Welcome back to The Perfect Bite podcast, your fusion of food and entrepreneurship. When I moved to Chicago post-graduation in the fall of 2013, I fell in love with what would become a Chicago institution before I ever tasted it: Honey Butter Fried Chicken. The name says everything you need! And then I finally ate it and really, really fell in love. HBFC is the perfect community spot, picnic basket filler, or eat on the couch staple. It's quality, comfort food made by equally quality folks.

I had the best time chatting with co-owner Christine Cikowski about her journey of falling in love with nature’s flavors at a young age, meeting her co-owner Josh Kulp at Kendall College, and their flourishing businesses of serving the best seasonal, smile-inducing bites, from the now 20-year-old Sunday Dinner Club, to the fated Honey Butter Fried Chicken, and now supporting a former sous chef through TriBecca’s Sandwich Shop. We didn’t know it at the time, but this lovely and hilarious conversation was 12 years in the making.

Make sure to visit Honey Butter Fried Chicken and TriBecca’s Sandwich Shop in the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago. You can sign up for the Sunday Dinner Club tasting series at www.sundaydinnerclub.com.

You can follow Honey Butter Fried chicken on Instagram at @honeybutterchi; Sunday Dinner Club @sundaydinnerchi; TriBecca’s Sandwich Shop @tribeccassandwichshop; and Christine @christinecikowski.

Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

Make sure to subscribe, rate and review The Perfect Bite anywhere you listen to podcasts.

You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and visit our site www.theperfectbitepod.com.

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Welcome back to The Perfect Bite podcast, your fusion of food and entrepreneurship. Over these first few episodes of The Perfect Bite, we've chatted with founders in the food space and how they've built their brands, but today we're looking at things from a new point of view: what it's like to be an investor to build their own fund in the food, restaurant and ag tech industry. I'm so excited for us to learn from today's guest Brett Brohl, managing partner of Bread and Butter Ventures. Brett went from being a multi-time startup founder to the founder of his own investment firm!

I really appreciate Brett and the B&B team’s perspective on how they’re investing in the food space. An undeniable fact is we all have to eat, and Brett and team are looking for founders who want to change the way we all eat for the better. It’s amazing how a combination of technology and working with Mother Earth could be our future!

Learn more about Brett’s entrepreneurial journey to becoming an investor, what he and the B&B team look for to help advance the future of food, and some tips on how to connect with investors if you are building something yourself.

To learn more about Bread & Butter Ventures, an early stage investment firm in the food and ag tech space, visit www.breadandbutterventures.com. You can even sign up for office hours with Brett and his team on the site!

You can connect with Brett and learn more about Bread & Butter Ventures on LinkedIn.

Want some entrepreneurial tips? Check out Brett’s YouTube channel, Brett’s Brain!

I also promised in the episode I’d include these really soothing videos of pizzas getting topped by a robot by XRobotics here. Enjoy!

Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

Make sure to subscribe, rate and review The Perfect Bite anywhere you listen to podcasts.

You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and visit our site www.theperfectbitepod.com.

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Welcome back to The Perfect Bite podcast, your fusion of food and entrepreneurship. This episode, we're talking about an incredibly personal topic: food allergies. I amongst 10% of the world population suffer from severe food allergies. And as much as I love a great meal out, there are a lot of moments it causes real and extreme fear for me and many others.

I am beyond blown away by the mission and efforts of Served App’s co-founders Eve Williamson and Alana Bralsford. They are incredible business partners and friends who truly understand this issue—and never want to see it happen to any restaurant guest again. They’re already in the famed Dishoom Permit Rooms in London and quickly expanding throughout the UK—don’t worry, they have their eyes set to be global! The Served app is truly a game changer for restaurants and patrons alike to be transparent and safe about allergen information.

Eve and Alana talk through their personal allergy experiences, how they’re building their app to be as straightforward and easy as possible for restaurants and guests, while complying with difficult legislation, and how they’re connecting with new clients to scale as quickly as possible for safe experiences everywhere.

To learn more about the Served App, visit www.served-app.com.

You can follow Served on Instagram and TikTok at @served.app and on LinkedIn.

Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

Make sure to subscribe, rate and review The Perfect Bite anywhere you listen to podcasts.

You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and visit our site www.theperfectbitepod.com.

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Welcome back to The Perfect Bite podcast, your fusion of food and entrepreneurship. I met today's guest over two decades ago in middle school, north of Chicago. One of us became a Michelin starred chef, and the other yaps into a microphone. You can guess who was the cooler of the two of us. But seriously, I am beyond honored to have reconnected with and have on the show today an acclaimed chef and the founder of Hill's Research Kitchen, Chef Henry Hill.

Henry takes us behind the scenes of all the kitchens he’s worked in, from the suburbs of Chicago, to Eleven Madison Park, The NoMad, and eventually becoming executive chef of Dusek’s, the fine-dining establishment that was attached to the iconic Thalia Hall concert venue in Chicago. During this time, Henry not only became one of the youngest chefs to receive a Michelin star, he also learned a lot of lessons. Most importantly—how to be a great manager.

Henry’s stories prove that through grit, a sense of urgency, and a desire to understand and support others, you can become an amazing leader in any type of scenario. He also chats with us about his CPG product founder days for a carbonated coffee called Cafe Racer, and how he became the founder of his own research and development consultancy today, Hill’s Research Kitchen. His personal mission always leads back to enhancing folks’ lives through the power of flavor.

To learn more about Hill’s Research Kitchen, head to www.researchkitchen.com.

You can follow Henry on social media @chefhenryhill.

Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

Make sure to subscribe, rate and review The Perfect Bite anywhere you listen to podcasts.

You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and visit our site www.theperfectbitepod.com.

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Welcome back to The Perfect Bite podcast, your fusion of food and entrepreneurship. On this podcast, we obviously talk a lot about food and how delicious it is, how much of an impact it makes on us. But knowing your food is safe and properly taken care of? That's priceless. Jake Simon, CEO & co-founder of ConnectedFresh, is behind an innovation keeping the back of house running smoothly and your meals as fresh as they can be.

ConnectedFresh provides a combination of small sensors and software to help restaurants, convenience stores, catering and other food and bev customers keep track of their most important equipment issues, food safety problems, and compliance incidents. No more having to manually log freezer temperatures or experience costly food waste! ConnectedFresh logs all of these issues for you and lets you know in the moment when something is wrong.

I learned so much in our conversation about back of house practices and how ConnectedFresh is making things easier for restaurants to focus on what they really care about—serving great food and connecting with guests. You could say they keep the mise from becoming a mess! Ultimately, the team is behind an innovation that takes care of the folks that love taking care of other folks.

To learn more about ConnectedFresh, head to www.connectedfresh.com.

You can follow ConnectedFresh and Jake Simon on LinkedIn.

Heading to the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago May 17-20, 2025? Make sure to find ConnectedFresh’s booth!

Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

Make sure to subscribe, rate and review The Perfect Bite anywhere you listen to podcasts.

You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and visit our site www.theperfectbitepod.com.

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Welcome back to The Perfect Bite podcast, your fusion of food and entrepreneurship. Today's guest is a big reason why The Perfect Bite even exists today. She helped me find a career working alongside folks in food and bev when I was a little lost leaving my own startup, which she also was incredibly supportive of. And that's really what her job is today, supporting entrepreneurs in the F&B industry through a platform you can buy all their delicious products in one spot. Please welcome today's guest, CEO and founder of Here Here Market, Disha Gulati!

Growing up in a food family, Disha has always been in love with trying new flavors. Though her career journey started more traditionally, focusing on global data analytics for the massive CPG company Mondelez, Disha always held a candle for entrepreneurship. She started one version of Here Here Market, focusing on group dining, in March 2020. You can imagine how that went—she very smartly pivoted when realizing chefs and food artisans needed ways to diversify their revenue streams when unable to cook for folks in person. Now, over 900 SKUS and 300 creators and chefs are on Here Here Market, selling their delicious products for a taste of restaurant quality at home, anywhere in the country.

We chat through Disha’s journey, our funniest moments working together (think celebrity run-ins at the James Beard Awards!), and how to keep facing life’s challenges with grit and grace.

To shop Here Here Market, head to hereheremarket.com.

You can follow Here Here Market on social media @hereheremkt and Disha Gulati on LinkedIn, as well as her Instagram @chitown_disha.

Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

Make sure to subscribe, rate and review The Perfect Bite anywhere you listen to podcasts.

You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and visit our site www.theperfectbitepod.com.

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Welcome back to The Perfect Bite podcast, your fusion of food and entrepreneurship. One of the best things about food is how we can traverse continents in a single bite, opening ourselves up to new cultures, backgrounds, and food folks like ourselves all over. Even better, when you can actually connect with someone in another part of the world, learning how they're changing the food and bev industry in their country and beyond for the better.

On this episode of The Perfect Bite, we head to Latin America with Bairu.io CEO and co-founder Xavier Rocabado. Xavier and his team are building a one-stop-shop digital solution for restaurants and guests—all on WhatsApp! WhatsApp is incredibly prevalent in LatAm, and is used not just for communication, but for marketing, operations, and more in the restaurant industry. The Bairu team helps makes this process seamless for restaurant owners, and allows them to focus on what’s most important—connecting with their customers.

To learn more about Bairu and download the app, please visit www.bairu.io.

You can connect with Xavier and the Bairu team on LinkedIn, Instagram at @bairu.io, and TikTok @bairu.io.

Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

Make sure to subscribe, rate and review The Perfect Bite anywhere you listen to podcasts.

You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and visit our site www.theperfectbitepod.com.

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Welcome back to The Perfect Bite podcast, your fusion of food and entrepreneurship. Today's guest has paved the way for new world cuisine and modern cooking as we know it. In fact, you wouldn't have the word 'fusion' in the lexicon of cooking without him. It’s my dear friend and James Beard-award winning chef Norman Van Aken!

I just love Norman’s story—from good ol’ Lake County, Illinois, to his chosen home on the beautiful shores of Key West, Florida. Norman has redefined high-quality Florida cuisine, during a time period when folks paid more attention to the coasts. His namesake restaurant Norman’s just celebrated 30 years, and for plenty of good reasons.

Norman discusses his culinary journey with us, the beautiful friendships he has made along the way (such as his late ‘brother’ Charlie Trotter and honoring the great Jacques Pépin for his 90th birthday), along with the prolific books that made an impact on his life philosophies and menus.

You can visit Norman’s in Orlando, Florida.

Make sure to follow Chef Norman on Instagram (@normanvanaken), Facebook, and his Substack—he’s a captivating writer!

Want to watch the entire episode? Head here to our YouTube!

Make sure to subscribe, rate and review The Perfect Bite anywhere you listen to podcasts.

You can follow us on social media @perfectbitepod and visit our site www.theperfectbitepod.com.

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