Chef Jet and Travis discuss their favorite “guilty pleasures” junk food indulgences.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Tag Archives: grocery store
Show 58, January 25, 2013: Sanford D’Amato, founder and former Executive Chef of the award-winning Sanford restaurant, Milwaukee, WI
Good Stock: Life on Low Simmer was written by Sanford “Sandy” D’Amato, one of America’s most respected chefs and restaurateurs. It is a special memoir of a life in cooking that weaves more than 80 recipes and both personal and food photos in a beautiful and engaging way.
Chef D’Amato tells his life story in brief episodes that are keyed to more than 80 of this James Beard Award-winning chef’s favorite recipes.
Sanford, the restaurant D’Amato opened in his native Milwaukee in 1989 (in the space that once housed his grandfather’s grocery store,) has long been one of the highest rated restaurants in America. Last year he sold it to his long-time sous chef to carry on the proud tradition.
D’Amato and his wife, Angie, currently split their time between Milwaukee and their mini-farm in Hatfield, MA, where they are preparing to open a cooking school (also called Good Stock.)
If you really want to understand what it takes to be a successful, career executive chef this is the book for you. It’s also highly entertaining and a fascinating read. Chef Sandy’s encounters with the legendary Julia Child over the years are priceless.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Show 36, July 20, 2013: Customer Service and Speculoos Cookie Butter
Producer Andy sounded off about a less than satisfactory customer service story he experienced at his neighborhood chain grocery store. Is it acceptable customer service for a store employee to shrug off a simple customer request when the employee didn’t have a clue where a common item was stocked in his area. Shouldn’t a store employee have enough training and basic initiative to instead go ask a co-worker who knows instead of giving up?
Next we jumped into the Speculoos Cookie Butter craze playing out at a Trader Joe’s near you.
Speculoos Cookie Butter is made by a small Danish company and is apparently a Trader Joe’s exclusive in the U.S. It comes in both a smooth and crunchy version. It tastes like the best fresh ginger bread you ever had with a kick. It’s incredible, melted, over ice cream when used like a fudge sauce. People use it like peanut butter but it has a much richer flavor profile.
Surprisingly it’s the number one selling product in all Trader Joe’s right now, and they seemingly can’t keep it on the shelf. The crunch variety is presently out of stock and they aren’t sure when it will be back. The explanation is the manufacturer makes one version at a time. The smooth, when you can find it, is limited to the purchase of two jars per customer.
Crazy but absolutely delicious …!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
July 20: Speculoos, B. toffee, Tal Ronnen, Sang Yoon, Pepper Project
Podcasts
Segment One: Customer Service and Speculoos Cookie Butter
Segment Two: B. Toffee’s Betsy Thagard
Segment Three: Celebrity Chef and Cookbook Author, Tal Ronnen
Segment Four: Sang Yoon, Executive Chef & Proprietor of Father’s Office and Lukshon
Segment Five: Tom Gordon, co-creator of The Pepper Project
Segment Six: Michael Rossi, Executive Chef of The Ranch Restaurant and Saloon
Food rumblings…
Producer Andy sounds off about a less than satisfactory customer service story at his neighborhood chain grocery store. Is it acceptable customer service for an employee to shrug off a simple customer request when you don’t know where a common item is in a department that you stock? Shouldn’t a store employee have enough training and basic initiative to then go ask someone who knows instead of giving up?
Next we’re jumping into the Speculoos Cookie Butter craze playing out at a Trader Joe’s near you.
Speculoos Cookie Butter is made by a small Danish company and is a Trader Joe’s exclusive in the U.S. It comes in both a smooth and crunchy version. It tastes like the best fresh ginger bread you ever had with a kick. It’s incredible, melted, over ice cream when used like a fudge sauce. People use it like peanut butter but it has a much richer flavor profile.
Surprisingly it’s the number one selling product in all Trader Joe’s right now, and they can’t keep it on the shelf. The crunch variety is presently out of stock and they aren’t sure when it will be back. Apparently the manufacturer makes one version at a time. The smooth, when you can find it, is limited to the purchase of two jars per customer.
Crazy but absolutely delicious …!
B. toffee is an OC success story. Proprietress Betsy Thagard, a Newport Beach resident, perfected the ultimate toffee recipe after much trail-and-error and B. toffee was introduced in 2009. B. toffee’s original recipe features savory butters, fine domestic sugars, premium Guittard and Callebaut chocolates, and quality pecans.
It’s National Ice Cream Month! On July 27th from 2 to 5:00 p.m. B. toffee will join forces with Whole Foods Market in Newport Beach to host their Summer Ice Cream Social. All the tastes are complimentary.
Guests will enjoy an ice cream sundae topped with B. toffee’s signature B. bits. Thagard will also be making samples of her B. Frosty shake and providing recipe cards so guests can make the B. toffee creations at home.
We met Chef Tal Ronnen on the show last month. He creates tasty plant-based fare. His newest restaurant is the fine-dining Crossroads in West Hollywood. He’s also the author of the New York Times’-bestseller, The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat.
A few years back casino mogul Steve Wynn brought Tal in to Wynn Las Vegas and Encore at Wynn Las Vegas to create vegetarian items for all his restaurants. Tal discusses that highly unusual experience and what it was like to work with highly demanding celebrity chefs who were responsible for those signature restaurants.
Sang Yoon is the chef/proprietor of Father’s Office (Santa Monica and Los Angeles) and Lukshon in Culver City at the Helms Bakery complex. You’ll also see him competing on the upcoming season of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters.
The Luckyrice night market and spirits tasting returns to Los Angeles on Saturday, July 27th from 7 to 10:00 p.m. at the Bookbindery in Culver City. Sang Yoon hosts and will be providing us with a preview of the 2nd Annual event.
Tom Gordon and his wife, Cris, are Orange County-based journalists by day but they are also the creators of The Pepper Project benefiting struggling Cambodian farmers who grow Kampot peppers.
During the days of French Indochina, most Kampot pepper was exported to the finest restaurants in France. In the 1970s, the farmers were relocated and the farms withered under the brutal reign of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge.
Today Kampot pepper is making a comeback. It is organically grown by 130 families, using traditional methods that go back centuries.
Podcasts
Segment One: Customer Service and Speculoos Cookie Butter
Segment Two: B. Toffee’s Betsy Thagard
Segment Three: Celebrity Chef and Cookbook Author, Tal Ronnen
Segment Four: Sang Yoon, Executive Chef & Proprietor of Father’s Office and Lukshon
Segment Five: Tom Gordon, co-creator of The Pepper Project
Segment Six: Michael Rossi, Executive Chef of The Ranch Restaurant and Saloon