Culinary Characters Unlocked

CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - JOHN FRASER – EP 35

Michelin star winning chef John Fraser worked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Thomas Keller, and in some of the most storied restaurants in France, before opening a restaurant of his own and then continuing to build a culinary empire. He has won Michelin stars at two different restaurants, including the vegetarian Nix in New York city. His restaurants focus on a range of cuisines, including French, Greek and Turkish, and vegetable-focused California style cooking.

CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – SHEILA AND DUFFY WITMER– EP 34

Sheila and Duffy Witmer bought the Pioneer Saloon in Ketchum, Idaho nearly half a century ago. And they’ve kept it a jam-packed favorite ever since, with scores of repeat customers including Clint Eastwood, Sandy Koufax, and Ernest Hemingway’s grandchildren. The menu is beef-heavy, featuring steaks and their legendary prime rib. And scraps from preparing the prime rib are the key ingredient in the Jim Spud, a massive twenty-two ounce baked potato stuffed with teriyaki beef, cheese, sour cream, caramelized onions and more.

CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED –CARLOS GAYTÁN – EP 33

Carlos Gaytán has earned a Michelin star (the first Mexican-born chef ever to receive one) at two different restaurants. He is noted for combining regional Mexican cooking with classic French techniques. After working his way up from dishwasher in a hotel kitchen, he now owns restaurants in Chicago, Mexico, and recently opened several in the Downtown Disney District adjacent to Disneyland. He has appeared on Top Chef and as a judge on numerous cooking competition shows in the U.S. and Mexico.

CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – ADRIAN MILLER - EP 32

Called the Soul Food Scholar, Adrian Miller is renowned for his knowledge of African American and southern cooking. Author of multiple books, he won James Beard awards for two of them: Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time, and Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. Yet culinary history was not his original career path. He was a lawyer, worked for the Clinton White House, and then for the governor of Colorado, before turning to culinary research. His findings are profound and often surprising. Our conversation ranged far and wide – from the white historyof chitlins, to vegan soul food, the German origins of chicken and waffles, and how, in his words, mac and cheese became “so black.”

CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - KATIE BUTTON - EP 31

Chef Katie Button is a James Beard winner for her Asheville, North Carolina Spanish restaurant Cúrate, which is the flagship of her restaurant group. Button discovered her deep love for food when she was living in Paris, studying for a master’s degree in biomedical engineering. The awakening was so profound that she changed careers, worked for two of the world’s greatest chefs, Ferran Adrià and José Andrés, before opening tapas-based Cúrate, then building a culinary empire that includes a Catalonian restaurant, a Spanish market, European tours, a cookbook, and more. She is heavily involved in helping the Asheville community rebuild after massive flooding from Hurricane Helene.

CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - CHEFS MELISSA REAGAN AND STEPHEN GONZALEZ - EP 30

Melissa Reagan and Stephen Gonzalez met at Culinary School in Austin, Texas two decades ago, then followed their own culinary journeys through a variety of restaurants. Today she’s cooking at an upscale restaurant in North Carolina (but by contract she can’t name it) and with supermarkets challenging many restaurants by offering meals cooked on site, he is working for the H-E-B grocery chain, a major player in Texas. Both feel deeply about getting average folks cooking at home. Which is the impetus behind their Food for Thoughtcast podcast. We discussed that and much more about the world of food—now and in the future.

CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – NOK SUNTARANON – EP 29

Nok Suntaranon remembers eating like royalty growing up inThailand, even though her family was poor, thanks to her mother’s skills in the kitchen. And it’s the food of her childhood that she is cooking at her Philadelphia restaurant Kalaya, named for her mom, which she did not open untilthe age of 50. She had been enjoying life as a housewife but says there’s only so much Pilates, yoga, and lunching a person can do. Just a few years later, she won the 2023 James Beard Award as best chef in the mid-Atlantic. She’s been featured on Top Chef. She’s written a cookbook, Kalaya’s Southern Thai Kitchen. And she contends that Philadelphia is now America’s number one food town.

CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF MATT VAWTER – EP 28

Named the 2024 James Beard Awards best chef in the mountain region, Matt Vawter began his culinary education going to restaurants with his grandparents and being taken into the kitchen to meet the chef. He got his first cooking job at the age of fourteen and worked his way up to big success in his hometown. Born in the Breckenridge, Colorado area, Vawter began culinary school while still in high school, cut his teeth in Denver working for celebrated chef Alex Seidel, then came back to Breckenridge to open Rootstalk, featuring local and impeccably sourced ingredients. It was a big hit and soon thereafter he opened Radicato, his Colorado take on Italian.

CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED – CHEF VICTORIA SHORE – EP 27

Victoria Shore grew up in an adventurous culinary family
(few American kids fall in love with Basque food but she did) and ended up cooking professionally because she could not get the job she wanted, culinary journalist, without kitchen experience. She’s always loved to cook—she was the kid making French fries in her dorm room—and has now worked her way up from positions in catering and restaurants to become the Executive Chef of all the restaurants at the Thompson Savannah Hotel in Savannah, Georgia. She discusses, among other things, the unique challenges of a hotel restaurant competing with celebrated fine dining establishments in a food forward town.

CULINARY CHARACTERS UNLOCKED - CHEF MICHAEL GULOTTA - EP 26

Born and raised in New Orleans, Michael Gulotta began cooking for his family at the age of nine. He grew up to attend culinary school in his hometown, then trained under legendary chefs in Europe, before coming back to N’awlins and opening three restaurants that combine, to varying degrees, Asian, Italian, Cajun, and Creole flavors. He is a five-time James Beard Award semifinalist who has drawn raves from the most esteemed culinary publications. And he runs “no yelling, please-and-thank-you” kitchens.