The Dine One Six

Ben Roberts from Pizza Supreme Being

Ben Roberts grew up in Grass Valley where he loved skateboarding and punk rock. He dreamed of getting out of the small town but had no real plan, but after he met his future wife at a record shop, he followed her to Sacramento as she went to UC Davis and he looked to take any job he could find. That is the perfect recipe (pun intended) for a young kid to make his way into a kitchen. 
He got his start at R15 and then Shady Lady where a mentor showed him the right books to buy and Ben dove in head first. He soon realized that he wanted to cook beautiful, amazing food, and he knew that The Sellands group was a great place to do that. He made his way to Ella, where he worked for several years and became a jack of all trades, including making woodfired pizza for family meals.
Eventually, he left to start his own mobile pizza business with a trailer and woodfire oven. He grinded in the heat of Sacramento for more than 4 years before he got an opportunity to open the storefront he occupies today. His pizza manages to be both classic and unique at the same time, but it’s without a doubt one of the best slices you’ll find anywhere in Sacramento. 
Visit Pizza Supreme Being's website and Instagram
 
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Chloe Booth - dough maven of Pizzasaurus Rex

Chloe Booth got a taste for interesting food at a young age when her mom went to culinary school. But it was years later as a teenager when her grandmother bulldozed a job path for Chloe at Del’s Pizza in Fair Oaks. There she learned the ins and outs of the pizza business, from interacting with the regulars to managing 20 pizzas at a time in the ovens. 
After a break from restaurants Chloe saw a Facebook post about a new pizza place opening in Midtown. She went in for a stage shift and has never left. Today she is responsible for making most of the dough on a daily basis, sometimes for up to 170 pizzas in a single day. 
Listen to this episode to hear Chloe talk about the unique style of Pizza at Pizzasaurus Rex, the famed “dino sauce” and her hopes that one day there could be a horror themed bakery in Sacramento.
Links:
Pizzasaurus Rex website
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Alison Clevenger talks Ginger Elizabeth, delectable pastries and Doughbot donuts

Alison Clevenger moved from Arizona to Oregon to go to culinary school without ever checking out the campus, her mom just signed her up, drove her up there and dropped her off. That move set her life on a course where she would land in Sacramento and ultimately help build one of the premiere sweet treat destinations in the city, Ginger Elizabeth’s. 
Alison talks about taking naps on giant bags of flour, the growth of Ginger Elizabeth, perfecting the perfect ice cream sandwich (in Max’s opinion,) what it was like to leave her best friend and venture out into the more male dominated culinary world, making pastries for Ella, Sellands and The Kitchen and ultimately how she helped to relaunch a Sacramento culinary cult icon Doughbot donuts. 
Alison has since moved on to her next culinary adventure and we can’t wait to see what she does next but rest assured wherever she lands the creations will be stellar and we will drop whatever we are doing to try them. 
 
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Matt Brown from Bodega

Matt Brown loves to cook. That may seem obvious given he’s spent the last 20 years as a chef. But many chefs don’t cook between shifts…not Matt. He loves nothing more than cracking open a cookbook, a bottle of wine and spending a day off grilling in the summer or roasting in the winter. 
 
Matt got his start at pizzeria as a teenager and spent time at several other spots in Sacramento that are no longer in existence (Matt swore their closing wasn’t his fault.) After moving to Idaho for five years to work as a chef and a stint in Napa he returned to Sacramento to work at 58 Holding Co. and then The Golden Bear where he made a name for himself cooking some of the best food in town at the unassuming Sacramento favorite. 
 
Today Matt is a part owner and head chef at Bodega Kitchen and Cocktails where he has dived deep into research and cookbooks to find all sorts of Puerto Rican and Caribbean inspired recipes that he and his team could put their own spin on. They have termed it “California Pan Caribbean” cuisine, and it’s delicious. 
 
Check out Boega’s website and Instagram
 
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Comments, questions or suggestions? Email us at max@dineonesix.com or neill@dineonesix.com
 
 

Taylor Lovelace is ”saucy and bossy”

Taylor Lovelace is the head chef at J.J. Pfister Distilling Company but her love affair with cooking started when she interned at The Kitchen while in culinary school. It was actually years before when she would chauffeur her parents to the famed restaurant that she got to try the food when the staff would feed her the menu in the back of the restaurant while her parents dined. 
 
Taylor went on to hit Sacramento hot-spots like Localis, Echo and Rig and Camden Spit and Larder before landing at J.J. Pfister as the head chef. Now she spends her time elevating sandwiches and salads into saucy flavor bombs. 
 
We answer many important questions in the episode from which is better: waffles or pancakes? What does M.C.B. stand for? And what makes a good sandwich?
 
Check out JJ Pfister’s website and Instagram
 
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BONUS EPISODE!! Get to know Max and Neill

In place of a usual episode, Max and Neill take turns asking each other food questions to give you insight into the minds of your favorite local food podcasters!
What food are you embarrassed to say they don't like?
What's the one meal you would make to impress someone?
If you could only eat one cuisine for the rest of your life what would it be?
And more!!
This episode is in place of an episode that was supposed to be with Polo Adamo of Adamo's Kitchen but the audio was lost during a computer crash. Please go and try Adamo's for some of the best Italian food Sacramento has to offer!
Adamo's kitchen
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Eddie Torres formerly of The Kitchen

Eddie Torres learned the power of food connecting families at an early age when he would have Sunday dinners with more than 20 members of his extended family, most of whom lived in the same apartment complex. But it wasn’t until the great recession, which buckled the car industry where he was working, that he decided to go to culinary school. 
After school he bounced around town until making his way to Ella pretty quickly, starting at the bottom and working his way up to the line. Then, he heard from his boss that Kelly McCown was taking over at The Kitchen and looking to build his team. Eddie tried out and ended up working at The Kitchen for 6 years, working his way up to sous chef.
Eddie talks about the intensity, the craft, the precision and the joy that it took to work at one of Sacramento’s most prestigious restaurants. 
Today he  is back working with his good friend Ben Roberts who owns Pizza Supreme Being helping put out some of the best pizza in Sacramento, while he works on his own concept of a Puerto Rican inspired restaurant. 
Photo courtesy of @jamiecardenasphotographer
Eddie’s instagram
 
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Dennis Sydnor from Renegade Dining

Dennis Sydnor first fell in love with cooking in his family home, smelling bbq and parker house rolls that his dad made. Then when he got his first kitchen job back in Cleveland at 17 he realized that his ability to cook impressed the girls and gave him some juice as the new kid in town. 
Soon he moved to the front of the house and fell in love with hospitality and being front and center watching people experience what he knew would become lifelong memories. Eventually, he longed to get back into the kitchen and moved back to Sacramento and went to culinary school to prove he was serious about getting behind the line. 
He has worked all over town including Grange, Red Rabbit, JB’s Lounge, Smokey Oaks, 1022 and even Golden One Center before setting out on his own during COVID doing pop ups and catering under the name Renegade Dining while also serving the students at a beauty school in Natomas. 
We get into his whole past and his hope for the future, as well as his amazing experience as the winner of an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen on Food Network which you’ll have to see to believe. And now you can on the Discovery+ app!
Follow Dennis on Instagram @dennissydnorjr and Renegade Dining @renegade_dining 
Dennis’ episode of Cutthroat Kitchen is on Discovery Plus in season 13 titled “Mission Impastable”
 
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Comments, questions or suggestions? Email us at max@dineonesix.com or neill@dineonesix.com

Sac City Brews Chef/Owner Rebecca Campbell

Max and Neill sit down with Rebecca Campbell, owner and chef of Sac City Brews in Tahoe Park. 
They talk about Rebecca’s unconventional and even accidental move to running a kitchen. It’s not often you find someone with two Masters degrees running a kitchen, but she has taken her background in community development to create an amazing spot for the neighborhood of Tahoe Park and frankly for all of Sacramento. 
She talks about how growing up on a small farm in the foothills gave her an appreciation for the small farmers she works with today and how it took her years to realize that she is actually not just analytically minded but also a very creative person and it shows in her food. 
And we talk a lot about the creative twists on classics like: tater tots, nachos, wings, paninis and more.  
Visit Sac City Brews website and Instagram 
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Greg Desmangles of Urban Roots

Greg Desmangles got his start as so many do, in the dish pit of a family owned restaurant. But from his first weekend working on his feet all day bussing tables and washing dishes during beer week, Greg knew he wanted to be in a kitchen. 
Greg went on to stage at Taylor's kitchen soaking up all he could before going back to his uncle's restaurant Pangaea Beir Cafe and working prep.
Today Greg has helped the family business grow to four restaurants, including Pangaea, Urban Roots Brewing and Smokehouse, Bawk! and  Cerveceria at The Shack.
Greg oversees all four operations and he tells Max and Neill how he got deep into the world of BBQ and hopes to plant a flag as nationally recognized BBQ spot right here in Sacramento.
 
Resources from episode:
Greg's Instagram
Bawk
Pangaea Beir Cafe
Urban Roots
Cerveceria at The Shack
 
Visit the podcast website at dineonesix.com
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Comments, questions or suggestions? Email me at max@dineonesix.com or neill@dineonesix.com
Listen to Bondolio episode about olive oil