My Food Job Rocks!

Back in November, I saw posts from Dino Borri on Linkedin and all this buzz about opening Eataly’s newest location in Los Angeles. Conveniently, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to message him saying if I could interview him at the spot. It turned out, I was able to go to Eataly, take a tour of the fantastic new LA location, interview Dino, and did such a good job, I ate the heck out of their food. Spon...

In most of my recent interviews, when I ask about technology, I’m always hearing about Clean Meat! So when I saw that there was an actual book coming out on the topic, I used my awesome network to get the author, Paul Shapiro. I have to give my thanks to Ken Botts for kindly hooking me up with this awesome interview. Paul Shapiro is an animal rights advocate who has taken an interest in Clean Meat...

So this is kinda cool, if you recall our very first episode, we interviewed Nicole, and now, artistically timed, we interview her after 100 episodes. This episode is a bit different because it’s a return guest, and it’s much more conversational. Especially because Nicole and I know each other well, and talk fairly frequently A lot of podcasts do this, especially those with the same networks. I act...

I’ll be talking about this episode in three different sections: One will be about how we produce this podcast, two will be a sort of overview of the most common answers our 100ish guests have given on My Food Job Rocks, and the last part will be about what we plan to do for our future.     Sponsor – FoodGrads If you are even just a little bit interested in a career in food & beverage, you should j...

As some of you know, whenever I’m sent for business, I try my best to meet with people wherever I can. This time, it took me to Chicago. So I took a few days off and asked if I could come into the IFT office in the heart of Chicago. I talked to a few people on staff due to my role as Chair of the Cactus IFT section, but I also was able to get an amazing interview with two IFT employees. Karen Nach...

Hey everyone, just a quick note before the episode begins. We have a survey up for My Food Job Rocks that will help us plan for 2018. We need your input on how we’re doing so far, and we also have some really cool ideas we want you to approve in 2018. For your efforts completing this monster 40 question survey, we will be offering a chance to win an Amazon Echo. I just got one, they make your life...

Hey everyone, just a quick note before the episode begins. We have a survey up for My Food Job Rocks that will help us plan for 2018. We need your input on how we’re doing so far, and we also have some really cool ideas we want you to approve in 2018. For your efforts completing this monster 40 question survey, we will be offering a chance to win an Amazon Echo. I just got one, they make your life...

After 5 years as a corporate food scientist, Tara decided it was time for a change. She decided to explore the wine industry. If you’re in any agricultural university who has a wine and viticulture program, you might have heard stories of the students going all over the world to get Harvest Internships, a time where the vineyards need people to help harvest and process wine from grapes! Tara did e...

I knew Rachel before I even graduated and she didn’t know me. She might have actually been the first person I’ve ever seen who was a consultant. I think it’s because she took advantage of the online space and I stumbled onto one of her articles, or e-books, or something. Anyways, if you’re in NorCal, and you don’t know Rachel Zemser, you might actually be living under a rock. Her presence online a...

Rachel and I have known each other for quite a while and I am finally glad to do this jam packed episode with her. We recorded over 2 hours of content and I found the first part so good, that I had to share it with the world. In this segment, we talk a ton about bringing products to life, and the practicalities and pitfalls it takes to actually get started making a product. This includes having pe...

I’m glad after 94 episode we have someone to represent the packaging side of. Derryl Kostynuik lives in a small town north of Calgary and he works with a lot of food companies to bring out the best in their brand. How do you do that? With creative and innovative packaging. Derryl gives some great examples of brands that went to him to get their packaging reworked. So in this episode, we go into a...

I’m a big fan of interviewing small businesses that are rocking it and Pepper North is no exception. For one, I can ask them practical questions on how to get started and I get really grounded and tactical answers. Another reason? I get to try their amazing products. Ana Stevens found me on linkedin and asked to be interviewed. She then sent me some of her amazing products for me to try, big fan o...

Weber Stibolt contacted me on our My Food Job Rocks facebook page and I got him on the show. He is a fanatic in both the coffee realm and the quality realm and I learned a ton about what makes coffee great. Weber shares his passion for agriculture and food science even sharing how he got into food science and how he’ll be teaching the next generation. Being of a very technical mindset, you will al...

This title was inspired by this article If you’re a fan of this podcast, I talk about taco bell a lot and I finally got a chance to talk to the registered dietician from Taco Bell. And I did not hold back. I talk about pretty much everything from the Naked Chicken Chalupa to the Power Bowl and praised every single item on Taco Bell’s menu. But of course, there’s some takeaways. One huge thing I wa...

In the past couple of months, students and professionals have contacted me all over the country to ask for advice on how to apply their degree in food science. I answer via linkedin message, email, phone calls, or sometimes, even skype. Most students are scared to have their interview posted in public, but one rose up to the challenge. Undergraduate Kelly Pan from the Ohio State University has rea...

This is a special episode where I’ve had the opportunity for some students to ask me some questions. I’ve had many, but I chose these two episodes as great examples of the advice I give to students. So first up is Weslie Khoo, a PhD student who wants to know more about Product Developemnt and stuff like that. I do my best answering them and talk about my experience, but also name dropping a lot of...

I’m a big fan of talking to product developers because the more and more I talk to them, I realize they have the same problems I do! Sure maybe it’s rice, or gummies, or jerky, but once you realize the common thread of dealing with people, it makes it a lot easier to ask for advice. And that’s kind of the commonality in this episode. I exchange with Brian all sorts of helpful product development t...

If you want to know ALL ABOUT CROWDFUNDING, you must listen to this episode. Let me introduce you to Cheryl Clements, one of the most delightful people I’ve ever interviewed. She owns the startup, Pie Shell, which helps food startups raise capital using crowdfunding. What makes Pieshell a unique crowdfunding platform is that it is super focused on food. All they fund is food companies but more imp...

  I think this might actually be our first quality manager on our podcast and I am very excited that it’s Bryan. He’s had over 25 years working as a Quality expert in the dairy industry. Bryan is also offering his new book: The New Manager Mindset to our viewers and all you have to do is go to fsmaexpert.com and just pay for shipping. I read this book, as I’m thinking of management, and it really...

As the title says, this is another Food Safety Fanatic that I just loved talking to! Still young in his career, Ben Chapman does so many things in his field such as being a professor, writing on a blog, and of course, co-hosting a podcast with our previous guest, Don Schaffner. Ben’s focus on food safety is on the food service side as a lot of his work deal with how to have chefs and other people...

Dr. Don Schaffner is an amazing food safety scientist who’s the best in class. In fact, let me name youa  few of his amazing awards: You can read his amazing biography here What’s also super cool, is that Don and his co-host Ben do a whole lot of extracurricular activities to promote food safety and one of their favorite things to do is podcasting. For over 4 years, they’re been doing discussions...

This episode is a bit different, and it acts more of a conversation, but it’s a darn good conversation. I met Ronald talking on Shapr, a swipy-like app for business people and just to let you know, I get a lot more meetings on Shapr than the other ones and they’re productive as well. Ronald has been on TEDEx, he was an ex-magician, has done several media expenditures, web design work, and has a hu...

Anton found me randomly through linkedin, found my website, and scheduled an interview all in a span in 2 weeks. Oh, did I mention he’s from Israel? It was absolutely amazing talking to someone my age from across the country and learning about the differences and similarities between how the food industry works. You’ll learn a little bit about the pros and cons of the Israeli university system, a...

Hey everyone! This is a bonus episode! It's also really long. Kim from Peas on Moss and I recorded this a long time ago, but I figured I would post this since we've been talking about careers a lot on the podcast/blog. So I talk a bit less modest in this episode, and maybe I'm a bit too honest this episode. Whether you agree with me on the points I make, I hope you find value in them. If you disag...

How can I describe Michael McDonnell? He is transparent, technical, and full of energy. Not bad for a 25 year old running his own recruitment company. His job is to reach out and find what food companies are looking for and I have some good news for those of you listening, these people are looking for experts. I grill Michael on all sorts of crazy questions that I felt like when I looked for a job...