Chomp, by The Desert Sun Chomp, by The Desert Sun

If you've spent time in Palm Springs, there's a good chance you've eaten at a Tara Lazar restaurant. The Palm Springs native owns and operates Cheeky's, Birba, Chi Chi, and Mr. Lyons Steakhouse, as well as the Alcazar Hotel. We talk to her about the different flavors of her restaurants, what the food scene was like for her growing up, and, of course, bacon.

The Coachella Valley is the fifth largest agricultural producer in the United States. Much of the country eats food grown from this soil. But for a variety of reasons, not every crop grown here is used. Rows and rows of perfectly good vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower are plowed over every year and completely wasted. Christy Porter, who runs Hidden Harvest, has spent more than a decade combating this problem. We talk to her about gleaning (the process of saving usable crops from being plowed under), her organization, and the world of Coachella Valley farming.

This episode features chefs Brandon Testi from the Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa and James Wallace from the Hyatt Palm Springs. Testi is relatively new to the resort scene while Wallace has spent most of his career cooking for hotels around the world. Both chefs share stories about where their passion for cooking started and how their love for the resort environment fueled rewarding culinary careers. Listen in on our conversation here with food and drink reporter and host Everett Cook.

Roy's Rancho Mirage chef partner Adam Palffy shares tips on Asian cooking, thoughts on being a young chef in the Coachella Valley.

Chomp is a podcast by Everett Cook of The Desert Sun on food and drink in the Coachella Valley in southern California. This month, we talk to Tony Marchese of Trio and the Purple Room on the transformation of the Palm Springs dining scene.