The Perfect Bite

Sarah Perkins
  • 5.0 (5)
  • FOOD
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Your fusion of food and entrepreneurship, The Perfect Bite brings you inspiring conversations with chefs, restaurateurs, CPG brand founders, food tech founders, and more in the food and beverage industry, highlighting their experiences and how they've cooked up something new. From emerging brands to established business owners, you'll learn from the best entrepreneurs in food, beverage, hospitality, and agriculture about how they started their businesses, what problems they're solving, the tough times they've overcome, and their best advice for entering these industries or starting your own business. We end each episode with the world's best and hardest question: What is your perfect bite?

  1. 6D AGO

    Vinnie Cimino on Building Cleveland's Best Restaurants

    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 Conscious, and one of the warmest, most thoughtful voices in the Midwest food scene today. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Vinnie for a conversation that covers the full arc of a remarkable career. From a childhood surrounded by big Italian-Slovenian family gatherings and his grandmother's restaurant in Kent, Ohio, to working at Greenhouse Tavern under Jonathon Sawyer, to pop-ups and vagabond cooking during COVID, to answering a mysterious Indeed ad posted by his future co-founder Andrew Watts that simply said he wanted to open the next great Cleveland restaurant. Cordelia, now approaching its fourth year, is exactly what it sounds like: a warm hug. Grandma's dining room meets James Beard-level cooking, with family photos on the walls, vintage 1950s silverware, and a seasonal menu built entirely around what local farm partners bring through the back door. ROSY is Cordelia's sibling, but generationally different: old world techniques, live fire cooking, and an Adriatic and Balkan-inspired menu in a 50-seat neighborhood space where 80% of guests just walk in off the street. And running underneath all of it is Vinnie's guiding philosophy: hospitality starts inward. Take care of your team and they will take care of your guests. It sounds simple. In practice, it looks like buying James Beard Awards tickets for almost 50 members of his staff, rolling out PTO for part-time employees, and his team eating cake together the day his nomination was announced while he was away cooking a benefit dinner across the country. In this episode, we cover: Growing up in a big Italian-Slovenian family with a grandmother who ran her own restaurant in Kent, OhioHis first mid-rare steak in college and the moment food really clicked for himGetting pulled into a kitchen at Russo's in Peninsula, Ohio and never really leavingTaking a $30,000 pay cut with a one-year-old and a new house to pursue cooking for realWorking his way up to CDC at Greenhouse Tavern within 10 months of joiningPop-ups, cooking in people's homes, and vagabond cooking during COVIDReconnecting with Andrew Watts through an Indeed ad looking for a chef co-founderOpening Cordelia: the inspiration, the vintage silverware, the family photos on the wallsA seasonal menu built around what the farms bring in, not the other way aroundWhy Cordelia's menu changes frequently while 40% stays as beloved staplesPartnering with 23 to 25 local farms including The Chef's Garden and a mushroom farm in DetroitThe "everyone's got the chef's table" feeling at ROSYROSY's Adriatic and Balkan-inspired wood-fired menu and the 50-inch wood-fired grillThree James Beard nominations and what it means to the whole teamShutting both restaurants down for Beard weekend so almost 50 staff can go to ChicagoCleveland Family Meal Project during COVID and how it has evolved into Food ConsciousA senior living facility in North Ridgeville centered around healthy food and cookingRolling out PTO for all staff, including part-time, because hospitality starts inwardWhat he is most proud of: watching young cooks become sous chefsHis advice for founders: the hardest part is starting, so just start at square one Find Vinnie and his restaurants: Cordelia: 2058 East 4th Street, Cleveland | @cordeliacleROSY: 2912 Church Avenue, Hingetown, Cleveland | @rosy.restaurantVinnie on Instagram: @chefvinniecimino 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! You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

    40 min

  2. MAY 14

    Diaspora Spice Co.: Spices, Farmers and a New Cookbook

    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 the best spice farms across South Asia and bring wildly delicious, hella potent flavors to your everyday cooking. Asha Loupy is Diaspora Spice Co.'s recipe editor and co-author, the woman behind some of the brand's most beloved and obsessively cooked recipes, including the strawberry cardamom bars that reliably spike website traffic every spring. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with both Sana and Asha for a conversation that covers the full arc: from a 23-year-old Sana buying a 350-kilogram turmeric harvest with her first ever tax refund and storing it in a co-op basement in Oakland, to selling out in four days and waking up to 700 orders after a New York Magazine gift guide mention, to building a company that now works with 100+ regenerative farm partners across South Asia and pays 3.9x above commodity price. And now, a cookbook that took five years, three months of travel across 10 Indian states and Sri Lanka, 14 languages, and one very memorable pumpkin chutney discovered in a kitchen in Kashmir as the cameras were packing up. Asha's origin story is equally delightful: she cold-walked her resume into Market Hall Foods after college, worked her way to the cheese department because that's where all the cool people were, and eventually slid into Sana's DMs with a photo of perfectly pleated cumin lamb dumplings with a turmeric wrapper that changed both of their lives. This episode is one of the most joyful, warm, and genuinely inspiring conversations The Perfect Bite has ever had. Two Bay Area women who love good food, care deeply about the people who grow it, and have spent nearly a decade proving that spice can be a vehicle for justice, storytelling, and extraordinary flavor. In this episode, we cover: Growing up with food: Sana eating all the graduation snacks at preschool, and Asha dictating recipes to her mom at age fourSana's time at high school in Italy and working on a vineyard and olive grove at 15Asha cold-walking into Market Hall Foods and gravitating to the cheese departmentThe turmeric latte trend that sparked Sana's curiosity about who was actually growing the turmericBuying a 350kg turmeric harvest with a $3K tax refund and storing it in a co-op basementSelling out in four days and waking up to 700 orders after Julia Turshen's New York Magazine mentionBuilding trust with farm partners by paying quadruple the commodity price on timeHow Asha slid into Sana's DMs with perfectly pleated dumplings and changed the trajectory of the brandThree months traveling across India and Sri Lanka for the cookbookThe pumpkin chutney discovered at the last possible moment in a kitchen in KashmirWhy they brought in regional cookware for every studio shoot (Kerala clay pots, Manipuri black pottery, Kashmiri copper)The strawberry cardamom bars that spike website traffic every springBusting myths about South Asian cooking: you can make most recipes in the cookbook with six spicesAn exclusive tease: Diaspora Spice Co. is opening a store (location and timing TBD)The Padma Lakshmi collaboration returning later this yearAsha's solo cookbook "Dinner Season" coming June 2027!Advice for founders: just start and get a good therapist Find Diaspora Spice Co.: Website: diasporaco.comInstagram and TikTok: @diasporacoAvailable in about 900 independent stores across the U.S, including Whole Foods CaliforniaThe Diaspora Spice Co. Cookbook: available wherever books are sold 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! You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

    56 min

  3. MAY 7

    Caper is Reinventing Food Media | Max Tcheyan

    What if food media got the Puck treatment? That's the question Max Tcheyan asked and Caper is the answer. Max is the CEO and co-founder of Caper, a new food and hospitality media company built on the premise that the food world deserves the kind of serious, insider, character-driven storytelling that business gets from Puck, that sports got from The Athletic, and that Hollywood gets from Vanity Fair. The characters are there. The stories are there. The journalism just hasn't caught up yet. Max knows how to build this. He was one of the earliest employees at Bleacher Report, grew The Athletic from startup to New York Times acquisition, and co-founded Puck, the subscription media company covering Hollywood, fashion, politics, and business with a talent-led model that changed how premium media gets built. Now he's applying everything he learned to the world he loves most: food, restaurants, and hospitality. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Max for a conversation about what Caper is, why it needed to exist, and how he's building it. The founding team is a genuine Avengers assembly: journalists from The New Yorker, the New York Times, Artnet, Eater, and Bon Appétit who are equity partners in the business, not just employees. The editorial philosophy is built around what Max calls the "power triangle" of food: the hospitality groups (producers), the chefs and restaurants (actors), and the behind-the-scenes agents, the publicists, real estate players, consultants, and advisors, whose influence on food culture nobody is covering yet. There's also an underground chef competition happening in undisclosed New York City locations that sounds like Top Chef meets an underground rap battle. And yes, a podcast and video strategy is coming. This is one of the most forward-thinking conversations about the future of food media and food storytelling we've had on The Perfect Bite. If you care about what food journalism can become, and what food entrepreneurship looks like when it's treated like a tech startup, this one is for you. In this episode, we cover: Growing up with a northern Italian mother and grandmother and the Bolognese that got frozen and shipped to collegeThe double meaning behind the name Caper: the ingredient, the adventure, and why it elevated the brandDropping out of law school to join Bleacher Report as employee number five in 2007Building growth marketing before "growth hacking" was even a termThe Athletic: building a pure subscription model that sold to the New York TimesCo-founding Puck at TPG and what the talent-led subscription model taught himWhy food media felt like sports media in 2016 and why that was the signal to buildThe "power triangle" of food: hospitality groups, chefs/restaurants, and the agent classWhy the agent class in food, the publicists, consultants, designers, and advisors, is the most underreported story in the industryBuilding Caper's founding team: Emma Orlow, Chris Crowley, and Annie ArmstrongWhy equitizing journalists changes everything and protects editorial integrityThe subscription plus advertising model and why multiple revenue streams matterPartnering with Loewe as the first ad partner and the signal it sendsUnderground chef competitions in undisclosed New York locations: the events strategyExpanding beyond New York through contributors and category-anchored storytellingThe podcast and video strategy coming in the back half of the yearHis advice for founders: the hardest thing is to start, and the journey is the reward Find Caper: Website: caper.mediaInstagram: @caper.mediaSign up for free or join as a member - two subscription tiers availableMax on LinkedIn: Max TcheyanMax on Instagram: @mtcheche 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!  You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

    43 min

  4. APR 30

    Killer Brownie on 500% Growth and Living a Little | Chimene Mayne-Ross

    Some brands feel like they were always meant to be national. Killer Brownie is one of them. But it took a 40-year journey, a nurse-turned-founder, and a tagline born from a dad sneaking Oreos to his kids to finally make it happen. Chimene Mayne-Ross is the CEO of Killer Brownie, a gourmet brownie brand born out of Dorothy Lane Market, the legendary Dayton, Ohio specialty grocer her father built, that has grown over 500% since 2019 and is now coast to coast in Target, Kroger, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, and more. But Chimene didn't come into the business straight from the family table. She spent 25 years as a nurse first, building the people skills, the regulatory knowledge, and the leadership foundation that would make her the right person to take Killer Brownie national. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Chimene for a conversation that is warm, wise, and full of the kind of generational founder insights you rarely hear in one place. From a childhood of carob instead of chocolate (her mom was a health nut ahead of her time) and Oreos snuck by her dad (who always said "sometimes you gotta live a little"), to writing a proposal for her dad at 45 years old, hiring her husband as COO, growing from 300 Instagram followers to 135,000, going through two rebrands, and landing a partnership with Irresistible Foods Group, the family behind Kings Hawaiian, that has accelerated growth without ever touching the product. This is a story about slow, steady, intentional growth. About knowing who you are and refusing to be diluted by trends. About the tagline that made Chimene cry because it was her dad's phrase all along. And about what it really means to be a third generation founder who takes something beloved and makes it her own. In this episode, we cover: Growing up with a health nut mom who served liver and onions as an afterschool snack and a dad who snuck them OreosThe family legacy: Dorothy Lane Market, Dayton's beloved specialty grocer since the 1940sWhy she chose nursing over the family business at 22 and what 25 years taught herJoining Killer Brownie in 2013 and writing a proposal to her dad for the chance to grow itWhat makes the original Killer Brownie so special: caramel, layers, and a gooey texture unlike anything elseCurrent flavors: cookie dough, caramel macchiato, Mexican hot chocolate, the Brookie, the Kitchen SinkGrowing 500%+ since 2019 and the three hires that made it possibleThe rebrand journey: two rebrands, and how the latest finally felt like coming homeThe "Live a Little" tagline that made Chimene cry because it was her dad's phrase all alongWhy she's unapologetically a dessert brand in a world of protein bars and fiber snacksQuietly cleaning up the ingredient list since 2013 without ever making it the brand messageThe Irresistible Foods Group acquisition and why the Kings Hawaiian family was the right partnerWhy "distraction leads to dilution" is her north starTaking Killer Brownie to Antarctica and feeding the expedition teamReading 20 books a year and why lifelong learning is her most important leadership toolHer goal: advising female founders and third generation family business ownersAdvice for founders: start with your purpose, know your why, and be prepared to work Find Killer Brownie: Website: www.killerbrownie.com (with store locator and direct to consumer ordering)Instagram/TikTok/Facebook: @killerbrownieAvailable at Target, Kroger, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Mariano's, and select retailers coast to coast 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! You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

    54 min

  5. APR 23

    Joe Sasto on Breaking Rules and Building a Pasta + CPG Empire

    He hated pasta as a kid. Now he's the self-proclaimed Prince of Pasta, the Ruler of Rigatoni, the Sultan of Spaghetti, and one of the most exciting chef-turned-CPG-founders in the food industry. Joe Sasto is the founder of Tantos pasta chips, co-founder of Ripi Foods frozen pasta, author of “Breaking The Rules,” and a familiar face across Food Network, Top Chef, and Netflix competitions. But what makes Joe's story genuinely compelling isn't the resume: it's the mustache, the energy, the happy accident that turned a forgotten tray of dried pasta in a Beverly Hills walk-in into a snack brand heading to Targets nationwide. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Joe for a conversation that covers the full arc, from growing up in the Midwest with a mom who served pasta with sauce on top (never married into the noodle), to landing on the pasta station at Quince because a cook was "unwillfully ejected,” to the moment he realized that cooking competitions aren't about ego, they're a sport. From building Tantos out of an accidental kitchen discovery, to getting Ripi Foods into Whole Foods nationwide with an exclusive Cacio e Pepe flavor, to teasing a potential pizza restaurant in New York, Joe is always moving, always building, always with a sauce splatter video ready to go on Instagram. This episode is packed with genuinely useful CPG insights, including a helpful retail tip about exclusives that could change how you approach your next buyer meeting. And plenty of pasta puns. Because that's just who Joe is. In this episode, we cover: Growing up hating pasta and how he ended up on the pasta station at QuinceCalifornia farming, Lazy Bear, and why he still thinks California has the world's best produceHow Top Chef changed everything and why he'd never go back (but also maybe would)The evolution from ego-driven competition cooking to approaching it like a sportThe happy accident: finding dried-out pasta in a Beverly Hills walk-in and inventing TantosMeeting co-founder Sean through Instagram DMs and building the brand togetherBreaking The Rules: years of cookbook doubt, writing it anyway, and the black garlic Caesar that everyone makesRipi Foods: fresh frozen pasta, Whole Foods nationwide, and an exclusive Target launchThe retail exclusives tip: why pitching exclusive SKUs to big box retailers gets you in the doorDream collaborations: Matty Matheson for Ripi, and the search for the perfect "pasta chip girl"Why surrounding yourself with smart, powerful women is the key to everythingTreadmill running, cop dramas, and THC beverages as the perfect wind-down comboWhat he's most proud of: the headspace shift and the people around him nowA potential pizza restaurant in New York City, details coming soonAdvice for founders: find a co-founder who fills your voids, not one who mirrors them Find Joe and his work: Instagram: @chef.joe.sastoCheck out Joe’s new YouTube channel: Make Mama ProudBreaking The Rules: available on Amazon or signed copy via link in bioRipi Foods: Whole Foods nationwide | www.ripifoods.comTantos: Amazon and grocery stores nationwide | www.tantossnacks.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! You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

    53 min

  6. APR 16

    Big Dip Energy | Alyse Whitney on Food, TV & Being Yourself

    What is Big Dip Energy? You’re about to find out! Alyse Whitney is a food journalist, cookbook author, Netflix judge, and certified Dip Queen who has spent nearly 15 years building one of the most distinctive voices in food media. Over 1,000 bylines. Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Rachael Ray Every Day. Managing editor of Chrissy Teigan's Cravings. Ina Garten's cell phone number on hand. And a cookbook, Big Dip Energy, that she wrote, art directed, propped, and styled in nine months while convincing her publisher to let her include a "compundium" of puns at the back. Oh, and she's launching a new podcast and YouTube show called Dippin' In! And she announced it here first! In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Alyse for a conversation that is unlike any other on The Perfect Bite. It covers the Korean American adoptee who started cooking for her family at 12 because she thought their Shake 'n Bake pork chops were boring, the entertainment journalist who burned out writing 15 articles a day recapping Scandal, the food writer who got Ina Garten's cell phone number after a day of cooking together, and the Netflix judge who filmed her first ever TV appearance in Spanx while on her period in Albuquerque. Alyse is maximalist in every sense, from her food, to her style, her personality, and her puns, and this conversation is a masterclass in what happens when you finally stop trying to make yourself smaller and just show up as the fullest possible version of yourself. In this episode, we cover: Growing up as a Korean adoptee with non-cooking parents and becoming the family chef at 12The gateway food memory: making kimbap with her Korean Big Sib mentor programWhy she got into dips (Hint: she almost choked as a baby because she hated chewing)Subscribing to Bon Appétit alongside J14 at age 12Burning out as an entertainment journalist writing 15 articles a dayGetting a job at Cooking Channel because she was nice to someone at her Bon Appétit internshipGetting Ina Garten to be Bon Appétit's first ever guest editor and cooking together in the HamptonsBeing laid off from Rachael Ray Every Day and landing the Chrissy Teigan Cravings jobHer first TV appearance on Easy Bake Battle with Antoni Porowski: in Spanx, on her period, in AlbuquerqueGetting called at 9:30am to replace a COVID-positive judge on Nailed It! by 11amBecoming a recurring judge on ChoppedBig Dip Energy: Writing the manuscript in three weeks and art directing every pageHer ADHD diagnosis and why she chose a 9-month book deadline over 18 monthsBeing unapologetically maximalist after years of trying to hide herselfHer Cherry Bombe Jubilee talk "Good Fat" on loving people the way we love butterWhy she's finally treating herself like a brandEXCLUSIVE: Her new podcast and YouTube show Dippin' In!, announced here first!Advice for founders: Be authentic, show up, and stop making yourself smaller Find Alyse: Website: www.alysewhitney.comInstagram: @alysewhitneyYouTube: @alyse.whitneySubstack: Dippin' In! (Launching soon! Linked in her Instagram)Big Dip Energy: Available wherever books are soldSubscribe to The Perfect Bite podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen! Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube! You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

    1h 2m

  7. APR 9

    Free of Gluten, Full of Life | Chef Monica Glass

    What do you do when the thing you've dedicated your entire career to becomes the thing that's making you sick? Chef Monica Glass spent years working in some of the most celebrated kitchens in the country, including Gotham Bar and Grill, Le Bernadin, and the Ritz Carlton Philadelphia, mastering the art and science of pastry. And then she was diagnosed with Celiac disease. The flour she had been breathing in and baking with every day was the very thing destroying her health. She could have walked away. Instead she did something much harder: She stayed, and she figured out how to do it differently. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Monica for a conversation that is equal parts inspiring and deeply personal. Monica shares the journey from a childhood garden in Maryland where her grandparents grew rhubarb and tomatoes, to moonlighting in Deborah Racicot's pastry kitchen at Gotham Bar and Grill after her PR job, to passing out at Union Square Farmers Market from the lowest iron levels her doctors had ever seen, to opening Verveine Cafe and Bakery, a fully gluten-free, dedicated safe space in Philadelphia, alongside her co-founder and mentor Chef Ken Oringer. And that's before you get to WLDFLR, her gluten-free flour and baking mix line that she's been quietly building from her basement (yes, literally, 14,000 pounds of flour was delivered to her driveway in the snow). Or the 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef that found her in a Costa Rican rainforest trying very hard to be phone-free. Monica's story is about inclusion. About food as medicine and joy simultaneously. About building a space where nobody has to feel like a burden at the table. And about the remarkable things that can happen when you refuse to let a diagnosis define the ceiling of what's possible. In this episode, we cover: Growing up in Maryland with grandparents who grew rhubarb, tomatoes, and berries in their gardenHer dad's crockpot meals, Sunday dinners, and the through line of food as familyFrom Penn State to New York City PR and gravitating toward the food clientsMaking a list of top 10 chefs she wanted to learn from and knocking on doorsMoonlighting at Gotham Bar and Grill under Deborah Racicot, turning it down twice before finally saying yesWhat Eric Ripert taught her about knowing every person's name on day one at Le BernadinThe Celiac diagnosis: years of being dismissed by doctors, passing out in Union Square, and finally getting answersLosing her mother to ovarian cancer and how the stress may have triggered the Celiac geneLearning to recreate gluten-free versions of everything she loved, without telling anyone they were gluten-freeOpening Verveine Cafe and Bakery with Chef Ken OringerThe Picknic allergen software on their site that lets guests filter the menu by their specific needsWLDFLR: the gluten-free flour and baking mix line born in her home kitchenGetting 14,000 pounds of flour delivered to her driveway in the snow and carrying it to her basementThe 2026 James Beard semifinalist nomination that found her in a Costa Rican rainforestWhy she never advertised Verveine as gluten-free and why that was the right callHustle culture, burnout, and why she finally blocked off Mondays for herselfHer two adopted tiny Chihuahuas Quill and StewieAdvice for founders: build the thing that solves your own problem, and standards are your superpower Find Monica and her work: Website: www.chefmonicaglass.comInstagram: @chefmoniVerveine Cafe: @verveinecafe | www.verveinecafe.comWLDFLR: @wldflr_glutenfree 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! You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

    52 min

  8. APR 2

    Emery Whalen Has Nine Restaurants and One Big Mission

    Some guests walk into a conversation and immediately make you feel like you've known them forever. Emery Whalen is one of those people. Emery is the CEO and co-founder of QED Hospitality, a nine-restaurant group with locations across New Orleans, Nashville, and Kentucky that is doing something increasingly rare in the hospitality industry: Putting people first, actually meaning it, and building a business around that belief that has lasted a decade. QED stands for "quod erat demonstrandum,” Latin for "Thus it has been proven." It's a punctuation mark at the end of a mathematical theorem, and for Emery and her co-founder Chef Brian Landry, it was a declaration: They weren't going to talk about doing things differently. They were going to prove it. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Emery for a conversation that covers the full arc of a remarkable life in food, hospitality, and community. From growing up in New Orleans with a mother who accidentally served potpourri-garnished fish, watching Hurricane Katrina reshape her entire future, teaching French and Spanish in New Orleans public schools through food, and co-creating a culinary scholarship program and micro-loan fund for Louisiana farmers, Emery arrived at restaurant ownership not because she wanted to, but because she realized it was the only way to do things the way she believed they should be done. QED’s first restaurant Jack Rose is a love letter to New Orleans—maximalist, warm, full of sequins on a Saturday night. And when COVID hit, instead of closing the doors on their team, Emery spun up a telehealth customer service operation in less than a week to keep every single employee working. The image of a sous chef navigating electronic medical records, and a grandmother in New Jersey sending cookies to a Nashville bartender who helped her reset her iPhone, says everything about the kind of organization QED is. In this episode, we cover: Growing up in New Orleans with a grandmother whose house always turned into a partyWhat makes New Orleans cuisine unlike any other regional food in AmericaHurricane Katrina, Princeton, and the city that shaped everythingTeaching French and Spanish through food and why leaving teaching was one of the hardest decisions she's ever madeMINO (Made in New Orleans): the culinary scholarship program she co-createdMicro-loans for Louisiana farmers and the milk farmer who started it allMeeting co-founder Chef Brian Landry and being wooed into entrepreneurship she didn't wantWhat QED stands for and why they chose the nerdiest name possibleSpinning up a telehealth customer service company in less than a week during COVIDThe "be nice or leave" policy and how she enforces it gracefullyNine restaurants in ten years and what comes nextBrian Landry's upcoming cookbook: Recipes paired with profiles of Bayou Bar musiciansWhat people get wrong about Southern food and why it deserves more respectHer advice for women and minority founders being underestimated: take great pleasure in itThe best advice she's ever gotten: Ask people outside your industry Find Emery and QED Hospitality: Instagram: @emerywhalen, @qedhospitalityWebsite: www.qedhg.comVenues throughout New Orleans, Nashville, and Kentucky 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! You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and sign up for our newsletter!

    54 min
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About

Your fusion of food and entrepreneurship, The Perfect Bite brings you inspiring conversations with chefs, restaurateurs, CPG brand founders, food tech founders, and more in the food and beverage industry, highlighting their experiences and how they've cooked up something new. From emerging brands to established business owners, you'll learn from the best entrepreneurs in food, beverage, hospitality, and agriculture about how they started their businesses, what problems they're solving, the tough times they've overcome, and their best advice for entering these industries or starting your own business. We end each episode with the world's best and hardest question: What is your perfect bite?

Information

  • Creator
    Sarah Perkins
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    63
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Sarah Perkins
  • Show Website
    The Perfect Bite

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