Culinary Characters Unlocked

After growing up in New Mexico and diving deep into southwestern cuisine, Chef Nick Zocco went to work for Bobby Flay in Las Vegas. A decade later, he went on Bobby’s TV show, Beat Bobby Flay, and did just that, winning with a crab stuffed chili relleno. That dish is now a favorite at the Salt Lake City restaurant where Chef Zocco says he is surprising local diners with inventive dishes they’ve never had before like lamb tartare.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Joanne Chang was hired as pastry chef at one of Christopher Myers’s restaurants, the connection was instant. Years later, friendship turned into marriage. Along the way they built a celebrated restaurant group in Boston— eleven bakery-restaurant combos, then a pan Asian place that grew out of her upbringing as the child of Taiwanese immigrants and offers a unique cross-cultural menu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chef Loryn Nalic married into a Bosnian family in St. Louis and fell in love with their food. She explored it further, traveling to Bosnia and the surrounding Balkans region, even cooking in the kitchens of women she met in local markets, before she, her husband, and his brother opened the Balkan Treat Box food truck, then transitioned it into a brick and mortar restaurant. And with the profits from their business, they were able to reunite the family with their Bosnian relatives displaced by war.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2026 James Beard Best Chef Northwest & Pacific Ryan Roadhouse is celebrated for marrying Japanese techniques and traditions with fresh local ingredients to create extraordinary meals at his Portland restaurant Nodoguro. What began as a pop-up is now a highly honored destination restaurant. His frequently changing tasting menus are built around themes—everything from the seasons to books, films, memories, and more. And the chef himself remains in the kitchen, not just managing and supervising but cooking and creating. The food is in the tradition of kaiseki, Japan’s finest dining, but less restricted. One writer called it kaiseki without the rules. The musician Questlove even included Chef Roadhouse in his book Something to Food About. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katie Reicher runs the kitchen at one of the most historically important vegetarian restaurants in America, Greens in San Francisco. But she insists she’s cooking for everybody, that her vegetarian food is about great flavors, not necessarily eating healthy, and certainly not about depriving yourself. She also points out that Oreos are vegan.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices