My Food Job Rocks!

Today we have Jaime Reeves, R and D Manager for Del Monte Foods. Funny story, I think I might have actually met her as an undergraduate. Jaime brings a ton of knowledge as she has developed products for huge companies and well, she has some interesting stories to tell. Jaime is a high energy, positive woman, and such a huge vat of knowledge. Her child-like enthusiasm is just so refreshing.  If you...

Today’s episode is with Kimber Lew, R and D Coordinator at La Terra Fina. They make quiches and dips. Kimber is a graduate from UC Davis and is pretty involved in her chapter at Northern California IFT’ section. The biggest highlight in this interview is Kimber’s experience with research chefs in her previous company. They taught her not only how to cook, but to taste which I think all product dev...

Today I interview my friend and alumni Jocelyn Ngo to the podcast and we get to talking about dreams and ambitions, and the like. Jocelyn and I go way back. I knew her as a high energy stranger back at freshman orientation! Throughout the years, she was also very involved in Cal Poly, rising in the ranks of the food science clubs, doing product development competitions, even being on IFTSA’s board...

Today we ahem, dive in the world of sushi Kaz works at Breakthrough Sushi, where hosts special classes, caterings, and team building events where he teaches people how to make sushi. Kaz’ innovative sushi concept is awesome and he really takes the time to teach his guests the art of sushi, and then let them do it, and then let them eat it! I actually crashed in one of his classes at Miele, or Roch...

In this episode, we have Rachel Chetham, the CEO of her own consulting firm, The Foodscape Group. She combines media, policy, and nutritional sciences to make an amazing food communication platform. This episode is a bit different, one.. because I messed up the audio, Apparently, I had to move my audio equipment halfway through the interview and recording on my end just stopped working! I panicked...

Today we dive in the life of food sales and marketing expert, Eric Dunn, who is the director of Marketing and Innovation at Nutrifusion, a patent-pending super fruit and vegetable powder. Sales and Marketing have always interested me. In college, it wasn't really talked about yet, but if you're in product development, it's half the battle! Sales and Marketing is the lifeblood of a company and pair...

Welcome to the My Food Job Rocks Podcast with me, Adam Yee, where we showcase amazing food jobs and interview the passionate people who drive the industry forward and this is episode 51! We have a special guest for you today. A top scientist at an amazing food company who’s had an amazing journey. He grew up in Nandi, a district in Kenya, went to China for graduate school, and now lives in Germany...

Key Takeaways How leaders use family as a support network How to not only innovate, but how to introduce new ideas Should you incubate or join a mastermind if you choose to start on your own? Other Links Pina Romolo, CEO from Pico La Cucina  Rohini Dey, Founder from Vermillion Naz Athina Kallel, CEO from Save Good Food Crystal MacKay, CEO from Farm and Food Care Lisa Tse, CEO from Sweet Mandarin M...

Today I have Raf Peeters who owns his own quality technology company. These guys basically solve problems on the quality control realm of things Here’s a quick bio on their company Qcify is a young and dynamic company built by an enthusiastic group of industry experts. For many years our founders have worked closely with food processing companies in the fields of automation and imaging technology....

I had the opportunity to talk to the amazing Mike Hewitt who runs his own chef recruiting agency. They are Hospitality Recruiters specializing in dining room, culinary and corporate salaried positions. Mike’s background is kind of cool. He’s worked in the family restaurant, went to culinary school in Switzerland, then moved to the United States for a restaurant job. He then started his own restaur...

Today we have Lisa Tse, CEO of the Chinese restaurant, Sweet Mandarin in Manchester, United Kingdom… well… she does a lot more than just that. The Tse family has done the impossible: in 12 years, Sweet Mandarin has an award winning restaurant, their own factory making sauces for the Queen of England, and they write best selling cookbooks. This is an interview you don’t want to miss as Lisa really...

Today’s guest has been so supportive in our promotional efforts and I love her energy! Culinary Events Manager Rachelle Boucher, is probably one of the most passionate people I know. She really puts 110% percent into her job and you’ll learn throughout the interview all of the interesting experiences she’s been a part of. Before being a wonderful Event Planner at Miele, she was actually a private...

oday Crystal McKay, CEO of Farm Food Care pleasantly converses with us the importance of stories. She’s a farm girl and has worked with food all her life. Her job at Farm Food Care is to really inform the Canadian people about their food system. Kind of what this podcast and foodgrads are doing. I loved talking to Crystal because she really emphasizes how stories are the best way to convey informa...

In this episode, I introduce Alan Marson, Managing Director of New Food Innovation a sort of… Illuminati? Of the British food system. He and a few other people are really trying to shake up the European food system. Here’s a quick summary from linkedin: "New Food Innovation is consultancy group with over 200 years of industrial experience and skills across all areas of the food industry, having ca...

"How much ugly and excess vegetables and fruit can 7 local farms and 27 chefs save in 3 months? Over 5000 pounds!" We have another startup for you today. Naz Athina Kallel started Eu Herd, San Diego's first marketplace for ugly food. Naz shares with us an amazing story, she decided to start this company after recovering from cancer treatment and getting a second chance at life, wanted to make an i...

In this episode, we have Amit Sinha, Process Innovation Engineer at Watson, an ingredient company. This company is particularly fun because they products are so innovative. Most of their ingredient capabilities are based off of a specific need in the market. If you go to any food science based expos like IFT or Supply Side West, you gotta check out their booth. A giant, white, two story booth and...

We are back to our regular show where we interview amazing food jobs. This next batch of episodes are some unique ones, and I think I’m getting better at asking questions maybe. Today we have Haley Richardson from Dr. Pepper/ Snapple Gorup talking about well, being a soda scientist. Have you ever wondered how Soda is made on a bench top? Or how new flavors get idealized? This episode explains all...

We wrap up all 8 episodes of the graduate school series with a jam packed episode of amazing takeaways and pratical advice about graduate school.  Most of this episode is a recording from the scripts below: 10 Things I Learned From Interviewing Graduate Students (Part 1) 10 Things I Learned From Interviewing Graduate Students (Part 2) on Thursday   The Ultimate Graduate School Timeliine is posted...

Welcome to the My Food Job Rocks Podcast with me, Adam Yee, where we showcase amazing food schools and interview the passionate people who drive the industry forward and this is episode 39! First I gotta say, welcome home This is out final interview for the graduate series and I wanted to interview someone kind of different. Though most of our interviewees are Food Science related in some way, I w...

Today’s guest is an old classmate back in the college days and I actually met her at a Chinese college club. Fiona Salim came from Indonesia, studied at San Luis Obispo, got an awesome job at Bakersfield, California, and now is in the Netherlands’ getting an advanced degree. When I heard she was in another country, I had to ask her to be on the show. And the information that you’ll get from this o...

Alright guys, I hope you enjoyed Ireland, now let’s go to India… and then back to the United States. For our graduate student series, we have Deepak Kumar, who came from India to do graduate school. I really wanted to get an international student who came from a foreign country to the United States because, well, you see them a lot. Deepak is also just getting a masters degree which might interest...

Very jolly guest we have this time. John Gleeson lives and studies in Dublin, Ireland and has been all his life. What I found amazing about his accomplishments is his involvement in the IFTSA board. I think it’s important to get a perspective on how other graduate schools work, especially out side of the United States and John explains the differences very well. Throughout this interview, we have...

Another episode of our graduate student series and this week, we are featuring Audrey Girard, who is doing her PhD at Texas A and M. Audrey does an amazing job talking about her prior experiences and she had three different internships before deciding to go to graduate school. Also, she gives awesome book recommendations like Lab Girl and The Man Who Fed the World. These are definenelty on my ever...

This is our second interview for our Graduate Series and we bring you another great graduate student who is in her final year of graduate school. Caroline Campbell’s interview gives some great, actionable tips on how to start your graduate process and this can be found on our new writing project, the Weekly Stew. The title is “Actionable tips on researching graduate school”. Caroline also does an...

Thank you for joining me for the first episode of the Graduate Student series and we’re kicking it off with a bang with a friend of mine that I kinda knew at my time in undergraduate. About Amy DeJong Amy DeJong is a PhD candidate in food science at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.  Her work focuses on understanding phase transitions of sugar –free sweeteners in confections. Amy earned a BS i...