From The Ground Up

Emily Griffith shares her story of starting and building America’s sprouted buckwheat brand - Lil Bucks. While living in Australia, Emily had a life changing açaí bowl that inspired her to build a brand of her own. The bowl had sprouted buckwheat seeds as a replacement to granola that's usually sprinkled on top - it was not too sweet, had the perfect crunch and soon became her new obsession. Once Emily noticed there were no dedicated sprouted buckwheat brands here in the U.S., she decided to launch Lil Bucks. Once she moved back to Chicago after living in Australia, she took on freelance gigs to bootstrap her business. Emily went from selling at local farmers markets to selling in major retail stores across the U.S.

In this episode, Emily chats with host Danielle about buckwheat production, bootstrapping a business, the realities of being a food entrepreneur and fulfilling her vision of creating a national, natural health brand. Tune in and follow @lovelilbucks on Instagram and use code fromthegrounduppod on www.lovelilbucks.com for 20% off your first purchase!

Bridget Firtle, born and raised in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood of Queens, began her career on Wall Street at a hedge fund as a consumer goods investor with a focus in global alcoholic beverage companies. In 2012, she saw an opportunity to join the renaissance occurring in American distilling and founded Owney’s Rum – New York City's only rum distillery. Within five years of the launch, Bridget formed a strategic partnership with international spirits company Proximo Spirits, and in early 2020 she successfully sold the company to launch Rockaway.

Rockaway is a new sparkling beverage that embodies the creative, unfaltering energy of New York City and offers functional benefits from powerful plants and adaptogenic herbs. In this episode, we discuss the transition from investing on Wall Street to building a rum distillery from scratch, how she created and sold a business in five years and how she made the transition from spirits to the non-alcoholic space and launched her second company, Rockaway. 

“Those were some of my best memories of my childhood... sitting around the table with my family."

Berty Richter is the Executive Chef and Owner of TLV in Austin, Texas - a restaurant inspired by the streets of Israel. Berty was born and raised in Israel to an American-Hungarian father and a Turkish mother where food was at the center of their everyday life. There was always somebody cooking in the kitchen and from a young age, he was exposed to a lot of great food. Berty’s family would host large, 12-hour feasts on Saturdays where they sit around the table and enjoy drinks and delicious food made by Berty’s mother and grandmother. This is how Berty fell in love with food and cooking.

Starting at the age of 12, Berty took summer positions in different kitchens across Israel. When he was 18, he joined the mandatory military service (Israeli Defense Force) where he found himself volunteering to cook on the weekends while some of the cooks were away. After his service during his time traveling the United States, he decided that he was going to pursue his true passion as his career, which was cooking. In this episode, Berty chats with host Danielle about how his family feasts shaped who he is as a chef, working in different kitchens across New York City for 15 years, moving to Austin and opening his food truck Hummus Among Us and how his food truck provided him with the opportunity to open up a restaurant of his own - TLV.

“I feel so reinvigorated and I want to teach people the comfort foods that I grew up eating. I want to keep Vietnamese food alive in America.”

Chef Nini Nguyen is a New York City based chef, instructor, recipe developer and recent contestant on Bravo’s Top Chef All Stars. Nini grew up in New Orleans East where there is a big Vietnamese population and growing up, she predominantly ate Vietnamese food and cooked Vietnamese food with her grandmother. This is where she fell in love with food and cooking - in a place with such a rich culinary background with so many delicious things to eat. Now, Nini feels reinvigorated and wants to teach people about the comfort foods of her heritage that she grew up eating.

During Nini’s time in college at LSU, she realized she wanted to be a chef and after college, took the leap and went culinary school but felt that she learned so much more on the job. She quickly fell in love with the industry - she loved the culture of restaurants and the people the restaurants attract to work there. She worked at restaurants across Louisiana including Coquette and at a bakery where she honed in on her pastry skills, which landed her a gig at the famed Eleven Madison Park in NYC. Not too long after, she secured a spot on Top Chef Kentucky, which then led her to become a contestant on Bravo’s most recent season, Top Chef All Stars. These experiences have inspired her cooking and have given her a platform to teach - which is what she really loves to do. Here’s what we cover in this episode: how Top Chef has impacted her career, launching virtual and on-demand cooking classes in the wake of the pandemic, how New Orleans native chefs are starting to explore and use Vietnamese ingredients in New Orleans cooking and why Nini loves this industry and cooking so much. Tune in and follow @chefnininguyen and @fromthegrounduppod on Instagram and check out www.chefnininguyen.com for more info on Nini’s classes.

Donna Lennard reflects on her 26 years in the industry and the beautiful, large, extended family she built with it. Donna started out as a filmmaker and supported herself through graduate school at NYU by working at restaurants across the city. During this time, she met her original Il Buco partner, Alberto Avalle. The two became fast friends and turned their hobby of collecting American antiques into a business when they opened up an antique shop on Bond Street in 1994. Not even a year later, they transformed their space into a neighborhood restaurant focused on ingredients. Ever since they opened, Il Buco has been the motherland… the soul of the brand. 

Fast forward 26 years, Donna now owns and operates three restaurants, a pop-up in Montauk and an original line of products and has built a community inside and outside of the restaurants. In this episode, we talk about the early days of Il Buco, creating her new cookbook (Il Buco: Stories & Recipes), how Il Buco Alimentari put her on the map in a different way and the team she’s built or her ‘la banda del buco’ that has turned into her forever family. Be sure to tune in and follow @ilbuconyc, @ilbuco_av, @bottega_ilbuco, @ilbucovita and @fromthegrounduppod.