It is no secret that 2024 and 2025 have been tough years for food journalism in the United States, with a number layoffs happening across the industry. It’s against this national backdrop that at the end of March we hosted a panel discussion on the Podcast stage at Boise’s Treefort Music Fest. Our live podcast - also a part of Treefort’s Foodfort programming - brought together voices and perspectives from across Boise’s restaurant and food media landscape to tackle topics ranging from how the ri...
Jun 02, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Exciting announcement: today Copper & Heat Radio is joining Heritage Radio Network, an independent, nonprofit podcast network with a mission to build a more sustainable world by shifting the way we think about food. To mark the occasion, we’re bringing our first episode ever back to the top of the feed. It’s called “Brigade”, and it’s the first episode in our James Beard Award-winning first season, Be A Girl, released in 2018. Why are restaurant kitchens organized the way they are? What is a...
Apr 29, 2025•32 min
Join this second panel recorded live at the Roux event in Portland, Oregon in collaboration with Xcelerate. This episode delves into the journeys of four women entrepreneurs in the food industry as they navigate cultural influences, product development, and business growth. Moderated by Viridiana Ponce, the panel features discussions on the importance of community support, unconventional strategies, cultural authenticity, financial management, and the power of persistence. Listen in to learn how...
Oct 31, 2024•57 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Join this panel (recorded live at Roux in Portland, Oregon) of industry-leading women entrepreneurs as they share candid and invaluable insights into navigating business growth through diverse investment strategies, including bootstrapping, venture capital, and angel investing. This deep-dive discussion covers essential aspects of targeting the right investors, maintaining profitability, and adapting to market changes. Learn about transitioning business models, the impact of iOS privacy updates ...
Oct 29, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 5Ep. 11
In this live podcast recorded at the Cookbook Fest in Napa, California, Copper & Heat Radio host Katy chats with Bricia Lopez and Brandon Skier. The two authors share their backgrounds, discuss their newly published cookbooks, and reflect on their personal journeys in the food industry. They delve into the nuances of restaurant versus home cooking, the significance of the chef title, and the challenges of translating professional culinary techniques for home cooks on paper. Guests: Bricia Lo...
Aug 06, 2024•43 min•Season 5Ep. 10
In the last year, Boise was featured in two vastly different pieces of food news. First Chef Kris Komori of KIN brought home the first Boise James Beard Award. This same year, In N Out opened its first of four locations in the Boise area. In this episode, Katy discusses the rapidly changing restaurant industry in Boise, Idaho, recorded live at the Treefort Music Fest in March 2024. Katy and a panel of expert guests explore how the city's food identity has evolved with an influx of new residents ...
Jun 27, 2024•57 min•Season 5Ep. 9
In this guest episode from Loading Dock Talks with Chef Preeti Mistry, Preeti talks with Chefs Norma Listman and Saqib Keval, the duo behind Masala y Maíz and Marigold in Mexico City. The chefs share their unique culinary backgrounds and the melding of their heritages — Mexican, South Asian, and East African — into their cuisine. They discuss the process behind their lamb barbacoa recipe, a melding of Norma's Mexican family tradition with Saqib's South Asian flavors and spices. The discussion al...
May 16, 2024•54 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Geraldine has started not one, but two international controversies with her blog "The Everywhereist." A three-time guest on Copper & Heat, we first chatted with her 5 years ago about imposter syndrome after winning a James Beard Award for her blog post about Mario Batali's cinnamon rolls, and then again 2 years ago after her blog post about her disastrous meal at Bros in Italy went viral. Geraldine's new book, "If You Can't Take the Heat: Tales of Food Feminism, and Fury" explores themes sim...
Apr 19, 2024•56 min•Season 5Ep. 7
In this episode, Katy talks with chefs Reem Assil of Reem’s California in San Francisco, and Carlo LaMagna of Magna Kusina in Portland, OR, and Magna Kubo in Beaverton. Reem is a Palestinian-Syrian chef and activist who was a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation Best Chef West award in 2018 and ‘19 and a finalist for the Outstanding Chef award in 2022. She won a 2023 IACP award for her cookbook, Arabiyya: Recipes from an Arab in Diaspora. Carlo’s restaurants highlight modern Filipino cuis...
Dec 12, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 6
In this episode, Katy talks with chefs Ana Castro of Lengua Madre in New Orleans, and “G” Benchawan Painter from Street to Kitchen and Th_Prsrv in Houston. Ana was one of the 2022 Food & Wine Best New Chefs and Lengua Madre was a Bon Appetit 50 Best New Restaurant. G won the 2023 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Texas. In this episode, Katy, Ana, and G talk about dealing with bad customers and reviews, discussing mental health with family, and the different ways they support their team. We r...
Dec 05, 2023•40 min•Season 5Ep. 5
In this first episode, Katy talks with chef and co-owner Emmanuel Chavez of Tatemó in Houston. Emmanuel was recognized as one of the 2023 Food & Wine Best New Chefs, and Tatemó was named a finalist for the 2023 James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Restaurant. In this episode, Katy and Emmanuel talk about his journey to quitting drinking, the responsibilities of leading and taking care of your team, and the ways he stays grounded as Tatemó gains more media attention. We recorded this epi...
Nov 28, 2023•43 min•Season 5Ep. 4
In this last episode of our 5 Year Reflection miniseries, we catch up with Kiah Fuller, co-owner of Far Out Catering in the Bay Area. Plus, we ask the question of all three of our interviewees: what's your biggest takeaway from the last 5 years?
Nov 21, 2023•27 min•Season 5Ep. 3
In this episode, we catch up with Courtney Moisant, former pastry chef of Manresa Restaurant, pastry consultant, and founder of soon-to-open Gelato Coco. When Manresa Restaurant closed for good at the end of 2022, she decided to leave fine dining for good to start her own thing, a trend that Katy & Rachel explore more in the later part of this episode.
Nov 15, 2023•21 min•Season 5Ep. 2
In this episode, we catch up with Edalyn Garcia. Of the 5 women we interviewed in Season 1, she is the only one still working full-time in restaurants and she's worked her way up to Executive Chef. Plus, Katy and Rachel get some updates on the stats of women working their way up the brigade in restaurants in the past 5 years. Last, we talk about why women chefs don't get as much media attention and funding when they are doing more innovative things to change the restaurant industry. The innovato...
Nov 08, 2023•24 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Today's episode is from our friends over at The Sporkful . Zahra Tabatabai’s parents grew up in an Iran that would be unrecognizable today. “The pictures I see of my family in Iran in the sixties and seventies, they're in bikinis at the beach, drinking beer,” she says. Now, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women are legally required to wear hijabs and alcohol is banned. A few years ago, Zahra became interested in the long history of beer brewing in Iran — a tradition that included her own gran...
May 18, 2023•36 min
We have a guest episode this week from our friends at Opening Soon. In this season of Opening Soon, we’re undertaking a project we’ve been wanting to do for years. In The Build, we’re going to follow one chef’s journey to open a brand new restaurant as it’s happening. From the moment that they signed the lease until the doors are actually open, you’ll get to witness the emotional highs and the lows, how things go well, how things get delayed; all in real time. In this episode, we meet the subjec...
Apr 25, 2023•33 min
Less than $2. That’s how much the Santa Ana Unified school district can afford to spend on one student’s lunch each day. The $14 billion budget of the National School Lunch program stretches thin, and school nutrition workers are often the target of kids’ complaints. Reporter Jessica Terrell explores the cultural figure of “the lunch lady,” and how students and workers lose when bureaucrats focus on cost over care. This episode includes an annotated transcript with links to sources used in the r...
Mar 16, 2023•36 min
When Katy was working in the Bay Area in her early 20s, she would have given the Michelin Guide 3 stars, because those were the restaurants she felt like she had to work to learn about the most innovative and interesting food. How has that changed? In this last episode of our fourth season, Katy and Rachel dig into the history, the data, and the money behind the Michelin Guide in the U.S. with help from Krishnendu Ray (professor at NYU) and Beth Forrest (professor at the CIA). By the end of the ...
Feb 02, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Telly Justice and Mike Sheats worked together at Five & Ten in Athens Ga., where Justice worked her way up to chef de cuisine and Sheats was an AM chef. Once they started their own projects, the chefs knew that the strict brigade system, codified by Georges-Auguste Escoffier more than a hundred years ago, wouldn’t be the right fit for their businesses. “In the kitchens that Mike and I came up in, there was not much room for challenging anything,” said Justice. For both Justice and Sheats, th...
Jan 23, 2023•35 min•Season 4Ep. 9
The United States is the top producer of corn in the world, yet only 40% of that corn is destined for someone’s plate. The industrialization of corn in the Americas is a story of colonization, appropriation, and capitalism. But there are also stories of people finding ways to celebrate biodiversity, culture, and history through great corn products. In this episode, we talk with Pedro Ferbel-Azcarate and Wendy Downing, 2 of 3 co-owners of Three Sisters Nixtamal, an organic and traditional masa ma...
Jan 05, 2023•35 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Welcome to the Copper & Heat audio tasting menu. This 6-course experience takes you through dishes from pivotal points in the history of the modern tasting menu. Vote for us in the first inaugural Signal Awards! We were nominated for a Signal Award in the Food & drink category, and we need your help! Vote for us for the Listener’s Choice Award at the link above. Guests: Beth Forrest Her faculty bio and books Sam Yamashita His piece on the Japanese Turn | His books | His faculty bio Krish...
Dec 15, 2022•38 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Is culinary school worth the investment in terms of money and time? This is a question posed by hundreds of thousands of people as they enter the culinary field. Is it worth spending the money to go to culinary school when I can just work my way up in the industry? Culinary schools have long been more of a trade school to train potential cooks in the culinary field. However, in the ‘90s, the Culinary Institute of America put in a concerted effort to professionalize the career of chef, and theref...
Dec 01, 2022•29 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Meat in the U.S. has had a complicated history which in recent years has spurred on the resurgence of interest in whole animal butchery and neighborhood butcher shops. But even as meat prices have risen, how have the people working behind the counter been affected? In this episode, we speak with 2 butchers who have had very different careers within the world of butchery. There’s Edgar (he/him), whose career includes 20 years at Texas Roadhouse and 5 at Belcampo Meat Co. Then there’s HJ (they/the...
Nov 10, 2022•37 min•Season 4Ep. 5
As cooks and others from the restaurant industry leave traditional jobs to strike out on their own, what does it mean for the craft of cooking? Food is an inherently sensual thing. Sure, it needs to look visually appealing, but that doesn't necessarily say that you are good at the craft of cooking. Does it taste good? Does it smell good? As social media becomes increasingly essential to growing a food business, how does that affect the people working in food every day and how they approach their...
Oct 27, 2022•29 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In this re-release of the first episode of our second season, we’re going to Boise, Idaho to talk with the team at Kin Restaurant. In a small city that’s growing and changing rapidly, what does a small, fine-dining, tasting menu restaurant do to not only educate diners on the value of good food but also educate their employees about the value of themselves as restaurant workers? You can find KIN: On their website On Instagram This episode is supported by BentoBox and Clover. To learn more about ...
Oct 13, 2022•37 min•Season 4Ep. 3
How have chefs and the restaurant industry contributed to the near-extinction of abalone, the prized mollusk often associated with fine dining? Indigenous tribes up and down the coast of what is today California have been eating abalone for thousands of years. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the influx of non-native folks led to the hunting, fetishization, and overconsumption of abalone. From San Francisco bohemians who were inspired by its beauty to Japanese fishermen making a business out of e...
Sep 29, 2022•36 min•Season 4Ep. 2
What does the popularity of culinary foam say about the types of food – and the kinds of chefs – we value? When Geraldine DeRuiter wrote about her meal at “the worst Michelin starred restaurant, ever,” she didn’t expect to start a global controversy. The tasting menu she had at Bros, in Lecce, Italy, was a bizarre, avant garde dining experience, the pinnacle being the “Chef’s Kiss” dish, a plaster cast of a mouth with foam dripping out of it. What followed was a whole conversation online about t...
Sep 15, 2022•35 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In this season of Copper & Heat we're exploring the concepts of value and craft in the world of food. Why are some cuisines considered more valuable than others (and therefore command a higher price point)? Is food art, craft, or both? Why is restaurant labor considered "low-skill" and undervalued? We're exploring these questions and more in season 4 of Copper & Heat. Follow along wherever you get your podcasts.
Sep 01, 2022•2 min
We're still working on season 4, but in the meantime we're sharing some shows that we love! Today's guest episode is from the So You Want to Run a Restaurant podcast powered by Back of House . Back of House connects restaurant operators with the technologies and ideas they need to move their businesses forward. This episode, " Fighting Burnout and Building a Retail Brand " is a conversation with Cynthia Wong of Life Raft Treats, a decorated pastry chef who left the fine dining industry to start ...
Jul 27, 2022•39 min
We're sharing a special preview of the new podcast, What’s Your Problem? from Pushkin Industries. What’s Your Problem? explains the problems really smart people are trying to solve right now, from creating a drone delivery service to building a car that can truly drive itself. Jacob Goldstein, former host of Planet Money, talks with innovators about the future they’re trying to build – and the problems they have to solve to get there. In this preview, Jacob talks with Katherine Sizov, founder of...
May 26, 2022•13 min
