After many of our favorite markets and summer food events were canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we sat down to brainstorm new ways to bring our passion for food, cooking education, and the food culture of Central New York to our wonderful community. While we weren’t able to be in the same physical space as each other, we were able to talk over video, and an idea quickly formed—a livestream food show!
We called it “Food Talk Live,” and we decided Lynne would host it directly on Facebook Live to reach out directly to our customers and fans on social media. The Facebook Live medium allowed Lynne to speak to people in the moment, to answer questions from viewers as they come in and share ideas, recommendations, and a little stress-free entertainment during a time when we all could use a little extra community. We uploaded all the episodes to our Youtube channel to make it easy for non-Facebook users to watch the show, and we’re sharing them all here with you now!
Food Talk Live Season 1
Our first episode is on the Fundamentals of Flavor Balance, focusing on spices, bitterness, sourness, sweetness, and saltiness/umami. Lynne also recommends a few books for anyone looking to learn more about flavors: Harold Mcgee’s “On Food and Cooking,” Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg’s “The Flavor Bible,” and the cookbooks of Edna Lewis.
For our second episode, we brought on a special guest: Chef Sarah Hassler of Dining Inside Out, a wonderful food program that pairs delicious meals with a shared, virtual dining experience. Lynne and Sarah discuss texture in food, the Dining Inside Out mission, recipes, and more!
In our third episode, we celebrate the coming of warmer weather with a Tropical Escape! We talk tropical fruits and the special knife skills you need to chop through mangos and pineapples, and how to craft a simple, tasty tropical fruit salad.
In our fourth episode, we make some delicious, simple, and elegant cream puffs, a mainstay of the classic French baking tradition. We also explore a variety of delicious ways to eat them, for dessert and more!
Episode five tackles a growing interest of ours: non-dairy milks. You might ask your latte at Starbucks to made with almond milk, but did you know just how easy it is to make it yourself? There are so many other kinds of milk alternatives you can make at home as well, and we cover it all in Food Talk Live.
In Episode six, we’ve made it all the way to BBQ season! Continuing on with our vegan topic, in this episode Lynne prepares lentil burgers, jackfruit, grilled cauliflower and tofu to celebrate providing a warm vegan welcome to non meat-eaters at a summer gathering.
It was a strange, difficult summer for many of us, and tough times call for gentle bites. In Episode 7, we make delicate shortbread, perfumed with lavender adapted from a recipe from the Tartine cookbook by E. Prueitt and C. Robertson.
One thing we love about Central New York is the delicious maple syrup, which we highlight in many of our products, including our All-Fruit Mincemeat. For Episode 8 of Food Talk Live, we were excited to have as our guest maple producer Cristy Williams of Dutch Hill Maple, an award-winning family company located in Tully, NY, who supplies all of the maple magic that goes into many of the FSP products. If you love maple syrup, then don’t miss our conversation on all things maple!
While Central New York isn’t known for growing its own citrus, Syracuse is home to the celebrated Syracuse University sports teams—Go Orange! In the penultimate episode of Season 1 of Food Talk Live, we talk different ways of preparing, cooking with, and enjoying all Syracuseans’ favorite citrusy fruit.
The hospitality industry has taken a huge pandemic hit. What does this mean in New York City in particular? For the final episode of season 1 of Food Talk Live, we speak with Remy Pascale, Brooklyn-based restaurant manager, community volunteer, and Lynne’s daughter!
That’s all for Food Talk Live Season 1! As the summer ended and farmer’s markets were able to reopen, we were finally able to take the show on the road by bringing our love of food and our local food culture directly to consumers at our market booth. We don’t currently have plans for a second season, since hopefully we’ll be able to continue seeing everyone in person as the pandemic winds down!