CLE Foodcast

I sat down with Zack Bruell and his son Julian who preside over two of the most awarded and notable restaurants in Cleveland. We already know that running successful restaurants is really hard, but I wondered how the father-son dynamic played into this...are the two adversaries or allies? How does one "pass the torch" and when is it time to do that? L'Albatros and Parallax have thrived for years a...

Most of us know that tahini is an ingredient in hummus (houmous), the healthy snacking staple and cornerstone of Middle Eastern restaurant menus. It is the thick, creamy "butter" that provides the nutty quality to hummus, baba ganoush and more. It's been around for centuries, and its prevalent in the cuisine of many cultures. Dana Harary imports tahini, the kind she grew up with as a child in Isra...

Everything tastes better with a little Salt.  Your mind may have drifted to some Maldon or Pink Himalayan salt that's part of your cooking routine but I'm talking about Salt, the popular Lakewood restaurant that will soon celebrate a sixth anniversary. No small feat given the last couple of years. Chef Jill Vedaa, a 3X Beard Foundation Semifinalist for Best Chef-Great Lakes Region, and Jessic...

This episode is the closest thing to "How I Built This with Guy Raz" I'll probably ever get. I sat down with Evan Delahanty of Peaceful Fruits , a Barberton-based company making delicious whole fruit snacks he calls "candy for a new generation." After a two-year Peace Corps assignment in Suriname (that's in South America, guys) he started to think a lot about creating a business that reflected his...

Cleveland is home to a large population of people with Slovenian Heritage and the place to learn more about this culture is at Cleveland Kurentovanje, an annual festival in the Superior-St. Clair neighborhood. Kurentovanje is sometimes called Slovenian Mardi Gras. It celebrates the coming end of a long winter and the arrival of Lent and springtime with food, drink, parades and the arrival of the K...

Everyone knows that cheese and mustard go together. So it made perfect sense for artisan cheese purveyor Michael Januska to develop a product line of mustards to go with his curated collection of cheeses. Since opening Old Brooklyn Cheese in 2016 he's made a number of pivots and changes to manage his business through the pandemic and to grow it for the future.  I talked to Michael at his Old...

Fun to say, delicious to eat. Meet the husband and wife team behind Doozy Pots , a revolutionary plant-based gelato.  Kirsten parlayed her food science and product development background into her own venture with Karl, an attorney.  Growing up, Kirsten lived near the Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's and eventually worked for them and parent company, Unilever. Together they developed a del...

I seriously thought about calling this episode "Chef April Thompson Kicks Ass." While that is 100% true, it still wouldn't capture the entirety of her drive and personality.   April reveals the unconventional approach that got her a start in the business of becoming a personal chef to athletes (and some other famous people). She's much more than a cook...she is a partner in the nutritional he...

So many of us have visited the Happy Dog to catch a local band or to grab a basket of tots and one of their signature hot dogs (which you can get with dozens of different toppings from ketchup to kimchi). The classic throwback tavern revived in 2008 by by Sean Watterson and his best pal Sean Kilbane really is more than a bar. It's a nostalgic homage to Cleveland's history, a crossroads of culture...

Cheers to the end of 2021! I gathered two members of the administration team behind the monster Facebook group NEO Foodies to look back at the year in food. Join us for a casual chat, recorded at Zhug in Cleveland Heights, and you'll learn about the origins of the group and what they aim to offer our local food community, and we'll share our thoughts on how 2021 changed the food scene. I also ask...

It seems like everyone knows about Rudy's Strudel . From Fat Tuesday and Dyngus Day parties to LeBron James pierogis, this 3rd generation bakery is the vibrant heartbeat of Polish Village. Under Lidia Trempe's ownership, Rudy's has honored its immigrant roots and adapted to the times, and it has also weathered its share of storms. I spent the morning watching Lidia and her team work, hearing her s...

Jennifer Thornton just returned  from France where she hung out with a woman known as the "Queen of Olive Oil," who happens to be a friends of hers.  She has been a friend of mine for a while, but even I had no idea about the depth of her olive oil knowledge until now! Jennifer is known locally as the creator and owner of Buttercream & Olive Oil, a culinary company that is dedicated...

Tis the season to buy. And buy. And buy. Right about now you are running around getting last minute meal preparations ready and checking gifts off your list. With a economy still in recovery and millions of dollars of imported stuff stuck on container ships, we wanted to have a light and useful conversation on local gifting.   I invited Pat Bennett of Pat's Granola , and Jennine Kessler of th...

Fueled by a feeling of disconnectedness, Meghann Hennen filled empty time by baking challah bread for virtual Shabbat during the pandemic.  A preschool teacher, dancer, and artist, Meg really missed being with people, especially as she celebrated her faith.  Through trial and error, Meghann developed a real talent for making challah though she had never baked before. Soon, she was baking...

Chef Douglas Katz is a nice guy. Everyone says so. And, honestly, it's true. What you will hear in this conversation is that Doug cares about people just as much as he does about the food he serves in his ever-evolving portfolio of restaurants. Doug was a high school theatre geek who has always enjoyed cooking—he even catered events with his friends!  He's always thrived being part of a team...

Shawnda Moye thought Cleveland needed a place to get really good biscuits. So, she did what she had to do. She traveled the South sampling all kinds of biscuits. She worked part time in bakeries and cafes, even after a full day of work in her day job, and she apprenticed with local business owners she admired. Now, Shawnda's successful pop up venture, The Roaming Biscuit, has a bona fide home base...

Scott Kuhn and Chris Hodgson worked diligently to protect and maintain their company, The Driftwood Group, through the challenges of the last 12 months. Navigating through great uncertainty didn't stop them from planning for the future, in fact, the duo made the bold move to purchase Landerhaven, one of Northeast Ohio's premier event venues, making them one of the area's largest hospitality employ...

For this episode I took the show on the road to Ohio City Provisions, an all-local food store on Cleveland's near west side. Sitting within a few feet of the store's meat counter, with the in-house butchery in view, I spoke to Trevor Clatterbuck, the CWRU student who became a businessman, and then a self-taught farmer.  He oversees Ohio City Provisions,  the Fresh Fork Market farm buying...

Every year, more than 1 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States.  In this episode, I speak with Ashley Weingart, the founder of Perfectly Imperfect Produce, a Northeast Ohio company that is rescuing produce from a variety of sources and giving it a second life in the form of home delivery boxes. The company also makes substantial donations to the Hunger Network of Greater Clevel...

For my 20th episode and the start of a new season, CLE Foodcast took a road trip to Quarry Hill Orchards to interview third-generation fruit farmer Ben Gammie. Quarry Hill Orchards grows cherries, peaches, grapes and some might say Ohio's best apples. Ben knows a lot about apples—he grows 52 varieties. He's now board president of Ohio Apples , a statewide organization supporting independent apple...

Restaurants are still in recovery mode. Staff shortages, supply chain issues, rising costs and the emergence of new virus strain have created additional uncertainty. And just when we were all vaccinated and "going back to normal." I invited Jen Picciano, a broadcast journalist who covers the food and dining industry, to join me for a conversation on the state of restaurants. As food fans who know...

Garlic is ubiquitous. Its spicy, pungent, and umami-stimulating qualities make it a versatile ingredient that can be used in everything from chicken soup to marinara sauce to stir-fry.  So when the North Union Farmers Market team wanted to create a fundraiser festival around food, garlic was an easy choice. Now the Cleveland Garlic Festival opens for the 12th year with a full on smelly celebr...

I did something crazy. I recorded a podcast live at the Countryside Farmers Market , one of my favorite places to buy seasonal, local produce. Podcast purists, you've been warned, this episode won't sound the same. You'll hear chefs talking. Kids screaming. Chris Miller singing and strumming his guitar. You'll catch a bit of train whistle too.  It's doesn't sound perfect. But it was a perfect...

Ohio wines are having a moment. There are now almost 400 wineries in the state. In fact, I learned that no matter where you are in Ohio you are only 30 minutes away from a winery.  Christy Eckstein knows Ohio's Wine Industry from the inside out – from the farm to the table and grape to glass. As executive director of the Ohio Grape Industries Committee, she as her eye on the booming business...

Sasha and Jimmy Miller were not raised on farms and they did not have much practical experience before they purchased an old farmstead within the boundaries of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Armed with an audacious vision and self-taught knowledge, in just five years they have transformed the land into a bountiful permaculture farm where they run a CSA program and farm store, raise chickens, ducks...