{"podcast":{"title":"The Perfect Bite","slug":"the-perfect-bite-7237404","podcast_index_feed_id":7237404,"rss_url":"https://feeds.cohostpodcasting.com/hiORgDxR","website_url":"https://www.cohostpodcasting.com","image_url":"https://files.cohostpodcasting.com/quill-file-prod/3619c374-2f55-4f02-9bc6-33f11b7b3c6c/shows/efbee974-5ac7-4494-8e32-d9f5de1dd016/cover-art/original_9dd9af5b71f3102ebe606708ce2ce51e.png","author":"Sarah Perkins","episode_count":72,"summary":"Your fusion of food and entrepreneurship, The Perfect Bite brings you inspiring conversations with chefs, restaurateurs, CPG brand founders, food tech founders, and more in the food and beverage industry, highlighting their experiences and how they've cooked up something new. From emerging brands to established business owners, you'll learn from the best entrepreneurs in food, beverage, hospitality, and agriculture about how they started their businesses, what problems they're solving, the tough times they've overcome, and their best advice for entering these industries or starting your own business. We end each episode with the world's best and hardest question: What is your perfect bite?","last_synced_at":"2026-07-24T00:19:00.231574+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-perfect-bite-7237404"},"episode":{"title":"Joe Sasto on Breaking Rules and Building a Pasta + CPG Empire","slug":"joe-sasto-on-breaking-rules-and-building-a-pasta-cpg-empire","published_at":"2026-04-23T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-perfect-bite-7237404/joe-sasto-on-breaking-rules-and-building-a-pasta-cpg-empire","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-perfect-bite-7237404","url":"https://the-perfect-bite.cohostpodcasting.com/episodes/joe-sasto-on-breaking-rules-and-building-a-pasta-cpg-empire","audio_url":"https://pdcn.co/e/audio-delivery.cohostpodcasting.com/audio/3619c374-2f55-4f02-9bc6-33f11b7b3c6c/episodes/b48e0c22-eaa1-46d5-a18a-e1370a8d1ac0/episode.mp3","summary":"He hated pasta as a kid. Now he's the self-proclaimed Prince of Pasta, the Ruler of Rigatoni, the Sultan of Spaghetti, and one of the most exciting chef-turned-CPG-founders in the food industry. Joe Sasto is the founder of Tantos pasta chips, co-founder of Ripi Foods frozen pasta, author of “Breaking The Rules,” and a familiar face across Food Network, Top Chef, and Netflix competitions. But what makes Joe's story genuinely compelling isn't the resume: it's the mustache, the energy, the happy accident that turned a forgotten tray of dried pasta in a Beverly Hills walk-in into a snack brand heading to Targets nationwide. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Joe for a conversation that covers the full arc, from growing up in the Midwest with a mom who served pasta with sauce on top (never married into the noodle), to landing on the pasta station at Quince because a cook was \"unwillfully ejected,” to the moment he realized that cooking competitions aren't about ego, they're a sport. From building Tantos out of an accidental kitchen discovery, to getting Ripi Foods into Whole Foods nationwide with an exclusive Cacio e Pepe flavor, to teasing a potential pizza restaurant in New York, Joe is always moving, always building, always with a sauce splatter video ready to go on Instagram. This episode is packed with genuinely useful CPG insights, including a helpful retail tip about exclusives that could change how you approach your next buyer meeting. And plenty of pasta puns. Because that's just who Joe is. In this episode, we cover: Growing up hating pasta and how he ended up on the pasta station at Quince California farming, Lazy Bear, and why he still thinks California has the world's best produce How Top Chef changed everything and why he'd never go back (but a…","meta_description":"He hated pasta as a kid. Now he's the self-proclaimed Prince of Pasta, the Ruler of Rigatoni, the Sultan of Spaghetti, and one of the most exciting chef-t…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3164,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-perfect-bite-7237404/episodes/joe-sasto-on-breaking-rules-and-building-a-pasta-cpg-empire/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-perfect-bite-7237404/joe-sasto-on-breaking-rules-and-building-a-pasta-cpg-empire.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}