ShandeeLand

Gayle Rigione is CEO and Co-Founder of Allergy Force. This multi-functional app has everyday features you'll use all the time and emergency features that could save your life if you make a mistake.  Her mission is to make life easier for people with food allergies to live on the go with more confidence and less anxiety. Her son was diagnosed with 14+ allergies in a world when food allergy inf...

Founder and CEO of Žana DeVine Hospitality, Žana had the privilege of being born into a fantastic hospitality family and grew up within the industry. This is where her passion for the world of hospitality began and while abroad gave her the incentive to earn a bachelor’s degree in Hospitality and a master’s degree in Hotel Management. Impressively, she also is fluent in four languages.  Žana DeVin...

Lindiwe Lewis, founder of 'The Allergy Table' blog and co-host on the 'Desserted' Podcast, shares her experiences as a food allergy sufferer. Growing up in an era where there was limited information about allergies resulted in feelings of isolation and anxiety. In order not to feel so alone she began her businesses that allow for connections with others.  Lindi talks about over...

Christopher Gould is Vice President of In-Park Revenue at SeaWorld San Diego.  He is responsible for the lead operations and strategy of food & beverage, retail, photo, and ancillary revenue at California's parks (including SeaWorld San Diego, Aquatica, and Sesame Place).  He shares his inside tips, hidden secrets, and favorite parts of the parks.  He even goes so far as to fulfill his th...

Kathlena is the Allergy Chef.  She has over 200 food allergies and intolerances.  She is down to 9 safe foods that she can eat.  Additionally, most of the members of her household also suffer from food allergies that are different from the rest.  Although she cannot eat the food, her mission is to help people find their safe foods.  This is a story of someone who faced many hardships growing up an...

Chef Stephan C. Baity is the Director of Culinary Campus Services for Wofford College. He is also the founder of Pop’s Secret Seasoning by Stephan C. Baity, a memorial to his dad.  And Chef Stephan’s business name is Graffiti Carving. He grew up in the kitchen, and cooking served dual purposes of feeding his family and his creative outlet.  He started doing carving competitions because he wanted t...

We are honored to have a driving force for the food allergy community, Priscilla Hernandez, join this week's episode. Her mission is to enlighten and educate people about food allergies, and she is succeeding in multiple ways. Her son, Zachy, has been diagnosed with multiple food allergies, and she shares their food allergy journey from Zacky's diagnosis to her advocacy work. She was ast...

The Senior Vice President of In-Park Resale at Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, Nancy Hamlin, shares her professional journey and experiences.  Logistics is what she is excellent at, and intense planning for large-scale events is where she is happiest. Her work in hospitality and the entertainment industry is impressive.  She shares the mistakes she never saw coming and lessons learned.  Nancy ta...

"Epi, You're My Best Friend" is written by the creative brilliance of Swapnil Patel.  He self-published this children's board book to help educate his daughter and other young children with food allergies on the importance of bringing epinephrine (Epi) everywhere. Swapnili's Café, which provides food allergy resources, is his side hustle to his work in advertising.  In thi...

We were honored to have Fazoli's Director of Culinary Innovation, Rick Petralia, join this week's episode. Chef Rick had a long and distinguished career in operations before taking on a role as chef. He shares his incredible journey from a math major to chef and how one cook calling in sick changed everything. He discusses the importance of cross-training and how working in operations ma...

Dr. Reneé Matthews is a medical doctor that does not practice medicine in the traditional sense but educates about health in all media forms. She is a medical expert and correspondent, a professional health educator, blogger, author, speaker, and host. She hosts "Out of Office with Dr. Reneé," a part of Outcome Health, and is seen in 45,000+ doctors' offices across the US. She also...

Chef Michael Mauri, Chef Instructor for Bistro 13 at East Valley Institute of Technology, has 30 years in the restaurant and hospitality arena.  He discusses the limitless career path possibilities and hospitality opportunities available to students today and Michael has done many throughout his notable career.  He shares his thoughts about teaching, mentoring, and instructing and how to get the b...

Kortney Kwong Hing was diagnosed with a peanut allergy as a young child and had multiple food allergies develop as an adult.  She also suffers from oral allergy syndrome, asthma, and eczema.  Kortney became involved in the allergy community by beginning the blog, Allergy Girl Eats.  After writing for many years, she felt that her personal story had been told and she searched for life balance. She...

Chef Justin Fields is Corporate Executive Chef and Director of Research and Development at Bonefish Grill & Bloomin’ Brands International™.  Justin is creative and artsy; he is passionate and inspiring.  And it all comes out in his love of cooking and is evident in this week’s conversation with Shandee.  Justin attended the Culinary Arts program in high school where his desire for the culinary...

Dr. Charise Grant Barnes is a clinical pharmacist who is passionately advocating and supporting individuals and families diagnosed with food allergies.  She combines her personal food allergy journey experiences with her pharmacy career and entrepreneur interests to provide a support system for others. Her mission is to bring awareness to food allergies, especially since her own son has been aller...

Lori Moussapour is a therapist, life coach, and educator.  She is the founder of To Empower U and its two specialty divisions, Food Allergy U and To Inspire U, specializing in food allergy support, education, and empowerment.  Her focus is to empower others to live fully despite a food allergy diagnosis.  She is especially committed to helping manage worry, stress, and anxiety by transforming pers...

Dr. Abby Herzig is CEO and Co-Founder of Belay, an innovative app to manage food allergies and confidently share important information with a network of caregivers.  A mom of three, one being a child with life threatening food allergies, she was troubled when handing him to someone else to care for him.  She recognized many safety gaps in daycares, preschools, and schools and mitigated her apprehe...

Michael Garozzo founded Garozzo’s Ristorante in 1989.  The restaurant business was a family business as his father, Salvatore and his uncle Alfio were waiters in fine restaurants all their lives and Michael followed his family’s traditions and started as a busboy at the age of 13.  Learning and being mentored by the best there is on the “Hill” in St. Louis, famous for its great Italian restaurants...

Lizzie Reynolds, owner and authorized vacation planner of both “Platinum Mouse” and “Pixie Lizzie Magical Food Allergy Travel Agent”, knows all things Disney.  Despite being adamantly against a vacation at Disneyland, she was persuaded to go and had her first true vacation and was able to worry less about her daughter’s multiple food allergies.  She started to make trips to Disney Parks monthly an...

Dr. Emily Williams Knight is the President and CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association and Education Foundation.   From third grade, her life's mission has been to provide hospitality and education. Her ambition propelled her notable career as the television show "Hotel" inspired it all.  Dr. Knight is impressively leading the restaurant industry through the COVID 19 pandemic by sec...

Dr. William Reisacher is an Otolaryngic Allergist at Weill Cornell Medical College who sees people with a wide range of ear, nose, throat, and allergy problems. While his clinical expertise lies in the diagnosis and management of airborne and food allergies in adults and children, he has also developed an allergy toothpaste to combat respiratory allergies.  The toothpaste is designed to integrate...

Chef Justin Benedict is an experienced plant-based food specialist with a demonstrated ability working in the health wellness, foodservice, and sustainable agriculture industries and is a developing partner with Local Alternative Foods.  Not preparing food ourselves has led to foods designed for preservation that are based on heavily processed ingredients. The nutritional destruction and high envi...

Hillary Tolle Carter is a food allergy mom and advocate, public relations specialist, speaker, writer, and community builder.  She has two boys, ages 8 and 10, both with multiple, life-threatening food allergies.   With the health challenges that both boys faced she immersed herself into her kids’ lives as mamas tend to do when taking on such great levels of worry.  It was a lot of stress and a lo...

Frank Idris, Vice President of Resort Operations, talks LEGOLAND.  Franks shares behind-the-scenes explorations, secrets, and not-to-miss experiences for an unbelievable adventure.  He talks a bit about the history and background of LEGOLAND that has made it the ultimate family destination.  Listen to Frank’s professional journey and how working in many of the hospitality positions allowed him to...

Phoebe Lapine is a food and health writer, gluten-free chef, speaker, and the voice behind the award-winning blog ‘Feed Me Phoebe’.  Phoebe’s debut memoir, ‘The Wellness Project’, chronicles her journey with the autoimmune disease, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.  She is also the host of the ‘SIBO Made Simple’ podcast and author of the new book by the same name which helps those diagnosed and fighti...