Tinfoil Swans

Saqib Keval signed a promise not to date his collaborators. Norma Listman had other plans. The now-married chefs behind Mexico City’s Masala y Maíz share their love story, the family histories and cultural context in their food, and why restaurant workers deserve tech-industry perks. Plus, the Pay What You Can Global Restaurant Initiative founders get brutally honest about the challenges of taking care of themselves when work, home life, and principles compete.

For more info visit: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans⁠⁠⁠⁠

Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine / Ana Lorenzana

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Eric Ripert was throwing plates and losing staff when he realized the problem in his kitchen was him. The Le Bernardin chef and author of Mindful Cooking opens up about breaking the cycle of abuse in restaurants, coping with anxiety, and learning to appreciate his wrinkles. Plus, he delves into the mystery ingredient in his grandmother’s apple tart and the surprising emotional power of soup.

For more info visit: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans⁠⁠⁠

Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine / Nigel Parry

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Ming-Na Wen plays indelible characters in the worlds of Marvel, Disney, and "Star Wars," but movie and TV stardom never got her out of clearing tables at her family's restaurant. The actor and self-described nerd opens up about trying to fit in as an immigrant kid in Pittsburgh, imagining herself as Han Solo, and the hospitality work that prepared her for Hollywood. She also shares how writing her new instantly bestselling cookbook, Have You Eaten Yet?, meant sharing family secrets and revisiting memories she'd spent years pushing aside.

For more info visit: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans⁠⁠

Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine / Riker Brothers

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The teenager who had a weed plant on his night table, and was waitlisted at his safety school probably wouldn’t recognize the beloved international restaurateur and bestselling author he is today. However, in his new book, What Could Possibly Go Right? — published 20 years after his influential hospitality manual, Setting the Table — Danny Meyer is ready to open up about the missteps and mess-ups along the way, including having crowed about never having had to close a restaurant. He shares what it meant to shut down the beloved Tabla, the fear he felt relinquishing day-to-day control as his hospitality group expanded, and what it feels like to be underestimated by the people who love you. He also delves into his very particular love of acronyms, why so-called “soft skills” are actually a tremendous source of strength, and that sacred moment when a hot pizza hits your table at a restaurant, and the rest of the world just melts away.

For more info visit: ⁠⁠⁠⁠foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans⁠

Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine / Jeff Wojtasek

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As a kid growing up in suburban California in the Lunchables generation, Peabody Award-winning comedian and director Hasan Minhaj dismissed the rajma chawal and dahi chawal his parents cooked at home. Now he craves those dishes, as well as the ritual of chai and commiseration he shared with his grandparents after dinner, and knows it’s up to him to keep that tradition alive for his own kids. He opens up about the teacher who found an outlet for his restless mind, why he wanted to bring the world of collegiate Bollywood dance to the screen in Best of the Best, and why he thinks his wife, Beena, could save him in a zombie apocalypse.

Vote for Tinfoil Swans in the 2026 Signal Awards,

For more info visit: ⁠⁠⁠foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans⁠⁠⁠

Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine / Amir Hamja

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Before Telly Justice became a Food & Wine Best New Chef and co-owner of HAGS, she played drums in a self-described "terrible grunge band" called Skaz at all-ages shows where her parents bought everyone pizza. She talks about stumbling into restaurant work through a crew of "punks, weirdos, and queer people," the radical mayonnaise that transformed her cooking, and building a restaurant where every diner receives a "distillate of pure care."

For more info visit: ⁠⁠⁠foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans⁠⁠⁠

Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine / Seth Caplan

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How did Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs go from an idea sparked by a chance lunch to one of the culinary world’s greatest honors? The award’s creator, former Food & Wine editor Malachy Duffy, and restaurant editor Erika Adams take you behind the scenes of nearly four decades of scouting, secret deliberations, surprising misses, hard-earned lessons, and the one year there were no Best New Chefs at all.

For more info visit: ⁠⁠⁠foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans⁠⁠⁠

Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine / Russell Maynard (Malachy Duffy) & Celina Colby (Erika Adams)

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Food & Wine editor in chief Hunter Lewis, restaurant editor Erika Adams, and executive features editor Kat Kinsman go behind the scenes of the search for the 2026 Best New Chefs. They reveal what scouts look for in a standout meal, the “goosebump test” that can seal the deal, and the chefs and restaurants that made this year’s class unforgettable.

For more info visit: ⁠⁠⁠foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans⁠⁠⁠

Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine

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Chef and writer Lane Regan left Chicago for the remote woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and built a life beyond their wildest dreams. They joined Tinfoil Swans for a conversation about sobriety, grief, gender, kitchen culture, finding softness as a leader, and creating Milkweed Inn at the end of nine miles of logging road. Plus: pigs, year-long ferments, and the beavers determined to make life interesting.

For more info visit: ⁠⁠⁠foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans⁠⁠⁠

Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine / Lane Regan

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Nina Compton grew up in Saint Lucia marking time by fruit seasons, dreaming of becoming a chef, and learning to cook alongside her mother and grandmother. The Top Chef fan favorite talked about the intense kitchens that shaped her, why she took a chance on putting goat curry on the menu in New Orleans, the advice that taught her to say no, and her dream of opening a culinary school back home.

For more info visit: ⁠⁠foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans⁠⁠

Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine / Kasimu Harris

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Alex Stupak has built a career by questioning what food can and should be. The Empellón chef and restaurateur and 2013 Food & Wine Best New Chef talks about rebellion as a creative force, what pastry taught him about transformation, and why he thinks we all want the cheeseburger right now. He also digs into David Lynch, punk rock, the lessons of a restaurant that broke his heart, the tension between recognition and individualism, and why the restaurants we return to are about much more than what’s on the plate.

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Episode art courtesy of Food & Wine / Evan Sung

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Whether she was mixing extra-fancy Kool-Aid as a kid, shaking cocktails at Applebee's, helping people forget their airport anxiety, or teaching a cocktail class, Tiffanie Barriere has always known how to make a drink feel special. The 2024 Food & Wine Drinks Visionary talks about finding her voice as a Black woman behind the bar, the radical hospitality of One Flew South, telling the overlooked stories of Southern drinking culture, and the deeply personal mission behind her new book, Good Spirits: The Joy of Cocktails.

For more info visit: http://foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans

Episode Art Courtesy of Food & Wine /Caitlin Bensel

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Chef, restaurateur, author, and satirist Eli Sussman talks about growing up in a food-loving family outside Detroit, the painful mistake of giving away his treasured cookbooks, leaving a comfortable career in advertising to start over as a line cook, and the hard-earned lessons of opening his own restaurants, and why he had to change his shirt three times when New York Times critic Pete Wells came to dinner. Sussman reflects on his move to Chicago, finding comedy and belonging in restaurant culture, coaching Dominic Sessa for the Anthony Bourdain film Tony, and his forthcoming satirical business book, Me Chef, You Chef, Oui Chef.

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Episode Art Courtesy of Food & Wine /Eli Sussman

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When Vikas Khanna was growing up in a small town in India, he was bullied by the other children for wearing braces on his legs and not being able to play like them. But his grandmother and sister saw him for who he truly was: a lion. They brought him into the kitchen, and he roared to life. An extraordinary life at that, where he makes movies, writes books, feeds millions of hungry people, and runs Bungalow — the most watched Indian restaurant on the planet. He joined Tinfoil Swans for a truly moving conversation about grief, the power of people believing in you, why he wants to "unrestaurant" himself, and why he feels driven to feed the world.

For more info visit: foodandwine.com/tinfoilswans

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Patrick O'Connell has spent nearly five decades building The Inn at Little Washington into one of America's most celebrated restaurants. At the age of 80, he is finally sharing his story in the memoir, Main, Middle & Gay. In this conversation, he shares the childhood experiences that shaped his lifelong pursuit of beauty, opening a restaurant as half of a gay couple in rural Virginia, finding his place among the misfits and oddballs who gravitate toward restaurant work, earning the trust of the legendary food writer Craig Claiborne, hosting guests including Paul Newman and Barbra Streisand, and why he believes the highest form of hospitality is healing.

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Episode Art Courtesy of Food & Wine /The Inn at Little Washington

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Chef and Food Network star Ayesha Nurdjaja shares how one Lidia Bastianich recipe steered her away from law school to the kitchens of Felidia, A Voce, Artisanal, and then her own restaurants Shuka, and Shukette. She opens up about defying her family's expectations, breaking the cycle of toxic kitchen culture, the realities of running restaurants, her new cookbook Mediterranean All the Way, and why her goal is to become a legend.

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Episode Art Courtesy of Food & Wine /Clay Williams

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When Daniel Patterson and Sarah Lewitinn (a.k.a. Ultragrrrl) went on their first Hinge date, neither of them was in a great place. No one was, really, because it was in January of 2021. Daniel is an acclaimed chef who'd just been through a divorce and couldn't be in his natural habitat of restaurants. Sarah had spent her whole life in the music industry and found herself burned out — not even able to enjoy listening to bands she loved. But that spark between them roared into a fire, and the two of them aren't just married — they have opened a restaurant together in Los Angeles based on the delight they discovered throwing dinner parties together, with him in the kitchen and her creating the musical and hospitality vibes at the dining table. The two joined Tinfoil Swans to talk about their radically different upbringings, finding their driving passions early on, burning out, and how finding one another at a low point helped them fall back in love with food and music.

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Episode Art Courtesy of Food & Wine /Tyler Curtis

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Aaron Franklin, the Hot Luck Festival founder and James Beard Award-winning pitmaster behind Franklin Barbecue, talks about the long road from tinkering with guitars at his grandparents' music shop and playing punk shows to teaching himself brisket on a $99 backyard smoker. He shares stories of the warmth and support of Austin community that helped turn backyard barbecues into a national pilgrimage site, the exhaustion and family strain that came with explosive success, the choice not to become "another cranky barbecue guy," President Obama’s unforgettable visit, and why supporting local restaurants matters more than ever.

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Episode Art Courtesy of Food & Wine /Paul Shirley

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With her shows Pati's Mexican Table and La Frontera and cookbooks Treasures of the Mexican Table and Mexican Today, Pati Jinich uses her exceptional empathy, political science background, and fearless curiosity to share the stories of the people living, creating, and cooking all around Mexico, and celebrate our shared humanity. For the Season 2 finale, Jinich joined Tinfoil Swans to talk about learning English by watching Sesame Street, her comfort with being laughed at, cooking nopalitos with eggs, and why now more than ever, she wants to celebrate the beauty of the U.S.-Mexico border.

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When Arjav Ezekiel arrived in America at age 12, the first person he met was Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Years later, after navigating life as an undocumented immigrant, he would help build Birdie's in Austin, Texas, into one of the country's most celebrated restaurants. He reflects on the burden of keeping secrets, the people he calls his "guardian angels," why making people feel seen has become the foundation of his work with his wife, Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel, and the color he believes hospitality can bring to people's lives.

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Episode Art Courtesy of Food & Wine /Eva Kolenko

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