Twelve years at Girl & the Goat, seventy storefronts that went nowhere, one dingy basement full of golf clubs -- that’s the unlikely road Chef Rhan Whang took to Noriko, the 21-seat handroll bar tucked beneath Chicago’s PERILLA Fare. Rhan joins us to talk about building a restaurant with childhood friends, spending three months eating his way through Korea, and what working alongside Stephanie Izard taught him about precision, consistency, and creative freedom. Along the way, we get into the art of running a kitchen, a particularly gruesome knife mishap, a secret cocktail laboratory in Greece, the importance a few inches can make, and so much more! 

Long before earning a Michelin star at 28, chef Donald Young was a high schooler splitting his time between two very different kitchens: Culver's and the legendary Le Français. The Chicago-area native went on to train under Roland Liccioni, hone his craft at Les Nomades, and help lead Temporis to Michelin recognition. These days, he's doing things on his own terms with Duck Sel, his wildly creative underground dining experience. This week, we talk about the demanding kitchens that shaped him, the highs and lows of Michelin stardom, learning to become a better leader, and rediscovering the simple pleasures of cooking. Plus: a very expensive duck-aging setup, the finer points of Culver's kitchen operations, a memorable punishment involving an entire case of parsley, the enduring appeal of meatloaf, and so much more.

If you’ve been to a live show in Chicago, there’s a good chance Bruce Finkelman had something to do with it. Starting with just $900 and a dream of creating a place where he belonged, Bruce opened the Empty Bottle in 1992, turning a scrappy Ukrainian Village dive into one of the city’s most beloved music venues. Since then, he’s helped shape Chicago’s cultural landscape through Longman & Eagle, Thalia Hall, The Promontory, and, most recently, the sprawling Salt Shed. And he’s showing no signs of slowing down. Bruce joins us to trace his unlikely journey from high school troublemaker to one of the driving forces behind Chicago’s live music scene. We talk about the landlord who nearly killed his dream after its first concert, the Japanese noise band that helped him build the Empty Bottle, transforming a century-old factory into a world-class venue, and why, after more than three decades, he still believes the best projects are the ones that find you.

Long before he helped build one of Chicago’s most recognizable hospitality groups, David Rekhson was trying to convince his mother that his nightclub was actually a fine-dining restaurant. This week on Joiners, we sit down with the co-founder of DineAmic Hospitality, the group behind Chicago favorites like Siena Tavern, Bar Siena, and Prime & Provisions. David traces his journey from an Ohio kid obsessed with restaurants to the early days of Stone Lotus, where he and longtime business partner Luke Stoioff learned that packing a nightclub and running a profitable business are two very different things. Along the way, he shares stories of an impromptu Tiësto set that lasted until sunrise, an unforgettable culinary trip to Tuscany with Fabio Viviani, and the growing pains of building a hospitality empire through a pandemic and beyond. Plus, knowing when to abandon a good idea, the delicate art of touching tables, why every restaurant could stand to dim the lights a little, oversized pepper mills, and so much more. 

Big question: what if food could change the way kids learn?

Paul Kahan, Matthias Merges, and Jason Hammel decided to find out. What began with a group of Chicago chefs taking over classrooms at a CPS magnet school became Pilot Light, a nonprofit using food to make learning more engaging, relevant, and connected to the world outside school. Today, Pilot Light reaches students and teachers across the country, with programs in 28 states and more than 140,000 students reached.

In this special live episode of Joiners, we sit down with Paul, Matthias, and Jason to talk about Pilot Light’s scrappy beginnings, why chefs make surprisingly good educators, the challenge of bringing change into schools, and what it will take to make food education part of every child’s classroom experience. And if this conversation gets you curious about Pilot Light, Tim and Danny will be hosting the organization’s Feed Your Mind Gala on November 6. It’s a great night built around some of Chicago’s best chefs, with food, live auction experiences, and plenty of fundraising for Pilot Light’s work in schools. Tickets are still available at feedyourmindgala.org. We get into a little more of what to expect at the end of the episode.