Radio MOFAD

About Radio MOFAD

The Podcast from The Museum of Food and Drink

Publisher

Bernadettecura

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

15 Apr 2026

Latest episode

20 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

6 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   20 Jun 2026

   Cocktails Are Culture: Nelson German & Andréa Lawson Gray on “Caribbean Cocktails”

   We chat with Nelson and Andréa about their new book, stoop life, and the Copacabana. The Museum of Food and Drink MOFAD https://www.mofad.org/ Wed June 24, 2026:  Nelson German and Andréa Lawson Gray in conversation with Tonya Hopkins, aka The Food (& Drinks!) Griot, exploring rum, sugar, and the histories that shape Caribbean flavor. https://mofad.ticketing.veevartapp.com/tickets/view/list/sugarcane-to-glass-rum-and-the-making-of-caribbean-flavor Nelson German https://chefnelsongerman.com/about/?section=bio Andréa Lawson Gray https://www.andrealawsongray.com/ Caribbean Cocktails: Drinks and Bites from the Afro-Latino Diaspora https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/783034/caribbean-cocktails-by-nelson-german-and-andrea-lawson-gray/ Kitchen Arts & Letters https://www.kitchenartsandletters.com/ Claudette Zepeda https://chefclaudettezepeda.com/ Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/737900/cooking-the-borderlands-by-claudette-zepeda/ Kim Vallejo She Wolf Bakery https://www.shewolfbakery.com/ June Russell Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming https://www.glynwood.org/ ABC Kitchens https://www.abckitchensdumbo.com/ Transcript 0:00 Ivan De Luce (ID): Welcome to RadioMOFAD, the podcast from the Museum of Food and Drink.  Hey Bernadette, how's it going? Bernadette Cura (BC): It's so good, because today was the ticker tape parade for the Knicks. ID: Yes, go Knicks! BC: We did do a little  promotion where anyone who had their Knicks gear on  this past weekend and today too because of the ticker tape parade could come in and enjoy the museum for free. And we did get a bunch of people come in that couldn't get near the parade even though they got there at eight or nine o'clock which seemed reasonable at the time, but apparently was too late and they're real fans and you know they didn't get to get anywhere near and we got to show them a little bit of New York with our street food exhibition. ID: And they looked great and some people even made their own Knicks gear. It was incredible. BC: oh my gosh yes, that guy with the long tunic. And I'm glad also that they were able to see it because we're going to be  finishing up here  on June 28th. ID: Yes, the last day of Street Food City is June 28th, Sunday uh and 01:00 And it's very bittersweet,  but we're going to uh move on to bigger and better things. It was a great run since  last December to now. BC: And so many great um programs too,  including the last two that we had with  Kim Vallejo from She-Wolf Bakery. ID: We also had the event with Claudette Zepeda the week before that. Yeah. BC: The one with Claudette was very spirited. Claudette in general is very spirited. ID: Like many chefs. BC: If it's the Legal instant coffee that we talked about in the last one, like she's caffeinated to the gills, I'm not sure. ID: She was hopped up. BC: But what's funny is that we gave, since Ivan and I weren't able to be there, we gave her a little gift bag saying we wished we were here. And I gave her little packets of Legal in there to make coffee if she didn't bring her own. ID: And remind her of home. BC: Yeah, but it turns out that it wasn't instant stuff I gave her. It was like coffee that you had to brew. So if she tried to make a cup of coffee 01:59 with our  coffee grounds in her hotel room. She... ID: Be a bit crunchy. BC: be a crunchy cup of coffee. And the funny thing also, and this relates to Kim, because Kim uh told us about those amazing brownies, which we tasted with Owen in the museum. we talked about it during  last episode of this podcast. I made some brownies with like a recipe that I love, and I put  the Lagal coffee that I was gonna give to Claudette. I kept a packet for myself  so I could put it in the brownies. And the texture was really interesting and I thought it was all because I used whole grain

2. 

   3 Jun 2026

   Meat On a Stick, Black Coffee, and Bread: Kim Vallejo On Our Local Grainshed

   Meat On a Stick, Black Coffee, and Bread: Kim Vallejo On Our local Grainshed The Museum of Food and Drink MOFAD https://www.mofad.org/ Wed June 10, 2026 : Kim Vallejo and June Russell in conversation about the past, present, and future of local grains. https://mofad.ticketing.veevartapp.com/tickets/view/list/restoring-the-grainshed-reviving-regional-grain-in-new-york https://www.mofad.org/program-detail-page/grains MOFAD Programs https://www.mofad.org/programs Kim Vallejo She Wolf Bakery https://www.shewolfbakery.com/ June Russell Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming https://www.glynwood.org/ Culinaria: Women Of Color Rewriting Our Food Stories https://culinariastories.net/book Dr. Willa Zhen The Culinary Institute of America Leah Eskin Like Wafers in Honey https://www.leaheskin.com/ Farmer Ground Flour https://www.farmergroundflour.com/ Brooklyn Granary and Mill https://brooklyngranaryandmill.com/ Bread Alone https://www.breadalone.com/ TRANSCRIPT (0:00) Ivan De Luce (ID) Welcome to Radio...Take two. Welcome to Radio MOFAD, the podcast from the Museum of Food and Drink. How's it going, Bernadette? Bernadette Cura (BC) It's going great. We love the rain. ID: We love the rain. BC: It makes people want to scurry into a museum. Come here when it's raining. It's the perfect place to be. And we're not going to give you a headache because we're too large. And also there are snacks to help you to fight off that museum headache. ID: We've got protein in the form of Nuts for Nuts honey roasted peanuts. BC: And also the halvah has a good amount of protein and fiber. ID: It's all good for you, really. The pretzel bites are tasty, too. Some simple carbs for some energy as well. BC: There's like a great burst of energy. ID: And you know what I will say about MOFAD? Your feet will never hurt after you get through it, because there's simply not that much surface area to walk across, you know. BC: It's just the right size. ID: I agree. BC: Absolutely. (1:00) And also the air in here is quite nice. Like, you know, like the air in museums sometimes it's just like, oh my, why am I dissing museums? ID: Take that, The Met. BC: No, stop. I love museums. ID: I love museums, even The Met. BC: So I'm not going to say another word about other museums. I'm just going to say this is a really great place to be. And oh my gosh, we are revealing too much about ourselves, I think. ID: Pay no attention to the podcast hosts behind the curtain. BC: We'll edit this out in post. ID: Yes, or will we? BC: I don't know. ID: Well, so we had a great chat with Claudette. We've also had some great events this past week here at MOFAD as well. One of my favorites was the one about Women of Color in Food Studies. It was basically a book talk for this new book called Culinaria. And it basically has these chapters written by different food studies academics, both senior academics and junior academics, all about their food stories and their cultures. It ranges from autoethnography, talking about one's own family and family recipe history and culture, other kinds of ethnography, talking to people from other cultures, and just a really broad transnational look at Women of Color in Food Studies. BC: (2:19) Well, I know that Willa was here, and she is a professor at the Culinary Institute of America, of which I am a graduate. It was nice that she was here to be part of that program representing the CIA, yo! ID: Exactly. BC: We had food at that event. Tanoreen provided some delicious food. ID: Delicious Palestinian food. Yeah, it was so delicious. ID: Yeah, so I really encourage people to check out culinariastories.net. It is the page for the book. The book is out soon.It's not out yet. But for any of you food studies people out there, it's a really unique look at these underrepresented topics. BC: I was at the event for Leah Eskin and her book, Like Wafers and Honey, which we called our book club, but nobody had to read the book beforeh

3. 

   30 May 2026

   Let Me Be Weird: Claudette Zepeda on “Cooking the Borderlands”

   The Museum of Food and Drink MOFAD https://www.mofad.org/ Wed June 3, 2026: Claudette Zepeda and Francis Lam in conversation about her upcoming book Cooking the Borderlands https://mofad.ticketing.veevartapp.com/tickets/view/list/cooking-the-borderlands https://www.mofad.org/program-detail-page/borderlands MOFAD Programs https://www.mofad.org/programs Claudette Zepeda https://chefclaudettezepeda.com/ Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States https://sites.prh.com/cookingtheborderlands/#preorder-the-book Tacos La Poblanita Corner of Jay St and York St Brooklyn, NY 11201 Mon-Sat 10-5 Jasar Castillo 929-245-3098 Michael Szczerban https://www.instagram.com/foreverbeard/ The Talisman of Happiness https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ada-boni/the-talisman-of-happiness/9780316577991/?lens=little-brown-and-company TRANSCRIPT Ivan De Luce (ID): Welcome to RadioMOFAD, the podcast from the Museum of Food and Drink. Hey Bernadette, how's it going? Bernadette Cura (BC): Hey Ivan, it's rainy at the museum today. It's a rainy Saturday. We had quite a good crowd because people love the museum on a rainy day. ID: They do. I know I do. BC: Yeah, me too. People do a lot of photoshoots here in Dumbo. I don't know if you knew this. I mean, you know. I don't know if you all know this. People come for their weddings and their quinceañera photo shoots in all their finery and are taking beautiful pictures. There's a whole entourage of people right behind us now taking pictures. ID: Yeah, there are about four or five five-year-olds running around in dresses and tuxedos chasing each other. We do see that everyday. But yes, we've had a lot of fun at MOFAD lately. We've had some great events. BC: Yeah, you know, we talked with Michael Szczerban last episode. You were on the Zoom for that event. ID: Yes, I attended the Talisman of Happiness event with Michael Szczerban over Zoom just to get a different sense of what it's like to attend a MOFAD event. It was great. It was a wonderful talk. Michael Szczerban talked with Deb Perelman from Smitten Kitchen. BC: Sweet, sweet. ID: They talked about the 1929 cookbook by Ada Boni called The Talisman of Happiness, and it was a great talk, I mean, we had a great talk with him last episode, but Deb was asking about kind of how the book compares to other books. It's not your typical cookbook in so many ways, not just because of the 12 minestrones that you can choose from in it, out of the 1600 recipes in there, it's a huge book, but also because it's not full of fancy, glossy photos. Cookbooks in the 20s definitely weren't. Michael was comparing it to the Silver Spoon cookbook, which many of us are familiar with. BC: Yes ID: It's a beautiful book, much like the fancy Silver Spoon that sits in the kitchen, and maybe isn't touched every day, whereas Michael sort of compared it to Nonna's worn wooden spoon that's been in the sauce all day on a Sunday, chipped and worn, but full of love, and has made so many things, and is used every single day. BC: Well, I know that for me, as far as like The Joy of Cooking, which is what it was compared to a lot. I definitely use that book a lot, and there's no room for pictures. You want the words, you want the solid recipes. ID: Yes, and Michael had said that he wanted it to stick to 1000 pages and not go beyond that. Well, I think I'd rather, for a book like that, that's really useful in the kitchen, I'd rather not have pictures, and like we talked about in the podcast, that illustrations are really additional information that's helpful, and they're really cute. So I'm glad, I'm glad they stuck to that formula, and I cannot wait to get this book. I get excited about all our cookbooks that we have in the museum, but this one seems really special. BC: Definitely. So, as far as events, that one was great, and we have more coming up. ID: In June, we'll see Claudette Zepeda and her new book, Cooking the Borderlands. BC: Yes, she gr

4. 

   13 May 2026

   The Minestrone Moment: Michael Szczerban on “The Talisman of Happiness”

   MOFAD Program Director Taylor Early chats with Bernadette in the afterglow of two wonderful programs this month. They introduce Ivan and Bernadette’s conversation with Michael Szczerban about Voracious publishing’s recently published first full English translation of The Talisman of Happiness by Ada Boni. As MOFAD continues to explore street food vendors in Dumbo, Brooklyn, we learn about the owner Hamdur’s experience with city inspectors. Priyanka Poddar, Knead Some Love NY Indian Fusion Desserts https://kneadsomeloveny.com/ Smorgasburg https://www.smorgasburg.com/ Ashley Rose Young https://ashleyroseyoung.com/ Nourishing Networks https://global.oup.com/academic/product/nourishing-networks-9780197794036?cc=us&lang=en& Saeng Douangdara https://www.saengskitchen.com/ The Lao Kitchen https://www.saengskitchen.com/cookbook Jujubee https://www.instagram.com/jujubeeonline/ Michael Szczerban https://www.instagram.com/foreverbeard/ The Talisman of Happiness https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ada-boni/the-talisman-of-happiness/9780316577991/?lens=little-brown-and-company Marcela Hazan https://marcellafilm.com/ Mario Carbone https://www.carbonefinefood.com/about Paul Bertolli Fra’ Mani https://framani.com/pages/about-framani Deb Perelman https://smittenkitchen.com/ Esther Choi https://estherchoi.com/ Dumbo Grill Corner of Front St and Jay St Dumbo, Brooklyn Friday - Sunday

5. 

   30 Apr 2026

   Embracing the Funk: Saeng Douangdara on “The Lao Kitchen”

   Episode 2 We speak with food content creator Saeng Douangdara about his new cookbook, The Lao Kitchen, and an upcoming event May 1 at MOFAD with drag performer Jujubee. We also continue exploring the street food in our Brooklyn neighborhood, DUMBO. Ivan and volunteers Aidan and Brittany visit and chat with Dustin at Cocoboys. NOTES: Muhammad Abdul-Hadi Down North Pizza https://www.downnorthpizza.com/ Out West Coffee https://www.outwestphilly.com/ We the Pizza: Slangin’ Pies and Savin’ Lives https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739586/we-the-pizza-by-muhammad-abdul-hadi-with-michael-carter-and-david-joachim/ Kalilah Moon Drive Change https://drivechangenyc.org/ Paul Van Ravenstein, Monique Mulder The Pickled City https://papress.com/products/the-pickled-city Ashley Rose Young Nourishing Networks: The Public Culture of Food in New Orleans https://ashleyroseyoung.com/dissertation-research/ Saeng Douangdara The Lao Kitchen https://www.saengskitchen.com/cookbook James Syhabout, John Birdsall Hawker Fare https://www.harpercollins.com/products/hawker-fare-james-syhaboutjohn-birdsall?variant=32130063826978 Ponpailin 'Noi' Kaewduangdee A Child Of The Rice Fields: Recipes From Noi’s Lao Kitchen https://doikanoi.com/book/ Jujubee https://www.instagram.com/jujubeeonline/ Dustin MacKay Cocoboys 147 Front St (on nice days) https://www.instagram.com/cocoboysnyc/ MOFAD The Museum of Food and Drink 55 Water St 2nd Fl Brooklyn NY 11201 https://www.mofad.org/ TRANSCRIPT: 00:00Ivan De Luce (ID): Welcome to Radio MOFAD, the podcast from The Museum of Food and Drink. Hey, Bernadette. Bernadette Cura (BC): Ivan! Long time no chat. ID: Yeah, how's it going? BC: Actually, I see you like four times a week. I'm sick to death of you. ID: It's only episode two. BC: I know. But it's good. I'm going great. We had a great couple of weeks here at MOFAD. So fun. ID: Yes, we had our event with Muhammad Abdul-Hadi, author of We the Pizza. BC: Yeah, we spoke with him during the last podcast. ID: And he was in conversation this past week talking about his cookbook. And there were some interesting00:35recipes in there that I had not noticed the first time around. It was a great way to kind of get more in depth there. One of the most interesting recipes in the book came from Chef Mike Carter. When he was incarcerated, he noticed that inmates would get resourceful with the types of um dishes they would make with their limited resources. So they would actually take Cheez-Its and ramen and make pizza dough out of it. BC: It is a striking recipe in it's really gravity01:05and humor at the same time somehow. The event was really wonderful. Yeah, we made strawberry lemonade from the cookbook as well. And we also served pickle lemonade because we had a pickle event the week before, so we were, the entire museum is obsessed with the pickle lemonade, including Nazli, our president. As a matter of fact, she made it, and so we ended up serving it alongside the strawberry lemonade at the event, and it was a hit. ID: It gave sort of a thirst-quenching01:35electrolyte kind of flavor. Imagine Gatorade but good. And I would imagine it would be good with a bit of tequila so I'm gonna give that a shot at some point. BC: Maybe vodka, tequila might be a little strong. ID: We're gonna have to do a comparison. BC: It's happening. Yeah. Okay so we have also some events coming up what do we have coming up on Thursday April 30th? ID: Yes we have our event From Pushcarts to Po’ Boys: How Street Food Becomes American. We're going to have food historian and author Ashley Rose Young over here at MOFAD.02:05BC: She was an advisor for our current exhibition Street Food City, right? ID: Yes. BC: So I'm so excited to have her in-house and what are they gonna be talking about, who’s she talking to? ID: She's going to be talking to NYU Food Studies Chair Jennifer Berg. Ashley Rose Young has a new book Nourishing Networks the Public Culture of Food in New Orleans. So sh

6. 

   15 Apr 2026

   Not NOT Recommending Grocery Store Pizza: Muhammad Abdul-Hadi on “We the Pizza”

   Episode 1 Meet our hosts, and hear their conversation with upcoming MOFAD program guest Muhammad Abdul-Hadi of Down North Pizza in Philadelphia. NOTES Muhammad Abdul-Hadi Down North Pizza https://www.downnorthpizza.com/ Out West Coffee https://www.outwestphilly.com/ We the Pizza: Slangin’ Pies and Savin’ Lives https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739586/we-the-pizza-by-muhammad-abdul-hadi-with-michael-carter-and-david-joachim/ Moon Drive Change https://drivechangenyc.org/ Street Food in DUMBO: Thai Sidewalk https://www.seamless.com/menu/thai-sidewalk-jay-street-and-front-st-brooklyn/4965712 MOFAD The Museum of Food and Drink 55 Water St 2nd Fl Brooklyn NY 11201 https://www.mofad.org/

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