Eitan Bernath was just 11 years old and still a student at Yavneh Academy in Paramus, New Jersey, when he launched his food career by competing on the Food Network show Chopped.
He lost — and it was five years until he made it back, as a contestant on Guy’s Grocery Games.
But Bernath didn’t sit around and wait for the Food Network to pay attention to his prowess in the kitchen or his high-energy personality. In 2019, he began posting videos of his recipes to TikTok — and within hours, his can-do attitude and intense cooking style attracted thousands of followers. Now, he has six million fans across social media.
Eitan has leveraged his drive and his love for food into viral stardom — with 3 billion hits a year from viewers in 150 countries — and into television, radio and even brand partnerships.
As his first cookbook, Eitan Eats the World, is published, Eitan joins us to talk about turning a childhood passion into a culinary empire, about moving from a yeshiva to mainstream ubiquity and about his 85 new takes on comfort food (think PB&J Pancakes) and international delights like Green Shakshuka and Chicken Kathi Rolls.
Eitan will be in conversation with Gail Simmons. Simmons is a trained culinary expert, food writer, and dynamic television personality. Since the show’s inception in 2006, she has lent her expertise as a permanent judge on BRAVO’s Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series Top Chef, now in its 19th successful season. She is a co-host of The Good Dish, the new daily syndicated series offering delicious recipes, real-life wisdom, and conversations on the topics of the day, and most recently was host of Top Chef Amateurs, as well as Iron Chef Canada. From 2004 to 2019, Gail served as special projects director at FOOD & WINE. She is the author of Talking With My Mouth Full: My Life as a Professional Eater and Bringing It Home: Favorite Recipes from a Life of Adventurous Eating.