tonkatsu from Budagumi in Tokyo

57:30 - Andrew Zimmern: Host of the 2026 James Beard Media Awards, Substack author of Spilled Milk. On overcoming nerves and a perfect bite of a fried chicken thigh

1:02:30 - Ope Amosu: Best Chef nominee, ChòpnBlọk, Houston, modern West African cuisine. On making culture accessible and a perfect bite of Buka stew

1:06:00 - Sam Toia: President and CEO, Illinois Restaurant Association. On keeping the James Beard Awards in Chicago through 2028 and culinary tourism

1:10:00 - Joe Cash: Best Chef Southeast nominee, Scoundrel, Greenville South Carolina. On classic French bistro in a burgeoning food city and a perfect bite of pristine uni

1:13:00 - Michael Tusk: Outstanding Chef nominee, Quince, San Francisco. On Joe Sasto's time at Quince and a perfect bite of a croque monsieur at Harry's Bar in Venice

1:22:30 - Erick Williams: Virtue, Chicago. On Midwest nice, team-first hospitality, and a perfect bite of Nancy Silverton's pizza dough recipe

1:23:00 - Nancy Silverton: 2026 James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award winner. On not going anywhere and a perfect bite of crusty, flavorful bread

1:30:00 - Vinnie Cimino: Best Chef Great Lakes nominee, Cordelia and ROSY, Cleveland. On bringing the whole team to Chicago and a perfect bite of the bread service at Monteverde

1:37:00 - Historia: Filipino pop-up, Las Vegas. On marrying journalism and food to bring Filipino origin stories to life

1:38:30 - Closing reflections, Soul and Smoke in the press room, and Mayor Brandon Johnson arriving

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