On Today's Show CRNtalk.com
Joel Fisher "Wine Guru"
The wine columnist for the Culinary Connection of the Chefs de Cuisine Association of California. He was a Contributing Editor of Patterson's Beverage Journal. From 1999 to 2006 he was a wine instructor for the Culinary Arts Department of the Art Institute of California-Los Angeles and is a founding partner of the educational Wine Vine and Dine, which conducts programs throughout Southern California. Sommelier for the Escoffier Association of Southern California, Joel is also a member of Patterson Magazine's tasting panel. Joel travels extensively through "wine country" and frequently broadcast live from vaious winerys & vineyards. Dr. Fisher is a member of the Society of Wine Educators, The Circle of Wine Writers (UK) and was awarded a Wine Enthusiast Media Scholarship for 2005 at the Culinary Institute of America. He is the author of the Wine Work Book now in its 6th edition. In 2004 he co-led a program for chefs and culinary students to the Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany and to wineries in Burgundy and Champagne. In June 2006 he again led a program, "Wine and Cuisine of Iberia," to Spain and Portugal. In the 1960's, Joel M. Fisher (JMF) served in many Washington positions, including as Public Relations Director to Charlie Rhyne's World Peace Through Law Committee, before returning to California to teach. Two years later he was awarded the Ford Foundation supported National Committee Fellowship and was appointed Director of the Arts and Sciences and State Legislative Divisions of his party's national committee. As part of the 1968 presidential campaign, Fisher operated in 13 states.
Jessica Amason "This Is Why You're Fat: Where Dreams Become Heart Attacks"
Jessica Amason has always been something of a trend-hunter-from breaking new bands as a music journalist to highlighting the latest web trends as lead blogger for Urlesque.com. After graduating from The University of Georgia and University of Madrid, Jessica moved to New York, where she worked as a music journalist for various publications including The Associated Press and as a columnist for The Aquarian Weekly. Naturally, Jessica's penchant for connecting people and cultural trends brought her to AOL's web culture blog, Urlesque.com, where she has gained a reputation as the site's trend-hunter extraordinaire and has been known to be called a "meme queen." Food was once the providence of celebrated chefs and critical connoisseurs. Cooking shows featured all gourmet creations and web sites displayed artfully photographed delights. Then something changed. Perhaps it was the desensitising of web culture or perhaps it was a cry for help from the food-loving public. But by God - there came a day when fancy vegetable towers came crashing down and $50 mushrooms were no longer acceptable. Amason and Blakley wanted see the old stand-bys, the carnival foods of their childhoods, the sticky mess of a deep-fried candy bar, the indulgence of a greasy burger with all the fixin's. It was the birth of the nasty food web-trend. And it was delicious. The website This Is Why You're Fat is an ode to this trend - whether seen as a commentary on North American dietary habits or a celebration of the deliciously bad - and Amason and Blakeley are devoted to the world's newfound obsession with over-the-top food. Within its first month the site pulled in over ten million eyeballs, and attracted major nation media including CNN. The world cooked, they listened.
Pastor Joel Osteen - Joel Osteen Ministries "It's Your Time"
A native Texan and the Pastor of Lakewood Church, which according to Church Growth Today is America's largest and fastest growing church. On July 16, 2005 after completing $95 million dollars in renovations, Joel moved Lakewood Church into its new 16,000-seat home - the former Compaq Center. It is the largest regularly-used worship center in the United States. Each week Joel delivers God's message of hope and encouragement to more than 38,000 attendees. According to Nielsen Media Research, Joel is the most watched inspirational figure in America. His weekly sermon is broadcast into every U.S. television market where it is viewed by seven million Americans each week and more than 20 million each month. His weekly broadcast is also seen in almost 100 nations around the world. Most recently, Joel was named as one of Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People of 2006" and he was selected as the "Most Influential Christian in 2006" by the readers of Church Report Magazine. Joel, the son of John Osteen, a highly respected minister of the Gospel and the founder of Lakewood Church, attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he studied radio and television communications. In 1982, Joel returned to Houston and founded Lakewood's television ministry where he produced John Osteen's televised sermons for 17 years until January 1999 when his father passed away suddenly from a heart attack. For many years, John Osteen encouraged Joel to preach, but he always declined preferring to work behind the scenes. But, in early 1999 Joel felt compelled to accept his father's invitation and he preached his first sermon on January 17th of that year. Little did anyone know that would be the last Sunday of John Osteen's life. Two weeks later, Joel began preaching and later that year was installed as the new Senior Pastor of Lakewood Church.
Leo Pearlstein - "Mrs Cubbison's Stuffing"
In September 1892, Sophie Cubbison was born in San Marcos, California, as Sophie Huchting. (Her father was of German descent, and her mother a Californian of Mexican descent.) She tells her story as follows:
"My career began on my father's ranch in San Diego County where I was born. At the age of 16, I started to cook for my father, brothers, and their lima bean ranch laborers during the summer and early fall (in order to earn money to put myself through college, where I earned a home economics degree in 1912). "With one assistant, I cooked and baked for forty men in two mobile kitchens. As the harvest progressed through the day, the mobile kitchens were horse drawn, once or twice a day to keep in proximity of the harvester. This was for the convenience of the laborers at meal time, which occurred five times a day. Breakfast was served at 5 A.M.... coffee break with a sweet snack at 9 A.M.... dinner at 12 o'clock.... coffee break with sweet snack at 4 P.M. and supper at 8:30 PM. "Since the wholesale bakeries were not equipped to make country deliveries in those days, I baked all necessary cakes, doughnuts, cookies, cup cakes, etc. The sweet goods were served along with a sandwich and coffee in the mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Pies, puddings and stewed fruits were served for dessert for dinner and supper. "I did not have mechanical kitchen equipment in those days. All the mixing was done manually. "The bread I baked was referred to as 'black bread,' made from 100% whole wheat flour. You see, my father was born in the Old Country.... My grandmother Sophie Huchting had taught my father as a young man while still at home in Bockhorn, Germany, how to make this delicious, nutritious Black Bread, and in turn, my father taught my mother and I how to make it. "In 1913, I met Harry G. Cubbison. He used to drive down from L.A. to our ranch in San Diego County once a month to visit me. In 1916, Mr. Cubbison and I were married. Mr. Cubbison was supporting his invalid father and his mother on $12 per week, and I was supporting my mother on $30 per month, my father having passed on. "Necessity became the mother of invention." Mr. Cubbison was a fine salesman and I was capable of baking. It was absolutely necessary for us to earn more money.
Leslie Bilderback "The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Spices and Herbs"
A certified master chef and baker for nearly 20 years, has worked at such prestigious restaurants as Georgia, Angeli, Postrio, Zola’s, and Sedona. As a master instructor and member of Le Club des Amis du Cordon Bleu in Paris, she has trained hundreds of new chefs in their rigorous academy in the California School of Culinary Arts. Why should you listen to Chef Bilderback? Because she knows what she's talking about. After studying music and art history at the University of Colorado and San Francisco State University, Chef Bilderback completed the professional chef program at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, graduating with honors in 1988. She completed her apprenticeship under internationally-renowned pastry chefs Robert Jorin and Bo Friberg. In the years following graduation she played a major role in several of California's most well-regarded and innovative restaurants, working as Pastry Chef of Sedona in Berkeley, Postrio and Zolas in San Francisco, and Angeli and Georgia in Los Angeles. When it became apparent that motherhood and restaurant hours didn't gel, Chef Bilderback joined the original faculty of what is now the California School of Culinary Arts in 1995. After several years as Baking and Pastries Department Head, she became Executive Chef, leading the school as it entered into partnership with Le Cordon Bleu. In 1999 she became a Certified Master Baker, and in 2002 was a finalist on Team USA of the Coup du Monde de la Boulangerie. Increasingly disillusioned with the quality of instruction available under a corporate banner, Chef Bilderback shifted her focus toward writing. She is author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Chef, the The Complete Idiot's Guide to Comfort Food, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spices and Herbs, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Good Food from the Good Book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Snack Cakes (Summer 2008), and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sensational Salads (2009). She also collaborated with Pastry Chef Sherry Yard of Spago on the James Beard Award-winning book The Secrets of Baking, (Houghton Mifflin, 2003). Chef Bilderback writes a regular column for the Arroyo Monthly (Southland Publishing), and has been profiled in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Culinary Trends Magazine, CookingSchools.com, Bridges USA, and Living Fit Magazine. She is ranked as one of the top 50 chef instructors in the nation on Chef2Chef.com. Chef Bilderback lives with her husband, two daughters and two dogs in Southern California. She spends her time writing, teaching healthy cooking to kids in the Los Angeles Unified School District through the LAUSD Nutrition Network, training military cooks through the US Navy Adopt-a-Chef Program, and leading a Girl Scout Troop. Chef Bilderback is also an avid runner, having completed her first marathon in Los Angeles on March 4, 2007.