Podcasts
Segment One: Show Preview with Co-Host & Executive Producer Andy Harris
Segment Two: Bells Up Winery with Proprietor & Winemaker Dave Specter Part One
Segment Three: Bells Up Winery with Proprietor & Winemaker Dave Specter Part Two
Segment Four: Olive Pit Mediterranean Grill with Chef Yianni Koufodontis
Segment Five: Executive Chef / Proprietress Café Pasqual’s, Santa Fe, NM Part One
Segment Six: Executive Chef / Proprietress Café Pasqual’s, Santa Fe, NM Part Two
Segment Seven: Brewmaster Victor Novak and Anaheim Head Brewer Steven Torres, Golden Road Brewing Part One
Segment Eight: Brewmaster Victor Novak and Anaheim Head Brewer Steven Torres, Golden Road Brewing Part Two
Now a bountiful preview of this Saturday’s tantalizing show. It’s not, with profuse apologies, for dieters. If we’re successful we will hopefully leave you incredibly hungry and thirsty. In our case that’s probably a pretty good thing… As always, we greatly appreciate you being a part of our loyal listening audience. Truly couldn’t do it without you.
Micro-boutique, un-domaine and always open by appointment, Bells Up Winery in Newberg, Oregon composes fewer than 500 cases annually of hand crafted, classically styled Oregon Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Rose of Pinot Noir and Syrah. It’s a 2nd career, passion project of Winemaker Dave Specter and his wife, Sara, The Chief Marketing Officer. Dave joins us to pull the cork on Bells Up Winery.
Chef Yianni Koufodontis of the Olive Pit Fresh Mediterranean Grill (Brea & Huntington Beach) prepares his flavorful dishes with a careful eye on healthy, low fat, low cholesterol and always-natural ingredients. For Chef Yianni, cooking is more than an art form; it is a way of life. Eating is the focal point of all Greek family gatherings, and Yianni grew up cooking daily with his mother and grandmother. His talents in the kitchen were unmistakable, even as a young man. We spirit Chef Yianni out of his busy kitchens for a chat.
Katharine Kagel is the Founder/Owner and Executive Chef of the acclaimed Café Pasqual’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico which is celebrating its fortieth year of success. Café Pasqual’s serves organic foods and wines. The emphatically flavored cuisine is inspired by the culinary traditions of New Mexico, Old Mexico, the Mediterranean and Asia. Chef Kagel also curates the adjacent Café Pasqual’s Gallery. Katharine joins us.
It’s year’s end so definitely time for another effervescent installment of “Ask the Brewers” where we answer listeners’ intriguing questions about craft beer. Joining us is Golden Road’s uber-accomplished Brewmaster, Victor Novak, and Anaheim Head Brewer Steven Torres.
All of this and heaping helpings of extra deliciousness on this week’s not-to-miss show!
Micro-boutique, un-domaine and always open by appointment, Bells Up Winery in Newberg, Oregon composes fewer than 500 cases of hand crafted, classically styled Oregon Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Rose of Pinot Noir and Syrah. It’s a 2nd career, passion project of Winemaker Dave Specter and his wife, Sara. The Chief Marketing Officer.
“After more than a decade of success as a corporate tax attorney in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dave Specter was emotionally and physically spent. His wife Sara convinced him to leave the profession and they turned the hobby that brought him joy—winemaking—into his new career. The pair had fallen in love with Newberg and the Willamette Valley while on vacation in 2008, subsequently moving here in 2012 and establishing Bells Up in 2013. The first wines were released Memorial Day 2015, coinciding with the opening of the estate winery/tasting room.”
“Every Bells Up wine is named for a piece of classical music that perfectly epitomizes the wine and/or prominently features the French horn, the instrument owner and winemaker Dave Specter played for more than 20 years.”
“Winemaker and owner Dave Specter and his wife Sara began making kit wine in their basement in 2006 on their five-year wedding anniversary. Dave, a corporate tax attorney, fell in love with winemaking. He left his legal career in 2009 to work as an unpaid cellar rat to award-winning winemaker Joe Henke of Henke Winery in Cincinnati. Joe mentored Dave for three years, during which time Dave enrolled in the Washington State University online enology course, earning a certificate.”
“In 2011, Dave won two amateur national winemaking competitions with two different wines in two months; a year later the Specters relocated to Newberg. Dave worked fall 2012 harvest under Bryan Weil, winemaker at Alexana in Dundee, and studied viticulture in 2013 in the Chemeketa Community College program. He also served as a member of the board of the Chehalem Mountains Winegrowers Association.”
Winemaker Dave joins us to pull the cork on Bells Up Winery.
Chef Yianni Koufodontis of the Olive Pit Mediterranean Grill (Brea & Huntington Beach) prepares his dishes with a careful eye on healthy, low fat, low cholesterol and always-natural ingredients.
“For Chef Yianni, cooking is more than an art form; it is a way of life. Eating is the focal point of all Greek family gatherings, and Yianni grew up cooking daily with his mother and grandmother. His talents in the kitchen were unmistakable, even as a young man.”
“Yianni obtained his formal culinary training at the prestigious California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. After graduation he worked under his first culinary mentor, Chef Daniel Boulud, a James Beard Award-winning chef, cookbook author and restaurateur at Restaurant Daniel Manhattan.”
“Just two years later, Yianni was asked to join Chef Wolfgang Puck’s team at Spago in Beverly Hills, where he worked closely with world cuisine chef Lee Hefter, and Wolfgang Puck.”
“In 2005, Yianni was brought in to open Petros Greek Cuisine, where he served as Executive Chef. With much press and praise for Petro’s Greek, and his knowledge and passion for Mediterranean foods rekindled, Yianni decided it was time to open a restaurant of his own.”
“In 2008, together with his partner George Makridis, Yianni opened the first Olive Pit Grill in Brea, California. The restaurant’s success was immediate, and in order to keep up with demand, they opened their second location in Huntington Beach, California two years later.” This year the Brea restaurant moved to a new, expanded space in Downtown Brea on S. Brea Blvd.
“For many generations our family has been dedicated to serving the best Mediterranean cuisine. We serve Greek and Italian classic dishes prepared old-world style… but toss in Chef Yanni’s inspired personal touches, and what you end up with is uniquely Olive Pit Fresh Mediterranean Grill.”
We spirit Chef Yianni out of his busy kitchens for a chat.
Katharine Kagel is the Founder/Owner and Executive Chef of the acclaimed Café Pasqual’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico which is celebrating its fortieth year of success. Café Pasqual’s serves organic foods and wines. The emphatically flavored cuisine is inspired by the culinary traditions of New Mexico, Old Mexico, the Mediterranean and Asia.
Chef Kagel also curates the adjacent Café Pasqual’s Gallery.
Chef Kagel’s passion for feeding those in need continues; she is a guiding founder of Santa Fe’s response to food insecurity – with first vision for the Food Depot, Santa Fe’s food bank and she is also co-chair of Kitchen Angels capital campaign, the group that provides free hot meals delivered to Santa Fe’s homebound.
Katharine has authored two well-received cookbooks; Cooking with Café Pasqual’s, Ten Speed Press and Spirited Recipes from Café Pasqual’s, Chronicle Books. Both are still in print.
Café Pasqual’s received the prestigious James Beard Foundation award as an America’s Classics (1999). The same year she was nominated by the James Beard Foundation as Best Chef: Southwest.
Café Pasqual’s (Santa Fe, New Mexico) Founder and Chef Katharine Kagel, originally from Northern California, studied cooking in Japan and Hawaii, and then developed a passion for Chinese cooking before moving to the Southwest. In 1978 she moved to Santa Fe and opened Cafe Pasqual’s the following year.
She helped to found the international association of prepared and perishable food rescue programs, Foodchain, as well as Santa Fe’s local program, The Food Brigade.
Café Pasqual’s Gallery (adjacent to Café Pasqual’s on the 2nd Floor) features handmade mica cook pots in both the Jicarilla – Apache style and of the Northern New Mexico Pueblos. The gallery represents 24 artists in an array of media.
It’s first come, first served for Breakfast and Lunch at Café Pasqual’s. Reservations accepted (and advised) for Dinner.
Time for another effervescent installment of “Ask the Brewers” where we answer listeners’ intriguing questions about craft beer. Joining us is Golden Road’s uber-accomplished Brewmaster, Victor Novak, and Anaheim Head Brewer Steven Torres.
Golden Road Brewing and Australia’s 4 Pines Brewing have collaborated on Dingo Pup Trans-Pacific Hazy Pale Ale to be released in January in California and Australia. We’ll hear about it as well as the cute story of the benefiting Wandi the Dingo.
We’ll now look ahead to what’s trending in craft beer for 2020.
Brewmaster Victor Novak and Anaheim Head Brewer Steven Torres continue.
Podcasts
Segment One: Show Preview with Co-Host & Executive Producer Andy Harris
Segment Two: Bells Up Winery with Proprietor & Winemaker Dave Specter Part One
Segment Three: Bells Up Winery with Proprietor & Winemaker Dave Specter Part Two
Segment Four: Olive Pit Mediterranean Grill with Chef Yianni Koufodontis
Segment Five: Executive Chef / Proprietress Café Pasqual’s, Santa Fe, NM Part One
Segment Six: Executive Chef / Proprietress Café Pasqual’s, Santa Fe, NM Part Two
Segment Seven: Brewmaster Victor Novak and Anaheim Head Brewer Steven Torres, Golden Road Brewing Part One
Segment Eight: Brewmaster Victor Novak and Anaheim Head Brewer Steven Torres, Golden Road Brewing Part Two
Leah Spielberg Adler was a fixture of the Pico-Robertson neighborhood (The Borscht Belt) in Los Angeles since 1977 until her passing in early 2017 at 97. She was the proprietress and heart of the kosher dairy restaurant, 