Podcast appearances and mentions of ali bouzari

We're joined by Ali Bouzari, a culinary scientist and the co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Pilot R&D, where he combines his culinary creativity and scientific expertise to develop new products and techniques. Ali's approach highlights the potential of PepsiCo Foods' brands as everyday ingredients, including how ingredient substitutions can unlock a playful and delicious way to think about food. From his innovative use of iconic PepsiCo products like Cheetos in polenta, to tips for home cooks, Ali shares how his unique perspective bridges the worlds of science and culinary artistry. Enjoy this episode as we go Beyond the Plate… with Ali Bouzari.This series is brought to you by PepsiCo Foods.To learn more about PepsiCo Foods visit PepsiCo.comFollow Beyond the Plate on Facebook and X.Follow Kappy on Instagram and X.Find Beyond the Plate on all major podcast platforms. www.beyondtheplatepodcast.com www.onkappysplate.com

Ali Bouzari, a culinary scientist and co-founder of Pilot R&D, joins the podcast to discuss the intersection of food and technology. Bouzari shares his insights on the potential and limitations of AI and robotics in the culinary world, emphasizing the importance of approaching these tools with a critical eye. He also highlights the significant impact of climate change on the food industry, specifically citing the challenges facing chocolate production. Bouzari discusses his work at Pilot R&D, where his team assists food entrepreneurs in developing and scaling up new products. He describes their process, which includes ingredient sourcing, extensive trials, and sensory evaluations like the "smellathon." The episode concludes with Bouzari's reflections on the evolving food landscape, emphasizing the need for adaptability and a sense of culinary adventure in the face of global challenges Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Feldman is the Co-founder and CEO of Moku Foods. Growing up in Hawaii, Matt was raised with an appreciation for nature and a lifelong commitment to preserve the environment. He learned at an early age about the meat industry's immense carbon footprint, which led him toward plant based foods and sustainable food sources. A serial entrepreneur, Matt started his first business with his sister buying and selling used college textbooks. While attending college at Brook University, he co-founded Undorm.com, an online platform designed to help college students find affordable housing. He also co-founded his first food startup, Cinco Terras Specialty Coffee, during that time.  After graduating, Matt joined a leading technology company where he learned the ins and outs of growing an online business. In 2018, he transitioned to a vegan lifestyle and began looking for a replacement for his go-to-snack, beef jerky. He decided to create his own after struggling to find a minimally-processed, allergen-free alternative at the grocery store. He teamed up with two well-known culinary experts, Thomas Bowman and Ali Bouzari, to develop a jerky alternative that would emulate the taste and texture of the meat while remaining healthy for consumers and the planet. After over a year of development, the mushroom-based Moku was finally born. In 2020, Moku earned a coveted spot on Amazon's invitation only Emerging Brands Program. Matt is also one of Forbes 30 Under 30. Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn:  Matt Feldman's journey to find an alternative to beef jerky How mushrooms are processed to make jerky How Matt started the business while working full time Matt explains what 'Moku' means and describes what he learned about scalability and finding a co-packer How Matt grew the e-commerce side of the business after launching Moku in 2020 Matt talks about his product's flavors, compares his product to regular meat jerky and describes his target market What Matt has learned from selling on Amazon and his future growth plans for the brand How Moku Foods handles product fulfilment, how they communicate with their customers, and how they got into Amazon's invitation-only Emerging Brands Program The DTC marketing strategies Moku Foods uses to engage with customers The challenges Matt faced growing sales and increasing customer base and his advice to fellow entrepreneurs on handling such challenges In this episode… When starting a CPG brand to provide a healthy alternative to meat, most entrepreneurs target vegans or vegetarians. However, in reality, there are many consumers who choose to eat healthier alternatives without being vegan or vegetarian. That's what Matt Feldman from Moku Foods found out while growing his beef-jerky-alternative, CPG business. Most of his customers were people trying to shift from meat to plant based foods, which explained the high demand for his mushroom-based jerky. He therefore concentrated his marketing on this target audience.  In this episode of the NexxtLevel Brands Podcast, Steve Cleere is joined by Matt Feldman, Co-founder and CEO of Moku Foods, to discuss how Matt started producing mushroom-based jerky as an alternative to beef jerky. Matt also talks about how he fulfils orders, the challenges he faced scaling his business, and his advice for selling on Amazon. Subscribe and Listen on: iTunes Spotify Stitcher Google Play Deezer iHeartRadio TuneIn Amazon Music Resources Mentioned in this episode Kitchen2Shelf NexxtLevel Marketing Moku Foods Moku Foods on Amazon Matt Feldman on LinkedIn JUST Thomas Bowman on LinkedIn Ali Bouzari on LinkedIn Pilot R&D Melissa Facchina on LinkedIn Siddhi Ops Magic Spoons Thrive Market Sunbasket Shopify Impossible Foods Beyond Meat   Cool News: The NexxtLevel Brands Podcast has just been named as one of the Top 15 CPG-Themed Podcasts on the web!!! We're at Lucky #7 and you can get more information about Feedspot and how you can watch more of your favorite shows here: Top CPG Podcasts – Thanks to Feedspot, Rise25 and our Production Team! Sponsor for this episode... Our podcast today is sponsored by Kitchen2Shelf, the educational arm of NexxtLevel Brands. Kitchen-2-Shelf provides online and in-person courses and workshops for CPG entrepreneurs at any stage of growth.  Whether you're an early-stage startup, a local growing business, or if you want to just expand your distribution to a national level, Kitchen-2-Shelf can help you learn what you need to know to grow. Visit their website to get access to some free tools that can help you understand where your business stands.  Contact them today to find out how they can help you grow your brand and expand your business to reach its full potential.

DC makes slow-cooker barbeque bourbon chicken drumsticks and then chats with Ali Bouzari (author, INGREDIENT: UNVEILING THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF FOOD) about food science vs. culinary science, how Breaking Bad nailed food science in a single scene, One Weird Trick to keep avocados from browning, the Chez Panisse fruit bowl, Texas peaches vs. California peaches, Sungold tomatoes and Sumo mandarins, the galaxy-brain way to store fruit, how too many herbs is exactly the right amount of herbs, and so much more! RECIPE: https://food52.com/recipes/81361-slow-cooker-bourbon-bbq-chicken-drumsticks WATERDROP LA: http://waterdropla.org

Flavor and Taste are often used synonymously and yet they describe different physiological experiences. The perception of food is extremely complex and involves all of the senses. Our conversation today is with Food Biochemist, Chef and author, Ali Bouzari, and we will discuss the many ingredients that build and dominate our food habits and palate.

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, we’re chatting with Esther Mobley, on the gripping stories that catapulted her to become the columnist for one of the most prestigious wine columns in North America, the San Francisco Chronicle, at just 24 years of age. Enjoy!   Highlights How did Esther’s college admissions essay end up in the New York Times? Should wine writers all experience winemaking? What has changed about California winemaking since Esther started writing for the San Francisco Chronicle in 2015? What is Esther’s opinion on natural wine and its growing popularity? How did Esther connect with Alecia “P!nk” Moore and end up interviewing her? What does the $315 million sale of Meiomi wines mean for the wine industry? Can a brand be authentic without owning a vineyard? What are some interesting insights that Esther uncovered in her exploration of food and wine pairing with Ali Bouzari?   About Esther Mobley Esther Mobley is a staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle. She writes primarily about wine, and her beat also includes beer, spirits, drinking culture and, occasionally, doughnuts. In her regular Drink Up column, she reviews Bay Area bars. Before joining The Chronicle, Mobley was an assistant editor at Wine Spectator magazine in New York. She has worked two harvests, in Napa, California and Mendoza, Argentina. She studied English literature at Smith College.   To learn more about the resources mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes.

Like most people, when I think food robots I think about efficiency. More burgers flipped, dishes cleaned and customers served. But what if the precision of robots can actually make food that tastes better? I talk about this, the uncanny valley of meat and more with this week's guest, Ali Bouzari, the chief science officer of Pilot R&D and Render Foods and author of INGREDIENT: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food. You can find out more about Ali at https://www.alibouzari.com/ via Knit

Chris Karpowitz and Grant Madsen of BYU on the new Congress. Benson Richardson of Goga LLC on Goat Yoga. Jessica Barrington-Trimis of the USC on pod mods, the new e-cigarette trend. Chef Ali Bouzari of Pilot R&D on lab-grown meat. Tricia Bacon, American University, on killing terrorist leaders.

Kyle Connaughton began his culinary career in L.A. with an apprenticeship at one of the oldest Japanese restaurants in the city and continued training in both pastry and savory at Spago Beverly Hills, The Dining Room at Ritz Carlton, Lucques, Hama Sushi, and A.O.C. This was followed by several years cooking in Japan for the famed chef Michel Bras and in numerous traditional Japanese cuisine restaurants. In 2006, Kyle joined Heston Blumenthal to become the Head Chef of Research and Development for the Fat Duck Experimental Kitchen. He is a contributor to the "Modernist Cuisine" series, a co-developer of the Culinary Science Bachelors Degree program for the CIA, and co-author of the book Donabe - Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking. In 2014 Kyle co-founded the culinary development firm Pilot R+D with Dan Felder, Dr. Ali Bouzari, & Dana Peck. Kyle is now the Owner-Chef of SingleThread in Healdsburg, CA. https://www.singlethreadfarms.com/

In this episode, Alex Shirazi and Ali Bouzari talk about future food technologies and developing food that creates an experience. We chat about the potential of cell-based meat and whether we should dare to explore creations such as “designer meats”. The Cultured Meat Symposium is taking place in San Francisco on November 1st. Learn more … Continue reading "Ali Bouzari of Pilot R&D and Render Foods" --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/futurefoodshow/support

Oonagh Fitzgerald, Centre for Int. Governance Innovation, on Canada v. Saudi Arabia; Takoma Park, MD lets teenagers vote; Gombre founder Margaret Truslow Smith on going gray; Univ of Michigan's Eunice Zhang on Diet Soda; Chef Ali Bouzari on lab-grown meat; Yale's John Darnell on Egyptian grafitti; BYU students study their own microbiomes.

This week the Number One Comic Books crew reviews Venom, Justice League No Justice, Flavor and Coda.                                                 (Brian's Pick) Coda from BOOM! STUDIOS written by Simon Spurrer with art by Matías Bergara.                                                                        In the aftermath of an apocalypse which wiped out nearly all magic from a once-wondrous fantasy world, an antisocial former bard named Hum seeks a way to save the soul of his wife with nothing but a foul-tempered mutant unicorn and his wits to protect him…but is unwillingly drawn into a brutal power struggle which will decide forever who rules the weird wasteland.                                                                          (Rod's Pick) Flavor from IMAGE COMICS written by Joseph Keatinge with art by Wook Jin Clark.                             Within a strange walled city, an unlicensed chef discovers a mystery that threatens to end it all. Join JOSEPH KEATINGE (GLORY, SHUTTER) and WOOK JIN CLARK (Adventure Time: The Flip Side) on this culinary epic adventure—FLAVOR—where chefs are the ultimate celebrity and food is the most valued commodity. The high-stakes competition of Hunger Games collides with the lush, MIYAZAKI-esque worldbuilding in this delectable new ongoing series featuring culinary consulting and bonus content by ALI BOUZARI, renowned food scientist and author of the IACP Award-winning cookbook Ingredient: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food.                           (Rebekah's Pick) Justice League No Justice from DC COMICS written by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and Joshua Williamson with art by Francis Manapul                                      DARK NIGHTS: METAL left the DCU transformed in ways both terrifying and wondrous—and only the Justice League is strong enough to face the threats to come…or are they? Four giant beings comprised of the universe’s major energies—Mystery, Wonder, Wisdom and Entropy—who sustain their life force by devouring planets are on their way to destroy the planet of Colu. The only way to take down this unimaginable threat is for the superhero teams of Earth to forget everything they thought they knew and form new alliances. What secrets of the cosmos will Superman, Martian Manhunter and Team Mystery discover? Will Zatanna, Wonder Woman and Team Wonder awaken alien magic they cannot put back to sleep? What can Harley Quinn possibly have to teach the rest of Team Wisdom? And most importantly…why the heck is Beast Boy on Team Entropy with Lobo and Batman? Find out all this and much more in the most exciting, bombastic event of summer 2018! In this kickoff issue to the four-issue miniseries, after Brainiac systematically takes down all of Earth’s super-teams, the last thing the League expects is for him to ask for their help! Without their aid, his home planet and the universe are both doomed!                                                             (Joe's Pick) Venom from MARVEL COMICS written by Donny Cates with art by Ryan Stegman                                                     In the wake of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s collapse, an ancient and primordial evil has been awakened beneath the streets of New York, and with it, something equally evil has awakened in that most Wicked of Webslingers – VENOM! Still a Lethal Protector of the innocents in New York, this never-before-seen threat could force Venom to relinquish everything it holds dear – including Eddie Brock! Join two of the hottest creators in comics today, Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, for a VENOM adventure a thousand years in the making! 

Landmark Episode 325 goes where this podcast has never gone before – Two interviews about the same great upcoming comic, Flavor from Image Comics! First up is the return of Joe Keatinge, writer and co-creator, and culinary consultant Ali Bouzari. They discuss this fun comic, sharing behind-the-scenes info about the importance of cooking and food to talking about the various characters and their roles in this new ongoing series.   Then we turn to the art team as I talk with artist and co-creator Wook Jin Clark and colorist Tamra Bonvillain. We delve into the look of the series, including choices of color and appearance of characters and backgrounds. You won’t want to miss this series as it adds “flavor” to your comics reading diet! Don’t miss it! Support this show! http://patreon.com/MajorSpoilers

HRN host Michael Harlan Turkell interviews the co-founders of Render Food, Dana Peck and Ali Bouzari. Heritage Radio Network On Tour is powered by Simplecast

Ali Bouzari is here to talk about food and the way we think about it, and he’s incredibly qualified to do so. As a chef and culinary scientist (literally, he has a PhD in Food Biochemistry), Ali knows exactly how food works and why. Companies and culinary programs all over the world consult with him …

Ali Bouzari is here to talk about food and the way we think about it, and he’s incredibly qualified to do so. As a chef and culinary scientist (literally, he has a PhD in Food Biochemistry), Ali knows exactly how food works and why. Companies and culinary programs all over the world consult with him …

Ali Bouzari is here to talk about food and the way we think about it, and he’s incredibly qualified to do so. As a chef and culinary scientist (literally, he has a PhD in Food Biochemistry), Ali knows exactly how food works and why. Companies and culinary programs all over the world consult with him …

  If you like what you heard, like us on facebook or set a review on itunes. It helps wonders. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve the podcast, don’t be afraid to email me at podcast@myfoodjobrocks.com Manuscript Looking at my calendar, I saw that this podcast actually started in June. It’s felt like a long time. A lot of things have happened while creating this podcast. I met some incredible people, collaborated with geniuses, and made my connections with my friends unbreakably strong. Other than that, a total of 15,000 people have downloaded the podcast, averaging 215 listens per episode. For me, I’m happy with this. So in this episode I just wanted to really flesh out the events that made this podcast for what it was today, and how it slowly transformed. From the independent website, graduate student series, to why I am changing some of my questions, I want to tell you just how fun it was making this thing and where we’re planning to go next. Let’s being Beginnings Have I told this story before? Maybe only to my guests, or with my friends. When I first moved to Phoenix, I became obsessed with Podcasts, almost about the same time I started hating my job, which you can listen about in episode 60, which was around the time I wanted to find a way out. I noticed that sure, listening to music was fun, but it wasn’t productive. So I started listening to audio books which I borrowed form the Phoenix library. Soon it evolved into podcasts. My first podcasts I listened to often were Smart Passive Income and Entrepreneur on Fire. I’d consider these entry-level because they are indeed inspiring stories with a little bit of tactical knowledge. This went on for about a year. In maybe January 2016, I read an article by Tim Ferriss about how he started his podcast. Through his write up, I found it was pretty easy to do. For example, the equipment was dirt cheap, and the barrier to entry is pretty good. About a month later, Nicole posted the fated article about how the food industry is hiring people at a declining rate and everything kind of clicked. The lesson here is really about this simple equation, that opportunity + preparedness = luck is something that resonates with me when I do projects. If I didn’t listen to podcasts, or read how to do them, I would never had had the opportunity to work with Nicole. There are many other factors in how this started up that made it worked as well. For example, Foodgrads was a startup, so they were flexible and willing to support me in this venture. Though they didn’t give me initial capital, the power of just getting a thumbs up is more than enough justification to get started with the podcast so I set aside $1000 dollars and went to town. I would provide the episodes, and they would provide the website that I could post on. I bought equipment recommended by Tim Ferriss including this microphone. I downloaded Audacity, and then I bought a course called Podcaster’s Paradise. This course was created by John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire. I subscribed for about 3 months and learned a lot of technical tidbits in not only on how to use Audacity, but how to structure my podcast from getting guests to sending thank you notes. It also gave me some amazing tools such as calendly.com and libsyn. I also found the facebook group they had extremely supportive and that’s also where I met Kim from Peas On Moss, who started her podcast the same time as I did. So starting that, I now had to get guests. First up was Nicole and Juliette from Foodgrads as they were the ones hosting it on their website, so it just seemed right. Then I got Trevor Fast, Brian Chau, and Taryn Yee, while on a work trip to California. I literally scheduled time to meet and record. It was really fun! I remember doing the dumbest thing while doing Trevor’s interview. I thought the room was too noisy so I thought we could do it in the office. We ended up doing the interview in a cramped, noisy room where chocolate was being refined. Editing that was a pain. So you keep going. Episode 6 was my most valuable guest being Dr. Howard Moskowitz in more ways than one. This one was a stroke of luck I had no idea how I got him on the show. I just connected on linkeidn, he sends me a bunch of stuff and I asked him to be on the podcast. That’s so cool! I realized then, that the ability to ask someone to be on a podcast is an extremely valuable tool. For one, it gives you a very legitimate excuse on inviting, and talking to people you want to talk to, and I would say about 70% of my podcasts have guests I personally contacted, 10% are from people who sign up to be interviewed randomly and another 20% are referred to by either previous guests or friends. My biggest tips for finding great guests is pretty simple, especially for people on linkedin. For one, if they post a lot, it’s more likely they would like to be on the show. There are only a few exceptions I’ve had with this. People who are going to launch something, whether it’s a book or new product, are especially willing to talk about it as well. This is how I got Ali Bouzari on the show, for instance. Connectors, whether self-proclaimed are not have their perks too. Rochelle Boucher, for example, knew a ton of people and supported me in huge amounts getting guests that came to her Miele location. I returned the favor with my own resources. After my recent talk with Alex Oesterle from Food Marketing Nerds, I found that he has a very different way of contacting. A bit more professional, which I might want to dive in the future. He goes through PR firms or PR departments to get amazing guests from the marketing department. I’ve only had a couple of guests been blocked by denying permission, which I actually find kind of, a strange and outdated practice, but I understand. But the method I use works, I have absolutely no problem finding guests and I actually realized that I don’t need big shots on my podcasts. I actually really enjoy interviewing fresh, inspiring graduates. Some recent examples like Jon Weber and Louis Edmond, who both just got their jobs, were extremely satisfying to talk to just because of their passionate outlook in life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So this brings me to another topic about what you want your podcast to represent. This means knowing your audience, and catering to that audience. Overall, the message and structure for My Food  Job Rocks is a pretty simple one: explore different food jobs, dive in a little bit of their history, and explore their viewpoints on current events such as technology or current events. At the end, we cool down and talk about books, quotes, and favorite foods. The questions we’ve designed for our show is pretty standard, but testing certain questions has made the process a lot of fun. One of the questions I’ve changed was “what is a standard day like?” I used this question in the beginning, but all I got was “every day is different!” So I changed this question and worded it in multiple different ways. Sometimes I say “what’s the most exciting part of your job?” or “what’s the worst?” some of my personal favorites include asking the process of how to make a certain food such as with Jocelyn Ngo or Haley Richardson. By diving into a subject filled with enigma versus a standard routine, in usually generates more excitement. One of the other questions I’ve had a good time playing around with is “what do you think are the important skills you need in your job?”. My favorite answer to this question is from Tiffany Tong from Canada’s Smartest Kitchen, where she said adaptability. After she did a beautiful explanation of the word, I dug deeper. “How do you become more adaptable?” I guess the trend and evolution of the questions I ask is more about “how can I make this podcast more exciting/unique, and what type of tactical and actionable advice can I give to my audience?” Next topic is in regards to why we split off from Foodgrads initially, around episode 16: Well, I wanted more control and a certain person who was there at the time didn’t want that. Eventually, they had to approach to let me go. I’m bad at assuming things, so I’ll leave it as: I grew too big for their nest so I had to leave. With a mix of disappointment, support from my friends, and admittedly, utter rage, I decided to make my own website to host my podcast. I still had a weekly podcast so I had to make a website fast. Luckily, this wasn’t just a start-from-scratch bang my head against the wall. Ever since I started hating my job, I dabbled into website design. I made my first “successful” website called Az Asian Food Review. Where I reviewed Asian food in phoenix. I had to pay for a theme dedicated to podcasting (which in hindsight, I never used that feature) and a pretty good front page function. Building the website was actually one of the most exhilarating I’ve done for this project and I am really proud of the website I made. Using my skills from Canva, and my website experience, I made a website for maybe under $150 dollars that I could use as my playground. And looking back, I used it as a playground very well. Evolving the shownotes, making a blogging section for my own personal use, and recently, hosting another person’s content made this website a proud accomplishment. Eventually, I made a deal with Foodgrads to work with them. Yes, it was awkward at first, but both Nicole and I supported each other. I actually had a huge internal debate not to do it because of an ego issue on my end, but that was a dumb, childish reason. The main reason is really, we can’t do this alone. If we’re split now, there is no way to conquer the industry. I need Nicole to be a powerhouse distribution force in the future, and she needs my high quality content to satisfy her readers. Two lessons appear from this: don’t burn bridges, and don’t give up. I could have easily been extremely hot headed and aggressive in this scenario, and let my ego do the talking, but I had to bite my tongue. It’s paid off. Another thing is consistency. If you really want to make this not a hobby, you need to be consistent with your episodes. Too many people get burnt out or just lose motivation on doing a weekly podcast. What actually happened was I liked interviewing so much I ended up having so many episodes, I had to open the flood gates and launch 2 episodes a week. I was so hard to switch to 1 but I realized that two episodes a week really took a toll on my life. Luckily, I had Veronica Hislop save me with her willingness to provide awesome content with her blog posts. So I want to wrap this whole thing up into a lessons learned scenario. Both podcasting and website design were once small interests, that later became hobbies and then actually became revenue generating. Yes, I made my initial investment back 5 times over. Some were direct requests, others were from referrals from guests. Not only that, but certain guests have contacted me for other projects and what’s coming in the next couple of years is really something. At the end of the day, the biggest lesson I have for you is to just start doing something an hour a day. It can be researching, or reading, or just gathering information. Eventually, a seed will be planted into your mind. When the opportunity strikes, you’ll be prepared. As maybe you could tell from this episode, most of the opportunities I was given was So the best place to invest a minimal amount of skill? I’ll give you two resources where you can find a skill and then have the opportunity to dig deeper. Entreprenuer Podcasts The SPI podcast by Pat Flynn is probably the best resource to find a collection of people who are making income in unconventional ways. This was actually one of the avenues I’ve used to another area of interest which ended up being a bad investment but that’s another story. You can probably find things similar to SPI by typing in entrepreneur podcast in your favorite search engine. Other search terms you can use is Bootstrapping, and built. Recently, Reid Hoffman’s Masters of Scale has been one of the best things I’ve ever listened to so if you’re going for it, you gotta listen to his stuff. And Facebook sponsored webinars If you’re like me, a bunch of people are now pitching their “free webinar” facebook ad on my feed constantly. Maybe it’s because I like stuff that attracts those adds to me… Anyways, you should try it out. You’ll only invest one hour of your time. But be careful! These types of webinars will always try and sell you something. It’s just their design. Whether you buy or not, is up to you. However, as a disclaimer, I buy maybe 20% of products that I see in webinars. The point in exploring different avenues is to eventually find something where you can utilize the skill. The demand or timeline will be your bridge from interest to skill. The power of having your back against the wall, you’ll be surprised in what you could get done. Have a website to build in a week when someone lets you go? Time to get serious. This is actually what I’m kind of missing now, the stuff I’m doing is awesome, but I need a sense of urgency to kick me in the butt. Apparently, it’s just my personality. So where is this podcast heading in the future? I don’t know. My goal is 100 episodes. Judging by the rate of this, we’ll be there in January. With more than 50 interviews under my belt, I think it’s time to push a little bit on wrapping up the content in a nice little bow and send it to people who would find value in it such as professors, career consolers, or whatever. I think I can put a little more oomph in sharing the content to others who might want to take the food industry as a career path. Overall I have to tell you, I’m in this for the long run. Not just the podcast, but the connections I’ve made with every guest on the show is extremely valuable and every time I see their names or faces, I remember of the pieces of gold within their interview. Every podcast guest has taught me so much about just how passionate people are in their job. Whether it’s young professional’s eagerness to learn or the startup CEOs who hustle and works her butt off 24/7 but are fueled with endless energy, those are the guests that keep me going. The next set of episodes are absolutely amazing. And there’s a lot more variety too. More food safety guests thanks to Marian Zboraj, editor for a Food Safety magazine. She gave me some absolutely amazing people in that sector. What else, more sales reps, where I go more into what makes a good salesman, and the best CEO I’ve ever met. There’s just so much coming up, that I always look forward to trying something new. Thank you to everyone who’s been with me this past year. Thank you to all of our listeners, to all of our supporters, whether financially or emotionally. I don’t know what’s coming next, but things are building and as long as we’re in this together, we can do anything.  

Key Takeaways How leaders use family as a support network How to not only innovate, but how to introduce new ideas Should you incubate or join a mastermind if you choose to start on your own? Other Links Pina Romolo, CEO from Pico La Cucina  Rohini Dey, Founder from Vermillion Naz Athina Kallel, CEO from Save Good Food Crystal MacKay, CEO from Farm and Food Care Lisa Tse, CEO from Sweet Mandarin Mike Hewitt, CEO from One Haus Raf Peeters, CEO from Qcify Ali Bouzari, CSO from Pilot R+D Dr. Howard Moskowitz from Mind Genomics Terra Chips Dang Foods Taco Bell Fancy Food Show Expo West Foodgrads Peas On Moss Transcript The last ten episodes had a bunch of startups and businesses that are not only innovative, but also are down to earth and realistic. It was amazing to talk to the owners! In this context, we’ll refer any owner, and founder as a CEO, though sometimes this isn’t the case. What I loved about learning from the CEOs was that these people were in a stage where they made something profitable but can also tell us the tangible tips needed to succeed in the food industry. This episode will take a lot of excerpts from past episodes, such as Pina Romolo, from Picco La Cucina and Rohini Dey from Vermillion as they have also created businesses from the ground up. The last ten episodes brought on a great amount of guests including Naz Athina Kallel from Save Good Food, Crystal MacKay from Farm and Food Care, Lisa Tse from Sweet Mandarin, Mike Hewitt from One Haus and Raf from Qcify. Within these interviews, we see a common thread that hopefully you can dissect in terms of starting something… and executing something. The word CEO, is fancy and powerful. Those that hold the title know that theya re the ones with the final say in anything that goes. Any initiative they bring will override any other opinion. Being the Chief requires a special type of person. A person obsessed with science might actually not make a good CEO. Take for example both Dr. Howard Moskowitz and Ali Bouzari. Both are Chief Science Officers and rely on a CEO with a different skill set. Ali Bouzari’s story on pilot R+D’s role describes this well. A team of three creative food professionals had hired Dana Peck to run their finances. Once they realized how essential she was on the team, they made her CEO. She was CEO because she knew much more about finance, a which is the blood that runs companies, and that her business experience trumped all three of her partners. Her experience with mergers and acquisitions in her past life brought a point that she could get clients and manage them well. So it’s very important for a CEO to generate money and be a champion of what their company stands for. I think in most situations, a CEO is designed to generate money needed to fund the other arms and legs in the department. Anyways, I have about 6 core topics that I found beneficial from interviewing these guests and the idea is to distill the information well enough where you can be innovative, supportive, and efficient. Let’s begin Family Matters Both Pina and Lisa are in family companies. Pina has her mother do the R and D work, and Lisa collaborates with her sisters. From their interview, you can tell that they are big picture, and that they are risk takers. All of the founders we’ve interviewed are. Though I don’t want to be biased, being younger, more ambitious, and the most adaptable in your family seems to be the best indicator of being considered a CEO. Some people like the spotlight, or rather, are willing to sacrifice being in the spotlight. Another side of the coin is Mike Hewitt, who wanted to start his own business because he wanted to spend more time with his family. The chef is life is hard, with 12 hour days and minimum pay, Mike had to decide to change jobs. They say that an entrepreneur has to sacrifice working 40 hours a day to work 80. But most people who work those hours have their family supporting them, which I think is vital for success. Whther you work with family or for family, a support network is necessary to succeed. We drive into this a little bit further down, but I want to state it now. The people who you care about are probably your first customers. And like all businesses, it’s important to make your customers happy Challenging Unfamiliar Concepts and Trends Naz and Rohini both made concepts that were risky. Naz found opportunity in ugly fruit and Rohini decided to take on ethnic indian cuisine. Both, however, added their own little twist. Naz combined ugly food with technology and created an amazing app that allows her to pick up ugly food and Rohini decided to add a fine dining element to Indian cusine to make Vermillion a hit. Something I’ve noticed during a lot of lectures on innovation is a specific formula that is quite common. Combining a new concept with an old one and creating a new yet familiar concept. This has been the best way to introduce something really new and pairing it with something old. A big example of something new with something old is an example I gave about an article about the Fancy Food show. Terra Chips, who make specialty vegetable chips. I was fortunate to listen to the Financial officer speak and their story was interesting. Two chefs were working under this superstar chef at a restaurant and the chef started deep frying things like lotus root and putting them on top. Everyone raved about them. However, the two chefs could never be as good as the superstar chef so he started to be better at something else. They took off and decided to start frying vegetables like lotus root on their own. Soon it became things like orange sweet potatoes, purple potatoes, taro, etc. They started with a bicycle, then an ice cream truck, then finally got a distributor going. Terra Chips uses the unfamiliar concept of fried root vegetables but sine they serve it in a familiar chip bag Here’s a twist on it: I was listening to the snacking innovation summit the other day and Dang foods was speaking. He was saying it was thanks to Whole Foods white labeled coconut chips that they were able to be successful. An old entity introduced a new concept and people realized that these coconut chips were there the whole time. The most important thing to know is that not everyone will like your innovative concept, but there are people who love those things. As many of our CEO guests have said, follow your audience. From Novice to Expert and when to split The basis of any consulting business is to be an expert in your field that is so good, people will pay you directly for your services. Can the same be said for starting your own business? From what I’ve been researching, it depends. From who I talked to, most businesses are born out of passion or born out of solving a problem. So based on our guests, about 3 guests who started their business out of passion are people like Pina, Rohini, Lisa, and Naz Rohini started with a high paying job in the business consultant industry but she found a gap in Indian cuisine. Because she absolutely loved food, she decided to dive in and conquer the ethnic up-scale dining scene. Lisa and her sister sold their houses to continue on their family restaurant and took it to the next level. Though they might have had some restaurant experience as children, they took it to the enxt level as adults with a  sauce line and cookbook. Sometimes other types of experiences can work. And Naz’ story is amazing. She started her business after her bout with cancer. Absolutely amazing. She has embraced technology and is solving our food waste problem. The other 3 guests I want to analyze are people who started something because they could do it better, and that would be Mike Hewitt, Raf Peeters, and Crystal Mackay. These people have actually experience in their field and have used their network to leverage their business. Mike Hewitt created One Haus with about two years of Human Resource experience. Maybe that’s all you need. However, Mike’s previous experience in the hospitality and restaurant industry gave hi the ability to make One Haus unique. Raf Peeters has said that Qcify is created based on a need in the market place, but his decade of experience in optics electronics has helped him build a stable and profitable business. Crystal Mackay has been an educator all her life and from pigs to pretty kuch the whole Canadian food industry, she’s the best at telling stories. I guess what I’m saying is that, does experience matter? I guess not. I think (as Raf has said), passion matters. You can start something any time you want if you have decades of experience, or none at all. Innovate! I’ve written a couple articles about this on linkedin. All CEOs are innovative, either rn product, or process. It’s extremely important to develop this type of mindset as this will not only help you make great products, but also help you develop a mindset to create new products, or let me try and say it in a way you should think of it…. To develop a mindset to solve problems. Learn How to Look for Solutions Every day it seems like there are problems. Every second something happens at the white house, there are a bunch of problems. Though those are problems that are a bit harder to solve, it’s important to think of ways to fix them. Just imagine, nothing else. Write it down. Now more than ever, social media shows us so many things wrong with the world. If we just thought of solutions, it would make the world a better place, right? Ugly food has been a creeping problem recently. Funny enough, we discussed it about 3 years ago in food science class and now we see people doing something about it. Naz was able to see the problem, and not only think of a solution (giving technology for farmers to tell her to pick up excess produce) but also build a business out of it! I started the podcast the same way. Nicole from Foodgrads wrote an article about a problem, I thought of a solution to use a podcast to interview people about their jobs. It was an idea I was floating around and once I saw that someone else had a problem, I gave her a solution. People who can analyze problems and figure out solutions are so valuable and those that execute are worth their weight in gold. So I leave you with a challenge that every time something on the news makes you mad, sit down and write how you would solve it. Be on the Cutting Edge Naz mentions “uberification” to gather her ugly fruit around San Diego. Uber is technically a cutting edge industry and anyone who hops on the trend to empower people to share their assets. Podcasts are also cutting edge technically. A lot of big advertisers are looking into podcasts because they’ve noticed the podcast model makes the consumer trust the brand more. So how can you be on the “cutting edge”? Expos like the Fancy Food Show help, even farmers markets, but also articles like foodbeast and Food Dive show amazing food trends no one has ever heard of. This is hard to realize, but if you are an expert at something, you might actually be on the cutting edge! 99% of the world’s population is probably not as smart as you are in a specific subject. If I were to boil down my experiences, am I on the cutting edge of my industry? I focus a lot of my time on food. My facebook is full of it, I go eat at trendy restaurants for fun, I work at a private company (more on this below) that does a billion/year so they have innovation to burn, I’m networked with amazing professionals and I always ask my friends “what new technologies are really exciting you right now?” This is not to brag, but I put a lot of time into food, and to be on the cutting edge, it does take commitment. CEOs are experts int heir field, and theya re also the tip of the spear when it comes to making innovative postions. In factm I would say the best part about being the head of a company is that you can direct innovation in a way that you want to do. However, it’s very important to realize is that you aren’t the one driving the decisions, it’s your customers. Make Little Bets If you read any self-help, startup book, this is a common thread. The point of making little bets is that you have to actually do something for you to be truly innovative. Yes, to actually become the definition of innovative, you actually have to start something! This might sound scary, but it gets easier the more times you do it. Not only does making little bets make you more creative, but it builds up your confidence and thought process where you can execute great ideas over and over again. I’ll talk about an example. In the past, I was in a group of product developers. We conceptualize new products. Before, there was old management who would shoot down every possibility because in theory, it sounded dumb, or other political BS. But once we started actually making the product and then doing a sensory test of 20 people, people started to change their minds Another example I give is from small projects. People are usually overwhelmed with huge goals. For example, starting your own Tech Company, or grocery store, or national soda brand. They think they have to start with a million dollars in capital to succeed. Not really. It takes maybe $500 dollars to make a product, create a label, and start a farmer’s market stand. Good luck! Should you incubate? Naz is the only person I’ve intereviewed who went though an incubator. Does that mean you should? A common theme I’ve seen through these leaders is that they have mentors and likeminded people surrounding them. Incubation is a great tool when it comes to networking but from what I’ve researched, it isn’t 100% necessary. In fact, most businesses that are sorted out are more or less focused on at least having a mentor or 5 and a support network of friends. Mentors seem to be a vital resource to succeed in life and I’ve had guests on the podcast who are not business owners praise their mentors. I’ve had a decent amount of mentors, some I’ve paid and some that I’ve earned. Some failed in their ventures, and some say they haven’t failed. Mentors are hard to choose from, and like any relationship, it might take a while for the relationship to click. You have to be in constant contact with each other, and in most situations, YOU have to be the one to take initiative to contact them. My advice to finding mentors? You can join start up incubators as a guarantee, but I feel like working hard and publicizing your work is the best way to bring attraction. Not only in side projects like this one, but also in your career. Sometimes a mentor isn’t necessarily set as a title, but rather the way you communicate. I have weekly office meetings with the Chief Science Officer, he makes room for these meetings because he likes to see me grow. When we talk, he talks about his experiences in the past on how to deal with people, or how he talks about not only the best way to solve the problem, but also why it’s the best way. The way him and I interact, where he is passing down knowledge to me, and I am receiving and executing. That is mentorship. A support network is also important. And an incubator can give it to you because there are people in the same boat as you. Some people throw around the world mastermind, which I fell in love with the idea at first, but then I realized they kind of suck. I think if set correctly, they can be a huge asset, but I’ve noticed they are only for MLMs and dreamers. Especially for starting something new, goals are really really hard. Accountability is extremely necessary, but surprisingly, you only really need one person. The most effective way to have a support network is constant yet separate contact with people who love what you do. I’ve found tis to work in the podcast when making certain decisions. I am in constant contact with Nicole Gallace from food grads, Kim Schaub from peas on moss, Katie Lanfranki, and others when it comes to making decisions. I call them, ask for advice, and take it to heart, and execute. They do the same. What I’m getting at in most cases, it just takes one person to help you get motivated and help you with decisions. 3 is way too many. So finally, is incubation a good thing? You don’t need it, but you also don’t need to buy a $100 dollar outdoor fireplace, you can build one yourself. If getting the resources for a mentor and support network is too time consuming, then an incubator is a very good option, The Food Industry is more than being a chef. After 50 episodes ranging from chefs, product development, food authors, consultants, engineers and recruiters, I can safely say that the food industry is much more than restaurants. Mike really hits this home in his interview. You don’t have to play with food to be part of the food industry. All you have to do is contribute to feeding people. Though we do have the CEOs who have restaurant businesses here, who’d ever thing you can be like Raf and combine technology and quality control! You can be a manager of a liquor store, or hustling people to buy wheat protein as a broker. If you love actually being involved in quote: feeling the food, that you can get a stable job and become a research chef, or you can be a food scientist. The food industry has so many different opportunities because as we’ve heard before, everyone has to eat. And you can be just one piece of the puzzle for feeding the world. Whether you help the big companies or carve your own path.

Ingredient: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food Author Ali Bouzari has a strong identity of being both a experienced chef and PhD food scientist, but he doesn't feel like Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. Rather, he draws from both worlds and has crafted his own identity as a culinary scientist. Join us for an encore appearance with Ali as we talk about fine dining, well-designed food product development experiments, and what he has in his pantry at Pilot R+D. Check out Ali's book at your local bookstore and online. Creating a product and need a restaurant/food manufacturing eye? Check out Pilot R+D and meet their talented staff at If you have gained value from the podcast, would you consider personally sponsoring or inquiring of whether your organization would contribute? Just $10 per month from a  few sponsors would keep the show going. Got a business to share or tips for successful R&D? Be a guest on the show. Email for details.

This week we have guest Ali Bouzari. Ali is a culinary scientist, author, educator, and co-founder of Pilot R+D, a culinary research and development company based in northern California. As a chef with a Ph.D. in food biochemistry, Ali has helped to lead the charge in changing the way we think about cooking by teaching and developing curriculum at top universities, from ivy league schools to the Culinary Institute of America, and collaborating with the country’s most innovative restaurants. Listen in as we talk all about culinary science, the taste of food, and the building blocks of foods that bring it all together.   Guest: Ali Bouzari Website: http://www.alibouzari.com/ Twitter: @AliBouzari Instagram: BouzariAli Book: Ingredient: Unveiling the Essential Elements of Food

Can the world of food and cuisine be broken down into just eight ingredients? That's the argument made by Ali Bouzari, who joins host Shari Bayer, in his latest book. 'Ingredient' takes a capital 'I' because they're building blocks to be used when "trying to find out what makes this recipe so good or when it's falling short." The eight Ingredients are Water, Sugars, Carbs, Lipids, Proteins, Minerals, Gases, and Heat, and thinking about what they bring to your dishes is a smart way to up your game. Bouzari would know: he's a chef with a Ph.D. in food biochemistry. His insights are accompanied by illustrations by Jeff Delierre and photographs by National Geographic Explorer Jason Jaacks.

Download This Episode Here Congratulations to Alanna, Brian, and Amit for snagging Ali Bouzari's new book! This monologue is about the ways you can maximize your college experience and hopefully prepare you for the future. You can follow all of these rules, or none of them. I'm just distilling my "complicated" college life. Key Takeaways Why you need to be involved in college How to be involved in college Why my best experience in college wasn't food science related What We Talk About Lion Dancing Transcript In this episode, I’m going to talk to you the importance of getting involved in college. Before I go into college, don’t be one of those people who thinks college is a waste of time. You can be rich going to college, you can be rich going to trade school, you can be rich by not going to school at all! I’m a bit fatigued about how any people complain about working at starbucks after graduation when the anecdotes between successful people and unsuccessful people are relatively the same. College is indeed, what you make of it. And it’s a time that will really cement how you will deal with life in general. Some people will spend it partying, some people want to find true love, some people want to get experience starting a company, get into the Big 4 Accounting firms, support local communities, or change the world. Me? I’m not sure. I kept my options open. A lot of people get screwed over on college debt. A lot of people have to work two jobs in food service and take classes. I’m going to be honest with you, my parents paid for my college so I was able to focus on more things that other people could not. However, I want to give you service on what I thought was most beneficial in college. This is me sharing my experience and though you may or may not be in my shoes, distilling my experience might enrich your college experience. I hope. At my busiest time in college, I: Had 2 part time jobs: in the pilot plant and in the Multicultural center. I probably wouldn’t survive working there with the wage they paid me. Did 2 product development competitions: Disney and Developing Solutions for Developing Countries Was in 3-5 clubs with 2 being officer positions (Captain of the Lion Dance Team, Treasurer of a cooking club) Was a committee head for a really cool diversity event with 500 people involved. Did an entrepreneurship competition So this involved staying up until 12 to 2am every day. Fun stuff, right? So I didn’t have to do all this, and to be honest, you shouldn’t. What I found valuable from these experiences was the relationships you for by meeting different people. With these relationships, you learn so many things. How to talk to people, how to convince people, how to be charismatic, how to excite a crowd, plan events, count money, take notes, write agendas, align visions, work together. The relationships you kindle when you do these extracurriculars are vital if you choose to go into the career you studied. Or not. But it certainly has helped me with this podcast. So in this episode, I want to give you 5 distinct actions why you should be involved with things in college and 5 distinct actions on how to do it. Let’s begin. Let’s start with “Why”: For some people, getting involved in college can be a way to make new friends, a shiny spot to put on your resume, or because you’re generally a good person at heart, right? Anyways, I have 5 reasons on “why” you should get involved in college especially if you’re in your freshman year. 1. You will look attractive on paper Of course, the most straight forward reason you should get involved is to put it on your resume Here’s some real life advice: it might not be wise to do everything. There are a lot of people who were just good at one thing and got a job super easily. There was this one girl in college, where all she did was talk about wanting to be a plant manager and so she did an amazing job climbing through the ranks of college and grab a leadership position within the Cal Poly Pilot Plant. Her focused experience got her the job quite easily where my sporadic experience…well… took me a while. You can check that out on episode 10. However, getting involved as much as possible does have its perks… For one, you get this huge foundation of soft skills, something that throughout this episode, you’ll come to find out. More importantly, it makes you a more wholesome person, you learn not to be so much of a jerk, and you have increased diversity awareness due to just dealing with different people. However, you can’t fit everything on your resume…but you can on your linkedin profile… You can’t BS experience In most interview questions I’ve experienced, I have been able to fit in the question with an answer quite well because of the myriad of experiences. In fact, I could give comprehensive stories on how I delt with the situation. It’s very hard to BS experience, but that’s not to say you can’t. I know a lot of people who BS or stretch the truth, but it doesn’t make them good people. You should be a good person. I think what I really want to get at here is this: most interview questions you’ll get can be answered the best in a story format. It enriches your answer and gives people a much better understanding on who you are as a person. So armed with this knowledge, BSing your answer will make you seem good at first, but you’re probably going to be living a lie throughout your time at work. But some people do it. Some people are very good at lying though, and some people pull through with it. Hey, if it’s what you want in life, then you do you. You will forge deeper connections As long as you are consistent at meetings and not a jerk, you will forge very deep connections with people who are involved. It is vital to forge these connections for people who are involved in things because the return on investment is extremely valuable. But you can only forge connections if you are fully committed. Commitment, like many of you guys probably know, is a huge sacrifice because you can only share who you hang out with so much. In a platonic point of view, which club is going to give you the most value from your time? On a deeper level, which friend is going to? And value is very very subjective. Depending on the person, value can mean so many things. At my freshman year, I tried out 30 clubs. In my final year, I peaked my head in about 4. You’d probably go insane if you invested all of your time in 30 clubs. I might have almost did. But you soon realize who or what is more important. I found the people in my department and the diversity-advocate community, along with some food clubs, important to me. Let me give you an example: All of the Cal Poly Alumni who have been interviewed for this podcast were a result of forging deep connections throughout college. Whether it be in classes, clubs, or competitions. If I didn’t forge a good connection with them, I don’t think this podcast would have turned out. They really supported me during the makings of this, and they were the spark that ignited the flame. I really can’t thank my Cal Poly friends enough for supporting this podcast. I’ve worked with Katie and Taryn on food science projects, the IFTSA product development competitions, and other crazy things in my University. Because we were involved in everything together, we trust each other.  So I’ll just say another thank you to both of them. 4. You get, and I’m putting this in quotes… “free stuff” One of the funniest things I like to do is post stuff on social media on things I get for free. I used to do it on facebook, instagram, and now snapchat. By the way, every social emdia thing I have is itsmeadamyee, all one word. Free stuff is nice, but as the old saying goes, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”. I feel like with that mindset, it ruins the involvement experience because it makes you very ungrateful on the free swag (shirt, food, concert pass) that you received. For me, I enjoyed helping people and getting involved so I enjoyed the benefits of the free stuff. Point being, the value you put into something will bring back as much value as you get out of it. Here’s an example: You get paid to go to work for 8 hours a day. You convert hours to dollars. If I spent 5 hours a week feeding the homeless, I don’t necessarily get money, but the value is still there. Feeding the homeless gives me satisfaction, it gives me, purpose, it gives me happiness in times where I feel really bad about myself. Seeing people smile when I give them a can of corn feels good to me. But it can also give other things. What if it gives you the chance to meet a famous person? Or the love of your life? Granted, these are far off, but the point is, you never know. Exposing yourself as a good person to people makes you valuable, and it should strip you of any bad intentions that you think you have. However it’s also an investment, you might not see returns in a month, but it snowballs. Your reputation increases, and the value might return 10 fold. 5. You develop a sense of purpose and meaning So this mainly happens when you get into a leadership position. Especially the VP or President stage. For some people, leading something’s pretty cool, and don’t knock it till you try it. Once you learn to lead something, and get people to do things for a common cause, it’s quite a strange, but satisfying feeling. Especially in hindsight. But people will do it, because they either like you, or the idea. Both help…a lot. With enough leading on something you’re inherently passionate about, you might actually make a difference. For me, it was working on getting Cal Poly to get involved in IFT and entering the product development competitions. Once we actually placed and were able to go to Chicago, that was like “wow, we actually made progress!” And that’s an amazing feeling! The feeling of actually leading people to do something significant is something everyone in the world should try to do. Once this happens, you can actually feel a sense of purpose, and later in life, that might save you from the impact of being an adult. Never have anyone berate or laugh at your sense of purpose. Whether God, the environment, improving your home town, getting married and having kids, being an astrounaut, telling everyone you’re a food scientist, your purpose is unique. And for some people who say they don’t have a purpose, well, my only advice to find it is to really lead something and make an impact. Once you’ve had small successes doing that, go bigger, and suddenly, it’s like you were born to do this. How Alright, you’ve made it this far. As much as we like to hear why something works, it’s more practical to learn how something works. Here are 5 actions you can use right away to get more involved in college. Join a club/organization dedicated to your major To get ahead of half your classmates, you should probably join the club or organization dedicated to your major. For Electrical Engineers, that’s I Triple E, for Food Scientists, it’s IFT. Ask your professor which organizations to join. Do it, email him or her right now. Unless you’re driving… then wait until you get home. Other than club fairs, job fairs, etc, the best way to absolutely get into an organization is to just ask (well, except for the Greek system). People absolutely love it when you ask if you can join something and they shouldn’t ignore you if you request to join, unless you give off that you’re a horrible person. Join a club/organization dedicated to your major …and make it better It’s vital that once in your college career, you do a leadership position Some leaders want to do everything, and then get overwhelmed and depressed, and ultimately, their legacy fades. Actually, your legacy is probably going to fade anyways since college is like life on steroids. After you graduate, you’ll keep clinging on to your friends in college, and then maybe in 3 or 4 years… poof, you’re forgotten. Oh well. I went off tangent… basically, instead of focusing on making an organization better as a whole, make it your vision to improve just one thing about the organization. This can be getting into a new competition, or hosting an amazing banquet, whatever. This teaches the power of legacy. Legacy is important, especially in college, but probably later in life. At most, you’re going to have 2 years tops in improving your organization, so time is valuable. Getting in the mindset that you need to impact your “legacy” is important. Legacy isn’t exactly a name, it’s what you actually did during your year of leadership. Did you make a cool How-To manual for next year? Or did you organize an amazing event for the campus? Or as simple as implementing a successful fundraiser or bake-sale is good enough. 20 years from now, wouldn’t it bring a tear to your eye if you came back on campus and saw the thing you worked on still being worked on? Like that pizza Friday you kept on pushing year after year was successful after 20 years. Stuff like that, though small, is what you need to strive for to make an impact in college. And they may forget that you did it, but that shouldn’t matter. The fame shouldn’t matter, the experience that you received should matter the most. And of course, you don’t have to be club president to do so. In fact, I ran twice for food science club president until you realize how cliquey it got. But in hindsight, I realized I got really power hungry. I’m proud of the things I did in my department so I have no regrets in what I did. Roberto and Emma did a great job in their terms. Join a club/organization not dedicated to your major So besides Food Science activities, I really enjoyed getting involved with the Asian community in Cal Poly. There was a point where I was living two lives: an overachiever in food science… and an overachiever in Asian things…. Looking back, was it necessary? For an average person, probably not… but… yea let’s leave it at that. Let’s see, I had a job for 2 years at the Multicultural Center, lead a 500 person diversity initiative, and probably my most precious moment, I would say, the most ephinany-like moment in Cal poly was leading and growing a Lion Dance Team. This was the first team I grabbed by the horns and lead charge. I fell in love, became absolutely obsessed with lion dancing. For audio reasons, it’s the rawr Lion, not the one in country bars. Please, just google it. Lion Dancing is this ancient art of Chinese Dancing where we dress up in these giant paper mache dragon-like costumes and scare away evil sprits… that’s probably the best description I can give. If anything, you can google Lion Dancing… L-I-O-N Dancing and something cool will pop up. It’s cultural, and frankly, it taught me how to run a business (which to be honest, a good chunk of profit was rewarded to our club members via all you can eat Korean BBQ). It taught me how to manage money, members, develop systems to make things really effective, how to motivate members (via food), and how to develop strong family-like bonds that would make it impossible to leave. So this can be practically anything. Not just cultural. I chose cultural because… I’m Asian. As discussed on how to make a legacy, my most proudest legacy was mending relationships with our parent organization, the Chinese Student Association. I found this extremely satisfying in the beginning, there was a mutual hate with each organization, and after 4 years, having half of our board have lion dance members just last year. What’s amazing about that, is that you basically planted a seed, and told the next person in charge to keep watering! But there’s plenty of other avenues to look into such as socially conscious organizations like a fair trade club or permaculture club, a project oriented club like a rose float or robotics club, or sports club like club soccer and intramurals. There are so many options it’s ridiculous so just go for it. Try everything. Form bonds and maybe a following Though the food science clubs gave me value professionally, joining the cultural environment at college improved me as a person. It was the family I never had. And that’s extremely important to acquire in college. So forming bonds between your collegues is extremely important. Like I mentioned before, you are investing in your future by forming these bonds. You never know when someone can get you a job offer just because you helped them on their homework. But the food science organization did give me a kind of following… So there’s a lot of debate whether to form a lot of bonds with multiple people, or form strong bonds ith a few people? I guess not everyone is a connector, so whatever floats your boat. My recommendation? At least in a professional setting, form strong bonds with people who have a good network. Usually, those people are pretty friendly. Don’t cry when you lose When you fail at an election, or have 3 people show up to your scheduled event, a fancy banquet that fell through, or whatever, don’t cry about it… at least not in front of people. You can cry when you go home, or in the arms of a loved one. So you’re going to hear this throughout your whole adult life: you need to embrace failure. We’re taught all of our lives not to get F’s in school, and I’m still in the mindset that failure hurts. But that’s a good thing. It’s very important to learn how to feel the pain of failure. It’s more important to have the ability to analyze why you’ve failed and improve on it. Failure hurts as much as a bad test grade, a broken heart, and a lost acceptance letter. Some will say those scenarios are all failures. But when that happens to you, what did you do? Did you complain on facebook? Did you cave in and stay in your room forever? Maybe. Can’t say I haven’t. Can’t say you haven’t. But every time I’ve “failed”, I’ve learned how to analyze what went wrong and try something new. Everyone has their own different story on how to conquer a loss. Some get numbed, some walk away, some crumble and never leave their room, ever. The best advice I can give you, is that when one door closes, another one opens. And it’s up to you to pack your bags and charge at that door at 100%. Final thoughts: The most important thing you need to learn in college is learn how to be a leader. To progress anywhere in life, to be recognized, to be respected, you have to learn to be a leader. So make it your goal to lead at least one thing you’re passionate about in college. It’s such an amazing opportunity to inspire others. You need to take it. And when you graduate, never stop leading. Join a non-profit or 12, build something in your town or city that you’ve always wanted to be a part of. You have that ability now. By being a leader, your life will have meaning. And always remember: there is no better time in the world to create something new. This podcast was made with about $100 dollars in equipment, all I needed was the initiative to start, and the courage to ask experts to help me. Before, I hated my own voice, before, I could never think of talking to people, asking engaging questions right on the spot. When you ‘Grow up”, it’s easier, yet scarier to start something new, and lead. But those who feel your enthusiasm will follow. It might take a while, you might have people who think you’re crazy, but all you have to do is smile. Learn to Lead and keep on leading. Thank you for listening

We are honored to welcome back Ali, as he was previously interviewed for our series in March. Next March 2017, Ali Bouzari will be an  Keynote Speaker. Right now we would like to help our followers with a chance to win his book, , the #1 new release on Amazon. More details about the giveaway here. In this inspiring, chef-driven podcast interview co-hosted alongside RCA Student Committee President Philip Saneski, world renown culinary scientist Ali Bouzari talks about the importance of having the lenses of a chef when approaching the bench, how understanding Ingredients gives cooks the "X-ray vision" to fix any culinary problem or make food crispier, and where to contact with him with any food question. Hear more about some of his favorite projects as Co-Founder, CSO of , a northern California-based food innovation research and development company founded by chefs who have built and run R&D labs in some of the world's best restaurants.  Here are links to his , , and .  

On today's episode of THE FOOD SEEN, we distinguish the difference between the modes and mediums of ingredients with food scientist Ali Bouzari, in his book, INGREDIENT. Have you ever wondered why popcorn pops, or how to cook a juicy steak, well, you're talking about WATER; it expands as steam, and releases when bitten. Did you know that SUGARS aren't just sweet, they're also the reasons food browns when heated which includes sautéed onions to roasted coffee beans, and even aged balsamic vinegar. CARBOHYDRATES, LIPIDS, PROTEINS, MINERALS, GASES and HEAT round out the 8 ingredients that act as x-ray vision for Bouzari. He provides illustrations and infographics for insightful cooks, who what to know how chicharrons puff when fried and why Doritos are the most savory thing ever.

  This is part two of Ali Bouzari's amazing interview. Find part 1 here: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/018ali/ And don't forget about our giveaway at www.myfoodjobrocks.com About Ali Bouzari As an Iranian Texan, Ali Bouzari grew up with exposure to different cuisines, but most notably, beef over an open flame. His affinity for food and science lead him to become the guy where all the top chefs call him for help on the science of food. After waking up from a nightmare, he googled on his phone, “food chemistry PhD” and found himself at the University of California, Davis for Food Biochemistry. Strategically located near Napa and Sonoma’s food scene and San Francisco’s thriving entrepreneurial food and tech hub, Davis was his master plan to be the guy where chefs call him. Between being an instructor for the Culinary Institute of America and a graduate student at Davis, he juggled being a freelance consultant for chefs, tapping into the new market of research chefs. Later, he co-founded a consulting firm with top research chefs and a stealthy food lawyer to help make his dream of becoming the go to people for solving food problems. About Ingredient If you want to pre-order Ali’s book, Ingredient, you can go on Amazon. The book is expected to release September 27, 2016. For the price of two mouthwatering sandwiches, the ones similar to what Joey Tribbiani savor, you can learn the essentials of food and cooking through colorful artwork and the translation of esoteric scientific theories into practical at home cooking. You can learn a little more about Ali by reaching out to him on Twitter with his account, Alibouzari. You can also find out more information on his website. The website includes media coverage on Ali, his works in writing, media and Pilot R + D. What We Learn About Read a ton of books; books help you recognize what is really great and between the lines, it helps you understand why something is great Eating can be constituted as research Savory applications in food is trending Ingredient by Ali Bouzari is the Rosetta Stone to cooking What We Talk About Research: Eating the best Austin BBQ as tax certified Favorite food: Texas BBQ Brisket Beef is a huge thing in Iran and Texas Umami Human breastmilk has 20x more glutamate than cow milk MSG EXO bars Fermentation and Food Industry Favorite Books: Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking and Sandor Katz’s Art of Fermentation Favorite Kitchen item: Deep Welled-Spoon and Rubber Spatula Advice: Hire a food person when starting a food company. CDO: Chief Deliciousness Officer (this is a mde up term) Ingredient book presale Rosetta Stone of Cooking Website: alibouzari.com Twitter: AliBouzari

Forbes named him 30 Under 30. Zagat did the same. UC Davis wrote an article about him. HIC The Useful Tool and The Culinologist interviewed him. He gave two TED talks and is about to roll out a book. He will now be interviewed for this podcast. His name is Bouzari, Ali Bouzari. He is a Culinary Scientist at Pilot R + D, holding a doctoracte in food biochemistry and having served as a research chef for the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group. His interview with Adam Yee not only inspires many food industry members to strive for a better tasting and more creative food product, but also brings to light humble beginnings of how a man, a dream and a passion can make the world a better place to cook, eat and understand the impact science has on both. For culinary science! About Ali Bouzari As an Iranian Texan, Ali Bouzari grew up with exposure to different cuisines, but most notably, beef over an open flame. His affinity for food and science lead him to become the guy where all the top chefs call him for help on the science of food. After waking up from a nightmare, he googled on his phone, “food chemistry PhD” and found himself at the University of California, Davis for Food Biochemistry. Strategically located near Napa and Sonoma’s food scene and San Francisco’s thriving entrepreneurial food and tech hub, Davis was his master plan to be the guy where chefs call him. Between being an instructor for the Culinary Institute of America and a graduate student at Davis, he juggled being a freelance consultant for chefs, tapping into the new market of research chefs. Later, he co-founded a consulting firm with top research chefs and a stealthy food lawyer to help make his dream of becoming the go to people for solving food problems. Pilot R + D The genesis of Pilot R + D came through by recognizing collaboration between chefs with diverse research and development backgrounds is much better than independent work. As a special operations delta force, the band of chefs, Kyle Connaughton, Ali Bouzari, Dan Felder and Dana Peck (part lawyer and part chef), became the founding members of an innovation and development firm. Who you gonna call when you’re in need of help as a food and tech entrepreneur? Pilot R + D. Who acts as the hotline during the 11th hour as a fast casual service advisor? Pilot R + D. Research starts with eating a load of good food as a business expense. That’s a job worthwhile where one gets paid to eat food because of science and research! Aside from research, Ali and his colleagues solve problems with a hybrid ideology of product development/food science and culinary/chef mindset. With the approach of flavor being important and ingredient functionality in the context of the whole food, the team tries to figure out their limitations on each project to develop to their clients’ expectations. At times, they think about how pragmatic some projects are and aren’t afraid to admit the impractical demand of the project. That is not to say they are highly selective with their clients. They equally accept any range of proposals. To learn more about Pilot R + D, you can find more information here. Key Takeaways (this episode only) Read Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking Culinary Science Food ingredients in the context of chefs is to look at the whole ingredient, not the purified form What we talk about (this episode only) TED Talk Culinary Science Harold McGee UC Davis Biochemistry PhD Culinary Institute of America French Laundry Alton Brown Good Eats Pilot R&D Kyle Connaughton (Fat Duck) Dan Felder (Momofuku) Dana (Morrison Foerster) Grassroots consultancy for chefs Chef scientist Trend forecasting Ingredient Functionality Advice: Learn how to say I can’t do that or it can’t be done Flavor and Taste