There's a new food podcast in town

Chef Gina Bruno brings the dreamy vibe of her Brooklyn event space, Frank’s House, to conversations with guests like Chloé Crane-Leroux.

The Brooklyn-based chef Gina Bruno worked at Leland and Misi before going to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu, but her love of food extends beyond the kitchen. It’s the connections that drive her, maybe even more than the cooking. Bruno’s new video-based series, Campers, blends podcast and cooking show into one, going from mellow food moments to candlelit conversations that feel like listening to old friends catch up.

In the first episode of Campers, which you can find here, Bruno chats with the photographer turned content creator Chloé Crane-Leroux about the evolution of her career. Before they get into it, we watch as Bruno makes the Creamy Mushroom Risotto from Crane-Leroux’s cookbook, The Artful Way to Plant-Based Cooking.

“I also attempted to make your maple cookies,” Bruno says to Crane-Leroux. As the camera pans over to the slightly burnt batch, she adds that she accidentally broiled them. “They’re gonna be crunchy.” That playful sense of this-doesn’t-have-to-be-perfect is the heart of this podcast.

There’s a relaxed vibe in the air at Campers, something Bruno accomplishes by cooking for her guests, which makes space for the kinds of vulnerable conversations you’d have in the late-night hours after a dinner party. That sort of camping out after a meal nods to the podcast’s title, Campers: an industry term for people who linger at a restaurant table, sipping wine and soaking up each other’s company long after they’ve paid their check.

“I've worked in a ton of restaurants and it was just something that stuck in my brain,” Bruno told me. “A camper is so invested in the conversation that they don't realize the kitchen staff has fully scrubbed down the restaurant already.” But a camper is a positive thing, not a negative one. “You love these people. They're spending money and you know they’re going to be there for a while.”

During her time working in restaurants, Bruno recalls sending out dishes to campers on occasion, as if to say, “Stay.” That’s the feeling Bruno wants to evoke in her podcast: that juicy part of a really good conversation, that urge to dive deeper, that desire to savor the moment.

Although the first episode of Campers makes it feel like Bruno and Crane-Leroux are longtime friends, they met fairly recently, in 2024, at Crane-Leroux’s book launch party at Frank’s House, the Brooklyn brownstone that Bruno turned into an event space. The dreamy venue, typically used for pop-up dinners, launch parties, and photoshoots, doubles as the perfect backdrop for Bruno’s podcast.

For now, Bruno plans to release Campers episodes monthly with the goal of ultimately expanding the scope. “The vision is for every podcast guest to be able to host an intimate dinner, whether it's at Frank's or another space, and we gather around the table all together.”

In the meantime, you can watch the first episode of Campers here.