Episode 13: Robin Smith, Zachary's Chicago Pizza (Oakland, CA)
Episode 13 is now LIVE! Zachary’s Chicago Pizza, the employee-owned pizzeria known for its thick, signature stuffed pies, is a local institution in the Bay Area. With over 225 Best Pizza awards to its name, locals know it as the ONLY place to get deep dish in the Bay.
Known for its incredible family and community oriented shops and team members, Zach's currently operates 5 shops in the Bay Area (Oakland (2), Berkeley, Pleasant Hill, Pleasanton, San Ramon). 20 years after its founding 1983, original founders Zach and Barbara, who painstakingly developed the incredible taste of Zach's pizza, decided to sell the company to the incredible crew of employees. Robin is one of the employees who co-owns Zachary's Pizza- she started as a host/server and is now the Marketing Manager behind Zach's!
Some fun facts about Zachary's Pizza that we talk about with Robin in this episode:
What Zach's most popular pizza flavors are and the secrets behind a perfect Zach's order
How Robin started working at Zach's
How Zach's pizza tastes different from Chicago's actual deep-dish (according to both our co-hosts...and Robin herself)
Some quirky Zach's traditions...like how an annual art contest has supplied over 300 pieces of pizza art that decorates the walls in all 4 restaurant locations
We hope you enjoy!
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37:29
Episode 12: Aaron Lindstrom, Theo Chocolate (Seattle, WA)
We are SO excited for this episode, with Theo Chocolate, an incredible bean-to-bar chocolate maker founded in Seattle, WA in 2005. Our guest, Aaron has been with Theo for 7 years now, and is the lead chocolate educator. He hosts chocolate tastings, factory tours, and SO MUCH more exciting stuff (seriously a dream job?)
We talk to Aaron in this episode about:
- His personal passion for chocolate and how it drove him to innovate and help develop virtual chocolate tastings in the pandemic
- How Theo Chocolate was founded and how it has evolved over time
- His background in theatre and how it taught him to lead and engage audiences in amazing virtual events
...and there's so much more!
We are SO excited to announce our episode 11 guest: Nat Stratton-Clarke - the current owner of Seattle’s oldest vegetarian restaurant, Cafe Flora!
When Nat first moved to Seattle he told himself he would give himself 5 years to try out working in the restaurant industry and joined Cafe Flora working to help procure locally sourced veggies. If it didn’t work he figured he could go to law school.
Within 5 years the owners of Cafe Flora had offered to handover ownership to Nat, and he took over and hasn’t looked back since! He’s grown Cafe Flora into this incredible institution in Seattle - with two additional locations in SeaTac airport (Floret) and a bakery (The Flora Bakehouse).
Our co-host Madeleine is Cafe Flora’s biggest fan - as a vegan she has always loved the amazing seasonal veggie menus that Cafe Flora offers! We're so excited to share this one with you all!
****TIMESTAMPS****
3:21 Vegan cooking tips
6:17 How he became involved in cafe flora
11:46 Expanded to include floret
13:43 Vegetarian culture in last 30 years
19:50 Farming partnerships
23:10 Menu development
28:16 Team creative process and recipes that have been on the menu for 30 years
33:38 How Nat thinks about personal career goals/growth
Zach Martinucci grew up in the Bay Area and went to high school with Madeleine before going on to study at UCLA and setting off on his entrepreneurial adventure as the founder of Rebel Bread, a bakery in Denver, CO! Rebel Bread is a Community Bakery and Bread School that offers wholesale bread and pastries to local coffee shops, bakes for farmers markets and a membership Bread Club, and offers classes for every kind of home baker.
****TIMESTAMPS****
4:08 How Rebel Bread Started
12:12 Confidence/Imposter Syndrome
21:00 Persona Breads
28:16 Taking feedback
31:13 Being a “millennial” bakery
34:37 The story behind the family style bagel
39:15 Authenticity in food
44:43 Classes
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1:09:36
Episode 9: Amelie Kang, MáLà Project (New York, NY)
Our guest for Episode 9 is Amelie Kang from @malaproject!
Amelie grew up in Beijing, watching her grandmother cook, and her early exposure to food had her pursue Culinary Arts at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and then an externship at Chef Daniel Boulud's Bar Boulud & China Blue. Amelie has been honored by Forbes 30 Under 30 for Food & Drink & Eater Young Gun for introducing Sichuan dry pot to the NYC food ecosystem.
Amelie’s work ethic, creativity, and care for people are what have made her first restaurant @malaproject such an incredible success, and we're so excited to share it with you!
****TIMESTAMPS****
4:40 Warm up questions
9:37 How Amelie's interest in cooking began
16:02 Menu development
23:24 How Amelie approaches branding
31:27 Approach to scaling across multiple restaurant locations
38:36 Mentorship & favorite foods!
Welcome to Dished! Come be our guest and join co-hosts Catherine and Madeleine as they go behind-the-scenes of your favorite local bakeries, restaurants, and dessert spots! In this podcast, we're going back to the basics of business + food by interviewing your favorite foodie founders as they share stories about the dreams they visualized, built and scaled.
https://www.instagram.com/dishedpodcast/
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