Tech Bites

Adam Platt, restaurant critic for New York Magazine, joins us in this episode to talk about how the internet has dramatically changed the restaurant world, starting with his first review for New York Magazine of Annisa in 2000 to the rise of the blogs, and his predictions for 2017.

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The home meal-kit delivery market in the US has grown to 1.5 billion dollars a year. The current category leader is Blue Apron. Opened in 2012, the company delivers 8 million meals a month and has a valuation of 3 billion dollars. The category began with focus with specialty meals like vegan and organic options. The latest home cooking kits are for the parts of the meal that most companies have not really addressed: desserts and cocktails. In-studio guests on this episode: Agathe Assouline-Lichten CEO/Co-Founder Red Velvet NYC. Red Velvet NYC was founded in 2015 by sisters Agathe and Arielle Assouline-Lichten, who were inspired to create a solution when they learned their friends found baking too time-consuming. Having grown up in the gourmet food business, the sisters loved to cook and bake, but struggled to find specialty ingredients and found the conventional process cumbersome. “We want our friends to find baking as rewarding as we do,” Agathe says. “We created Red Velvet NYC to make baking more approachable, convenient, and fun.” Agathe, the CEO of the company, received her MBA from the famed EHL hotel school in Lausanne, Switzerland. Arielle, the CTO and Creative Director for the brand, is a Harvard Graduate School of Design graduate. They both love to serve homemade desserts at dinner parties. “Baking is really about bringing people together,” Agathe says. “We want to make that experience accessible for everyone. Nothing makes someone smile like a fragrant, warm-from-the-oven dessert.” April Wachtel, CEO/Co-Founder Swig + Swallow. April is a 20-year veteran in the beverage and hospitality industry. She worked in every role from busser to bartender to beverage director to brand ambassador to beverage consultant. She has developed recipes for the likes of Lincoln Center Kitchen and MetLife Stadium, and has taught cocktail classes to over 3000 students. Her classes and personal philosophy of hospitality were featured in The Wall Street Journal and on the Sundance Channel. April has made multiple appearances on The Today Show, Fox & Friends, Heritage Radio Network, and many other media outlets. She still teaches public cocktail classes at 5 schools in New York City and Philadelphia.

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Start-up company Spacious transforms empty restaurants into subscription-based co-working and meeting spaces, for the new digitally empowered, indy workforce. On this episode of Tech Bites, Spacious CEO/Co-founder Preston Pesek joins us in studio to pitch the concept to Betony Restaurant GM Eamon Rockey. Let’s see if he closes on a new customer.

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Laurie Woolever returns to Tech Bites to talk about Appetites: A Cookbook, she co-authored with Anthony Bourdain. A lot has changed in the publishing world with digital tech, since her first book project with the traveling chef in 2004, Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook. In addition to working under the catch-all-title of Anthony “gatekeeper,” Laurie is a freelance writer and editor. She has written for the New York Times, Lucky Peach, Saveur, GQ, Food & Wine, Wine Spectator, Los Angeles Times and more. Hungry for more? Listen to Tech Bites Episode 49 Print v Digital with Laurie Woolever and Melissa Clark of the New York Times.

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People have a taste for discovering new foods, whether via a chef’s Instagram feed, a trip to a foreign land, or a mystery box in the mail. To satisfy this craving, more than 30% of Americans are buying food online. Try The World, is a good example of the international food subscription box service category. Every month a box of unique items from a specific country arrives with information, menu and entertaining ideas. Try The World was founded in 2013, by Kat Vorotova and David Foult, who met in New York while studying at Columbia University. To date, Try the World has sold more than 200,000 boxes of products from 1000-plus suppliers.

Eric Rhee is hoping to get in on the e-commerce market for international foods with his Asian-focused site Umlicious. Launched a few months ago, the site features items like fish sauce and rice wine vinegar, accompanied by recipes. In this episode, Eric has the opportunity to get mentored by Kat and David, for advice on how to grow his start-up to $7 million in sales.

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Oh snap! It’s Snapchat boot camp to help you get your snaps, chats and stories on point. We’ll walk-through setting-up the Tech Bites account on the air with in-studio guest Samantha Wasser. She’s co-founder and creative director of by CHLOE, the fast-casual vegan chain launched in 2014 with Chef Chloe Coscarelli. Follow her @bychefchloe. Hungry to learn more? Check out Tech Bites Episode 32– Instagram Boot Camp, Episode 36 – System Security Boot Camp, and Episode 47- Digital Media Boot Camp for Opening a Restaurant.

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Let’s be honest about how we use our technology. While it’s super philanthropic and savvy to say food tech is all about saving the people and the plant with some disruptive start-up business, more than 15% of people are using it to find dates online* and that number is on the rise. One in five online daters – have asked someone for help with their profile. This episode of Tech Bites x Love Bites is for you 15-percenters. Love Bites co-host Jacqueline Raposo joins us in-studio to share her unfiltered look and pro-tips on dating in the digital age. (*Stats from the Pew Research Center. A treasure trove of information.)

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A special episode of Tech Bites featuring some of the best American heritage foods. Donny and Beth Drennan, owners of Broadbent Hams, join us from Kentucky. Broadbent’s famously sold a 16-pound ham at auction for $1.6 Million and is a cornerstone of the Momofuku Ssäm Bar ham plate. Broadbent has been in business for more than 100 years and is one of America’s best and oldest hams. One of the counties newest companies – only a few weeks old – eFowl – is an e-commerce platform for heritage breed poultry. Founder Austin Johnson is hoping to create an online resource for small farmers and consumers to support sustainable agriculture and growth in localized food production. Erin Fairbanks, Heritage Radio Network executive director and host of the Farm Report, adds her expert point-of-view to the discussion.

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What's the best way to get people interested and involved in a better food system? Have them taste a ripe tomato at peak ripeness, picked off the vine. Once you’ve had a homegrown, perfectly ripened, chemical free tomato – how could you eat anything else? Getting people to experience growing their own food, at home or work, or even on water, is the focus of this episode. In-studio guests: Jenny Broutin Farah shares her SproutsIO personal micro-garden. Developed at the MIT Media Lab, it is soil-free, energy-efficient, hybrid hydroculture, wi-fi powered solution for people to grow their own produce year round. The Kickstarter campaign launches this week, hoping to raise $100,000 to put SproutsIO into production. To learn more, or back the project visit: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/451425606/sproutsio-smart-microgarden?ref=3c1308 Amanda McDonald Crowley shares her experience as a cultural worker and curator on the floating food forest project Swale NY. Swale NY wants urbanite to experience picking and eating fresh produce grown in public spaces – for the public. Currently at Pier 5 at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Swale NY is open to the public Thursdays – Sundays. To lean more visit: http://www.swaleny.org

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Does good food equal healthy living? Maybe. The two are related, but not exactly the same thing. If you’re interested in having it all, and really who isn’t? There’s an app for that. The Foodstand App is harnessing the power of their food community to help people make small good changes in eating, for lasting effects on health and life. In this episode Foodstand CEO and co-founder Rachna Govani, unveils Good Eating Challenges on Foodstand. Will the simplicity and positive messaging of the app work? On hand as our focus group of one: Khee Lee, ex-Googler and golfer. Lee recently hired a personal nutritionist to help him bring the good food = healthy living equation into balance. Join us for a candid and entertaining conversation about how tech can enable good eating IRL.

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