Katie Biegel Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You're listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe magazine. I'm coming to you today from Las Vegas. I am here for a special project and having a great time. I will tell you more about it very soon.
Before I left New York, I talked to Katie Lee Biegel, who is today's guest. For the past decade, Katie has been the cohost of “The Kitchen” on Food Network. But before that, she endured years of professional rejection. She even had to bounce back from a high profile firing when she was let go from “Top Chef.” Ouch. Some of you might remember that Katie was the original host of season one. She also shares her experience with infertility and the unexpected path she found herself on. Lastly, we chat about Katie's wine line, Kind of Wild Wines, and how that came to be. Katie's all about perseverance, believing in yourself and holding your head high. She's also one of the nicest folks in food and beverage, as you're about to learn. I'm thrilled we had the chance to talk. I recorded my interview with Katie at Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Stay tuned for our chat.
Today's show is presented by Kerrygold. Kerrygold is the iconic Irish brand famous for its beautiful cheese and butter made with milk from Irish grass-fed cows. I am a Kerrygold super-fan, and I had the good fortune to travel to Ireland with the Kerrygold team a few years ago. I met farmers, cheese makers, the folks who inspect the butter and grade the cheese. And I even met the cows. It was an unforgettable trip and I loved getting to know more about the world of Kerrygold. I learned the differences between the Kerrygold cheeses and I'm going to share some of my favorites with you. There's Kerrygold Aged Cheddar, classic and rich. Kerrygold Reserve Cheddar is sharp and bold, thanks to an extra year of aging. Kerrygold Dubliner is a robust, aged cow's milk cheese that's nutty, sharp and sweet all at once. Then there's Kerrygold Skellig, which is tangy and crumbly, with a butterscotch-like sweetness. One more to shout-out, Kerrygold Cashel Blue Farmhouse Cheese. It's a perfect blue, in my book, with that signature creaminess and tang. I love it for everything from snacking to salads. I highly recommend visiting Ireland, but you don't need a trip to Ireland to figure out your favorite Kerrygold cheese. Just a trip to your local supermarket, gourmet shop, or cheese shop. Visit kerrygoldusa.com to learn more about Kerrygold's iconic cheese varieties, to browse recipes and to find a store near you.
If you're looking for some fun things to do this summer, be sure to check out Cherry Bombe's Summer Series. Tickets are on sale right now for the following events. We have two Women Who Grill demos and dinners. The first one is taking place Friday, June 21st in Tannersville, New York, at Deer Mountain Inn with special guest Chef Sarah Glover. Then on Friday, July 12th, we'll be outside of Santa Barbara at Rancho San Julian with Elizabeth Poet of Magnolia Network's “Ranch to Table.” Some of you might remember, Elizabeth was on our cover last year. Then we have two Art of Entertaining dinners. On Friday, July 26th, we'll be at Green Port, New York at the Soundview Resort. Then Friday, August 2nd, in Portland, Maine at Crown Jewel Restaurant, which is located on Great Diamond Island. I have no connection to Great Diamond Island, but I should look into that. You can visit cherrybombe.com for tickets and more information. The Cherry Bombe Summer Series is supported by our friends at Kerrygold, Le Creuset, and Pernod Ricard. I hope to see you this summer.
Now, let's check in with today's guest. Katie Lee Biegel, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Kerry Diamond:
You said something really cute on a podcast, I forget which one I was listening to. But when you started to get interested in food and food media, you thought maybe you could be "the Carrie of food," and you were referring to “Sex and the City.” What was that all about?
Katie Lee Biegel:
That's right. I was in college and it was around the time that food was really becoming part of pop culture. I was reading Gourmet, I was reading Bon Appétit, and Food and Wine, and starting to watch Food on TV as well. I was a journalism major and I thought, "Well, what if I could write about food?" This was also the heyday of “Sex and the City.” I had this dream of coming to New York. I actually enrolled in culinary school in New York, which I ended up not going. But I had this dream of having a column and writing about food.
Kerry Diamond:
Sex or no?
Katie Lee Biegel:
No sex.
Kerry Diamond:
Sexy food.
Katie Lee Biegel:
It feels like sexy food just isn't quite the right combination.
Kerry Diamond:
No one does have a column about sexy food.
Katie Lee Biegel:
No.
Kerry Diamond:
There's still a white space, people, if anybody's looking for some white space in the food media area.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah, there is not a lot of white space, but no one has done sexy food. Maybe there's a reason.
Kerry Diamond:
It's so interesting to see that “Sex and the City” is having a comeback now. Is it streaming on Netflix?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I think it's on Netflix, yeah. Yeah. And reading about what young people now think about it. I loved “Sex and the City,” and I still love it. I think that show was so groundbreaking at the time. Yes, there's some parts of it that are outdated now, but I love it. That's a comfort viewing.
Kerry Diamond:
Every Sunday night, when it was airing realtime.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah, back when we had to tune in. I like that. I like when you have to have appointment TV. Now when shows, like “White Lotus,” everybody knows, "Okay, it's going to drop. We got to get on and watch it." There's something about the anticipation rather than just having all of it at once. I used to be a binger, and then now I feel like I can't stay up late. I have to go to bed at 9:30. So I get through half an episode, one episode at most, and then I've got to go to bed.
Kerry Diamond:
The Carrie of food. Didn't quite pan out that way.
Katie Lee Biegel:
No.
Kerry Diamond:
You're probably so tired of talking about this, but you were the first host of “Top Chef.”
Katie Lee Biegel:
That's right. That was how I got my break into television. I had started a food blog with a girlfriend, and that was dinosaur ages of food blogs. We didn't know really even what we were doing. It was a lot of fun. From that, I started getting little things, like little writing jobs, doing interviews on Extra, I would go do that. But I'd never really had anything big. I got an email one day that said, "We're the producers of “Project Greenlight” and “Project Runway,” and we're doing a new show. Would you come in and read to be the host?" I thought, "This has to be fake." I did a quick Google search and I said, "They're real!"
I came to Rockefeller Center the next day, right here where we are.
Kerry Diamond:
Welcome back.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah. I read for it. Two days later, I was flying to San Francisco to do the show. Nobody knew what that show was going to be. It turned into this big show. I did one season and then I got fired. It was so not the right fit for me and I think we all knew it from the very first day. I was so green. I had no business carrying a show at that point. Also, was a show where I was in an authoritative position, it just didn't work at all.
But I'm grateful for the experience and I'm actually grateful for that firing because it taught me a lot about myself. It taught me about resilience and working hard.
Kerry Diamond:
How did they fire you?
Katie Lee Biegel:
It was the day after the finale aired. I kind of had thought it was coming. I kept asking them, "Are you guys letting me go? What's the deal here?" "Oh, we don't know, we don't know, we don't know." Of course, they knew. The day after the finale aired, Andy called me and said, "We're not going to bring you back for the next season." Even though I knew it was coming, I was crushed.
Kerry Diamond:
Andy Cohen?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yes. It hurts your ego any time somebody doesn't want you back. It doesn't feel good. Which is funny, considering that's what I'd been doing the entire show was letting people go. I felt so bad about it, and then it happened to me.
Kerry Diamond:
You said something so interesting in past interviews, that you weren't entirely set up for success for this. That stopped me in my tracks and it made me think maybe we all need to do more to set up the people in our lives, professionally and personally, for success.
Katie Lee Biegel:
I think it's really important when you're a leader to set up your team for success. Even now as a mom, I think about that with my daughter. What can I do if I'm leaving to go to work that's going to make her feel better and have an easier day? What can I do to make our babysitter have an easier day? Anything you can do to support somebody else, then everybody wins.
I think things just happened so rapidly with “Top Chef.” It was really fast hiring. Then being on a couple days later, flying there and doing it. No one knew what the show was going to be quite yet. I didn't have a lot of support. I don't blame anybody for that. I think that everybody was just trying to make it work, like you do when you have a new show.
I was told, "Okay, we want you to be firm, authoritative. Cut your hair." They wanted to cut my hair and I said no. They had said, "Let's give you a short haircut. We think it'll make you look a little bit more stern." I was like, "I really don't want to cut my hair." I'm so glad that I said no to the hair cutting.
Kerry Diamond:
You also don't scream firm and authoritative.
Katie Lee Biegel:
That's just not my personality, and certainly not at 24, 25-years-old. Come on. I was a young woman. I wasn't at that point in my career either, to be the firm, authoritative host. It just all around wasn't the right fit. It wasn't anybody's fault. I just probably shouldn't have been hired to begin with.
Kerry Diamond:
We'll be right back with today's guest.
Today's episode is presented by Nonino, the legendary family-owned Italian company from Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Founded in 1897 and known for its awarded winning grappa. Since 1940, Nonino has been led by six generations of incredible women. Starting with the matriarch, Silvia Nonino, who is Italy's very first female master distiller and the first woman in the country to manage a distillery. L'Aperitivo, Nonino's botanical aperitif is based on an original recipe of Silvia's. In 1973, her daughter-in-law, Giannola Nonino helped introduce the world to the first single varietal grappa. Giannola's three daughters, Elisabetta, who is the CEO, Antonella, and Cristina run the distillery today. They revisited their family recipes to create Amaro Nonino, the bittersweet, herbaceous liqueur that is beloved by the world's top mixologists. And an essential ingredient in the famous Paper Plane cocktail. Then there's Francesca Nonino, Giannola's granddaughter, who is Nonino's global brand ambassador and helps in the distillery. That is an incredibly family tree. Visit grappanonino.it for recipes and information on Nonino's grappa varieties. You can check our show notes for the link.
Our show is also supported by OpenTable. I'm excited to announce that we'll be back on the road later this spring with OpenTable for our Sit With Us community dinner series, which highlights amazing female chefs and restaurateurs in the Cherry Bombe and OpenTable networks. It's been such a treat meeting so many of you at our dinners across the country. Our next series of Sit With Us dinners will take place in New Orleans on June 6th, Atlanta on June 17th, Dallas on June 25th, and Portland, Oregon on June 30th. How does it work? You can come solo and sit at a Cherry Bombe community table, or bring a friend or two and we will seat you together. Tickets are available exclusively on OpenTable. Make sure you have the OpenTable app on your phone and keep an eye on Cherry Bombe's Instagram for more details. You can also visit cherrybombe.com.
You also said always be prepared for a rainy day, so what came next was a bit of a drought-
Katie Lee Biegel:
Oh, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
For you, professionally.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Oh, yeah. I had to work really hard to get another job in TV after that. I knew that I enjoyed it. I liked that little red light. I enjoyed being on camera. Even though it wasn't the right vehicle for me, I enjoyed it and I knew I wanted to do it.
I thought, "I want something where I can just be myself. Be who I am, I love to cook. I just want to be me on TV." I pretty much just beat the door down of Food Network and I kept getting a no. "No, no, no. She's not right. She's icy. She doesn't have personality." It was because that's how people saw me from that. I was trying really hard. I remember hearing a former Food Network exec who's not there anymore had said, "We don't want her, she's like a Paris Hilton." I don't even know what that means. Paris Hilton's a great, successful business woman. But I think he was trying to dog me like I was a social person. It was like, "Come on, dude."
It would hurt my feelings. I thought, "I just have to have a thick skin. People are going to say no, but I want this and I want it to happen." I was like a dog with a bone.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell people how many years.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Seven years of trying to get Food Network to hire me. Seven years. My agent at the time called me about “The Kitchen,” which wasn't even called “The Kitchen” at the time. He said, "Food Network's going to be casting this show. Why don't you come audition?" I was in LA at the time. I was thinking of moving to LA. I was really living my best life at that point. I was having a lot of fun in LA. I said, "I'm not flying back for that. They've said no to me for so long. It's time that I move on from this." I was thinking I wanted to be a writer, maybe get into TV writing or movie writing.
Then my other friend who was an agent called me and said, "Get on a plane. You are so right for this." I said, "Okay, fine." Then it turned out I was right for it. I always think in life, I say to myself so many times, "Anything can happen." It really can. So much of my life has been chance. I don't want to say luck because I think that you put yourself in the situations where luck or good fortune can strike. I guess there is some luck to it, but a lot of it is how you position yourself.
I'm so grateful that I got on that plane, and I went back and I did the audition because “The Kitchen” has been the greatest blessing of my professional life. I love it so much. Those people are my family now. I finally got to do what I really wanted all along.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm so happy to hear that. It's 10 years.
Katie Lee Biegel:
10 years.
Kerry Diamond:
Congratulations.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Thank you so much. I cannot believe it's been 10 years. At the end of the first seasons that we filmed, the producers were giving away things from the set because we didn't know if we'd get picked up. They're like, "Katie, you love pizza. Take the pizza peel." They were giving away dish towels. We had no idea. A month later, they called everybody back and said, "The network really likes the show. We're going to film more of it." Here we are, 10 years later, over 500 episodes. It's crazy!
Kerry Diamond:
"Here's your pizza peel," that's so funny. It's like, "Here we go again."
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah. Better bring it back.
Kerry Diamond:
For folks who haven't watched, tell us what “The Kitchen” is all about.
Katie Lee Biegel:
“The Kitchen” is on every Saturday morning. It's basically a cooking talk show. There's four of us now. There's Geoffrey Zakarian, Jeff Mauro, Sunny Anderson, and myself. Each week, we have a different theme and we cook recipes to the theme.
I think so much of the show is based on the idea of “The Kitchen” is the heart of the home. When you have people over, everybody ends up wanting to just hang out in the kitchen. Essentially, we're inviting viewers in to come hang out with us in the kitchen on Saturday morning, and cook along with us, listen to stories.
I think that the success of the show is about our chemistry. We all are really close and really genuinely love each other. I think viewers can feel that. Viewers are smart. They know when something's real and when something's manufactured. We're really a family at this point.
Kerry Diamond:
Now folks can watch you on Max.
Katie Lee Biegel:
That's right.
Kerry Diamond:
They can go back and watch past episodes, right?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah. We're streaming on Max, which is really exciting.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk about kids. You have a beautiful daughter.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yes, thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Iris. You fought very hard to have a baby.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah, it was not easy. Again, that's I don't want to take no for an answer. I really, really wanted to be a mom. I thought it would be really easy. I thought that I was in my mid-30s, I was healthy, I exercised, I ate good food. Surely, this would be a breeze. I thought I would get pregnant on my honeymoon. Well, it turns out it wasn't so easy. I decided to do IVF. I ended up doing four rounds of it before we got pregnant with Iris. She's the light of my life. I love that girl so much. It's all I can think about is her.
Kerry Diamond:
How did you make the decision to be so honest about your IVF journey?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I felt like I couldn't be honest with myself unless I was open about it. I was feeling so much hurt inside, and it was really hard for me to just get on my Instagram and make some baked chicken and act like I was happy. I had so many people who would write to me and say, "When are you getting pregnant? Is that a baby bump I spot?"
Kerry Diamond:
Strangers?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Strangers. So many people would say things to me about it that it just irritated me so much. I thought, "Well, I can't be the only woman who feels like this." I wanted to put it out there, one, to be able to be honest with myself and honest with my followers. And say, "This is me and this is how I feel right now." But also, to just let people know don't ask a woman about where she is reproductively. It's just not a question to ask. So often now I get people, "Are you going to give her a sibling? Are you going to have another one? You really should have a second." It's like don't ask.
You never know what somebody's going through in general. If you are in line next to somebody at the airport and they're acting awful, you don't know what happened to them that morning. You're better off just don't say anything. If I want to tell you if I'm having another baby, I'll tell you.
Kerry Diamond:
You froze your eggs. I think you were 32?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
How old were you when you did that?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I was 32.
Kerry Diamond:
I don't think we've ever talked about that on the show. What led to that decision?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I did that because I knew that I wanted to be a mom but I had no romantic prospects. I kissed a lot of frogs. I had real bad dates. I was a terrible dater in the sense that I had no game. It was like, "I like you, you like me. Let's date. Let's be together. What do you mean I have to wait to text him back a couple of hours?" I had no game.
One of my girlfriends had told me, "You really need to freeze your eggs, you need to get on this>." I did it. I only got five. My doctor said, "You really need to do another round." I said, "I don't want to do this again. No. I'll wait, I'll come back and do it." I didn't go back and do it, and he was right. I thawed those five eggs and none of them were any good. I think there is a real false sense of security around egg freezing and it's not a sure thing. It shouldn't be sold to people as a sure thing. That's my doctor had told me originally. He said, "Why do you want to do this?" I said, "It's like an insurance policy." He said, "Oh, no, no, no. No, you're very wrong. It is not. This is not a guarantee."
I highly encourage women to do it, but proceed with caution. Be cautiously optimistic but know that it's not a guarantee. Reproductive science is amazing, and it just keeps making leaps and bounds, but it's not 100%. It's not a sure thing to have those frozen eggs.
Kerry Diamond:
It puts you through a lot emotionally.
Katie Lee Biegel:
It did. I'm not even sure if it was the hormones that put me through the emotions. That first time that I did that feeling like, "I don't want to be doing this because I want to be with somebody, I want to have that great love. I want to be married and be having a baby. I don't want to be thinking oh, I have to do this just in case." It was maybe about being really honest with myself about why I was doing it and why I was feeling bad.
Then later, when I was going through IVF with my husband, it was more feeling like, "I can't believe my body's not working the way that I thought it would. I've been doing everything right for so long. Why is it not what I want it to be?" So much of infertility is just unexplainable. I think women, a lot of times, get told, "Well, if you wouldn't stress out so much about it, you wouldn't have a problem." Well, guess what? Women get pregnant in war and famine. It's not about what you're doing to yourself and stressing out about it. It's something that we can't always explain. There's probably not enough research about it because there's not enough money spent on women's health.
I just hate it when I hear women beating themselves up over it and saying, "Well, it's because I'm so stressed. It's the only thing I can think about." Of course it's the only thing you can think about it. If that's what you're wanting in your life, you get consumed with it. I just want women to know it's not your fault. It's not something you're doing.
Kerry Diamond:
Summer's coming up. You are still a beach girl.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
You're out in the Hamptons, right? Tell us what you've got planned for the summer.
Katie Lee Biegel:
I love summer. I think that I am still on that calendar, like when you're a kid and you're marking the days until school gets out. I feel like mentally, I'm always waiting for Memorial Day weekend. Then I get really sad when Labor Day weekend comes. We're planning on just being out East this summer. We actually just got a new house. Really excited, we just moved in too, so we're getting all set up.
We just booked a trip to Ischia as well. I've never been there.
Kerry Diamond:
Me neither. Tell us about it.
Katie Lee Biegel:
I'm really excited to go there. Well, we love Italy so we wanted to go somewhere we hadn't been before so we picked Ischia.
Kerry Diamond:
What part of Italy is that?
Katie Lee Biegel:
In the Campania region, so Amalfi Coast-esque. We got married in Nerano, on the Amalfi Coast, so we're going to go back there for a few days as well.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you bringing Iris?
Katie Lee Biegel:
We are. Yeah. We took her two years ago, which was maybe a little too young to bring a child to Italy. It was not a vacation, it was a family trip. This will probably be another family trip and it's just been long enough that I can romanticize it in my head that it's going to be easier this time, but I'm not so sure. Talk to me after, if it was a good idea. But I'm very excited to be eating lots of pasta.
Kerry Diamond:
Ah, I'm jealous already. I could not believe how many people on my Instagram were in Italy last summer.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Right? I was so jealous of everyone.
Kerry Diamond:
I was like, "Is New York empty right now? Because it seems like everyone I know is in Italy." I think that's going to happen again-
Katie Lee Biegel:
Probably.
Kerry Diamond:
Because a few people have already told me about their Italy trips. I was like, "I got to get myself over there."
Katie Lee Biegel:
I love Italy, like everyone whose been. It's just amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
You have a new house, which means a new kitchen. Tell us about the kitchen.
Katie Lee Biegel:
We bought our neighbor's house. We'd been renting in the same neighborhood for the last four or five years. We love our neighborhood and our neighbors decided to sell, so we bought it. They had just done a renovation on the kitchen. The kitchen's in pretty good shape. There's some things I want to change, to put my own touch. I think I want to change the countertops. I'd like to change the hardware on the cabinets. But no big, heavy lifting, which is really different for me because I usually buy a place that's ready to fall down. I love a project.
My last apartment, that was the ugliest apartment in Manhattan when I bought it. It was the only thing in my price range available in the West Village. I went in and I was like, "I'll take it," even though it was ... When I tell you it was 1982 in that apartment, it was totally ... The kitchen had not been touched. There were glass bricks. It was turquoise. It looked like Ruthless People.
Kerry Diamond:
A glass brick, that's so funny.
Katie Lee Biegel:
We got in there and started taking the floor up, there were five layers of flooring. It was terrible. My dear friend, Nate Berkus, who's a designer, he came in before I closed. He said, "Can you get out of this? This apartment is a dog." I said, "I can't get out of it, I'll lose my deposit. What are we going to do?" We made it work.
I built my dream kitchen-
Kerry Diamond:
All right, no one feels sorry for you now because you said Nate Berkus is your best friend and he was helping. You had us with you for a little while there, Katie.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Until then.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Katie Lee Biegel:
I built my dream kitchen. I made the apartment mostly kitchen. Then the pandemic hit and-
Kerry Diamond:
Wait. Did Nate help you with the apartment?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Nate did.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah. The pandemic hit, and we made a rash COVID decision and sold the apartment. Which was a big mistake. I've had many of nights where I lay awake thinking about that apartment. It had a parking spot. Why did I ever sell that? That was definitely a mistake. We thought we were going to move to California, we had all these different ideas. Then it turns out, we're New Yorkers. We ended up getting a new place that we love very much. I only had to do some light renovations to it as well. But my kitchen's a galley kitchen, which I'm not quite used to not having an island. There are moments where I'm like, "Ah, I have nowhere to chop!" The wastebasket was in the only spot where you can do any food prep. Somebody always needs to get into the trash and I'm having to move.
But I can't complain, it's great. We're very happy there. New York is like nowhere else. Where are you going to be that's like this?
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk about some summer entertaining. You have your own wine now.
Katie Lee Biegel:
That's right!
Kerry Diamond:
Which is really exciting. How did that come to be?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yes, I'm really excited about my wine. It's called Kind of Wild. It's an organic, zero sugar wine, no harmful additives or preservatives. I got really interested in organic wines after I had a baby because I felt like if I had one glass of wine, I was hungover the next day. Having that foggy feeling and I thought, "God, I'm already tired enough. Do I have to give up having a glass of wine?" I love to have a glass of wine at night. I love to eat, all the things. I thought, "I can't give it up." The more I learned about organic wine, the more I learned well, maybe if I had a cleaner wine to drink, I wouldn't feel so bad the next day.
Around that time, I met my partners, Jordan and Adam Sagar. Their family's been in the wine business since the 1970s and they're great. They had the idea for Kind of Wild. We just had such great chemistry together and we said, "Let's do this." We have global sourced wines. We have sauvignon blanc from South Africa. We've got a gruner from Austria, a cabernet from Washington State. A Montepo Giano from Italy. Sourcing all over, rose from France.
Then, we're very environmentally conscious. We use a lightweight bottle. We don't have any foil around the top. It's domestically produced corks. The label is made out of sugarcane so it's an annual. We've got vegetable dyes to use for the ink. We try to think of all the different things and supporting smaller vineyard families that are growing the grapes.
I'm really proud of it. I really, really love this wine. It's what I go to at home to drink and it's what I serve my friends now. I just think the more people learn about organic wine, the more that they're going to demand it. Wine is one of the only consumables that you don't have to have an ingredient label on the back so you don't know what all you're drinking. There might be 70 additives. There could be food coloring in wine. I think sometimes it's all the junk is what's making you feel bad. People always say, "It's sulfites. It's the sulfites."
Kerry Diamond:
You must be asked to put your name on a lot of things. Why this?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I have wanted to do a wine for a long time because it was something that I was really passionate about. I have never found the right thing that I would want to partner on. I actually looked for other wine partners and just didn't find what I wanted.
I've been approached about frozen food a million times, pots and pans. I thought, "Why on Earth does anyone need another pot and pan from me?" Knives. It just didn't spark my interest. I think the only other thing I'd be really into would be sweatpants. I would love to have a sweatpant line, if anyone out there is listening and cares. That would be my ultimate.
Kerry Diamond:
We'll take a moment and manifest that for you, Katie.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Sweatpants and wine, that's all I want.
Kerry Diamond:
That says a lot about you.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yes!
Kerry Diamond:
I remember when Cameron Diaz came out with her wine. I think it's called Avaline.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Avaline.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. There was a lot of pushback from traditional wine people about the term clean wine. They did not like hearing that. Have you faced similar pushback?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I haven't. I haven't had much pushback at all. I think that the people I've talked to have been really interested in it. I think about 20, 25 years ago when people started talking about wanting to eat organic food and wanting to go to Whole Foods, and I feel like that's where we are right now with wine. The more people learn about it, the more people are going to want it. And also, make the demand to have a label on the back.
Kerry Diamond:
I will say wine people are fascinating people. We just came back from a week in Napa Valley. We're doing Jubilee Wine Country.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Oh, wow. Oh, I want to come.
Kerry Diamond:
October 26th and 27th, everybody. Save the date. One of my favorite things of course was we learned that more than 50% of the winemakers out in Napa are women.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Wow!
Kerry Diamond:
Which is very exciting. They're just such creative, interesting people. The fact that they have to deal with the environment, all these different things that go into making wine. I just really enjoyed spending time with all of them.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah. So much science, farming, agriculture. I think that winemakers are really brilliant.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you get to spend much time with the winemakers?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I haven't, no. I need to go travel and go to each spot. I would really like to do that. I've spent time with our winemaker from Argentina, who does our malbec. He's really amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
I was surprised you don't have a North Fork wine.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Oh, that would be great.
Kerry Diamond:
Because you're Miss Long Island.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Our challenge has been, with some of the wines that I've wanted to do, finding organic but also finding somebody who can make it zero sugar. To be legally called zero sugar, it has to have less than half a gram of sugar per serving. Usually our wines are around .1, so we are really low on the sugar content so we can be called zero sugar. It's tricky to find somebody who can do both.
Kerry Diamond:
And the name, Kind of Wild, is that about you?
Katie Lee Biegel:
It's about re-wilding the planet. In thinking about how to continue to keep the planet wild.
Kerry Diamond:
Got it. So it's not Katie Lee is kind of wild?
Katie Lee Biegel:
No. I'm definitely not kind of wild.
Kerry Diamond:
Right, sweatpants and a glass of wine. What's next for Kind of Wild?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I think we're going to do a pinot noir. We've been doing a lot of tastings to try to get that just right. From California. I think that we've finally settled on one and that should be coming out in the fall so that's exciting. Our new rose just got bottled and that's coming out right now, actually.
Kerry Diamond:
I know you're a big homebody, but do you entertain a lot?
Katie Lee Biegel:
We do entertain quite a bit. I really like to have people over, mostly because then I get to stay home. I get to be part of the party but stay home. I feel like I didn't do it that much, obviously COVID happened, but then having a small child, I was tired and didn't really get into it as much. Now that I am back to entertaining, I just love it so much. I love having people over. I think you get such a different experience than going out with people. People laugh louder, they talk more.
I had some friends over for brunch last weekend. We had such a good time. Brunch is a great time to have people over because then they're gone at 2:00. Nobody is staying until 11:00 PM.
Kerry Diamond:
No offense to the people you asked over, but yes, sometimes you got to go. What are some of your go-to brunch tips or dishes?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I love a frittata for brunch because it doesn't have to be hot. I think it's important to think about things that you're not going to be a short order cook. I love to do a French toast casserole, a frittata, fruit salad, a green salad. The same thing when I'm entertaining during the summer. I make a lot of grain salads, a lot of vegetable salads. Then I'll have the protein that either I've had baking in the oven that I can take out or it's been on the grill, so that mostly everything's done and I'm not having to be in the kitchen, missing the entire party. The day leading up, I'm a little frantic but after that I'm fine.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you a grill girl? Do you know how to grill?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I love to grill. Yeah, I really enjoy grilling in the summer. I think it's a great way also to just have less mess because everything's outside. Your kitchen stays nice and neat. You can just throw it on the grill and it tastes good.
Kerry Diamond:
What's next for you? What else do you have going on?
Katie Lee Biegel:
That's a good question. What is next?
Kerry Diamond:
You have a lot going on because you have a job, child, wine line, potential sweatpants endorsement.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Oh, yeah! I'd really like to write another book.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that's right. We didn't talk about that. Not only did you write a book, it got turned into a Hallmark movie.
Katie Lee Biegel:
That's right! Yeah, I did a Hallmark movie. Actually, I just turned in another screenplay to Hallmark a few months ago. I wrote another movie for them.
I had a novel called “Groundswell.” Then it took forever to get turned into a movie. They optioned it in 2018. It didn't get made until 2022. It took a really long time. Again, that just shows just keep at it. If you want it to happen, it will.
Kerry Diamond:
I remember reading that you really wanted it made into a movie. That's a hard thing to make happen. What did you do to push it along?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I really wanted it to be a movie. So much so, that when I was writing the book, I was thinking of it as a movie. Maybe I was just a frustrated screenwriter and went the book route. It didn't happen when the book first came out, to be optioned for a movie. Then years later, my best friend's husband, who was a soap opera star, Ricky Golden, he said to me, "Would you mind if I pitched your book to Hallmark?" I said, "Sure! Great, go ahead." He did and they optioned it. I was thrilled. But then, nothing happened with it and it had been years. Ricky sent them a follow-up email and just said, "Are we doing this or not?" They wrote back, "Yeah, let's do it."
Kerry Diamond:
That's crazy.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Right? It had been five years. This was March and in May, we were in Hawaii filming it. Then it was on in August. They worked so quickly. Once they go ahead and get it going, all of a sudden, it's off to the races.
I turned in my latest movie for them and now I'm waiting. I'm like, "Okay, are we going to make it? What's going to happen?" I know it'll be one of those things where I might not hear from them for two years. Then it'll be like, "Okay, next month, we're going to film your movie." So who knows?
Kerry Diamond:
Have all these experiences made you a more patient person?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah. I think I'm pretty good at just letting life happen. I push for things and I advocate for what I want to happen, but I also know things take time. I know that you don't always get the results you want as fast as you want them, but you just have to stay committed.
Kerry Diamond:
You've had such an interesting life, Katie. You were thrust into the spotlight at such a young age, public divorce, all these things have happened to you. When you do lik back, what do you wish that younger person knew?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I'm a reflective person so I don't get in my head about things that happened in the past, but I do like to reflect because I think you learn from looking back at your past and mistakes. I don't think I'd change anything. When I look back at that 21-year-old girl who came to New York for a weekend and bumped into a rock star, I wish she'd known it all turned out just as it was supposed to.
I feel so fortunate for the life that I've had. I have enjoyed life so much. I'm appreciative for all the ups, the downs, the bumps, the bruises, all the good stuff. I feel like I'm in such a good place right now. I've got this wonderful husband that is crazy about my daughter, work's going good. I'd better knock on wood because that's usually when something bad happens. Usually when somebody says something like this, they walk out and get hit by a car.
Kerry Diamond:
I won't let that happen to Katie, everybody. I'll walk her out. There's a lot of wood in the studio so we can-
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
We're knocking on wood right now. Well, thank you for sharing that. You're in a great place right now, but you've definitely taken the lumps over the years.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Oh, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
It wasn't smooth sail ... I know you're a surf girl. It wasn't just one smooth wave.
Katie Lee Biegel:
No, not at all.
Kerry Diamond:
You got knocked off that surfboard a lot.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Oh, yeah. I got knocked off a lot, and I held onto the leash and pulled myself back up.
Kerry Diamond:
Got whacked on the head with the surfboard a few times.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah. A long, long time ago, my ex-husband's publicist said to me, "You better get a thick skin, you better get it fast," and that was the best advice I ever got in my life.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you really have a thick skin today?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I have a very thick skin. People have said terrible things about me, I got no problem with it. That's their issue, not mine.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's do a speed round. What beverage do you start your day with?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Coffee. We actually make the coffee the night before so that we just have to press the button in the morning because it's do not pass go, do not collect $200, go straight to the coffee pot.
Kerry Diamond:
How do you take it?
Katie Lee Biegel:
With a little half-and-half.
Kerry Diamond:
What are you streaming right now?
Katie Lee Biegel:
We're watching “Ripley” and “Hacks.” We're doing both of those.
Kerry Diamond:
I saw the first episode of “Hacks.” So good.
Katie Lee Biegel:
So good. I love “Hacks.”
Kerry Diamond:
What is your favorite food film?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Oh, favorite food film would be, I think maybe “Big Night.” I love “Big Night.”
Kerry Diamond:
Favorite kitchen implement or tool?
Katie Lee Biegel:
My mini food processor.
Kerry Diamond:
Really? Which one do you have?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I have the little Cuisinart one. I love that little thing because sometimes I don't want to bring out the whole big food processor and you just whip out that little food processor. You could make a quick little sauce in it. If I need a bunch of grated onions, I'll put it in there.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have a separate one for sweet and savory?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I don't.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Katie Lee Biegel:
I probably should. My husband told me I ruined our blender because I put salsa in it or something. He's like, "My smoothie tastes like your salsa."
Kerry Diamond:
What's a treasured cookbook in your collection?
Katie Lee Biegel:
“Silver Palate.” I love the “Silver Palate” cookbook. I love Sheila Lukins, she was amazing. I love that one.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a special one. Do you have a go-to recipe in there?
Katie Lee Biegel:
The Chicken Marbella.
Kerry Diamond:
I knew you were going to say that.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Love it.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Can't beat it.
Kerry Diamond:
Brown sugar, prunes, olives.
Katie Lee Biegel:
That's a great dinner party food.
Kerry Diamond:
What food is always in your fridge?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Yogurt, citrus. Tons of fruit. We always have a ton of fruit.
Kerry Diamond:
Plain yogurt?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Plain yogurt, yeah. We go through a lot of it.
Kerry Diamond:
What was your favorite childhood food?
Katie Lee Biegel:
My grandma's biscuits. Yeah, her biscuits were amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you still make them?
Katie Lee Biegel:
I do, yeah. Yeah. Not often, but I really love that recipe.
Kerry Diamond:
What's left on your travel bucket list?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Southeast Asia. Never been, always wanted to go. I'd love to do Thailand, Vietnam, just all of it.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have a motto or a mantra that gets you through the day?
Katie Lee Biegel:
Anything can happen. I really think of that quite a bit.
Kerry Diamond:
All right, last question. If you had to be trapped ... You know what, I'm going to make this tough on you. You can't say Marcy Blum. If had to be trapped on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be and why?
Katie Lee Biegel:
That's a good question.
Kerry Diamond:
Sorry, Marcy. I know you two would have a blast.
Katie Lee Biegel:
I know. We'd have so much fun! Can I have a party?
Actually, you know what, I think I would be trapped on the desert island with my co-hosts of “The Kitchen.” I think we'd have a really good time and we all bring something different to the table. I know that I'd be eating and laughing quite a bit.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, Katie, it's so nice seeing you.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Thank you so much for having me, Kerry.
Kerry Diamond:
Thank you for coming by. Thank you for my wine.
Katie Lee Biegel:
You're very welcome.
Kerry Diamond:
I can't wait to drink it. I hope you have a beautiful summer.
Katie Lee Biegel:
Thank you. You too. This was great.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. I would love for you to subscribe to Radio Cherry Bombe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and leave a rating and a review. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Joseph Hazan is the studio engineer for Newsstand Studios. Our producers are Catherine Baker and Elizabeth Vogt. Our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu, and our content operations manager is Londyn Crenshaw. Thanks for listening, everybody. You are the Bombe.