Four Bites Show: Krista Van Wagner on making the switch from kitchen to classroom

Third-generation restaurateur and jerk sauce purveyor talks Monday; link inside for paid subscribers

Veteran chef-turned-educator Krista Van Wagner, left, on WIVB recently with Global Concepts Charter School culinary student

Krista Van Wagner got her start in the restaurant business by birth, a third-generation restaurateur carrying on the business started by her bootlegger grandfather.

After some far-flung kitchen experience, she returned and helped put Curly’s on the culinary map with an entirely un-Lackawanna focus on jerk and Caribbean flavors. Her Jerk Sauce is on shelves across Western New York.

After going back to school for her teacher’s certificate, these days Van Wagner’s focus is the classroom. She’s helping Lackawanna’s Global Concepts Charter School launch a BOCES-like vocational culinary training program. She’s the next guest on the Four Bites Show.