Mira's Manny and Gina Ocasio Are Putting Buffalo on the Culinary Map
Episode Details

Some things feel like fate. Manny Ocasio was working at Zahav during a rare lunch service when Gina walked in looking for her friend. They barely spoke. Months later Gina walked into a bar and Manny was sitting there. Everything unfolded from that moment. And now they run one of Buffalo's most exciting new restaurants together, as partners in life and in business.


Manny and Gina Ocasio are the executive chefs and partners of Mira, a Mediterranean restaurant that opened in Buffalo's in November 2025, built around the simplest and most beautiful philosophy: the best quality ingredients, the simplest preparation, and food that makes you feel like you are sitting by sparkling Mediterranean water even when there are two feet of snow outside.


In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Manny and Gina to chat everything from Gina's Italian American New Jersey childhood where her mom made everything from scratch including baby food, to Manny's Buffalo upbringing where both parents worked in restaurants and he resisted the family path right up until the moment he started washing dishes at 15 and never looked back. From Gina's years at CIA and Del Posto and Sqirl in Los Angeles, to Manny's formative time at Manresa at 17 years old. From meeting at Zahav, to moving to Buffalo during COVID, to building Mira around a Josper grill from Spain, hand-made culurgiones, and a kitchen crew that has been there since day one.

This is a conversation about what it looks like when two people decide to do life together. Completely.


In this episode, we cover:

  • Gina growing up in a New Jersey Italian American household where her mom made everything from scratch including her baby food
  • Manny growing up in Buffalo with a dad who was a chef and a mom who was a server, resisting the restaurant world right up until the moment he started washing dishes at 15
  • Gina naturally gravitating toward pastry and baking from her mom's kitchen
  • Manny drawn to savory cooking for the same reason he struggled in school: learning with your hands, working through mistakes, being self-taught
  • Manny obsessing over the Manresa cookbook and the Mind of a Chef episode featuring David Kinch, sending weekly emails to the restaurant until he got a response
  • Leaving Buffalo at 17 for a position at Manresa: the first time really traveling alone, figuring out logistics in Los Gatos, and the surreal experience of cooking in a kitchen he had only ever seen in videos
  • Gina's CIA experience in baking and pastry: the Apple Pie Bakery, cooking for the whole school, and the pressure that set the bar for everything that followed
  • Gina at Del Posto for four years before a Brooks Headley event in LA led her to eat at Sqirl and change the entire trajectory of her career
  • What Sqirl taught Gina: freedom with baking, whole grains, California produce, letting go of some rules
  • What California permanently installed in both of them: a philosophy of seasonality, local sourcing, and not doing much to a beautiful ingredient
  • What they miss most about California: Manny the timing and length of the seasons, Gina a specific persimmon that a friend brought to Sqirl
  • Moving back to the East Coast: Gina to open a restaurant in Philly, Manny to Zahav and Jean-Georges
  • Gina recognized as Best Pastry Chef by Philadelphia Magazine
  • Zahav winning Outstanding Restaurant the year Manny was there
  • Meeting at Zahav during a rare lunch service: Gina looking for her friend, Manny at the door, and months later reuniting at a bar
  • Moving to Buffalo during COVID and the timing that made it all click: Manny's friend leaving the chef position at Grange Restaurant Group, a pastry job opening for Gina
  • Business partners Caryn Dujanovich and Brad Rowell: the owners of Grange Restaurant Group who trusted a 23-year-old Manny to run their kitchen and eventually became co-founders of Mira
  • The Mira name: born from the Spanish kitchen word that means look but means everything, the universal kitchen version of jawn
  • The restaurant Mira took over: an iconic Buffalo location that operated for over 40 years that Manny grew up going to for breakfast
  • The Josper grill from Spain: the first thing they bought and the piece of equipment everything at Mira is built around
  • Signature dishes: beef tartare, culurgiones (Sardinian potato dumplings in fresh tomato sauce), and anything from the Josper grill
  • The team that has been there since day one and the culture they are building
  • Buffalo in summer: the busy patio season where nobody leaves because the summers are so short
  • Staying even-keeled and working through the daily crises of restaurant ownership
  • Why Buffalo deserves to be on the food travel list: the Bills, Niagara Falls, proximity to Toronto, and a city that is genuinely finding its own identity
  • A cookbook they keep talking about putting in real food they are proud of
  • Advice for founders: surround yourself with people who share your vision, and put yourself in situations for someone else before you do it for yourself


Find Manny, Gina, and Mira:


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Episode cover art for Mira's Manny and Gina Ocasio Are Putting Buffalo on the Culinary Map
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