Industry Night With Foodie & The Beast

Today’s Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast should be titled, “The Go-Getters!” First, meet AJ Dronkers, a certifiable, DC “man about town.’ As associate publisher and digital editor of EdibleDC Magazine, he’s full of inside knowledge about the local food scene, especially when it comes to the regional bounty and diversity of foods to eb found at our many, local, farmers’ markets. But, he’s also an accomplished exercise devotee(make that, “maniac”) and night owl who’s got lots to tell about the single life in DC. You’ll want to hear what he has to say. We also are joined by Sadie Kurzban, If the name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, the name of her booming business – 305 Fitness – surely will. At 29, Sadie already stands atop a booming, new wave of studios in DC, New York and Boston (and more on the way), featuring non-stop, dance-cardio workouts with live DJs and rhythmic light show. You dance, you sweat like crazy, you get fit and you have a blast at every workout. Sadie’s a ball of fire and a ball

How did Carla Hall wind up interviewing Michelle Obama in Cleveland on March 16? Intentions. Carla Hall, best known from her days on Top Chef and Top Chef All-Stars, and more recently, as the former co-host of The Chew, has never had a plan. But she has always had intentions. Today on Industry Night, Nycci Nellis and Carla Hall talk about how Carla's intentions have taken her from being an accountant to a modeling career, from being the sandwich lady to now being an accomplished television personality and cookbook author. Carla's latest book, "Carla Hall's Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration" is a rich offering of dishes and recipes that have roots in history and heritage and it’s delicious.

This edition of Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast, we’re speaking with two, exceptional authorities in their own right. First, Kiko Bourne hosts Lunch Agenda, a food systems education podcast right here on Full Service Radio. She’s also the Cooking & Gardening Teacher for kids at Mundo Verde, DC’s first “green” public charter school, and we’ll chat with her about her good works teaching kids about … good foods! Previously, she was head of marketing for the Capital Area Food Bank and marketing director for San Francisco’s Bi-Rite Market. Justin Severino is a four-time James Beard Foundation award nominee for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic and a 2015 and 2014 winner of FOOD & WINE’s “The People’s Best New Chef Mid-Atlantic” and chef/co-owner of Cure, a neighborhood restaurant in Pittsburgh dedicated to local sourcing and seasonal cooking with an urban-Mediterranean influence, and nearby Morcilla, an award-winning Spanish restaurant serving pintxos and family-style dishes. His new spot, The Larder at Lar

Title: The Make Up of Makeup and Why It Matters. Tonight, we tackle subjects of consuming interest: The cosmetics industry and the products it manufactures. What’s in what they tell us? How do cosmetics products work? Aer the ingredients good for – or harmful to - our skin? Most people don’t think about their skin as one of their body’s essential organs, but it is. And men and women alike use all sorts of product and slather all sorts of “stuff” on their Faces and bodies to look and feel better. What’s in all that stuff, why and what does it really do? In with us today are Melanie Benesch a legislative attorney with the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an activist group specializing in research and advocacy in the areas of agricultural subsidies, toxic chemicals, drinking water pollutants and corporate accountability. With her is Carla Burns, and EWG research analyst with a focus on cosmetics and personal care products. Join us!

When a venue has been in place and entertaining guests for more than two centuries, you know they must be doing something more than right! A case in point: DC’s Tudor Place, originally founded by Thomas and Martha Peter. Ardent Federalists, they hosted politicians of that persuasion at Tudor Place in the early 19th century (They were so patriotic, they named their daughters Columbia, America, and Britannia). At Tudor Place, one was likely to come across tipsy congressmen getting intoxicated on apple toddy served from a Mount Vernon punch bowl; BBQ, early 19th Century-style (Tudor Place has one of the earliest extant smokehouses remaining in the District (1795); vintage Madeira (Tudor House has on display several bottles of historic alcohol in the Tudor Place collection including bottles of Madeira wine from the 1840s; early 19th Century, “Farm to Table” practices and … much more! Joining us on the show is Grant Quertermous, curator at Tudor Place Historic House & Garden and former assistant curator of

Tonight on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast, we’re jumping into the Industry Night time machine with anthropologist/archeologist Dr. Bill Schindler to look at how and what (very) ancient man and woman ate and how we should seek to replicate that diet today. Dr. Schindler is, first and foremost, a very cool guy who also happens to be director of the Eastern Shore Food Lab, an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland and the co-star of the National Geographic series, The Great Human Race. Schindler’s basic thesis is that our bodies are pretty much the same as they were when humans first walked upright and that we’re designed to operate no differently than our ancestors did, when it comes to utilizing prehistoric and traditional technologies (tools), especially as they relate to food acquisition, processing, storage, and consumption. He believes that the better understanding of prehistoric life made possible through the archaeological record a

Tonight on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast, we’re joined by Scott and Becky Harris, founders of Catoctin Creek® Distilling. We first met Scott and Becky in 2009, when our broadcast, food and wine variety show, Foodie and the Beast, only recently had launched and when Scott and Becky we just brewing their first batches of rye. Now 10 years later, Catoctin Creek, the first legal distillery in Loudoun County, VA since before Prohibition, produces Virginia's most awarded whisky, Roundstone Rye, and Scott and Becky are on the show to talk about the trials, tribulations and soaring success they’ve experienced. Extra-interesting point: Becky Harris is the distillery’s chief distiller – not too many women play with that title in what is traditionally a boys’ sandbox. So listen in to hear what it took for this chemist-turned-distiller to create Virginia’s most successful rye whisky.

Across the past four decades or so, Virginia wines have gone from obscurity (Wine? Virginia? No way!) to national prominence. The Commonwealth is now tied with Texas (Texas? Wine? Really?!) as the nation’s fifth largest wine producers. Among Virginia’s most prominent wine producers is Tarara, located in Loudoun County. For 30 years this year, Tarara has produced exceptional wines from its own grapes and those of neighboring vineyards. And for the past 12 years, Tarara’s award-winning winemaker has been Canadian Jordan Harris (Canadian? Yup! They make wine there, too!). Jordan is in with us on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast with tastes and talk of his path from “What am I gonna do with my life?” high school kid to celebrated winemaker; Tarara’s exceptional varietals, and if how, as winemaker, he and his farm are responding to and learning to work around climate change that, for example, brought record-setting amounts of rain to Northern Virginia last year. It’s a fascinating and (for us!) tasty show

It’s a family affair! Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast host Gladys Abi-Najm, Grace Abi-Najm Shea and their brother, Dany for a deep dive into the story and the glory of DC’s fabulous, Lebanese Taverna. Launched by their dad and his kids, it started as a one-stop, suburban pizza and sub shop in the ‘70s and has grown into an 11-restaurant chain stretching across DC, Maryland and Virginia with more coming. And, on the way to today’s success, Lebanese Taverna brought Mediterranean cuisine center stage in the DC area and helped make “hummus,” “kibbeh” and “labneh” household words and refrigerator “must haves.” Join us for a deep dive into the Lebanese Taverna success story and to live vicariously as we taste some truly awesome, Lebanese wines!

Ryan Wagner, Guinness Brewery Ambassador, and Hollie Stephenson, Head Brewer join the show to talk all things Guinness.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts is the only major museum in the world solely dedicated to exhibiting the work of women artists. Our guest today is GINNY TREANOR, the museum’s Associate Curator, who in addition to taking us through all that the museum does to promote awareness of and interest in women in the arts, will offer an insiders’ preview of the museum’s upcoming spotlight on the celebrated American luxury fashion house, Rodarte, founded by sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy. The Rodarte exhibit, the first fashion exhibition ever organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, is now on display thru February 10, 2019 and showcases the designers’ visionary concepts, impeccable craftsmanship and profound impact on the fashion industry.

In this episode of we’re giving you a great, vicarious taste of Georgian wines (Georgia the country, not the state!) While many Americans may be unfamiliar with the nation of Georgia, which emerged from behind the Iron Curtain after the breakup of the Soviet Union, most wines experts agree that winemaking was invented there some 8,000 years ago. To this day, an impressive diversity of Georgian wines continue to thrill palates everywhere. Noel Brockett, a lover of all things Georgian and the man in charge at Georgian Wine House, a Maryland-based import company founded by Georgian wine enthusiasts in 2005, joins us with tastes and talk of Georgian wine culture, its over 500 indigenous grape varieties and both its ancient qvevri (pronounced, “k-vevri”) skin-contact and modern wine-making techniques. Join us!

On this episode of Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast, we’re talking plant-based dining that tastes good, is good for you AND is great for the planet! Our guest is Ran Nussbacher, cofounder of Shouk: Voted Washington D.C.'s Best Fast Casual Restaurant, Shouk’s healthy, Israeli-inspired fare has a huge following, because Shouk’s food is not just flavorful, it’s also world-changing. Convinced that eliminating animals from our plates is the only sustainable way forward, Ran and his team have set out to change our eating habits, one pita at a time. Having been inspired by the markets and lively food of his native Israel, Ran and Shouk are getting us to eat our veggies, and love it. Tune in to find out how Ran and Shouk plan to change how we eat, by making plant-based food that people crave!

Tonight, cocktail historian, author and all-around spirits aficionado, Phil Greene, joins us on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast to talk his favorite subject and one of ours: Cocktails. Phil is an attorney, writer and cocktail historian and a founder of the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans who manages the Museum’s D.C. cocktail seminar program. He has presented at events such as Tales of the Cocktail (since 2004), the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, San Antonio Cocktail Conference, Arizona Cocktail Week, Miami Rum Renaissance, the International Rum Festival, and many others. He has also presented multiple times for Smithsonian Associates in Washington, D.C., and has done events for the Washington Shakespeare Theatre, the Hemingway Society, the International F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, the University of Louisville Cocktail Conference, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and many other notable institutions. In particular, Phil is an authority on the life and favori

French wines? Sure, everyone knows about them! Same with the wines from Italy, California, Spain, and now Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia. But Bulgaria? You bet. In fact, it is arguably true that winemaking was invented in what now is Bulgaria 6000 years ago. And today, some of the world’s finest – and best priced – reds, whites and rosés come from Bulgaria’s Thracian Valley. To learn more about that, our guest, G&B Wine Importers’ CEO Robert Hayk, will get you as close as you can get to a wine tasting on the radio. He’ll also offer fascinating primer on the terroir that produces these unique wines, their varied taste profiles, how they are produced and about where to find them at truly amazing prices in restaurants and wine stores across Greater DC. It all happens right here, on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast! Наздраве! (Cheers! in Bulgarian)

America is the richest nation on the face of the earth; in fact, the richest nation in the history of the earth! Yet, every night, millions of kids go to bed hungry. Debbie Shore, co-founder of Share Our Strength, leads an organization that has raised millions to feed millions across the past several decades. She hasn’t done it alone. Among those helping her are some of the nation’s top chefs, who give of their time, talents and resources to help fight child hunger in America. Debbie Shore joins us tonight on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast, along with Top Chef alum and award-winning chef, Bryan Voltaggio of Volt and Family Meal.

A lot of people hear the phrase, “kosher” and mkay assume that it implies some sort of special of strange approach to food. Actually, it’s a pretty mainstream thing, and tonight on Industry Night with Foodie and the beast, you’ll hear from experts about what kosher foods are, “why” they are, and how the concept of “kosher” fits neatly into today’s more food quality-aware dining scene. Joining us are Devora Kimelman-Block, Founder & CEO of KOL Foods meat; Emily Landsman, who handles marketing and operations for KOL Foods and KOL’s media relations specialist, Zoe Schaeffer, from the Rodale Institute, to discuss a range of topics, including: KOL’s and Rodale’s 411s Grass-fed meat, pastured poultry (turkey/heritage chicken). What do the terms mean? How and why is grass-fed better for animals. What about grain? What makes grass-fed meat healthier for people? What makes meat kosher? Regenerative agriculture. A net-positive return on the environment. What is it? How does it work? Fair labor practices. Worker fa

Today on Industry Night, Nycci Nellis chats with world-renowned pastry chef and bakery shop owner, Tiffany MacIssac. While everyone loves a little something sweet to eat, running a bakery and wedding cake shop takes more than sugar, butter and flour.

Craft beers have become as diverse – and as delicious – as wine. What started as folks making homebrews in the tib (OK, we’re exaggerating a little to make s point) has become big business, with major breweries buying up-and-coming breweries in order to stay competitive. That said, we thought we’d go back to craft brewing’s roots and take a deep dive into the subject with folks who came from and know the homebrewing scene cold. Joining us on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast are: President Michael Stein and CEO Peter Jones OF Lost Lagers, the premier beverage research firm in D.C. Michael and Pewter help us experience history through beer, recreating extinct ales and lost lagers with some of the best breweries in the country and teaching homebrew classes at The Hill Center in Southeast DC. Michael has served his historic beers at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Food History Program and serves as beer historian at DC Brau Brewing Company, LLC, the first production brewery in DC

This week on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast, we’re taking you deep into one of the coolest, food-centric events ever: the 2018 Smithsonian Food History Weekend! Home to Julia Child’s kitchen, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will host its fourth annual, Food History Weekend, November 1-3, 2018 —it’s a multifaceted festival consisting of four distinct events. Culinary leaders, researchers, practitioners, and scholars will inspire museum visitors to understand the history of food in America and the role we all play, individually and collectively, in shaping the future of food. Across three days, Smithsonian’s Food History Weekend will explore the history and changing dynamics of regional food cultures in the United States. How have regional foodways expressed their place? Who and what shape regional identities? How are new ideas about regions reviving, shaping, and reshaping food in America. Participants for the 2018 weekend include Aarón Sánchez, Jessica Harris, Edouardo Jordan,