Interviews and Profiles

People of Craft Beer: Sloane Dominick, Kansas City, Missouri
Sloane Dominick got her dream job at Kansas City Bier Company in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 14, better known as Valentine’s Day. Less than four months later, she worried about how a major life change might affect her career. Previously, Dominick worked as a...

Chef Michael Corvino’s Exciting Changes at The American Restaurant
Executive Chef Michael Corvino brought a starter of cauliflower-infused panna cotta accompanied by a spoonful of osetra caviar, carefully arranged into a tiny cluster of black pearls, to my table at The American Restaurant. Moments earlier, I watched him assemble this...

Craig Jones Crowned Food Network’s and McCormick’s “Grill Mayor 2012”
Meet the Mayor Craig Jones of Lee’s Summit, Missouri loves to smoke, no doubt about it. Not cigarettes, mind you. He's a grill man that loves to smoke just about any food you can imagine. His dedication to grilling and smoking recently earned him notoriety. Jones has...

Kansas City Originals
Between July 2011 and December 2012, I photographed 19 chefs and restaurant owners and wrote profiles about them for KC Originals. During that period, I also photographed numerous dishes with accompanying recipes for the web site. The brief profiles explore the...
Raquel Pelzel, Cookbook Author and Former Senior Food Editor for Tasting Table
Raquel Pelzel is an award-winning food writer and has written and collaborated on more than a dozen cookbooks. Her work has appeared in Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, Cook's Illustrated, Fine Cooking, and many others. At the time of the inteview, she was senior food...
Feast Magazine – John McDonald on Celebrating 25 Years at Boulevard Brewing Co.
Feast Magazine – New York-based author, Saveur editor-at-large, food writer and translator Sofia Perez shares insight into her working relationship with Chef Ferran Adrià and his art exhibition.
Feast Magazine – How Cookbook Author Judith Fertig Became a Food Novelist
Feast Magazine – Jason Burton: Inventing the Caffeine Crawl
Feast Magazine – Catherine L. Futter, Senior Curator of Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, discusses how the exclusive exhibit “Ferran Adrià: Notes on Creativity” made it to Kansas City.
Award-winning food writer, editor, and cookbook author Raquel Pelzel shares insight on how successful publishing career.
Feast Magazine – Brewers and co-owners Rafi Chaudry and Travis Moore opened Torn Label Brewing Company, a nearly 7,000-square-foot outpost in the Crossroads Arts District, before 2014 drew to a close.
Author Candice Millard discusses River of Doubt, her book that recounts the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s daunting and deadly exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.
Feast Magazine – Arturo Vera-Felicie on Kansas City as a Cocktail Inspiration
Feast Magazine – Grill master Craig Jones – appointed “grill mayor” of 2012 by Food Network – and his wife, Gay, used smoking techniques over live fire to create Savory Addictions Gourmet Nuts.
Executive chef Jonathan Justus and his wife Camille Eklof, general manager of Justus Drugstore: A Restaurant, have built Smithville’s first fine dining restaurant and plenty of people have taken notice.
Feast Magazine – Border Brewing Co. founder and brewer Eric Martens opens the doors to his Crossroads Arts District brewery.
Feast Magazine – Zehua Shang of Shang Tea in Kansas City specializes in white tea sourced from Fujian’s Taimu Mountain.
Feast Magazine – Master Sommelier Doug Frost on how the Midwest Is upping its game.
Food policy expert Mark Winne discusses his book, Closing the Food Gap, and key points from his presentation, The Ugly Underbelly of the American Food System.
Feast Magazine – Chef-partner Howard Hanna, The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange
Feast Magazine – Chef Jennifer Maloney of Café Sebastienne on What Keeps Her Inspired
Feast Magazine – Chef Stuart Aldridge, Broadway Butcher Shop
Food writer (Ulterior Epicure) and photographer Bonjwing Lee co-authored bluestem, the cookbook, with bluestem restaurant co-owners and chefs Colby and Megan Garrelts.
Feast Magazine – Michael Corvino, Executive Chef, The American Restaurant
Feast Magazine – Jon Watkins, Executive Chef, Baked in Kansas City
Author Jeff Somers discusses The Eternal Prison, the third book in the action-filled Avery Cates science fiction series that combines a noir detective style with a worse-for-the-wear high-tech aesthetic in a dystopian future. Also, read a review of The Eternal Prison.
Sheet music for “Ruby, My Dear” by Thelonious Monk rests on the Steinway Piano in Bobby Watson’s office.
Kansas City Star – Two Kansas City tea entrepreneurs, Zehua Shang and Paula Winchester, each travel to Asia on separate journeys to steep themselves in ways to grow, process and serve an ancient beverage.
What Constitutes Good Food Writing? Sofia Perez, editor-at-large for Saveur and food writer, addresses this question.
Feast Magazine – Bo Nelson, co-founder and roaster, and general manager Bill Holzhueter, Thou Mayest Coffee Roasters
An interview with Judith Fertig and Karen Adler, The BBQ Queens, authors of The Gardener and the Grill cookbook.
Kansas City-based author Alex Greenwood discusses his e-book mystery thriller Pilate’s Cross. Learn more about Greenwood’s debut novel, read an excerpt, and watch a trailer for the book created by produced by T2 + Back Alley Films.
The four-course meal that Chef Andrea Sposini from Perugia, Italy will prepare for a dozen guests in Lawrence concludes the series of culinary events scheduled during his Kansas City area debut.
Reach is a self-described “blue collar rapper” in Kansas City who unleashes a more personable, reality-based brand of hip-hop. He discusses hip-hop, his origins, and his release, Corner Speech.
Accomplished jazz artist Tia Fuller shares insight into her career as an accomplished jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator. Read the full interview.
Kansas City-based rock photographer Todd Zimmer is the man behind Zim’s Hot Sauce. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Zimmer grew up with Buffalo wings.