Why Food?

By Heritage Radio NetworkSociety & Culture Business Arts

Why Food? episodes

March 13, 2020 Jose Alvarez: From Wine Importer to Soap Maker
Join co-host Ethan for a conversation with Jose Alvarez, founder of treestar*. Jose is a native New Yorker and entrepreneur who has always been excited by social psychology and consumer behavior. Has worked in law, wine importing, and most recently started treestar*, a feel-good, experience driven soap and candle company with a mission to spread love, not germs.
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39 min
March 05, 2020 DeVonn Francis: From Designer to Activist Chef
Join cohosts Vallery and Ethan for a conversation with activist, model and chef DeVonn Francis. DeVonn is a queer, first-generation Jamaican-American artist with a background in design and performance studies. He founded Yardy in fall 2017 as a way to investigate his own role in Caribbean culture and to encourage others to seek joy and celebration in their own identities. Since then, Yardy has gone on to create brand campaigns, develop activations, and redefine and reaffirm the importance of food and culture. Learn about how DeVonn has blended his wide range of experiences to build a company that engages on important issues through both food and design.
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44 min
February 27, 2020 Priyanka Naik: From Data Science to the Food Network
Join co-hosts Vallery and Ethan for a conversation with Priyanka Naik. Born and raised as a first generation Indian-American in Staten Island, she is a self-taught cook who entered and won the top prize on Food Network's Cooks vs Cons. Priyanka has been featured in GQ, works with several food brands and contributes to the largest digital food publishers including The FeedFeed and Tastemade.
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46 min
February 20, 2020 Ben Simon: From Political Campaigns to Artisan Foods
Join cohosts Vallery and Ethan for a conversation with Ben Simon, Founder & CEO of Ben to Table, a food subscription service. After a career in political campaigns with Greenpeace, Amnesty International and Unicef, Ben launched an online food subscription company for avid home cooks. Listen in on his career story and how he's combined his interests in politics, environmental sustainability and food!
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40 min
February 13, 2020 Sufia Hossain: From Fashion to Hot Sauce
Join Vallery and Ethan for a conversation with Sufia Hossain, Founder & CEO of Silly Chilly Hot Sauce. Sufia left a successful career as a fashion industry executive after realizing the damaging impact of clothing manufacturing on the environment and communities around factories. She started making hot sauce in her home kitchen to share with her coworkers, and Silly Chilly Hot Sauce was born. She sources peppers from local NJ farmers to make unique, delicious hot sauces that are good for farmers and customers.
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44 min
February 08, 2020 Rahim Diallo: From Engineering to African Hospitality
Join cohosts Vallery and Ethan for a fascinating conversation with Rahim Diallo, co-founder of Ginjan Brothers, a line of ginger juice and a new cafe in east Harlem. His career path has taken him from materials sciences to bartending to launching is current company with his brother.
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55 min
January 30, 2020 Shannon Roddy: How to Sell Food on Amazon
Shannon Roddy is an Amazon expert, specializing in helping food business launch and scale on the Amazon marketplace. Join cohosts Vallery and Ethan for an enlightening conversation about how food entrepreneurs can use the reach and popularity that Amazon provides to build their businesses.

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53 min
January 23, 2020 Alex Berkley, on deciding whether or not to stay in the family business
This episode was pre-recorded. Vallery Lomas sat down with Alex Berkley, Frieda Caplan's granddaughter and Head of Sales for Frieda's Produce. Frieda's Produce is a unicorn of sorts-- a business started by Frieda Caplan when she introduced the "Chinese Gooseberry" (which she later renamed the "kiwifruit") to the United States produce market in 1962. During the beginning of Alex's career, she faced the decision that so many children and grandchildren of small businesses face: "Do I go into the family business, or do I do something else?"
Alex grew up around produce--attending trade shows and doing just about everything to help her mom run the business. In this episode, she shares how she used her college experience and internships with other companies in her decision to remain in the food business and carry the torch that her grandmother started nearly 6 decades before.
Frieda Caplan, founder of Frieda's Specialty Produce, passed away on January 18, 2020 at age 96.
Image courtesy of Alex Berkley
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49 min
January 16, 2020 David Mawhinney: From Cooking to Carpentry
Welcome back! Vallery and Ethan speak with David Mawhinney, chef and founder of Franklin + Emily, a children's furniture company. Unlike most of our guests, David has pivoted away from the food industry while using the skills he developed in Michelin-starred kitchens.
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44 min
December 19, 2019 Episode 108: Woldy Reyes: From Fasion to Fashionable Food
Join cohost Ethan for a conversation with Chef Woldy Reyes, founder of catering company Woldy Kusina. Woldy came to New York City for a career in fashion, starting in the editorial departments of Nylon and Elle and later working for designer Phillip Lim. Join us for a conversation about his career path through fashion to food, and how he expresses identity through his food.
The holiday season is all about food and community. There’s no better time to show your support for food radio by becoming a member! Lend your voice and help HRN continue to spreading the message of equitable, sustainable, and delicious food – together, we can change minds and build a better food system. Go to heritageradionetwork.org/donate today to become a crucial part of the HRN community.
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53 min

About Why Food?

From the publisher's feed

Do you daydream about dropping everything and opening a restaurant? Have you always wondered what it would be like to start your own line of condiments? So many trailblazers in the food world actually started their careers in entirely different fields. How did these folks decide to hit the brakes, start over, and become inspiring the chefs, entrepreneurs, farmers and activists they are today? Hear their stories and learn how you too can fulfill your food dreams. Join cohosts Vallery Lomas and Ethan Frisch on Why Food?