Heritage Radio is the food-focused internet radio station that broadcasts from a studio attached to Roberta's in Bushwick. Every week, many of the big players in the food world host and appear on shows, and oftentimes they reveal interesting tidbits about their work. Here's a guide to five notable pieces of programming from the last week:
1) Betony and the Critics: Betony's chef Bryce Shuman and General Manager Eamon Rockey talk to "Word of Mouth" host Leiti Hsu about the thrill of receiving a NYT review. Here's Rockey on how the restaurant responded to having Pete Wells in house to check them out for the New York Times:
You do what you do. When you start changing things, you make mistakes, and nine times out of ten a restaurant or anybody who's being critiqued is nervous and unsure of themselves. And when last minute, you start making changes, you drop the ball and then you have to compensate, and you end up not getting what you want because you didn't stick to what you believe in. So for us, it's maintaining calm always. And whenever you have someone who you want to impress coming in, you approach it with real confidence because you've done it a million times.
2) Amanda Cohen: Dirt Candy's Amanda Cohen steps into the studio with "The Morning After" to discuss all things vegetables. Here's Cohen on the inception of Dirt Candy:
Most chefs know they want to own their own restaurant. I didn't know that I wanted to own Dirt Candy itself. I didn't know that I wanted to own a tiny little 18-seat restaurant that only served vegetables. But I knew that something like this was in the future.
3) Evolutionaries with Jim Lahey: This week's installment of the HRN series "Evolutionaries" features Jim Lahey of Sullivan St. Bakery. Here he shares his thoughts on receiving a one-star review from Frank Bruni back in 2009 for his Chelsea pizza restaurant Co.:
I am extremely honored by ever having been reviewed by Frank Bruni during his short tenure as one of the most outstanding and thoughtful restaurant critics of the New York Times, and I say this because under Bruni's reign as the critic in chief, there was consistency in the universe of the review. If Bruni said it sucked, then every reviewer followed in suit.
4) Getting Crabs at The Tunnel: Josh Morgan of the Hammer & Claws! festival joins the largely Maryland-bred hosts of "How To Behave" to share a lesson on the cultural significance of Maryland crab feasts. On why he brought his all-you-can-eat-and-drink Blue Crab Feast in the city:
When I came up to New York, I really saw just a void in this type of experience. It really is not only a dining experience, a communal experience, but it really is a cultural thing. People from Maryland argue that it's really ingrained in being a Marylander, and I wanted to bring it to New York.
5) All About Absinthe: Anne-Louise Marquis, brand ambassador for Pernod Absinthe, talks about the mystique that still surrounds the spirit and the challenge in overcoming the spirit's stigma and embracing it's flavor, versatility and variety. On the history of adding sugar to absinthe:
Wormwood is very bitter, and the base elements of it are very bitter, and it's always been that way?Originally absinthe was used for the army, because they believed it was anti-malarial and [the French] believed it would distill water--and it didn't do either of those things--so they would give it to the army when they were invading Tunisia, and one of the ways they would get them to drink it was to add sugar to it to make it a little more palatable, and I think that tradition stayed because it's just really beautiful to watch the sugar melt in.
— Peter Henry
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