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 recent programming.
1) Daniel Holzman's Ice Cream Side Project:
Le Bernardin veteran and founder of Meatball Shop, Daniel Holzman discusses his widely-unknown side project, Q-Bees: All natural, kosher ice cream-filled rice crispy treats, sold in the freezer isle at Whole Foods. Here's Holzman on the success of his ice cream novelty:
We have I think maybe 11,000 or 12,000 supermarkets across the country where you can find it…[referring to preceding guest Adam Fleischmann] the Umami [Burger] guys are not the only ones who cater to stoners.
2) Craft Beer vs. Contract Brewing:
Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy's No. 43 hosts a spirited discussion on the differences between the spirit of craft brewers and the growing trend of contract brewing, including sponsored small project brews and small-batch gypsy brewers such as Evil Twin. The issue grew into a twitter thing recently when Evil Twin's Jeppe Jarnit-Bergsø shared a photo of a sign near the bathroom at Single Cut Brewery reading "Contract Brewing will be the Death of Craft Beer." Rich Buseta of Single Cut Brewery in Astoria weighs in on the issue:
There are so many factors, the water, the equipment and the intricacies...these all will influence the beer, and it's not just the brewing of the beer, it's the cellaring of the beer, the maturation process, even the packaging of the beer, these all can influence the beer quite dramatically, so that's why it's important that whoever the brains are behind this beer, whoever the impassioned souls are that created this beer, they've got to monitor every step of the process if it's going to be done to it's potential.
3) Booze at Toro with Caitlin Doonan:Joe Campanale of the Epicurean Group chats with Caitlin Doonan of the recent Boston-transplant in South Chelsea, Toro. Besides keeping about half of the wine list Spanish, Doonan keeps a deep list of Sherries and a cocktail list with a Spanish focus. Here she is on how Spanish wine has changed and how she's repositioning to sell it:
I think for a while everybody just sort of wrote off Spain, so there's a huge resurgence of people saying, 'no, we're going to focus on quality, not quantity.' Probably all of those things that have happened in Germany and Austria and France and Italy previously are now happening in Spain. Sherry has gotten a huge bump with all the love in New York and in America, with all of the wine community, though we're still trying to bring that to the mainstream guests, people are still a little bit scared of it.
4) The Ins and Outs of Restaurant Design:
Shari Bayer of Bayer PR and host of All in the Industry talks to Glen Coben of Glen & Company, an architecture firm that focuses on designing and building out restaurant spaces. He talks about how much he learned about the restaurant industry from collaborating with Jonathan Waxman to build out Waxman's Washington Park in the West Village.
That's what I truly love about the restaurant industry. We're working with every restaurant as if it's their story…each time we come to a project, we're starting with what is the essence of their idea, what is the essence of their menu, and then, how do we relate it to the space? We want to make it as locally relevant as possible.
5) Dayboat Scallops in NYC:Noticing more Dayboat Scallops on menus around town? HRN talked to Togue Brawn of Maine Dayboat Scallops, who explains how a rotating closure schedule for Maine fishing zone gave the scallop population a chance to regain strength, which the small-time fishers who she buys from are seeing dividends from today:
If you have an area that has scallops, and you just leave them alone for a while, you are going to be well rewarded for that effort…I'm trying to bridge the gap between an area where there are a lot of fishermen and not a lot of consumers and an area where there are a lot of consumers and not a lot of fishermen.
— Peter Henry.
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