Radio Cherry Bombe

This week’s guests: Amanda Kludt & Amanda Chantal Bacon.

This week on Radio Cherry Bombe, host Julia Turshen welcomes Amanda Kludt and Amanda Chantal Bacon to the show. Kicking off the show talking with Amanda Kludt who is the Editor-in-Chief of Eater. Eater is a website dedicated to providing food news and dining guides from across the country. Talking to Julia about the nuances of running a website with a great deal of forums and open ended comments, and the other moving parts of Eater, Amanda shares the plans for the future at Eater since being acquired by Vox Media. As a woman who also happens to be an Editor-in-Chief, Amanda gives her take on and how she deals with being a minority in the business setting.

“We want to be that household name, like, oh if you want to know about food Eater is the place to go.” [8:57]

“I don’t think my gender has anything to do with why reason why I’m the Editor-in-Chief.” [11:33]

—Amanda Kludt on Radio Cherry Bombe

After the break, Julia welcomes Amanda Chantal Bacon to the show to talk about her business, Moon Juice, based in Venice, CA. Amanda is owner, creator, and chef at Moon Juice, however her career started in Vermont as a culinary student. Through trials and tribulations of ups and downs in the corporate world, Amanda came to the realization that she could rely on herself to open her own vision of Moon Juice. Taking Julia through a “typical” day at Moon Juice, including the daily delivery of produce, prep in the commissary kitchen, and running from place to place, Amanda also finds time to experiment with recipes. From there, Amanda shares how Moon Juice’s development works and the stages from inception to being bottled and sold. In the tail end of the interview, Julia asks about some of the more unique apothecary items available through Moon Juice.

“The goal with it is that from walking in and looking around and talking to the people behind the counter… all of that should be extremely pleasurable and healing, merging those two worlds.” [27:34]

—Amanda Chantal Bacon on Radio Cherry Bombe

This week’s guests: Jessamyn Rodriguez & Gail Simmons.

After devoting herself to a career promoting Human Rights, Jessamyn Rodriguez landed in New York in 2002, earning a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University, and then had an idea. She would start a baking coalition that would empower immigrant, low-income women by teaching English and business management classes alongside technical baking skills. The now thriving Hot Bread Kitchen makes over $2 million a year in just bread revenue, proving that a social mission with a good product can succeed in today’s market. Heritage Radio Network recently chose Jessamyn as one of our 100 Future Food Leaders for her innovative and inspiring work on the advancement of Human Rights.

“I was the first woman that had ever been hired in the bakery at Daniel and that was a huge feather in my cap to go out and talk about Hot Bread Kitchen.” [26:45]

—Jessamyn Rodriguez on Radio Cherry Bombe

Gail Simmons is a trained culinary expert, food writer, and dynamic television personality. Since the show’s inception in 2006, she has lent her extensive expertise as a permanent judge on BRAVO’s Emmy-winning series Top Chef. Gail is also the new head critic on Top Chef Duels and was previously host of Top Chef Just Desserts, Bravo’s pastry-focused spin-off of the Top Chef franchise. She is also co-host of The Feed. Part talk show, part food adventure, and part buddy comedy, The Feed airs on FYI, A+E’s new lifestyle network.

Gail joined Food & Wine in 2004 and directs special projects for the magazine, acting as liaison between the marketing and editorial teams on magazine events and chef-related initiatives, working closely with the country’s top culinary talent. During her tenure, she has been responsible for overseeing the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, America’s premier culinary event. Prior to Food & Wine, Gail was the special events manager for Chef Daniel Boulud’s restaurant empire.

Gail currently lives in New York City with her husband, Jeremy and daughter, Dahlia.

“I kept going back to food and I kept cooking, and ultimately decided I wanted to write about food.” [13:45]

—Gail Simmons on Radio Cherry Bombe

This week’s guest on Radio Cherry Bombe is Mimi Sheraton, a pioneering food writer and a former restaurant critic for The Village Voice, Time, Condé Nast Traveler, and The New York Times. Her writing on food and travel has appeared in such magazines as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Smithsonian, Vogue, Town & Country, New York, and Food & Wine. She has written sixteen books, including The German Cookbook, first published in 1965 and never since then out of print, and a memoir, Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life. Her book The Whole World Loves Chicken Soup won both the IACP and James Beard awards, and she won a James Beard journalism award for her Vanity Fair article on the Four Seasons’ fortieth anniversary. Her latest book is 1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die. She was born in Brooklyn and is a longtime resident of Greenwich Village. This program was brought to you by The International Culinary Center.

“[As a critic], you try to help people pick a restaurant and know what to expect when they get there.” [08:00]

“One of the things that makes it difficult for women [in food], especially if they’re married, is that a husband who isn’t in the business is much more unhappy about being left alone every night for dinner than a wife. That level of tolerance is very different for women.” [14:00]

“When you have a core audience that’s really interested in the subject, you can be very specific and detailed but when your’e working for a publication that wants to expand that audience you have to get people that are less interested and entertain them – then you anger your core audience. [19:00]

“I write what I want to read. [20:00]

–Mimi Sheraton on Radio Cherry Bombe

This week’s guest: Dana Cowin.

Dana Cowin, FOOD & WINE’s editor in chief since 1995, has been covering the world of food, wine, style and design for more than 25 years. Cowin oversees the FOOD & WINE brand, including a monthly magazine with a circulation of 925,000; digital products including the website foodandwine.com, mobile applications and iPad editions; and a books division, which publishes Best of the Best Cookbook Recipes, the FOOD & WINE Wine Guide, FOOD & WINE Cocktails and several other titles. She also serves as editorial advisor to FOOD & WINE China, the publication’s first international edition. Under her leadership, the award-winning magazine has attracted an audience of more than eight million readers with a passionate, adventurous approach to cooking, wine, entertaining, restaurants and travel. Before joining FOOD & WINE, Cowin was managing editor of Mademoiselle, managing editor of HG and an associate editor of Vogue. Cowin is on the board of directors of City Harvest, a New York City hunger-relief organization, for which she spearheads the annual “Skip Lunch Fight Hunger” campaign. She’s also on the board of directors of Wholesome Wave Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to providing access to locally grown, healthy, sustainable foods for all communities. She is a member of Brown University’s President’s Leadership Council. Cowin appears frequently on national television and shares her eating and drinking adventures on Twitter @fwscout and on Facebook. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, Barclay Palmer, a global executive producer at Thomson Reuters, and their two children.

“Every story at Food & Wine magazine starts with a coherent idea. We poke at ideas until we have something we feel will hold the readers attention, makes sense and hasn’t been done before.” [22:00]

This week’s guest: Ruth Reichl.

Ruth Reichl is the author of Delicious! a novel published by Random House in May 2014. She was Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine from 1999 to 2009. Before that she was the restaurant critic of both The New York Times(1993-1999) and the Los Angeles Times (1984-1993), where she was also named food editor. As co-owner of The Swallow Restaurant from 1974 to 1977, she played a part in the culinary revolution that took place in Berkeley, California. In the years that followed, she served as restaurant critic for New West and California magazines.

Ms. Reichl began writing about food in 1972, when she published Mmmmm: A Feastiary. Since then, she has authored the critically acclaimed, best-selling memoirs Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples, Garlic and Sapphires, and For You Mom, Finally, which have been translated into 18 languages. She is the editor of The Modern Library Food Series, which currently includes ten books. She has also written the introductions to Nancy Silverton’s Breads from the La Brea Bakery: Recipes for the Connoisseur (1996) and The Measure of Her Powers: An M.F.K. Fisher Reader (2000), and the forewords for Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, by Shizuo Tsuji (2007), At Elizabeth David’s Table (2011) and . She is featured on the cover of Dining Out: Secrets from America’s Leading Critics, Chefs and Restaurants, by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (1998). She is the editor of Endless Feasts: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet; Remembrance of Things Paris: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet; The Gourmet Cookbook, released September 2004; History in a Glass: Sixty Years of Wine Writing from Gourmet, 2006 and Gourmet Today, September 2009. Her lecture “Why Food Matters,” delivered in October 2005, was published in The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Volume 27, in 2006. In March 2007, she delivered the J. Edward Farnum Lecture at Princeton University.

Ms. Reichl hosted Eating Out Loud, three specials on Food Network, covering New York (2002), San Francisco (2003), and Miami (2003). She is the executive producer of Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, public television’s 30-episode series, which debuted in October 2006 and Executive Producer and host of Gourmet’s Adventures with Ruth, a 10-episode public television series which began airing in October 2009. She is currently a judge on Top Chef Masters.

Ms. Reichl has been honored with 6 James Beard Awards (one for magazine feature writing and one for multimedia food journalism in 2009; two for restaurant criticism, in 1996 and 1998; one for journalism, in 1994; and Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America, 1984. In 2007, she was named Adweek’s Editor of the Year. She received the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, presented by the Missouri School of Journalism, in October 2007. Ms. Reichl received the 2008 Matrix Award for Magazines from New York Women in Communications, Inc., in April 2008. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in the History of Art from the University of Michigan and lives in Upstate New York with her husband, Michael Singer, a television news producer.

“If you’re going to be in food you really have to study your own appetites.” [8:42]

–Ruth Reichl on Radio Cherry Bombe

This week’s guests: Martha Hoover & Chef Nira Kehar.

Having never waited tables, never cooked professionally or in any way worked in a restaurant, Martha Hoover has created a successful group of dining establishments—Cafes Patachou, Petite Chou by Patachou, Napolese Artisanal Pizzeria and Wine Bar, GELO Dolce Bar, Public Greens Urban Kitchen Garden and Grill and Patatruck Mobile Patachou Kitchen. The restaurants reflect her lifelong passion for food and ingredients of excellent quality, as well as a joie de vie. All the concepts are cherished neighborhood destinations, serving dishes made with the highest quality ingredients in the freshest preparation methods possible. Their walls are filled with art, music floats above the buzz of the diners and an urban energy reverberates that is the direct result of her vision.

“I don’t think I told our story enough early enough. It just didn’t strike a chord with enough people.” [09:00]

–Martha Hoover on Radio Cherry Bombe

Born and raised in Montreal, Nira Kehar’s culinary adventures began with imbibing her mother’s skills in the kitchen. She traded a career in engineering to train at the prestigious ITHQ (Institut de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie du Québec), Canada’s premier culinary institute. Chapter three was moving to India six years ago, where she began to give life to her creative vision (preceded by a grueling few months in the Maurya Kitchens).

“I’m privileged in that the worst thing that ever happened to me is the best thing that ever happened to me.” [27:00]

“Food is like a living organism it has its own moods and freaky things that happen to it.” [33:00]

–Nira Kehar on Radio Cherry Bombe

This week on Radio Cherry Bombe, host Julia Turshen welcomes Erin McKenna of Babycakes Bakery and Brooks Headley of Del Posto Restaurant in NYC. Starting off the show, Erin shares her story with Julia about how she began to bake, specifically gluten free, treats, and now has bakery locations in NYC, LA, and Orlando. Similarly, Brooks, the Executive Pastry Chef at Del Posto, recalls his background and how he found himself working in one of the best restaurants in the city. Both guests relate on the trials and tribulations of work in the culinary realm as well as the differences between being hands-on with their food versus managing employees. Letting others help with the work is something that the chefs agree is a necessity for success. After the break, Julia chats with the guests about their support systems as well as Brooks’ recent book, Fancy Desserts. Julia also asks what we can expect from both in the future before signing off with the Radio Cherry Bombe rapid fire quiz! This program was brought to you by Bird.

—Brooks Headley on Radio Cherry Bombe

“[Writing my new book] was really, really challenging, and it really pushed me, but now I have some of my new favorite recipes in there.” [32:40]

—Erin McKenna on Radio Cherry Bombe

This week on Radio Cherry Bombe, Julia Turshen sits down with director Cynthia Hill for an intimate and insightful conversation. She’s the director of PBS’s Peabody Award winning series, A Chef’s Life. A Chef’s Life plunges audiences into the kitchen of a high-end restaurant located in the low country of eastern North Carolina. It follows the trials and travails of Chef Vivian Howard and her husband, Ben Knight, and their farm-to-table restaurant, Chef & the Farmer, exploring both traditional and modern applications of quintessential Southern ingredients. She’s also the director of Private Violence, a feature-length documentary film and audience engagement campaign that explores a simple, but deeply disturbing fact of American life: the most dangerous place for a woman in America is her own home. This program was brought to you by Bird.

“I love being able to highlight our culture in the Eastern part of North Carolina.” [11:00]

“Now in the media we’re finally starting to have a conversation about domestic violence.” [25:00]

“For me it’s about telling stories that are important to women.” [27:00]

–Cynthia Hill on Radio Cherry Bombe

Sara Moulton is currently the host of “Sara’s Weeknight Meals,” on public television. After graduating from the CIA, she worked in restaurants for 7 years, followed by 25 years at Gourmet Magazine. She hosted shows on the Food Network for almost 10 years and was the on air food editor for Good Morning America for 15 years. Sara is also the author of three cookbooks, the most recent is “Sara Moulton’s Everyday Family Dinners.” She also co-founded the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance. Tune in to Radio Cherry Bombe as Sara shares her incredible story with listeners and helps shed light on what it takes to become a culinary legend. This program was brought to you by Bird

“I never wanted to be on TV and I ended up on it. I was probably the only person on the Food Network who learned on the job.” [12:00]

“The thing about magazines is – unless you get to the head honcho position, you’re not paid well.” [23:00]

–Sara Moulton on Radio Cherry Bombe

This week’s episode of Radio Cherry Bombe is all about A Second Helping of Life, a benefit for SHARE – a 38-year-old survivor-led organization based in New York City that provides support, information, and resources to women affected by breast and ovarian cancer. Its mission is to help women and their families address the emotional and practical issues that arise from a cancer diagnosis and to provide the support these women need to feel less isolated, better informed, and more empowered as health care consumers. A Second Helping of Life features 25 women chefs (and celebrity sous chefs) serving their signature dishes at Pier 60, Chelsea Piers, on Monday, September 22, 7:00-9:30 PM. Tune in as Julia Turshen is joined by chef Rebecca Charles and actress Kathleen Chalfant, both participants, to discuss the Share event. This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market.

–Katheleen Chalfant on Radio Cherry Bombe