Industry Night is the long-talk format radio show and podcast that brings you up close and personal with the trends and trendsetters across today’s diverse food, wine, spirits, brews and hospitality landscape. For in-depth insights and insider tips, join your host, Nycci Nellis, cohost of Foodie and the Beast, the DC area’s one and only food and wine variety show, and all the locally, nationally and globally renowned chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook authors, mixologists, somms, distillers, brewmasters, pit-masters and more that you’ll hear from on Industry Night.
Industry Night with Nycci Nellis
Claim This Podcastby Nycci Nellis
5.0(2 reviews)
218 episodes
Updated Daily
Accepts GuestsHas SponsorsLocation 🇺🇸
51
Podcast Authority
BetaFairBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality89
Social0
YouTube0
Engagement32
Podcast Overview
Industry Night is the long-talk format radio show and podcast that brings you up close and personal with the trends and trendsetters across today’s diverse food, wine, spirits, brews and hospitality landscape. For in-depth insights and insider tips, join your host, Nycci Nellis, cohost of Foodie and the Beast, the DC area’s one and only food and wine variety show, and all the locally, nationally and globally renowned chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook authors, mixologists, somms, distillers, brewmasters, pit-masters and more that you’ll hear from on Industry Night.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
7/28/2020
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51
Podcast Authority
BetaFairBased on show quality, social media presence, reviews, charts, and more
Quality89
Social0
YouTube0
Engagement32
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Recent Episodes
July 23, 2026
Chef Adrianne Calvo, Competitive By Nature
A scheduling mistake, a lightning strike, and twenty years of chasing the bliss point on a plate.<br /><br />I mean, one class. That is all it took. A scheduling mix up landed Chef Adrianne Calvo in a cooking class her junior year of high school, and by the end of one culinary demo she went home and told her parents she wanted to be a chef. Twenty plus years, six cookbooks, and over a million Instagram followers later, she is still chasing that same bliss point on every single plate.<br /><br />This is exactly why I wanted her on Industry Night. Adrianne built Chef Adrianne's Vineyard Restaurant and Wine Bar in Miami at twenty two years old, funded it herself, and never once chased a trend to keep it full for two decades. If you have ever wondered what it actually takes to build a lasting restaurant, a lasting brand, and a body of work that spans Food Network, an Emmy nominated streaming series, and a foundation that feeds families at St. Jude's, this is one of the best chef interview podcast conversations we have done all year.<br /><br />Adrianne Calvo grew up in Miami, trained at Johnson and Wales, and opened her first restaurant right out of culinary school. She has published six cookbooks, competed on Chopped, Beat Bobby Flay, and Titans, hosts the Emmy nominated YouTube series Searching for Maximum Flavor, and serves as culinary ambassador for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Her seventh cookbook, Maximum Flavor at Home, arrives in November, and this fall she brings a five course, wine paired City Cruises Live experience onto the Potomac, a treat any Washington DC restaurant insider will want to catch.<br /><br /><b>Key Takeaways</b><b></b><br /><ul><li>Adrianne Calvo discovered her love of cooking by accident, when a high school scheduling mistake placed her in a cooking class and a Johnson and Wales culinary demo became what she calls the lightning strike of her life.</li><li>She financed her first restaurant herself after cookbook sales spiked when Montel Williams held up her book on his talk show, and she opened Chef Adrianne's Vineyard Restaurant and Wine Bar in Miami at just twenty two years old.</li><li>Her philosophy of maximum flavor means activating every part of the palate, salt, acid, spice, bitter, and umami, to hit the bliss point that keeps people coming back to a dish.</li><li>Two decades of Food Network appearances, including Chopped, Beat Bobby Flay, and Titans, taught her that competing on television opens doors that staying quiet in a kitchen never will.</li><li>Her Make It Count Foundation, built in memory of her late sister Jennifer, brings home cooked holiday feasts to families at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital every December.</li><li>Adrianne Calvo said, "I actually called that moment the lightning strike in my life."</li><li>Adrianne Calvo said, "My restaurant has never chased a trend, and what I cook has been my style from day one."</li></ul><br /><b>Timestamps</b><br /><b></b><br />00:00 Nycci opens the show and recaps award season<br />03:13 Chef Adrianne Calvo joins the conversation<br />04:19 The lightning strike that turned her toward cooking<br />07:26 Culinary school at Johnson and Wales<br />10:44 Winning competitions and writing her first cookbook at eighteen<br />12:57 What maximum flavor actually means<br />14:48 Opening Chef Adrianne's Vineyard Restaurant and Wine Bar at twenty two<br />17:32 Staying true to her style instead of chasing trends<br />19:22 Chopped, Beat Bobby Flay, Titans, and life on Food Network<br />22:52 Searching for Maximum Flavor and her Emmy nominated streaming series<br />28:28 The Make It Count Foundation and St. Jude's<br />30:18 City Cruises Live comes to Washington DC this fall<br /><br /><b>Connect with Adrianne Calvo</b><br /><b></b><br />Instagram: instagram.com/chefadrianne<br />TikTok: tiktok.com/@chefadrianne<br />YouTube: youtube.com/@chefadrianne
July 16, 2026
How Chef Erik Ramirez Found His Way Back to His Peruvian Roots
<b>From a Louisiana fishing rodeo to Hudson Yards. How a first-generation Peruvian kid became one of New York's most important culinary voices.</b><br /><br />There is a moment in every chef's story where the food stops being background noise and becomes the whole point. For Erik Ramirez, that moment happened in Grand Isle, Louisiana, of all places. Sent to live with his uncle one summer because, as he puts it, he was getting into a little too much trouble, he watched someone cook not out of necessity but out of pure joy. Gumbo, jambalaya, étouffée. Fresh shrimp from the market. A roux made with intention. That was it. That was the spark.<br /><br />This episode is about what happens when you follow that spark across two decades, two cities, and two cuisines. It is about the DC food podcast world's favorite topic right now: the rise of Peruvian cuisine as a global force. Lima has back-to-back historic wins at the World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards. And Erik Ramirez is one of the chefs helping translate that moment for American diners.<br /><br />Chef Erik Ramirez is the culinary mind behind Papa San at Hudson Yards, a Peruvian izakaya rooted in Nikkei cuisine. He is a James Beard-nominated chef, a Met Gala menu credit, and a first-generation Peruvian American who spent years mastering French and American fine dining at Eleven Madison Park before a trip to Lima changed everything. Episode keyword: Erik Ramirez Peruvian Nikkei chef New York.<br /><br /><b>Key Takeaways</b><br /><br />The uncle who started it all<br /><br />- Erik Ramirez did not grow up wanting to be a chef. A summer in Grand Isle, Louisiana with an uncle who cooked gumbo and jambalaya for the joy of it was the moment cooking became something worth chasing.<br /><br />Eleven Madison Park as grad school<br /><br />- Three years at Eleven Madison Park, finishing as sous chef, reshaped how Ramirez thinks about technique, hospitality, and the respect owed to every element of a restaurant experience.<br /><br />A trip to Lima changed everything<br /><br />- Ramirez grew up eating his grandmother's Peruvian home cooking but never saw it as a cuisine he wanted to cook professionally. One month in Lima, eating at the top restaurants, blew his mind and redirected his entire career.<br /><br />Nikkei is a cuisine built on immigration<br /><br />- Nikkei cuisine, the fusion of Peruvian and Japanese culinary traditions, was born out of migration and necessity. Ramirez describes it as Japanese precision married to Peruvian ingredients and culture. It is the same story every immigrant group has told through food.<br /><br />Papa San is New York plus Peru plus Japan<br /><br />- Every dish at Papa San must connect to all three: New York, Peru, and Japan. The now-famous eel pizza is the perfect example. Pizza is New York. Unagi and its barbecue sauce is Japan. Peruvian chili oil ties it together. Familiar entry point, unexpected destination.<br /><br />Erik Ramirez said "I am a good representation of what Peruvian cuisine is. My grandmother is half Japanese, half Peruvian. My first language growing up was Spanish and Italian. From different parts of the world. That is why it is so special to me."<br /><br />Host Nycci Nellis said "You did not go on a generic path to get to where you are. It is so interesting to hear about all the different people that either inspired you, like your uncle, or networked you, put you in touch with the right people, and got you to that next stage in your life."<br /><br /><b>Timestamps</b><br /><br />00:00 Introduction and the rise of Peruvian cuisine.<br />00:40 Meet Chef Erik Ramirez, Papa San, and his career arc.<br />02:20 Growing up in New Jersey and the uncle in Louisiana who started it all.<br />05:32 Culinary school, Philadelphia, and the decision to drop out for the kitchen.<br />08:49 Moving to New York and landing at Eleven Madison Park.<br />10:04 What Eleven Madison Park actually teaches you about hospitality.<br />15:25 Going back...
July 9, 2026
Conversación del Maíz, The Art of Nixtamalization
<b>Three chefs. One ancient process. And a tortilla that could change how you think about Mexican food.</b><br /><br />3,500 years ago, someone in Mesoamerica figured out that soaking dried corn in an alkaline solution unlocks nutrients and transforms the starch into something workable. That process, nixtamalization, sustained entire civilizations. And most people eating corn tortillas today have no idea it exists. That is the conversation your girl Nycci Nellis is having on this episode of Industry Night, the DC food podcast that goes deep on the hospitality industry and the people driving it.<br /><br />This episode matters because food is political, food is social, and the story of corn is the story of indigenous knowledge that Europe ignored, that factory tortilla lines diluted, and that a new generation of chefs is fighting to restore. If you care about DC dining, the restaurant industry, or just being a human who wants to know where their food comes from, this one is for you.<br /><br />Joining Nycci are three chefs who each carry that weight differently. Chef Alam Mendez, who learned to cook in his mother's kitchen in Oaxaca and now grinds corn in house daily at Apapacho Taqueria in DC. Chef Jose Contreras, a 2025 James Beard semifinalist and owner of Amelia's in Tucson, who is about to open Carizal, a fine dining restaurant built entirely around nixtamalized corn. And Luis Martinez, born in a Zapotec pueblo in Oaxaca, now based in Asheville running Takio Foods, sourcing heirloom corn directly from indigenous farmers and bringing it into kitchens across the American South.<br /><br /><b>Key Takeaways</b><br />Nixtamalization Is Science, Not Trend. The process adds calcium and niacin to corn that otherwise lacks nutrients. Without it, Europeans who brought corn back to their continent developed pellagra, a disease caused by nutritional deficiency, because they refused to learn the indigenous technique.<br /><br />Mexico Has 64 Varieties of Corn. 61 are endemic to Mexico. Each region, each variety, requires different limestone ratios and cook times. The corn you use shapes the masa, the flavor, and the tortilla. It is not interchangeable, and it is not an afterthought.<br /><br />The Process Takes 24 Hours. You cook the corn, add limestone by weight, check it by hand, then let it rest overnight before grinding. You do not have to be awake for 24 hours, but the corn does. That is what you are paying for when you pay for a real tortilla.<br /><br />Immigrant Food Is Not Cheap Food. Luis Martinez put it plainly. People in the US have a problem paying for a taco the same way they would pay for French or Italian food, even when the process, the sourcing, and the labor behind that taco is just as rigorous. That double standard is something all three chefs navigate daily.<br /><br />Luis Martinez Brings the Molino to the People. Through his Compa Molino project, Luis drives a corn grinder to trailer parks where Oaxacan farm workers live, offering them access to fresh masa and nixtamalized corn. North Carolina is the third largest Oaxacan population in the country. These are the people picking our food, and they deserve access to it.<br /><br />Luis Martinez said, "Food is political and food is social. We are immigrants telling people who we are and what we do. In a way, sometimes they like our food but they do not like us."<br /><br />Host Nycci Nellis said, "The reconciliation of that, that somebody could love a taco and not understand the history of that taco and how it wound up in their hand, and they are having a problem with the people who make it, is so ludicrous I do not even know how to answer it."<br /><br /><b>Timestamps</b><br />00:00 Nycci introduces nixtamalization and why it matters.<br />02:17 Meet the three chefs: Alam Mendez, Jose Contreras, and Luis Martinez.<br />04:03 Luis Martinez on growing up Zapotec in Oaxaca and founding Takio Foods.<br />07:27 Alam Mendez on his mother's kitchen, Las Quincertas, and...
218 total episodes available
Recent guests on Industry Night with Nycci Nellis
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Glendon Hartley
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Chad Spangler
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Laura Torpy
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Kiernan Slater Patusky
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Neal Wavra
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Leah Papadopoulos Constable
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- What is Industry Night with Nycci Nellis?
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This podcast updates daily.
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