“We wanted to be known as a sake bar more than a chicken wing place; but, somehow now, people from all over the world come just for our chicken wings.” 

Meet Azuki Yamashita, the owner of Kasadela Izakaya in NYC’s East Village, the place to go for an “addicting” platter of Tebasaki, a very specific style of umami-infused Japanese fried chicken wings. When Azuki first moved to the U.S., she was very surprised that many Americans thought Japanese people mostly ate sushi, ramen and shabu-shabu. She explained that in her culture, those foods were usually reserved for special occasions, which is why she felt compelled to expose New Yorkers to real, everyday Japanese food, the kind of food she grew up on. So, in 2005, she came on board to manage Kasadela, a newly-opened, authentic, casual, Japanese home-cooking establishment, where the food was as important as the drinks.

But, it was a hard sell. Back then, it was unfamiliar food. People were tentative to try it. The restaurant wasn’t doing well financially; they knew they needed something special on the menu to draw in customers. But what could that one thing be?

Well…believe it or not, as always, a mom saved the day. The original owner’s mom had the brilliant idea to introduce Tebasaki to Americans, thinking that no one could resist the flavor of her very own Nagoya-style chicken wings recipe. True home-cooking! And since then, it’s been bringing in repeat local customers, fried chicken connoisseurs, and Japanese clientele into their doors just for the taste of it. Funny enough, Azuki, who became the new owner in 2009, and Stanley, the bartender, love talking about the instant effect of Tebasaki on diners: that as soon as the plate hits the table, everyone goes silent. Customers temporarily enter this “transcendental state” of meditation and focus on the chicken wings – a reaction that always makes them laugh. So, get on it and enjoy the video already!

Now, I might be new to Tebasaki, but the feeling of fried chicken satisfaction I felt, when I first ate them, won’t get old. I was introduced to Kasadela by my friend Tiffany who helped curate the vendors at this year’s GoogaMooga festival. GoogaMooga will be showcasing Kasadela’s Tebasaki wings at their food festival this weekend. I hope you seek them out!

Thanks for watching food. curated.! Happy Eating!

“Raising kids is really hard work, and if we can make it a little easier for parents to feed their babies better, then I think we’re doing the right thing.”

Meet Claire Hoyt, the founder, CEO and mom behind Big Dipper Baby Food, an artisan baby food company based in San Francisco. Claire’s got big dreams, big dreams that could benefit babies and parents all over the country. She believes all babies have the right to healthier, more seasonal, more local, better tasting baby food. She also believes that good palate development can start at an early age, and last a lifetime  (just ask her about her own son!).

All in all, Big Dipper Baby Food is Claire’s mission to make a difference, one little mouthful at a time. Enjoy her story!

The Next Big Small Brand Event is March 27th at BAM in Brooklyn. This is the last of 6 finalist videos I’m making for the contest. Come out and support small food artisans!

Thanks for watching food. curated.! Happy Eating!

“You know, for us, it was never really an option to buy our kids products, like Capri Sun, that we felt were really loaded down with sugars and unnatural ingredients…”

Meet Amy & Tom Barnouw, the co-founders of Planet Fuel, an organic fruit juice company based in Fairfield, Connecticut. Tom and Amy are parents. Parents to three adorable little kids. They met out on the West Coast, are both lovers of nature and big supporters of environmental issues – she used to even work for environmental non-profits as a career before she became a mom. Planet Fuel, you could say, is their 4th baby, a company born out of the frustration of raising kids without enough readily available natural juice options in the marketplace.

Enjoy their story!

Planet Fuel is available in close to 70 stores throughout Connecticut and New Jersey, to purchase Planet Fuel for for more information, click here.

The Next Big Small Brand Event is March 27th at BAM in Brooklyn. This is the 5th of 6 finalist videos I’m making for the contest. Come out and support small food artisans!

Thanks for watching food. curated.! Happy Drinking! 

“I think what we’re doing is important, it’s important for chocolate. And it’s important for us that this type of chocolate is known about.”

Meet Todd Masonais, the co-founder and chocolate maker behind Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco, a very special, small-batch chocolate company dedicated to nothing else but sharing the pure flavor of the cacao bean.

I must say, I never realized how romantic making chocolate could be until I got some close-ups of the process. Todd is such an interesting character and I just love his passion for picking out the nuances of a cacao bean. When I was there, he walked me through a chocolate taste test, and I was blown away with the complexity of each bean he presented. He’s right, you don’t need to add anything to make chocolate taste great when the beans are as good as theirs. And to guarantee such award-winning flavors, Todd and his team spend a great deal of time visiting cacao farms, meeting cacao farmers and testing out beans from around the world before deciding which ones get labeled: Dandelion Chocolate.

Hope you enjoy their story! For their chocolate bars, you can visit select retailers out on the West Coast, mostly near or around San Francisco. And the good word is, they’ll be available in a number of New York shops soon too.

The Next Big Small Brand Contest Tasting + Judging Event is March 27th at BAM in Brooklyn. This is the 4th of 6 finalist videos I’m making for the contest. Come out and support small food artisans!

Thanks for watching food. curated.! Happy Chocolate Eating!

“We have a pie shape for every hunger level and every need.”

Meet Cheryl Perry and Felipa Lopez, the founders and bakers behind Pie Corps, an artisan, farm to table pie company based in Brooklyn, New York. Their tag line reads: “Ready to Roll”- and that’s just how they’ve operated – going with the flow, being optimistic, conquering any obstacle to keep their pie business going since first opening in May 2011. As long-time friends and kitchen collaborators, they’ve always believed opening a food business together was their destiny; and after making pies one summer, something just clicked.

Enjoy their story! To taste Pie Corps’ delicious pie crust and traditional pie fillings with a twist,  you can order them online, or visit one of their retail locations in New York here. There’s a reason I ended the video on their Chocolate Pudding Pie w/Rosemary Caramel and Sea Salt. You HAVE to try it. It’s not only a chocolate lover’s dream, but just one of those rare food moments in life where you just nod your head, say a little thanks, and think to yourself: “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

The Next Big Small Brand Contest Tasting + Judging Event is March 27th at BAM in Brooklyn. This is the 3rd of 6 finalist videos I’m making for the contest. Come out and support small food artisans!

Thanks for watching food. curated.! Happy eating!

“We like the fact that we’re not gimmicky, and we’re not precious, and we’re not anything more than giving you the best baked goods that you’re going to be satisfied with…”

Meet Gillian Sara Shaw the owner and baking machine behind Black Jet Baking Company, a self-proclaimed “bad ass” baked goods company in San Francisco, California. Gillian was destined to be a baker. She grew up on the East Coast, baking in the kitchen with her mom and sister, developing her own special recipes before she was even 10 years old. She loves it. She’s good at it. And she’s determined to take her baked goods national.

Gillian specializes in modern takes on nostalgic items, reinventing recipes using high-quality ingredients for things you loved growing up: devils dogs, pop tarts, pies and bundt cakes. She has a beautiful story to tell. I hope you like it!

To taste and order her bad-ass baked goods, visit her online store here. You can also find her products at a number of cafes and shops in San Francisco, including the Ferry Building. Her Pop Breakfast Sampler and hand-pies are particular favorites of mine.

The Next Big Small Brand Contest Tasting + Judging Event is March 27th at BAM in Brooklyn. This is the 2nd of 6 finalist videos I’m making for the contest. Come out and support small food artisans!

Thanks for watching food. curated.! Happy eating!

“We were so surprised there were no other products in the market incorporating chia seeds into a snack food.”

Meet Catherine Mangan Walsh, the co-founder of New York Superfoods Inc., an artisan health food company based in Manhattan. Catherine and her husband, Jason Walsh, live an active lifestyle. They like sports, they get outdoors, they bike, they run. They never dreamed they’d own a health food business, not until a few years ago, when they started to play around with chia seeds.

Chia seeds are a type of superfood, a special category of natural food said to rich in anti-oxidants and jam-packed with nutrients. They first read about the energy-sustaining power of the chia seed when they first read “Born to Run”, a non-fiction, adventure tale about an elite tribe of world’s greatest long-distance runners: the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico. In the book, the Tarahumara predominately depend on chia seeds to fuel up before and during their 100+ mile runs – a little food fact that got Catherine and Jason curious.  They wanted to try it. They wanted to see if chia seeds could power their own active lifestyles. However, their search for chia-based snacks came up empty.

So, they decided to play around in the kitchen and make a few products themselves. After endless testings and encouragement from family and friends, they decided to bring their ideas to market. Now, some of the top endurance athletes in the world use their products…

Enjoy their story!

If you are interested in buying some Chia Chargers or BeKind Chia Butters you can browse their full line of products at their online store here. I really enjoy the Chia Charger “Kick” with a hint of spicy paprika and their Manhattan Mud BeKind Butter with dark chocolate.

The Next Big Small Brand Contest Tasting + Judging Event is March 27th at BAM in Brooklyn. This is the 1st of 6 finalist videos I’m making for the contest. Come out and support small food artisans!

Thanks for watching food. curated.! Happy eating! 

“The ingredients, the elements of the products I make, have been in use for thousands of years. They’re safety tested by our ancestors…”

Meet Liz Neves, the founder of Raganella’s Botanical Solutions, an all-natural, ethical body care company that hand blends organic, sustainable, smokable tea and other herbal products in her kitchen in Brooklyn, New York. Liz sees herself as a “caretaker”. She left her 9-5 job in advertising to fulfill her calling to pursue something more ecological and healthy – starting her own body care company because she was fed up with synthetic, brand name products in the marketplace touting solutions to problems, but using ingredients that weren’t actually healthy for your body or the environment. As she dug deeper, she realized that “simple is good” that “the Earth is an abundant place; that it provides” and that healing plants were the solution to her problems and the answer to her own career riddle. So, Liz launched her company and started developing “solutions” for everyday issues in her life, and now, a year later, has over 30 handmade, plant-based products to help people heal in a more humane way; which, of course, brings me to her all-natural tea line and her #1 selling product: smokable tea.

Now, I’m sure many of you drink tea, occasionally, as a herbal remedy or a sleep aid, but have any of you ever smoked it? Probably not. It was a first for me too. Well, for you curious and interested folks reading this, here’s your chance:

Liz calls her smokable tea blend: Vivid Visions - a blend she learned about from herbalist Robin Rose Bennett. It’s her #1 selling product on Etsy, with many, many repeat customers. It’s legal, it’s under the radar, and, according to Liz, it’s perfect for anyone who takes life too seriously and needs a way to relax AND dream better. You don’t need a lot of it to feel the effects and benefits. And it works. I’ve been drinking it and smoking it over the past few weeks: it’s different, it’s interesting, smooth and it definitely chills me out in a way I feel immediately. There’s much more information in the video story. So enjoy! I hope you try it along with a handful of her other recommended solutions.

Thanks so much for watching food. curated.! Happy dreaming!! 

This Saturday, February 25th at 2pm, I’ll be judging The Best Wings in Brooklyn Competition at Red Star Bar in Greenpoint along with Jacob Osterhout from the DAILY NEWS, Peter DeNat from YELP BROOKLYN, Sarah Zorn from THE BROOKLYN PAPER and Sharon Beason from BROOKLYN EXPOSED. I’ve always wanted to judge a food cook-off, and I’m pinching myself that I get to kick off this long-desired dream with plates and plates of finger-licking wings.

I remember the first year I went and it was PACKED with wing lovers. Plus, you’ll get to sample secret recipes from 12-16 vendors from across Brooklyn all vying for bragging rights. Even better, the event is FREE – so come early! Hope you can make it!

Red Star Bar: 37 Greenpoint Avenue, on the corner of West Street and Greenpoint Avenue.

It’s always nice to get a little recognition for my food. curated. series.

A few weeks ago, my friends from JoinBklyn asked me to participate in a Megan Cignoli photo shoot for the launch of belVita Breakfast biscuits showcasing interesting female entrepreneurs. They wanted someone “optimistic with a very social lifestyle”. I’m honored they thought of me!!

Overall, I enjoyed the crunchy breakfast biscuits. They had a nice oaty flavor to them, good texture. The crunch reminded me of those Biscoff cookies I used to get two servings of on Delta flights. Anyway, these new belVita biscuits are made for people who want a breakfast option on-the-go. Now, of course, you’ll usually find me slaving over biscuit recipes or a digging into a bowl of homemade granola & fruit for breakfast, but on the days when I’m running out the door like a mad-woman to get to a film shoot, I could grab a pack of biscuits for sure. Enjoy the video. Will share the pictures from the shoot later this week. Cheers!