Jasper Mirabile Jr.

Jasper Mirabile Jr. is a Kansas City chef, restaurateur, and broadcaster — a leading public face of the city’s Italian dining tradition. He runs Jasper’s, the restaurant his family founded in 1954, and has hosted the long-running radio show Live From Jasper’s Kitchen for nearly two decades.

Biography

Jasper’s traces to 1954, when Leonardo Mirabile and his son Jasper Mirabile Sr. founded the restaurant at 405 West 75th Street (the 75th & Wornall streetcar turnaround); Jasper Sr. transformed it into an upscale white-tablecloth establishment in 1966.¹² Jasper Jr. took over the family restaurant and, in 1997, moved it to its current home at 1201 West 103rd Street (Watts Mill).² A chef since 1984, he was among the first Italian chefs — and the first from Kansas City — to cook at the James Beard House in New York, returning multiple times.³

Beyond the kitchen, Mirabile hosts “Live From Jasper’s Kitchen” on KCMO Talk Radio, a Kansas City cooking show he has led for more than 19 years.⁴ He is founder and chairman of Slow Food Kansas City and active in the American Institute of Wine and Food’s KC chapter, and is closely associated with KC Italian traditions such as his tableside mozzarella.³

Legacy

Mirabile is a steward and ambassador of Kansas City’s Italian-American food culture — carrying a family restaurant into its third generation while championing the city’s broader culinary scene on the air and in the community.

See also

• jaspers-italian-restaurant

Sources

Footnotes

1. “KC Food Personality Jasper Mirabile dishes on his live cooking show,” Kansas City Magazine; KSHB “Jasper’s celebrates 70 years” — restaurant founded 1954; radio show on KCMO Talk Radio. ↩

2. “Jasper’s Restaurant: After 60 Years, Mother Knows Best,” The Pitch; Jasper’s “About” (jasperskc.com) — co-founded 1954 by Leonardo Mirabile and son Jasper Sr. at 405 W 75th St; Jasper Sr.’s 1966 upscaling; relocation to 1201 W 103rd (Watts Mill) in 1997. ↩ ↩²

3. “Q&A With Jasper Mirabile Jr. of Jasper’s Restaurant,” Curd is the Word; VoyageKC — first Italian/KC chef at the James Beard House (cooked there three times); Slow Food KC; signature tableside mozzarella. ↩ ↩²

4. “Live From Jasper’s Kitchen,” KCMO Talk Radio — 19+ years on air. ↩