Industry Night with Nycci Nellis

Nycci Nellis
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Industry Night is the long-talk format radio show and podcast that brings you up close and personal with the trends and trendsetters across today’s diverse food, wine, spirits, brews and hospitality landscape. For in-depth insights and insider tips, join your host, Nycci Nellis, cohost of Foodie and the Beast, the DC area’s one and only food and wine variety show, and all the locally, nationally and globally renowned chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook authors, mixologists, somms, distillers, brewmasters, pit-masters and more that you’ll hear from on Industry Night.

  1. 5d ago

    Industry Night at Central: 20 Years of Central, Remembering Michel Richard

    Four people who knew him best, one table, and the stories that never made print. Twenty years ago a general manager named Brian saw four starving women walk into a restaurant that was already closed, sat them at the bar, and asked if they would like a glass of champagne. That is the whole story of Central Michel Richard in one move, and it is why this James Beard Award winning restaurant is still standing. I recorded this one on location at Central, which is the only way to do it. This is a DC food podcast episode and a DC dining guide entry in one. Michel Richard shaped how Washington DC eats, and we lost him ten years ago. If you have ever wondered what actually happens behind a restaurant that survives two decades in this city, this is the chef interview podcast episode for you. It is about mentorship, ego, failure, loyalty, and a fried chicken recipe with six steps that nobody is allowed to skip. Around the table: Chip Sandground, the DC attorney who negotiated Michel out of his Citronelle non compete and became one of Central's original investors. Mel Davis, Michel's right hand for 15 years across his 11 restaurants. Chef Cedric Maupillier, Central's opening executive chef, now at Barbouzard. And Mark Bucher, co owner of Medium Rare and founder of Feed the Fridge. Key TakeawaysMichel Richard's Central opened for a single day on December 31, 2006, then closed again because the restaurant was not actually ready.Central's kitchen was built for volume and once turned 750 covers in a single day, with two and sometimes three turns at dinner.The fried chicken is still on the menu after 20 years, and when a union kitchen in New York cut six steps out of the recipe, the result drew a zero star review.Michel Richard's generation treated the restaurant business as a mentorship business, training young chefs like Cedric Maupillier to be better than himself and asking nothing back.The MR in Medium Rare stands for Michel Richard's initials, chosen before the words were.Cedric Maupillier said, "Everybody thinks that the restaurant is only glamour and Gucci. No, they are wrong."Chip Sandground said, "It was a hard business then. It's an impossible business now."Timestamps 00:00 Central at 20, and the night four starving women got fed 04:44 Chip Sandground meets Michel Richard and gets put to work 06:41 Negotiating Michel out of the Citronelle non compete 08:57 Open for one day, December 31, 2006 13:48 Mel Davis is told she is not qualified, and stays 15 years 16:19 The 11 restaurants, Atlantic City to the Palace Hotel 18:41 Mark Bucher, the head cheese, and the chicken nugget setup 25:13 Cedric Maupillier on listening to guests and rebranding 27:17 Inside a kitchen built for 750 covers 30:50 The last generation of the mentorship kitchen 38:40 The fried chicken, and why six steps matter 40:43 The tuna burger that sold the restaurant 45:05 Trompe l'oeil, and the baguette caviar typo 54:11 What Michel taught Mel about people 56:15 Ten years of silence, and the apology 58:34 Michel's last years, and the friends who tried 01:04:34 St. Jude's, and Michel with kids 01:09:53 One last story each, the cake and the dog 01:16:37 Rapid fire, the dish that says Central 01:21:01 Twenty years, and the whimsy missing in kitchens today Connect with the guests Cedric Maupillier, Barbouzard: https://barbouzard.com/ Cedric Maupillier, Barbouzard on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbouzard/ Mark Bucher, Medium Rare: https://www.mediumrarerestaurant.com/ Mark Bucher, Medium Rare on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mediumrare_restaurant/ Central Michel Richard: https://www.centralmichelrichard.com/ Central Michel Richard on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/centralmrdc/

    Industry Night at Central: 20 Years of Central, Remembering Michel Richard

  2. Oct 22

    Women Belong in the Kitchen: Chef Kat Petonito & Pastry Chef Rochelle Cooper Talk Harassment, Burnout & Building a Better Restaurant Industr

    Two chefs on what this business cost them, and the one they built instead. Women belong in the kitchen. Also the front of the house, the wine list, and the ownership papers. That is where this one starts, on the water in Southwest DC, and about twenty minutes in it stops being a feel-good conversation and turns into an honest one. If you have ever worked a line, run one, or wondered why so many good women leave this business right around the time they have kids, stay with this one. Kat and Rochelle talk about the kitchens they came up in, including the moment Rochelle was told that if she could not work with the man harassing her, she would be the one moved. Then they walk through what they run now. No touching policy. No drinking on the clock. Good insurance, paid time off, mental health days, almost no turnover in six years. This is the DC food podcast episode about the business case, not the feeling. Kat Petonito is executive chef across The Duck and The Peach, La Collina, and The Wells for Eastern Point Collective, a CIA grad, a two time RAMMY nominee, and executive sous at St. Anselm before this. Rochelle Cooper is executive pastry chef across all three, Johnson and Wales trained, with years at Range, at Minibar, and in R and D for Jose Andres, and she is the 2024 RAMMY Pastry Chef of the Year. They are longtime colleagues, best friends, and both mothers of young kids. Key TakeawaysKat and Rochelle built their culture on two rules, no touching and no drinking on the clock, because the second is what makes the first hold.Rochelle was told that if she could not work with the chef harassing her, she would be the one moved locations, leaving her to choose a step back or a step out.Kat treats sustainability as a people question first, so primal cuts sit alongside mental health days nobody has to argue for.Seven babies have arrived among the staff since opening and most of the team has stayed close to six years, which is how the benefits pay for themselves.Rochelle turned leftover menu ingredients into Lucky Plum Ice Cream, and Kat renders the restaurant’s waste duck fat into bar soap for guests and staff.Katarina Petonito said, “At Eastern Point, our sustainability starts with our culture.”Rochelle Cooper said, “I’ve never had a boss chase me out the door and tell me I’m working too much ever.”Timestamps 00:00 Live from The Point in Southwest DC 01:00 A third of the chefs, six percent of the top kitchens 02:28 Meet Kat Petonito and Rochelle Cooper 02:57 Where did your hunger start 03:32 Rochelle wanted to be a doctor 06:38 Kat was born into the industry 11:14 Range, Chris Ford, and Mercado Little Spain 15:27 Mentors, and the ones who taught you what not to do 21:00 How Kat and Rochelle came together 21:49 A hard look back at an era in DC kitchens 24:02 How bad was it for you 27:25 Having to be one of the boys 28:43 Step back or step out 29:59 Kat shuts it down 33:09 The no touching and no drinking policies 34:04 Inside The Duck and The Peach, La Collina, and The Wells 35:16 Goat butter, cow dairy, and the pastry program 40:28 Sustainability starts with your people 44:31 Primal cuts, duck fat, and the soap project 46:21 Lucky Plum Ice Cream 49:55 What travels in a to-go box and what does not 51:38 Mothers in kitchens, seven babies in six years 55:17 Health insurance, PTO, and why retention pays 59:12 Hospitality is taking care of people 01:00:11 Rapid fire 01:03:17 Where to find them More from Industry Night, the DC food podcast and DC dining guide, at thelistareyouonit.com. Connect with Kat Petonito and Rochelle Cooper Kat Petonito on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chef_meoww/ Rochelle Cooper on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shakinbaker219/ The Duck and The Peach: https://www.instagram.com/duckandpeach_dc/ La Collina: https://www.instagram.com/lacollina_dc/ The Wells: https://www.instagram.com/thewells_dc/

    Women Belong in the Kitchen: Chef Kat Petonito & Pastry Chef Rochelle Cooper Talk Harassment, Burnout & Building a Better Restaurant Industr

  3. Oct 15

    What's Shaking? Tastemaker Virginia Miller of World's 50 Best at Bar Betsie with JP Sabatier

    She decides which restaurants the world calls the best. Here is how that actually works. Over 30,000 restaurants and bars. More than 600 a year, still. I have met plenty of people in this business who call themselves obsessed, then I met Virginia Miller, who keeps spreadsheets on all of it and finds that unremarkable. We sat down at Bar Betsie because when this team heard who was coming, they did not say yes, they said Bar Betsie, obviously. If you have ever looked at a best restaurants list and wondered who picks it and whether any of it is real, this one pulls the curtain all the way back. Virginia walks through how the voting works, who gets to be a voter, how many of her own picks never make it, and why she says there is no number one. For anyone who follows this DC food podcast for the industry side, this is the view you rarely get on tape. Virginia Miller is Academy Chair for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and North America’s 50 Best Restaurants, a James Beard Awards Committee member, and a lead judge at San Francisco World Spirits and the American Distilling Institute awards, which she has judged for 17 years. She writes The Perfect Spot, the Substack she launched back in 2007. Then Bar Betsie co owner JP Sabatier got behind the bar, built a Love Yuzu, and explained how both of his bars got their names. Key Takeaways Virginia Miller moved to San Francisco in 2003 and hit roughly ten restaurants a week in her first year, purely out of obsession, before she was ever paid to write about any of it.World’s 50 Best has more than 1,000 voters and roughly 26 to 28 chairpeople worldwide, and every chair has to replace at least a quarter of their voters each year.Judging spirits is blind and technical, closer to a lab than a night out, while judging restaurants takes in aesthetics, hospitality and the whole experience.She deliberately went after every food she disliked until she learned to enjoy it, on the theory that you can train yourself to like anything.Jane Jane, Bar Betsie and even the business entity behind them are each named after one of the three owners’ mothers.Virginia Miller said, “There is no number one. There’s many.”JP Sabatier said, “Jane Jane should feel like you’re going to a school field trip and Bar Betsie should feel like you’re cutting school.”Timestamps 00:00 Welcome to Bar Betsie in the Union Market District 01:22 Meet Virginia Miller, 30,000 restaurants and counting 03:25 Homeschooled, half Sicilian, and collecting Zagat guides 06:22 Tom Martinez pours the Clover Cult 07:33 Moving to San Francisco and hitting ten spots a week 09:32 Launching The Perfect Spot in 2007 10:24 From the Bay Guardian to Zagat and Time Out 13:01 How the bar and spirits world changed since the early 2000s 14:36 Tasting everything, and training yourself to like anything 16:10 The on air cocktail competition begins 17:01 Judging spirits blind for the world’s biggest awards 19:58 What World’s 50 Best actually is, and how chairs are chosen 22:28 Inside the voting, and why it is never just your picks 25:04 Tasting the two competition cocktails 28:12 The writing world is shrinking, so she built her own 29:36 Travel guides, the arts, and food as a portal 31:41 JP Sabatier on Bar Betsie and the Union Market District 33:50 Jane Jane, Bar Betsie, and naming bars after your mom 35:39 The CIA, the cocktail program, and the Love Yuzu 41:36 What is coming up at Bar Betsie 42:29 Roasted Not by Us 43:43 Closing thoughts Connect with Virginia Miller Website: https://virginia-miller.com/bio/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virginiamiller.sf/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginia-miller-33a2952/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7I7RheWhlACUjmb-URLIQgConnect with JP Sabatier Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/supergayp/Bar Betsie Website: https://www.barbetsiedc.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbetsiedc

    What's Shaking? Tastemaker Virginia Miller of World's 50 Best at Bar Betsie with JP Sabatier

  4. Oct 8

    A Deep Dive with Neighborhood Restaurant Group's Greg Engert & Aged Fish with Chef Chico Dator, Recorded at Modan

    The man who taught this city to care about beer is watching a generation drink less of it. I have been doing this long enough to remember when you could not get a decent beer in this town, and Greg Engert is a big reason that changed. So when I sat down with him at Modan, our newest partner for the series, I did not want the victory lap. I wanted to know what it actually feels like to run twenty concepts right now, when happy hour is dead, labor costs what it costs, and there is a new restaurant on every corner. If you care where the DC dining scene is headed, this one is for you. Greg has watched the pendulum swing since 2006, from farm to table to hyper local to the craft beer boom, and he is blunt about the fact that what a Gen X diner wants is not remotely what the Gen Z diner walking in behind them wants. Any Washington DC restaurant insider will tell you the double turn is gone. Greg will tell you what he is doing about it. Greg Engert is the Beer Director and Managing Partner at Neighborhood Restaurant Group, the group behind Church Key, Bluejacket, Rustico, Josephine, Iron Gate and Snallygaster, the biggest beer festival on the East Coast. He came to DC for grad school to become an English professor and ended up waiting tables at the Brick Cellar instead. I also pulled Chef Chico Dator out of the kitchen, an old friend from his Nobu days, who runs the only dry aging fish program in the region right here at Modan. Key Takeaways Greg Engert walked away from an academic path in modernist literature and fell for hospitality while waiting tables at the Brick Cellar around 2004.Neighborhood Restaurant Group now runs about twenty concepts and roughly as many locations, nearly all in the DMV, with Junebug in New Orleans as the outlier.Moving away from happy hour toward low price points available all day is a deliberate answer to the fact that people no longer go out early or late.Younger drinkers are not abstaining more than previous generations did, they are drinking less per visit, and inflation and healthcare costs drive that more than wellness trends do.Chef Chico Dator calls his process conditioning rather than aging, because he does not want a guest to think they are being handed old fish.Greg Engert said, “This question energizes us every day when we get up and keeps us up at night every night.”Chef Chico Dator said, “There is this one guy that says fresh fish is boring.”Timestamps 00:00 Welcome to Modan in Tysons 01:27 Meet Greg Engert of Neighborhood Restaurant Group 02:56 From English grad school to the Brick Cellar 07:45 Four restaurants in 2006 to twenty concepts today 12:02 Church Key, Birch and Barley, and 14th Street in 2009 13:24 How 2008 reset the hospitality business 15:42 Real estate, competition, and the end of the double turn 21:44 Keeping long running restaurants relevant 23:50 Columbia Firehouse, Josephine, and a reconcept that worked 27:27 The constriction in beer and in alcohol generally 29:36 Why the next generation of diners is different 33:18 Killing happy hour and rethinking price points 35:49 Feedback, reviews, and the us versus them problem 41:38 What is opening next in Del Ray 46:46 Snallygaster, fourteen years in 48:22 Rapid fire with Greg Engert 52:44 Chef Chico Dator on Nobu and landing in DC 55:16 Inside Modan’s dry aging program 58:55 Closing thoughts Connect with Greg Engert Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonoffreng

    A Deep Dive with Neighborhood Restaurant Group's Greg Engert & Aged Fish with Chef Chico Dator, Recorded at Modan

  5. Oct 1

    Ereka Vetrini Breaks Down the Business of Food Content & Being Well Fed on Industry Night

    Four million people ask her what’s for dinner. She never planned any of it. Everybody knows her as the gnocchi lady. One video, three million views in three days, and the whole trajectory changed. But here is the thing about Ereka Vetrini that most people scrolling past her reels have no idea about: she had already had an entire career before that. Boston College, GE finance, Estee Lauder, and yes, the first season of The Apprentice. Then she walked away from television because she was tired of telling everybody else’s story. This one matters if you have ever wondered what actually holds a food career together when the algorithm keeps moving the furniture. Ereka is honest about the parts nobody posts: the non compete that nearly ended her TV run, the years she said no to a cookbook deal, the difference between a brand partnership and an affiliate link, and why she is pouring money into a blog instead of chasing the next platform. It is the kind of conversation this DC food podcast exists for, and it will land for anyone in the hospitality industry building something that has to outlast a trend. Ereka Vetrini is a first generation Italian American recipe creator, a former NBC, TLC and HGTV host, and the author of the forthcoming cookbook Well Fed, out March 30. She grew up in Westchester in her parents’ pizzeria, learned to cook by tasting and by getting yelled at, and now makes five recipes a week for an audience in the millions. Her people come to her for a lighter hand on Italian food and an approach that actually works in a real kitchen. Key Takeaways Growing up in a family restaurant taught her that food work is people work before it is ever cooking work.The Apprentice opened television for her, then a non compete nearly closed it, and she wrote her way out of it herself.She left hosting because she was handed the script and told what to wear, and she wanted her own story back.Chasing what other creators are doing is the fastest way into a rut, so she filters every trend through her own kitchen first.She is building an email list through her own blog rather than renting an audience on a platform she does not own.Ereka Vetrini said, “Working in food is more than just being able to cook or loving food. You have to really love people.” Ereka Vetrini said, “I am not affected by the haters. Like, I’m truly not.” Timestamps 00:00 Why this one is in the office instead of a restaurant 02:44 Growing up first generation in a Westchester pizzeria 04:12 Naples, Dente Cane, and food as family history 07:11 GE, Estee Lauder, and the business path 08:01 How she ended up on the first season of The Apprentice 10:04 The non compete that almost ended her TV career 11:34 NBC, TLC, and six seasons of HGTV 12:15 Walking away from telling other people’s stories 13:58 Raising two eaters and the no yuck rule 16:17 The 2020 dare that became a career 18:03 Staying on top in a crowded recipe creator space 24:04 Why the recipe has to actually work 25:02 Where five recipes a week come from 29:50 The cookbook, the algorithm, and owning your audience 34:24 Content creator versus influencer 36:55 The team, the blog, and the Substack question 38:03 Roast chickens and Aunt Gigi’s farro stuffing 42:29 Rapid fire 44:07 Where to find Ereka More from Industry Night, the DC food podcast and DC dining guide from Nycci Nellis, at thelistareyouonit.com Connect with Ereka Vetrini Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erekav/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erekavTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@erekasfoodWebsite: https://cookingwitherika.com

    Ereka Vetrini Breaks Down the Business of Food Content & Being Well Fed on Industry Night

  6. Sep 17

    Chef Steven Fretz on Leaving Big Cities for Michelin's New Southwest Frontier

    A California steakhouse veteran heads home to Utah right as Michelin comes calling. I love it when a chef gives me the honest version of a big accolade instead of the polished one, and that is exactly what happened this week. My guest got the email that every chef dreams about, and his first thought was not pride, it was suspicion. Is this spam. That is the real reaction, and I am obsessed with it. This episode is about what happens after two decades of cooking in some of the best kitchens in the country finally catches up with you, right as Michelin decides Utah is worth a look for the first time. If you have ever wondered whether awards like Michelin, James Beard, and World’s 50 Best actually mean anything beyond ego, this conversation gets into it honestly, no spin. Chef Steven Fretz has spent more than two decades in some of the country’s most respected kitchens, from San Francisco’s Fifth Floor to the Michael Mina Group, with stops working alongside David Burke and running his own restaurant, Church Key, in LA. He co-founded Coast Range, a Michelin recognized steakhouse in Solvang, California, and now he is home in Utah as culinary director and partner at South Hill, opening two new restaurants, Montbleu and Charlay, on the Wasatch Back. This is a DC food podcast that goes wherever the best chefs are, and this week that is Midway, Utah, talking Michelin Guide Utah steakhouse with Chef Steven Fretz. Key Takeaways Steven Fretz got the email announcing his Michelin recognition and assumed it was spam before he believed it was real.He calls himself a resting chef, searing and resting a steak up to ten times before it ever reaches the plate.Cooking is the easy part for Steven, hospitality is what actually separates a good restaurant from a great one.His new steakhouse at South Hill in Midway, Utah will use one hundred percent locally sourced product from ranchers and farmers he has met since moving there in February.Steven sees Michelin’s first Southwest guide as validation for a hospitality industry that is more educated and more skeptical of accolades than ever.Steven Fretz said, “Cooking’s easy. Hospitality is the hardest part.”Steven Fretz said, “Your steak’s not supposed to be hot. I’m a resting chef.”Timestamps 00:00 Nycci opens with the Roasted series and this week’s guest 03:20 Chef Steven Fretz joins the show 03:31 From skiing in Park City to his first kitchen job 06:32 Learning the standard of perfection under George Morone 10:23 Working with Michael Mina and the Mina family of chefs 13:06 How Coast Range in Solvang came together during Covid 16:03 The move back home to Utah and the South Hill project 19:56 Inside Montbleu and Charlay, opening at South Hill 21:03 Sourcing locally on a three month Wasatch Back growing season 23:50 What kind of steakhouse Charlay will actually be 26:47 Why Steven calls himself a resting chef 31:52 What Michelin, James Beard, and World’s 50 Best really mean to chefs 39:35 Cooking is easy, hospitality is hard 41:53 Where to find Montbleu and rapid fire questions Connect with Steven Fretz Website: montbleu.com Instagram: instagram.com/montbleu.com

    Chef Steven Fretz on Leaving Big Cities for Michelin's New Southwest Frontier

  7. Sep 10

    Ashok Bajaj x Chef Vikram Sunderam x Me: Passion Built the Empire, This Chef Brought It to Life

    Inside the empire behind Rasika, Bombay Club, and now Malabar. He told me he gets high without taking any drugs, just from walking into his own restaurants every night. After 35 years and ten restaurants, he still means it, and that is the whole story in one sentence. This week I sat down with two people who basically invented modern Indian dining in America, on location at their newest restaurant, Malabar. If you have ever wondered how one person builds a ten restaurant empire, survives a pandemic downtown, and still shows up in person every single night, this conversation has the real answer. Ashok Bajaj is the founder and CEO of Knightsbridge Restaurant Group, the man Forbes calls DC’s gastronomic power broker, the guy behind Rasika, Bombay Club, Bindaas, Sababa, Rosselli, and now Malabar. He opened the Bombay Club in 1988 and changed how this country understands Indian food. Alongside him is Chef Vikram Sunderam, his partner of two decades, a James Beard Award winning chef who ran London’s Bombay Brasserie before opening Rasika with Ashok in 2005. This is a DC food podcast conversation about Ashok Bajaj, Vikram Sunderam, and the Indian restaurant scene in Washington DC, thirty five years in the making. Key Takeaways Ashok Bajaj has run ten plus restaurants in Washington DC for over three decades and still visits several of them in person every single night.Malabar exists because Ashok tore down a struggling concept called Rosedale and rebuilt it from scratch, his philosophy is stop, rethink, and flip when something isn’t working.Chef Vikram Sunderam has partnered with Ashok for over twenty years since opening Rasika together in 2005, earning a James Beard Award along the way.Ashok is candid about downtown DC’s post pandemic struggles, including a real conversation with a landlord about a building that dropped from 140 million dollars to 40 million in value.Vikram explains the mastery behind dishes like the palak chaat, where getting the oil temperature exactly right matters more than any other single step.Ashok Bajaj said, “I get high without taking any drugs on these things.”Chef Vikram Sunderam said, “We’ve got a gastronomic bromance, you would say.” Timestamps 00:00 Nycci opens at Malabar and introduces Ashok Bajaj’s story 02:51 Ashok Bajaj joins the show 03:15 Growing up in India and choosing hospitality over commerce 05:09 Opening the Bombay Brasserie in London in the 1980s 11:36 Starting Knightsbridge Restaurant Group after a deal fell through in Sydney 12:03 Why Washington DC became home in 1987 20:09 How Rasika came together after a trip to Paris 24:08 Ten restaurants later, and the pivot that became Malabar 33:54 Downtown DC’s changing economics and the landlord conversation 38:31 Chef Vikram Sunderam joins the conversation 42:16 How Ashok and Vikram partnered to open Rasika in 2005 49:37 What makes Malabar’s coastal Indian menu different 55:12 Rapid fire questions and one word for DC’s next chapter Connect with Ashok Bajaj and Chef Vikram Sunderam Ashok Bajaj Website: knightsbridgerestaurantgroup.com Ashok Bajaj Instagram: instagram.com/ashokbajaj_dc Ashok Bajaj LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ashok-bajaj-ab01b716 Chef Vikram Sunderam Instagram: instagram.com/chefvikramsunderam Chef Vikram Sunderam LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/vikram-sunderam-a5226446 Malabar: malabar-dc.com

    Ashok Bajaj x Chef Vikram Sunderam x Me: Passion Built the Empire, This Chef Brought It to Life

  8. Aug 27

    Comedian & Cook Book Author, Gus Constantellis, His Mon Died, So He Wrote a Cookbook

    Gus Constantellis lost his mother, Julia, and four days later he posted a video making the first thing she ever taught him to cook. That video is the reason a cookbook exists. Industry Night is Heartcast Media's DC food podcast, hosted by Washington DC restaurant insider Nycci Nellis, and once in a while the guest isn't a chef at all. Gus Constantellis, the Greek Mom cookbook comedian, is the Greek American stand up comic and writer behind the viral videos where he becomes his mother on camera with more love than most tributes manage. His new book, My Greek Mom's Recipes, carries the tagline she died, I wrote this cookbook, and it reads as much like a memoir as a collection of recipes. Nycci talks with Gus about the pandemic video that made Greek Mom go viral, the forty years his mother spent in America without learning English, and the meatball recipe that became the first page of a book he never planned to write alone. This hospitality industry podcast conversation is really about food as the language that outlasts the person who spoke it. Key Takeaways Gus Constantellis built the viral Greek Mom character on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube by impersonating his mother, Julia, and the videos took off during the pandemic in April 2020.Julia never learned English in forty years in America, and cooking became her way of communicating what words could not.Four days after his mother died, Gus posted a video making her meatball recipe, and that video is what led him to write My Greek Mom's Recipes.The cookbook is built around Greek Easter traditions and regional flavors heavy on cinnamon, cloves, and cumin, with recipes gathered from his aunt, his mother's own recipe books, and his brother.Gus says the easiest recipes for a beginner are the meatballs, the fasolakia green beans, and the lazy cheese pie.QuotesGus Constantellis said, "It was the only thing that was keeping me going, because I felt really lost."Gus Constantellis said, "When I die, you are all going to starve." Timestamps 00:00 Nycci opens from her home office, no restaurant today 00:41 Meet Gus Constantellis and the viral Greek Mom videos 02:20 Fresh off ten days in Greece with his boyfriend 04:10 How Gus got into stand up comedy 05:38 Julia was the original material 07:05 The pandemic video that made Greek Mom go viral 09:04 The unfiltered, off camera side of Julia 12:38 Forty years in America without learning English 16:09 Growing up in the kitchen with his mom 20:21 The cookbook that grief made him write 23:17 The recipes that had to make the book 25:03 The regional flavors behind Greek Mom's cooking 28:07 Building the Easter chapter 30:40 Easy recipes for a weeknight 31:50 What Julia would say about the finished book Connect with Gus Constantellis Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/constantlygus/ Website: https://www.constantlygus.com/

    Comedian & Cook Book Author, Gus Constantellis, His Mon Died, So He Wrote a Cookbook
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About

Industry Night is the long-talk format radio show and podcast that brings you up close and personal with the trends and trendsetters across today’s diverse food, wine, spirits, brews and hospitality landscape. For in-depth insights and insider tips, join your host, Nycci Nellis, cohost of Foodie and the Beast, the DC area’s one and only food and wine variety show, and all the locally, nationally and globally renowned chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook authors, mixologists, somms, distillers, brewmasters, pit-masters and more that you’ll hear from on Industry Night.

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