why food

Join cohosts Vallery and Ethan for a fascinating conversation with Rahim Diallo, co-founder of Ginjan Brothers, a line of ginger juice and a new cafe in east Harlem. His career path has taken him from materials sciences to bartending to launching is current company with his brother.

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Shannon Roddy is an Amazon expert, specializing in helping food business launch and scale on the Amazon marketplace. Join cohosts Vallery and Ethan for an enlightening conversation about how food entrepreneurs can use the reach and popularity that Amazon provides to build their businesses.

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This episode was pre-recorded. Vallery Lomas sat down with Alex Berkley, Frieda Caplan's granddaughter and Head of Sales for Frieda's Produce. Frieda's Produce is a unicorn of sorts-- a business started by Frieda Caplan when she introduced the "Chinese Gooseberry" (which she later renamed the "kiwifruit") to the United States produce market in 1962. During the beginning of Alex's career, she faced the decision that so many children and grandchildren of small businesses face: "Do I go into the family business, or do I do something else?"

Alex grew up around produce--attending trade shows and doing just about everything to help her mom run the business. In this episode, she shares how she used her college experience and internships with other companies in her decision to remain in the food business and carry the torch that her grandmother started nearly 6 decades before.

Frieda Caplan, founder of Frieda's Specialty Produce, passed away on January 18, 2020 at age 96.

Image courtesy of Alex Berkley

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Welcome back! Vallery and Ethan speak with David Mawhinney, chef and founder of Franklin + Emily, a children's furniture company. Unlike most of our guests, David has pivoted away from the food industry while using the skills he developed in Michelin-starred kitchens.

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Join cohost Ethan for a conversation with Chef Woldy Reyes, founder of catering company Woldy Kusina. Woldy came to New York City for a career in fashion, starting in the editorial departments of Nylon and Elle and later working for designer Phillip Lim. Join us for a conversation about his career path through fashion to food, and how he expresses identity through his food.

The holiday season is all about food and community. There’s no better time to show your support for food radio by becoming a member! Lend your voice and help HRN continue to spreading the message of equitable, sustainable, and delicious food – together, we can change minds and build a better food system. Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate  today to become a crucial part of the HRN community.

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Join cohosts Vallery and Ethan for a conversation with Chef Hannah Wong of Van Da, a modern Vietnamese restaurant in NYC's East Village. Before beginning her culinary career, Hannah was a Fulbright scholar and editorial assistant at Harvard University Press. After switching gears and returning to school to pursue a culinary degree at Johnson & Wales, she worked at Daniel Boulud’s dB bistro Moderne and Gramercy Tavern before being tapped to help run the kitchen at Battersby. She has also appeared on Food Network’s Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay. Since 2017 she has been the Executive Chef of Real Food Catering. In March, she and owner Yen Ngo opened Van Đa, a modern Vietnamese restaurant in the East Village. It received one star from Pete Wells in the NYT and was recognized as a Bib Gourmand by the Michelin Guide.

The holiday season is all about food and community. There’s no better time to show your support for food radio by becoming a member! Lend your voice and help HRN continue to spreading the message of equitable, sustainable, and delicious food – together, we can change minds and build a better food system. Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate  today to become a crucial part of the HRN community.

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Join co-hosts Vallery and Ethan for a conversation about alternative paths to food media. Our guests this week are Majed Ali: law school graduate, amateur baker and winner of the 2018 Saveur Blog of the Year, and Rachel Gurjar: former marketer and Test Kitchen Manager at thefeedfeed. We'll talk about their career paths, translating recipes across cultures and cuisines, and the role of new media in teaching people to cook.

Join Heritage Radio Network on Monday, November 11th, for a raucous feast to toast a decade of food radio. Our tenth anniversary bacchanal is a rare gathering of your favorite chefs, mixologists, storytellers, thought leaders, and culinary masterminds. We’ll salute the inductees of the newly minted HRN Hall of Fame, who embody our mission to further equity, sustainability, and deliciousness. Explore the beautiful Palm House and Yellow Magnolia Café, taste and imbibe to your heart’s content, and bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences and tasty gifts for any budget at our silent auction. Tickets available now at heritageradionetwork.org/gala.

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Join cohost Vallery for a conversation with Kanchan Koya. Kanchan has a doctorate in Molecular Biology from Harvard Medical School and training from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. While studying DNA repair as a PhD student, Kanchan’s lab began studying the cancer-fighting powers of curcumin, the active compound in the ancient spice, turmeric. This sparked Kanchan’s interest in the science-backed health benefits of spices, which she had grown up enjoying on a daily basis in India. Upon becoming a mother, she founded Spice Spice Baby, a platform dedicated to shedding light on the healing potential of spices, demystifying them for a global audience, and inspiring their use in food for the whole family. Kanchan’s recipes are original, eclectic, nutritious, and packed with spice. She is part of the Creators Program at Buzzfeed Tasty creating recipes and digital content for a global audience of millions. Kanchan recently launched the Momlightpodcast and platform helping mothers feel their best using cutting-edge science based food and life style changes.

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We are excited to sit down with Peter Stein, the owner and founder of Peeko Oysters! An ex-teacher and management consultant, he traded in his desk for the dock when he launched Peeko Oysters, the only oysters based out of New Suffolk, NY. Tune in as we talk to Peter about how his early childhood passion in aquaculture led him down the path to becoming an entrepreneur, the environmental benefits of oyster farming and the importance of creating more transparency in the fishing industry.

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Join us for a conversation with Will Horowitz, executive chef and owner of Ducks Eatery and Harry & Ida’s Meat Supply Co in New York City. His New York culinary heritage is deep rooted, with grandparents on both sides as local chefs: one a French-trained chef cooking seasonally on the North Fork of Long Island, the other running a traditional Jewish Delicatessen in Harlem. Will attended Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado for Tibetan Buddhism and eco-sustainability. There he spent extensive time studying primitive survival, permaculture, small-scale farming and off-the-grid homesteading. He began pursuing his professional cooking career at the Culinary School of the Rockies and Johnson & Wales in 2004. In 2012, Will and his sister opened Ducks Eatery, which specializes in heritage techniques and ingredients with a strong focus on smoked, cured, and fermented foods. In 2015, they opened a vintage-inspired delicatessen and provisions shop called Harry & Ida’s Meat and Supply Co. A big believer of using the local terroir as inspiration, Will is an avid forager, fisherman and naturalist. He currently lives in New York City where his focus is on using heritage culinary techniques to create more added-value products out of undervalued highly sustainable ingredients.

Photo courtesy of Brent Herrig.

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Jenny Dorsey, host of HRN’s Why Food? sits down with three incredible lady restaurateurs to discuss leadership, business, and hospitality.

Natalie Freihon is the managing partner of The Fat Radish and Silkstone Hospitality, where she oversees all restaurant and catering operations.

Niki Russ Federman was pretty much born in a herring barrel, with a sharp knife in her hand and a penchant for caviar. Today, along with her cousin Josh Russ Tupper, she owns and runs Russ & Daughters, Russ & Daughters Cafe, Russ & Daughters Bagels & Bakery, Russ & Daughters at the Jewish Museum, and Russ & Daughters at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (2018).

Karalee Fallert of Taco Boy has been the driving force behind many of the city’s most popular restaurants for more than a decade. She’s known as one of the most prolific and progressive restaurateurs in Charleston.

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This week, please join us in welcoming Lisa Curtis to the studio! Lisa is the Founder and CEO of @kulikulifoods, the leading brand pioneering the superfood moringa in the US market. She founded the company after working as a Peace Corps volunteer. Since then, she has grown her Peace Corps dream into a multi-million dollar social enterprise with products being sold in over 7,000 stores. Prior to Kuli Kili, Lisa served as the Communications Director of Mosaic, wrote political briefings for President Obama, served as a United National Environment Programme Youth Advisor and worked at an impact investment firm in India. ⁣

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Our first dispatch from the Good Food Mercantile of 2019 includes interviews with Beatrice Ughi (Gustiamo), Rolando Beramendi (Manicaretti Imports), Dave Yourd (Regalis Foods), Luke Schmueker (Shacksbury), Suresh Pillai and Carrie Dashow (Atina Foods), and Ethan Frisch (Burlap & Barrel and host of Why Food?). All of these professionals use their platforms to promote the global exchange of food and ideas – from anchovies and caviar, to turmeric and black urfa chili. They put in long hours and hard work to preserve global food cultures and help eaters discover their new favorite ingredient or delicacy!

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Join us for a special episode with Lisa Gross (Founder & CEO) and Afsari Jahan (Bengali Cooking Instructor) from League of Kitchens. Lisa was and artis and social entrepreneur, and Afsari managed garment manufacturing in Bangladesh, but today they're part of the team behind League of Kitchens, hosting intimate cooking classes led by immigrant women in their homes. Join us for a conversation about social entrepreneurship, creating connection and understanding through food, and the most important culinary skills across cuisines!

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Ben Jacobsen started making salt as a hobby, to distract himself from a failing tech startup. When he finally left tech and decided make salt his full-time business, began by collecting seawater in buckets and boiling it down to make his now-famous finishing salt. In the seven years since then, he's build Jacobsen's Salt Co into a national brand and created a truly American finishing salt. Join co-host Ethan for a conversation about building a brand and changing the way consumers think about the most common ingredient we eat.

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Amber started her career as a musical producer in Australia, where she toured famous bands such as Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen, before becoming the worldwide producer of Dirty Dancing. While still on tour, her childhood friend Adam Boyd approached her with a crazy idea: to start a high-quality, ethical coffee roastery in Brooklyn — and she figured, why not? She had been looking for a new creative outlet and, as Amber says, it sounded like an adventure! That idea has grown to become Toby's Estate Coffee, a small-batch roastery with with multiple brick-and-mortar locations as well as a strong wholesale business within outlets such as Dean and Deluca and Whole Foods Market. Join us and we hear about Amber’s delightful journey into coffee, how she still (!!) maintains her role as worldwide producer of Dirty Dancing while running the Toby’s empire and where she sees the world of craft coffee heading towards in the future.

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Pooja’s interest in cooking started as a child in North Carolina, watching the early versions of cooking shows on television and then trying to recreate the recipes in the kitchen herself. Though she pursued other interests in fair and affordable housing through the non-profit sector, she continued to follow her ice cream-making hobby. She was particularly inspired by the blank palate of an ice cream base, when she discovered that the same spices of her parents’ Indian cooking – ginger, rose petals, saffron, and cardamom - could be used to robustly flavor ice creams in a way that she never tasted before. Join us for a discussion of Pooja's process and creativity in building an ice cream brand that's innovative and true to her culinary roots.

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