The Ultimate Dish – Details, episodes & analysis

In today's episode, we chat with Eden Grinshpan, TV food personality, cookbook author, and beloved host of Top Chef Canada.

Eden opens up about what it really means to follow your curiosity and trust where it leads. Her story starts at Le Cordon Bleu in London and winds through Europe, India, Southeast Asia, and Israel—each stop adding new flavor to how she sees food and the people behind it. She shares the unexpected moments that shaped her career: the phone call that landed her Top Chef Canada, the restaurant that "only lasted a whole year" (and why she's proud of it), and the seven months in India that taught her food is a connector above all else. Eden talks about letting go of perfection, learning to cook with feeling instead of fear, and finding her voice both as a chef and as a person.

Join us as Eden reveals why vegetables deserve "main character energy," the power of condiments to transform any dish, her philosophy on entertaining (casual, bountiful, and happy), and introduces us to her latest cookbook, Tahini Baby—proving that veg-forward cooking should be exciting, not restrictive.

In today’s episode, we chat with Matt Kuerbis, Escoffier Chef Instructor in Plant-Based Culinary Arts and Hospitality & Restaurant Operations Management. A chef-educator and entrepreneur, Matt blends classroom teaching with real-world brand building through his hot sauce company, HYCH.

Matt opens up about the high-stakes pivot behind “Heat You Can Handle.” He explains why trademark conflicts forced a name change from Hoss Soss, how sharpening the brand promise (flavor over fire) clarified positioning, and the practical steps that took HYCH from farmers’ markets and cooler-only sales to retail shelves in 100+ stores—co-packers, process authority letters, brokers, and 3PL fulfillment—while pricing for shrinking margins at scale.

Join us as Matt shares the founder mindset he teaches: conquering “restaurant math” fear, keeping books exit-ready, meeting guests where they are (plant-based, gluten-free, flavor-forward), and taking the very first steps—register the business, define your USP, and validate with real customers. It’s a candid, step-by-step guide for food entrepreneurs who want to turn a product into a brand—and a brand into a business.

In today’s episode, we chat with Chef Stefani De Palma, former Chef de Cuisine at San Diego’s three-Michelin-starred Addison and Head Chef of Team USA at the 2024 Bocuse d’Or Americas.

Stefani shares her journey from starting as a pastry chef to leading Team USA to a gold medal victory in New Orleans, securing their spot at the prestigious Bocuse d’Or finals in Lyon, France. She discusses the intense preparation, the challenges of the competition, and how her experiences have shaped her approach to mentorship and leadership in the culinary world.

Join us as Stefani reflects on her path to culinary excellence and how she led Team USA to gold at the Bocuse d’Or Americas.

Parker Wilks-Bryant is an Escoffier graduate who overcame addiction to not only graduate with honors, but also complete an externship at Pujol, considered by many to be the best restaurant in Mexico City, and is currently ranked the 9th best restaurant in the world by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Today, Parker works for Caruso's, a Michelin Guide restaurant, where he continues to sharpen his skills. He dreams of one day marrying his love of cooking with a second-chance restaurant that helps recovering addicts find hope, healing, and a way forward.

Join us today as we chat with Parker about his journey out of a dark place and into the kitchen. 

Chef Chris McAdams is an Escoffier graduate who has paved his own lane in the culinary industry as an R&D consultant.

Chris specializes in consumer packaged goods (CPG) product development, plant-based protein innovation, recipe and product development, as well as trend-driven ideation.

As a self-proclaimed "culinary gun-for-hire," he has done everything from kitchen and menu design to cross utilization training, helping small mom and pop cafés get off the ground, and much more.

Listen today as we chat with Chef Chris about his transition from a marketing professional to chef and culinary consultant, the impact his culinary education has had on his career, and what it takes to sustain an R&D consulting business.

Kathleen Vossenberg is the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. 

Kathleen joined Escoffier a little over a year ago as the Director of Program Development and was recently promoted to her current leadership position - a role in which she is already delivering tremendous value to our students and the greater culinary community. 

Kathleen has worked with institutions like Illinois Institute of Art and Le Cordon Bleu in Orlando. 

Listen today as we chat with Kathleen about her leadership role in culinary academia, what’s next for Escoffier students, and the impact of global events on the culinary world.

In today’s episode we’re speaking with Dr. Amy Sapola, a Certified Wellness Coach, Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner, and Doctor of Pharmacy with a B.S. in Nutrition.

Dr. Sapola is the Director of Farmacy (that’s farm - F-A-R-M-ACY) at The Chef’s Garden in Huron, Ohio where she works to help guide consumers towards a mindful relationship with food by connecting the benefits of healthy soil, to healthy plants, and ultimately, to healthy people. She’s a mother of two young children, master gardener, passionate cook and long-time yogi.

Listen today as we chat with Dr. Sapola about the role that functional and integrative medicine play in wellness and ultimately our wellbeing. 

In today's episode, we chat with Philip Tessier, an award-winning chef, author, coach, culinary partner and innovator.  He was the first American chef to ever place on the podium at the biennial Bocuse d’Or competition in Lyon, France, and coached the 2017 U.S. team to a gold-medal victory, a journey that he recounts in his book: Chasing Bocuse.

Philip began his training in the kitchen at a young age while growing up in Williamsburg, Virginia. He was interested and motivated to learn new techniques and taste new things, so his curiosity often led him to the library searching for cookbooks with exotic recipes. He attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY and after graduation, to sought out the best kitchens of France, New York and California to hone his craft. Over the course of three decades, Tessier worked at some of the world’s most renowned restaurants including Roger Verge’s Le Moulin de Mougins, Eric Ripert’s Le Bernadin, as well as Thomas Keller’s Per Se, Bouchon and The French Laundry. It was at The French Laundry that Tessier began to train for the pinnacle of culinary achievement, the Olympics of the food world: the Bocuse d’Or.

Listen as we chat with Philip about the road to Bocuse d'Or, building a strong culinary team, and the three principles that guide his work. 

Bobby Stuckey is the Master Sommelier and Co-Owner of Frasca Hospitality Group, a collection of four Colorado restaurants, one of which, Frasca Food and Wine, won the 2019 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Service. 

Bobby began his distinguished career in restaurants in his home state of Arizona, working his way from dishwasher to management, establishing his position as one of the leaders in the hospitality industry. Bobby has received some of the restaurant and wine industry's highest honors, such as James Beard Foundation nominations for Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional and Outstanding Wine Service. In 2000, Bobby worked with world-renowned chef Thomas Keller at The French Laundry in Yountville, California. Within his first year, Stuckey lead the acclaimed restaurant’s team to earn the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Wine Service award and San Francisco Magazine recognized him as "Wine Director of the Year.” The French Laundry also received the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurant Service in 2003. 

Listen today as we chat with Bobby about his journey from a busboy to restaurateur, and how he's advocating for an industry in crisis. 

Katrina Markoff is the founder, CEO, and Chocolatier of Vosges Chocolat - a Chicago-based luxury chocolate brand. 

Katrina is a world-traveler who uses her global experiences to bring culture, intuition, and joy to her customers through chocolate. With three boutiques, an ecommerce platform, and international patrons, Katrina is one of the most successful chocolatiers in the industry.  

In the last twenty years Katrina has used vibrant cacao as the medium for her collections. By combining it with indigenous, energetic plants, she is able to communicate a sense of place, terroir or earth as the grounding home that connects the soul of the story to the people who it originates with. She made it part of her mission to use only superior sourced ingredients as an acknowledgement to nature’s secret and potent bounty that she has the honor and responsibility to reveal. Through chocolate she has explored: all seven continents, the Marchesa Casati, African American influences on music, ancient Egypt, aphrodisiacs, the first creative cuisine of Italy, the curiosity of Fermentation, how we taste through our sense of smell and more.
 
Listen today as we chat with Katrina about how she built her luxury chocolate brand, finding your state of flow, and how she uses chocolate to open minds and heart to bring people together and make the world a better place.