Chop Chat Chew

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. From cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Nolan tackled all variety of questions!

Char Nolan is a serious crusader for plant-based education, armed with a degree in public health from Philadelphia’s Temple University. She teaches nutrition and plant-based cooking throughout Philadelphia, and in many underserved communities. Char holds a certificate in plant-based nutrition from eCornell and completed Rouxbe’s Plant-Based Professional Certification course in 2015. In 2019, Char completed post-graduate course work in social media marketing at the University of the Arts. When she is not cooking or teaching, she manages social media accounts for several plant-based influencers.

Char prides herself on learning everything she knows about cooking from growing up in her grandparents’ Italian restaurant. Her favorite vegetables are Brussels sprouts and kale, of course. Char originally hails from Queens, NY, but has lived in Philadelphia most of her adult life. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer.

You can watch the original video version of this episode on Rouxbe.

Excited for some fresh summer dessert ideas? Join chef Fran Costigan for this exploration of some amazing treats, using fresh herbs to infuse your summer desserts with flavor, interest, and a dash of health.

Bring your questions, and your appetite!

Fran Costigan is internationally renowned as the authority on vegan desserts. Trained at the New York Restaurant School and Natural Gourmet Institute, Fran was a chef in both traditional and vegan pastry kitchens before moving into teaching over 20 years ago. A lifelong chocoholic and long time vegan, Fran’s latest book, Vegan Chocolate: Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy Free Desserts, (Running Press 2013) is for all who madly, deeply love chocolate desserts, whether or not dietary considerations are an issue.

Her previous cookbook, More Great Good Dairy-Free Desserts Naturally (Book Publishing Company 2006) is the basis of the Costigan Vegan Baking Boot Camp Intensive®.

For more information, www.francostigan.com

You can watch the original video version of this episode on Rouxbe.

Join Chef Barton Seaver to explore the ancient art of sausage and the variety of global flavors of sausages. 

Barton will not only discuss ways to make sausage and its history in world cuisine, but also how to incorporate sausage into delicious and creative dishes.

Plus, get a sneak peek into a brand new set of content coming soon to Rouxbe!

*Note: while this event is not vegan, but we will talk about non-meat sausage recipes.

Barton Seaver is one of the world’s leading sustainable seafood experts and educators. He traded his illustrious career as an award-winning chef leading top seafood restaurants, DC, for traveling the world as an Explorer with the National Geographic Society. Barton translated his experiences into leadership in sustainable seafood innovations, garnering him positions with the United States Culinary Ambassador Corp, the University of New England, the New England Aquarium, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Barton works on initiatives to inform consumers and institutions about how our choices for diet and menus can promote healthier people, resillient ecosystems, more secure food supplies, and thriving communities.

An internationally recognized speaker, Barton has delivered lectures, seminars, and demos to a multitude of audiences. He has written seven seafood-centric books, including For Cod and Country and American Seafood and has contributed to dozens of publications, including Cooking Light, The New York Times, and Saveur, among many others. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, CNN, NPR, 20/20 and the TED Talk stage.

He is the founder of Coastal Culinary Academy, a multi-platform initiative that seeks to increase seafood consumption through seafood-specific culinary education for all levels of cooks.

You can watch the original video version of this episode on Rouxbe.

Join Chef and Instructor Eric Wynkoop in his virtual office as he welcomed all questions for this episode of Office Hours from June 7th 2022.

Eric Wynkoop previously served as a founding faculty member at The International Culinary School, instructor in anthropology at Portland State University, and Senior Instructor at the Le Cordon Bleu program at Western Culinary Institute, in Portland, Oregon. He holds Master’s Degrees in postsecondary education and cultural anthropology, as well as credentials in Ayurveda wellness and cooking.

Eric has spent more than twenty years in the food and beverage industry. His experiences include banquet management, catering, personal chef, winery cellar hand, educator, textbook contributor, consultant, and ethnographer. He also brings food and cultural insight from nearly a decade of residence in Japan, studies in Mexico, and research in India as a Fulbright Scholar. After graduating from the University of Oregon with a dual degree in Japanese and Asian Studies, he went on to receive his formal culinary training at Western Culinary Institute, in Portland, Oregon.

Eric’s role with Rouxbe is central to enhancing the student experience through quality course content and new course development at Rouxbe. Eric is also the lead instructor in Rouxbe courses, a role which he has enjoyed since 2016.

You can watch the original video version of this episode on Rouxbe.

Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. From cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Dan tackled all variety of questions!

Dan Marek is a chef educator who has been teaching vegan and vegetarian cooking for over 15 years. At Rouxbe, he is our Director of Plant-Based Culinary and Development where he helps develop content, classes and builds courses for many of our partners.

Dan is a board member of Slow Food Austin, the Institute of Child Nutrition, and Conscious Capitalism. He has earned his BA in Journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and holds certificates in Nutrition from Cornell University.

Prior to his role with Rouxbe, Dan worked with Whole Kids Foundation training teachers and food service at schools across the country on nutrition and culinary best practices. He also worked as a Healthy Eating Educator at Whole Foods Market’s flagship store in Austin, TX, was a personal chef for some of Austin’s elite business people, taught classes in culinary techniques at Austin Community College, The Natural Epicurean, and Le Cordon Bleu.

Dan also regularly volunteers cooking or speaking about nutrition for the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Marathon Kids, Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, and the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Austin and Central Texas.

You can watch the original video version of this episode on Rouxbe.

Chef Fran Costigan has been teaching for 25 years at diverse venues, both in person and online, on land and sea.

Join Fran as she discusses how to set up simply and work with the space you have so you can educate others, and have fun too.

Specific tips on how everyone can produce, and present successful cooking classes will be shared.

Join us for a conversation about Culinary Culture and Mental Health with Chefs Nephi Craig and Chris Rodriguez. This is the fourth episode in the series called Pull Up a Chair, featuring the Rouxbe team in discussion with various leaders in food-spaces on diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the broad landscape of food.

Links from this episode:

Dining Faces Its Dark Truth in Copenhagen https://on.ft.com/3bzgnC8

Saru Jayaraman https://amzn.to/3Nwk34I

https://gather.film - the film "Gather"

https://nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/cafe-gozhoo-highlighted-in-the-documentary-gather-opens-for-business

http://aceresponse.org

We welcome back Chef Craig to share his journey through mental health, sobriety, and recovery. Chef Craig recently stated that the pandemic has presented a “strike while the iron is hot” opportunity to abandon old toxic culinary culture and practices and build new work environments that promote work-life balance, self care, and nutritional recovery.

Chef Nephi Craig has 24 years culinary experience in America and around the world in London, Germany, Brazil and Japan. Nephi Craig is an enrolled member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe and is half Navajo. Chef Craig is also the founder of the Native American Culinary Association or NACA, an organization/network that is dedicated to the research, refinement, and development of Native American Cuisine. 

Chef Nephi Craig provides training, workshops and lecture sessions on Native American Cuisine for health to schools, restaurants, universities, treatment centers, behavioral health agencies, and tribal entities from across America and abroad. Chef Craig served as Executive Chef of the Sunrise Park Resort Hotel. During Chef Craig’s nine-year tenure at Sunrise Park resort, Craig and his White Mountain Apache culinary team achieved many national and international benchmarks in establishing a culture of Indigenous Foods across North America. 

Chris Rodriguez grew up between Los Angeles and Baja California with ancestral roots in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, France, and Basque Country) and across Northern-Central Mexico. He is the descendant of classically trained chefs, crystalized by the culinary legacy of his great-grandfather's bacalao a la vizcaina, still prepared by his family to this day. 

As a father and mutual aid chef organizing community-based access to the ecological stewardship of the land, Rodriguez is actively engaged in the development of local institutions such as a land trust, community gardens, mutual aid kitchens, a homeschool, and grassroots community health projects

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Gender, Ethnic and Multicultural Studies; as well as a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. 

You can watch the original video version of this episode on Rouxbe.

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. From cooking techniques to course-specific questions, to how to turn your cooking passion into profit or simply hearing the perspective of a professional chef, Chef Nolan tackled all variety of questions!

Char Nolan is a serious crusader for plant-based education, armed with a degree in public health from Philadelphia’s Temple University. She teaches nutrition and plant-based cooking throughout Philadelphia, and in many underserved communities. Char holds a certificate in plant-based nutrition from eCornell and completed Rouxbe’s Plant-Based Professional Certification course in 2015. In 2019, Char completed post-graduate course work in social media marketing at the University of the Arts. When she is not cooking or teaching, she manages social media accounts for several plant-based influencers.

Char prides herself on learning everything she knows about cooking from growing up in her grandparents’ Italian restaurant. Her favorite vegetables are Brussels sprouts and kale, of course. Char originally hails from Queens, NY, but has lived in Philadelphia most of her adult life. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer.

You can watch the original video version of this episode on Rouxbe.

Join Chef and Author Barton Seaver in his virtual office as he welcomes all questions.

Barton Seaver is one of the world’s leading sustainable seafood experts and educators. He traded his illustrious career as an award-winning chef leading top seafood restaurants, DC, for traveling the world as an Explorer with the National Geographic Society. Barton translated his experiences into leadership in sustainable seafood innovations, garnering him positions with the United States Culinary Ambassador Corp, the University of New England, the New England Aquarium, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Barton works on initiatives to inform consumers and institutions about how our choices for diet and menus can promote healthier people, resillient ecosystems, more secure food supplies, and thriving communities.

An internationally recognized speaker, Barton has delivered lectures, seminars, and demos to a multitude of audiences. He has written seven seafood-centric books, including For Cod and Country and American Seafood and has contributed to dozens of publications, including Cooking Light, The New York Times, and Saveur, among many others. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, CNN, NPR, 20/20 and the TED Talk stage.

He is the founder of Coastal Culinary Academy, a multi-platform initiative that seeks to increase seafood consumption through seafood-specific culinary education for all levels of cooks.

You can watch the original video version of this episode on Rouxbe.

In this live event Chef Jacquy will discuss what are the different types of chocolate products and how to use them for our different recipes. We will be reviewing some of our videos from our three online courses to give you detailed information on the best chocolate for the job.

*Josh Johnson* is the Pastry Chef of Guittard Chocolate Company, the revered San Francisco Bay Area family-owned chocolate maker, where he brings his celebrated craft, artistry and palate in developing new recipes and ideas with Executive Pastry Chef Donald Wressell. 

Josh has competed in and won the National Pastry Team Championship with team captain Donald Wressell and teammates Scott Green and Della Gossett.  The team went on to win Best Dégustation and Silver Medal overall at the 2012 World Pastry Championship in Las Vegas. Josh also competed in the 2015 Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie with teammates Scott Green and John Kraus, coached by Ewald Notter and Donald Wressell, where they brought home the Bronze medal. 

Josh started working in pastry as a teenager in his uncle’s pastry shop in Illinois and honed his skills training under the tutelage of mentor Sébastien Canonne, M.O.F., and pastry chefs En-Ming Hsu, World Pastry Champion, and François Payard. He was Executive Pastry Chef at Everest in Chicago, co-owner of Cocoa Bean Fine Desserts in Geneva, Illinois, an instructor at The French Pastry School and, most recently, Head Pastry Chef at Destination Kohler in Kohler, Wisconsin.

He is inspired by chocolate’s infinite variety of flavor profiles and its versatility as an ingredient that can also be sculpted and shaped to delicious and delightful effect. 

You can watch the original video version of this episode on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Rouxbe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.