Prix Fixe Podcast

Erin Detroit Vesey is a queer cyclist and chef living in Los Angeles. They have worked all over the city and most recently owned their own queer centered cycling cafe, Detroit Vesey’s. They're also a seven time participant in AIDS/Lifecycle, an annual 545 mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I typically rode with Erin once a week into the hills and mountains of Southern California, and I recall sharing with Erin the earliest ideas for this podcast on such rides. They would swap back with the earliest ideas for Detroit Vesey’s an inclusive space that could become a landmark for the L.A. cycling community. Community is something hard to find in a city as sprawling as Los Angeles. Yet all of the makings for it are there. People like Erin who refuse to drive a car in favor of riding a bike, make it so.

Arnold Byun has always been interested in building the infrastructure surrounding the experience of food and culture via his impeccable taste, drive and refusal to compromise. His resume includes fine dining juggernauts 11 Madison Park and Atomix, creating his own pop up takeaway NAEMO in LA, and is currently the founder of Maum Market, a marketplace celebrating Korean-American makers and business owners.

Alex Garcia and Elvia Huerta own and operate 'Evil Cooks' a death metal themed pop up experience based in Los Angeles. They describe it as “new-traditional Mexican food with an evil twist." With shades of fine dining on the streets. Their “HELL MENU” contains items such as “the Prince of Darkness burrito”, “chilla(kill)es torta”, the McSatan bacon cheeseburger taco. They even offer a reservations-only Kamikaze prix fixe menu cementing their boundless creativity in showing you how exciting better tasting food can be.

After working in fashion and as the editor for a major food journalism outlet, Katherine opened BIG NIGHT - a New York-based brick and mortar selling everything you need for an epic dinner party - food, drink, kitchenware, glassware, etc. Everything is brilliantly curated from talented makers from across the world.

Pete Treiber Jr. has always wanted to work in a creative field — he just didn't know it would happen so literally. He started as a camp counselor, granola maker, photo and video production assistant, and more before digging into the farm with his Pop, and he brings both his clever resourcefulness and his playful perspective to every bulb of garlic he grows. He's an artist and farmer who left the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn, New York behind to build an organic produce farm from the ground up with his father, Peter Treiber Sr. on the North Fork of Long Island. After eight years of hard work, he's turned Treiber Farms into a successful enterprise and while keeping everything organic, like farming should be. And while he is certainly not the first person to leave a large city to become a farmer, he's the only example I know of who intertwines his love of visual art within his farming practices. Take a walk with Pete around the farm, and he'll regale you with stories of previous events hosted for art exhibits, artist-in-residence programs, and just good times in general. A sculptor himself. He also seems to be cultivating his own artistic vision to deepen his practices of feeding and nurturing others in a way that is distinctly human. He's a seeker, a self actualizer, a lightening rod of community, and a unique individual who I'm proud to call a friend.

As a storyteller, Hak Lonh looks to food as a way to share the rich history of Cambodia and its complex cuisine. Hak is Cambodian-Chinese-American. He was born in a refugee camp on the border of Thailand and Cambodia. His family immigrated to the US when he was a toddler. They fled, fought and eventually escaped the horrors of “The Killing Fields”, landing in Pennsylvania. Gamboge is a Cambodian inspired deli, café, and marketplace. Offering Cambodian comfort classics, coffee, beer and natural wines. Founded by chef and filmmaker, Hak Lonh and his wife Jane Oh. Gamboge’s mission is to bring together the stories and memories that make up modern day Cambodian cuisine, while honoring it’s past. His father, Kim, was able to secure a job due in part to his ability to speak French fluently. This skill and his natural talent eventually lead him to become a classically trained chef. Hak’s mom, Bun, a phenomenal home chef in her own right, was also working and preparing meals to feed the family. Because of the historical challenges to Cambodia, Cambodians have had to rely on recipes and culinary traditions as one of the few ways to preserve their heritage. Hak’s mother, in particular, faithfully goes to great lengths to prepare home cooked meals as a way to keep that heritage alive. In this way, food has always been an integral part of Hak’s life.

Andy Kadin made his way from New Jersey to L.A. to pursue a career as a writer. But after 10 years of successful unhappiness writing for TV and advertising, something had to change. He always had quiet designs on a life in food and scrambled to take as many restaurant jobs and stages as he could, working in a pub, a sandwich shop, and several bakeries. Kadin committed to baking bread every day, giving the loaves away to friends. One such loaf made it to Dune, and so impressed owner Scott Zwiezen that he convinced Kadin to supply the restaurant with daily ciabatta. From that ciabatta, Bub and Grandma’s was born in Kadin’s home kitchen, to operating out of tiny commissary space, to now a maxed out 6,000 square foot warehouse where he and his team produce more than 2,000 loaves of bread per day, 362 days a year. You can find Bub and Grandma’s loaves in some of L.A.’s best restaurants, including Osteria Mozza, Bestia, Destroyer, Tilda, Kismet, Sqirl as well as at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market, and a long list of other fine establishments. Building on demand for his hand-shaped, slow-fermented loaves, Kadin is set to open his own sandwich shop and retail space soon. The following is a conversation about reinvention, honesty, managing anxiety, building a business built to bend to happiness, and of course - bread making.

With global fine-dining experience, a deep appreciation for sustainably-sourced seafood and local farmers market produce, Chef Brandon Gray (aka Brandoni Pepperoni) is Los Angeles’ Wizard of ‘Za.

Los Angeles-based Richard Christiansen is the founder of global creative agency, Chandelier Creative, the Los Angeles bookstore, Owl Bureau and lifestyle brand, Flamingo Estate.

Introducing the Prix Fixe Podcast, where the new voices in the food and beverage world share their stories and journeys in their own words. Hosted by Jordan Haro. COMING SOON!