Fell Into Food Podcast

Nicole Bentler: Pocono Maple, Before The Syrup

Aug 31, 2026 34:23

I sat down with Nicole Bentler this week — a health and wellness pro turned maple farmer, who bought a run-down, two-hundred-year-old farm in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania back in 2019 with no real plan beyond having a place to bring her family. That farm is now Pocono Maple Water, a farm-to-bottle maple water and maple syrup brand, and Nicole's one of only a handful of female-owned maple farms in the country. We got into what maple water actually is before it ever becomes syrup, the finding about our water supply that made her trademark the phrase "What's In Your Water," and why she's turned down Target and Walmart more than once to stay direct-to-consumer. Website: www.poconomaplewater.com Instagram: @poconomaplewater Instagram: @poconomountainmaple Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS Timestamps pulled from raw transcript markers — confirm exact in/out points against the edited cut before publishing. 00:00 — Cold open: cracking a maple water on mic, and the question everyone asks first 00:44 — What maple water actually is, and how it's different from syrup 02:57 — Buying a run-down farm in 2019 with zero plans to build a beverage brand 05:19 — Six to eight miles a day tapping trees in the snow 06:27 — The estrogen finding behind the "What's In Your Water" trademark 09:53 — Big bottled water brands, spring-water lawsuits, and knowing where your water comes from 14:08 — Three bears, a raided bee yard, and building a team in a corner of agriculture with almost nobody under 40 18:17 — The six-week harvest, the subscription model, and turning down Target and Walmart on purpose 20:32 — The cans-vs-cartons-vs-glass packaging fight with her partner Dante 25:10 — What maple water actually does for the body, and the empty-stomach test Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jason Olinik: Discernment / The Dining Room Disagrees

Aug 24, 2026 42:43

Jason Olinik is Senior Vice President of Operations & Partnerships at Rudy's Hospitality Group, where he leads growth strategy and every client relationship across workplace dining, markets, and restaurant concepts. He's spent 23 years in hospitality — starting at sixteen scrubbing grease off the back dock of a Chili's in Brighton, Michigan, then running a limited-service hotel in Naples, building restaurant concepts inside an airport, and working luxury resorts in Florida before landing at Rudy's. He's also the author of Discernment: Seeing Through the Narrative Economy. I sat down with him to talk about the gap between what a report says and what's actually happening on the floor — and why the leaders who stay close to the floor are the ones who catch it before it costs them. Jason talks about the meeting culture that crept in after the pandemic, the seventeen systems his teams were juggling just to load a menu, and the moment he realized he'd drifted too far from the work that built him. He also tells me about a ledge in the Jemez Mountains outside Albuquerque, and the jump that changed how he's approached every hard decision since. Book & author site: jasonolinik.com Rudy's Hospitality Group: rudyshospitality.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jason-olinik-57355464 Instagram: @j.olinik_author Book: Discernment: Seeing Through the Narrative Economy TIMESTAMPED CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:10 The Chili's Loading Dock, Age Sixteen 2:22 What Makes a Great Operator 11:07 Why Workplace Dining Needs Restaurant Standards 16:10 Thin Center, Strong Field 18:15 AI, Automation, and Where It Actually Helps 26:41 Writing Discernment 33:41 The Meeting Culture Rant 36:06 The Jemez Mountains Jump 41:30 Where to Find Jason Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Jeff Tonidandel & Jamie Brown Making Charlotte the “City of Hospitality”

Aug 17, 2026 46:58

Jeff Tonidandel and Jamie Brown are the husband-and-wife owners of the Tonidandel-Brown Restaurant Group (TBRG) in Charlotte, NC — six restaurants (Supperland, Haberdish, Ever Andalo, Growlers Pourhouse, Leluia Hall, Olivelli Deli), three of them Michelin Guide American South recommended. They co-host the podcast Jeff and Jamie Feed and the national PBS series Fork & Hammer, recently nominated for a Daytime Emmy in Outstanding Culinary/Cultural Series. Jamie's first book, Eleven Tables: A Wild Ride Through Food, Failure, and Figuring It Out, is out now. Jeff Tonidandel and Jamie Brown left corporate jobs at the peak of the economy, backpacked across Europe and Asia for eight months with paper maps and a burner phone, and came home to the 2008 recession with an idea and no restaurant experience. They found their first space in Charlotte's NoDa neighborhood because of a pink slip taped to the door — an unpaid gas bill. That eleven-table crepe shop is now Tonidandel-Brown Restaurant Group: six concepts, three of them Michelin Guide American South recommended, a national PBS series (Fork & Hammer, just nominated for a Daytime Emmy), a weekly podcast, and Jamie's first book. In this conversation, Jeff and Jamie talk about why Jeff is campaigning to brand Charlotte the "City of Hospitality," what the city's food scene was already doing right before Michelin ever showed up, and what it actually takes to turn a 100-year-old church into a working restaurant kitchen. They get honest about the harder calls too — closing a thirteen-year, still-profitable restaurant to become Ever Andalo, and retiring their doughnut shop after one too many equipment failures. Plus: running a 330-person team across six kitchens, two shows, and three kids, and what's next — dry-aged fish, a new commissary, and hotel projects on the horizon for 2029. Website: tonidandel-brown.com Podcast: Jeff and Jamie Feed PBS series: Fork & Hammer Book: Eleven Tables — Amazon / Barnes & Noble Restaurants: Supperland Haberdish Ever Andalo Growlers Pourhouse Leluia Hall Olivelli Deli Wyatt's Superfine (coming soon) Chapters 0:00 Welcome, Jeff & Jamie 1:01 The one thing they want listeners to take away 2:29 Why Jeff is campaigning for Charlotte as the "City of Hospitality" 5:03 Transplants, small-city warmth, and Bible Belt hospitality 7:48 What Charlotte's food scene was already doing right before Michelin arrived 10:02 Charlotte as a culinary crossroads — and the 200-farm network behind it 12:07 Turning churches, a clothing store, and a general store into restaurants 14:25 Supperland's 14-foot fire grill, and blending old-school with tech 17:30 Why they closed a profitable restaurant to become Ever Andalo 20:22 The 82-square-foot doughnut shop that broke one too many times 23:02 The eight-month backpacking trip — and the pink slip that found their first space 27:05 Where the entrepreneurial fortitude actually came from 29:15 Jamie's six years working a day job to fund the dream 32:56 Running six restaurants, two shows, and three kids with a 330-person team 36:26 How Fork & Hammer landed on PBS — and just picked up a Daytime Emmy nomination 42:08 Jamie's book, Eleven Tables 43:58 What's next: dry-aged fish, a new commissary, and 2029 hotel plans Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Matthew Cutolo: Gargiulo’s & The Last Cannoli Recipe

Jul 27, 2026 37:20

Matthew Cutolo is the Executive Pastry Chef and third-generation chef at Gargiulo's Restaurant, a Coney Island institution since 1907. He helps oversee both front and back of house, preserving rare Italian-American dishes seldom found elsewhere. A sought-after culinary voice, Cutolo has been featured on the Today Show, CBS's The Dish, The New York Times, NBC New York, PIX11, and Fox's Good Day NY. Beyond the kitchen, he creates content championing classic Italian traditions and is now building his own digital platform dedicated to his culinary philosophy, signature recipes, and entrepreneurial ventures, establishing himself as a culinary entrepreneur for the next generation of food lovers. Chef Matthew Cutolo was halfway through an accounting degree when his uncle called and asked one question — you coming to work when you're done? That was it. No speech, no pitch. He's been in the kitchen at Gargiulo's ever since, third generation now, running a Coney Island restaurant his family's had since 1965 in a building that's been slinging Italian food since 1907. A hundred and nineteen years in one spot. I've had guys work under me for years before I'd actually show them anything real — call it selfish, call it survival, but you learn fast who wants to be great and who just wants the paycheck. Matthew's version of that is a guy named Mike the Bake, forty years as Gargiulo's pastry chef, the only man alive who ever had the cannoli recipe. He didn't just hand it to Matthew. Months of watching, no bowl, no measuring, nothing written down — and there's a theory on why Mike kept walking away mid-recipe for years that's got nothing to do with baking. It's about figuring out who's serious and who's just talking. Socials WebsiteInstagram @Matthewcutolo Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS Timestamps pulled from raw transcript paragraph-start markers — confirm exact in/out points against the edited cut before publishing. 00:00 — Cold open: a family business, a phone call, and the third generation who said yes 01:25 — Mike the Bake — the pastry chef who trained Matthew for over 40 years 06:28 — Was disappearing mid-recipe actually a test of whether Matthew really wanted it 08:57 — The pressure of running solo, and why no two written versions of the same recipe matched 12:16 — The phone call from Uncle Louie that pulled him out of an accounting degree 16:23 — Working with family — who wins the argument when the food's on the line 17:50 — Staying true to tradition while everyone else chases what's viral 20:28 — From an internship on The Chew to his first solo TV hit 27:22 — Jarring the sauce, shipping nationwide, and the real math on freight cost 29:17 — The Gargiulo wine on the way, and why he keeps building past the restaurant Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Rameking / The GlobalNova Growth | Michael Smith

Jul 13, 2026 36:16

I had Michael Smith back on the podcast this week — round two with the guy behind Rameking, the only pre-filled portion cup dispenser out there, still running the whole operation with one other person out of Ohio. And yes, that jingle is still stuck in my head. It plays at the end of this episode too. You've been warned. This episode is less about the product and more about what happens once you actually start posting. Michael went from 200 followers to a video sitting at three million views — no music, no editing, nothing polished about it, and the same thing that made people mad about it is the reason it worked. We get into that, and then into the real meat of the conversation: a private group he built called Global Nova, forty-some business owners trading warm introductions instead of competing for the same cold leads. No dues, no catch. Sounds like a nice idea in theory until you realize it's actually working for him. Somewhere in the middle of all that we also cover why the standard sauce cup isn't cutting it anymore — blame the chicken tender for that one — and the one-word email trick that actually gets telemarketers to leave you alone. That's how these conversations go with Michael. If you're trying to figure out what to actually do with the people already watching you, or you just want that Rameking song stuck in your head for the rest of the week — this one's for you. Michael Smith / Rameking: rameking.com — available through US Foods, Sysco, and Amazon. LinkedIn: Rameking / Michael Smith Instagram @ramekingdom Facebook @therameking TikTok @ramekingdom Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Welcome back Michael Smith, and the jingle nobody can get out of their head 01:00 — What Rameking is, and the new 3.5–4oz cup coming because of chicken tender culture 02:59 — Rebuilding social media from 200 followers, and switching to an educational content style 05:20 — Recording 30–60 fifteen-second videos in a day, and the jingle sign-off on every one 06:33 — The Robopost CSV trick for scheduling a week of posts at once 09:45 — The raw, no-music TikTok video that hit 3 million views 13:25 — Why he built Global Nova instead of just growing a following 21:22 — What surprised him most about who joined — a Bar Rescue celebrity chef and Dart Containers 26:46 — Warm intros vs. cold outreach, and the trick to get telemarketers to actually leave you alone 29:03 — Audience vs. community vs. support group — the real difference RESOURCES MENTIONED Rameking (rameking.com) — portion cup dispenser, available through US Foods, Sysco, and Amazon Robopost — social media scheduling app Michael uses to batch content, including CSV bulk uploads Global Nova Group — private LinkedIn networking group Michael founded, ~42 members, free to join George / Grill Advantage — mentor who helped shape Michael's educational content style Brian Duffy — celebrity chef (Bar Rescue), Global Nova member Dart Containers — sustainability lead is a Global Nova member Levy Restaurants — Michael's former employer (GM, Ohio State) — kept as a warm-intro resource for the group Episode Art Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Oryx Desert Salt / Hydration From Ancient Underground Lake | Samantha Skyring

Jul 6, 2026 46:32

Samantha Skyring is the founder and CEO of Oryx Desert Salt, a mineral-rich salt sourced from an ancient underground lake beneath Africa's Kalahari Desert — now stocked by Whole Foods and Woolworths, served in more than 3,500 restaurants, and supplied to JetBlue Airlines. We get into desert salt versus sea salt, the sodium and hydration science most people get backwards, and what's actually sitting in the "natural" sea salt in your pantry. This one starts with Samantha walking 75 miles across the Skeleton Coast in Namibia in her twenties — the trip that put her face-to-face with the oryx antelope the brand is named after — and gets a lot more intense from there. Fifteen years ago, with a toddler to care for and no guarantee any of it would sell, she sold her house, bought 34 tonnes of desert salt, stored it in a garage unit, and started bottling it herself at her dining room table. That's how Oryx Desert Salt began. She'll also tell you, on tape, that table salt was invented as an industrial product around 1910 for paint and textiles, and that the chemicals added to make it "flow freely" are still in the shaker on your table today. We cover what's actually harvested out of the ocean when a bag says "sea salt" — plastics, sewage, and in some cases radioactive waste from decades-old ocean dumping. Samantha walks through why sodium and hydration are more connected than most people realize, why she thinks "salt is bad for you" might be one of the more persistent food myths out there, and how she landed a national Whole Foods listing off three cold emails to a category buyer. We also get into the plastic-free, ceramic-mechanism grinder that kept over 894,500 plastic grinders out of landfill in 2024 alone. Website: https://oryxdesertsalt.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oryxdesertsalt/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oryxdesertsalt/?hl=en Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@oryxdesertsalt4081 Oryx Desert Salt can be found at Amazon Whole Foods Direct on website CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Cold open: the five-month desert journey that started it all 01:18 — What Oryx Desert Salt is, and why an antelope is the logo 05:42 — She sold her house to buy 34 tons of desert salt 06:25 — Inside the Kalahari salt pan: 55 million tons, bigger than Texas 10:00 — What's actually in your sea salt (plastics, sewage, radioactive waste) 12:27 — Table salt's origin story: an industrial product from 1910 17:15 — "Salt is bad for you" — dismantling the biggest nutrition myth on the planet 26:26 — How she landed a national Whole Foods listing with three emails 32:15 — Getting on JetBlue and Amtrak 37:12 — The "tequila fist" taste test and what chefs are saying Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Chris Valdes: The Chef Storyteller / BAM / Smell—O-Vision

Jun 29, 2026 55:36

Chris Valdes is a Miami-based chef and TV personality best known for Food Network Star, who's spent the last eleven years building a media career out of catering, storytelling, and refusing to let anyone else write his story for him. This one didn't feel like a normal chef interview. We got into what it actually takes to build a brand before you have a team, how much of yourself you let a producer or a platform write for you versus protecting your own voice, and where AI actually earns a place in a professional kitchen instead of just taking over. Chris talks about grit in a way that doesn't feel like a quote on a slide — it's lived in. We also ended up in Miami's Latin fusion food scene, the right way to cook a pot of black beans, and somehow my own Father's Day cookout. That's how these conversations go. Connect Website Instagram Youtube Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com 4. CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS Timestamps pulled from the final edited transcript (with intro narration) — these supersede the earlier raw-recording chapter list. 00:00 — Cold open: how Chris built a media brand on purpose 04:17 — Starting a catering company at 19 — the -$267 first event 08:06 — Staying authentic vs. playing a character on TV 11:31 — When cooking turned into storytelling (the Le Cordon Bleu essay & Emeril's "BAM") 15:54 — Why people actually connect with his content 23:20 — Jeff's own jump from corporate to entrepreneur 26:23 — The bride who almost didn't hire him — and 11 years of loyalty since 32:12 — Miami's Latin fusion food scene + the black beans recipe 42:13 — AI, tech, and what's actually changing in food media 53:22 — What's next: the next chapter as a storyteller Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Nomad Cook / The Culinary Art of Cannabis / Life Beyond The Pop-Ups | Travis Peterson

Jun 22, 2026 58:00

Travis Petersen is the chef and founder behind Nomad Cook, a culinary cannabis brand that's hosted more than 1,200 cannabis-infused pop-up dinners in 117 cities across 37 states, and the person who helped the American Culinary Federation build its first cannabis chef certification course. He got his start on MasterChef at 31, years into a sales career in oil and gas — and built everything else from there. He bombed his tacos and got eliminated in the second episode, three minutes of total airtime. Ten days later, a recession hit his oil and gas company and he got laid off with a year's severance. That accident of timing is the entire reason Nomad Cook exists. He calls it the stars aligning; it's also just a guy who decided to spend a free year finding out if he could actually cook. We get into how a newspaper photo of a sold-out cannabis dinner sent him into his own backyard for his first pop-up, and how that snowballed into touring 20 days a month with 500 pounds of gear and a sous chef in tow. He breaks down what terpenes actually are — sativa and indica only describe how the plant grows, not how it makes you feel. He's also walking away from the touring life at the height of it. His last public Nomad Cook pop-up dinner is September 5th in Miami, and after that he's moving Nomad Cook into education only while he starts a new venture helping small businesses with AI automation. Social Instagram: the_nomadcook Website: https://www.thenomadcook.com/ ACF Cannabis Course Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Intro: Travis Petersen, the Nomad Cook 02:24 — The first backyard pop-up 04:48 — From oil and gas to MasterChef 09:54 — Writing the cookbook, building the ACF certification 15:02 — What a cannabis dinner actually is 19:05 — Terpenes, the entourage effect, and the mango trick 23:20 — Inside the dosing system 27:49 — Why the touring life is ending 33:25 — The Paris takeover surprise 51:23 — What's next: education and AI Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

P!ing / The Robot Coffee Drive Thru Disrupting the $50B Business | Rob Whitten & Jane Lo

Jun 15, 2026 47:20

Rob Whitten and Jane Lo are the co-founders and co-CEOs of p!ng — a robotics-powered coffee company building 120-square-foot autonomous pods that take your order before you arrive and hand you a finished drink in under 30 seconds, with no one behind the window. Rob is a West Point graduate and former robotics leader at Amazon and iRobot. Jane is a brand strategist and Booth MBA who spent her career inside customer experience at Forrester and SharkNinja. Together, they're going after the $50 billion coffee industry with an idea that sounds like science fiction until you realize how much of the modern drive-thru is broken. They didn't start with the robot. Rob ran a food truck first — flipping eggs on two four-foot griddles — just to learn the food business from the inside before he ever touched automation. And in the early pilot, when customers pulled up to what looked like a fully automated pod, Rob and Jane were behind a curtain inside, making the drinks by hand, Wizard-of-Oz style, just to prove people would actually want this. The twist? When customers found out there was a person inside, they were disappointed. They wanted the magic to be real. That tension — building real automation without losing the human side of hospitality — runs through the whole conversation. We get into how p!ng's "sensor-augmented geofencing" actually identifies which car you're sitting in before you reach the window (your phone is doing more work than you think), why they chose Cometeer flash-frozen coffee extract over brewing on-site, how a fifty-plus-ingredient menu gets built around what robots can actually do well, and what their Robotics-as-a-Service franchise model looks like for someone who wants to own a pod without ever having to learn robotics. P!ing - Where to find Website — pingthru.com TikTok — @pingthru Facebook — facebook.com/pingthrucoffee LinkedIn (company) — linkedin.com/company/pingthru YouTube — youtube.com/@pingthru Instagram — @pingthrucoffee Jane Lo — linkedin.com/in/jane-lo-ping Rob Whitten — linkedin.com/in/rob-whitten-pingthru Wefunder — wefunder.com/ping Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS 00:10 — Intro: Rob Whitten & Jane Lo, p!ng 01:28 — Origin story: food trucks, robot armies, and how p!ng came together 09:50 — Hand-building the first pod in a driveway 13:02 — "The guy in the box" — why customers wanted the magic to be real 14:49 — Restocking and the hub-and-spoke model 18:02 — Sensor-augmented geofencing explained 22:19 — Why p!ng uses Cometeer flash-frozen coffee 26:14 — Building a 50-ingredient menu a robot can run 30:23 — Robotics-as-a-Service: the franchise model 38:21 — What's next: 24/7 pods, WeFunder, no-tip pricing Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Freight Behind Your Food / Global Supply Chains | Ian Sutherland

Jun 8, 2026 51:14

Ian Sutherland is the co-founder of World Freight Direct — a dedicated industry platform for global freight and logistics — and brings 55 years of combined freight experience to the table with his wife and co-founder Kath. He was back on Fell Into Food this week to talk about the thing that makes everything in your restaurant, your kitchen, and your supply chain actually move: global freight. Most people in food think about supply chains when something goes wrong. A delivery doesn't show up. A price spikes overnight. A product disappears from the shelf. Ian has spent thirty years watching what happens before that — and in this conversation, we got into it from the ground up. We covered how international freight actually works: the four modes of transport, what a bill of lading is and why it matters, how a freight forwarder functions as the connective tissue between a seller in Australia and a buyer in Chicago, and what's physically happening inside a container when equipment travels across an ocean to land at your booth at the National Restaurant Show. I walked through his own experience unloading overseas freight for the first time this year — and yes, it looks nothing like what you'd expect. Then things got interesting. We talked fertilizer. Not the bag you buy at a garden center — the bulk-shipped global commodity that Ukraine, Russia, the U.S., Canada, and China all export, and that the world's food bowl cannot function without. Ian broke down why ammonium nitrate that grows your crops is the same compound that leveled the port of Beirut in 2020 — one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in modern history. The connection between what's in your soil, what's in your food, and what can happen when it's handled wrong is something most people in the industry have never thought about. We also got into World Freight Direct — the platform Ian and Kath have been building and rebuilding for eighteen years. It's a vertical industry platform that connects freight forwarders, customs agents, 3PLs, shipping lines, and specialty food and beverage companies in one place. Ian explains how it integrates with Hospitality Chain (Episode 58) so that the two industries that can't exist without each other can finally find each other on one platform. And we closed on AI, automation, the death of email, and why neither Ian nor Jeff think the relationship part of this business is going anywhere. Find Ian https://hospitalitychain.com/ https://worldfreightdirect.com/ LinkedIn Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com CHAPTERS / TIME00:10 — Intro: Ian Sutherland returns — World Freight Direct and 30 years in freight 01:04 — Ian's background: wife got him in, marine roots, 55 years combined with co-founder Kath 05:34 — How international freight works: 4 modes of transport, bill of lading, freight forwarders 10:12 — Unloading a container: what's actually inside and why it looks nothing like you'd expect 12:17 — Fertilizer: what it's made of and why the global food supply depends on it 14:44 — The Beirut port explosion: 2,500 tons of ammonium nitrate and what it did 18:06 — The pandemic in Melbourne: most locked down city in the world, 268 days 24:37 — The stat: freight + hospitality = over 20% of the global workforce 26:18 — World Freight Direct: 18 years to build, rebuilt 4 times, why vertical platforms matter now 37:42 — AI agents in freight: how automation will close deals faster than any email ever could Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Taste Events / Tong Talks / It’s Not Speed Dating | Ethan Kjesbo & Cass Burson

Jun 1, 2026 36:50

I've known Ethan and Cass for a while now, and every time I'm around them I walk away thinking the same thing — these guys just get it. Not just the event business, but the people side of this industry. That's what Taste Events is built on. They co-founded a curated B2B food service event company that takes everything broken about the trade show model and fixes it. We're talking 150–200 people, chain operators and suppliers who actually belong in the room together, and one-on-one meetings built around an intelligence dossier pulled from real conversations — not a generic booth pitch. The whole thing is designed so that when you sit down, it matters. We talked about how they built it, what made them realize "anti-trade show" was the wrong framing, and how they're keeping events fresh without losing what makes them special. We also got into NRA — what's trending on the floor (clean label is in, meat analogs are fading), how they work the show, and what actually gets done at Portillo's at midnight. Oh, and somewhere in there Ethan ate sardines on the show floor to start a conversation. Worked like a charm. He also runs a tin fish review account on TikTok called Tinnies with the Boys. I have no notes on that — just go follow it. Find Taste Events: LinkedIn: @TasteEventsInstagram: @TasteEventsWebsite: thetasteevents.comTimestamps [00:00] Cold open — Nutter Butter on TikTok is an acid trip [01:17] How Ethan and Cass got pulled deeper into food service [03:25] What a Taste Event actually is — the model explained [08:09] The intelligence dossier and why it's not speed dating [09:21] The extracurriculars — Taste Tour, dinners, and where the real magic happens [14:37] NRA reflections — Year 2, Portillo's at midnight, and trends on the floor [21:36] Tong Talks origin story — Hannah Lopez, a mic, and a pair of tongs [24:20] Good people, good times, good business — and how you protect that as you grow [29:26] Advice for anyone at a crossroads: if it makes you nervous, lean in [35:48] Next event info + where to find them Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

STEVE MCHUGH: CURED / THE SCIENCE OF CURING, AGING & MOLD

May 25, 2026 57:01

Chef Steve McHugh is a six-time James Beard Award finalist, the author of Cured, and the founder of the celebrated San Antonio charcuterie restaurant of the same name — a 12-year run built entirely around preservation, dry aging, fermentation, and the science of what happens when you take time seriously with meat. Steve grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm, trained at the CIA, and cut his teeth in John Besh's kitchens in New Orleans before a lymphoma diagnosis stopped him mid-career. He finished treatment, moved to Texas, and opened Cured at the Pearl Brewery — a restaurant centered on whole-animal butchery, handmade charcuterie, and a custom aging case that eventually became one of the most interesting preservation programs in the country. In this conversation, we get into the real science behind curing and dry aging: what 60/60/60 actually means and when it doesn't apply, the difference between EQ curing and salt box method, why water is the enemy of every preservation technique, and how mold — the right mold — is the thing that keeps your case healthy and your flavors complex. Steve talks about how COVID wiped out twelve years of charcuterie inventory in three months, and how his wife's idea to fill the empty case with dry-aged beef turned into a second revenue engine. We also go deep on fish dry aging, wet aging, rapid aging claims, and one of my favorite moments in recent podcast memory: Steve debunking the "uncured bacon" label at the grocery store. Spoiler — they're curing it with celery. They're just not telling you. If you're a chef trying to understand preservation, an operator thinking about a dry aging program, or just someone who wants to know what's actually in that pack of bacon be sure to listen all the way through. Steve McHugh: Instagram / Twitter / Facebook: @ChefSteveMcHugh Book: Cured — available anywhere books are sold Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Introduction01:17 — Farm life, work ethic & finding the kitchen07:26 — CIA, New Orleans & John Besh09:43 — Lymphoma, recovery & opening Cured15:08 — Curing vs. dry aging: the science explained22:05 — How COVID created an accidental dry aging program29:03 — Mold: why it's your best employee43:05 — Dry aging fish48:01 — Uncured bacon: the truth52:01 — Life after Cured & what's next Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

CHERIE CALBOM:THE JUICE LADY ON WHAT IS MAKING US SICK

May 11, 2026 39:52

Cherie Calbom — known as The Juice Lady — holds a Master of Science in Nutrition, has authored 36 books with over 3.5 million copies sold, and has spent decades studying the connection between what we eat and how we feel. Her latest book, The Truth About Seed Oils, digs into how "heart-healthy" vegetable oils became the default in the American kitchen — and what that's quietly done to our health. The story of seed oils doesn't start in a kitchen. It starts with cotton waste rotting in piles at the turn of the 20th century. A dark, smelly oil originally used to lubricate machinery was refined, deodorized, bleached, and rebranded as a modern American cooking staple. World War II did the rest — when ships carrying coconut oil couldn't get through the waters, seed oil manufacturers filled the gap, hired cookbook authors, lobbied hard, and told home cooks this was the healthier, more modern choice. Heart disease went up anyway. It's still the number one killer. In this episode, Cherie breaks down the lipid hypothesis, the influence of Ancel Keys, what actually happens inside a seed oil refinery (hexane, bleaching agents, degumming — not pretty), why the omega-6 to omega-3 imbalance is driving chronic inflammation, and what the research shows about seed oils' connection to anxiety, depression, and aggression. She also fields the strongest counter-argument — a 2025 JAMA study suggesting people with the highest seed oil intake were 16% less likely to die — and explains why she's skeptical. And then there's her own story. In her 20s, Cherie was bedridden with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia — sleeping 12 hours a day, waking up exhausted, unable to walk around the block. She couldn't work. She moved back home. Five days into a juice fast, her body expelled a tumor the size of a golf ball, blood vessels attached. Three months later, she woke up feeling like someone gave her a new body in the middle of the night. That experience sent her back to school to get her master's degree so she could be a credible voice for everyone else trying to find their way out. Socials: Cherie Calbom, M.S. — The Juice Lady Website: www.juiceladyinfo.com Instagram: @juiceladycherie X (Twitter): @JuiceLadyCherie TikTok: @juiceladycherie YouTube Shorts: TheJuiceLadyCherie LinkedIn: Cherie Calbom Book: The Truth About Seed Oils — available on Amazon App: Seed Oil Scout (link on her site — click the book on the homepage) Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/55qBuFe9dQh5jLLdg0KLoL?si=08455ef88e554b91 Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com Chapters: 00:00 — Intro: Meet Cherie Calbom, The Juice Lady 00:40 — The Dark History of Seed Oils: From Cotton Waste to Your Kitchen 03:10 — The Lipid Hypothesis, Ancel Keys, and Why Heart Disease Never Got Better 06:00 — Inside a Seed Oil Refinery: Hexane, Bleaching, and Toxic Byproducts 07:45 — The Omega-6 to Omega-3 Imbalance Driving Chronic Inflammation 10:00 — The Counter-Argument: What Does the 2025 JAMA Study Actually Say? 13:30 — The Real Cost of Cheap Oil (And What to Do If You Can't Afford the Swap) 19:10 — Seed Oils, Anxiety, Depression, and Aggression 21:45 — Cherie's Story: Bedridden in Her 20s, Healed in Three Months, and a Tumor the Size of a Golf Ball 29:05 — What Cherie Eats, Seed-Oil-Free Swaps, and One Action to Take This Week Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

RON CARDWELL: RTI / THE GREAT SEED OIL DEBATE

May 4, 2026 39:37

Ron Cardwell, Director of Commodity Strategy at Restaurant Technologies (RTI), runs point on cooking oil for the company that pioneered automated oil management — the closed-loop system that delivers fresh oil and pulls used oil out of more than 40,000 restaurants. We get into the seed oil debate, allergen myths, beef tallow's comeback, and what actually happens to the used oil in your fryer. Ron's nickname is "The Oil Nerd." He earned it. He started in soybean processing out of college, fell in love with how oil touches every corner of food and energy, and has been deep in commodity strategy ever since. RTI moves more than 700 million pounds of fresh oil into restaurants every year and pulls hundreds of millions of pounds of used oil back out — and almost all of it ends up as renewable diesel, biodiesel, or sustainable aviation fuel. We dig into how operators should actually think about oil — flavor, function, and price, in that order, not the other way around. Why "buy the cheapest" is a trap that costs you more in turnover and bad food. The seed oil vs. beef tallow debate — what's signal and what's noise, what the real trade-offs are on flavor, supply, and price when you switch. The allergen question that comes up at every front-of-house every week — and why a fully refined and deodorized oil doesn't carry the allergen at all (Ron settles this one on tape). What pourable beef tallow actually is and why it exists. Why high-oleic crop breeding is changing what "stable frying oil" even means. The full-circle history — beef tallow → saturated fat fear → trans fats → seed oil blends → consumers asking for tallow back. And the part of Ron's job he loves most: turning used fryer oil into renewable diesel at roughly 20% the carbon intensity of conventional diesel. Socials and Links: Website: www.rti-inc.com RTI 2025 Impact Report: https://www.rti-inc.com/blog/restaurant-technologies-recycled-more-than-390-million-lbs-of-uco-in-2025/ Ron Cardwell Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-cardwell-21a7531a6/ CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Intro and welcome: Ron Cardwell, Director of Commodity Strategy at Restaurant Technologies 01:31 — How Ron earned the nickname "The Oil Nerd" 02:44 — Why oil is one of three core nutrition components — and the most functional 03:49 — What "Director of Commodity Strategy" actually means day-to-day 05:09 — Quick recap of RTI's closed-loop oil system (referencing Ep 17 with Diana) 05:24 — The most dangerous job in a kitchen — and why bulk delivery eliminates it 07:12 — Jeff's experience as a former RTI customer 08:32 — RTI's 2025 Impact Report — released Earth Day, recycling stats 09:36 — Choosing oil: the three variables operators actually need to weigh 11:24 — The trap of buying the cheapest oil 12:13 — Flavor profiles by oil type — neutral vs. flavored oils 14:39 — The allergen question — settled on tape 16:15 — How operators (and customers) can verify allergen status — the supplier statement 18:32 — The seed oil vs. beef tallow debate — what's signal, what's noise 21:03 — Switching to tallow — flavor, supply, and price reality 24:58 — Why beef tallow is a byproduct, not a planned crop — supply ceiling 27:13 — Beef tallow handling — the solid block, the cleanup, the pourable version 29:23 — Glass vs. plastic and why dark storage matters more than the bottle 30:30 — Sustainability: where the used oil actually goes 32:58 — Where the oil category goes next — high-oleic, crop breeding, consumer demand 35:59 — The full circle: tallow → saturated fat fear → trans fats → blends → tallow comeback 37:20 — The one thing every operator should change Monday morning 37:55 — How to actually monitor oil quality day-to-day — smell, taste, look 38:55 — Where to find Ron and RTI — NRA Show, rti-inc.com 39:35 — Wrap up Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gQM3S5mr Spotify - https://lnkd.in/g_5kFXie Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 Pandora - https://lnkd.in/gS-wu_YJ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

MADDIE HAMANN: PACHA / BURNING MAN TO BUCKWHEAT

Apr 27, 2026 53:27

Maddie Hamann left classified Navy submarine research and a PhD in oceanography to co-found PACHA — a regenerative, gluten-free sprouted buckwheat bread now on shelves at Whole Foods. This is how that happened. There's a version of this story where Maddie finishes the PhD, takes the nine-to-five, and spends the next forty years in academia. She was already living it. Instead, she blurted one sentence in her kitchen — "I want to work on the bread" — and walked away to build PACHA with her boyfriend of one year, Adam. PACHA is a two-ingredient sprouted buckwheat bread. Buckwheat and sea salt. That's it. Wild-yeast fermented on whole groats (flour doesn't work — we get into why), packaged in 100% home compostable materials, and sourced from farms transitioning to regenerative agriculture. The brand started in a 300 square foot test kitchen, pivoted into direct-to-consumer e-commerce during COVID, hit a peak of $220K a month on Shopify, and went straight to global distribution at Whole Foods. Not because of the bread. Because of the compostable packaging. In this one we dig into why "regenerative" is at risk of becoming the next greenwashed buzzword and what has to happen to protect it. Wild-yeast fermentation — why it works on whole buckwheat groats and dies in flour. The COVID pivot that took PACHA from a couple thousand dollars a month on Shopify to $220K. What running a CPG business with your spouse actually looks like. The calendar trick that finally broke Maddie's mental-load cycle. And where PACHA is headed — including the just-launched buckwheat tortillas (buckwheat, sea salt, psyllium husk) that hit West Coast Target last week. Fun fact on something I didn't see coming: PACHA means "everything that exists" in the Incan language, and it also means "to digest" in Sanskrit. Nobody planned that. Where to find PACHA: • Target: Select locations nationwide (primarily stocking Sourdough Tortillas and Original Loaves). • Whole Foods Market: Availability varies by region, typically found in the frozen bread section. • Sprouts Farmers Market: Reliable stockist for the full loaf lineup and English muffins. • Jewel-Osco: Extensive availability across the Midwest (Chicagoland). • Safeway / Albertsons: Stocked in many "Natural" frozen sets across the West and East Coasts. • Mother’s Market & Jimbo's: Key specialty grocers (California/West Coast). Website: livepacha.com Instagram: @maddie.hamann PACHA Instagram: @livepacha Listen to the full episode and more! It would mean the world to me if you could leave a 5 star review on your listening platform to help grow and expand the Podcast. YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gQM3S5mr YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gQM3S5mr Spotify - https://lnkd.in/g_5kFXie Apple Podcast - https://apple.co/41RoTm4 Pandora - https://lnkd.in/gS-wu_YJ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@FellIntoFood Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/fell-into-food Instagram: http://instagram.com/fell_into_food Facebook: https://facebook.com/fellintofood FellintoFood.com CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Intro and welcome: Maddie Hamann, PACHA co-founder00:43 — The common thread: civil engineering, oceanography, Burning Man, bread02:23 — Leaving academia — the nine-to-five version of herself she had to let go04:00 — How self-worth shifts when you step off the "safe" path04:54 — Hiding parts of herself in grad school and how entrepreneurship changed that06:24 — The moment halfway through the PhD she knew academia wasn't it07:59 — Starting PACHA with her then-boyfriend Adam after only a year together08:19 — The bread that changed her life — the only bread she could eat10:16 — "I want to work on the bread" — the kitchen moment11:22 — What PACHA means — the Incan name for "everything that exists"12:50 — The Sanskrit coincidence — PACHA also means "to digest"13:46 — Why the recipe simplified down to two ingredients: buckwheat and sea salt14:42 — Wild yeast, whole groats, and why fermentation doesn't work with flour17:05 — Jeff's reaction to the texture — not what you'd expect from two ingredients18:39 — 100% home compostable packaging — the tray, the clip, the film20:27 — The COVID pivot: from retail-bound to e-commerce overnight23:18 — From a couple thousand dollars a month to a peak of $220K/month on Shopify23:44 — Getting into Whole Foods — but NOT for the bread26:44 — The margin trade-off: why PACHA took the packaging hit other brands won't29:03 — Is "regenerative" about to become the next greenwashed buzzword?31:39 — Pesticides and "regenerative" — where consumer trust will break34:02 — Whole Foods as a gatekeeper for regenerative language on-pack35:00 — Jeff on Fischer Farms, red kelp in cattle diets, and real accountability37:50 — Co-founding with your spouse — the rules that actually work41:08 — The one thing that broke Maddie's mental-load cycle: calendaring her to-do list43:16 — How to handle it when the plan blows up (because it will)44:03 — Staying undistracted — phone on Do Not Disturb, always46:35 — What Maddie is most afraid of getting wrong47:45 — Where PACHA is headed: deeper in natural, then conventional48:47 — The food world needs to hear this: most of what's wrong with your body is your diet50:35 — Your body can heal itself — if you put the right things in50:45 — PACHA tortillas just landed in West Coast Target — buckwheat, sea salt, psyllium husk52:21 — Where to find PACHA online• • 52:41 — Wrap up Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy