Magnolia Network Food Stars Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe magazine.
We are in a Jubilee state of mind at Cherry Bombe right now. Jubilee is our annual conference, and it's one of the largest gatherings of women in and around the world of food. This year's Jubilee is taking place Saturday, April 20th, here in New York City, and it marks the 10th anniversary of Jubilee. It's been an honor bringing thousands of women together from around the globe for connection and community over the past decade.
For today's show, we have one of the panels from Jubilee 2023. I interviewed five food stars from the Magnolia Network, Casey Corn, Zoë François, Jamila Norman, Elizabeth Poett, and Samantha Seneviratne. Learn how they got their start in food TV, what their shows are all about, and more. I had a blast talking to them on stage and can't wait for you to listen.
This year's Jubilee is sold out, but you can join the waiting list on cherrybombe.com. Big thank you to this year's Jubilee sponsors, Kerrygold, San Pellegrino, Wegmans, Johnnie Walker, Veuve Clicquot, and HexClad. If you're joining us at Jubilee, send me a DM. I would love to say hello in person.
This episode of Radio Cherry Bombe is supported by Johnnie Walker Blended Scotch Whiskey. Johnnie Walker is the world's number one scotch whiskey brand and has been responsible for lots of happy hours and convivial moments for more than 200 years. That tradition continues today in Edinburgh, where Dr. Emma Walker, Johnnie Walker's first female master blender, leads a passionate team of whiskey makers. I've had the pleasure of interviewing Emma, and she is so dedicated to her craft. I know some of you love having a well-stocked liquor cabinet or bar cart at home, so two options to consider. First, Johnnie Walker Black Label. Its nose, as Emma would say, features the bold scent of fruit with a touch of sweet vanilla. Your tongue will pick up creamy toffee, sweet fruit and spice, followed by a warming, smoky finish. If you want to experience the pinnacle in scotch making, there's Johnnie Walker Blue Label. Its nose features waves of spice that give way to vanilla and honey. You'll experience notes that build from caramel to hazelnut to dark chocolate, then a luxuriously long warming signature smoky finish. You can learn more about Johnnie Walker Blended Scotch Whiskey at johnniewalker.com. You'll find a deep dive into the brand's history and legacy, cocktail recipes, and info on the Johnnie Walker Princes Street Brand and Tasting Room Experience in Edinburgh. I'm putting that place on my bucket list right now. Of course, always drink responsibly.
Now, let's take a trip back to Jubilee 2023.
Jenneh Kaikai:
My name is Jenneh Kaikai, and I'm a cake artist and the owner and founder of Pelah Kitchen.
Marissa Mullen:
Hello, my name is Marissa Mullen. I'm the founder of That Cheese Plate and author of “That Cheese Plate Wants to Party.” Obviously, I love cheese and we are ready to party. Jenneh, do you know who I really want to party with?
Jenneh Kaikai:
Me?
Marissa Mullen:
That goes without saying, but I would like to party with everyone on this next panel.
Jenneh Kaikai:
That would be a great party. The five women on today's panel are like all of us here. They treasure community, gathering, and sharing their talent and their knowledge. What they also have in common is that they all have shows on the Magnolia Network. They're here to talk about their experience and the values that connect them.
Marissa Mullen:
I would like to welcome to the stage Casey Corn, culinary anthropologist, ingredient sleuth, and the star of “Recipe Lost and Found.” Next up is Zoë François, pastry chef, author, beloved Instagram baker, and the star of “Zoë Bakes.” Next we have Jamila Norman, urban farmer, founder of Patchwork City Farms in Atlanta, and the star of “Homegrown.”
Jenneh Kaikai:
Next we have Elizabeth Poett, seventh generation rancher from Santa Barbara's Central Coast in California, and the star of “Ranch to Table.” Next we have Samantha Seneviratne, food stylist, recipe developer, cookbook author, and star of one of my faves, “Everyday Cooking.” Now, our moderator is the interview queen, sweatshirt sorceress, Kerry Diamond, Cherry Bombe founder and host of Radio Cherry Bombe.
Kerry Diamond:
Thank you so much, Marissa and Jenneh. That was amazing. We're going to start with a speed round. I thought that would be fun. Casey's ready, so we'll start with Casey.
Casey Corn:
Always.
Marissa Mullen:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
It's like what's a good speed round to get to know everybody a little bit? Tell us your birthday cake of choice and what you are streaming right now.
Casey Corn:
Okay. I'm not actually a cake person. I'm sorry, everyone. Tiramisu is my birthday cake of choice, and I just finished “Love is Blind.” We won't spoil it for anyone, but-
Zoë François:
Well, I'll take all your cake.
Casey Corn:
Great.
Zoë François:
Cake of choice, this is so hard because it's like every year it's different. I would have to say Devil's food with cream cheese icing.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. That actually sounds good.
Zoë François:
I know that's super basic, but it's so good. I've just finished “Succession.”
Jamila Norman:
Okay. I'm not a cake person either.
Marissa Mullen:
What? How am I?
Jamila Norman:
I'm a savory gal. I'd probably have bread for my birthday, but like strawberry whipped cream, just like farm fresh, something fresh. I'm streaming all the “Housewives” and “You.” I love, I have to check all the way out of Varmin. Yeah.
Samantha Seneviratne:
Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Anything chocolate is my birthday cake of choice. Streaming-
Casey Corn:
We prepped this in the car. She's like, I don't even-
Zoë François:
Okay, “Love is Blind.”
Elizabeth Poett:
It's mine. Yellow cake, chocolate frosting. Classic.
Jenneh Kaikai:
That's classic. Yep.
Elizabeth Poett:
I just started watching “Beef.” Very good.
Kerry Diamond:
That's on my watch list. I'm team buttercream all the way. I don't care what the vehicle is, but as long as there's American buttercream, I'm very basic that way. I just finished watching the “Last of Us” and I'm still traumatized.
Elizabeth Poett:
Traumatized.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Casey, we're going to start with you. Before I watched “Recipe Lost and Found,” I had no idea there was such a thing as a culinary anthropologist. What does that mean and how do you become one?
Casey Corn:
I think it can mean a few things, but for me it really means, a tomato is a tomato in every language. That, for me as an anthropologist, the big part is translating between one culture to another. For me, the perfect way to do that is food. Everybody eats and what you eat says a lot about who you are individually as a group. Food connects us all. How you become a food anthropologist is get an anthropology degree and just, I don't know, like to eat, make people listen to you about food and culture, and then somehow get a TV show.
Kerry Diamond:
I hope you're all writing down this advice.
Casey Corn:
It's simple, just one, two, three.
Kerry Diamond:
Jamila, we're going to jump to you because urban farmer is another term we don't hear that often. Why did you decide to go that route versus the more traditional, say, country farmer?
Jamila Norman:
Well, I'm originally from New York and I'm a city girl. I thought I would retire and have a farm. Then when I moved to Atlanta, I was raising my kids, I was just in an area that just had really bad food and I just was looking for a solution. Atlanta has a lot of green space within the city, and five minutes from my house there was an opportunity and I started farming. Then I just became a farmer. Yeah, I love the city and that's what I did.
Kerry Diamond:
I love it. Elizabeth, you are a seventh generation rancher, all these unique roles up here on the stage, a seventh generation rancher. We all know how incredible it is to be seventh generation anything. Did you always know that you'd stay with the family business? What convinced you?
Elizabeth Poett:
Family businesses, so fun. No, I always wanted to go back to the ranch. It was always a dream of mine to go back. I left the ranch for a while and then came back and what I really connected with is that I just wanted to be a part. We have a long history at the ranch with family running the ranch, and I wanted to be involved, but I wanted to also find my own place and what I wanted to be involved in. For me, it was always food. We started having these events and I really wanted to share the ranch with others and people could come to the ranch and learn how to grow strawberries and then let's can those strawberries and then let's have an amazing meal all together under a really old arbor. For me, I think that's something that I wanted to come back. I knew I had such a great strong history, but I also wanted to make it my own and figure out a way how to share it.
Kerry Diamond:
Zoë, your life changed a great deal after you turned 50. You pivoted from bread to beautiful desserts as your specialty wrote your first solo cookbook, you leaned into social media and got a TV show. A lot of folks think life is set after 50. How did all of this come about?
Zoë François:
Well, I think I've always wanted to be 50. I don't even think I'm ... I always wanted to be 60 actually, so I'm not even quite there yet. I'm still getting there. When I was 23, I got married, went on my honeymoon, and I saw this woman who has always stuck with me. She had the most beautiful gray hair, she had confidence, and she just seemed like the strongest human being I'd ever seen. That was, like, seared. It was the most memorable thing ... can I say that? The most memorable thing of my honeymoon.
Kerry Diamond:
Absolutely. That's amazing.
Zoë François:
It's not that that that was a memory that sort of followed through my whole life, but then I raised two boys. I had a career in kitchens and it was the raising of the two boys that took me out of the kitchen. When my oldest turned 18 and I had given them everything, and I would never do anything different than that, but I had really become their mom and lost my own passion. I thought that it was very important for me, as a mom of two boys, for them to see me in my own power, in my own passion, in my own strength and love, instead of just being in service to them. It was for that reason that I wanted to do ... and then I just dove in. I was like, I want to do the things that I've always loved to do, and then it just happened. It's like it was time and I really wanted it.
Kerry Diamond:
Beautiful. Yeah. Samantha, I read that at the age of five you wanted to be a baker and a librarian. Writing cookbooks seems like a beautiful combination of those childhood dreams. How did you make the dream come true as an adult? Were there any pivots or roadblocks?
Samantha Seneviratne:
I've been really lucky. I feel like I did the thing. I went to school, I went to culinary school, then I got an internship at a food magazine at Savour Magazine. I started as a kitchen assistant at Good Housekeeping. I washed dishes. I just worked really hard and just kept chipping away, chipping, chipping, chipping, chipping until I finally had the confidence to start writing my own books and being on a show and doing all the things. It was very gradual. It took many, many years, but I knew what I wanted and I just kept working on it.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Thank you to Walmart for supporting this episode of Radio Cherry Bombe. Walmart is committed to empowering women all year long and supports female entrepreneurs by carrying an incredible range of female founded and fueled brands. Brands like Afro Unicorn, how cute is that name, the clothing and accessories company founded by April Showers, Zoom Nutrition supplements, created by Mari Llewellyn and Siete Family Foods, the Mexican-American food brand by Veronica Garza and, as the name says, her family. Check out these brands and more of our female-fueled favorites over at Walmart.com/Celebrate her. You can find that link in our show notes. Now back to our Jubilee panel.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. I would love to know more about each of your shows and the intention behind them. This is a little two-parter. Can you give us the elevator pitch or a one sentence synopsis? Then tell us your overall personal goal regarding the show. Casey, we'll start with you.
Casey Corn:
All right. My show, “Recipe Lost and Found,” I help people recreate lost family recipes. For me, I would say my big mission in life is to connect people through food and show that there's a lot of differences in the world, but really we're all just people and we're all just eating food. I think a really big part of the message of the show is like, I'm sure all of you can think of a recipe that your grandma, your grandpa, somebody made for you that you're like, I wish I could eat that again. Give us a call. Maybe you can be on the next season.
Kerry Diamond:
Zoë, how about you?
Zoë François:
My show, it's a baking show, but it's also a show about my community. I'm from Minneapolis and we are a town of bakers and growers and producers, and I get to go out and be with them and hear their stories and be inspired by them and then come home and bake something that I was inspired to bake with them. It's a little bit of everything and I get the honor of telling their stories and also getting to bake. It's like a total win for me.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Jamila?
Jamila Norman:
Yeah. My show is called “Homegrown” and it's about helping families transforming their yards, their homes, their whatever, into farms and gardens. Definitely never ever thought of myself as someone who would be on TV or with a show, but what was important to me was that I had a platform where I can show the real process and it be authentic and it be real information that people can actually take back with them and replicate. It's really turned out to be just that with all the feedback we get from the audience, people are like, "Oh my God, I'm so inspired" or "I've really tried that thing and it works". I'm like, yes, okay. It's working. Also, a big love letter to the Atlanta urban farming community and just farming in Atlanta. With each show we do a field trip and we go visit another farmer and 80% of those people are like my friends, my colleagues in the industry. I just wanted to show the face of farming, what it looks like, and inspire people to do it for themselves.
Kerry Diamond:
Elizabeth?
Elizabeth Poett:
My show is called “Ranch to Table,” and it really is just about life on the ranch and how it relates to food. I did not go to culinary school. I am just a rancher who loves to cook.
Kerry Diamond:
Just?
Elizabeth Poett:
I am. I'm just a rough cowboy who loves to cook, and I've always had a passion for food, really about raising food and growing food and really knowing that connection. I know that food connects people, but also I love to really try to respect the connection to food, as well and being able to share that and know where your food is coming from. I've been doing farmer's markets for 16 years and everyone who's come up to me has always just wanted that connection and the understanding of how much work it really takes to bring food to the table.
I've been able to cook and just really share what life is on the ranch and also all the food that it creates. One of the best things that has happened through this show is I have gotten letters from young girls who want to be ranchers and who want to be farmers. To me, that is everything. It was my goal and it really is a dream come true.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Jamila, you were nodding. Are you getting letters?
Jamila Norman:
Yeah. People, "oh my God. I want to do what you're doing". I've been getting the letters before ... well, people reaching out before, so the show was an opportunity to share that with more people. I was like, I can't answer and I can't be there for everybody, but here's a platform I can reach a lot more people in the show.
Kerry Diamond:
It's really wonderful. Zoë, similar?
Zoë François:
Yeah. A lot of five-year-olds watch the show, which I didn't set out to do a show that I thought would appeal to five-year-olds, but I feel like five-year olds, they sense how much I love what I'm doing. The fact that they're sticking with the show, that's the highest compliment to me. I love that all of you who might be watching it, but these five-year-olds mean a lot to me.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, they're like Beck when she was five.
Zoë François:
Exactly.
Jamila Norman:
Amazing.
Zoë François:
It was “Sesame Street,” I remember. Remember the image I saw of the dough on the speed racks in a segment on “Sesame Street?” I thought, that's what I'm going to do and be a librarian.
Kerry Diamond:
That's amazing. Sam, okay, your turn. Tell us more about your show and the intention behind it.
Samantha Seneviratne:
It's called “Everyday Cooking.” I used to work for “Everyday Food” for Martha Stewart, so now I'm doing “Everyday Cooking” on television. It's basically just like dinner solutions with love from Brooklyn. I try to highlight some of the people that make the food in my community, some chefs I admire, and mostly it's just about trying to just feed my five-year-old who doesn't like the majority of what I cook. I'm doing my best, but I think we'll get there. In the show he knows good food now, so we're working on it, but that's cooking with your family and feeding people that you love.
Kerry Diamond:
Is your five-year-old watching “Zoë Bakes?”
Samantha Seneviratne:
Probably.
Kerry Diamond:
Elizabeth, you mentioned connection and how food connects us and connection has been such a big theme of today and all the connection in this room, which is incredible. Speaking of connection, there's obviously a thread that connects all of your shows. I would love to know what you think that thread is and what does it say about what people are craving today. Casey, I'm looking right at you.
Casey Corn:
I know. I think for me, one of the best parts about being a part of Magnolia Network is that I think, except for me, everybody's show is what they do. I don't, unfortunately in my everyday job, help people recreate lost family recipes, but I love that it's just people doing what they love with food. I think that it shows we keep talking about connection. We are more connected to our food, to what we're eating, to how these foods get to our table and what that means to us than really ever before. I think that the more personal food feels, the more people want to see it.
Samantha Seneviratne:
I would have to say for my show, it's the same, like I mentioned, I get to tell stories of all of the people in my community and there's so many. Also for me personally, I love the feeling of demystifying baking. I feel like baking, even maybe more so than the savory side of things, can be a little bit intimidating to people. I am so mad hot in love with it that I want everybody else to be, as well and to have that love affair and joy when they're doing it. For me, that's the thrill of it. I love these days, because there's the instant gratification of Instagram where you put the show out there and then the next day people are baking those things and it's like, yes. That's, for me, what I love about it.
Kerry Diamond:
Jamila?
Jamila Norman:
Yeah, I think for me what comes up is authenticity. All of us authentically, this is what we do. You know what I mean? This is who we are and we're sharing the authenticity of our actual lived experiences and what we do in and out every day. I think that's also what people resonate with. They're like, oh, you're not a TV farmer, you're a real farmer, so this advice that you're giving is real advice and I can really implement this. Yeah, just that authenticity that we're all bringing to what we're doing and that we're these real people in real life and telling just really good, honest, amazing stories.
Elizabeth Poett:
Yeah. I feel the same way. I feel that I was just amazed that and grateful that Magnolia wanted to show what ranch life is all about and how connected it is to food. We live in a beautiful place. The ranch is in California in Santa Barbara County, and it's just has this amazing food community and how connected and important food is. I think with all the shows, when we've met each other last year, a year and a half ago, we immediately became so close and it was just obvious that farmer, baker, everybody has all of these amazing, amazing experiences and life and are sharing amazing things. It's been great. It's been really fun.
Kerry Diamond:
All right. Sam, we'll let you have the final word.
Samantha Seneviratne:
I'm really gratified that we have the opportunity on our shows to take it slowly and explain things clearly and really take you from the beginning to the end of a pie crust. I'm going to show you exactly how I have put the butter in and things like that, because ... and I make fun reels for Instagram too, and I think they're great and I love watching them, but I'm glad that we also have the opportunity occasionally to really teach because I think that's what I really like to do. I really want to learn and I want to teach, and that this is our way to be able to do that, so it's great.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, that is what I love about your show is the authenticity, the education, and the craftsmanship behind everything that you do. I can't thank you enough for all the beautiful content that you put into the world and for talking a little bit with the audience today. Thank you so much for your time.
Samantha Seneviratne:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. I would love for you to subscribe to Radio Cherry Bomb on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and leave a rating and a review. I can't wait to see some of you at this year's Jubilee. You can learn more about Jubilee at cherrybombe.com. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Joseph Hazan is the studio engineer at 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.