The Perfect Bite

After a decade running Tail Up Goat, one of DC's most celebrated tasting menu restaurants, Jon Sybert and Jill Tyler did something most restaurateurs would never consider: They closed it on their own terms, gave their team almost a full year to celebrate and prepare, and started over. What they built in its place, Rye Bunny, is the restaurant they always wanted to run and the model they believe th...

This episode is sponsored by Vermont Nut Free Chocolates . Get 20% off your order through December 31st with code PERFECTBITE at vermontnutfree.com. This episode is also sponsored by BLiS Gourmet , Michigan's small-batch producer of barrel-aged condiments, sauces, and caviar. Get 15% off your order through November 1, 2026 with code PERFECTBITE . Elevate your everyday cooking at blisgourmet.com ....

This episode is sponsored by Vermont Nut Free Chocolates , your new favorite 100% tree nut and peanut nut quality chocolates. Get 20% off your order through December 31st with code PERFECTBITE at vermontnutfree.com . This episode is also sponsored by BLiS Gourmet , Michigan's small-batch producer of barrel-aged condiments, sauces, and Midwestern caviar. Elevate your everyday cooking and get 15% of...

Chef Dominique Leach is a pit master, fine dining veteran, food entrepreneur, community builder, and the woman behind one of Chicago's most celebrated barbecue restaurants: Lexington Betty Smokehouse. And if you think you know what a pit master looks like, Dom is here to expand your imagination. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Dominique at the brand-new Lexington Betty location...

They rented a cursed venue in Toronto with a leak and a fire alarm. They put everything they had into it. And by the end of the first week, there was a line around the block. Erin Hayes and Kelsey Ramage are the co-founders of Black Lagoon, now in its sixth year, a Halloween-themed immersive cocktail pop-up experience running across 34 locations in North America every October. Erin came from the C...

She named her brand after her geriatric dog. She started her Instagram account while in chemotherapy and called it Cooking with Cancer. She photographed her own cookbook in her parents' basement with the help of her mom's mahjong friend Karen, a hobby photographer in her 70s who ended up with photos on the back cover of the finished book. And she has never once paywalled a recipe because she learn...

He was sixteen years old, court-ordered to an alternative school in Rhode Island, looking for a way to pass the time. A retired Johnson & Wales chef named Andy ran a vocational culinary program there. Kevin signed up. Chef Andy saw something in him. And that was the beginning of everything. Chef Kevin O'Donnell is a multi-time James Beard Award nominee and the owner of Giusto and Mother Pizzer...

About six weeks after winning the James Beard Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award, Ashok Selvam was laid off from Eater Chicago. He had been there for over a decade. He was the only full-time staff member. His fingerprints were on every single story, every headline, every post. And then his supervisor sent a message asking him to check his email. What happened next is one of the most genuinely excitin...

Their grandfather worked at his Polish deli until he was 87. Their uncle is 75 and still running it. Nobody in the family told them the business was a good idea. And that didn’t stop Vanessa and Casey White from building one of the most beloved Polish American food brands in the country. Vanessa and Casey White are the co-founders of Jaju Pierogi, a Polish American frozen pierogi brand they starte...

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 J...

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 exe...

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...

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, Ya...

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...

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, s...

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-base...

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...

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 cuis...

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...

Some people learn about the food industry from the outside. Jordan Buckner learned it from all sides at once, and then built the community he wished had existed while he was figuring it out. Jordan Buckner is the founder of Foodbevy, a community and resource platform now reaching over 5,000 CPG founders and food and beverage professionals, and of Joyful Co., a corporate gifting company built aroun...

In a world full of AI generated images, there is still nothing quite like a photo that makes you stop scrolling and say: Is that for real? Laura Scherb is the founder of Page and Plate Studio, a food photography and styling business that brings CPG brands, cookbook authors, and editorial projects to life through imagery so textural and rich it practically pops off the page. She is also the co-foun...

Some people spend their entire careers supporting others before they finally step into the light themselves. Adrienne Cheatham spent eight years at Le Bernardin, years supporting Marcus Samuelsson at Red Rooster and Street Bird, and a lifetime believing she was meant to be the operational person behind the scenes. And then a call to Top Chef and a family gumbo challenge changed everything. Adrienn...

He broke his back snowboarding, got stuck on his couch, and found the Food Network. Thirteen minutes after submitting his MasterChef application, a producer called him. And he never slowed down from there.   Josh Gale is the founder and private chef behind The Chef Out West, a Canadian food creator and MasterChef and Beat Bobby Flay veteran whose bold, unapologetic, in-your-face food philos...

If you have been sleeping on Cleveland, Chef Vinnie Cimino is here to wake you up. Vinnie is the co-founder of Cordelia, one of Cleveland's most beloved restaurants, and the brand new ROSY, a wood-fired neighborhood spot that opened just seven weeks before this conversation. He is also a three-time James Beard Award nominee, a community anchor through the Cleveland Family Meal Project and Food Con...

Some brands set out to sell a product. Diaspora Spice Co. set out to change a supply chain, honor a culture, and bring the most potent, story-rich spices in the world into home kitchens across America. Nine years in, they are doing all three. Sana Javeri Kadri is the CEO and founder of Diaspora Spice Co., a regenerative spice company built on a singular mission: put money, equity, and power into t...