fast-casual

When she isn’t responding to farmers’ emergency texts about fennel, director of supply and sustainability Taylor Lanzet is lining up producers and streamlining logistics at Dig Inn, a New York-based fast casual restaurant chain with a strong focus on sourcing from local farms. Meanwhile, Lanzet works alongside farmer Larry Tse, who runs the restaurant’s organic farm 60 miles north of the city. In this episode, host Lisa Held sits down Lanzet and Tse to talk about what growing and sourcing local, farm-fresh food at high volumes for a fast casual restaurant chain looks like, what the value of the model is, and the biggest challenges.

The Farm Report is powered by Simplecast.

It’s a new year, and that means our dear friend, Michael Whiteman–aka, “the dean of restaurant consultants”–will give us his annual food trends reports. (It’s his 9th episode of Snacky Tunes.) What does Michael think we should be on the lookout for in 2019? Next-generation fast-casual restaurants, marijuana going mainstream, automation and more.

Michael is the co-founder of the legendary hospitality consulting company, Baum + Whiteman LLC, renowned for creating two of the world’s highest grossing restaurants, more 3-star restaurants than anyone in the United States and numerous international food, hotel and related concepts.

Snacky Tunes is powered by Simplecast.

The Front Burner returns after our fall hiatus with Mark Ladner, who's moving on from his perch as chef of the four-star Del Posto to launch Pasta Flyer, a fast-casual concept he's been developing for years. Mark shares the rigors of the fine-dining life, the Kickstarter experience he undertook to fund his new venture, and whether or not he's got butterflies in his stomach as he prepares to take the leap. In our second segment, with one week til inauguration, we discuss the pros and cons of chefs going political.