Amuse News

HRN Happy Hour brings you a special interview with Basil Gooden, Ph.D., who is currently serving as the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Secretary Gooden is a native of Buckingham County, Virginia where he and his family own and operate a cattle farm, raising Black Angus beef. His family farm also participates in tree farming and land conversation efforts. He is deeply connected to the industries that he supports through his work as Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry.

Kat, Caity, and Patrick speak to Secretary Gooden about the diverse agricultural commodities that are grown and produced in Virginia – from well-known crops like peanuts and tobacco to craft beverages such as wine and cider. We learn that Virginia is the #1 producer of oysters on the East Coast and that agritourism is booming across the state.

Tune in to hear more about Secretary Gooden's work to bridge the gap in Virginia's food systems, educate youth on opportunities in the agricultural sector, and promote Virginia's food and products around the world.

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On today's HRN Happy Hour, we're feeling bene!

Caity and Kat are joined in the studio by Patrick Martins (as always) and our special guest, Mario LaPosta, Chef of Babbo Pizzeria in Boston.

This is the final week of our winter season, so we recap the highlights of all the shows' season finales, plus a very special episode of The Front Burner in which Jimmy & Andrew interviewed Jeremiah Tower, Anthony Bourdain, and Lydia Tenaglia about the new documentary, The Last Magnificent.

We share our favorite news stories of the week, and of course we have to talk to Mike Edison on this 4/20 holiday!

Finally, we chat more with Mario about what's new in the Batali empire and ask for his food and travel tips when visiting Naples and Rome.

Mario LaPosta’s lifelong obsession with pizza started when he was a child watching the pizzaioli in his father’s hometown just north of Naples.

LaPosta began working in local pizzerias when he was fifteen years old. During his time studying hospitality at Central Connecticut State University, LaPosta worked in the kitchen at Bricco in West Hartford, one of Connecticut’s most celebrated Italian restaurants. After graduation, he moved to Italy to apprentice in Rome. From there, he moved south to the town of Piedimonte where he earned his chops at a Neapolitan-style pizzeria called Pietra di Luna.

After reading that Mario Batali was planning to open a restaurant in Westchester, New York, LaPosta contacted Batali veteran Andy Nusser. Nusser tapped LaPosta to build the pizza program at Tarry Lodge in Port Chester. Soon after it opened in 2008, Tarry Lodge was named among the best pizzerias in the country by GQ’s Alan Richman. In 2011, LaPosta opened the second location of Tarry Lodge in Westport as Chef de Cuisine.

LaPosta has competed in the World Pizza Championships in Italy finishing 10th place overall in Pizza Napoletana. He comes to Boston with fifteen years of pizza making experience, both in Italy and New England. His dedication for authentic, simple, and soulful food comes from his mother— who is an exceptional cook— and her homemade pizza.

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On today's show, Kat is joined by guest co-host Jordan Werner, our Julia Child Fellow, and Patrick Martins. Our in-studio guest is the Kate Brashares, Executive Director of Edible Schoolyard NYC, who kindly made time to pay us a visit in the midst of planning for ESYNYC's massive Spring Benefit.

As always, we start with headlines and recent HRN news, and then we hear from Kate about ESY's mission and the upcoming benefit that features some of New York's most acclaimed chefs. We wrap up the episode by challenging Kate and Patrick to some trivia inspired by the NY neighborhoods that are home to Edible Schoolyard's gardens.

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Today's show is ALL. ABOUT. CALIFORNIA.

We're joined in studio by Mike Edison, host of Arts & Seizures, and Patrick Martins, HRN Founder and Heritage Foods USA Founder for a round up of recent food news including Caity's recap of the Good Food Mercantile that took place in Washington DC last weekend.

Kat brings us some exclusive interviews from Monterey County, CA. First up, we hear from Tom Wright, Reporter from The Monterey Herald, about the insanely rainy winter season in Big Sur. Mudslides in the area caused a total shutdown of Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) after the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge was condemned. Tom shares stories of the immediate aftermath of the storm (such as airlifting of food and supplies) and the lasting effects on the community. Many restaurants and resorts in Big Sur are still closed and don't plan to reopen until the bridge can be repaired or other travel alternatives are available to guests.

Moving slightly north, we hear from Sheila Bowman, Manager of Culinary and Strategic Initiatives for Seafood Watch at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Now in its seventeenth year, Seafood Watch is the leading source of science-based seafood recommendations in the U.S.

After a quick break, we share the latest news out of Ron Finley HQ in Los Angeles, what our engineer Vitor has planned for this weekend (hint: it involves chamber music and tickets are available HERE), and a preview of Cherry Bombe Jubilee & Marketplace happening August 8th and 9th. Catch HRN's table at the marketplace for your chance to win our "Sophisticated Home Cook" Raffle Basket!

To wrap things up, we play a round of "Girly Pop Culture Trivia" with Patrick and Mike in the hot seats.

More about our guests:

Tom Wright, a Northern California native, covers breaking news in Monterey County. He's been a journalist with the Monterey Herald for nearly five years, covering local government and sports in addition to working as a copy editor. Before joining The Herald, he wrote for the Daily Democrat in Woodland, California, and graduated from San Jose State University.

Sheila Bowman works with chefs, educators, media and industry with a goal of shifting them towards seafood products that are caught or farmed with the environment in mind. Trained as a marine scientist and passionate about conservation, her work takes her around the country and into kitchens where sustainability really begins. In 2014 the National Audubon Society recognized Sheila as one of their “Woman Greening Food."

Our featured image is from freegreatpicture.com

Our theme song is “Suns Out Guns Out” by Concord America.

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On this week's HRN Happy Hour, we are joined in-studio by Patrick Martins (HRN and Heritage Foods USA Founder), Emily Pontecorvo (HRN Intern), and Abe Shaw (Founder of Eating Tools). We swap weekend stories – from Kat's trip to KCBC for chamber music and beer pairings to Patrick's run-in with the law.

Next up, a recap what's going on around the network:

Speaking of bees.... ICYMI, General Mills has temporarily removed “Buzz” the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee from their cereal boxes to raise awareness about colony collapse. They also launched a program, "Bring Back the Bees," in which they have sent more than 1.5 billion wildflower seeds around the U.S., aiming to build more bee-friendly habitat. There's just one problem: depending on where you are in the country, these seeds could be invasive species!

To learn more about the complex relationship between wildflowers and bees (and other native pollinators), we speak to Miriam Goldberger, who runs Wildflower Farm in Coldwater, Ontario with her husband and partner Paul Jenkins. They grow, harvest and package wildflower and native grass seeds for online retail. She is also the author of the book Taming Wildflowers.

After a quick break, Emily Pontecorvo fills us in on the latest bovine news. Americans are eating way less beef, and we find out from Patrick if he's seen any affects of this trend at Heritage Foods USA. Also, cattle farmers in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado are tragically losing their herds and property in the massive grass fires – it's so bad that they're calling it their Hurricane Katrina. This is a natural disaster in the heart of Trump country (83% voted for him in Clark County, Kansas), and he hasn’t even acknowledged it.

Next up, Emily gives us the 411 on NY's 0x30 program, part of Mayor DiBlasio's commitment to send zero waste to landfills by 2030. The Department of Sanitation is expanding their organics collection program to serve every New Yorker by 2018. To date, over 23,000 tons of organics have been diverted from landfills in the city. Earlier in the day, Kathryn Garcia, the Commissioner of the Department of Sanitation in NYC, announced a new expansion of organics collection to several Brooklyn Neighborhoods. Emily plays us a clip of the announcement, which was made in a community garden in Williamsburg called La Casita Verde.

Finally, we hear more from Abe Shaw about how he started Eating Tools and about the unique utensils and cooking tools they offer. Abe explains how anodized titanium makes the most colorful and strong chopsticks and what he looks for when choosing a knife to use in his home kitchen. We end the show by playing a round of "utensil trivia," and it's no surprise that Abe knows his stuff when it comes to eating tools!

Our theme song is “Suns Out Guns Out” by Concord America.

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We covered a lot of ground in this week's HRN Happy Hour. Kat and Caity are joined by Jordan Werner, a delightful third wheel if there ever was one. First, we talk about what's going on around Heritage Radio Network:

A Taste of The Past takes a close look at the question, "What is authentic Irish Food?" with Irish-American cookbook author Margaret Johnson.

Lauren Singer of The Simply Co. stops by Radio Cherry Bombe with her story about fitting on years' worth of waste into a 16 oz mason jar.

Phil Gilmour of The Main Course welcomed Chef Mike Lewis of YO! Sushi into the studio to tease the restaurants' opening, complete with a mini sushi conveyor belt.

We share some favorite memories about Lucky Peach Magazine, which is set to fold later this year – including the time Kat brought David Chang, Chris Ying, and Gabriele Stabile to the Iron Bowl, resulting in an article aptly titled "Insane." Other news worth discussing: the James Beard Award Nominees and Michelle Obama's guest appearance on Master Chef Jr.

For our first guest, we welcome Larry Boukal on the phone. Larry is the General Manager of Cannonball Express Transportation, a refrigerated trucking company based in Omaha Nebrasaka. We find out what effect the winter storm had on his trucks (which are deployed to all 48 continental states).

Speaking of trucks – we take a grammatical deep-dive into a legal battle between a group of truckers and Oakhurst Dairy about overtime pay that centers around the ever-controversial Oxford Comma. The state law that outlines what is not included in overtime pay reads as:

The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:

After a quick break, we welcome John Lewis and Ben Garbee from Lewis BBQ in Charleston, SC to talk about how they got started smoking meats in the Holy City and what they have planned for their weekend in New York.

To wrap up the show, we get schooled by Jimmy Carbone about the real meaning of St. Patrick's Day, and it has nothing to do with the mobs of tourists in green shirts!

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On the second episode of HRN Happy Hour, Caity and Kat are joined in-studio by guest host Patrick Martins and Chef Edgar Pendley from Urban Grub in Nashville. We catch up on the latest happenings on the HRN airwaves and decompress from our recent Charleston Wine + Food Festival trip!

We hear from Ron Finley, the "Gangsta Gardener" about his mission to ignite a horticulture revolution in South Central LA. Currently, he is fighting to save his HQ – the very same location where Finley took back city land and planted the seeds to cultivate happy and healthy communities. After numerous attempts by the property owner for a loan modification with no avail, the land was sold to Strategic Acquisitions Inc in a foreclosure. In order to continue their work there, they have been offered is to purchase the property for $500,000, otherwise... they face eviction. You can learn more and help save the Ron Finley Project HQ at gofundme.com/savethegangstagarden.

Next, we turn our sights to charcuterie. To learn why it's having such a renaissance in the US right now, we speak to Francois Veccio, one of the fathers of charcuteire with over 60 years of experience. Then, we hear from Lorenza Passeti, the CEO of Volpi Foods. Lorenza's great-uncle, John Volpi immigrated from Milan in 1900 and brought with him the ancient European art of dry curing. Now, as president of Volpi Foods, Lorenza continues to refine her great-uncle’s craft – while adhering to the techniques he brought with him to America more than a century ago. Chef Edgar Pendley has his own charcuterie program at Urban Grub in Nashville. He shares some of the challenges involved with setting up a space to cure and age meats in Tennessee – where the food inspection process hasn't quite caught up with the new techniques being used.

Last, we chat more with Edgar about his upcoming James Beard House dinner titled "Southern Hangout." He's using familiar flavors from his youth to create a menu boasting mouth-watering ingredients like strawberry preserves, black truffle mole, pork jerky, and sorghum syrup.

Our theme song is "Suns Out Guns Out" by Concord America.

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On the premiere episode of HRN Happy Hour, hosts Caity Moseman Wadler and Kat Johnson are joined in the studio by Heritage Foods/Radio head honcho Patrick Martins to talk about what listeners can expect from our live coverage of the upcoming Charleston Wine + Food Festival.

Also joining in the conversation is Amalia Scatena, the director of the culinary program for Easton Porter Group, where she creates unique dining experiences at Cannon Green as well as Zero Restaurant and Bar in Charleston, and Red Pump Kitchen and Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards in Charlottesville.

Plus, the latest headlines from the world of food, including reports of a pineapple pizza firestorm in Iceland!

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