Ruben Garcia: Can’t Fight Nature

This week, notorious locavore Opie Crooks - executive chef of A Rake’s Progress, and hospitality hero - Jill Tyler, co-owner of Tail Up Goat and Reveler’s Hour, join us from the frontlines of what’s been an emotional week, to discuss their closings of their restaurants in response to the COVID-19 emergency. We call for action and legislation that will affect D.C.’s restaurant industry in the interim (#ShutUsDown). Opie dabbles in baking bread, Jill gets swole with push-ups, Mathew grows his homesteading, and Eddie moves into his parent’s basement. Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

This week, Executive Pastry Chef and confection Domini-queen of Kith and Kin, Paola Velez, joins us in our Corona-free recording bubble to discuss how she caught baking fever. From a cacao-farming family to fine chocolatier, Paola draws upon her Dominican roots and NYC training to simplify and showcase childhood ingredients. Rum cake, arroz con dulce, and ugli fruit get honorable mentions, Eddie runs into a “Florida man,” and Mathew gets insatiably hungry. Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

This week, Shift Drink alum Boby Pradichith continues to do the heavy lifting by bringing us chef, and mentor, Ruben Garcia. Freshly funemployed, we look back at Ruben’s 16-year legacy with Think Food Group and how that translates into future plans (think mezcal), “fighting nature,” and the cycle of culinary maturation and creativity. Ruben goes all George Clooney, Boby goes all Benjamin Button, Eddie goes all Julia Roberts, and Mathew tries to go all Daniel Day Lewis. Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

This week, we are joined by Francesca Arienzo, mother-baker and dough-puncher of the Mexican-German — Filos Bakery. Francesca pinches off a piece of her therapy dough over Putin’s favorite shifty, dives into the universal love language of freshly baked breads, and mediates dueling doting grandmothers. Eddie Kim hones in on the perfect concha and Mathew gets some much needed assistance in German phonetics. Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

This week, Ann Limpert, Executive Food Editor of the Washingtonian keeps it cool on the hot seat, as she divulges her pastry past, serves up some “crispy” personal pizza predilections, and offers a deep dive into some of the food-critique-calculus behind the recently released “The 100 Very Best Restaurants.” Eddie buddies up with Hippocrates and Heisenberg, and Mathew apes out over wet martinis. Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

This week, the kimchi jar lid is popped on Korean food and the American experience with comic illustrator Robin Ha — just ahead of the release of her new graphic novel, Almost American Girl — and guest host Peter Chang of No Kings Collective. We geonbae (cheers) over some unexpected mezcal as we parse out the meaning of Korean son-mat (hand-taste), the commonalities between Mexican and Korean cooking, and the disparities between the Korean immigrant and Korean-American experiences. Robin is OK with Kraft cheese, but not K-dramas, Peter exalts the sacred Shin ramen, and Eddie chastises on drinking etiquette. Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

This week, arbiters of Charm City cool — Lane Harlan and returning guest Carlos Raba of Clavel, sit down with Mathew and poeticize everything from breakfast wine and the “hand of the maker,” to fishing for real estate on craigslist and even… well, Malort.  Eddie follows the sun west, and Mathew “bullet time dodges” a well aimed lie. Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

This week, David Batista and Soung Wiser of All Souls, General Design Co, and the soon to be; The Little Grand, drop “the” formalities AND raise the Jaleo bar to discuss the origins of an iconic combo, alley appeal, and the many ways one can Eddie Kim. Soung and Eddie incept the ‘Bad Korean Klub,’ and Mathew keeps it dushi. Powered and distributed by Simplecast

This week we light a fire on the new season of Shift Drink to illuminate the impending U.S. tariffs on French wines, possibly going into effect later this month. Representing a cadre of importers and producers set to testify on Capitol Hill is natural wine figurehead and importer Zev Rovine, who explains the ins and outs of the 100 percent tariff, the destructive impacts it will have across the domestic wine industry (but particularly natural wine), and his beginnings as an importer. Guest co-pilot Amanda Carpenter expounds on her penchant for the tiny, Zev shrinks away from the sticky, Mathew escapes to the beachy, and Eddie stays mired in the dreary. Powered and distributed by Simplecast

This week, we round out the season (and year!) with a clarion of D.C.’s wine community — Felicia Colbert — Wine Director at A Rake’s Progress. We discuss navigating to the peak of the wine world while “mastering” one’s destiny, the added baggage of intersectionality in hospitality, and wine as a field guide to sociology. Alexya dons her graduation cap, Eddie squeezes into his cake fairy tights, and Mathew hulks out of his apron. But we all agree — Parents just don’t understand. Powered and distributed by Simplecast