#73 Ignacio Nicknamed Nacho
Food Non-Fiction
This Food Non-Fiction episode tells the incredible true story of nachos. This snack was created by and named after Ignacio Anaya who's nickname was Nacho.
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#72 When Impossible Burgers Became Possible
Food Non-Fiction
This Food Non-Fiction episode tells the incredible true story of meat alternatives. We talk about the early history of meat alternatives and then we talk to the Impossible Foods team to understand how this modern meat alternative was created.
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#71 Pass the Tofurky
Food Non-Fiction
This is an in-depth interview with the wonderful person who created Tofurky. Seth Tibbott founded Turtle Island Foods which is still a family owned company today.
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#70 Craft Beer Beginnings
Food Non-Fiction
This is the story of the beginnings of craft beer. We tell you how this "craft beer" concept emerged. In this episode, we interviewed John Holl - a beer expert and journalist, Renee DeLuca - the daughter of the craft beer pioneer Jack McAuliffe, and professor Michael Lewis who has taught brewing for decades.
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#69 The Oreo Story
Food Non-Fiction
This is the story of where Oreo came from, how it got its name, and who designed the cookie.
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#68 Kombucha: The Tea of Immortality
Food Non-Fiction
Kombucha has been referred to as the tea of immortality. So where did it come from and what are the actual health benefits? In this episode, we talk to the experts to learn about the history and the process of brewing kombucha.
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#67 Nutella Since Napoleon
Food Non-Fiction
In this Food Non-Fiction podcast episode, we talk about the origins of Nutella - starting from when cocoa met hazelnut!
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#66 The Monastery Breweries
Food Non-Fiction
In this Food Non-Fiction podcast episode, we talk to one of the authors of Trappist Beer Travels. Caroline Wallace and her two co-authors visited the 11 Trappist monastery breweries, learning the stories and history behind each of these breweries. Here is a link to the book website for
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#65 And This Led to Corn Flakes
Food Non-Fiction
Lots of people know the story of how cornflakes were created - this is the story of why. Thank You To Our Interviewee: Dr. Brian Wilson Thank You To Looperman Artists: Melody 126 Beats by Purge Ambellient by Danke Edm pluck for intro by capostipite Edm synth for verse by capostipite
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#64 How Fondue Became Popular
Food Non-Fiction
This is the origin story of fondue and how it became a popular dish. Thank You To Our Interviewee: Belinda Hulin Thank You To Looperman Artists: Poppy Acoustic (parts 1, 2, and 3) by BradoSanz Edm pluck_for_intro by capostipite EDM Trap Perc Melody by 7venth12
info_outlineIn this Food Non-Fiction podcast episode, we tell the story of how Las Vegas became a destination market for gambling, how the nature of destination markets created competition amongst the many casinos, how casino food amenities were used as a competitive tool, and how casino restaurants have changed over time from buffet to gourmet.
In October of 1929, the stock market crashed. October 29th was the worst day of this crash. It was named “Black Tuesday”. On Black Tuesday, over 16 million shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Billions of dollars were lost and the economy was on a downward spiral into the Great Depression of the 1930’s. So, in 1931, Phil Tobin, a 29 year old freshman member of the legislative assembly introduced a bill to legalize gambling in Nevada. He wasn’t a gambler himself, in fact, he was a cowboy, but he knew that legalizing gambling would bring the state of Nevada some much-needed revenue. The revenue would come from gaming taxes.
At this time, in 1931, the Hoover Dam was scheduled for construction. It was built between 1931 and 1936. This meant that thousands of workers would be coming to Nevada. And these would be federal workers, so it was likely that a lof of the illegal casinos would be shut down. So instead, of having the casinos shut down when the workers came, legalizing casinos would bring in a ton of tax revenues.
Phil Tobin’s bill made financial sense. So, on March 19 of 1931, the Governor signed Assembly Bill 98 into law.
Assembly Bill 98 legalized the following games:
Faro
Monte
Roulette
Keno
Fan-Tan
Twenty-One
Blackjack
Seven-and-a-half
Big Injun
Craps
Klondyke
Stud Poker
Draw Poker
Slots
The bill is also known as the “Wide Open Gambling Bill”.
After World War II, there were strict gambling laws in most states, so Nevada really became the center of gambling in the U.S. - especially, of course, in the Las Vegas strip - which is, by-the-way, located south of the actual city of Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas strip was, and still is, a destination market. People travel there specifically to experience the gambling and entertainment. Destination markets offer a lot of the same thing. For example, you go to Hawaii to surf so there are a lot of surfing schools and they need to compete.
Same thing with going to Las Vegas to gamble - there are so many places you can gamble that these places need to compete for your dollars. So casinos, over time,
have offered more and more amenities.
Casino resorts started popping up in the 1940’s. You could go to a casino resort, and not only gamble, but have your hotel, live shows and food, all in one place.
Casino restaurants were designed to bring people to the casinos. The strategy back in the middle of the 20th century was to offer cheap food, sometimes even free food. The logic was that if you could offer great price value for food at your casino, then people might choose to come to your casino, rather than go to a standalone restaurant or another casino.
So casino restaurants used to operate as what is called “loss leaders” - casino restaurants would lose a little money, but then gain that money back and more when customers played the gambling games.
There are 2 ways that having a restaurant at a casino can increase revenue.
One - is that the restaurant draws in more players
Two - is that it gets each player to spend more while they’re at the casino.
The Vegas strip is the ULTIMATE gambling destination, but the relationship between casino restaurants and gambling spending is different in Vegas. Certainly, your average Vegas casino restaurant is not operating at a loss anymore. This shift in Las Vegas from the days of cheap casino buffets, designed for the convenience of gambling clients, to high end, big profit restaurants has been gradual.
Thank you to our interview guests:
Dr. Sarah Tanford
Dr. David G. Schwartz
Thanks to the Looperman Artist for the Music:
Chillwave bass and synth by djpuzzle