Foodie and the Beast – April 24, 2022

Hosted by David and Nycci Nellis.

On today’s show:

• Involved in large scale whiskey events for more than 16 years, David Sweet has owned and managed large-scale tasting events across North America, England and Australia. He is currently running his own event series – Whiskey and Barrel Nite — in six cities from coast to coast;
• Restaurateur and awesome chef, named 2020 RAMMY chef of the year, David Deshaies has a fabulous new restaurant, L’Ardente, on Massachusetts Avenue, and it is nothing short of spectacular. Everyone’s talking about the 40-layer lasagna, but have you had the carbonara?! Chef David is in with his chef de cuisine, Leena Ali;

• Joanna Veltri is chief of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development’s
Americas Liaison Office. Her organization is dedicated to working in rural areas of developing countries to address poverty and hunger. IFAD recently teamed up with Chef Rob Rubba of Oyster fame for its Recipes for Change program. Through this program well-known chefs from around the world draw attention to the impacts of climate change on traditional crops and local recipes in the world’s poorest countries and promote ways that rural small-scale farmers can adapt;

• Alam Méndez Florián, a native of Oaxaca, is executive chef at Maiz64 on 14th Street Northwest. He and his team turn four kinds of maiz – corn — into fresh masa daily for the tacos, tamales, and other corn-based essentials.