Industry Night

“Ohhhh, the farmer in the dell, the farmer …” Sorry, we got a little carried away with our love of farmers. Like this week’s guests from the Glenn Family’s Rocklands Farm, a working farm and vineyard not more than a 40-minute drive from the White House! From organic wines and eggs, to meats, produce, flowers and more – including stunning event spaces that look like they're right out of the pages of Southern Living -- Rocklands is one, amazing place. Joining us with tastes and talk of Rocklands are Greg and Anna Glenn and Shawn Eubank with the story of how one family’s desire to get back to the land drove amazing, accelerated success at an old farm lying fallow in Poolesville, MD.

JRINK founder and CEO, Shizu Okusa, is in to talk about her new, experiential pharmacy, the Apothekary, offering herbal solutions to whatever ails people mentally, physically, and emotionally for a full, holistic experience. Headquartered in DC area, JRINK is all-natural health in a bottle – fresh, organic, juiced, plant-based product that tastes good and makes you feel great. By extension, the Apothekary seeks to bridge the gap between traditional and modern medicine, offering herbal solutions to whatever ails you (or us!).

We’ve cooked up something truly delicious for today’s show! Sous vide is the innovative slow-cooking technique that a company called Cuisine Solutions pioneered, perfected and popularized. Distinguished chefs such as Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Mark Miller and the late Charlie Trotter and Michel Richard have relied on Cuisine Solutions’ expertise in developing their own sous-vide recipes. In fact, more than 80% Michelin-starred chefs have received personal sous-vide training at Cuisine Solutions’ Culinary Research and Education Academy (CREA).

In with us today from Cuisine Solutions to with tastes and talk of sous vide and Cuisine Solutions are Chef Delian DiPietro and Chef Consultant AJ Schaller.

It’s summer (almost) season, and everyone is getting his or her balcony, deck, pool (if you’re lucky enough) and backyard ready for grilling season. That being said (and also because we just bought our new Weber!), we thought it made sense to dedicate a show to that great American pastime: BBQ! Our guests are Jim Shahin is the Smoke Signals barbecue and grilling columnist for the Washington Post and Joe Neuman, owner and pit master of Sloppy Mama’s a (you guessed it!), premier, DC area BBQ spot (food truck, actually).

Today’s show explores the lofty goal of meaningful, cultural/culinary diplomacy and how it can work wonders for our international relationships and … our palates! On May 17th, the 10th Annual, Embassy Chef Challenge was held at the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington. The Challenge encourages culinary diplomacy through the celebration of food, drinks, dance, music and fashion. The event featured more than 30 executive chefs from embassies here in DC who gather to share tastes and talk of their favorites ingredients and recipes in friendly competition; mixologists from each country concocting cocktails, dance and fashion designer presentations and a tremendous amount of good fellowship.

Our guests today on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast just prior to the event included a cultural mélange of fascinating participants from Bangladesh, Ghana and the Philippines.

We all like to be catered to, yes? Especially at work and especially at lunch (when the company is paying!), where a catered meal holds promise of an escape from tasteless sub sandwiches, mealy, cold soups or lifeless salads. Rejoice, because now there’s Plum Relish, DC’s new catering service that works with local, chef-driven restaurants (Like which? Like Founding Farmers, Chi-Ko … and more!) to deliver delicious, bento box lunches and family-style platters to offices around the DMV.

In tonight with Foodie and the Beast are Sarah Van Dell, founder/CEO of Plum Relish, a D.C.-based hospitality-tech startup inspired by Sarah’s years of dreading the "sad desk lunch,” and Kingsley Onyechi, the company's director of partner services and operations. Listen in on a great chat that ranges from entrepreneurship to standing up a new catering model to … huge success and big investors, all the while delivering delicious food to quality-starved office workers.

We spent a lot of time trying to decide how to title tonight’s show on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast. And we ended up where we started.

Tonight’s show features nothing less than the Legends of Wine: La Caravelle Champagne’s Rita Jammet and Maison Joseph Drouhin’s Laurent Drouhin, the founder’s grandson and Director of Sales for the winemaker’s U.S. and Caribbean Markets. Both are world-class, world-renowned winemakers whose vintages are prized for their subtle boldness, their rich flavors and their award-winning, universal appeal.

Join us for tastes and talk of some of the world’s finest wines with two of the world’s leading winemakers, only on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast.

Daniel Liberson, the owner and self-proclaimed, “Vinegar Geek” at Lindera Farms, joins us. A chef by training, Daniel got his start in fine dining in the DC area working at fine dining restaurants like Volt, Blue Duck Tavern and Rose’s Luxury. After taking on the family farm in nearby Virginia, he morphed his chef skills into foraging for organic ingredients and brewing spectacular vinegars for some of the best restaurants in the U.S., including the Michelin-starred restaurants here in Washington.

Also joining us is renowned winemaker Jean Claude Riefle, the proprietor of the Grand Cru Steinert vineyard, overlooking the village of Pfaffenheim in northeastern France. Six generations have built the family's winemaking tradition since it began in 1850, and Steinert’s wines are prized the world over for their distinctive, refined tastes.

This week, Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast goes green with guests including Centrolina’s celebrity chef Amy Brandwein, a 2017 James Beard Foundation Award finalist for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic and owner of the 2016 RAMMY for DC’s best, new restaurant; Julie Kirkwood, founder of DC Urban Greens, a nonprofit, urban farm located in DC’s Ward 7 that serves the community with fresh-grown produce; Leonard Watson, an urban farmer working with DC Urban Greens and Urban Greens’ operations manager, Avery Snipes.

Together, we’re taking a deep dive into how urban food desserts (meaning the closest grocery store is several miles away, and residents’ only nearby shopping options are convenience stores that don’t carry any fresh produce or other, good-for-you-foods) can be transformed into productive, economically successful urban farms, year-round!

This week’s guest on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast is Kathy Hollinger, Executive Director of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

RAMW has a lot of “hot button” issues on the table, ranging from the upcoming RAMMY Awards gala in June (RAMW’s version of the Oscars, honoring the local industry’s top restaurants, chefs, staff, vendors and more) all the way to Initiative 77, DC’s highly controversial plan to scrap tipping and raise restaurant workers’ minimum wages. Sounds like a good idea, but … many in the restaurant industry, from owners down to staff, are opposed to it for some very good reasons that make cents. (Yes, we spel