Fatima Ali
At 18, Fatima Ali left her hometown in Pakistan for NYC with the dream of becoming a chef and has never looked back. When she landed in the Big Apple, her culinary career took off, and she eventually accepted an offer to be a contestant on Top Chef (after turning it down the first time). In this episode we will explore her restaurant story, how being on Top Chef affected her career, and how she is handling her most recent challenge: treatment for the rare cancer Ewing’s Sarcoma and how her diagnosis could impact her plans for the future. Chef Fatima Ali passed away in2019. The film diverts and looks at her life.
Elizabeth Falkner
Elizabeth Falkner is a world-renowned chef who has been a driving force in some of the country’s top kitchens since 1990. She has worked through the changing dynamic of the restaurant world, experienced that “bad behavior” that is so prevalent in kitchens, and watched her own career path take some wild turns. All the while, her support of fellow chefs has only grown, as evidenced in her involvement in numerous charititable events. In this episode, we sit down with Elizabeth to dig into her story, and explore how her own identity (as a chef, and as an artist) has evolved over time.
Esther Choi
Esther Choi is a chef and restaurateur whose heart beats for the Korean food she grew up cooking with her beloved family. Classically trained and a product of the NYC restaurant world, Esther's beginnings in the culinary industry go back to when she was fourteen years old. Now, after working in kitchens around the city (including a full-time stint at Food Network), she runs three Korean restaurants: mokbar, both the original Chelsea Market stall plus one in Brooklyn, and Ms Yoo, an event space on the Lower East Side. Join us as we hear more about Esther's story and how her tenacity, her faith, and her family kept her focused on growing a career and restaurant portfolio.
Hillary Sterling
Brooklyn-born Hillary Sterling has spent decades working her way through the restaurant world, holding her own alongside some of the best chefs in New York City until she became well-known as one herself. She now runs the show at Vic's, where simple Italian cooking and super-local ingredients take center stage. In this episode, Hillary talks about how her upbringing guided her to find joy in fresh ingredients (they weren't plentiful in her childhood pantry), how a trip to Italy changed her life and career, and how she finds balance through workouts and charitable cycling. She also shares her experiences, both good and bad, working in the kitchens of the industry's most notorious chefs.
Juliet and Justine Masters
This sister act makes their Harlem restaurant a true family affair. Juliet Masters is the Executive Chef of The Edge, a restaurant whose menu she developed to draw on their heritage (they were born to a British mother and Jamaican father, who also happens to make the restaurant’s ginger beer weekly). Juliet's culinary experience paired with her sister Justine’s eye for decorating and ear for music made for a no-brainer when they had the opportunity to purchase a café space in an historic Harlem building. Their shared journey to opening the Edge, which has become a beloved neighborhood fixture, was a true labor of love and exercise in blind faith. In this episode we explore their personal evolutions from shared childhood memories to the modern-day challenges of becoming two women who refused to give up on a dream.
Caroline Schiff
Caroline Schiff turned her passion for baking into a successful pastry career, and while that may sound straightforward, Caroline's story is far from conventional. With no formal training, Caroline worked her way up in the Brooklyn food scene, doing menial tasks for free in her early days and being paid in priceless experience. Now an Executive pastry chef and food entrepreneur, Caroline challenges the popular notion of the female chef as a tough-as-nails type, holding tight to her femininity and setting her own standard of what it takes for a woman to hold her own in professional kitchens. In this episode, we explore the ups and downs of this type of career path, the importance of women supporting other women, and how Caroline has taken life's lemons and turned them into lemon meringue pies.