Culture & Flavor

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Kaitlin Guerin, a New Orleans-based Pastry Chef and Baker with an artistic dance background and an affinity for creativity and science. After attending the pastry program at The Culinary Institute of America and working in Michelin-star kitchens in Denmark and California, Guerin returned home to New Orleans just before the pandemic to groun...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Givonna Joseph, Founder and Director of Opera Creole. Ms. Joseph is committed to the culture of New Orleans, the city of her birth. This is most evident in her research on 19th-century classical music of New Orleans's Free People of Color. As Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning  OperaCréole ,    &nbsp...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with DJ Soul Sister @djsoulsister an internationally-known, veteran DJ artist, whose broadcast programs and live performances feature her personal collection of thousands of vinyl records, which earned her a spot in the book  Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting . A native of #NewOrleans, Soul Sister has hosted her Soul Power...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Nando Chang, a Peruvian-born chef and restaurateur behind behind Michelin-starred Itamae AO in Miami. A 2025 James Beard Foundation Award winner for “Best Chef: South,” he has achieved national recognition for both introducing and redefining Nikkei (Peruvian-Japanese) cuisine in Miami. Born in Chiclayo, Peru, and raised by his grandparents,...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Retang Phaahla and her mother, Nondumiso, co-founders of Setšong Tea Crafters, an Award Winning Agri-business and vehicle for development of natural indigenous flora found in the natural landscapes of South Africa, more prominently within the rural areas of Limpopo. The enterprise stimulates the economy in a collaboration with rural cooperative...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Dr. Naa Oyo A. Kwate, a writer and interdisciplinary scholar with wide ranging interests in Black urban life. Raised in Chicago by Ghanaian immigrant parents. She is the author of the short work and edited volume  Burgers in Blackface: Anti-Black Restaurants Then and Now  (2019) and  The Street: A Photographic Field Guide to American Inequa...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Big Kitty Xue, a 27-year-old Chinese chef, born and raised in Shanghai and now based between New Orleans and Los Angeles. Known for curating intimate Chinese private dinner parties that spotlight delicate, seldom-seen regional dishes in mainstream America. After moving to the U.S. and witnessing the American love affair with Chinese takeout, Bi...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Gabrielle Deculus, a cultural strategist, marketing architect, and the visionary founder of Saint Josephine, a creative consultancy and production house rooted in community and committed to social good. She brings almost 20 years of experience blending cultural storytelling, event production, and strategic marketing to help brands and organizat...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Curtis Doucette, Jr., owner and developer of the Dew Drop Inn, a restored music venue and boutique hotel in New Orleans, Central City. A New Orleans native, Curtis is also the co-founder and CEO of Iris Development, a real estate firm focused on rehabilitating blighted properties and creating affordable housing in New Orleans and New York City....

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Dr. Aris Latham, a Panamanian-born raw food pioneer, chef and health & wellness influencer. Dr. Latham is known as the "father of gourmet ethical raw foods cuisine in America" and is the founder of Sunfired Foods, a raw, sun-powered lifestyle that emphasizes the life force of food. Latham's influence in the raw food movement started in 1979 wit...

  On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with George McCalman, artist, author, and creative director based in San Francisco and Grenada. McCalman’s background in the editorial world has been a foundation of his storytelling, and his decision to cultivate his fine art practice alongside brand and strategy work reframed his perspective and synthesized the importance of design in his pr...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Theresa McCulla, 2025 James Beard Foundation Semi-Finalist and curator at Mars, Incorporated. McCulla served as the Curator of the American Brewing History Initiative at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. She also worked as an Arcadia Fellow for Harvard Library, Food Literacy Project Coordinator at Harvard Univer...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Justin Robinson is a Grammy award-winning musician and vocalist, cultural preservationist, and historic foodways expert about his latest project, German Soul and their mutual German lineage. Robinson grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina. Influenced by the musical tastes of his grandparents, he grew to love a diversity of musical styles. Robinson...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Puerto Rican Chef Carlos Portela. Chef Carlos is from Caguas, Puerto Rico. After many career experiences across the globe, Chef Carlos Portela founded his life project, Orujo Taller. His avant-garde style ranges from primitive to modern, using endemic ingredients to Puerto Rico and pre-colonial influences. He bases his cooking methods on temper...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with St. Lucian native Nina Compton, Chef/Owner of gastronomic gems Compère Lapin and BABs in New Orleans, along with her fast-casual restaurant, Nina’s Creole Cottage in Caesar’s New Orleans about her recently released cookbook, KWÉYÒL/CREOLE. Since her flagship restaurant, Compère Lapin opened in 2015, the restaurant has garnered critical acclaim...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Chef Sean Sherman Founder/Senior Director of Vision & Strategic Partnerships, NĀTIFS Founder/CEO, The Sioux Chef and Owamni by The Sioux Chef about a recent visit to Italy, Decolonizing American food systems and their love for Prince. Sherman is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, Chef Sean Sherman focuses on the revitalization and evolution...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with DJ Lynnee Denise about the legacy of Black music. Denise is a global practitioner of sound, language, and Black Atlantic thought, Lynnée Denise is an Amsterdam-based writer and interdisciplinary artist from Los Angeles, California. Shaped by her parent’s record collection and the 1980's. Denise’s work traces and foregrounds the intimacies of un...

Jim is at home at every level, whether as a six-time USA delegate to Slow Food’s Terra Madre in Italy, a visitor to Cuba to study organic farming, extensive work in urban agriculture, or planting on his 30-acre farm. Jim maintains that the local food and sustainable agriculture movement is the foundation of a sustainable community. As a scuba diver and photographer, Jim has traveled widely to capt...

  On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella speaks with Chef Noni, a Chef, mother, healer, teacher, event coordinator, facilitator, a community activist and leader in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Great Mother at Noni’s Home Dish is the portal used to reconnect food and people, rekindling kinship between our people and the land through unorthodox (Forgotten) culinary food experiences, story...

On this episode of Culture and Flavor, Zella reflects on her visit to Tapi Tapi African Ice Cream in Capetown, South Africa. Tapiwa Guzha, born in Zimbabwe has a PhD in molecular biology with a focus on plant genetics. Tapiwa is the founder and owner of Tapi Tapi Ice Cream nestled next to a bookstore in Cape Town, South Africa, Tapi Tapi ice cream is made with and inspired by African indigenous fl...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella reflects about her trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe with Chef Kudzai Bingepinge, a Chef, explorer, storyteller and co-founder of N/UM African Artisanal Salts. Kudzai is a key figure in the movement to elevate African gastronomy and culture through flavor, aiming to showcase the continent's rich culinary traditions and heritage. Kudzai is also the co-...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Leon Bates about Black Doctors during the late 19th century and early 20th century, including  his research on her great grandfather Dr. Joseph Henry Ward. Bates' research focuses on U.S. history of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (GAPE), the end of Reconstruction to the Great Depression (1877-1929). His research concentrates on the Urba...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Dr. Guido Marcelle, a world renowned pharmacognosist, farmer and Grenadian about his culture and passion for botany.    Dr. Marcelle is retired and is now a practicing natural farmer/ environmentalist and instructor in farming and sustainable agriculture, science, and innovation, particularly to youths and women. He worked with the Governme...

On this episode, Zella interviews personal chef and caterer Chef Benjamin “BJ” Dennis . Dennis was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, and infuses the flavors and culture of the lowcountry into his native Gullah Geechee cuisine, bringing a new taste to an ever expanding culinary palate of the southern U.S. What differentiates Chef BJ’s food from his contemporaries in “southern” cooking...

On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Dr. David Katerere , Research Platform Chair of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Advancement in Africa (PBA2) at Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. He is the Co-Director of the recently established CSIR / TUT Cannabis and Hemp Research Centre . In this capacity, they provide contract extraction and formulation services for farmers...