CONSUMED with Jaime Lewis

Southern gentlemen Dwyne Willis and Steve Bland are spouses and business partners who own and operate SLO Provisions. Their menu includes rotisserie chicken, pulled pork, bocadillo, devilied eggs, biscuits, porchetta, and locally-famous salt and vinegar chips. Everything is crazy-high quality, flavorful — and with the ambiance to match. We talked about the realities of modern restaurant ownership,...

Mary Lagier's food photography has appeared in multiple print publications, and some of her clients include the Magnolia Network, The Infatuation, Hungryroot, and King Arthur Baking. But her background isn’t in photography or media: actually it’s in computer engineering. Mary chatted with me about her natural engineering and math-minded qualities, the way the pandemic made several (good) decisions...

Eric Jensen is the man behind Booker Wines, My Favorite Neighbor and Harvey & Harriet Wines, Eric grew up in southern California, and went on to be a real estate developer and concert promoter before heading for the hills of Paso Robles. Eric spent his formative years as a winemaker in the company of Paso Robles pillars like Stephan Asseo of L’Aventure Winery and Justin Smith of Saxum. He and Book...

The 2019 documentary “The Biggest Little Farm" followed John and Molly Chester as they left their busy lives in Los Angeles to build a farm on dead land in Moorpark, California. John and Molly regenerated and reclaimed what was barren into a very alive, healthy, and abundant place. The story of Apricot Lane Farm, aka the Biggest Little Farm, won lots of awards and lots of hearts, including mine. J...

Great stuff on the horizon!  Consumed LIVE: August 31, 6pm There Does Not Exist Brewing, San Luis Obispo More info: letsgetconsumed.com/events

It’s tough not to adore Nathan Long, the restaurateur behind Nate’s on Marsh in San Luis Obispo. He is warm, welcoming, and personable. You know how restaurants always say that they treat their guests like family? That really is the case at Nate’s. I interviewed him at the restaurant because the interior of the place is just remarkable. Picture a cross between a 70s-era country club, a spaghetti W...

When my husband and I quit our jobs to work in vineyards around the world in 2008, we spent six months in Blenheim, New Zealand. After work each day, I’d go to the Blenheim public library to siphon free wifi, but I’d just as often wind up in the stacks picking out books to read. One of those books was Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass by author Natalie MacLe...

Ariana Lovato is founder and principal of Honeycomb Home Design in Arroyo Grande California, and kitchen design is her specialty. She is an Associate Kitchen and Bath Designer with the National Kitchen and Bath Association, an Allied member of the American Society of Interior Designers, and the winner of many, many design awards. Ariana is a wealth of information and expertise when it comes to kit...

Nan Cole is a foraging expert based in San Luis Obispo, California, and the resident forager for Ventana Big Sur. She leads foraging walks, both urban and rural, she educates people about the do’s and don’ts of wildcrafting, and she cooks and bakes with her finds. In fact, one of the things that attracted me to Nan’s work was a photo on her Instagram page, @foragerslo, featuring a beautiful macaro...

Amanecer Eizner and Wes Cooke are two of the minds and hearts behind Hidden Kitchen in Cambria and Cayucos, California. Amanecer grew up at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, the famous property that is, as Wikipedia puts it, a “non-profit American retreat center and intentional community which focuses on humanistic alternative education.” Esalen was ground zero for the New Age movement, so it’s always...

When artist and food illustrator Anna Takahashi was young, her doctors discovered she suffered from a kidney condition called nephrotic syndrome. By way of treatment, Anna had to basically abstain from salt for one year. In her hospital bed, and throughout that year, she drew images of the foods she craved: snacks, pasta, pizza, etc. In the process, she fell in love with food illustration, and tod...

Fani and Peter Gau own and operate the San Luis Oriental Market, a specialty and import grocery store in San Luis Obispo, California. Peter’s parents Sim and Meng Gau founded the shop in 1992 and ran it until 2017, when he and his wife Fani took over. Since then, they’ve built a customer base that includes a new generation of customers. The market always offered Asian sauces, spices, noodles and c...

Matt Dees is the winemaker for three Santa Barbara County wine labels: the luxury brand Jonata, based in Ballard Canyon; The Hilt, based in the Santa Rita Hills; and The Paring, which blends juice not otherwise used for the other two brands. Matt is also a self-professed “plant person,” and he has the resume to prove it. Born in Kansas City, Matt attended the University of Vermont to study soil sc...

Mateo Rogers and Brittney Yracheta are the chef-owners behind Momotaro Ramen, a noodle restaurant in the Paso Market Walk in Paso Robles, California. I met Brittney and Mateo while writing a story about steamed buns. At the time, they shared a mushroom hirata bun with me, and it was one of those flavor moments where a taste really stops you in your tracks: it was so, so rich and concentrated, with...

Ali Rush is a certified sommelier, wine educator, and owner of 15 degrees C wine shop in Templeton, California. I first met Ali when I was trying to take what’s called the WSET exam, a certification for wine experts. I had heard from someone that a new little wine shop next door to Trader Joe’s in Templeton would host the exam. I looked them up and called, and that new little wine shop was Ali’s 1...

Rancher Daniel Sinton of Avenales Ranch & Winery (Instagram: @avenalesranch ) and Jensen Lorenzen of Larder Meat Co. (Instagram: @lardermeatco ) come on the podcast to talk about their personal experiences with the imminent unsustainability of the nation’s meat supply chain, and what we as consumers can do to move markets. From Jensen and Daniel: What can be done now by everyone who hears this epi...

Matt Cross Tap Takeover Episode Cait and Eric Johnson are the owners and winemakers behind Ann Albert Wines, based out of San Luis Obispo. In fact, they’re my neighbors - they live right around the corner with their darling baby daughter. Eric is also the head winemaker at Talley Vineyards, a benchmark winery for the Central Coast where he’s worked for 16 years. And Cait works in marketing at a cr...

Matt Cross Tap Takeover Episode Sherry Elliston is a registered dietician and certified diabetes educator, as well as a professor in the Food Science and Nutrition Department at Cal Poly State University. She is a respected and passionate expert who works with patients, especially new moms with diabetes. We talked a lot about gestational diabetes (which I had), my bizarrely high cholesterol (which...

Matt Cross Tap Takeover Episode Six years ago, I met a chef who told me about how he foraged for acorns to make bread, pancakes, and even distilled spirits. He completely captured my interest from the first conversation, and I followed up to do a story on him for Life & Thyme Magazine. In the process, I learned so, so much more about Chef Eric Olson, and I got the impression his repository of stor...

Matt Cross Tap Takeover Episode Molly Cano is the Tourism Manager for the City of San Luis Obispo, which means she has to communicate constantly about what makes SLO a wonderful — and wonderfully delicious — place. Whether residents realize it or not, the desirability of SLO is closely linked to its success as a tourist destination. The accommodations and food service industry is the third-largest...

Matt Cross Tap Takeover Episode Bladesmith Cameron Alarcio is so very cool. The moment he showed up with all his knives, Matt and I were complete putty in his hands. Cameron started making knives as his meticulous grandfather had before him. For his day job, Cameron teaches social studies and makers elective for 7th and 8th graders, and nights and weekends, he plays with knives, no joke. He explai...

Matt Cross Tap Takeover Episode Matt and I appreciate Jacque and Ryan Fields of Wild Fields Brewhouse because while they make and sell IPAs, they also make and sell so much more than that. Jacque and Ryan brought several beers over for us to taste, and Matt and I enjoyed every one of them. The Pine Mountain Monolith Brown Ale was my favorite — almost all of their beers are named after spots on the...

Matt Cross Tap Takeover Episode Together with his cousin and business partner, Troy Larkin, Donovan Schmit owns Pappy McGregor’s Gastropub, Fish Gaucho Restaurant, Eleven Twenty-Two Cocktail Lounge & Speakeasy, and the new Cane Tiki Room, all in downtown Paso Robles. Each of these businesses manifested in a special way, whether inspired by pub nights, a trip to Tulum, the aesthetic of Prohibition-...

Matt Cross Tap Takeover Episode Janell Dusi is the winemaker behind J. Dusi wines, and part of an enviable legacy. Her great-grandparents came to Paso Robles from Italy in the early 1900s and planted Zinfandel across their spacious property. The following two generations kept at it, farming vines and selling to some of the biggest, most iconic brands in the wine industry, names like Ridge and Turl...

Matt Cross Tap Takeover Episode Ash Management owns and operates many, many restaurants and bars across the Central Coast, including the Frog & Peach Pub, Mother’s Tavern, Shell Beach Brewhouse, Rooster Creek Tavern, Mason Bar & Kitchen, Creaky Tiki, Milestone Tavern, and Bull’s Tavern. In fact, Bull’s Tavern is where it all began for Ash Management owner Billy Hale, who started as a janitor there...