This week, for the very first time, we're veering away from our usual format and featuring a trio of food industry professionals all from the same restaurant. The energetic team powering the kitchen at W.A. Frost in St. Paul's Cathedral Hill neighborhood is led by executive chef Wyatt Evans, who started there as a line cook and gradually worked his way up to the top of the ladder, and sous chefs Grant Nelson and John Rossiter. The three chefs have different ideas about their ideal day-off dinner spot, but they all agree on at least one thing. "The butterscotch and oatmeal cookies from Great Harvest Bread, just up the street from us, are fantastic." 

This week's featured food industry professional is Ian Gray, executive chef and co-owner of the Gray House, a neighborhood gastropub in Lyn-Lake with a constantly changing menu, an affinity for tip-to-tail cooking, and exclusive beers on tap thanks to their partnership with Lucid Brewing in Minnetonka. 

Since his restaurant opened in the early fall of 2012, Gray admits days off have been few and far between, but he always uses them to spend time with his wife, who is also a co-owner of the restaurant. "Kate and I try to eat at least once a week together, and we always go out," says Gray. "Living downtown we have a lot of options, and we are always trying to hit up the new restaurants, but more often than not we end up at our old reliable spots." 

This week's featured food industry professional is chef Lisa Hanson, sole proprietor and Executive Chef of Mona Restaurant and Bar in downtown Minneapolis. Prior to starting her own place, Hanson worked at a handful of highly regarded hotels and restaurants in New York City, including Ilo, Aquavit, L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, the Bryant Park Hotel, and the Four Seasons Hotel, before finally returning home to Minneapolis where she became the Chef de Cuisine at Corner Table. She's well known for her handling of pork, particularly her unique house bacon, but Hanson shares with the Hot Dish that when she goes out she's usually in search of a great cocktail and a high-quality baked good.

This week's featured food professional is Carrie McCabe-Johnston, chef and co-owner of new Whittier late-night (and usual dinner hours too) hot spot Nightingale. Before deciding to take the plunge and open her own place, McCabe-Johnston spent some time under the tutelage of local chef (and 2010 James Beard award-winner for Best Chef Midwest) Alex Roberts. After completing her culinary training at Art Institutes and an internship at Restaurant Alma, McCabe-Johnston was hired on as the head baker at Brasa and that influence is apparent on Nightingale's menu in everything from the braised pork shoulder on grits to stunning desserts. Having been in the industry in one way or another since she was a teenager, McCabe-Johnston says she has always appreciated places that are open late. Some of those spots made her list, and her son Levi managed to sneak his favorite pick in there as well.

This week's featured food professional is Jim Kyndberg, the newly appointed executive chef at FireLake Grill in downtown Minneapolis. Kyndberg first made a splash in food world as the chef and owner of Bayport Cookery, in Bayport, Minnesota, which was famed for its creative barbecue. He went on to become the culinary director for Crave restaurants, with a few breaks in between to help out other chef friends at venerable local spots like Victory 44. Though the holiday season is a particularly busy time for any hotel restaurant, Kyndberg does get to sneak away every so often, and when he does, here's where he goes.

This week's featured food professional is Susan Dunlop, chef and co-owner of the charming bistro Joan's in the Park in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood. Before opening her own place, Dunlop spent time at restaurants like Morton's the Steakhouse, Capital Grille, and Tria in North Oaks -- all places with a foundation in classic American cuisine, but her standby destinations for dining on her nights off are chosen more for the hours they're open rather than just by what's on the menu.

This week's featured food professional is Don Saunders, owner and executive chef of both In Season in Armatage and the Kenwood in Kenwood. Saunders has a storied culinary career that started with his classical training in London and turned into long-running stints at critically acclaimed French restaurants such as Au Rebours in downtown St. Paul and Fugaise in northeast Minneapolis. He put in time at Vincent and La Belle Vie before finally making a go of it on his own, opening In Season in the late winter of 2010 and the Kenwood just a few months ago. The majority of what he cooks has a decidedly French accent, but the food and restaurant he names as his "No. 1 favorite, by a longshot" is part of a very different culinary tradition.

The first featured food professionals in our series are Kat Melgaard and Thomas Kim, partners in life and in business at the Left Handed Cook, a popular new stall at Midtown Global Market serving up creative Korean soul food. The pair are recent transplants from L.A. but have taken to seeking out the restaurants in and around their Minneapolis neighborhood with great gusto. "It's a blessing for us that there are so many good, interesting places in our immediate area," says Melgaard. "I still seem to get lost in Minneapolis."