The Perfect Bite – Details, episodes & analysis

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The Perfect Bite

Sarah Perkins

Arts

Business

Frequency: 1 episode/7d. Total Eps: 56

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?

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https://perfectbitepod.substack.com/
26 shares
http://www.theperfectbitepod.com
18 shares
https://the-perfect-bite.beehiiv.com/
4 shares

https://www.instagram.com/maneetchauhan
1 share
https://www.instagram.com/therealbillyz
1 share
https://www.instagram.com/farmerleejones
1 share

https://www.youtube.com/@perfectbitepod
53 shares
https://youtu.be/jl4-Yuwzzcc
1 share
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpFTwA3GzSE
1 share

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RSS feed quality

Good

Score global : 79%

Publication history

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Latest published episodes

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Beth Le Manach's Perfect Bite | How “Entertaining with Beth” Built a Global Brand from Her Kitchen

Episode 36

Thursday, November 6, 2025 • Duration 54:51

In this episode of The Perfect Bite Podcast, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Beth Le Manach, creator of Entertaining with Beth and author of Entertaining 101. Beth shares how she turned her love of home cooking and hosting into a thriving digital media brand — from her early days at Scripps and Food Network to building a YouTube channel with over 600,000 subscribers.

They explore the journey behind Entertaining 101, the art of making guests feel at home, and Beth’s lessons from 13+ years in the creator economy. From surviving long days as a mompreneur to creating content that feels elevated yet accessible, Beth reveals what it really takes to build a sustainable media brand around food, joy, and storytelling.

You’ll learn:

How Beth transitioned from corporate media to food creator entrepreneurship
What makes content relatable and evergreen
The secret to building loyal communities online
How to monetize across YouTube, Substack, and books
Beth’s tips for stress-free entertaining and creating your “perfect bite”

Grab Beth’s new book, Entertaining 101, now available at Anthropologie, Amazon, and anywhere books are sold.

You can follow Beth on YouTube, Instagram, Substack and more @entertainingwithbeth. You can buy Entertaining 101 and learn more from Beth at www.entertainingwithbeth.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 on Substack!

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Catherine De Orio’s Perfect Bite | Her Recipe for Reinvention through Purpose, Culinary Storytelling, and Giving Back

Episode 35

Thursday, October 30, 2025 • Duration 58:09

In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Catherine De Orio — food & lifestyle media personality, former host of “Check, Please!” Chicago, executive director of the Foundation for Culinary Arts, and founder of Casa De Orio, a new media brand celebrating la dolce vita.

Catherine’s journey is one of reinvention, resilience, and creativity. From her early years in an Italian-American family where food focused on connection and nourishment, to her transition from litigator to culinary school graduate to national TV host, she shares how she’s turned every chapter into an opportunity to grow, serve, and create.

We dive into how she built a career at the intersection of culinary arts, media, nonprofits and entrepreneurship, how she’s shaping the future of culinary education through the Foundation for Culinary Arts, and what inspired her newest venture — Casa De Orio, a digital platform and lifestyle brand focused on food, design, travel, and finding beauty in everyday life.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Catherine transitioned from law to food & lifestyle media
The origin story behind Check, Please! and how it shaped her career
How food, family, and heritage shaped her creative voice
The mission of the Foundation for Culinary Arts & the “Yes, Chef!” culinary camp program
What inspired Casa De Orio & the future of digital lifestyle brands
Advice for creatives on trusting your path and finding alignment

To learn more about the Foundation for Culinary Arts and support its mission, you can visit www.foundationforculinaryarts.org. You can follow FFCA on Instagram at .

Britney Ziegler's Perfect Bite | Disrupting the Hospitality CRM Industry with Panso

Episode 27

Thursday, September 4, 2025 • Duration 56:16

What if restaurants could understand every guest and their personal preferences across reservations, private dining, e-commerce, and events — all in one place? That’s the vision behind Panso, the 360 degree hospitality CRM platform founded by Britney Ziegler.

On this episode of The Perfect Bite podcast, I sit down with Britney to talk about her journey from working alongside celebrity chefs and food icons like David Burke, Carla Hall, and Molly Baz, to launching a startup that’s reshaping how restaurants build customer loyalty and future-proof their business.

Britney shares:

How her early experiences in restaurants inspired her path into food and hospitality tech
Lessons learned from working with celebrity chefs and food entrepreneurs
Why she built Panso, a hospitality CRM that gives restaurants a true 360° view of their guests
The challenges (and wins) of being a woman founder in the restaurant tech space
How restaurants can boost customer retention, loyalty, and growth through smarter data and personalized experiences

Whether you’re a restaurant operator, food tech entrepreneur, or hospitality professional, you’ll walk away with insights on customer experience, innovation, and building a mission-driven business.

✨ Listen now to learn how Panso is helping restaurants thrive in 2025 and beyond.

You can learn more about Panso at www.hellopanso.com.

You can follow Panso at @hellopanso on Instagram.

You can follow Britney Ziegler on LinkedIn.

Sally Ekus's Perfect Bite | Inside the World of Cookbook Publishing & Food Media

Episode 26

Thursday, August 28, 2025 • Duration 56:49

What does it really take to get a cookbook published today? I sat down with Sally Ekus, lead of and senior literary agent at The Ekus Group (now a division of JVNLA), to explore the intersection of food, publishing, and entrepreneurship.

Sally has spent over 16 years representing cookbook authors, chefs, food writers, and culinary thought leaders, helping them bring their unique stories and recipes to print. She shares how publishing has evolved from the days of Julia Child and Emeril Lagasse to the era of TikTok food creators, Substack writers, and BookTok trends.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

How cookbook publishing really works today—pitching, proposals, and what agents look for
Why an author’s platform and audience matter as much as their expertise
The role of Instagram, TikTok, newsletters, and Substack in discovering new food writers
The shift from big book tours to digital discoverability
Advice for chefs, restaurateurs, and food entrepreneurs who want to publish their first cookbook
Why repurposing content (from newsletters to older podcast episodes) is key for longevity
The importance of mentorship, patience, and persistence in publishing and entrepreneurship

About Sally Ekus

Sally leads The Ekus Group, a boutique literary agency specializing in cookbooks and culinary talent. With a background in sociology, she brings a unique perspective to agenting—blending negotiation skills with deep care for authors’ stories. She also writes the popular Substack “Not So Secret Agent,” where she offers transparent insights into the publishing world.

Follow Sally on Instagram:

Matt Jennings's Perfect Bite | From James Beard Chef to Hospitality Tech Founder

Episode 25

Thursday, August 21, 2025 • Duration 01:00:11

From a five-time James Beard Award nominee to a tech co-founder reshaping hospitality, Matt Jennings has worn many hats — chef, restaurateur, author, and now tech entrepreneur with MAJC.ai.

In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Matt to trace his journey from his early days in New England kitchens to running celebrated restaurants like Farmstead and Townsman, and to now co-founding MAJC.ai — a platform designed to help restaurants recruit, retain, and develop top talent.

Matt shares:

His path from culinary school to opening acclaimed restaurants
Lessons learned from scaling teams and building hospitality culture
Why the industry needs people-first technology now more than ever
How MAJC.ai is creating a community and academy for restaurant leaders worldwide
His advice for entrepreneurs about mentorship, failure, and staying mission-driven

If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to transition from chef whites to startup life — and how hospitality can thrive with tech done right — this episode is for you.

To join the MAJC community (for free!) and learn more, head to www.majc.ai.

You can follow MAJC on social media @majc.ai and Matt on Instagram @matthewjennings.

Listen to MAJC’s podcasts Restaurant Ready or anywhere you listen to podcasts, or watch the episodes on YouTube!

Chef Chaz Lindsay's Perfect Bite | From NYC Fine Dining to Jackson’s Farm-to-Table Osteria

Episode 24

Thursday, August 14, 2025 • Duration 48:27

“Honest cuisine”: That’s probably my favorite phrase now for seasonal or farm-to-table cooking. Thanks to Chef Chaz Lindsay, you can have the most honest, delicious Italian-Mississippi cuisine at Pulito Osteria. Chef Chaz Lindsay went from the high-pressure kitchens of Eleven Madison Park and Colicchio & Sons/Craft to building a soulful, seasonal osteria in Jackson, Mississippi. In this episode, Chaz shares how Italian simplicity, Mississippi produce, and a “people-first” culture shaped Pulito Osteria—where 90% of the vegetables come from local farms and pasta is made by hand daily.

What you’ll learn

How a Mississippi kid fell in love with food—and why gumbo, jambalaya, and cornbread still guide his palate
Lessons from CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and NYC fine dining: precision, sourcing, and standards
Bringing Italy home: seasonality, transparency, and honest cuisine (North Atlantic scallops, Alabama tuna, Two Dog Farm veg)
Opening Pulito Osteria in Bellhaven: educating guests on osteria-style menus & family-style sharing
Building community: sourcing locally, taking care of staff, and giving back
Aiming high: the Michelin Guide American South and what star-level focus looks like in Jackson

Episode highlights

Tomato season, passata & basil: why less is more
Why guest experience starts with staff lineup & family meal
Owning the neighborhood: Pulito, Rowan’s (Chaz’s bar), and a restored 1928 gas-station event space

You can visit Pulito Osteria and Rowan’s (Chaz’s dive bar) in Jackson, Mississippi in the Bellhaven Town Center.

To learn more about Pulito Osteria, visit .

Joshua Chemparathy's Perfect Bite | Building the First Cold Brew Canned Chai

Episode 23

Thursday, August 7, 2025 • Duration 59:24

You’ve had cold brew coffee, but have you heard of cold brew chai? Sinwise Farms founder Joshua Chemparathy has created the first canned cold brew chai and gorgeous canned coffee, all with single origin tea, coffee, and spices from his family’s farm in Kerala, South India.

It’s hard to believe Josh and I have known each other for about 15 years now, thanks to being in the same co-ed business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, at Santa Clara University. He’s always been so cool, calm, and collected, and now he has the coolest chai around! We chat through how AKPsi shaped us as we entered the real world for our careers, Josh’s family history on the farm, and how he’s reshaping a tradition to share it with a broader Western audience. In a lot of ways, Josh has gone back to his roots—honoring Indian flavors and shaping how they’re served on a more scalable level with his engineer’s brain.

In this episode

From Kerala roots to Bay Area founder: farm memories, flavor, and first omelet
Why cold-brew chai (and how it’s different from “chai tea”)
Building farm-to-can supply chains: cardamom, coconut, coffee & tea
The canning breakthrough, shelf stability, and doing R&D solo
Rebranding Sinwise Farms → Kathas and moving from oat to coconut milk
Wholesale growth, pricing realities, and the long game vs. “overnight success”

Quick hits

Geography: Kerala 🇮🇳 → Bay Area, CA
Retail: Specialty grocers + Whole Foods NorCal
Product: RTD cold-brew chai & coffee, single-origin spices, small-batch

You can find Sinwise Farms products in Whole Foods stores across Northern California, Berkeley Bowl, Gus’s Market in San Francisco, and other specialty grocers across the Bay Area.

You also can purchase Sinwise Farms and learn more about the brand’s story at .

Simple Goodness Sisters' Perfect Bite | Drinking Your Garden with The World's First Cocktail Farm

Episode 22

Thursday, July 31, 2025 • Duration 01:03:26

On this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Belinda Kelly and Venice Cunningham, the sister duo behind the Simple Goodness Sisters, authors of the new cocktail recipe book Drink Your Garden.

Belinda and Venice share how they went from corporate jobs in tech to creating the world’s first cocktail farm, launching a mobile bar business, and building a thriving CPG brand around their seasonal, farm-to-glass cocktail syrups. They discuss the inspiration behind Drink Your Garden, tips for growing your own cocktail-friendly herbs and edible flowers, and how to make elevated drinks at home without wasting ingredients.

This episode is packed with insights for food & beverage entrepreneurs, cocktail enthusiasts, and anyone curious about scaling a business that blends farming, flavor, and community.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

How the Simple Goodness Sisters turned a farm and a mobile bar into a full-fledged CPG brand.
The role of edible flowers and herbs in making cocktails truly special.
The business challenges of launching in food & beverage—and how they navigated licensing, scaling, and distribution.
Why Drink Your Garden is more than just a recipe book—it’s a guide to making the most of every ingredient.
Lessons on resilience, community, and asking for help when growing a business.

About the Simple Goodness Sisters:

Belinda Kelly and Venice Cunningham founded Simple Goodness Sisters in Wilkeson, Washington, where they grow herbs and edible flowers for cocktails and produce their own line of syrups. Their Soda Shop tasting room and CPG mixers bring farm-fresh flavors to bar carts nationwide. Their book, , teaches home bartenders how to grow, mix, and sip seasonally.

Chef Donald Young's Perfect Bite | Michelin Stars to Pop-Ups, Private Dining, and Finding His Culinary Voice

Episode 21

Thursday, July 24, 2025 • Duration 47:57

What do you get when you mix Michelin-starred training with playful storytelling, rubber duckies, and dry ice? For Chef Donald Young, the answer is Duck Sel—Chicago’s most whimsical private dining and popup experience.

In this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins dives into Don’s journey: from growing up with a plain palate in the Midwest to training under iconic French chefs (like Roland Liccioni), cooking in France, earning a Michelin star at an incredibly young age, and ultimately creating Duck Sel, his passion project blending high-end cuisine with a sense of fun.

Don shares the challenges of building a business out of private dinners, why resilience (and a few setbacks) shaped his career, and what it really takes to stand out as a chef in today’s food culture.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

How Chef Donald Young went from Culver’s to Michelin-starred kitchens
The pivotal role mentors and French culinary training played in his career
What it was like to earn a Michelin star as one of the youngest chefs in Chicago
The origin of Duck Sel and how private dining experiences became his focus
Lessons on resilience, entrepreneurship, and staying true to your culinary voice

To learn more about Duck Sel and to book tickets to the private dining experience in Chicago, you can visit www.ducksel.com. You also can book your spot at Duck Sel on Tock.

You can follow Duck Sel on Instagram @duck_sel and Donald at .

Soul & Smoke's Perfect Bite | From Moto to Chicago's Favorite Barbeque

Episode 20

Thursday, July 17, 2025 • Duration 51:09

On this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Chef D’Andre Carter and Heather Bublick, the duo behind Soul & Smoke, one of Chicago’s most beloved barbecue brands.

From staging at Moto under Chef Homaro Cantu to running underground dinners, private catering, and eventually pivoting during the pandemic to launch Soul & Smoke, D’Andre and Heather share their remarkable journey. Today, their soulful barbecue can be found across Chicagoland, from Evanston to Soldier Field, alongside their signature sauces and rubs in stores.

They open up about the realities of building a business, growing a team of 50+, parenting while running multiple concepts, and why resilience, flexibility, and heart are key to entrepreneurial success.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

How D’Andre & Heather met at Moto and trained under Chef Homaro Cantu
The early days of underground dining and Feast & Imbibe catering
Pivoting during the pandemic and working with World Central Kitchen
Building Soul & Smoke into a multi-location barbecue brand
The evolution of their menu and upcoming Evanston flagship restaurant
Balancing family, entrepreneurship, and community impact

You can visit Soul & Smoke’s outposts throughout Chicagoland in Evanston; the Avondale neighborhood; Accenture Tower; and at Soldier Field.

To learn more about Soul & Smoke or to purchase their sauces and rubs, head to www.soulandsmoke.com or www.hereheremarket.com.

The Perfect Bite – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

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The Perfect Bite – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other86

Instagram80

Youtube6

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other86

Instagram80

Youtube6