Why Food?

Our first guest of the season is Soleil Ho is the San Francisco Chronicle’s newest restaurant critic. Before coming to the Chronicle, she was a nationally recognized writer, chef, and the host of the Racist Sandwich Podcast, all while providing her thoughtful-provoking perspective on immigration, race, gender, and class in the food world. She is also co-writer on a graphic novel on entomophagy, culinary mentorship, and queer romance called MEAL. Tune in for an insightful conversation on her journey navigating food journalism and how she is hoping to use restaurant reviews to discuss important topics like urban development and wealth disparity.

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Chitra Agrawal has been cooking, teaching and writing about food inspired by her family’s recipes from India for ten years. She co-founded Brooklyn Delhi with her husband Ben Garthus in 2014 to bring the flavors she was creating to a wider audience. Chitra is the author of Vibrant India: Fresh Vegetarian Recipes from Bangalore to Brooklyn (Penguin, 2017). Prior to Brooklyn Delhi, Chitra held marketing roles at American Express and DDB and completed her MBA at NYU Stern. Brooklyn Delhi's award-winning condiments can be found in Whole Foods nationwide and in Blue Apron meal kits and have been featured by food critics at the NY Times, Saveur, Food & Wine and more.

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Eric Kim is a food writer and the Senior Editor at Food52, where he writes the popular Table for One column. Before becoming a food writer, Eric was an academic - he undergraduate literature courses at Columbia while pursuing a PhD in 19th- and 20th-century American fiction. Join cohosts Jenny and Ethan for a discussion about writing, writing about cooking, and identity in food.

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Join cohosts Jenny and Ethan for a conversation with Haley Baron. She's the City Operations Director for pineapple collaborative, a community for women who love food, in NY, DC and SF. She's an accomplished food systems researcher, the team manager for the city-wide evaluation of a food access program administered by the Mayor's Office, and is publishing a suite of articles on the organic supply chain.

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Join cohosts Jenny and Ethan for a conversation with Alex Mayyasi, editor of Gastro Obscura, a food publication devoted to culinary wonders and curiosities.Alex was early employee at Priceonomics, where he wrote and edited business and economics stories. He lived in Cairo in 2011-2012, and along with Egyptian democracy activist Ahmed Salah, is the co-author of You Are Under Arrest for Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution (A Memoir). We'll talk about the transition from writing about politics and economics to writing about food, and the importance of a political relevance in food writing.

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Join us for a special episode with Lisa Gross (Founder & CEO) and Afsari Jahan (Bengali Cooking Instructor) from League of Kitchens. Lisa was and artis and social entrepreneur, and Afsari managed garment manufacturing in Bangladesh, but today they're part of the team behind League of Kitchens, hosting intimate cooking classes led by immigrant women in their homes. Join us for a conversation about social entrepreneurship, creating connection and understanding through food, and the most important culinary skills across cuisines!

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Ben Jacobsen started making salt as a hobby, to distract himself from a failing tech startup. When he finally left tech and decided make salt his full-time business, began by collecting seawater in buckets and boiling it down to make his now-famous finishing salt. In the seven years since then, he's build Jacobsen's Salt Co into a national brand and created a truly American finishing salt. Join co-host Ethan for a conversation about building a brand and changing the way consumers think about the most common ingredient we eat.

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"Erin Patinkin and Agatha Kulaga are the co-founders of Ovenly, an award-winning bakery known for creating baked goods that twist sweet and savory flavors in a modern way. With five retail locations, a large wholesale clientele, and over 60 employees, Kulaga and Patinkin are at the forefront of ethical entrepreneurship, building a dynamic company committed to job training and development and environmental sustainability. The duo were named one of New York’s most “badass” leaders in food by Thrillist.

Join co-hosts Jenny and Ethan for a discussion about building a successful bakery, open hiring policies and social entrepreneurship."

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Amber started her career as a musical producer in Australia, where she toured famous bands such as Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen, before becoming the worldwide producer of Dirty Dancing. While still on tour, her childhood friend Adam Boyd approached her with a crazy idea: to start a high-quality, ethical coffee roastery in Brooklyn — and she figured, why not? She had been looking for a new creative outlet and, as Amber says, it sounded like an adventure! That idea has grown to become Toby's Estate Coffee, a small-batch roastery with with multiple brick-and-mortar locations as well as a strong wholesale business within outlets such as Dean and Deluca and Whole Foods Market. Join us and we hear about Amber’s delightful journey into coffee, how she still (!!) maintains her role as worldwide producer of Dirty Dancing while running the Toby’s empire and where she sees the world of craft coffee heading towards in the future.

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Join Jenny and Ethan for a conversation with Zwann Grays, Wine Director at the highly regarded Brooklyn restaurant Olmsted. Zwann began her career in distributor wine sales, and then transitioned to work in restaurants, including at some of New York City’s most notable wine destination. At Olmsted, Zwann focuses on natural, producer-driven wine selections from responsible growers, female wine makers, and the next generation of wine makers.

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