A brand new season of The Dish is here, and we’re kicking things off with a Michigan favorite – pączki. We’ll take you inside a popular Hamtramck bakery known as "Pączki Headquarters," to see what it takes to make thousands of these rich jelly donuts ahead of Fat Tuesday, plus we’ll talk to a food writer about why this Polish tradition is so beloved, and how the pączki keep evolving.

GUESTS:

• Micki Maynard, journalist and editor of Culinary Woman Newsletter on Substack
• Suzy Ognanovich, New Palace Bakery family member

Photo caption: New Palace Bakery offers traditional and new flavor pączki.

Photo credit: Ronia Cabansag

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Chef Eddie Vargas has a long history with birria — a flavorful stew that is slow cooked until the meat of choice is fall-apart tender. Filled with dried chiles, garlic, and spices, the stew is traditionally made with large cuts of goat or lamb. However, in the U.S., it is most often made with beef. In the past decade, birra tacos, quesabirria, and even birra ramen have taken off. Listen to how Eddie is making this traditional stew. And stay tuned because in 2025, Eddie is opening a new taqueria called Tacos Wuey Detroit with his father Jose.  

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Music in this episode by Audio Network and Blue Dot Sessions.

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For Chef Prej Iroegbu, Detroit is home base for both his family and his business: a series of well-loved food trucks called Fork in Nigeria. But his culinary talent was born and nurtured in Nigeria.

The Fork in Nigeria menu offers savory meat dishes made with goat, lamb or oxtail, and equally hearty but less heavy veggie-based dishes, like cassava leaf stew and spinach and kale soup.

Many of his ingredients, Irogebu said, are sourced directly from Nigeria, including peppers, yams, and various spices. He also imports palm oil, a key ingredient in Nigerian cooking.

Iroegbu’s most popular dish incorporates egusi, another import that he said he struggled to find in the U.S. The ground melon seed is served in stew form with fufu, a white, flavorless ball of pounded yam.

Fork in Nigeria Food Truck WEBSITE: https://forkinnigeria.com/

Bonus footage from Prej's kitchen: https://www.michiganpublic.org/podcast/the-dish

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A couple in Grand Rapids is cooking up homemade corn masa that’s garnered the attention of true tortilla lovers from all over the country. Madre Masa is one of the few Michigan businesses utilizing a process called nixtamalization in creating the dough for their corn tortillas.

Click here to see photos of the blue and yellow corn tortillas and the milling process with Renata Fernández Domínguez and Bek Ostosh. 

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Music in this episode by Audio Network and Blue Dot Sessions.

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Every week, the display case at Q Bakehouse features an array of pastries that blend European form with East-Asian flavor. Owner Rachel Liu Martindale's current bestseller is a chili crisp scone. Rachel walked us through the recipe, and offered some tips for experimenting with new flavors in baked goods.

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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After attending culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu, and then cooking at a two Michelin-star restaurant in Chicago, Chef Ken Miller brought his skills back to Michigan. His most recent culinary experiments, including his accidental everything-bagel miso, incorporate fermentation, preservation, and zero-waste strategies. Chef Ken let us into his creative process within Michigan's fine dining world.

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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The Marasigan family is bringing all the flavors and fun of a Filipino house party to West Michigan via their restaurant, Adobo Boy. Chef Jackie Marasigan shared why she's excited to share her culture with a community that might know nothing about Filipino food. We also learned what makes the restaurant such a warm welcome for Filipinos far from home.

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The Dish, hosted by Mercedes Mejia, brings you behind the scenes with Michigan’s most inspiring chefs and culinary talents. Learn how food connects these chefs to their cultures, and strengthens our communities, one dish at a time. The first three episodes drop Tuesday, November 26, with one new episode each Tuesday through December 17.

Support our work: michiganpublic.org/podfund

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It's Season 2 of The Dish! 

Today’s story takes us back to 2014, Ann Arbor. That’s when Eric Holloway started making cheesecake with his mom. Before that, Eric was in a bad place. But he’s come a long way from growing pot for a living to baking cheesecakes.

• EK’s Cheesecakes offers custom orders that are available for delivery or pickup at Stadium Market in Ann Arbor.
• They also offer a rotating menu at their storefront in Dexter on Fridays and Saturdays. EK’s Cheesecakes shares its storefront and kitchen with Rich Grains Bakery

We’d love for you to fill out this listener survey. It will only take a few minutes, and it will help us know what you want to hear! 

Is there a culinary creative we should get to know in your area? If so, tell us about them. You can send your tips to TheDish@MichiganPublic.org 

GUEST:

• Eric Holloway is the owner of EK’s Cheesecakes and co-owner of Rich Grains Bakery.

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We’d love for you to fill out this listener survey. It will only take a few minutes, and it will help us know what you want to hear! 

Brittany March, the owner of a culinary pop-up called It’s Food Detroit, has a deep love for pizza that goes all the way back to childhood. Now, she's cooking her own pies, offering a vegan-first take on Detroit-style. She has plans to open up her own brick-and-mortar called Roots and Dough next spring.

• Find details about Brittany's fundraiser for her brick-and-mortar here.
• Learn more about Village Pizza and Alkebu-lan Village here.
• Find bonus footage from our trip here.

Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way.

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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The Maple Grille in Hemlock, Michigan, offers a rotating farm-to-table menu. Everything is cooked on a wood-fired grill or pizza oven. The business sits on 6 acres of land, including the restaurant, a brewery housed in a repurposed shipping container, a chicken coop, a hoop house, and a small produce farm.

Two things stand out in the gravel parking lot: the smoke wafting out of a long pavilion, and an enormous pile of firewood. 

“The Maple Grille started out here,” said Josh Schaeding, chef and owner of the restaurant. 

Before the property just off M-46 became a restaurant, it was home to a construction company owned by Schaeding’s father and grandfather. The family built two long maple syrup evaporators in front of the business, near the roadside. 

“So many people stopped by and thought we were cooking ribs,” Schaeding said.  “We were just cooking maple syrup. I decided as soon as syrup season was over to… start a restaurant here.”

The restaurant is surrounded by farmland and draws in a mix of locals, loyal seasonal customers, and vacationers passing through on their way up north. Nearly everything on the menu is locally sourced, from the meat to the produce to the firewood that fuels all three of their grills.

You can see more photos from our visit HERE.

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Brothers Patrick and Ryan Evans fell in love with Sichuanese cuisine while working in San Francisco's fine dining industry. When they returned to Michigan, they teamed up with Ryan Corbin, a fellow chef, to bring those flavors to Traverse City.

We talked to the trio about Crocodile Palace, their takeout-only Sichuan restaurant, the appeal of the Sichuan region's mala flavor profile, and the ingredients that go into their bestselling dan dan noodles.

HELPFUL LINKS:

• Crocodile Palace's main brick-and-mortar is located at 124 Cochlin St. in Traverse City.

• Their kitchen at The Little Fleet near downtown Traverse City is open year-round, and offers a less spicy menu of options.

• Find bonus footage from our trip, plus a map of all our past trips, here!

We’d love for you to fill out this listener survey. It will only take a few minutes, and it will help us know what you want to hear! 

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Tanya and Wasinade Raphael are the mother-daughter team behind Raphael Foods. You’ll find their food truck drawing long lines at powwows and other tribal events across northern Michigan. Most of their dishes are built on hot, pillowy fry bread – a Native American flat bread with a complex history.

• Find operating hours for Raphael Foods here.
• Find bonus footage from our trip here.

Want more food stories? Listen here. 

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In Boyne City, a little lakeside town in Northern Michigan, there’s a bakery offering crepes of a quality that you'd expect to find in France. It’s owned by a classically trained French baker, Gildas Berrou. The shop offers a variety of savory and sweet fresh-baked goods, including traditional crepes made to order. Just don’t ask Gildas to add American cheese.

HELPFUL LINKS:

• Find the Gildas' Lake Street Bakery website here
• Find bonus footage on our website here

We’d love for you to fill out this listener survey. It will only take a few minutes, and it will help us know what you want to hear! 

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Milkweed Inn is a unique culinary getaway hidden deep in the Upper Penninsula's Hiawatha National Forest. Chef Lane Regan works to craft menus that are foraged and locally sourced. We learned about what it takes to craft and execute such a remote experience, and the ways the environment shape Chef Regan's food philosophy.

HELPFUL LINKS:

• Read about Lane's work at Elizabeth
• The website for Milkweed Inn
• Bonus photos from our visit to Milkweed Inn

We’d love for you to fill out this listener survey. It will only take a few minutes, and it will help us know what you want to hear! 

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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We spent some time with Yumna Jawad, better known as Feel Good Foodie, in her Grand Rapids home. She shared her must-have holiday dish and some super practical tips to help us all survive the holiday season in the kitchen.

• Find Yumna's stuffed grape leaves recipe here
• Find the landing page for Yumna's episode here
• Find The Dish's suggestion form here, or email us at TheDish@MichiganPublic.org

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British-born and Michelin-starred chef Kieron Hales has cooked for presidents and royalty across 27 countries. 

He's Executive Chef at Zingerman's Cornman Farms in Dexter, Michigan, a farmhouse and event space with a restored red barn on the property. He works with couples to create custom menus—crafting farm-to-table meals or recreating family favorites—and provides them with the recipes to keep.

Today he talks with me about his favorite food memory, his mother's crepe cannelloni. It’s a labor-intensive lasagna-like creation of crepes stuffed with bolognese and baked in bechamel sauce. Plus what he takes away from cooking at the highest levels of the culinary world, and what it means to create meals that become memories. 

We’d love for you to fill out this listener survey. It will only take a few minutes, and it will help us know what you want to hear! 

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Manuel De Paz created his Guatemalan diner, Encuentro Latino, with community in mind. The name translates to “Latin Gathering.” It’s been in the same location in downtown Ypsilanti since 2015. Many other shops have struggled to stick around, but a loyal customer base has kept Encuentro Latino in business.

Today, chef-owner De Paz talks about building something distinctly Guatemalan – a gathering place for everyone – the dishes that keep people coming back, and what it means to keep the doors open when part of your community is afraid to walk through them. 

Helpful links!

• Find Encuentro Latino here and follow them on their Facebook page to be in on their weekly specials. 
• Follow and subscribe to The Dish here so you don't miss an episode!

Give us your suggestions!

• Email us at TheDish@michiganpublic.org
• Find our submission form here

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The Cottage Bagel, a home bakery in Grand Rapids owned by Angela and Tony Ochoa, has developed a loyal following, with weekly bagel and scone pre-order “drops” often selling out within hours. Orders are placed on their website, and then picked up from the Ochoas’ home on Fridays.

The Ochoas highlighted the culture of community-building and supporting local businesses in the city. We talked with Angela and Tony about quiet morning rituals, baking in the Republic of Georgia, and what it means to be part of a growing community of home-based cooks.

Helpful links:

• Find the Cottage Bagel order form here
• Find bonus footage on our website here

Give us your suggestions!

• Email us at TheDish@michiganpublic.org
• Find our submission form here

Support our work: https://www.michiganpublic.org/podfund

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A sober bar manager in Ann Arbor is redefining what zero‑proof cocktails can be.

In this episode, my colleague April Baer talks with Max Schikora of Echelon Kitchen and Bar about his path to sobriety, the pressures of bar culture, and how he’s crafting some of Michigan’s most thoughtful spirit‑free drinks. 

Max’s story is also a window into a broader shift. More people in the service industry are choosing sobriety, and more restaurants are making space for them. At Echelon, Max helps lead a weekly Ben’s Friends meeting, part of a national support network for hospitality workers navigating addiction and recovery.

He also walked April through one of his favorite creations: a roasted beet cocktail that’s earthy, bright, and built from kitchen scraps that would otherwise be tossed. It’s a drink that captures his philosophy: nothing wasted, everything intentional.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or use Lifeline Chat to connect with a trained counselor.

• Find The Dish's suggestion form here, or email us at TheDish@MichiganPublic.org

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