Episode #207 - Stephen Sandoval of Trino, Diego, and Entre Sueños

Episode #207 - Stephen Sandoval of Trino, Diego, and Entre Sueños

This week, we sit down with Chef Stephen Sandoval for a globetrotting whirlwind tour through a career that spans McDonald’s franchises in Southern California, Michelin-starred kitchens in the Bay Area, wood-fire cooking in Argentina, classical Mexican cuisine in Mexico City, and some of Chicago’s most celebrated restaurants. Stephen is a tour de force who’s worked alongside the likes of Rick Bayless, Stuart Brioza, and Albert Adrià, and his newest restaurant, Trino, is a deeply personal steakhouse concept inspired by Northern Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and the classic Chicago dining tradition. He joins us to talk through mastering seven different live-fire cooking techniques in Mendoza, the philosophy behind Baja Med cuisine, staging and cooking across three continents, and the long, winding road toward opening his dream restaurant concept, Entre Sueños -- and so much more.

Episode #206 - Chef Andrew Zimmerman

We’ve wanted to have this week’s guest on since we started the podcast. Andrew Zimmerman is one of Chicago’s most respected chefs -- a five-time James Beard finalist and the chef behind Sepia’s remarkable 15-year Michelin star run. In a special episode, we hosted the Gratuity Round live during a dinner at the Stock headquarters featuring Andrew and Jonathan Zaragoza before sitting down with Andrew a few days later to talk about his journey from New Jersey kitchens and punk bands to becoming one of the defining culinary voices in Chicago. This week, we talk: American cuisine and cultural influence, the realities of consistency at the Michelin level, wild restaurant stories involving retirement homes and alleged mobsters, and why hospitality is ultimately about building something worth coming back to -- and so much more.

Episode #205 - Chef Zealand, Food Content Creator

This week’s guest is an enjoyable diversion for us. Chef Zealand started cooking as a teenager, learning almost entirely through curiosity, YouTube, and trial and error before graphic design school, COVID, and a few hard pivots pushed him toward kitchens for real. He went from cooking in a senior living facility to grinding on the line at a suburban tavern, all while quietly building the voice and format that would turn him into one of the internet’s most approachable food creators. He joins us to talk about learning by doing, leaving restaurants earlier than planned, the strange jump from Snapchat cooking lessons to millions of followers, and what happens when the thing that saved you becomes the job. This episode, we talk: Alton Brown’s six-hour spaghetti sauce, butter noodles with cottage cheese and cinnamon sugar, the tomato soup video that changed everything, the terror of brand-approved music -- and so much more!

Episode #204 - Zubair Mohajir of Lilac Tiger, Sarima, & Mariela

This week's guest is Chef Zubair Mohajir -- and he's got a lot going on. A former finance guy who found his calling in the kitchen after the 2008 crash, Zubair has since built one of the most compelling culinary identities in Chicago, rooted in the idea that food is migration made edible. He's the force behind Lilac Tiger, the Coach House, and Mirra -- and this summer, he's opening three more: Mariela, Muhājir, and Bobo. He joins us to walk through all of it, in a conversation that covers growing up between Qatar and the southwest suburbs, his mom's legendary garage catering operation, staging at Alinea with zero experience, why a 927-year-old duck recipe from medieval Islamic Spain is one of his signature dishes -- and so much more!

Episode #203 - Megan Marshall of Edible Chicago

This week, we’re sitting down with Megan Marshall, the publisher behind Edible Chicago, whose work starts from a simple but expansive belief: food is never just food. It’s access, labor, sustainability, culture, policy, pleasure, and community, all in conversation with each other. After years moving through food, hospitality, and food systems work, she took over Edible Chicago with a vision to broaden the city’s food conversation beyond chefs and restaurants. She comes to the studio to tell us about building a free print publication in a difficult media landscape, championing Chicago and the Midwest as essential parts of the national food story, and using storytelling to make people more aware of the systems behind what they eat. This week we talk: composting and city buy-in, why Chicago belongs at the center of the food systems conversation, the strange world of USDA checkoff program, why perfectionism may not be the point when it comes to building a more sustainable food culture -- and so much more!