Munching on Molecules

About Munching on Molecules

Welcome to Munching on Molecules, your portal to the world of culinary delights, food science, and global gastronomy. Lara Tiro and Christine Farkas explore and share the latest in food discoveries and trends from our Canadian backyard and around the world, fostering a delicious food community for enthusiasts and experts alike. Approachable, inspiring, fun introduction to the world of food technology, science and culinary research. - **What can listeners expect to hear?** - Cutting-edge food technologies - Food scientists and culinary mavens perspectives

Publisher

Lara Tiro and Christine Farkas

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

19 Mar 2024

Latest episode

27 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

86 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   27 Oct 2026

   Episode 86: Fermenting Ideas, Basin Food Expo (FABx26), Shauna Fidler

   What happens when a lifelong connection to food turns into an annual gathering built around farmers, producers, and local buyers? In this episode, we sit down with Shauna Fidler, to talk about the evolution of Basin Food Expo (FABx26) and this year’s theme: The Business of Food: Fermenting Ideas. Shauna’s own food journey started early, from wrapping cookies in her aunt’s shop to eventually buying the business, building a production facility and learning firsthand about food manufacturing, distribution, sales, packaging and logistics. That experience eventually led her to the Slocan Valley, where she reconnected more deeply with local food, farming and community. That same sense of connection helped shape the first Basin Food Expo in 2018. What began as a one-day event has grown into a two-day gathering for people working across the food system, from farmers and processors to retailers, buyers and foodservice professionals. This year, FABx26 takes place November 5 to 6 in Kimberley, BC, with a strong focus on business development, retail readiness, funding, farm-focused content and, fittingly, fermentation. Shauna describes it as a little bit of a pickle festival too. Food is not just something being talked about at FABx. It is part of the experience. One of the highlights is the annual farm-to-table dinner, taking place this year inside a 300-year-old German barn that was dismantled, moved to Canada and rebuilt on the ski hill in Kimberley. The evening will feature a local, family-style Bavarian feast, complete with house-made pickles and plenty of fermented flavours. The dinner is currently sold out, but to join the waitlist, email info@basinfood.ca (mailto:info@basinfood.ca). Throughout the conversation, we explore: Why food businesses need opportunities to step outside the day-to-day and look at the bigger picture Retail readiness and growing beyond your home region How local food events can create new buyer relationships and business opportunities The role food and shared meals play in building stronger communities One of the biggest themes of FABx is connection. Shauna talks about watching producers meet buyers, founders discover shared logistics opportunities, ingredients find new applications and conversations turn into new products or partnerships. For her, that is where the real value of the event happens. And if you feel like you are too busy working in your business to attend? Shauna has a response for that too. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your food business is step outside of it, meet new people, taste something different and come back with fresh eyes. As she puts it, “this is the self-care for your food business.” You can learn more about Basin Food Expo (FABx26) at basinfood.ca (http://basinfood.ca/)

2. 

   13 Oct 2026

   Episode 85: Reinventing the Bakery Model with Alice Couderc of Atome Bakery

   In this episode, we sit down with Alice Couderc, co-founder of Atome Bakery, a Vancouver-based French-inspired bakery creating ready-to-bake frozen artisan breads and pastries. Alice moved from France to Canada in 2018, while her co-founder, Lucas Navilloz, found himself seriously missing French bread. So he started making his own. What began as a personal solution evolved into Atome Bakery, built around a simple idea: make artisan-style bread more accessible to people who do not live near an artisan bakery. Instead of opening a traditional storefront, Alice and Lucas built a direct-to-consumer frozen model and have since expanded across Canada. Along the way, they also became experts in something most bakeries never expect to tackle: frozen logistics. After launching in the U.S. in early 2025, trade uncertainty pushed the team to pivot their growth strategy back toward Canada, expanding into Ontario and Quebec. That pivot also uncovered a new opportunity: helping other frozen food brands fulfill direct-to-consumer orders. Throughout the conversation, we explore: Turning a personal pain point into a scalable food business The realities of frozen direct-to-consumer logistics How Atome adapted and pivoted its growth strategy across Canada Product innovation, including a higher-protein bread in development The partnership between entrepreneurship and engineering A great conversation about bread, entrepreneurship, logistics, innovation and what happens when a frozen bakery starts thinking differently about how food reaches the customer. You can learn more at atomebakery.com (http://atomebakery.com/)

3. 

   29 Sept 2026

   Episode 84: Linking Elbows, Building Food Systems with Parry Aftab

   We chat with Parry Aftab, agrifood community builder and founder of PEI Food Strong, Canadian Source to Supper, and PEI Good Eats, to explore how community, local food and practical action can help build a more resilient food system. Parry spent decades as a lawyer specializing in cyberlaw, cybersecurity and online safety, working with organizations and governments around the world. Then COVID changed the trajectory. She and her husband moved to Prince Edward Island and Parry did what any self-described food lover does: she started a Facebook food group. This community has since grown to more than 23,000 members and became the catalyst for something much bigger. Through PEI Food Strong, Parry is now focused on helping the Island retain more of the value created by the food it grows, catches and produces. That means looking at local processing, manufacturing, entrepreneurship and new uses for ingredients that might otherwise go to waste. Seaweed can become skin care or pet supplements. Lobster shells can become fertilizer. Rescued food can be transformed into shelf-stable products. Parry calls it “putting waste to work.” Community remains central to everything she is building. Today, Parry is building a network of initiatives designed to make PEI’s food system more resilient, connected and locally driven. Throughout the conversation, we also explore: Why PEI needs more local processing and value-added manufacturing How rescued food and by-products can become new opportunities Why affordability must be part of the conversation around buying local The importance of supporting emerging food entrepreneurs How community knowledge can help drive food innovation Why collaboration needs to move beyond “elbows up” to “linking elbows” Parry will bring this systems-thinking approach to the Food Forward Summit on October 8 in Mississauga, where she will moderate a discussion on interprovincial food trade barriers and the challenges producers and processors face when moving food across Canada. For Parry, stronger food systems are not built by one organization, one company or one level of government. They are built by bringing people together, listening to the expertise already in the room and turning conversation into action. As she puts it, when the people in the audience are just as knowledgeable as the people on the stage, that is when things happen. We also talk butter tarts, PEI’s future official cookie, Johnny Cakes and whether lobster belongs in dessert. This is a conversation about food and what happens when people stop waiting for someone else to fix the system, bring their own superpowers to the table and start building something together. Not just elbows up; linking elbows. Resourceshttps://www.peifoodstrong.com/program (https://www.peifoodstrong.com/program) https://www.sourcetosupper.com (https://www.sourcetosupper.com/)https://www.peicooks.com (https://www.peicooks.com/) https://www.foodforwardsummit.com/agenda (https://www.foodforwardsummit.com/agenda)

Who has been a guest on Munching on Molecules

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Aaron Skelton
• Harbinder Maan
• Jill Houk
• Abigail Modell
• Dr Jon-Paul Powers

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

56

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

5.0 / 5

12 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 48 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

51

Social presence

0

YouTube

63

Engagement

51

Contact Munching on Molecules

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.