Lettuce Wrap

All about food, the food business, and the people who work in the industry.

About the show

We’re Christine Doerr and Tammy Tan: friends, food enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. Between us, we own three food businesses (including our shared-use commercial kitchen where this podcast is recorded), and have lots to say about food, the food business, and the people who work in our industry.

Join us each episode as we explore food and the food business with other entrepreneurs and food lovers, and share our decades of experience owning, running, and marketing our businesses.

New episodes are released on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. Thanks for listening and subscribing!

Lettuce Wrap on social media

Episodes

  • 11: A Chocolate Tourist, with Jack Epstein of Chocolate Covered

    May 11th, 2019  |  41 mins 31 secs

    You don’t need passion to start a business, but you do need it to keep one going for a quarter century. Life-long entrepreneur Jack Epstein of Chocolate Covered sells over a thousand artisan chocolates from his store in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. Learn how Jack built his unique business, and hear valuable advice from a shopkeeper who’s been in business for 25 years. Plus, Jack shares dozens of chocolate and San Francisco restaurant recommendations! (Check the show notes for links.)

  • 10: I Prefer My Beer Distilled, with Stuart Cristol-Deman of Stuart on the Coast

    April 27th, 2019  |  48 mins 50 secs

    Stuart went from whiskey novice to Certified Bourbon Steward, turning a bad first impression with whisky into a passion he now shares with others in his at-home whiskey tasting and cooking classes. We taste our way through a personalized flight of four ryes, while learning more about whiskey (and whisky!) with Stuart as our guide.

  • 9: I Used to Dance Around Those Trees, with Nafy Flatley of Teranga Juice

    April 13th, 2019  |  47 mins 9 secs

    The baobab tree looms large in the life of Nafy Flatley. Its fruit juice nourished her when she was young, and powers her Teranga Juice business today. We discuss the origins of Nafy’s business and learn a lot about the “tree of life”, including its health benefits. Can the juice of the baobab fruit help you be stronger, fall in love, or attain happiness? Listen and find out!

    (Recorded October, 2018.)

  • 8: The Ice Cream Atmosphere, with Lori Phillips of Rocko’s Ice Cream Tacos

    March 23rd, 2019  |  1 hr 1 min

    From an immunology Ph.D to ice cream entrepreneur, learn how a book, a funny name, and a memory of an ice cream taco all came together to form Lori’s delicious desert business. We discuss reasons to remaining artisanal, the argument against franchising, and the power of liquid nitrogen.

  • 7: My Kitchen as a Lab, with Guilianna Glassman of Alma Superfoods

    March 9th, 2019  |  29 mins 51 secs

    Why does Guilianna of Alma Superfoods say “my kitchen is my lab”? And how did a dislike of peanut butter turn into a nut butter business? Guilianna grew up in the Peruvian Andes where she helped her mom run a popular catering business. From her mom, she learned how to mix the flavors and aromas of ancient ingredients and was inspired to created her food business. She leads us through the genesis of Alma Superfoods before taking us on a culinary adventure through Peruvian flavors and ingredients.

  • 6: The Business of Food Awards

    February 23rd, 2019  |  18 mins 56 secs

    The Good Food Awards Mercantile is the place to taste the future of food, from small, sustainable producers. We discuss the Good Food Foundation that puts it on, and chat with two Good Food Guild members, direct from the show floor.

  • 5: Most of Them Will Give Up, with Lu Den of Lulu Yum

    February 9th, 2019  |  30 mins 10 secs

    Lulu runs a cake business, but is her ultimate goal to build a lifestyle brand? A self-taught baker and accidental entrepreneur, Lulu got her start making cakes for friends, who convinced her they were good enough to sell. We learn the value of persistence, the power of social media, and how a beautiful, delicious cake is like an attractive woman with a computer science degree.

  • 4: The Appreciation They Deserve, with Mark Priestley of Yummy Artisan Foods

    January 26th, 2019  |  31 mins 46 secs

    Mark has the best job: he tastes award-winning, artisan-crafted olive oils, chocolates and honey, and shares his finds with the world. He leads us through a chocolate tasting, and chats about why he started his business.

  • 3: These Shows Stress Me Out

    January 12th, 2019  |  37 mins 49 secs

    We pick our favorite shows, movies and documentaries about food and cooking, from old school classics to new school faves. And a few things we definitely do not like.…

  • 2: Not to Yuck My Mom's Yum, with Melanie Rogers of Slow Brine

    December 29th, 2018  |  29 mins 21 secs

    Melanie has a pickle problem, and there’s only one way to solve it: More pickles! Can she pickle anything? We explore the difficulty of starting a food business when you have no experience, and getting hung up on the details that don’t matter (or do they?). There’s value in an enthusiastic partner when starting a business who helps with the heavy lifting (literally and figuratively). In our Wrap-id Fire round, we explore ‘kraut and pickle pairings, some good, some... less good.

  • 1: A Crust and Fudgy Center, with Amanda Garcia of NeoCocoa

    December 15th, 2018  |  28 mins 15 secs

    Amanda Garcia joins us to explore the value of attending school to get experience—and confidence—vs. getting into the industry early. Amanda—who fell in love with chocolate while attending pastry school—shares her thoughts on learning the fundamentals, and the difficulty of getting into a kitchen without kitchen experience, then reflects on missing out on "home economics" class as an "older" millennial. She looks forward five years and the impact of living in the Bay Area on her plans. We explore food and flavor pairings, where Amanda opines about pumpkin spice and other "trends". In the quick fire round, we force impossible choices, and end the episode recapping what we learned.

  • 0: 0: We’re a Little Food Crazy (Pilot)

    December 15th, 2018  |  25 mins 10 secs

    We're Christine and Tammy: friends, food enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. Between us, we own three food businesses, and have lots to say about food, the food business, and the people who work in our industry. In this pilot episode, we share our backstory and the reasons we started Lettuce Wrap. Learn how Christine’s candy selling leads to deboning a duck which leads to an epiphany. A multitude of kitchen jobs leads to a career in graphic design, and it all ends in a sandwich of chef-ery. Meanwhile, Tammy turns up her nose at high tech to sniff out spices for a living, converts chicken into cuisine, and farmers markets become retail stores become online stores. Our inaugural "quick fire round" puts Tammy into a spice quandary, and Christine picks a favorite truffle and meal. And we learn which of us is the true food adventurer.