Florida Foodie

By: WKMG and Graham Media Group
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  • Summary

  • Food is part of our traditions and cultures, and it affects our health, our economy and all of our communities. So, Florida Foodie is giving you some food for thought, taking a closer look at what we eat, how we eat it and the impacts on Florida and what it means for everyone, everywhere.
    Produced by WKMG, in cooperation with Graham Media Group.
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Art Alternative & Complementary Medicine Hygiene & Healthy Living Cooking
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Episodes
  • Cows ‘n Cabs celebrates Central Florida’s food scene while raising money for charity

    Cows ‘n Cabs celebrates Central Florida’s food scene while raising money for charity
    Oct 15 2024
    Cows ‘N Cabs has raised more than $2 million for Central Florida charities since it got its start in 2011. The event was co-founded by David Larue, Executive Vice President at ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, and John Rivers, the owner of 4 Rivers restaurant group. “My wife and I were talking about how to use, like my ABC platform, because we have so many great contacts and the liquor business, and we’ve raised so much money for other things — but how to create something on our own? So we figured out, actually saw something on the Food Network called Pigs ‘N Pinot. I’m like, ‘Well, that is really cool,’” Larue said. Larue had drinks covered, but he did not have the restaurant contacts he would need for the event. That’s when he was able to pull on Rivers and his vast network in Central Florida’s dining scene. The pair wanted this event to be different from a typical charity event, more casual. “We decided, let’s, let’s try to figure out if you are the person walking into an event and you’re by yourself. Would you have a great time being there for four hours by yourself? And so we kind of started with that mentality,” Larue said. They settled on a Western theme, which the regular attendees have embraced. “We got a guy that comes with, like, an inflatable cow costume. A lot of people just with cowboy hats, which we’ve actually given away a bunch of cowboy hats the last couple of years through one of our supplier partners. They’ve given away like, 700 hats,” Larue said. Amid the sea of cowboy hats, chefs from 38 restaurants will be offering up bites and snacks to the hungry attendees. “I would say 25 of the restaurants are coming back because they just love it so much and then we’ve got a couple of new ones,” Larue said. The participating restaurants include Kaya, Hawkers, The Monroe, Otto’s High Dive, Bar Kada and Black Rooster Taqueria, among others. Of course, the food may draw people in, but the charities helped by the event are the star of the show. “It’s so much fun just to be able to make that list (of charities) and, more importantly, deliver the checks,” Larue said. The charities helped by the event include 4 Roots Farm, After-School All-Stars, Central Florida Diaper Bank and Harbor House. Cows ‘n Cabs is set to take place in Winter Park on Nov. 9. Tickets are available now. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Larue talks more about the growth of Cow ‘n Cabs and its expansion with a new event, Burgers.Bubbles.Beer, which is taking place on Nov. 7. He also shares the family history behind ABC Fine Wine & Spirits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    21 mins
  • Earning a Michelin star opened new doors for Orlando chef Mike Collantes

    Earning a Michelin star opened new doors for Orlando chef Mike Collantes
    Oct 1 2024
    Mike Collantes started his culinary career inside Orlando’s Fashion Square Mall, but he now counts himself among the exclusive ranks of Michelin-starred chefs. Collantes earned his Michelin Star in 2022 for his omakase restaurant Soseki in Winter Park. “After the Michelin Star, we’re seeing international clientele and guests, as well as our local guests, but really put us on the map for what we’ve been doing here in Winter Park,” he said. The same year he won his Michelin Star, Collantes closed his first restaurant Taglish, a fast-casual Filipino concept that had three locations at its height. “As we got busier with the fine dining restaurants and other restaurants, our lease came up, and we decided to close that venture down, never to really open it again,” Collantes said. However, with the success of his fine dining restaurant, Collantes has had the ability to open several other restaurants around the greater Orlando area, including Sushi Saint, which was awarded a Bib Gourmand by Michelin. The award highlights high-quality food at reasonable prices. “Last year, November, we opened up our doors (to Sushi Saint),” he said. “There (was) no hand-rolled temaki bar in town. So it’s a different way to eat sushi, utilizing still the same quality that we do at our fine dining and just making it a little bit more casual.” In addition to Soseki and Sushi Saint, Collantes is rapidly expanding his culinary empire. He recently opened a sake speakeasy, Bar Kada, next to Soseki. He is also planning to reopen Taglish inside the food hall that used to be The Hall on the Yard, which is now under new ownership. “Taglish is Tagalog in English — so good representation of not just traditional Filipino food. It’s really the upbringing of everyone who’s migrated to America and I would say it was my connecting point back to my culture, which, you know, I grew up here in the States,” Collantes said. Collantes also plans to open a French restaurant there as well, Chez Les Copain. The chef said it is something the area is lacking in. “We saw a big decline in French restaurants (in Orlando) in the past couple years. A lot of them have just closed up shop,” he said. In addition to all of his work in Orlando, Collantes is starting to work on some international ventures. “I’ve been doing consulting for the past year, year and a half, with other brands, and it brought me to this new concept called Kaimana, which will be opening this fall in Dubai,” he said. On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Collantes talks more about the opportunities he’s gotten since earning a Michelin Star. He also talks about the struggles that many restaurants are dealing with now as costs rise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    27 mins
  • Owner of The Hammered Lamb shares struggles of running a small business

    Owner of The Hammered Lamb shares struggles of running a small business
    Sep 17 2024
    Amid the pandemic and Orlando’s ongoing growth and development, Jason Lambert has been striving to keep his businesses running while also being a force for good in the community. “So 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic and trying to survive through the pandemic, I thought were the roughest years we’d ever have to face,” Lambert said. “And then we got into 2023 and we were finally stable, and kind of had gotten caught back up from that two years of craziness and then in October of 2023 is when all the construction started in Ivanhoe Village, and it has just been just detrimental to the whole neighborhood.” Ivanhoe Village, the historic community where the Hammered Lamb sits, has seen substantial growth since the restaurant first opened in 2013. That growth has led to the need for improvements to the area’s sewer system. Those improvements have caused issues with parking and navigating the area, keeping potential customers away. “There’s been so much construction there, and it’s always moving around, that people are just over even trying to — just avoiding the area, because they don’t know how to get in to support local businesses,” Lambert said. The problem has gotten so bad that Lambert recently held a fundraiser to help keep his first restaurant, The Hammered Lamb, open. “In 2023 we were having a record year — busiest year we would ever had, setting monthly records — and then the construction started, and now we’re down anywhere from 30% to 50% a week from where we were last year,” he said. The problems at The Hammered Lamb are starting to affect his other business, Jack & Honey’s in Thornton Park. “We are now closed at Jack & Honey’s on Mondays and Tuesdays, and we’re closed at Hammered Lamb on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, which were just our slower days,” he said. “We’re hoping that it’s temporary and it could just kind of help us, but those days we just — we weren’t making even enough money to pay the people that were there, so it was just costing us money to be open.” On the latest episode of Florida Foodie, Lambert shares more of his experiences in trying to keep his businesses running. He also talks about his activism and how he likes to use his businesses to support the community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    22 mins

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