Jason DeRusha
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VITALS FAVORITES THIS OR THAT |
Jason DeRusha filed his first report for WCCO-TV on April Fool’s Day in 2003. Since then, he’s earned nine Emmy Awards, his food coverage was a finalist for Outstanding TV Segment in the prestigious national James Beard Awards, the Jaycees named him one of the Ten Outstanding Young Minnesotans, and the city of Minneapolis proclaimed Sept. 21 “Jason DeRusha Day.” No fooling. Today, Jason co-anchors WCCO This Morning weekdays from 4:30 a.m. until 7:00 a.m., WCCO Mid-Morning from 9 to 10 a.m., and WCCO 4 News At Noon. He is also the station’s food reporter, producing “DeRusha Eats”. While at WCCO, he was among the first television reporters on the scene and on-the-air at the Interstate 35W bridge collapse. He answered “Good Question” for 5½ years. In 2013, he was named one of the “40 under 40,” the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s list of young community leaders. Minnesota Monthly named him to the “Power 75” list, writing, “If anyone understands where mass media is going … it’s DeRusha.” Marquette University named him the Young Alumnus of the Year in 2012. Before coming to WCCO-TV, Jason spent three years as a reporter at WISN-TV in Milwaukee. Prior to that, he anchored the weekend news at KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, reported for WREX-TV in Rockford, Ill. and interned at “ABC World News Tonight” in New York. Jason’s been nominated for more than 20 Regional Emmy Awards, and he’s won Regional Emmys for Anchoring WCCO This Morning, for breaking news coverage, reporting his DeRusha Eats segment and the Good Question segment. In the Twin Cities, Jason is a past-President of the Board of Governors of the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He’s a frequent speaker and host for charity fundraisers. He is a frequent fill-in host at WCCO Radio, and has been writing for Minnesota regional magazines since 2009. He’s currently the food critic for Minnesota Monthly. Jason’s a glass art collector, and he’s been a judge for the Uptown Art Fair. He’s also tried to blow a couple glass art pieces, with limited success. Jason graduated from the Honors program at Marquette University with political science and broadcast communication degrees, magna cum laude. Jason lives in Maple Grove with his wife Alyssa (a Wayzata High graduate), and their sons Seth and Sam. |

DeRusha Eats: Upton 43
A Minneapolis restaurant has been named one of the 21 best new restaurants in the country. People already are flying in from around the country to visit Upton 43.
11/03/2016

Rise Bagel To Open In North Loop
The North Loop location will be near Smack Shack restaurant at 530 N. Third Street, and is expected to open in early 2017.
11/01/2016

DeRusha Eats: Marla’s Caribbean Cuisine
When you ask Twin Cities chefs where they like to eat when they’re not at work, Marla’s Caribbean is often the answer.
10/27/2016

New Restaurant From Kenwood Owner Slated For La Belle Vie Space
One year after the state’s most acclaimed restaurant closed, there is a new restaurant going into the former La Belle Vie space in Minneapolis.
10/25/2016

Seven Restaurant’s Owner Sued, Accused Of Using It As ‘Personal Piggy Bank’
The investors in a prominent downtown Minneapolis restaurant and nightclub have filed a lawsuit against the restaurant’s main owner, alleging that he falsified financial records, concealed information from partners and used the restaurant as “his personal piggy bank” while being drunk and high on the job.
10/21/2016

DeRusha Eats: Nonprofit Grant Hooks Up MPS Kitchen
You might expect a machine pumping cup after cup of orange curry vinaigrette to be in a salad dressing factory. You probably wouldn’t expect it inside the headquarters of a school district’s food program.
10/13/2016

DeRusha Eats: Favorable Treats In South Minneapolis
Favorable Treats is about more than just cookies; it’s about a business woman with passion and a dream.
10/06/2016

DeRusha Eats: Pimento Jamaican Kitchen
If Bob Marley opened a Chipotle, it would look like Pimento Jamaican Kitchen on Eat Street in Minneapolis.
09/22/2016

DeRusha Eats: Marianne’s Kitchen In Shoreview
In a part of town where many restaurants are named after Arby or Wendy, it’s easy to miss Marianne tucked away in a Shoreview strip mall. But Marianne’s Kitchen is trying to bring something to this northern Twin Cities suburb that’s been lacking.
09/15/2016

DeRusha Eats: Andrew Zimmern Fights Childhood Hunger
In September, Andrew Zimmern is partnering with the non-profit No Kid Hungry to talk about hunger.
09/08/2016

DeRusha Eats: J. Carver Distillery
In a way, J. Carver Distillery isn’t so different from the car dealership that used to sit on this land in Waconia. It’s still a showroom. They have a product line-up. And there’s an expert ready to help.
08/18/2016

DeRusha Eats: Urbana Craeft Kitchen In Bloomington
The Bloomington Hyatt Regency’s team cooks for room service, a quick-serve market, the sit-down Urbana Craeft Kitchen restaurant, and hundreds of meetings and events.
08/11/2016

DeRusha Eats: Libertine
In a part of town where two new restaurants have flamed out within six months of opening, Parasole’s Libertine continues to thrive — entering its second year.
08/04/2016

DeRusha Eats: Kim Bartmann’s ‘Permaculture’ Garden Farme
What Taya Schulte and Seamus Fitzgerald are doing in Ramsey seems so far away from the ski ball at Pat’s Tap or the fried chicken at Third Bird. But eight urban dive bars and restaurants are directly linked to this one-acre farm in the north suburbs, thanks to restaurant owner Kim Bartmann.
07/14/2016

DeRusha Eats: Gale Woods Farm Crops Aren’t Just For Show
Farm to table is a promise many restaurants make, but it’s a promise a Minnetrista farm and Mound restaurant are living.
07/07/2016

DeRusha Eats: Afro Deli
It is unusual to see a long line outside a locally-owned, ethnic restaurant in downtown St. Paul during lunch. But that’s exactly what’s happening at Afro Deli.
06/30/2016

DeRusha Eats: Travail Kitchen & Amusements
When Bob Gerken is cooking salmon tableside, or diners walk through Mike Brown or James Winberg’s station in the kitchen to assemble their dish, you know you’re experiencing something very different.
06/23/2016

DeRusha Eats: Breaking Bread Café
It is a one-of-a-kind restaurant, run by a nonprofit and a chef who used to be an administrative assistant for a nonprofit.
06/09/2016

DeRusha Eats: Coffee, Tea & Bagels At New Caribou-Einstein Store
Caribou Coffee is trying to jolt sales by going way beyond coffee. In a prime spot in Caribou’s hometown downtown, Minneapolis, they’ve launched a Caribou Coffee & Einstein Bagels store, featuring Argo Tea.
06/02/2016

DeRusha Eats: Five Guys
We are in the era of the burger. Top chefs obsess over their versions. Fast-casual restaurants are opening left and right celebrating the beef. None of them are growing as quickly as Five Guys.
05/26/2016

Kaysen, Zimmern Among Chefs Featured At U.S. Bank Stadium
On Tuesday, U.S. Bank Stadium announced its culinary lineup, including cuisine from Andrew Zimmern and Gavin Kaysen, the fried chicken from Chef Thomas Boehmer at Revival and local restaurants like Ike’s.
05/24/2016

DeRusha Eats: Buddy’s Nut Butter
It started in a Twin Cities apartment in 2013. A graduate of an entrepreneur program at the University of St. Thomas was burning out his Cuisinart food processor trying to make his own peanut butter.
05/19/2016

DeRusha Eats: Sawatdee
It’s hard to imagine a Minnesota without great Thai restaurants, but that was exactly the world that Supenn Harrison encountered when she first arrived here from her native Thailand.
05/12/2016

DeRusha Eats: St. Paul’s Café Latte
They were told that people would not wait in line. But for more than 30 years, people have lined up inside Peter and Linda Quinn’s Café Latte in St. Paul.
05/05/2016

Cooking With WCCO: Strawberry Lemon Curd Tart
It’s almost strawberry season in Minnesota, and Chef Ashley Mendel from A’viands at St. Gertrude’s in Shakopee has an easy recipe for a Strawberry Lemon Curd Tart!
05/03/2016