Foodie and the Beast – June 14, 2020

Hosted by David and Nycci Nellis.

On today’s show:

• As you listen to this show, go to @nycci nellis on Twitter or Instagram and get the recipe for the Foodie and the Beast Cocktail of the Day. Then join us and RAMMY nominee for lead bartender, Officina’s Ismael Barreto, to make his honey cocktail, the Positano Punch;
• One minute pastry chef Paola Velez is the celebrated James Beard finalist for rising star chef, wowing guests at Kith and Kin, and the next coronavirus minute she’s furloughed and out of her kitchen. Did she mope around? Maybe for a second. Then she started baking on her own to feed folks. After that she launched something called Bakers Against Racism. Intended as a local thing, it’s gone international. Paola joins us to provide the 411 on all that;
• Farmers markets have been touted as one of the healthiest and safest ways to do your food shopping. Central Farm Markets co-founder Debbie Moser joins us;
• Returning guest Andra “A.J.” Johnson is managing partner and bartender at Serenata at La Cosecha in the Union Market District and co-founder of D.C.’s Black Restaurant Week. She’s a passionate advocate of diversity and across-the-board fairness for restaurant industry workers. We’ll hear about Serenata’s upcoming events in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and A.J.’s recent City Paper article and a book she’s developing addressing the “cultural neglect” of African Americans in the restaurant industry;

• When the COVID crisis hit, Huntsman had been in the business of selling premium specialty foods to top restaurants across the Mid-Atlantic. Huntsman owner, chef Javier Arze, pivoted on a dime and now is delivering gourmet goods directly to consumers while helping furloughed chefs that the pandemic has sidelined. Huntsman’s new Furloughed Chef box delivered to you is a gourmand-level CSA featuring products made or raised by some of his former clients. Chef Javier joins us to explain.