Chef Eric Levine on turning Brooklyn favorites like hot dogs and knishes into elevated culinary masterpieces— and on achieving celebrity and success while repeatedly battling cancer

Culinary Characters Unlocked

Chef Eric LeVine was so taken by cooking that before he even attended culinary school, he wrote a letter to groundbreaking chef David Burke at the legendary River Café in New York – and got hired. He credits Chef Burke with setting him on the path to culinary achievement and, after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Chef LeVine cooked at a variety of restaurants, winning a three-star review from the New York Times. He then began opening restaurants of his own, building a restaurant group that now includes locations in Brooklyn and on Long Island, offering cuisines that run the gamut from burgers to handmade pasta to elevated high-end cooking that evokes his life, such as an upscale homage to the bagels, knishes, and hot dogs from the Brooklyn of his childhood. Along the way he was named champion on Chopped. And he did it all while repeatedly battling cancer.

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