CONSUMED with Jaime Lewis

Illustrator and epicure Greg Clarke describes writing and illustrating his book, A Sidecar Named Desire: Great Writers and the Booze That Stirred Them, his favorite cocktail, and what it’s like to see his work in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and The Wall Street Journal. @greg_clarke / gregclarke.com Also, have a look at the episode page for Greg Clarke on letsgetconsumed.com to see...

Fig Good Food is a small but might eatery that serves farm-to-table breakfast and lunch, while providing vocational and employment opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Chef Chris Dillow and kitchen staff member Evan Toohey sat down to discuss pushing past comfort zones, serving more than just good food, and Gordon Ramsey. @figatcourtneys / figgoodfood.org Don'...

Beloved Central Coast winemaker Mike Sinor drops by to talk about growing up on a junkyard, falling in love with Burgundy, and the many pitfalls and triumphs of pioneering a vineyard one mile from the ocean. @sinorlavallee / sinorlavallee.com

Chef and restaurateurs Daisy and Greg Ryan talk about meeting and working at a three-Michelin restaurant in New York City, what it's like to buy a restaurant in your home town, and how childbirth is way harder than anything else. @bellslosalamos / bellsrestaurant.com

Jenn Harris talks about being the #lafriedchickenqueen and her new series “The Bucket List,” her education as a journalist, her relationship with the legendary food critic Jonathan Gold, and about that one time she upset Chrissy Teigen. @jenn_harris_ / The Bucket List on YouTube Check out a YouTube trailer for Jenn's show The Bucket List on her episode page at letsgetconsumed.com .

Brewery founder David Walker and I talk about the differences between wine people and beer people, the history of American craft brewing, and what an Englishman eats and drinks for his final meal. @firestonewalker / firestonebeer.com

Sarah Deiter owns Makers & Allies, an award-winning design and branding studio producing exclusively for the wine, craft & spirits industry. A graduate of the Cal Poly studio art program, she and her husband, Garrett, manage a team of 15 people, from designers and copywriters to web developers and social media managers, all with a focus on alcohol beverage and increasingly other products, too. Sar...

Sandi Sigurdson is a leader in the San Luis Obispo community, having served as the executive director of Leadership San Luis Obispo, the San Luis Obispo Symphony, and ECOSLO. Sandi is also a recovering alcoholic, crediting much of her success to the 21 years she’s spent in a 12-step program. We talked about her recent recognition as a Congressional Woman of the Year from Congressman Salud Carbajal...

Robin Wolf manages the bar at The Hatch Bar and Rotisserie in Paso Robles, in addition to producing craft bitters with her company SLO Bitter Co, consulting on cocktail lists for bars and restaurants, and competing on the international mixology circuit. We talked about growing up in a large family here on the Central Coast, her theater background, and the decade she spent living in New York. Websi...

Dare 2 Dream Farms belongs to Jeremy and Megan Raff, whose humble chicken egg operation on family property became a garden, a chicken coop-building business, a WWOOF host, a farmstand and CSA, an AirBnB property, and much more. I spoke with them about their beginnings, how Jeremy’s upbringing influenced their decision to start farming, and about celebrity chicken coop drop-offs in L.A. Website: da...

Jacob and Brooke Town own and operate The Spoon Trade in Grover Beach, Jacob as chef and Brooke as front-of-house manager and wine director., as well as Grover Beach Sourdough. For a decade, Brooke and Jacob worked in extremely high-end restaurants in San Francisco, but they left to open their own place, back home on the Central Coast. Jacob’s elevated American food and Brooke’s legendary hospital...

Gray Hartley and Frank Ostini make wine under the label Hartley-Ostini Wines, and Frank owns and operates the venerated Buellton barbecue restaurant, The Hitching Post II. Gray and Frank have been friends since 1976, when Santa Barbara Wine Country was just beginning to emerge. We sat together at the Hitching Post 2 and discussed how both men grew up, Gray’s commercial fishing career, Frank’s educ...

Chef Golzar Barrera is of Persian descent, but she indulges her love for Japanese cuisine by making and selling ramen through pop-ups with her catering business, All Purpose Flower, in Solvang, California. Since arriving in Solvang three years ago, she has expanded her catering work significantly for events and private clients, in addition to building her ramen pop-ups, which are unprecedented in...

Father Ian Delinger is the priest at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in San Luis Obispo, as well as the host of a radio show called “Playing With Food,” which dives into the food culture, history, and people of California’s Central Coast. We talked about the time he spent living in England, how he learned to compose radio stories, and about how to help someone who is grieving. Website: Playing With...

Captain Mark Tognazzini is a commercial fisherman out of Morro Bay who’s been on the ocean for over 40 years. Captain Mark was born into a family of ten children descended from Swiss-Italian immigrants. Living near the ocean, he caught the fishing bug at a young age and followed a career path into commercial fishing. Later, he built a direct-to-consumer fish market and two seafood restaurants as w...

Antonio Diaz is a young entrepreneur who started the “culinary storytelling” journal Life & Thyme Magazine as a hobby. Today, it is an influential international publication. Based out of Los Angeles, Antonio and his team have most recently won a third Emmy for their PBS series, The Migrant Kitchen, which explores California's booming food scene through the eyes of a new generation of chefs whose c...

The owner and chef behind Ember in Arroyo Grande, Brian Collins knew he wanted to start a restaurant from a young age, but it took a charmed moment at the back door of Berkeley’s famed Chez Panisse Restaurant to get the ball rolling. Brian discusses growing up in Arroyo Grande, attending culinary school as a young father, his long partnership with his wife Harmony Collins, and the rumor that a liv...

Gessica and Alberto Russo, owners of Flour House Pizza Bar and Pastaria in San Luis Obispo, have devoted their lives to the craft of pizza napoletana. The Russos joined me to discuss what makes that foodway so special, how they met as teacher and student in Italy, and about the importance of Old World informing New World, and vice versa. We also chat a bit about movies, aperitivo hour, and key rul...

Wine writer and editor Matt Kettmann shares how he manages to work for both the Santa Barbara Independent and Wine Enthusiast Magazine, what it was like to be a reporter during the Michael Jackson trials, and some of his favorite in-the-field stories (eg firing machine guns in Armenia, impala roadkill in Uganda, etc). Website: winemag.com/taster/matt-kettmann Twitter: @mattkettmann

Libby Parker is a registered dietitian in San Luis Obispo and her recent book, Permission to Eat , explores the rampant issue of eating disorders, particularly among college students. She sat down with me to talk about her own history of disordered eating, the professor who changed her relationship to food, and why she chose to put macarons on the cover of her book. Website: notyouraveragenutritio...

Distiller Trevor Peterson has made Bixby Gin for several years through his label, Lloyd Distillery, but it wasn’t until very recently that he ditched his day job in software sales to go full-time with it. He talks about how scary it was to take the leap, about his deep Italian roots in San Francisco, about how his parents would punish him by taking his tools away as a kid, and about how his love f...

Spinaca Farms president Zack Andrade grows vegetables commercially on California’s Central Coast. After a major setback for the business, Zack turned Spinaca Farms around with a simple idea that has changed the way he sees agriculture. With heart and wit to spare, Zack shared with me how he grew up in King City, studied Ag Business at Cal Poly, and why he was up in the middle of the night picking...

Sheila Spector has lived and cooked all over the U.S., both in her own kitchen, in commercial kitchens, culinary shops, synagogues, and community centers. A dyed-in-the-wool cook, Sheila once sold her rugula to Dean & Deluca in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. and continues to sell it each year at San Luis Obispo’s Apples & Honey Festival, hosted by the Jewish Community Center Federation. Sheila and I...

Unlikely winemaker James Sparks grew up Mormon in Idaho. We talked about how the faith of his childhood led to becoming a winemaker for Liquid Farm in Lompoc and for his own label, Kings Carey. James shared his experience as one of eight children in a town of 300 people, how he wound up on the Central Coast, and how he wooed his wife despite a distinct lack of “game.” Website: kingscarey.com , liq...

Hayley Cain is a writer and punk rock musician from San Luis Obispo. She was the Flavor Writer at New Times Weekly for about five years, and her voice became synonymous with the local food and drink culture. Today, Hayley’s still writing, but a lot of her time is devoted to her band, Hayley and the Crushers, which tours all over the U.S. We discussed the financial reality of being a freelance writ...