Regenerative Baking #29: Rae Gomes of Community Kitchen

Regenerative Baking #29: Rae Gomes of Community Kitchen

The final episode of Season 3 features an incredible interview with Rae Gomes (@raegomes [https://www.instagram.com/raegomes/]), the Executive Director of Community Kitchen [https://www.communitykitchen.us/], and a real food policy powerhouse. Community Kitchen ran a sliding-scale fine dining restaurant out of the Lower East Side Girls Club earlier this year, and gathered a ton of data from this pilot program, which they’re now reviewing in preparation for their next chapter of this very exciting project. Aside from Community Kitchen, Rae is the Founder & Principal of Cultivating Justice, through which she’s developed community-driven solutions like Root To Wellness, a food-as-medicine project bringing subsidized CSA programs to Central Brooklyn. She’s also the co-founder of Central Brooklyn Food Cooperative; a 2021 Urban Design Forum Fellow with a Food Equity focus; *and* was a member of Mayor Adams’ transition team for food policy. She also has a master’s in creative nonfiction. In this episode, we get into food hubs, why community fridges aren't the solution everyone thinks they are, who's really profiting off the food system, a ton of organizations all working to build a better food system, the challenges of bringing people into food policy, dreams of public restaurants, and so, so much more.    Full show notes and further reading links available at dresslerparsons.com/regenerativebaking [http://www.dresslerparsons.com/regenerativebaking] Instagram: @regenerativebaking [https://www.instagram.com/regenerativebaking] and @dresslerparsons [https://www.instagram.com/dresslerparsons] Patreon: patreon.com/regenerativebaking [https://www.patreon.com/regenerativebaking]

Regenerative Baking #28: Jenny Dorsey on State-Run Restaurants

Jenny Dorsey [https://www.jennydorsey.co/] (@chefjennydorsey) is a professional chef, author, speaker, and researcher on food politics and social justice. She’s currently based in Singapore as a Fulbright [https://waytoocomplicated.substack.com/p/sharing-my-fulbright-application]-National Geographic [https://waytoocomplicated.substack.com/p/sharing-my-national-geographic-explorer] Research Scholar studying the impact of government policies on hawker centres, and recently earned her Master’s in Education from Harvard’s Graduate School. I was introduced to her work years ago when her nonprofit, Studio ATAO [https://www.studioatao.org/], announced they were making a Food Systems 101 curriculum [https://www.studioatao.org/food-systems-101]. She also makes really great, informative short-form videos on social media about everything from why sodas are fizzy and always served cold, to what vegetables can tell us about national security, to Heated Rivalry and the gendered politics of pleasure.  In this episode we get into some of her research on Singapore’s hawker markets, the argument for state-run restaurants, why Starbucks isn’t a true third space, how the design of a professional kitchen can actively work against you, using VR to enhance a dinner experience, letting people fulfill job roles based on their strengths and capabilities and not necessarily their experience, and so, so much more.   Full show notes and further reading links available at dresslerparsons.com/regenerativebaking [http://www.dresslerparsons.com/regenerativebaking] Instagram: @regenerativebaking [https://www.instagram.com/regenerativebaking] and @dresslerparsons [https://www.instagram.com/dresslerparsons] Patreon: patreon.com/regenerativebaking [https://www.patreon.com/regenerativebaking]

Regenerative Baking #27: Russell Trimmer of Motzi Bread

Continuing with season 3’s topic of alternative economies, Russell Trimmer [https://www.instagram.com/motzi.bread/?hl=en] runs Motzi Bread [https://www.motzibread.com/] in Baltimore with his wife, Maya. In 2020, they fully shifted to a pay-what-you-can model, offering their naturally-leavened loaves at accessible prices. This episode is chock-full of great information about millers, bakers and regenerative farmers in the mid-Atlantic region, and everybody mentioned is linked in the show notes below:   Full show notes and further reading links available at dresslerparsons.com/regenerativebaking [http://www.dresslerparsons.com/regenerativebaking] Instagram: @regenerativebaking [https://www.instagram.com/regenerativebaking] and @dresslerparsons [https://www.instagram.com/dresslerparsons] Patreon: patreon.com/regenerativebaking [https://www.patreon.com/regenerativebaking]

Regenerative Baking #26: Jim Franks on "Existential Bread"

Jim Franks [https://www.jimfranks.com/] has traveled the world studying whole grain sourdough bread and local food infrastructure centered around ethical and regenerative ingredients. He's also a poet, and last year he released his book Existential Bread [https://www.dragcity.com/products/existential-bread], which is completely unlike any cookbook I’ve ever read before, for two reasons. First, it’s written as a long poem. Second, it’s completely non-prescriptive. Instead of telling you exactly how to make bread or giving you a precise recipe, he explains the different factors behind bread-making and invites you to experiment and trust yourself. Tune in for a philosophical discussion of alternative economies, breaking the rules of bread, and why bread could save the world.   Full show notes and further reading links available at dresslerparsons.com/regenerativebaking [http://www.dresslerparsons.com/regenerativebaking] Instagram: @regenerativebaking [https://www.instagram.com/regenerativebaking] and @dresslerparsons [https://www.instagram.com/dresslerparsons] Patreon: patreon.com/regenerativebaking [https://www.patreon.com/regenerativebaking]

Regenerative Baking #25: Don Guerra of Barrio Bread

Today’s guest is community-supported baker Don Guerra, founder of Barrio Bread [https://barriobread.com/about/] in Tucson, Arizona. He won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker in 2022, and takes pride in bringing together a network of farmers, millers, wholesale buyers and consumers to support each other and build a resilient and diverse local grain chain. Listen in for an interview jam-packed with information about heritage grains of the Southwest, Don’s journey with entrepreneurship and history with anthropology, how he got connected with Native Seeds Search and became a major part of the effort to bring back Sonoran White Wheat, and much much more.   Full show notes and further reading links available at dresslerparsons.com/regenerativebaking [http://www.dresslerparsons.com/regenerativebaking] Instagram: @regenerativebaking [https://www.instagram.com/regenerativebaking] and @dresslerparsons [https://www.instagram.com/dresslerparsons] Patreon: patreon.com/regenerativebaking [https://www.patreon.com/regenerativebaking]