Behind the Plate

Daniel is the President and Co-founder of Brewla Bars (@BrewlaBars), bringing you a bold and refreshing, guilt-free take on the classic ice pop. Daniel and his sister Rebecca started their business after realizing an untapped market where high-end juices and frozen yogurt collide. Brewla Bars are non-alcoholic, and are made from teas, espresso, herbs and botanicals in a heated process. Their products have no artificial sweeteners or flavors, and are gluten-free and kosher certified!

What’s your business in ten words or less?
Guilt-free and delicious ice pops, unlike anything else!

What is your food inspiration?
The classic Popsicle, the early rise of Pinkberry, and the 90’s smoothie boom all inspire us.

What’s the most important thing we should know about your business?
You don’t have to compromise your health for flavor. Brewla Bars are a new take on the classic ice pop. Each flavor uses brewed teas or botanicals that invoke complex flavors for a healthy lifestyle. Our all-natural ice pops contain only 20-50 calories per bar, little or no added sugar, and a boost of vitamins and minerals.

What was your hardest moment in relation to your business?
We learned about the frozen supply chain the hard way. Product from our first scaled production melted en route to our frozen warehouse. We thought we were ruined upon hearing the news. Luckily it was only the outer layer of product that was damaged and everything else was still intact.

Best part about being in the food industry?
Trading products with other food entrepreneurs.

Worst part about being in the food industry?
The food industry is a very expensive and competitive industry to break.

If you weren’t doing what you’re doing, what would you be?
A scientist!

How do you define good food?
Food made without cutting corners.

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Who is one famous person, dead or alive, that you want to share a meal with? And where?
Shakespeare in the park.

What’s always in your fridge?
Valrhona Chocolate

Your good food wish?
To make good food accessible to everyone.

Favorite recipe using your product?
Strawberry Hibiscus Gin Poptail from my friend Asha.

Margaret (@MargaretG) is a NYC-based food lover who raises food, funds, and friends for food and farm businesses. She’s the Founder of Watervine Impact, a network of experienced business service providers that helps social impact health, food and agriculture enterprises grow. Watervine brings resources to help clients gain new customers, enter markets and access funds for growth. Thanks, Margaret, for the good work!

How do you define good food?
Good food is food that is grown, packaged, shipped, prepared and served in ways that are life-giving for people and the planet. Good food is delicious.

Top three herbs/spices, in order of importance?
Cayenne. Basil. Rosemary.

Do you have a favorite food trick?
I buy everything super fresh from the farmers market and cook it as little as possible. I know a lot of farmers and how they grow food, so I know exactly who has the standout ingredients and the unusual, hard-to-find items. My trick is simply to rely on the quality of the ingredients to keep people coming back to my table, because I really don’t know much about how to cook!

Who is your food inspiration?
My brother—a farmer and a teacher.

What is your go-to dinner party dish?
Something raw and rare from the farmers market.

What’s your favorite meal-on-the-go?
My favorite meal-on-the-go is kale salad with a handful of local, fresh ingredients thrown in—sunflower seeds, a hardboiled egg for protein—and lemon juice, salt and a little olive oil as a light dressing. (Rubbed in by hand.)

What was your biggest #foodfail?
My biggest food fail was the split pea soup I tried to prepare for my stepdad’s birthday. I didn’t know you had to soak the peas.

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What’s always in your fridge?
Dark leafy greens.

Veggie you never liked when you were young, but now you do?
We were never served fresh vegetables. I still liked them, but didn’t know they could taste better than what we had frozen or in a can until I was in graduate school and started shopping at farmers markets.

Is there any food that you can’t stand?
Pork belly, which is a problem because chefs love to make things with pork belly.

What’s your go-to breakfast?
Miso soup with an egg.

If you were a food, what would you be and why?
A sunflower. I would look like a big happy flower, but actually be able to feed both people and creatures like pollinators and birds with my bounty. I would also have hidden uses, like making oil and fibers.

Most underrated herb?
Tarragon.

Favorite cuisine?
Indian—ALL regions. The flavors, spices, and pairings are so developed that I believe the cooks from the Indian continent have found a backdoor to heaven’s kitchen.

Food-related pet peeve?
Misleading marketing on food packaging and in commercials.

Your good food wish?
That everyone can eat well, grow food, and innovate food systems in ways that support people, the planet and abundance for all.

Where do you typically grocery shop?
Farmers markets (several), specialty stores for cheese, pasta, and meats, and local commissaries.

What have you been dying to make recipe-wise, but haven’t yet?
The Green Lasagna from the Silver Palate Cookbook. Also, Osso Buco (and get my family to eat it).

Who is one famous person, dead or alive, that you want to share a meal with? And where?
Sanford Robinson Gifford—my relative and a Hudson Valley Painter. I want to know what he would think of the food and farm revival in the Hudson Valley.

What’s your favorite indulgent treat?
Local dark chocolate.

Our friend Peter is the NYC Sales and Marketing Manager for Consider Bardwell Farm (@considerbardwellfarm), a 300-acre sustainable dairy farm in southwest Vermont. Fun fact: Consider Bardwell was the first cheese-making co-op in Vermont, dating back to 1864! Their animals graze on fertilizer-free and pesticide-free grasses, and are raised without the use of antibiotics or hormones. And the resulting raw milk cow and goat cheeses are award-winning, and delicious! You can find them at Murray’s, and also at the McCarren Park and Union Square Greenmarkets where you can meet Peter in person!

What’s your business in ten words or less?
Award-winning raw milk cow and goat cheeses, sustainably produced. 

What’s the most important thing we should know about your business?
Our commitment to sustainability guides our business plan, our relationship to the earth and our community, and our commitment to creating the best possible product from the best milk. 

Best part about being in the food industry?
Sharing cheese with strangers.

What is your biggest challenge in relation to your business?
Expansion has to be incremental and extremely conservative in cheese—your product must be aged between two and fifteen months before sale, and your supply of milk can’t be turned on and off like a faucet.

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Who is your food inspiration?
Our employees.

Worst part about being in the food industry?
Weather at the farmers markets can be less than ideal sometimes.

If you weren’t doing what you’re doing, what would you be doing?
Practicing saxophone more often.

How do you define good food?
Well-raised, well-sourced and well-made.

Who is one famous person, dead or alive, that you want to share a meal with? and where?
An elegant dining room, eating Ortolans with François Mitterrand.

What’s always in your fridge?
Many pickles.

Your good food wish?
That people understand the cost of cheap food and enjoy the value of good food.  

Favorite dish using your product?
Pizza with goat chorizo and our Pawlet cheese.

Tell us about Dorset.
Dorset is our washed-rind, raw Jersey cow cheese. Maureen Brown tends to this cheese—she started working for us this year. She goes into the cave 3 times per week for 3 months—picks each wheel up, inspects it, and gives it a wire brush salt scrub before flipping it and putting it back on the rack. Each washing sessions takes 4-5 hours.

Talk to us about cheese aging.
Cheese is like spoiled milk covered in mold. It’s about controlling spoilage and controlling mold growth in a way that benefits the product.

And the caves?
We built different temperature and humidity controlled rooms for each cheese because each cheese benefits from perfect conditions. Rupert, our oldest cheese, needs generally drier conditions and lives in a cave we call Siberia. And these caves are all kept at temperatures higher than refrigeration. Cheese storage temperature is one of those grey areas where artisanal traditional practices butt up against contemporary ideas of food safety. Cheese can be stored at up to 50 or 54 degrees because that’s the temperature at which the cheese develops flavor.

Do you have different breeds of goats?
Breeds of goats are a crucial part of having a dairy farm. There are hundreds of different breeds of goats from all over the world. Some are better breeds for meat, some for dairy, and some for different climates. We started with a Swiss breed called Oberhasli, really pretty goats—mostly brown and black. They have little black knee stockings and look like school girls. Eventually we brought in some other goats, though for a while it was a closed herd which is one of those coveted things for a dairy farm because you have no outside genetics. You have full control over how the breeding is working. But then we brought in French Alpine and Nubian goats which are great for a little more yield. They’re a little hardier too.

How does goat meat play into this?
Goat meat and calves and beef are an essential part of dairy because if you’re raising animals to produce milk they need to have kids or calves once a year. We started selling our goat meat at our stand about two weeks ago.

Omar Rada (@omar) is the founder of Misen, a kitchenware company making top-notch chef’s knives that has one heck of a story. Misen started as a Kickstarter campaign that crowdfunded over fourteen times its campaign goal in the first few hours! Omar’s early success has clearly shown that the Misen chef’s knife is a much needed product in the kitchenware market. Knives are on pre-order with a Spring 2016 ship date. And while you eagerly anticipate your knife, you can get to know Omar!

What’s your business in ten words or less?
Premium, quality kitchenware at honest prices.

What’s the most important thing we should know about your business?
At Misen, we know quality kitchen tools are vital for a better cooking experience, yet by themselves are nothing. It all starts, and ends, with good ingredients.

How do you define good food?
Olive oil + garlic + salt + pepper + almost anything.

What was your biggest challenge in relation to your business?
Finding the right knife maker to partner with. This was a long, drawn-out search that was incredibly frustrating at times, but ultimately we found a partner we are thrilled to be working with.

Who is your food inspiration?
My mom 🙂 Like many other mothers, everything she prepares is sublime.

Best part about being in the food industry?
The FOOD itself! How can it not be!?

Worst part about being in the food industry?
Not enough time to eat all the good food!

If you weren’t doing what you’re doing, what would you be doing?
Professional dad-joke teller. Two peanuts were walking down a dark alley. One was a salted.

Who is one famous person, dead or alive, that you want to share a meal with? And where?
Such a good question! But my celebrity IQ is zero!

What’s always in your fridge?
Almond milk, always!

Your good food wish?
Transparency in our food supply chain.

Her name is Beth, but you might recognize this food lover as @simplywithout. Beth lives in New York, and her blog Simply Without is a great resource for local NYC clean-eats. But fear not—you can turn to her for in-the-kitchen inspiration as well. Beth’s recipes are inventive, fun, approachable, and often very savvy on the #NoFoodWaste front too!

How do you define good food?
Food that is thought about, cared for and loved. It is literally from the moment the seed begins to grow that the food journey starts. Everyone involved in the journey has an impact on the food and can help to make the end result good food. One of my favorite things to do is, not just cook and eat good food, but think about it. Thinking about and planning meals makes the flavors and ingredients come to life—as they take on their own place on the chopping board, pan or plate, they all become important parts of the bigger picture. To me, good food is food that nourishes you, invokes conversation and of course tastes good.

What is your go-to breakfast?
Green smoothie!

Do you have a favorite food trick?
Making a big batch of herb butter and freezing it. Then any time you need a dab of butter, you just bring it out and add it to a dish. The herbs add an extra zing to whatever you are making. My favorites are basil, sage and ramp butters!

Who was/is your food inspiration?
My family. I grew up around food, watching my dad cook as a child from a small wooden stool in our kitchen. My eyes would follow him around as he married flavors and paired ingredients. From then on, I was the official pasta taster for the family. For me, food was part of our family’s daily conversations from an early age. My mom always taught me about food etiquette and exposed me to recipes and food writers as my passion and desire to cook and learn developed. Uncles, aunts, cousins and godparents all played an important part of my childhood around food. You could pinpoint events, holidays, celebrations and family gatherings by what we ate. Every holiday revolved around food, weekends were for food shopping, planning and cooking. We talked about what to have for lunch at breakfast, and dinner at lunch. I am lucky enough to have found my life partner and husband, who not only shares in my food passion, but enjoys eating out, reading menus with me, guessing what each other will order, and my favorite—planning and preparing meals together. Nothing settles a long day better than some music and chopping fresh garlic. Food is my life and I’m excited to share it with the world any way I can.

Top three herbs, in order of importance?
Basil, cilantro, sage.

Is there any ingredient that you can’t stand?
I love the flavor of rosemary, but do not like the stick-like texture when used in roasting.

What is your go-to dinner party dish?
Homemade gnocchi.

Who is one famous person, dead or alive, that you want to share a meal with? and where?
Mark Bittman at Crossroads in LA.

What’s always in your fridge?
Kale.

What was your biggest #foodfail?
I once tried to make a croissant and it turned out terribly—barely edible. Baking has intimidated me ever since.

If you were a food, what would you be and why?
Garlic. It gets to sleep all winter while growing, and pop out in the spring in a grand entrance with ramps. Most dishes begin with garlic, so I would be used a lot and get to meet all new flavors and ingredients in the dishes added after me.

Your good-food wish?
My good-food wish is to bring this conversation to the larger table—to tables across the world. To encourage communities, families and individuals to look at what they are eating, get involved in local food movements, and make food a priority for the health of our planet and bodies.

Sustainable America‘s Executive Director Jeremy Kranowitz is all about a more sustainable and resilient food system. How does he suggest we achieve this? Through attainable behavioral changes, such as #NoFoodWaste, one of Sustainable America’s focuses. Intrigued? Meet Jeremy tonight at Foodstand and Dig Inn’s #NoFoodWaste November Happy Hour! Mingle with fellow Foodstanders and listen to presentations by Jeremy, Matt Preston, and others about limiting food waste. Dig Inn will be offering two-for-one drinks and samplers of their new menu. Be sure to RSVP, and download the Foodstand iPhone app for 50% off ticket prices! In the meantime, let’s get to know Jeremy!

For those just getting to know you, how would you describe your organization?
Sustainable America is an environmental non-profit focused on making our nation’s food and transportation systems more efficient and resilient. We conduct education campaigns and on-the-ground efforts to show how to be more sustainable. And we find innovative start-up companies, and invest equity in a handful each year who have products that will improve our food and fuel systems.

If you could get the general population to change one eating habit, what would it be?
Starting the meal with too much on our plates.

What are some of the principles that guide Sustainable America?
We are focused on helping improve food and fuel systems in this country because improvements to those systems help all Americans, especially those lower on the economic ladder. Our efforts are made to reduce our nation’s oil consumption by 50% and increase food availability by 50% in the next two decades. We believe in the power of the marketplace to innovate and find solutions.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?
Sustainable America is a unique non-profit, combining education with investment, and I think it’s a vanguard of non-profits that will be successful with new and innovative ways of funding their efforts. I love going to work every day trying to get this effort off the ground. I’m pouring my heart and soul into it.

What is your biggest challenge in relation to your organization?
Sustainable America is a brand new environmental non-profit, working to distinguish itself among a sea of other NGOs. We need to break through the noise, and be seen as thoughtful leaders on the subject, and at the same time find ways to appeal to outside donors to keep after our important goal.

When did you first become personally aware that food waste is a big deal?
I grew up with a “clean plate club” house. I remember reading the Grapes of Wrath in high school and thinking about the circumstances that led to those outcomes and being outraged. But it really wasn’t until I started running Sustainable America that I dove deep into the facts around wasted food and realized what a crazy juxtaposition it is to have all this food waste next to all those who go hungry every day. It’s crazy, and such a big deal for us to focus on solving.

Who is one famous person, dead or alive, that you want to share a meal with? and where?
I think it would be really interesting to be in the kitchen during the creative process of creating a meal with a well trained chef. I’m a fan of José Andrés, the Spanish chef who introduced Washington, DC to tapas and mezze, and would love to eat with him at one of his restaurants.

How are you putting #NoFoodWaste principles into practice and/or raising public awareness about food waste?
Our website I Value Food is a great place to share stories about wasted food and how to reduce it. We’re also blasting information to our tens of thousands of followers through Sustainable America.

Food issues have not quite made it into the upcoming Presidential Debate. If you could ask the future President to consider a food issue that needs to be addressed, what would it be?
We should change food subsidies to encourage healthy, nutritious calories and by taxing cheap calories. It has been said that obesity is the face of hunger because cheap calories are high in sugar, salt, and fat. We should still make those calories available to those that want them, but they should be harder to obtain and more expensive to buy than fresh vegetables, fruits, and grains.

What was/is your food inspiration? Tell us why.
There’s something so magical about a tomato you grow in your own garden and the amazing sensory information that it provides, including that explosion of flavor when you bite into it just after it has been picked. All of those sunny days are packed into that bright red tomato, and it bursts forth with that first bite.

If you weren’t doing what you’re doing, what would you be doing?
I have had a few opportunities to teach during my career—as a swim coach during the summers in college, and courses on mediation and negotiation to high school and college students at a science school. I love presenting a concept and watching the light turn on in a student’s eyes, and find it one of the most rewarding things in life. I’d love to teach.

What’s always in your fridge?
I always have hummus in the fridge, because it’s delicious and reminds me of the Mediterranean. Sunshine in every bite.

Your good food wish?
That every party or celebration with extra food at the end of the evening finds a good home for it—either by donating the excess to the hungry, or returning unsafe scraps to the soil to grow more food in the future.

There aren’t many parts of the world that food writer @Cravingsinamsterdam hasn’t seen! Originally from Lima, Peru, Paola lived in the United States, France and Venezuela before moving to Amsterdam where she now lives and cooks up her delicious (and very photogenic) dishes we all drool over. And yes, food was definitely involved in her travels—after school she moved to Lyon for a cooking course at L’Institut Paul Bocuse! We wanted to know more about Paola, and had a chance to chat with her about food—her favorite subject!

Veggie you never liked when young, but now you do?
Beets and brussels sprouts.

Your good food wish?
That each school would have an edible garden.

What have you been dying to make recipe-wise, but haven’t yet?
Soup dumplings have been on my to do list for a while. Hopefully soon I can check them off my list.

Where do you typically grocery shop?
I go to two markets and three supermarkets.

Do you have a favorite food trick?
I got this tip through a fellow foodie on Instagram. Placing an egg in a sieve first to let the watery part of the egg white fall off and then poach it. The result is perfectly poached eggs every time.

Whats always in your fridge?
Limes

Favorite cuisine?
Peruvian

What’s your go-to breakfast?
Yogurt and fruit on weekdays and buckwheat banana waffles on the weekends.

What was your biggest #foodfail?
I made a vegetable tart a while ago. The veggies made the filling soggy and I got carried away with the sage in the filling. It was not edible.

How do you define good food?
Seasonal, local, and nourishing.

Top three herbs, in order of importance?
Coriander, parsley and thyme.

What’s your favorite indulgent treat?
Chocolate fudge cake

Food lover @JenniferEmilson is a self-proclaimed culinary and gastronaut, living in Toronto. She’s a home chef and global traveler, and cooks and bakes for volunteer work. She also happens to cook up some of the most beautiful dishes we’ve ever seen!

How do you define good food?
It is food that’s good for you. Food that had a good start. Food that tastes good. Clean, sustainable, healthy, and above all, tasty!

What is your go-to dinner party dish?
Braised Chicken with Caramelized Onions and Cardamom Rice, from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook

Top three herbs, in order of importance?
Parsley, mint, oregano

Your good food wish?
I wish that all globally could enjoy the bounty of the planet, with no cost or political impediments.

Favorite cuisine?
Persian

If you were a food, what would you be and why?
Brie cheese- it’s at almost every party and gets along with everything. It is always a welcome guest!

What’s always in your fridge?
Mustards

What was your biggest #foodfail?
I made fish tacos. The tortillas were made with amaranth flour. They were thick, chewy, not a texture my hubby liked at all. And I didn’t marinate the cabbage long enough. All in all, too raw a meal. He said they didn’t deserve to be called fish tacos!

Who is one famous person, dead or alive, that you want to share a meal with? and Where?
Dave Benoit, Jazz pianist. In Fez, Morocco. After sitting on cushions eating a fabulous meal, dessert would be his stylings at the piano.

Where do you typically grocery shop?
Whole Foods, farm stands, local butchers and cheesemongers.

Do you have a favorite food trick?
Take a brick of butter. Cut it in half. Let one half come to room temp overnight. The next morning put it into a blender with equal amount of olive/canola oil combo. Blend together till whipped. Pour into a butter mold. Refrigerate. It will always be spreadable, never tearing a piece of bread again. It still tastes like butter but twice as healthy.

What have you been dying to make recipe-wise, but haven’t yet?
Chocolate Krantz by Yotam Ottolenghi