The Copper & Heat Creative team has been busy this holiday season producing a new ASMR podcast for Tastemade and Mastercard. Each episode, a chef takes you through their favorite holiday recipes with lots of stories and sounds. So whatever you’re doing this holiday season, put on some headphones, sit back, get cozy, and listen to the soothing sounds of the kitchen. We've posted one of the episodes here in our feed, but be sure to check out the rest of Sounds Like the Holidays (plus the aweso...
Dec 22, 2021•17 min
In this Pre-Shift, we talk with Jazmin Villalta and Enrique Soriano from Cocina del Corazon about how grassroots growth has allowed them to thrive while sticking to their values. Where to find them: Their website Instagram Facebook Check out One Star Podcast Network the first podcast network dedicated to representing voices and stories from the service industry with shows created by service industry workers. Sponsors for this episode: Chefstreams - Interactive Livestream Cooking Classes We've wo...
Apr 19, 2021•16 min•Season 3Ep. 13
In this Pre-Shift, we talk with Zoe Adjonyoh about how she found her niche and followed her purpose as she’s built her business. Where to find Zoe: Her website Instagram Her cookbook Check out One Star Podcast Network the first podcast network dedicated to representing voices and stories from the service industry with shows created by service industry workers. Sponsors for this episode: Chefstreams - Interactive Livestream Cooking Classes We've worked out a special discount on membership to Chef...
Apr 19, 2021•20 min•Season 3Ep. 12
In this Pre-Shift, we chat with Jenny Dorsey about how she has developed her voice and how she practices kindness with herself. Where to find Jenny: Her website Instagram Twitter Studio ATAO Check out One Star Podcast Network the first podcast network dedicated to representing voices and stories from the service industry with shows created by service industry workers. Sponsors for this episode: West Michigan Pasta and Provisions - Traditional, Artisan, Dried Pastas Check out WestMichiganPastaand...
Apr 19, 2021•17 min•Season 3Ep. 11
In this Pre-Shift we hear about the successful unionization efforts of the Tartine Union in San Francisco from one of the people that was there from the beginning, Matthew Torres. Plus, we hear a little more about the general steps to unionizing from Tsehaitu Abye, a community organizer from One Fair Wage. Guests: Matthew Torres - Tartine Union @TartineUnion @tartineunion Tsehaitu Abye - Organizer for One Fair Wage @tsehaitu_ @1fairwage_official More Resources: Tartine Letter of Intent to Unioni...
Apr 05, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 10
In this episode of Pre-Shit, we're demystifying different kinds of organizing and collective action and talking about why unionizing is so hard in the restaurant industry with Jesse Kadjo and Tsehaitu Abye. Guests: Jesse Kadjo - Labor Organizer for City of Oakland Union & host of Leap Year Podcast @jessekadjo Tsehaitu Abye - Community Organizer for One Fair Wage @tsehaitu_ @1fairwage_official More resources: Is this Las Vegas hospitality workers union the future of American labor? On PBS New...
Apr 05, 2021•27 min•Season 3Ep. 9
In this Pre-Shift we’re talking about DEIA - diversity, equity, inclusion, and access - what it is, and how one restaurant has worked to implement better practices. Guests: Terri Evans - owner and operator of Windy City Ribs & Whiskey @windycityribsandwhiskey Dr. Erinn Tucker - Director of the Global Hospitality Leadership master’s program At Georgetown University and Co-Founder of DMV Black Restaurant Week @etucker0818 @dmvbrw More Resources: “The Great Service Divide” by Restaurant Opportu...
Mar 22, 2021•23 min•Season 3Ep. 8
In this Pre-Shift we’re talking about privilege and bias - what those words mean, how they play out in our lives, and what we can do to be better. Guests: Chef Jenny Dorsey - chef, activist, and founder of Studio ATAO @chefjennydorsey @studioatao Dr. Erinn Tucker - Director of the Global Hospitality Leadership master’s program At Georgetown University and Co-Founder of DMV Black Restaurant Week @etucker0818 @dmvbrw Adan Callsen - owner and trainer @under_the_table_boise More resources: Studio AT...
Mar 22, 2021•23 min•Season 3Ep. 7
We're so excited to be a part of the brand new One Star Podcast Network . This week, we're bringing the amazing Sidework Podcast to our feed. Take a listen to hear an interview with activist and baker Cass Vogel about her struggle to organize and unionize her coworkers @donutfriendunited . We'll be back with Pre-Shift episodes in a couple weeks. In the meantime, check out the other awesome shows in the One Star Podcast Network! In Yo Mouth The Modern Waiter Confessions of a Server Macaroni Zon...
Mar 08, 2021•38 min
In this Pre-Shift, we’re talking about how we can support each other through mental health challenges. Guests: Hassel Aviles & Ariel Coplan - co-founders of Not 9 to 5 @not9to5_ More resources to help support your friends and coworkers: QPR Institute Suicide Prevention Training Mental Health First Aid Course Primary Concerns of the Hospitality and Culinary Industry course from Not 9 to 5 Not 9 to 5 Resources page We Could All Use This Therapist's Advice Right Now by Priya Krishna with Melody...
Feb 22, 2021•24 min•Season 3Ep. 6
In this Pre-Shift, we’re talking about how we can learn new ways to cope with stress. Guests: Laura Green - counselor and owner of Healthy Pour @healthy.pour More resources to help with coping with stress: Healthy Pour Resources page How to Build a Self-Care System by Ashtin Berry Building a Self-Care Action Plan by the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center Learning Healthy Coping Skills with Laura Green and Studio ATAO Therapy 101 with Laura Green and Studio...
Feb 22, 2021•18 min•Season 3Ep. 5
In this Pre-Shift, learn about valuing the work you do and negotiating a pay raise or promotion. Guests: Rachel Ramsey - owner and operator of Measured HR @rachelrramsey Adan Callsen - owner of Under the Table Boise from @under_the_table_boise More resources to help with negotiating: “15 Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer” by the Harvard Business Review Minority Negotiations: Breaking Glass Ceilings TED Talk by Loren Bass Know your worth, and then ask for it - TED Talk by Casey Brown How To Ask F...
Feb 08, 2021•18 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In this Pre-Shift we’re talking about boundaries - why it’s so hard to set them, how to figure out what our boundaries are, and how to have those awkward and sometimes scary conversations. Guests: Hassel Aviles and Ariel Coplan - Co-founders of Not 9 to 5 @not9to5_ Grace Guber - hospitality professional and host of The Family Meal podcast @theguberosity Rachel Ramsey - owner and operator of Measured HR @rachelrramsey More resources to help you set healthy boundaries: Primary Concerns of the Hosp...
Feb 08, 2021•21 min•Season 3Ep. 4
In this Pre-Shift, we’re talking about how, despite all of the challenges to dealing with conflict, we can reframe the idea of conflict and how we approach those tense conversations with coworkers. Guests: Laura Green - licensed counselor and hospitality industry professional at Healthy Pour @healthy.pour Rachel Ramsey - owner of Measured HR @rachelrramsey More resources to help with conflict resolution: “How to Have a Disagreement Like an Adult” in the NYT Make All Your Arguments Win-Wint by NP...
Jan 25, 2021•19 min•Season 3Ep. 2
For this first Pre-Shift, we’re talking about why it’s so hard for us in hospitality to give and receive feedback effectively and how we can do the work to be better. Guests: Laura Green - licensed counselor and hospitality industry professional at Healthy Pour @healthy.pour Zach Ferguson - hospitality industry professional and podcast host at Restaurant Tales Podcast @restauranttalespodcast More resources to help with feedback: Fixed vs Growth Mindset Infographic Dr. Carol Dweck “The Power of B...
Jan 25, 2021•17 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Named for the pre-service meetings where staff gets all the updates, specials, and other details, Pre-Shift is about getting you tips, tools, and resources of working in hospitality. We're focusing on the issues that hospitality workers face every day - from coping with stress to setting boundaries, from intersectionality to community organizing. We've talked to experts to get advice to help you navigate your work environment. Though it's from the point of view of a restaurant person, the advice...
Jan 18, 2021•2 min
The systems that the restaurant industry is built on don’t work - they’re built on power imbalances and devaluing the labor of hospitality workers. More folks than ever are questioning these systems and looking to make change in the industry. As we’re trying to make changes to labor and wage issues in restaurants - who are we looking to as leaders? Are we looking to the chefs that are just now getting to the conversation - or are we looking to the chefs that have been doing the work and putting ...
Sep 16, 2020•33 min
On March 9th, Chef Irene Li, owner of Mei Mei Restaurant in Boston, opened their finances to the public at an event called Open Book Open House. The purpose? To get people having more open and honest conversations around restaurants and money. But just a week after the Open Book Open House, restaurant dining rooms closed due to COVID and all of a sudden restaurant finances were on everybody’s mind. Thank you all so much for listening to our second season! We really appreciate each one of you. If...
May 08, 2020•30 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Mei Mei in Boston has been an open book restaurant since 2017. They train their entire staff on the finances so that everyone can have a voice in making the restaurant run more efficiently. But on March 9th, Chef Irene Li, owner of Mei Mei decided she wanted to take the education a step further and open their books to the public. What do the finances of a small independent restaurant really look like? Turns out, it’s even rougher than everybody would like to admit.
May 05, 2020•33 min•Season 2Ep. 9
What happens when you get sick or injured and you work in a restaurant? You keep working. At least, that’s how it’s always been. With low wages, lack of access to benefits, and usually nonexistent paid leave, the workers living paycheck to paycheck can’t really take care of their health. Giving Kitchen, a nonprofit in Atlanta, Georgia, is attempting to mitigate those challenges in their local Georgia community by providing financial assistance and resources to workers going through a financial c...
Mar 17, 2020•35 min•Season 2Ep. 8
We’re taking a brief break from our second season to introduce you to the other project that the Copper & Heat team has been working on. It’s called The Makers - a four part mini-series brought to you by ChefsFeed in paid partnership with Maker’s Mark bourbon. In each episode of The Makers, we talk with chefs about their one-of-a-kind approaches to their craft. In this episode, Chefs Gabe Erales, Rico Torres, and Diego Galicia discuss how they are challenging their diners’ expectations of Me...
Mar 03, 2020•31 min
In the second episode on tipping, Katy digs deeper into a different question: if the money coming into the restaurant industry is a pie, who has access to that pie and who is controlling how that pie is drawn? Turns out, there’s a lot of money being spent every year to keep wages low and to keep the tipped minimum wage at $2.13. Surprise! The tipping system is incredibly complicated and contentious. So we want to hear how it affects you! FOH, BOH, good or bad, all stories are welcome. Send them ...
Feb 18, 2020•26 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Why do servers and food runners in the front of the house make so much more money than the cooks? Why do they get to keep all the tips? When Katy was working in fine dining kitchens, the cooks were asking these questions a lot. It just did not seem fair that servers were making as much as 3x more than cooks because of the tips they were bringing in. And it sent her down a long path. Turns out, these are the wrong questions to be asking. In the first episode of the two-part series on tipping, Kat...
Feb 04, 2020•26 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Fernay McPherson is the chef and owner of Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement in Emeryville, California. In this episode, she shows me around the Fillmore District of San Francisco - her home and the place her family has lived for three generations. She’s been trying for years, with the help of the business incubator La Cocina, to open a restaurant in the neighborhood that was once a cultural hub for African Americans, but she's run up against so many barriers. Fernay is a graduate of La Cocina, a nonpr...
Jan 21, 2020•33 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Jenny Goodman and Alex McCrery founded Tilit , a chef and restaurant industry workwear brand, in 2012, and they’re killing it. But before they had a successful workwear brand they opened a restaurant in Brooklyn called Goods - and it closed in 6 months. We talk with Jenny and Alex in this episode about what happened to Goods, what they learned through the experience, and how they’ve used that experience to help others learn how to better open and run a restaurant. Check out their podcast: Openin...
Jan 07, 2020•24 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Katy spends some time reflecting on the last year - and shares some of our favorite podcasts for you to listen to. We share a few clips from those shows in this episode and the links to the full episodes (plus some extras) are below. Long Distance Radio is a documentary podcast about stories in the Filipino diaspora. Hosted and produced by Paola Mardo and Patrick Epino. Featured in this episode: Long Distance S2, E1: Cendrillon Another recommended episode: Long Distance S1, E6: Filipino Tiki Bar...
Dec 30, 2019•33 min
What happens when tech startups backed by venture capital create food delivery apps, and a whole new system, that is relied on by restaurant folks across the U.S.? We chat with the folks at Homeroom To Go - the takeout-only location of the popular Oakland, CA mac and cheese restaurant - about how these apps have affected their business. David Yaffe-Bellany, business reporter from the New York Times, joins us again to talk about some of the larger national trends. More info: The Rise of the Virtu...
Dec 10, 2019•36 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In this Family Meal we hear from Luis Aldana, kitchen manager at Homeroom in Oakland, California. Luis talks about being proud of his team on a day when they were short-staffed and very busy. Share your thoughts and stories at copperandheat.com/share-your-story Can't wait to hear from you!
Dec 03, 2019•5 min
In this episode, we’re headed to Los Angeles to talk with Chef Teresa Montano about her experience opening two restaurants and trying to find staff in a time when there aren't enough cooks and there's a crackdown at the border - two overwhelming issues that overlap and make life hard for chefs and restaurant owners. David Yaffey-Bellany, reporter for the New York Times business desk, joins us to break down the complicated context on a national level. More info: “Hiring Is Very Hard for Restauran...
Nov 26, 2019•29 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In this episode of Family Meal, we hear from Ray Delucci, a cook and host of the podcast Line Cook Thoughts. He shares his experiences with making financial decisions in his cook career and thoughts on staging. Plus, Katy was on Line Cook Thoughts this last week and she and Ray have a great conversations. Check out that interview on the Line Cook Thoughts feed.
Nov 19, 2019•10 min
