Show 491, September 17, 2022: Jim Harwood, General Manager, Gamble Creek Farms

Jim Harwood of Gamble Creek Farms

Chiles Hospitality’s Gamble Creek Farms is a 26-acre, organic, sustainable, working farm in Parrish, Florida committed to quality produce. Produce is delivered daily to Chiles Hospitality waterfront restaurants: Sandbar, Beach House, and Mar Vista. There is also a year-round indoor Farm Stand featuring local products including a variety of baked goods from the Anna Maria Bake House.

“The crops that are currently being grown at Gamble Creek Farms are arugula, Kina Savoy, basil, green beans, bok choy, green cabbage, cilantro, collard greens, Kirby cucumbers, green kale, red and green bib lettuces, romaine, Italian parsley, squash blossoms, zucchini, yellow squash, and Pattypan squash.”

Gamble Creek Farms’ General Manager, Jim Harwood, takes a break from The Farm to join us.

Show 312, February 23, 2019: Tracy Farhad, Executive Director, Solvang Conference & Visitors Bureau

Tracy FarhadTracy Farhad is the Executive Director of the Solvang Conference & Visitors Bureau. “We are at your service.” “Whether you are a visitor trying to arrange for a family reunion or wedding; or a travel industry professional needing extra assistance while planning a trip to Solvang, the Solvang CVB can be your liaison for coordinating essential details.”

The 27th Annual “Taste of Solvang” food and wine events are offering delicious delights and savory flavors from Friday, March 15 through Sunday, March 17, 2019. From iconic sweets and award-winning wines, beers, and spirits plus farm-to-table, rustic wine-country cuisine to New American and modern Danish fare, this popular celebration features a variety of food and beverage experiences featuring Solvang area chefs, bakers, farmers, winemakers, brewers, distillers and artisans showcasing the bounty of the region since 1993.

Tracy joins us with a preview of the upcoming 27th Annual “Taste of Solvang.”

Show 299, November 24, 2018: Restaurateur & Executive Farmer, Nathan Peitso, FARMHOUSE Los Angeles

Nathan PietsoNathan Peitso, a second-generation farmer of Kenter Canyon Farms is at the helm of FARMHOUSE together with Executive Chef Craig Hopson. Located on the ground floor of the refreshed Beverly Center, FARMHOUSE redefines the traditional restaurant model by placing a farmer at the forefront of the business and thus creating a new culinary movement focused on collaboration with the region’s top farmers to grow and harvest ingredients dictating the dining destination’s dishes.

Introducing a fresh role in the restaurant industry at Beverly Center’s FARMHOUSE restaurant, Executive Farmer Nathan Peitso calls on his extensive California farming experience cultivated since youth to fill the post organically—both literally and figuratively. Peitso brings an unprecedented level of authenticity and expertise to the industry’s heightened dedication to farm-traceable culinary programs.

“The FARMHOUSE concept hinges on getting the best produce, and preparing superior food with superior ingredients,” Peitso says. Reimagining the menu design process, Peitso plans months in advance through thoughtful collaboration with farmers on anticipated produce being planted. Once farming partnerships are in place, Peitso curates the rotating seed to plate menu highlighting peak Southern California ingredients, exclusively harvested for FARMHOUSE.

Last month FARMHOUSE debuted its inaugural Autumn Harvest Chef’s Tasting Dinner Menu from Executive Chef Craig Hopson. For $52 per person (not inclusive of tax and gratuity) guests will have their choice of three-courses inspired by six selective and locally-sourced seasonal ingredients at their peak—such as honeynut squash, Cotton Candy, Concord, and Red Flame grapes, Bermuda onions, mushrooms, pears, and Japanese sweet potato—prepared by Chef Hopson and sourced by Executive Farmer Nathan Peitso (“The Farmer & The Chef” duo).

Show 279, June 30, 2018: Proprietors David & Sylvia Brents, Succulent Café Wine Charcuterie, Solvang

Succulentm Cafe Wine Charcuterie“Located in the heart of downtown Solvang, we have been open since 2011, Succulent Cafe Wine Charcuterie serves up comfort cuisine with a twist while sourcing local, seasonal ingredients from neighborhood farmers & fisherman to ensure the freshest quality whenever possible.”

“We believe in delicious food served in ample portions that compliment our wonderful local wines and craft beers. Succulent also offers a variety of signature cocktails.”

“Our small cafe is family owned and operated with a focus on the community needs and wants. We strive to go back to the traditions of homemade biscuits & gravy, jams & jellies, hearty meals, and desserts.”

“Our culinary team works hard making all our dishes from scratch, while our service staff strives to make your dining experience a wonderful and memorable one. Serving breakfast, lunch & dinner, you can enjoy your meal in our rustic & cozy dining room or on our beautiful succulent filled patio.”

“Whether it be a glass of wine with a charcuterie plate or enjoying Sunday dinner with the family, all of us at Succulent Café will do our very best to make your experience a most memorable one.”

Breakfast and lunch are served fast casual style and Happy Hour and dinner are full table service. Closed on Tuesday.

Proprietors David and Sylvia Brents are our guests.

Show 111, February 21, 2015: Chef Margarita Martinez and The Cabot Creamery Cookbook

Margarita MartinezChef Margarita Martinez hosts the Emmy-award winning New England travel and food series “Neighborhood Kitchens” on WGBH (PBS.) She loves to discover new ingredients, flavors, and cooking approaches that she can bring to her own home kitchen and share with others. She also is the spokesperson for The Cabot Creamery Cookbook: Simple, Wholesome Dishes from America’s Best Dairy Farms.

The American love affair with fresh, flavorful ingredients goes well beyond vegetables. When it comes to milk, cheese, and yogurt, the Cabot Creamery, home of the “world’s best cheddar” and other award-winning dairy products, is recognized across the country as the best in its class. The Cabot farmers that comprise the 1,200-strong dairy cooperative, employ techniques that have been honed over decades using their exceptional quality milk.

The Cabot Creamery Cookbook is an honest-to-goodness collection of recipes and stories from real dairy farmers, who have always understood that good food begins with great ingredients. This rich collection of 150 irresistible and easy-to-follow recipes, ranging from appetizers to desserts and everything in between, will tempt the palates of home cooks everywhere and be a go-to gift for anyone who loves simple, delicious and wholesome food.

More than a recipe book, The Cabot Creamery Cookbook tells the story of how premium quality and local ownership have been the key to a decades-long, award-winning cooperative, and will be a must-have for anyone who loves delicious, farm-fresh food.

A wonderful element of the book is the fascinating profiles of select Family Farmers who are members of the 100-year-old Cabot Cooperative. To prosper they need to do much more with their farms then tend to the dairy cows. Sixteen Farm Family Profiles are included and they all are good reads. Recipes from all of these Farm Families are part of the book.

Show 37, August 3, 2013: Kevin West, food blogger and journalist

Kevin WestCanning, pickling, and preserving has really taken off in local home kitchens. Food journalist Kevin West, a certified food preserver, has just launched Saving the Season : A cook’s guide to home canning, pickling, and preserving from Knopf. In addition to the expected recipes West has mini profiles of his favorite farmers and farm adventures from across the country as part of the book. The recipes are thoughtfully organized by the season.

Kevin is at The Beverly Hills Farmers Market on Sunday, August 4th as part of Pickle Fest. He’ll be signing the book there from 9 to 10:45 a.m.

The block-wide ethnic food court at the historic Grand Central Market (dating back to 1896) in Downtown Los Angeles is undergoing a renaissance. Kevin West is consulting on that effort to bring exciting, one-of-a-kind distinctive food businesses to the Market. It’s already happening…

August 3: Chaya Brasserie, Kedric Francis, Nancy Zavlasky, Cooks County, Life is Beautiful Festival, Kevin West

Podcasts

Segment One: Thoughts on Breakfast
Segment Two: CHAYA Brasserie Beverly Hills Part One
Segment Three: CHAYA Brasserie Beverly Hills Part Two
Segment Four: Kedric Francis, Executive Editor of Coast Magazine and the Orange County Register Magazine
Segment Five: Nancy Zaslavsky, food journalist, author, food tour guide specializing in the foods of Mexico, cooking instructor, and culinary historian
Segment Six: Daniel Mattern, Chef / Proprietor of Cook’s County
Segment Seven: Life Is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas
Segment Eight: Kevin West, food blogger and journalist

Please join us at our new starting time of 10:00 a.m. “The SoCal Restaurant Show” expands to 2-hours on August 3rd. We’re now with you from 10:00 a.m. to 12 Noon every Saturday morning for the most appetizing food talk..

It seems appropriate to be talking about breakfast this morning. We’re chronicling some recent breakfast dining experiences from Orange County to Las Vegas.

CHAYA Brasserie Beverly HillsCHAYA Brasserie Beverly Hills (located adjacent to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) is a pioneer in brining innovative Japanese cuisine served in a stylish environment to greater Los Angeles. Amazingly they are celebrating their 30th anniversary in Los Angeles this year. Their celebration kicked-off last Sunday with a “Summer Festival” tasting and celebratory activities continue through October.

Chaya owner Yuta Tsunoda and long-time CHAYA Executive Corporate Chef Shigefumi Tachibe are with us to give us the rich history.

The culinary roots of the founding Tsunoda Family stretch back 400 years when the first CHAYA opened in Japan. It is still in operation today as a restaurant.

CHAYA has four popular restaurants in California including the Flagship in Beverly Hills, Venice, Downtown Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Each location embraces the distinct neighborhood that surrounds it. For instance, CHAYA Brasserie San Francisco, located on the Embarcadero, features sweeping views of the Bay Bridge.

CHAYA also operates two Los Angeles-based locations of M Café, a casual macrobiotic eatery.

Kedric Francis of Coast Magazine and the Orange County Register MagazineMan about Orange County, the always debonair Kedric Francis, is with us in-studio. Kedric is the distinguished Executive Editor of the monthly Coast Orange County Magazine. Kedric is also the co-founder and Executive Editor of the OC Register Magazine.

Kedric will preview a couple of unusual staycation ideas for the OC as well as an exciting food & wine festival set for the Central Coast in late September.

It’s Margarita time! Food journalist and Mexican cuisine-authority, Nancy Zaslavsky, is with us to share the “World’s Best Margaritas Recipe.”

Zaslavsky is an author, cooking teacher, and culinary tour leader specializing in the foods of Mexico. She penned the James Beard Award-nominated, A Cook’s Tour of Mexico.

Daniel Mattern of Cooks CountyRegulars to the show know that Chef Jet is a huge fan of Cook’s County in Los Angeles and dines there often. Starting this month (every Tuesday) it’s their inaugural California Craft Beer and Food Festival.

Chef/Proprietor Daniel Mattern has invited seven of his favorite breweries to come pour their beer selection at the “California Craft Beer and Food Festival” at Cook’s County. The series of beer-centric dinners will take place on Tuesday evenings from August 6th to September 24th. Menus will be tailored around the different craft beers and many dishes will be prepared using beer as a significant ingredient. Each evening’s menu consists of five courses, and all courses, including dessert, will be thoughtfully paired with beer.

Las Vegas has never seen anything quite like this before and it’s a big one !

life-is-beautifulIt’s the Life is Beautiful festival set for many blocks of Downtown Las Vegas from October 25th through Sunday, October 27th. It’s an impressive line-up of world class music, food, art and learning. Tickets are on sale.

With more than 60 prominent chefs and restaurants, 24 wineries and 24 breweries participating in the culinary part of the festival alone, L.I.B presents the attendees with a full-scale food festival experience.

“The food experiences of L.I.B. were carefully designed to be interactive, innovative and unexpected,” says Jolene Mannina, Head of Culinary Arts for the festival. “Working with the vision of our Culinary Advisory Board of 12 world-renowned chefs, we’ve created an approach that we feel will set us apart from other food festivals, giving both our patrons and chefs a chance to enjoy something new, fresh and, of course, delicious.”

Kevin WestCanning, pickling, and preserving has really taken off in local home kitchens. Food journalist Kevin West, a certified food preserver, has just launched Saving the Season: A cook’s guide to home canning, pickling, and preserving from Knopf. In addition to the expected recipes West has mini profiles of his favorite farmers and farm adventures as part of the book.

Kevin is at The Beverly Hills Farmers Market on Sunday, August 4th as part of Pickle Fest. He’ll be signing the book there from 9 to 10:45 a.m.

The block-wide ethnic food court at the historic Grand Central Market (dating back to 1896) in Downtown Los Angeles is undergoing a renaissance. Kevin West is consulting on that effort to bring exciting, one-of-a-kind distinctive food businesses to the Market. It’s already happening…

Podcasts

Segment One: Thoughts on Breakfast
Segment Two: CHAYA Brasserie Beverly Hills Part One
Segment Three: CHAYA Brasserie Beverly Hills Part Two
Segment Four: Kedric Francis, Executive Editor of Coast Magazine and the Orange County Register Magazine
Segment Five: Nancy Zaslavsky, food journalist, author, food tour guide specializing in the foods of Mexico, cooking instructor, and culinary historian
Segment Six: Daniel Mattern, Chef / Proprietor of Cook’s County
Segment Seven: Life Is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas
Segment Eight: Kevin West, food blogger and journalist

Show 30, June 1, 2013: Les Apoliona, Land Asset Manager, Land Assets Division of Kamehameha Schools of Hawaii

Kamehameha Schools is the incredible 125 year-old legacy of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Their ambitious goal is to educate children of native Hawaiian ancestry from preschool to 12th Grade. They have private school campuses on Oahu, Maui, and The Big Island of Hawaii. Public Schools also benefit from the trust’s largess.

Kamehameha Schools is Hawaii’s largest private landowner with some 365,000 acres on The Big Island, Maui, Molokai, Oahu, and Kauai. They own the choice land in Waikiki that is the site of the iconic Royal Hawaiian Hotel and the associated upscale Royal Hawaiian Center retail complex.

Over 181,000 acres of this land is agricultural. 88,000 acres represents high-potential agricultural lands that require respectful stewardship. One of their new initiatives is to support value added agriculture with entrepreneurial leaseholders of their land. Two out of three coffee estates in the Kona area, for instance, are on Kamehameha Schools leased land.

Les Apoliona, is the land asset manager for the north Kona district for the Land Assets Division of Kamehameha Schools. One of his objectives in managing the Kamehameha Schools agricultural land is to encourage farmers and ranchers to grow and raise basic foodstuffs efficiently thereby making The Big Island more self sufficient in the production of food. Les has a background in food service and hotel management and is well-known in the restaurant community of The Big Island. Les has lived in Kona for over 21 years and is a KS alumnus.

On the North Shore of Oahu one of their pilot projects is on former sugar cane land in Punalu’u. KS has created a basic infrastructure there for the farmers including irrigation. One enthusiastic young farmer is growing taro and selling all he can produce/harvest at the local farmers’ market. He also has a test project raising tilapia in clean fresh water ponds on the property.