Episodes
For almost 20 years, Kamal Mouzawak, a Beirut-based social entrepreneur and hospitality visionary, has been building bridges in Lebanon through food. He founded the country's first farmer's market, Souk el Tayeb, which has also become important for its advocacy of farmers and for the way it provides public food education. His restaurant, Tawlet, features dishes that have helped Lebanese nationals and travelers alike understand the country's diverse culinary traditions and the stories behind...
Published 08/21/20
Published 08/21/20
REPLAY: Honeysuckle's Omar Tate joins us from Philadelphia during an emotional week of protests and racial tension to talk about finding his way as a black chef in America and expressing the experience of blackness through his food. Hear why he interpreted the MOVE bombing on a plate, how he's discovered ultimate autonomy and what $100 bean pies could mean to the future of his cooking and his neighborhood. **THIS EPISODE ORIGINALLY RAN ON JUNE 5th. Help fund Omar's Honeysuckle Community...
Published 08/07/20
Brutus Bakeshop's Lani Halliday and Honey Bunny's Chicken's Jared Howard share how they came to be part of the Black Entrepreneur Series at Maison Yaki in Brooklyn as well their thoughts about allyship, reparations and empathy. Lani's Maison Yaki pop-up kicked off the series with her sensational gluten-free, vegan pastries and savories, including her now iconic pop tart. She tells us why her food matters in this moment and beyond. Currently at Maison Yaki, Jared Howard is cooking fried...
Published 07/31/20
Cut loose from her job as the executive pastry chef of a celebrated New York restaurant group, Natasha Pickowicz talks about confronting a new reality of occupational independence and a more personal and familial version of creativity. Plus, what a pandemic can do for a relationship with your parents, understanding burnout, separating identity from institution and Natasha's new initiatives, ranging from activism to building community resources to selling layer cakes and ice cream on summer...
Published 07/24/20
REPLAY: As President of One Fair Wage, Co-Founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, Saru Jayaraman spearheads some of the most important efforts being made to establish restaurants as safer and more equitable places to work. Hear about the millions of workers Saru is fighting for, why the minimum wage is linked to slavery, the myriad problems with unemployment insurance, the...
Published 07/10/20
REPLAY: Working nearly every job imaginable in New York City's restaurants and bars, from diners to fine dining, Zak Snyder has learned to live on the economic edge. Now facing serious personal health issues on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zak is putting his life on the line to serve his community. **THIS EPISODE ORIGINALLY RAN ON MARCH 26TH
Published 07/08/20
REPLAY: FoodLab Detroit's Executive Director Devita Davison helps small businesses come into existence, leading a dynamic incubator and accelerator program for nearly 200 local members. But what happens when those businesses are all threatened at once? Listen in as Devita gives a dynamic, full-throated and must-hear master class on how to organize, how to generate hope and vision and why Detroit is uniquely positioned to help heal a suffering nation. **THIS EPISODE ORIGINALLY RAN ON MARCH 25....
Published 07/06/20
Lucali's Mark Iacono and Best Pizza's Frank Pinello join us from Brooklyn to talk about reliability, innovation, mortality, compassion, fear and running two of New York City's most iconic pizzerias over the course of COVID-19.
Published 07/03/20
Is building a strong and just communications strategy the secret sauce for an ailing industry? Veteran communications expert Blake MacKay joins us to discuss why getting the message right is more important in this moment than ever before and why it goes deeper than common perception. Plus, where the work of undoing systemic racism starts, learning to hold a moral line in the food world and how selling cheese made Blake a more precise and empathic communicator. 
Published 07/01/20
Writer and chef Illyanna Maisonet's blog and accompanying newsletter, Eat Gorda Eat, has been a blessed escape from stay at home life during this pandemic. She writes about the hyper-regionality of Puerto Rican cuisine with depth, sensitivity and authority, so much so that you're transported to places like Humacao or Naranjito, at least for a little while. Illyanna joins us to talk about the endless learning of writing about Puerto Rican food, the brilliance of sofrito ice cubes and where to...
Published 06/29/20
In response to COVID-19, Louisville, Kentucky's LEE Initiative has grown rapidly from a 2-person non-profit to a national force, opening 19 relief kitchens in 19 cities. Co-founders Lindsey Ofcacek and Edward Lee join us to talk about taking care of hospitality workers nationwide and continuing to come up with new programs to support farmers, restaurant re-openings and to serve the legacy of David McAtee, a barbecue chef shot and killed by the National Guard in Louisville's West End on June...
Published 06/26/20
San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic and co-host of the new podcast Extra Spicy, Soleil Ho joins us to discuss what a restaurant critic does during a pandemic and what we now mean by the term "restaurant" anyway. 
Published 06/24/20
Disappointed with the work culture in fine dining restaurants, Matt Jozwiak left the world of cooking tasting menus to solve food insecurity in New York City. He co-founded Rethink Food with partner Winston Chiu in 2016. During COVID-19, Rethink's work scaled in remarkable ways, cooking and donating 645,156 meals from March through June while forming key partnerships with La Morada, Ghetto Gastro and Eleven Madison Park. Matt joins us to discuss innovating in the non-profit sector, an...
Published 06/22/20
Soul Fire Farm's Leah Penniman grows food for people targeted by state violence and impacted by poverty and food apartheid. As those factors became more pronounced during the pandemic, Soul Fire Farm ramped up food production while also teaching an increasing number of people in their community how to grow food for themselves. Leah joins us to talk about her farm's activist mission, reparations, ending racism and injustice in the food system, her book, Farming While Black, the ways she fuses...
Published 06/19/20
Ghetto Gastro's Jon Gray joins us to discuss radical partnerships, feeding the Bronx, ending systemic racism, fighting respectability politics, using storytelling as a tool to dismantle white supremacy, black joy as an act of rebellion, a six-figure T-shirt fundraiser, Ghetto Gastro's Juneteenth plans and much more.
Published 06/17/20
Seattle's Addo restaurant, and its chef-owner Eric Rivera, have moved through this pandemic with maximal creativity, nonstop innovation and awe-inspiring output. Eric joins us to explain how he's using Puerto Rican food, online gaming, time travel, book borrowing, virtual cooking classes and camping, the cuisine of Russia, donated meals, and dozens more ideas and elements to keep Addo thriving. Plus, the future of the restaurant from service to the dish pit, a dissection of Eric's creative...
Published 06/15/20
Othón Nolasco and his partners Damian Diaz and Aaron Melendrez at Va'La Hospitality have spent the pandemic feeding undocumented hospitality workers in Los Angeles. Othón joins us to talk about turning anger at a flawed system into an effort to provide food to 660 families a week through their aptly named, growing organization, No Us Without You!
Published 06/12/20
Basbaas founder and In Bibi's Kitchen author, Hawa Hassan and Colonia Verde chef-owner, Felipe Donnelly talk about fellowship, serving their community, using gratitude as a lifeline and summoning the fortitude to show up time and time again. 
Published 06/10/20
His business partner died; COVID-19 closed his restaurant; and now, amidst civil unrest in Cincinnati, Christian Gill continues to fight for the safety and survival of Boomtown Biscuits and Whiskey. Christian joins us to discuss leading while mourning, grasping diplomacy through anger, the failures of police and the importance, for him, of doing his best with what he has. 
Published 06/08/20
Honeysuckle's Omar Tate joins us from Philadelphia during an emotional week of protests and racial tension to talk about finding his way as a black chef in America and expressing the experience of blackness through his food. Hear why he interpreted the MOVE bombing on a plate, how he's discovered ultimate autonomy and what $100 bean pies could mean to the future of his cooking and his neighborhood. 
Published 06/05/20
Finding themselves suddenly out of work, Ramzi Budayr, Tyler Curtis and Mallory Cayon combined their considerable hospitality talents and energy to launch Few For All, a meal kit service specializing in fresh pastas, sauces, cookies and cinnamon rolls. Since launching in March, they've also donated more than 5,000 pounds of their pasta to the LA Regional Food Bank, helping to rally against food insecurity. Hear how they've grown, what they've learned, and how Few For All plans to help...
Published 06/04/20
As Navajo Nation's COVID-19 infection rate reached the highest in America, chef Brian Yazzie began a drive to send money, food and other resources back to Dennehotso, Arizona, the community in which he grew up. Hear how Brian plans to help return abundance to his ancestral home through food and farming and how he's feeding Native American elders in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Donate to the Dennehotso Families Covid-19 Relief...
Published 06/02/20
Millions of children across America depend on schools for basic nutrition. Brigaid's Dan Giusti discusses how to keep meals coming during a time when schools cannot open. Plus, Dan tackles a growing demand to feed senior citizens and advocates for an important piece of legislation, the Universal School Meals Program Act.
Published 06/01/20
After two years of perpetual hustle opening and sustaining Nyum Bai, her Oakland, California restaurant, chef-owner Nite Yun didn't realize the extent of her exhaustion. She's used a period of this pandemic to reset and refocus, to develop new rituals and learn treasured recipes from her mother. She joins us to discuss Cambodian rock and roll, making nom ansom and her ambitious and delicious plans to open a new iteration of Nyum Bai in June.
Published 05/29/20