Episode 91: Nick Bognar

11/05/19 • 56 min

My guest today is Nick Bognar, who is the chef and owner of Indo, the modern Asian restaurant in St. Louis. Indo combines styles of mainland Southeast Asia, joining Nick’s Thai background and formal Japanese training. At just 27, Nick was nominated for the James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef of the Year for his transformation of his family’s restaurant, Nippon Tei. He opened Indo in June 2019.

Join Heritage Radio Network on Monday, November 11th, for a raucous feast to toast a decade of food radio. Our tenth anniversary bacchanal is a rare gathering of your favorite chefs, mixologists, storytellers, thought leaders, and culinary masterminds. We’ll salute the inductees of the newly minted HRN Hall of Fame, who embody our mission to further equity, sustainability, and deliciousness. Explore the beautiful Palm House and Yellow Magnolia Café, taste and imbibe to your heart’s content, and bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences and tasty gifts for any budget at our silent auction. Tickets available now at heritageradionetwork.org/gala.

Photo Courtesy of Spencer Pernikoff

The Line is powered by Simplecast.

Photo Courtesy of Spencer Pernikoff

The Line is powered by Simplecast.

Previous Episode

Episode 90: Whitney Otawka

While taking French classes at the University of California-Berkeley, Whitney Otawka responded to an ad for a waitress position at a local French creperie. Although she didn’t get the waitress job, she was hired into the two-person kitchen and her culinary career began. Raised in the mojave desert in Hespiria California her family struggled financially and she dreamed of becoming an egyptologist. Over time in Oakland and San Diego she began to actively pursue and culinary career. She’s worked both coasts from California to Georgia. Along the way she’s worked for chefs such as Hugh Acheson and Linton Hopkins and staged at Per Se and Le Bernardin. She appeared on Season 9 of Top Chef and just released her first cookbook The Saltwater Table: Recipes from the Coastal South.

Photo Courtesy of Whitney Otawka

The Line is powered by Simplecast.

Next Episode

Episode 92: Charlene Santiago

Today's guest is Chef Charlene Santiago executive chef at Canal Street Oysters, the newly opened American oyster bar which is owned by the restaurateurs behind The East Pole, East Pole Fish Bar, and Pizza Beach. Charlene is almost a lifelong New Yorker having arrived here from the Philippines when she was 5 years old. Her path took her to the French culinary institute and then she put in some serious time in NYC kitchens working alongside some tremendously talented chefs like Terrance Brennan at Picholine, April Bloomfield at the Breslin and Christina Lecki at Reynards. Today we talk about growing up in Washington Heights, sourcing seafood and how long is the right amount of time to stay at a job.

The Line is powered by Simplecast.