What an absolute joy it was to talk to Jenn de la Vega (AKA @randwiches)! To simply list all of the things that Jenn does (caterer, producer, author, cookbook collaborator, recipe developer, food stylist, reality show contestant, food judge, Twitch TV host, etc.) would be a disservice. She is creative, hard working, smart, and the perfect example of designing a life for yourself around the things that you are passionate about. She talks about her life in food competitions, catering, sending random sandwiches to people, and her absolute love of manga and anime.  Thanks for talking to us Jenn! It was so much fun.    Plus, Yeti frying pans, Mike's recipe for Jungle juice, and "White People Food". 

Adam Lajara is just an all-around good guy. After working hard on the line in restaurants and at hotels, he transitioned to becoming a private chef. His current client is Julius Randle (yes, All-Star NY Knick, Julius Randle). Adam sets the menus, makes sure Julius hits all of his nutritional requirements, and even cooks for the entire Randle family- including the kids. After listening to Adam for a minute, what stands out is how grateful and blessed he feels every day. Whether he is slogging away as a line cook, or catering to the Randle family, Adam keeps his positive attitude. We talked to him one night, after a long day of work, and although he must have been exhausted, you couldn't tell at all. Plus, we talk about the resurgence of coffee as a drink ingredient, crappy college alcohol consumption, Mikey's trip to West Palm Beach, and Tom's visit to a Flushing food hall. ENJOY!

Wow! It has been a minute... 17 months to be exact. But we missed you all so much that we had to start podcasting again! Join Mike and Tom as they talk about the 100 Best Restaurants in NYC, and have a fun talk with friend of the show, Casey Corn, host of Magnolia Network’s Recipe Lost & Found. Casey talks about how her background as a classically trained chef, turned food anthropologist, led her to becoming a TV host. Really, you should listen to find out about the “Great Cranberry Scare of 1959”. Stay tuned after the show for a surprise little ditty. It’s good to be back!!!!!

Welcome to the NotAFoodie Holiday Spectacular! On this episode, Mike and Tom talk about:Steakhouses vs Italian restaurants for an old-school night out.  Everyone's favorite holiday beverage, "coquito"- different types, disgusting science experiments that involve it, and most importantly, where to find it.Amazing foodie (or NotAFoodie) holiday gifts- appliances, cookware, sauces, salts, olive oils, and books. Also, find out what Mike's go-to dish is to impress someone (that is not Italian food). They also discuss their new partnership with 2Cents, and app that lets you leave audio comments, and messages directly for the NotAFoodie team. You can download it here:https://www.2cents.audio/notafoodie

Let's talk veggie chikky nuggets, Tom’s ritual Friday night steak and the accompanying butters and sauces, and asshole restaurant patrons that don’t tip.Plus, quick questions: What are your three go-to Chinese take-out dishes?  What style of BBQ is the best? Best type of pizza? BEC or SEC?   Thanks for listening!

Mike and Tom talk about EMP, "fine dining", and why it is still a thing. They also debut a new segment to find the answers to riveting questions such as, "What is your favorite snack chip?", "What is the number 2 alium after garlic?", and "What is the best way to eat eggs?"

We're back! Since we last released an episode, Mike Miranti has become MIKEY POMODORO. So, Tom decided to interview him about his transformation from "Front of house guy" to a budding restaurateur.  Plus we talk about the "10 New Rules of Dining Right Now".   ****************************** Transcript below: From the NotAFoodie studio which is not actually a studio it is a zoom meeting from I don't know where are you Mikey? In Hell's Kitchen, at our pop up kitchen space. So anyway, it is the NotAFoodie show. I am Tom and I am your co host along with Mike Miranti aka Mikey Pomodoro. Mikey Pomodoro. So I think, Mike, one of the things that I want to talk about about this episode I bet the focus of this episode I think, is the evolution of Mike Miranti. Front of House guy, podcast host extraordinaire, to Mikey Pomodoro restauranteur. Pop Up manager pop up restaurant or chef Chef Smorgasburg like we've got a lot to unpack there. But I think I think we should just get started with some food news first What do you think? Yeah, I meet you that that's the plan that's what we do. You're out of practice because you didn't do the Food News jingle. So what do you what do we have to talk about today? What do we got? Yeah, so pretty much if you've been if you're just coming out of the coma The first thing you needed to do is listen to the new nada foodie show there's been a worldwide pandemic since the end of 2019 what restaurants closed for a year then there was a vaccine where there is a vaccine and a lot of people have taken it but not everybody yet for some reason I thought to get a microchip I didn't know that there was a vaccine alright Because there's a vaccine restaurants are kind of back there's no more 50% seating there's no more outdoor only seating restaurants are back so restaurants are back but it's not the same as what it was pre COVID and food and wine put out a really like perfect Instagram post like a 10 slide post about the new rules of dining out Yeah this is awesome I came across this the other day and just to be clear you and I started talking about food news we started talking about just the shit that servers have to deal with like that they've had to deal with historically right like you go to a restaurant people see it people are entitled and you know that's not even talking about the people that don't tip but the people who you know as my my daughter would call them Karen's but like just people who are complaining who who have the sense of entitlement and it's gotten worse across the board for for everything right like people are understandably angry people are you know, frustrated with the world and things start to open up a little bit and they there's this trend I guess or this this immediate like you know urge to get back to Oh, everything should be perfect again, you know, when on the back end there's there's a lot of shit that's not perfect. We lost how many fallow hundreds of 1000s of people you know, died, that there's no so that means there's a labor shortage to there's a labor shortage are more people to go back to work? Yes. Which is a really like, cynical way of looking at it. But it's true. But also people are choosing not to people who might not feel comfortable going back to work in a restaurant where you're dealing with people with dealing with the public. You know, I know me personally like I've got kids at home who are not vaccinated yet I would probably feel uncomfortable if I had a job working in a restaurant like that. I had to go to a conference in Nashville, back in August, which is like the breakthrough COVID capital of the fucking world because it's just crazy, unmasked unvaccinated mass of people and I, I quarantined at home, before seeing my kids, like I can't imagine having to do that every single day and having to go to work and being treated like shit and, you know, by customers and everything like that. I think it's just, we're at a we're at a breaking point. So that led us

Oysters, striped bass, and Pizza Rat? Another NotAFoodie Episode? Are we really back?? This week Tom and Mike speak about the success of the Mikey Pomodoro Pop-Ups and the TikTok pasta craze. They interview the always informative, Tom Hynes, author of Wild City: A Brief History of New York City in 40 Animals. They talk about (really) old-school restaurant practices, the great piggery war of 1859, oysters, fishing the east river, and how seagulls and opossums both deserved a chapter in the book.  Go buy Tom’s book here!https://amzn.to/2PxbC0N

Hey there. Long time, no see. How's the global pandemic treating ya?  Over the past few months, the NaF team has been talking about the show a lot. The last few months have revealed a lot of cracks in the food world, and society in general. We have decided to change up the format of the show to reflect that.  In this episode, Mike and Tom talk about all of that, as well as what they have been up to. Mike has rebranded himself as "Mikey Pomodoro" (https://www.mikeypomodoro.com/), a private chef and pop-up restaurateur. Tom is now an oyster farmer that is starting a Calabrian chile empire.  Mangia!    

Oh man, I love this episode. How could you not when Allison Robicelli and Eddie McNamara are our special guests? Allison (@robicellis) and Eddie (@EddieMcNamara) are both old school Brooklyn to the core. We wanted to do an episode about the changing restaurant landscape of NYC, but to get there, we went down a wonderfully twisted path touching on topics such as: - Red lobster - Beefsteak Charlies - How the Broadway show "Cats" is most likely just an elaborate practical joke that went viral - City kids in the 1980's and their envy of all things "John Hughes Suburbia" The audio quality sucks (which is to be expected since it's the end of the world and such), but the content is amazing. WARNING: THIS IS MOST DEFINITELY NSFW

by- Mike Miranti Hello to all of our Fans (editors note- fans???!!!),Last week Tom and I were able to land an interview with the incredible Brian Koppelman. We have been pumped up about it all week and really believe that this is our best episode, but sometimes in life with great happiness comes great pain and we have to first speak about Chef Floyd Cardoz.Today Chef Cardoz passed away from COVID-19 related illness. I had never had the pleasure of meeting Chef Cardoz but I have only heard incredible things. A friend of mine who worked for him at Northend Grill said he left the job as soon as he learned that Chef was going to open his own place. Tom shared some really nice moments of when he first went to Tabla. In other food news, some of New York City’s top Restauranteurs (Andrew Carmellini, Tom Colicchio, Danny Meyer, Missy Robbins, Marcus Samuelsson, and Adam Saper) penned an Op-Ed in the New York Times about how Washington absolutely needs to bail out American restaurants. You can read it hereLastly, the Brian Koppelman interview is amazing. I am never someone who is at a loss for words and I just wanted to listen to him speak forever. I really don’t want to spoil anything but we found out what his favorite food scene in a movie is and it will definitely surprise you.Thank you all for your continued support,Mike Miranti

Hi Everyone. We have a bit of a departure from our usual format this week. These are unprecedented times and we felt like we had something important to discuss.I’m sure you all know what this is about before you even listen to it. On Monday the NYC restaurant industry essentially shutdown. Restaurants can deliver food and alcohol but no one can dine in them, and suddenly, thousands of hardworking people are out of jobs. We sat down and interviewed two friends and restaurant professionals who are doing their part to help.Andrea Strong (@strongbuzz ), a good friend of the podcast, is a food and food policy writer. She took some time to speak to us about different philanthropic organizations that are helping, and what options are currently out there for displaced restaurant employeesAndrea’s latest Food and Wine article has become THE list of companies that are offering help. The article is constantly being updated with more philanthropic efforts as things continue. You can check it out hereVincent Vee (expressdiscard.com), is another friend and former guest of the pod. Vince is a bar consultant and restaurant veteran, and he talked to us about his Food and Beverage Solidarity Facebook Group, and what he has experienced these last few daysHis Facebook group ‘Food and Beverage Solidarity‘ is here Lastly, we apologize for the audio quality of this episode. I think the term “fast is better than great” describes it well. We conducted all of these interviews remotely, using a cobbled-together system. Please cut us some slack on the audio levels, background noise, buzzing, and dog barking in the background. Stay safe, be well, and be good to one another. Tom & Mike

by: Mike Miranti Welcome to our 60th Episode!! Quick Shoutout to Savannah Peterson(@SavIsSavvy) for holding down the fort and being incredible on last weeks pod Tom just got back from Atlanta and shares his meal highlights but its an incomplete list because he didn’t go to Magic Palace Food News!!! Salt Bae Burger is the anti-Guy Fieri because it’s a way 1 ticket to No-Flavortown(link) The American Restaurant is on Life Support(link) I officially have 1 foot out the door of restaurants to begin his new career, but I’d still like to work a light amount of service once a week You can check out my medium article here Were any successful restauranteurs created from 2008-2020? Major Food Group (Carbone, Dirty French, The Pool, etc;) was founded in 2010, they might be the one What Are We Drinking Tonight? Mike’s Cocktail: The Gold Rush 2 oz Bourbon .5 oz Honey Syrup .5 Lemon JuiceShake vigorously and pour over a large rock, garnish with lemon peel Tom’s Cocktail:Cynarino 2 oz Cynar SeltzerThis is a mixed drink, not a cocktail, pour in a collins glass over ice and garnish with a lemon wedge

Woooo Boy! This episode is a bit of a departure from our normal episode. Mike will be back next time, but he took a break from this episode because it is all about the wonderful city of New Orleans! Join Tom and special guest Savannah Peterson, as they eat their way through Tom's favorite food city of New Orleans. It was a quick trip, so they crammed as much food, drink, and booty shaking as they could into 39 hours.  Here's the quick hitlist: http://carrolltonmarket.com/ http://www.turkeyandthewolf.com/ https://lucyssurf.com/ https://www.marjiesgrill.com/ https://mollysriseandshine.com/ https://cochonrestaurant.com/ https://www.courtoftwosisters.com/    

On this episode of the NaF podcast, Tom and Mike talk about: The Spotted Pig. It has finally closed (good riddance) Yelp, Grubhub, and Seamless aren't vetting restaurants The Winter Fancy Food Show and 2020 Food Trends Pasta at Felix Tacos all over LA What We're Drinking this week (Hanky Panky and Fireball spiked Apple Cider)

Tom made a giant porchetta for New Years, while Mike did shots with a certain NY football quarterback. Mike wants to eat his way through the US, but Tom is thinking about global domination. Wine Tariffs help nobody, and hurt everybody! The NaF show goes West to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, and for a few days of sun in LA. Hit us up if you're in either of those cities Follow and message The NotAFoodie Show through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  @tmiale // @MikeMiranti

Wooo boy! It's been a busy year for the NaF team. In our year-end recap episode, we talk about good gifts and bad gifts, food trends for 202, and food trends that we want to LEAVE behind in 2019.  Give us a listen!

On this weeks episode of NotAFoodie we drop some HUGE News, but first some FOOD News Food News A Panera Bread employee posted a TikTok of how the Mac and Cheese gets made, and surprise it’s done in a sous vide method. The employee drops a vacuum-sealed bag into boiling water, cooks it, cuts the bag open and plates it up. This is such a non-story because Panera Bread, like any massive chain, has Standard Operation Procedures that make streamline their product so it is the same wherever you go. If they made it from scratch it would taste different from location to location, and the most important thing about chain restaurants is consistency. Panera fired the employee who posted this, I’m sure they violated a rule but give me a break, I can’t imagine all the free engagement that this got them. The McRib is back! You don’t really need to add anything to that sentence. But check out the podcast because I get to drop some Ray Dalio x Fast Food Factoids Glenlivet Tide Pods are a thing now. Apparently they’re more than just a clever marketing ploy. These are edible cocktails made in a seaweed encasement. I would try one but wouldn’t go out of my way to procure these No Effin’ Ziti A few months ago I had an idea for content so I brought it up to Tom. I told him I wanted to do a Sopranos Cooking Show where I cook my way through all 86 episodes of the show, this means I’ll be cooking a dish that the characters are eating, referencing, or anything else that makes sense for that episode. We have shot a few so far and should be releasing the first episode in a week or two. Be on the lookout for it and get excited. This project is going to be a massive undertaking so I would appreciate it if you all would share it with everyone. What Are We Drinking Mike’s Cocktail: Last Flight This is a fusion of a Paper Plane and Last Word 2/3 oz Bourbon 2/3 oz Green Chartreuse 2/3 oz Aperol 2/3 oz Lemon Juice Shake all ingredients over ice, strain and serve up, garnish with lemon or orange peel Tom’s Cocktail: Arc Angel Manhattan 2 oz Rye or Bourbon 1 oz Sweet Vermouth 1 Tablespoon Maraschino Cherry Juice Stir over ice, strain into a martini glass and garnish with a Maraschino Cherry

And We’re Back! Season 3 Premiere: CLAWSZN, Chai Mishra, Giorgia Caporuscio by Mike Miranti After a very long 3 month hiatus (sans North Fork Summit), Tom and I got back into the lab to record 2 incredible interviews and had a Skype call to catch up on our summers. My catchup was pretty quick. I moved even further uptown, but now I have a dishwasher and a kitchen island so no more complaining about cooking in my apartment. I also penned this article which got over 3.2 clicks in a week. If you haven’t seen it I would really appreciate if you could take an extra 5 minutes and read itTom and his family took an incredible trip out to Australia to see The Great Barrier Reef and eat all the seafood that the entire continent had to offer. His favorite was a bar and restaurant run by the local lifeguards as a way to self-fund; a low key spot right on the beach with great prices and vibes. #CLAWSZN Spiked Seltzers took the world by storm this summer. White Claw, in particular, flexed their branding/marketing genius because they were everywhere this summer. The sparkling malt beverage has great bubbles and light and refreshing flavor, they also weigh in at 5% so these guys do the same damage as a Bud Light. You couldn’t go to a single party this summer without seeing some sort of boozy seltzer. Four Loko even got in on it and photoshopped their own 14% one just to see how people would react, and obviously twitter fell in love with the idea. (Editors note: Call me an old man, but I still don’t get the whole concept of getting drunk on flavored water- Tom) Chai Mishra and Move Two weeks ago while scrolling through Instagram I saw an ad for an entirely online Supermarket called Move. I checked out the website and was very impressed with what I saw. Move is an entirely transparent Supermarket disruptor who is sourcing the highest quality products from all over the world and selling them for 30% less than other retailers. They also have such an open dialogue with their customers that the CEO gives out his cell phone number for your to text him, so I obviously did.“Hey Chai, I’m all in on Move. Would you like to come on my food culture podcast?” was literally all it took to book him on to our show. I’m so glad he did because he was great to talk to and I learned so much more about the product. We try not to do many phone interviews because of the sound quality and overall feel but this is a must-listen. If you like what NotAFoodie is about, you are going to like what Move is about and will want to be an early adopter of theirs. Check out their Kickstarter (Editor’s note- In the interest of full transparency, I am a Kickstarter investor on this product. Mike sent the link and I immediately invested. I love the idea) Giorgia Caporuscio and the NYC Pizza Festival Giorgia Caporuscio, The Queen of Neapolitan Pizza, is the Master Pizzaiolo of both Keste Pizza and Vino locations and Don Antonio all located in Manhattan. She stopped by the studio to talk to us about Neapolitan Pizza, how to make and ferment Pizza Dough at home, and the classes that she teaches at Keste. The 2nd Annual Pizza Festival is this weekend on October 5th and 6th. Giorgia, Tom, and I will all be there. This free festival is a bridge between Naples and New York. After you get there you can buy tickets for Pizza and Wine, VIP Options are also available. Check it out here   Q6CZC2xfRaTH6zltRS2I

What a week we had out in Southold! For the second year in a row, Tom (editors note: That's ME!) hosted me and a few of our friends for a week of incredible food, drinks, and views.Our first meal was at Noah's in Greenport. The incredible Jean Lee(@jeaniuseat) set it up for us, and the team at Noah's knocked it out of the park. From the first bite of Crab Deviled Eggs to the last bite of their Lobster Roll, everything was fresh and full of flavor. Chef Noah takes a lot of pride in being creative with his small plates and left a lasting impression on usFor dinner that night we threw a 5-course meal with some of our friends including Savannah Peterson (@savissavvy) and Brittany Degirolamo(@brita_ny). Jean worked her magic again and got the legend himself Pat LaFrieda to sponsor our dinner. Pat sent us POUNDS of Italian Sausage, his signature hamburgers, and 2 MASSIVE Tomahawk Ribeyes. We also stopped by the Southold Fish Market for some Fluke and Clams.If you've ever listened to our show before you know that while Tom is a Titan in the kitchen, I can throw down a little myself. Tom grabbed the reins of the dinner while I played prep cook and saucier(more on that later)First Course:A Fluke Crudo: Thin slices of local fresh-caught Fluke marinated in citrus with radish and jalapenoThis was such a nice way to start the dinner, fresh fish and bright citrus. A very light dish to get us salivating for everything to come. Tom also flexing with his knife skills, butchering this fish perfectly.Second Course:Cataplana Stew: A North Fork take on a classic Portuguese Stew made with Tomatoes, Clams, and Italian Sausage.This was actually my favorite course of the night. Partly because it was delicious and partly because its something I've never had before. Classically this dish is done with Pork Shoulder and simmered for hours, but this recipe is made with Sausage (Pat LaFrieda's to be more specific) and is packed with flavor. This is a great dish to make for a large groupIntermezzo: LaFrieda CheeseburgersTom grilled up 6 Cheeseburgers (Lettuce Tomato and Kraft Singles) while I went into his fridge and whipped up a Mac Sauce. I learned how to make Mac Sauce a few months ago and this has become my go-to party trick. It's just Mayo, Ketchup, Relish, and a little bit of White Vinegar. If for some reason you don't have White Vinegar you can use Pickle Juice. We cut them up into halves and everyone enjoyed.4th Course: Tomahawks!!!Before getting into this course I just need to describe these two steaks. On the podcast, we described them as "Louisville Slugger, Jason Giambi, Bash Brothers, Mark and José." If you're not a baseball fan, these were BIG BOYS. Tom fired up his kamado grill and got it so hot that it broke the thermometer on the grill. After grilling them to a perfect Medium- Rare with a vicious char they rested for about an hour and when we cut into them they were PERFECT. The Ribeyes melted in your mouth while your jaw was on the floor.Dessert: Briermere Farms PieBrittany and her friend got to the house a little later than the rest of us so we sent them on a mission to pick up dessert from the best bakery out east. Briermere Farms is a North Fork Institution and they did not disappoint with both their Blueberry Pie and their Raspberry Cream Pie. It was the perfect end to the night.I would be totally remiss if I didn't mention the incredible cocktails that we were drinking while all the cooking was going on. My good friend and former guest Yancy Violi (@barandbowtie) and his girlfriend Veronic Lodge(@msveronicalodge) wrote a cocktail menu and came with printed and laminated cocktail menus for the event. Yancy somehow even figured out the font that we used, downloaded it and used it for the menu. The cocktails were sponsored by Hellisoy Vodka(Shoutout to Noah for joining us for dinner) and Hella Cocktail Company. This event was a smashing success and we plan on growing it even larger next year(maybe even a ticketed event coming