Ep 41: Farmer and founder of Flourish Produce - Calixta Killander
Release Date: 04/24/2020
Ep 65: Chef and co-founder of Koya - Shuko Oda
Food Tribe
Koya opened in 2010, specialising in Udon which they handmake fresh every day and pair with beautiful broths and toppings. Restaurants in London come and go, but Koya is still as loved, as popular, and as good today as it was 11 yrs ago. Their simple dishes, high-quality ingredients, thoughtful cooking, & exceptional flavours are a recipe for success.
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Ep 64: Filipino Chef Budgie Montoya
Food Tribe
My guest today is a chef on a mission, championing Filipino cuisine in London. While working at other restaurants, Budgie started Sarap as a supper club, as a way to connect to his heritage, learn about Filipino food, and champion this underrepresented cuisine.
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Ep 63: Chef, grower, and 1/3 of SSAW Collective - Lulu Cox
Food Tribe
Lulu has been cooking professionally since she was 18. Last year she left the kitchen to work on farms and learn more about regenerative growing which led to her co-founding SSAW Collective. They grow the most beautiful flowers and host pop-ups & food events that champion local, seasonal ingredients. Lulu is so lovely, she’s a fantastic cook, and she cares about the connection between food, farming, and our environment. She’s one to watch on the UK food and farming scene...
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Ep 62: Cook, author, philosopher and activist Ollie Hunter
Food Tribe
Ollie recently published his second book, Join the Greener Revolution: 30 easy ways to live and eat sustainably. He believes that sustainability is the only way forward, and that it has to be at the centre of everything - whether it be food, our communities, economics, energy, education, or simply making a loaf of bread...
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Ep 61: Cook, author, photographer and stylist Uyen Luu
Food Tribe
Uyen has recently published her book called Vietnamese, and it’s a beauty!
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Ep 60: Plant-based chef and author Bettina Campolucci Bordi
Food Tribe
Bettina's on a mission to share the beauty and power of plant-based foods, get more people cooking wholesome dishes from scratch, and caring about where our food comes from. Her 3rd book, Celebrate, is out later this summer and it’s filled with crowd-pleaser dishes for feasts and parties - don’t we know we need a few of those in our lives! Bettina and I chat about her career in food, her new book, and how food plays such a critical role, especially for women, in balancing our hormones and helping us thr
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Ep 59: Cookbook author, writer, podcaster & salad queen - Hetty McKinnon
Food Tribe
Over 10 yrs ago Hetty began making salads from her home kitchen. She quickly grew a cult following which led to her publishing her first book, Community. And the rest, as they say, is history.
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Ep 58: The master of Mexican cuisine - chef Santiago Lastra
Food Tribe
Since leaving Mexico at 18, Santiago has been traveling the world, and in 2017 after his experience of managing the Noma Mexico pop-up in Tulum he a dream of putting down roots and creating his own restaurant, a home, a community, a place where people could come to experience the tastes, and hospitality, and soul of Mexico. And that's exactly what he's done - Kol is now open in the heart of London. It’s something very special! Santiago shares the journey so far and what opening his restaurant means to him
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Ep 57: Farmer and Butcher Ian Warren - Philip Warren Butchers
Food Tribe
My guest today is farmer and butcher Ian Warren, who owns the family-run Philip Warren Butchers in Cornwall. They produce and sell some of the highest quality meat in the UK, supplying top restaurants in the country, and also selling directly to consumers.
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Ep 56: Winemaker and farmer Ben Walgate - Tillingham Wines
Food Tribe
My guest today is the creative, unconventional, and brilliant Willy Wonka of British wine. Ben Walgate is pushing the boundaries of winemaking in the UK - from the grape varieties he uses, the styles of wine he’s producing, his combination of aging methods, to his vision for the farm and his wine.
info_outlineCalixta is a farmer and the owner and founder of Flourish Produce in Cambridgeshire. They grow the most amazing vegetables, fruit, and salad and supply a lot of the best restaurants in London - the likes of Pidgin, BRAT, Ben Chapman’s restaurants Kiln and Smoking Goat, Silo, and the list goes on.
Calixta studied Sustainable agriculture and forestry in America and lived and worked there up until just over three years ago, when a series of extremely fortunate events, and a chance encounter with her two co-founders - Comtois workhorses Bill and Ben, led to her moving home to the UK and starting her own farm.
Like so many people and businesses who work in food, Flourish has been impacted by this pandemic - as they grow their produce specifically for chefs and only supply direct to restaurants, they lost all their customers pretty much overnight. They’ve adapted and now supply their beautiful produce to consumers in London and Cambridge so you can now order yourself some of their delicious produce on their website.
I was lucky enough to head out to Flourish early last month to meet Calixta and record the episode. We sat in her kitchen and chatted about what set her on the path to becoming a farmer and how she came to start Flourish. We talk about what it means to be a regenerative farm, her rare varieties of produce she grows which come from all corners of the world, Bill and Ben, and what life on a farm is like.
Calixta has such an immense love for what she does, and she goes about it with such grace, integrity, and heart. I know you’re going to love hearing her incredible story.