Tech Bites

Reportedly 100 million people visit a vending machine every day in America. Farmer’s Fridge vending machines are designed to make finding fresh healthy meals as easy as finding a candy bar. What started in 2013 with a single machine in a Chicago Food Court, has grown to more than 400 fridges in airports, hospitals, office buildings, and universities. On this episode of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Farmer’s Fridge founder and CEO, Luke Saunders, about how critical algorithms and technology have been to the growth of the business and how the company pivoted during the pandemic to delivery and expanded retail.Are you a business owner? Become an HRN business member! For $500 HRN will shine a light on your work AND you will help sustain our mission to expand the way people think about food. As a thank you for this tax-deductible donation, your business will receive on-air mentions, social media posts, listings on our website and more. Go to heritageradionetwork.org/biz to become a business member to

Hungry for a chef-cooked meal, but reluctant to leave your apartment? There’s an app for that. CookUnity is a national meal-delivery service, offering dishes cooked by a collective of more than 50 chefs. What started in 2015 with the idea of becoming “Spotify for food” has evolved into a new alternative to traditional restaurant work for chefs, and another meal-delivery option for consumers. On this episode of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Emily Peck, a plant-based chef, and nutritionist on the CookUnity platform. Episode 259 of Tech Bites is made possible by the generosity of Magic Mind, the world’s first productivity shot.Photo Courtesy of Chef Emily Peck.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Did you know Heritage Radio Network studio is made of two repurposed shipping containers inside Roberta’s Pizza in Bushwick Brooklyn? To celebrate the return to in-studio recording were doing an episode on shipping container technology. Tech Bites host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with HRN Head of Audio Production Matt Patterson about the studio. Talking about portable hydroponic container farms is Jake Felser, CTO of Freight Farms, and Udi Shamai, Co-Founder and CEO of Hyper Robotics, talks about self-container robotic pizza kitchens.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Technology, 3rd-party delivery apps, and staying at home have shifted the restaurant hospitality experience from on-premise to online at-home. How can data and drip marketing help restaurants create and grow real-life relationships with their guests? On this episode of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Abhinav Kapur, CEO and Founder of Bikky, the restaurant data and market company, and Alessandro Biggy, founder of the fast-casual Avocaderia restaurant group, about how an integrated and automated pipeline of data can impact a business’s bottom line.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The food tech trend with the greatest velocity right now is NFTs: non-fungible tokens purchased with Ethereum, minted on the blockchain. If you’re looking to get into cryptocurrencies, but aren’t sure what a hot wallet is and how mint is involved, this show is for you. On this episode, Grant Friedman, Director of the Private Client Desk at Coin Cloud, takes Tech Bites host Jennifer Leuzzi through the process of creating a crypto wallet and buying a Dumpling Mafia NFT. Coin Cloud is the industry-leading digital currency machine (DCM) on the world's largest and fastest-growing network of 100% two-way DCMs, the next generation of the Bitcoin ATM. To learn more about the Dumpling Mafia limited edition Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), listen to Tech Bites episode 253 on your favorite podcast platform.Jennifer Leuzzi is the Owner of this NFT.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://a

In 2021 restaurants had to navigate supply chain disruptions, the COVID-19 Delta variant, and unprecedented worker shortages slowing recovery. How did the industry fare and what is on the horizon for 2022? On this episode of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with BentoBox Founder and CEO Krystle Mobayeni about their 2021 restaurant trends report. It analyzes data from 7,500+ restaurants worldwide, on how people are dining out, what they’re ordering and how restaurants are using tech to find efficiencies and increase profits.Photo Courtesy of BentoBox.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet the Forbes 30 Under 30 Food & Drink class of 2022. The annual list identifies and applauds young innovators and entrepreneurs who are redefining the way we eat, drink and think about food. On this episode of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Forbes Under 30 editors Chloe Sorvino and Kristin Stoller. Two of this year’s winners talk about the impact of being on the list: Amy Zhou, Director of Operations at Michelin-starred COTE in New York City and Miami and Co-Founder at Wine Empowered, and Alexis Nikole Nelson, forager, cook, educator and social media sensation @BlackForager.Photo Courtesy of Forbes.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The food tech trend with the greatest velocity right now are culinary and chef-driven NFTs: non-fungible tokens purchased with ethereum, minted in the blockchain. On this episode of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Chef Shirley Chung of Ms. Chi Café, writer Andy Wang and Grant Friedman, Director of the Private Client Desk for Coin Cloud, about the creation of their digital NFTs and their real world food events. The Dumpling Mafia was born in 2017 when Chef Shirley, with friends Andy and Caryl Chinn, went on a dumpling crawl in the San Gabriel Valley. As they ate and posted food photos, they coined the hashtag #DumplingMafia. Their social media followers have repeatedly asked how to join the Dumpling Mafia. The limited edition Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) digital collectibles were created by native Angeleno artist Narrator. The NFT’s are minted in partnership with Coin Cloud, the industry-leading digital currency machine (DCM) on the world's largest and fastest-growing network of 100% two-way DCMs, th

Following Tech Bites tradition, the last show of the year is a look into the future of trends and innovations. What do some of the top women in food tech see for 2022? Tech Bites host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Dr. Jasmin Hume, Founder and CEO of Shiru, a biotechnology company addressing a critical need in the food industry by providing access to more sustainable and healthy ingredients. Shiru is fueled by data-driven discovery, combining machine learning and fermentation to uncover functional alternative proteins from nature. Joining the discussion are two of Shiru’s board members: Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital, a multi-stage venture capital firm with $4B under management, and Mary T. Clarke, Senior Vice President of Innovation for the Taste & Beyond division of Firmenich, the largest privately-owned company in the flavor and fragrance sector. This episode of Tech Bites is made possible by the generosity of Rt. 11 Potato Chips.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast networ

On Tech Bites, the penultimate episode of the year is always a look back. On this episode of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks about 2021 with returning guest Rachael Nemeth, co-founder, and CEO of Opus Training, a mobile-first learning platform that delivers chat-based micro-training to address the 80% of the workforce that does not sit at a desk with a computer. In a business where the immediacy of information is critical to success, Opus Training has a unique perspective on how the hospitality industry is navigating the ongoing challenges of doing business in the current pandemic economy.Photo Courtesy of Jesse Whiles.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this holiday episode of Tech Bites, we’ll look at paying it forward to building better communities with Studio ATAO’s The Neighborhood’s Table. Host Jenifer Leuzzi talks with Edric Huang, Head of Programming at Studio ATAO, about combating gentrification through intentional hospitality and their current fundraising project. Make it a real black Friday this year and keep your favorite non-profit organization out of the red. Check out these episodes of Tech Bites to discover some new organizations we talked with this year: 245 The Forge, 235 The Barrio Fridge, 232 With Warm Welcome, 220 Spicy Green Book, and 217 Toast Ale.Photo Courtesy of Kyung Ji Chyun.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Can you imagine a future where people don’t eat food produced from live animals? How many generations would it take for dairy-based ice cream to exist only in historical cookbooks as a taste of the past? On Episode 249 of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Matias Muchnick, the CEO and founder of NotCo, the five-year-old international plant-based food tech company founded in Chile that is now the fastest-growing food tech brand in Latin America, and Dr. Sandhya Sriram, the Group CEO and Co-founder of Shiok Meats Pte. Ltd., Singapore, the first cell-based seafood & meat company in Southeast Asia and the first cell-based Crustacean company globally. Both founders are a part of the 2021 Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What is the current state of growth and investment in food tech? The industry is coming out of the vacuum of 2020, with flush stock market gains and a sense of urgency about fixing the planet’s vital issues. This all lines up for an unprecedented investment period for food tech. On this episode of Tech Bites, Host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Rachel Konrad about this very unique moment of opportunity in food tech. Rachel is an adviser and board member for disruptive startups helping to solve our planet’s existential crises of global warming and extinction. From 2008 to 2021, she led communications, marketing, and brand at three of the most disruptive and mission-driven companies on Earth, reporting directly to visionaries Elon Musk at Tesla, Carlos Ghosn at Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, and Pat Brown at Impossible Foods.Photo Courtesy of Stephen Shankland.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy

How many empty restaurant spaces are in your neighborhood? Do you know someone who is trying to turn their favorite recipe into a business, but can’t figure out how to get out of their home kitchen? Kitch is a marketplace that connects those with available commercial kitchen space with those who need it. It’s an easy turn-key solution to rent a professional space for an hour, a day, or a year. On this episode of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Dan Unter, co-founder and CEO of Kitch, about how the business that launched in 2019 is perfect for today’s fragmented hospitality industry. In the Kitch model, “host kitchens” can generate a new incremental revenue stream and “guests” can benefit from flexible terms, lower prices, and expedited placement in a legal kitchen. Episode 247 of Tech Bites is made possible by the generosity of Roberta’s Pizza.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Pri

Food delivery has never been more popular, nor more essential to people’s daily lives. Third-party delivery apps have dominated the space, dictating policies and payments for both home consumers and restaurants. Companies looking to take back control are creating their own platforms and systems. On this episode, Tech Bites host Jenifer Leuzzi talks with Brian Howenstein, Chief Operating Officer of ClusterTruck, a custom-built software platform that vertically integrates delivery-only dark kitchens. Launched in 2015, ClusterTruck has locations in Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri. This episode of Tech Bites is made possible by the generosity of the Tabard Inn. Interested in a deeper look into the current food delivery ecosystem of apps, restaurants, delivery workers, and consumers? Check out Tech Bites episodes 242, 243, and 244 for a look at the real-world costs of delivery and convenience.Photo Courtesy of ClusterTruck.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by

Launched in 2021, Forge Project is an initiative to support leaders in culture, education, food security, and land justice. Forge exists as a platform for people and organizations whose crucial work serves the social and cultural landscape of our shared communities through a fellowship program, a teaching farm developed in partnership with Sky High Farm, community support, and a lending art collection. Forge Project's inaugural fellowship program launches this month with a cohort of four. On this episode of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Heather Bruegl (Oneida / Stockbridge-Munsee), a historian, lecturer, and director of the Forge Project Fellowship and Forge Project Fellow Jasmine Neosh (Menominee), who is working on a field guide to restore knowledge loss surrounding food systems and native plants. Located in Upstate New York, on unceded, traditional, and ancestral lands of the Muh- he-con-ne-ok, Forge Project operates out of a building designed by artist and activist Ai Weiwei. The resources o

In 2021, a year-and-a-half into the global Covid-19 pandemic, restaurant, food, and grocery delivery has never been more popular, nor more essential to people’s daily lives and the survival of the restaurant industry. Third-party delivery apps have dominated the space, dictating policies and payments for both home consumers and restaurants. Companies looking to take back control of their delivery are creating their own platforms.On this episode, host Jenifer Leuzzi talks with Jeremy Wladis, owner of the multi-unit Restaurant Group in NYC, who created the delivery platform WestSideEasts with a community cohort of students, tech people, and restaurants. This is episode three, of a three-part series that examines the current ecosystem of apps, restaurants, delivery workers, and consumers, seeking to shine a light on the real-world costs of delivery and convenience.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.

In 2021, a year and a half into the global Covid-19 pandemic, restaurant, food, and grocery delivery has never been more popular, nor more essential to people’s daily lives and the survival of the restaurant industry. Third-party delivery apps have dominated the space, dictating policies and payments for both home consumers and restaurants. Delivery workers created Los Deliveristas Unidos in 2020, demanding a living wage, essential protection from theft, violence, wage theft, and safety hazards. On this episode, host Jenifer Leuzzi talks with Glendy Tsitouras, worker’s rights organizer at the Worker’s Justice Project (WJP), and Juan Carlos Huerta, delivery driver and member of Los Deliveristas Unidos. This is episode two, of a three-part series that examines the current ecosystem of apps, restaurants, delivery workers, and consumers, seeking to shine a light on the real-world costs of delivery and convenience.Photo Courtesy of Sammy Escalante.If your food media diet is fueled by HRN, sustain the future of foo

In 2021, a year and a half into the global Covid-19 pandemic, restaurant, food, and grocery delivery has never been more popular, nor more essential to people’s daily lives and the survival of the restaurant industry. Third-party delivery apps have dominated the space, dictating policies and payments for both home consumers and restaurants. On this episode, host Jenifer Leuzzi talks with Claire Brown, senior staff writer at The Counter, and Elaine Russel, who manages the grocery-tech focused Albertson's fund at Greycroft, about how the third-party apps really work and who is profiting. This is episode one of a three-part series that examines the current ecosystem of apps, restaurants, delivery workers, and consumers, seeking to shine a light on the real-world costs of delivery and convenience.Photo Courtesy of Erik Mclean.If you count on HRN content, become a monthly sustaining donor at heritageradionetwork.org/donate.Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Cali

What’s the most important thing to teach kids about food? Maybe it’s not just flavors and cooking, but using food as a passport to learning about the world and the people in it. On this episode of Tech Bites, host Jennifer Leuzzi talks with Sarah Thomas, co-founder and chief imaginator of Kalamata’s Kitchen, the children’s digital platform that chronicles the food adventures of young Kalamata and her best friend Al Dente. They encourage kids to try new things, bringing about an appetite for empathy, inclusiveness, and community. This episode of Tech Bites is made possible by the generosity of Roberta’s Pizza.Photo Courtesy of Chancelor Humphrey.Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Tech Bites by becoming a member!Tech Bites is Powered by Simplecast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.