Episode No. 6

Reinventing Your Career Without Starting Over
with Steve Dolinsky

What happens when the career you built for decades starts to change around you?

In this episode of Owning Your Legacy, award-winning food journalist Steve Dolinsky shares how he turned decades of experience in journalism, storytelling, and food into an entirely new chapter—without starting over.

Best known to Chicago audiences as the Hungry Hound and The Food Guy, Steve built his career by following his curiosity, developing deep relationships across the food industry, and becoming one of the city’s most trusted voices on food. But as television journalism changed, he recognized that his next opportunity might not look anything like the career he had known.

Steve shares how he identified the skills and relationships he had spent years building, created a one-page pitch around the value he could bring, and ultimately transitioned into a new role with Levy—where his food knowledge, storytelling ability, industry connections, and eye for trends now help shape experiences across hundreds of venues.

The conversation explores why reinvention does not mean abandoning everything you have built, the importance of maintaining relationships long before you need them, and how the skills you may take for granted can become your greatest advantage.

Steve also dives into his lifelong obsession with pizza, the creation of Pizza City USA, what makes Chicago one of the world’s great pizza cities, and the legacy he hopes to leave behind: proving that Chicago-style pizza is about much more than deep dish.

If you are navigating a career transition, questioning what comes next, or trying to understand the value of everything you have already learned, this conversation is a reminder that your experience may be exactly what opens the next door.

If you enjoyed the episode, please share it with others, and rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about me and how I am Owning My Legacy, you can find me on Instagram @LauretteRondenet and YouTube @owningyourlegacy.