WORD OF MOUTH with Leiti Hsu

On WORD OF MOUTH this week, we head to Los Gatos, CA in April 2014 to talk with David Kinch, chef owner of the 2* Michelin Manresa. We’ll talk New Orleans—that’s where he first started cooking—at the legendary Commander’s Palace under chef Paul Prudhomme. It’s also the inspiration for his new casual spot The Bywater. Manresa has risen again from the ashes of a devastating restaurant fire—David shares with us how he’s grown; we begin with a reflection of the past year… plus, why chefs are like pirates. This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market. @leitihsu @heritage_radio #WOMshow [On his parent’s eating habits] "My mom tends to be less adventurous, particularly on the cooked temperatures of meat and fish, but she sure loves pinot noir, as do I." [8:30] [On beginnings] "I don’t think I’d be cooking if I hadn’t lived in New Orleans." [10:15] [On his “3 percent rule”] "On any given night there are going to be 3 perfect of the people who aren’t going to have a good experience, but that’s human nature." [13:20] [On his time outside of the kitchen] "I like to be outside and I like to be in or around the water. It makes me very happy and calm, surfing in the morning before coming to work." [28:30]

Korean food is incredible - full of fermented goodness and culinary tradition, but it's often overlooked. Find out how Hooni Kim is changing people's perceptions of Korean Food and elevating the cuisine on a brand new episode of WORD OF MOUTH. Chef Kim is the chef/owner of Hanjan and Danji, two restaurants that re-imagine Korean food in imaginative and inventive ways. Host Leiti Hsu Hamilton chats with chef Kim about his background in medicine, his transition to the kitchen and his passion for the food of Korea. "When i decided to give up medicine to become a chef, my mom didn't speak to me for a year." [25:00] "I am part teacher, part cook and part business owner. that's what a chef really is." [44:00] --Hooni Kim on WORD OF MOUTH

On this week’s WORD OF MOUTH with Leiti Hsu, we welcome Sabato Sagaria, Chief Restaurant Officer of The Union Square Hospitality Group, who’s just completed two big openings: the Southern-inspired bar Porchlight and Untitled restaurant in The Whitney Museum. Sabato shares how a cheeseburger in Indonesia at age 13 inspired him to go into hospitality. Also, we’ll talk business school rejection, landing in Aspen, and the documentary Somm. At the top of the show, we head to the Greenmarket with Daniela Soto-Innes as we get into the weeds—the yummy kind—like lambs quarters, which reminds her of home in Mexico. This week, we #WINEdown in-studio with Sabato, as he discusses rose and #DrinkPink at USHG with Rose 101, without getting too intellectual of course.This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market. On how a cheeseburger changed his life – 13:50 “I lived in Jakarta for a year at age 13, and my parents had a friend who the GM of the local five-star hotel. I was touring the hotel and was totally enamored – with the pastry shop, the rooftop swimming pool, and the cravings of food that reminded me of home. Here I was halfway around the world eating a cheeseburger with French fries, Heinz tomato ketchup, and an orange Fanta. I was so far from home but so connected, and I said ‘Hey, I want to do this for other people.’” On impressing dates – 17:15 “I had a girl I was on the cusp of dating, and her parents dropped her off at my house one evening, so I banished my parents upstairs to the second floor. We ate in the kitchen where I’d been slaving all day making spaghetti, meatballs, and tomato sauce, and I wowed her. She was giving me so much credit for everything I did, and then she goes to help clean and sees a Jell-O cheesecake box in the trash can and then thought I was a complete fraud. I had to talk her off the ledge and convince her that everything else I made was from scratch.” On passing the Master Sommelier exam – 31:00 “It’s all about perspective when you talk about sanity. There were definitely some casualties of the studying process, some girlfriends that took a side seat along the way to that journey.” On pre-Momofuku Asian mashup genius – 18:30 “I was a culinary hack back in the day. I had a dish I called Asian dip, which was a form of ramen noodles. I would take a loaf of French bread, break it in half and hollow it out, then cook the ramen noodles, toss them in butter, and put them inside the baguette. Then I’d have the broth on the side and dip the bread in there.” On Aspen’s wine community – 23:00 “It’s a competitive place, whether you’re training for a marathon or learning to ski, and you tend to find someone better than you to help you get better and compete with. That carries over into the wine world, where you see the community Jay Fletcher has created. People fly from all over the country to sit in Jay’s kitchen and taste with him. He’s like Yoda.” -- Sabato Sagaria on Word of Mouth

On this week’s WORD OF MOUTH, Leiti is joined by hospitality expert Alan Philips, who’s just left his post as Chief Marketing Officer of Morgans Hotels. In the past, he’s run his own consulting firm and worked with the likes of Myriad Group (TriBeCa Grille, Nobu) and Strategic Group (Tao and Lavo). Alan shares a preview of how to manifest your magic; his book The Rules of Magic comes out in 2016. Also, we’ll talk pop-ups, hardware vs. software, marketing in today’s crowded market, and what millennials want. At the top of the show, we talk this season’s strawberries at the Greenmarket with JJ Johnson, Chef de Cuisine at Cecil in Harlem and an Eater “Young Gun” and Forbes 30 Under 30. To #WINEdown, Leiti chats with Piora’s Kyle Ridington about Season 3 of “Champagne Made Me Do It,” a content series (Instagram: @champagnemademedoit) which will have you rethink the beloved bubbly. This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market. At the top of the show, ogle at spring vegetables at the Greenmarket with JJ Johnson, the Chef de Cuisine at Cecil in Harlem who was awarded an Eater “Young Gun,” given a coveted spot on the Forbes “30 Under 30” this year, and named a James Beard Rising Star. And to #WineDown, Leiti chats with Piora’s Kyle Ridington about season 3 of “Champagne Made Me Do it” and about what sets champagne apart from other sparkling wines. On scaling businesses – 20:00 I don’t know if cool is scalable. It’s very difficult to take something that’s really meaningful and really honest and make it really big, because inherently some of that is lost…The culture needs to grow faster than the business. On finding magic – 38:15 My purpose in life is to find and figure out what other people’s magic is and manifest that. Magic is something that is intangible but it’s something that people are willing to pay more for to have a connection with.

On this week’s WORD OF MOUTH with Leiti Hsu, owner Georgette Farkas and chef Chad Brauze of Rotisserie Georgette join the show. The two share stories of the Daniel Boulud family—the two met working at Daniel, which is also where Chad met his eventual wife. Also, they’ll talk El Bulli, European history, mathematics, and being an old soul. At the top of the show, we head the Greenmarket with Jehangir Mehta of Graffiti, as we talk stopping to smell (and eat) the roses. And to #WINEdown, we bring on LA’s Adam Vourvoulis, the former beverage director at Ludo Lefevre’s Trois Mec, on his wine and music picks for his Wine Raves. This program was brought to you by Escape Maker. On manifesting her college thesis– 22:29 I majored in European history, and I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the historical development of restaurants in Paris and where to eat after the revolution, so I really stayed on that path. On summer camp for cooks – 30:00 It was summer camp for cooks. You’d have to drive through these cliffs to get there, and none of the cooks have cars, so the waiters come by and pick up the carloads and that’s how everyone gets to work every day. On being an old soul – 37:00 I was so proper and old fashioned even as a little girl, so my father made up this fairytale where I was Little Lady Pemdrake of Pemdragon. I guess I’ve grown into that, although the castle is a restaurant now. -- Georgette Farkas on Word of Mouth

On this week’s WORD OF MOUTH with Leiti Hsu, we’re joined by Corey Lee, chef owner of 3-Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurants, Benu and Monsieur Benjamin. The James Beard Award winner shares the story about the moment being Michelin-starred sunk in, and how he was shaped by working with his mentor, the French Laundry’s Thomas Keller. Corey also tells us about when his dream of being a professional tennis player fell apart, but how that experience playing sports shaped his approach to cooking. Plus, we talk pottery, porridge, and our love of sea cucumbers. At the top of the show, we head to the Greenmarket with chef Exotic Table author Aliya Leekong to take a look at the spring’s first ramps and talk about the love of garlic. And then to #WINEDOWN, we’re joined (from Italy!) by Mauro di Maggio of Cantine San Marzano winery in Puglia, who tells us about his region’s wine-growing rise and his favorite local grapes. On realizing what it meant to be Michelin-starred [23:00] – “It really sank in when I gathered all the staff in the kitchen and I let them know. Seeing their reactions actually made it that much more emotional for me, seeing the look on their faces and knowing that they all felt they were so much a part of it.” On Benu’s culture his Asian American culture [26:00] – “I remember when I was young I would go to a friend’s house or something and their parent would be like ‘Hey, where are you from?’ and I’d be like ‘Huh, where am I from?’ I feel the same about when people ask me what kind of restaurant Benu is. It represents San Francisco culturally but ultimately its part of this American cuisine that’s open to different cultures and is constantly changing.” On moving to the US [29:00] – “I came here when I was five years old and that was an interesting age because you’re young enough where you’re going to embrace your surroundings as your own but you’re old enough that you have some memory of your native culture.” On working with Thomas Keller [36:00] – “I spent my twenties and became and adult in an environment that he cultivated. He was my true mentor. Our relationship changed over the years – it started as chef and cook and then it went to chef owner and his chef de cusine, and then it became great friends and now golfing buddies.” On his professional tennis dream [37:00] – “When I was younger my dream was to be a professional tennis player. I played competitively and traveled around the country but found out about the age of 12 that short Asian guys can’t really be pro tennis players. So that’s when I gave up on my athletic aspirations. But there’s something about competing and doing something that tested your limits that I really liked, and there was a sense of camaraderie in team sports, pushing each other to excel, and I think I find both those things as a chef.” --Corey Lee on WORD OF MOUTH

On this week’s WORD OF MOUTH, we LIVE in-studio we welcome Dirt Candy’s Amanda Cohen, who’s just opened the expanded second incarnation on the Lower East Side. When the veggie whisperer speaks, she doesn’t whisper—not just chef, Amanda spotlights tough issues in the restaurant world in her “Dispatches from Dirt Candy” writings on Eater. We’ll talk veggies, women, travel, family. Plus, what happened on a 40-hour train ride to Bejing—and why onions are sexy. #WINEdown with Amanda as well, as she tells us about her love of natural wines, spring drinking and her favorite pairing at the restaurant. At the top of the show, we take a trip to the Santa Monica Wednesday farmer’s market with Walter Manzke, chef-owner of the beloved Republique and Petty Cash, to talk mandarinquats and his growing restaurant empire in the Philippines. On why she became a chef: [23:00] I fell in love with traveling and fell in love with cuisine and sort of had this realization that what I wanted to do with my life was travel, but that I couldn’t do that because I had no money. So really the only way I could travel was find a skill, so I got my chef’s degree and decided that I was going to travel the world, and then I never traveled. On her worst travel story: [24:15] I was on a train once to Beijing from Hong Kong, and I ended up in a little cabin with two people who had been married but hadn’t seen each other for a year or two, so it was 40 hours of them fornicating with me on the top bunk…All I had was my guidebook and wallet, and my guidebook fell out of the back of my pocket and into the toilet and I had no choice but to pick it up. Then I picked it up, cleaned it up as best as I could, vomited a couple of times, listened to them have sex a couple more times. On a non-chef dream job: [28:45] I’d be a professional eater, like one of those hot dog guys. I like to eat so if I’m not going to cook food I might as well eat it. --Amanda Cohen on WORD OF MOUTH

“What could be more intimate than putting something in your mouth, whether it’s pink like a veal chop or sweet and wet like a domestic vermouth?” –Patrick Martins, The Carnivore’s Manifesto This week’s WORD OF MOUTH with Leiti Hsu is a special episode featuring Patrick Martins, founder of Heritage Radio Network (so the very reason why we are here together today) and Heritage Foods and author of The Carnivore’s Manifesto. He also founded Slow Food USA alongside visionary and mentor Carlo Petrini, the man behind the Slow Food movement. Stay tuned for talk of sexy calves, sex drives of the animals we eat, goat poop, Ted Turner, truck drivers, Alice Waters and hipsters. To #WINEDOWN, we get with Nate Adler, beverage director and partner of Huertas, the Basque spot in the East Village, for a primer on vermouth. On the pleasure of meat 8:15 Everyone knows we should be eating less meat in this country and that meat should be a little more expensive, so I think the best way to go about eating less meat as a country is to go head first from the high board and dive into the gastronomic pleasures of the heritage breed movement. Heritage breeds: gastronomy at its best. On his boyhood 20:45 As an elementary school kid I was just a snot-nosed little white kid from the Upper East Side that went to an all-boys school, so I learned how to run fast away from the public school kids that would try to beat the crap out of us. It was a real wakeup call when I went to Vassar and I was like ‘What is this? You have to be polite? You can’t yell at the teacher?” I wouldn’t recommend it; I mean single sex schools, what’s up with that? On books and weed 22:40 It was really interesting, since I only took that one food performance class, I read like a book every two days for three months and it totally expanded my brain. Even to this day, all the weed has still not managed to get my brain down to its original size because of that 3-4 month period of just reading so much. It’s like a muscle. Take a week off and read like 10 books and you’ll be smarter for it. --Patrick Martins on WORD OF MOUTH

On this week’s WORD OF MOUTH, we have LIVE Elizabeth Falkner, TV food personality, “food instigator”(!!) and former chef-owner of the San Francisco institution Citizen Cake, as she prepares for the upcoming Women Chefs and Restaurateurs Conference. Falkner and host Leiti Hsu discuss the state of lingering gender inequality in the kitchen. Plus, Mom—and playing “kitchen mommy” to young cooks. At the top of the show, we hit the Greenmarket with chef owner Kerry Heffernan, on the hunt for the first crop of green and leafy springtime vegetables. To #WINEDOWN we chat with Matt Bostick, sommelier at Osteria Mozza about three of his favorite Italian grapes you’ve never heard of. On TV cooking competitions: “I love the sport of it. I played competitive soccer for a while and love those food competitions because it’s like the combination of culinary and running as fast as you can to make something.” (8:00) “My mom is a dietician and my dad is an abstract painter, so I ended up as a perfect mish mash of those two.” (35:00) --Elizabeth Falkner on WORD OF MOUTH

On this week's WORD OF MOUTH, we welcome LIVE chef-owner George Mendes of Aldea, and the soon-to-open sister spot Lupulo. George shares stories from his blue-collar Danbury, CT childhood among food-loving extended family and a huge Portuguese community. Mendes, who once dreamed of playing basketball professionally, shares with us how a high school field trip showed him chef-ing as a career. Plus, we’ll talk fly-fishing and the Great Outdoors. At the top of the show, we hit the Greenmarket with Ian Alvarez of French-Japanese restaurant Bara in the East Village and talk sunchokes shopping tips. To #WINEDOWN, we catch up with Master Sommelier Lindsey Geddes, beverage director of the Charlie Palmer Group—she shares from the frontlines of being pregnant while working at the highest professional levels of wine. "I didn’t fit into the whole oxford, preppy khaki-wearing scene. I was this guido Thunderbird-riding kid. Other than being on the basketball court” Georges professes to being “kind of a loner.” (14:00) "My dad worked in a factory from 6am until 2 or 3pm, and then after that he was a handyman. He always felt the desire to work more. His work ethic was incredible.” On his modern Portuguese dishes: "When my mom first had the duck rice [at Aldea], she goes, 'This is not Portuguese.' But I'm happy to say that some visitors would come in from Portugal and say, 'This is not how we make it at home, but it's still delicious.'" --Geroge Mendes on WORD OF MOUTH

On this week's WORD OF MOUTH, we sit down with The Gorbals' Ilan Hall, champion of Bravo's Top Chef Season 2. After almost a year at his second Gorbals location in Brooklyn, he shares insights on Williamsburg clientele and how he ended up in an Urban Outfitters. We talk the future of food TV with Ilan, now the executive producer of Esquire’s Knife Fight. Plus, the struggle of turning this 4-year-old son into a bone-marrow loving foodie. Top of the show, we take on the Greenmarket with Kerry Heffernan, founding chef of Eleven Madison Park, for a winter season seafood update. And to #WINEDOWN, Leiti talks with millennial winemaker Josh Phelps of TAKEN Wine on wine labels for his generation, plus—some Valentine’s Day picks. This program was brought to you by Visit Napa Valley Ilan on feeding his 4-year-old (16:12): "It's so sad because when he was about a year old, he would eat everything. He would eat bone marrow, and in all of his baby food for protein we would mix ground lamb in. And then at some point, when he was about two, he was like 'nope, don't want that anymore.' So now he eats string cheese, peanut butter and jelly—pancakes once in a while." Our audience question of the week, from @Erin_Fairbanks, about bar mitzvah nightmares and dreams (39:00): "I was really into playing guitar and singing punk rock. Except when you're 13 you think that you look a lot older than you are and you're not as fat and funny looking, which I totally was. So, I decided it would be a good idea to play music in front of everybody at the bar mitzvah and there's a picture of me singing and playing the guitar. At the time it was my dream but looking back it’s more of a nightmare." Ilan on what he did after Top Chef (25:00): "I traveled the world. I spent money. I went immediately after to Spain, Romania, Israel, France, Venezuela, and the Philippines. The travel and eating everywhere gave me a better perspective on the world."

LIVE on WORD OF MOUTH, we talk to Floyd Cardoz of the new White Street restaurant in TriBeCa. Formerly of Danny Meyer’s North End Grill and the NYTimes 3* Tabla, Floyd is opening a restaurant in Bombay, India; he aims to awaken his native city that local flavors and indigenous ingredients have an important place in a modern restaurant. Floyd also talks what it was like to advise the Steven Spielberg-Oprah Winfrey produced film Hundred-Foot Journey. Plus, what’s stopping Indian food from being cool—and knowing your consommé cold can change the course of your life. Top of the show, we head to the Greenmarket with Gabe Kennedy, champion of this season of The Taste on ABC, who talks building flavor and recounts childhood carrot memories. To #WINEeddown, Leiti has on the line sommelier Carrie Strong of the Charlie Palmer NYC restaurant Aureole; they get nerdy about not just wine, but the state of wine events today.This program was brought to you by Visit Napa Valley. "At the end of the day, food is a very intimate thing. Let your food turn you on, and don't put something in your mouth if it doesn’t turn you on." [7:34] "When I grew up eating at restaurants – India was not a very big restaurant culture. You would go out to eat maybe once a month, and there would be a choice of either two cuisines… I'd not eaten a naan until I was 18 years old, so it was not something I knew. [19:10] --Floyd Cardoz on WORD OF MOUTH

On this episode of WORD OF MOUTH, Leiti Hsu talks to husband-wife chefs Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis of Bestia, regularly #1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 on everybody’s shortlist in Los Angeles, located in once-seedy Downtown. We talk their daughter Saffron and beloved Dad and adventures in hospital food. Plus, what Ori said to Genevieve when they first met. At the top of the show, we go to the Greenmarket with Esther Choi, chef-owner of Mok Bar, the Chelsea Market NYC Korean ramen shop on what kimchi says to us about the New Year. To #WINEeddown, it’s San Francisco sommelier Jason Alexander of the brand-new The Progress next door to State Bird Provisions on...you guessed it: PROGRESS. This program was brought to you by Route 11 Potato Chips “He looks at me and was like: “Are you Israeli? Because you look like one of the beautiful women of my country.” –- Genevieve Gergis on WORD OF MOUTH “So the whole kitchen staff was laughing at me because of her response.” –- Ori Menashe on WORD OF MOUTH

Host Leiti Hsu talks LIVE in-studio with Jo-Ann Makovitzky and Marco Moreira the wife-and-husband force behind now five restaurants: the 15 East (Japanese), Tocqueville (French), Botequim (Brazilian), The Fourth (American) and Singl (single-malt Scotch bar)—the last three in the brand-new Hyatt Union Square. They talk their disastrous first date that started with burritos and was saved by a night of dancing. Plus, what it’s like to work with the uber-talented sushi chef Masato Shimizu and the challenges and pleasures of serving the Union Square community. At the top of the show, we go to the Greenmarket with chef partner Humberto Guallpa of the Cuban-Chinese Calle Dao and talk romanesco. To #WINEddown, Etienne Guerin, sommelier at M. Wells Steakhouse in Long Island City, tells us about a “unicorn wine” from Jura on his list that you need to go get right now: Camille Loye’s 1990 Arbois. As always, connect with us on social media at @leitihsu #WOMshow facebook.com/WOMshow “He called me from the back of the store to my station [at Dean & Deluca] to the front of the store and said: Hey, what are you doing today? …The first time you asked me out, I declined.” [on their early courtship] [23:40] “Our daughter is a part of our business. People remember me when I was pregnant. She wants to cook!” [on the most important project of all] [20:30] “They refuse to see who we are and what we’re trying to do. They have one train of thought—that this is a bar and they don’t want another bar to open.” [about the challenges of getting local community board approval for their rooftop omakase spot] [37:30]

Today on WORD OF MOUTH, host Leiti Hsu takes as far as Malaysia and the North Pole via the East Village. We have LIVE in-studio Thomas Chen chef-owner of TUOME (pronounced tow-mee) in the East Village. Last at Eleven Madison Park and Commerce, Thomas is cooking deeply personal Chinese-ish food but with fine dining imagination and quest for perfection, which we love. We’ll talk how he got from a start in accounting to be the 100% owner of his own restaurant (#dreamjob!)—and how Mom and Dad really feel about it. But first, at the Greenmarket, we join Salil Mehta of Michelin Bib Gourmand acclaimed Malaysian spot Laut and the new Pasar Malam in Williamsburg as we go in search of cilantro roots. To WINEed down we’ll talk with Nico de Soto, formerly of Experimental Cocktail Club about his popup Christmas-themed cocktail bar called Miracle on 9th St. where you can get the ideal eggnog and a MULLED WINE SOUR! This program was brought to you by Edwards VA Ham. "Every culture has its own flavor profile and palate." [20:00] --Thomas Chen on WORD OF MOUTH