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The systems that the restaurant industry is built on don’t work - they’re built on power imbalances and devaluing the labor of hospitality workers. More folks than ever are questioning these systems and looking to make change in the industry. As we’re trying to make changes to labor and wage issues in restaurants - who are we looking to as leaders? Are we looking to the chefs that are just now getting to the conversation - or are we looking to the chefs that have been doing the work and putting their necks on the line for years?  In this episode, Katy is joined by Dahlia Snaiderman in talking with four people that have been leading the way in labor and wage issues in the restaurant industry. Katy talked to Reem Assil and Preeti Mistry, two chefs from the San Francisco Bay Area. Dahlia talked with Yamila Ruiz and Jeanie Chunn from One Fair Wage and RAISE High Road Employers.  For more information:  About Reem’s California About Preeti’s new restaurant concept To join RAISE High Road Employers email: heythere@highroadrestaurants.org About One Fair Wage and ROC United Dahlia hosted season 2 of The Garnish podcast and is now working on the publication On the Line by Toast.

On March 9th, Chef Irene Li, owner of Mei Mei Restaurant in Boston, opened their finances to the public at an event called Open Book Open House. The purpose? To get people having more open and honest conversations around restaurants and money. But just a week after the Open Book Open House, restaurant dining rooms closed due to COVID and all of a sudden restaurant finances were on everybody’s mind.   Thank you all so much for listening to our second season! We really appreciate each one of you. If you have any thoughts about season 3, send them our way.  We’re also very grateful for Pared, our season 2 sponsor. Sign up to be a member now and join the community of other foodservice workers.  Help the restaurants and organizations featured in our second season:  Kin Restaurant in Boise, Idaho - support them by ordering delivery Otoño in Highland Park, Los Angeles - support them by visiting their location they’ve converted into a Spanish market. They also have gift cards and an employee relief fund. Homeroom in Oakland, California - They are still open for take-out and delivery and they also have an employee fund. Opening Soon Podcast and Tilit in New York City - Opening Soon has done a great job covering talking to restaurant folks about how they’re affected by COVID. Tilit is also selling masks with a buy-one-give one policy. If you buy one through them, they’ll donate one to a food service employee volunteering or a medical professional. Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement in Emeryville, California - Fernay and team are doing Saturday and Sunday orders right now and they also have a relief fund.  Le Pigeon in Portland, Oregon - Le Pigeon is currently doing a cellar sale for bottles of wine. Plus they have other merch and gift cards for sale.  One Fair Wage - One Fair Wage has set up a relief fund for foodservice workers in need. You can donate to the fund or volunteer to help call applicants.  Giving Kitchen in Atlanta, Georgia - They are still helping foodservice workers in financial crisis so you can donate to that. They also have a COVID-19 resource page.   Mei Mei in Boston, Massachusetts - They are still doing bulk orders, virtual dumpling classes, and selling gift cards. 

Mei Mei in Boston has been an open book restaurant since 2017. They train their entire staff on the finances so that everyone can have a voice in making the restaurant run more efficiently. But on March 9th, Chef Irene Li, owner of Mei Mei decided she wanted to take the education a step further and open their books to the public. What do the finances of a small independent restaurant really look like? Turns out, it’s even rougher than everybody would like to admit.

What happens when you get sick or injured and you work in a restaurant? You keep working. At least, that’s how it’s always been. With low wages, lack of access to benefits, and usually nonexistent paid leave, the workers living paycheck to paycheck can’t really take care of their health. Giving Kitchen, a nonprofit in Atlanta, Georgia, is attempting to mitigate those challenges in their local Georgia community by providing financial assistance and resources to workers going through a financial crisis from injury, illness, a death in the family, or housing crisis due to flood or fire.  We have been working on this episode for months, but as we write this, restaurants and their employees are facing a challenge unlike any other in the past due to the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19. We’ve compiled some resources and tips for workers on our website at copperandheat.com/coronavirus.  Look into workshare programs in your city or state like this one in Massachusetts. Many states are making applying for unemployment easier for those affected by COVID-19. So look it up in your state.  Bartenders - there’s an emergency relief fund that you can apply to through the USBG  See if your local restaurant association or any other nonprofits have an emergency financial assistance program like this one.  Some folks are starting GoFundMe pages for emergency relief like this one in Boston. Give if you can, start one in your area, apply if you need help.  Participate in telling city, state, and federal governments to announce a plan to help workers and small businesses.

We’re taking a brief break from our second season to introduce you to the other project that the Copper & Heat team has been working on. It’s called The Makers - a four part mini-series brought to you by ChefsFeed in paid partnership with Maker’s Mark bourbon. In each episode of The Makers, we talk with chefs about their one-of-a-kind approaches to their craft.  In this episode, Chefs Gabe Erales, Rico Torres, and Diego Galicia discuss how they are challenging their diners’ expectations of Mexican food at their restaurants in Texas. Check out more at chefsfeed.com/makers.  We’ll be back in a couple weeks with the next episode in Season 2: Overhead!

In the second episode on tipping, Katy digs deeper into a different question: if the money coming into the restaurant industry is a pie, who has access to that pie and who is controlling how that pie is drawn? Turns out, there’s a lot of money being spent every year to keep wages low and to keep the tipped minimum wage at $2.13. Surprise! The tipping system is incredibly complicated and contentious. So we want to hear how it affects you! FOH, BOH, good or bad, all stories are welcome. Send them on over to hello@copperandheat.com We are so grateful for our first ever season sponsors: Pared! They find vetted hospitality professionals to fill your shifts. Copper & Heat listeners get 30% off their first gig. Use the code COPPER when booking.  If you want to go down the same rabbit hole Katy did in researching for this episode, here are a few links:  National Restaurant Association Profile - SourceWatch Do You Know Where Your Tip Money Is Going? - Eater “After Years of Litigation, Tip Regulations Begin to Line up with the FLSA” - Press Release via National Restaurant Association National Restaurant Association Opposes H.R. 582, “Raise the Wage Act” - Press Release National Restaurant Association Influence and Lobbying Profile - OpenSecrets.org National Restaurant Association Organization Profile and 990 tax forms - CauseIQ Restaurant Opportunities Center United

Why do servers and food runners in the front of the house make so much more money than the cooks? Why do they get to keep all the tips?  When Katy was working in fine dining kitchens, the cooks were asking these questions a lot. It just did not seem fair that servers were making as much as 3x more than cooks because of the tips they were bringing in. And it sent her down a long path. Turns out, these are the wrong questions to be asking.  In the first episode of the two-part series on tipping, Katy talks with the owners at Le Pigeon, a fine-dining French restaurant in Portland, Oregon, about an experiment they did in 2016 where they eliminated tipping altogether. In talking with them and her friend Lee, a former dishwasher at Le Pigeon, Katy uncovers the racist history of the tipping system, the ways it perpetuates sexual harassment culture in the industry, and the much bigger and more complicated issues behind trying to get rid of tipping.    We are so grateful for our first ever season sponsors: Pared! They find vetted hospitality professionals to fill your shifts. Copper & Heat listeners get 30% off their first gig. Use the code COPPER when booking.  An upcoming episode is about staging and we want to hear some of your stories! Send them (and any other thoughts you may have) to hello@copperandheat.com. We can’t wait to hear from you. More info: Le Pigeon to Eliminate Tipping in June - Eater PDX Le Pigeon and Little Bird Bistro Bring Back Tipping - Eater PDX The Glass Floor: Sexual Harassment in the Restaurant Industry - ROC United Report

Soul Food Movement w/ Minnie Bell’s Fernay McPherson is the chef and owner of Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement in Emeryville, California. In this episode, she shows me around the Fillmore District of San Francisco - her home and the place her family has lived for three generations. She’s been trying for years, with the help of the business incubator La Cocina, to open a restaurant in the neighborhood that was once a cultural hub for African Americans, but she's run up against so many barriers.  Fernay is a graduate of La Cocina, a nonprofit in San Francisco whose mission is to cultivate low-income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses. Learn more about their program here.  There are over 30 brick-and-mortar restaurants and cafes in the Bay Area that are graduates of the La Cocina program. If you ever need a place to eat, check out their business map to support excellent business owned by women and people of color! The LEE Initiative is still accepting applications for their awards until February 1st! More information and application is here.  We are so grateful for our first ever season sponsors: Pared! They find vetted hospitality professionals to fill your shifts. Copper & Heat listeners get 30% off their first gig. Use the code COPPER when booking.  An upcoming episode is about staging and we want to hear some of your stories! Send them (and another other thoughts you may have) to hello@copperandheat.com. We can’t wait to hear from you.  Some Other Resources:  Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement video How Urban Renewal Destroyed The Fillmore In Order to Save It The Fillmore from PBS Sad chapter in Western Addition history ending Gorgeous photos from the ‘Harlem of the West’ show the glory days of the San Francisco jazz scene San Francisco continues destruction of its black community

Jenny Goodman and Alex McCrery founded Tilit, a chef and restaurant industry workwear brand, in 2012, and they’re killing it. But before they had a successful workwear brand they opened a restaurant in Brooklyn called Goods - and it closed in 6 months. We talk with Jenny and Alex in this episode about what happened to Goods, what they learned through the experience, and how they’ve used that experience to help others learn how to better open and run a restaurant.  Check out their podcast:  Opening Soon  We are so grateful for our first ever season sponsors: Pared! They find vetted hospitality professionals to fill your shifts. Copper & Heat listeners get 30% off their first gig. Use the code COPPER when booking.  On upcoming episode is about staging and we want to hear some of your stories! Send them (and another other thoughts you may have) to hello@copperandheat.com. We can’t wait to hear from you.

Katy spends some time reflecting on the last year - and shares some of our favorite podcasts for you to listen to. We share a few clips from those shows in this episode and the links to the full episodes (plus some extras) are below.  Long Distance Radio is a documentary podcast about stories in the Filipino diaspora. Hosted and produced by Paola Mardo and Patrick Epino.  Featured in this episode: Long Distance S2, E1: Cendrillon Another recommended episode:  Long Distance S1, E6: Filipino Tiki Bar  Long Distance TV: Cendrillon Fish Sinigag with Amy Besa & Romy Dorotan Racist Sandwich - Hosts Stephanie Kuo and Juan Ramirez interview chefs and purveyors of color and tackle food’s relationship to race, gender, and class in their bi-weekly podcast.  Featured in this episode: Episode 71: Nourishing the Soul (w/ Karla T. Vasquez)  Another recommended episode:  Episode 58: Erasing Black Barbecue (w/ Johnny Walker, Adrian Miller, Daniel Vaughn, and Brent & Juan Reaves) Salt & Spine is the podcast focused exclusively on the art and craft of the cookbook: the compelling stories behind their creation, evolution, and lasting legacy. Created and hosted by Brian Hogan Stewart.  Featured in this episode: Ivan Orkin + Chris Ying // The Gaijin Cookbook Other recommended episodes:  Leticia Landa, Nite Yun & Nafy Flatley // We Are La Cocina East Bay Cooks LIVE We are so grateful for our first ever season sponsors: Pared! They find vetted hospitality professionals to fill your shifts. Copper & Heat listeners get 30% off their first gig. Use the code COPPER when booking.  Send your thoughts, feelings, and stories to hello@copperandheat.com. We can’t wait to hear from you. 

What happens when tech startups backed by venture capital create food delivery apps, and a whole new system, that is relied on by restaurant folks across the U.S.? We chat with the folks at Homeroom To Go - the takeout-only location of the popular Oakland, CA mac and cheese restaurant - about how these apps have affected their business. David Yaffe-Bellany, business reporter from the New York Times, joins us again to talk about some of the larger national trends.    More info: The Rise of the Virtual Restaurant by MIke Isaac and David Yaffe-Bellany The Cloud Kitchen Concept: An Addition to the Restaurant Delivery Marketplace by Allie Tetreault Custard’s Last Stand: Mission Pie vs. the gig economy by Joe Eskenazi   This season is sponsored by Pared. Copper & Heat listeners get 30% off their first gig. Use the code COPPER when booking.  Send your thoughts, feelings, and stories to hello@copperandheat.com!

In this Family Meal we hear from Luis Aldana, kitchen manager at Homeroom in Oakland, California. Luis talks about being proud of his team on a day when they were short-staffed and very busy.  Share your thoughts and stories at copperandheat.com/share-your-story Can't wait to hear from you!

In this episode, we’re headed to Los Angeles to talk with Chef Teresa Montano about her experience opening two restaurants and trying to find staff in a time when there aren't enough cooks and there's a crackdown at the border - two overwhelming issues that overlap and make life hard for chefs and restaurant owners. David Yaffey-Bellany, reporter for the New York Times business desk, joins us to break down the complicated context on a national level.  More info:  “Hiring Is Very Hard for Restaurants These Days. Now They May Have to Fire.” by David Yaffey-Bellany National Immigration Law Center “What To Do If Immigration Comes to Your Workplace” “What to Do If ICE Raids Your Workplace” by Leila Ettachfini on VICE “Restaurant Owners Grapple With Hiring Undocumented Immigrants” - Morning Edition      This season is sponsored by Pared. Copper & Heat listeners get 30% off their first gig. Use the code COPPER when booking.  Send your thoughts, feelings, and stories to hello@copperandheat.com!

In this episode of Family Meal, we hear from Ray Delucci, a cook and host of the podcast Line Cook Thoughts. He shares his experiences with making financial decisions in his cook career and thoughts on staging. Plus, Katy was on Line Cook Thoughts this last week and she and Ray have a great conversations. Check out that interview on the Line Cook Thoughts feed.

In this first episode of our second season, we’re going to Boise, Idaho, to talk with the team at Kin Restaurant. In a small city that’s growing and changing rapidly, what does a small, fine-dining, tasting menu restaurant do to not only educate diners on the value of good food, but also educate their employees about the value of themselves as restaurant workers.   More info:  Kin Restaurant: http://instagram.com/kin_boise   This season is sponsored by Pared. Copper & Heat listeners get 30% off their first gig. Visit pared.com/copper to get started and use the code COPPER when booking.

The business of running a restaurant is incredibly complicated. There are systems in place that owners, chefs, and cooks have to learn to navigate, often while operating on razor-thin profit margins.  From questioning long-standing traditions like the tipping system, to adapting to new trends like the explosion of food delivery apps, each episode of Overhead tells the story of a restaurant approaching their business in a way that is different than the norm.

In this episode of Copper & Heat Family Meal we hear from Meagan Stout, Chef de Cuisine at Madeready Libations & Liberations in Nashville. In this Family Meal, she talks about her experiences as a black woman navigating wage negotiation and confronting HR about making less than an inferior. Thank you so much for sharing your stories Meagan!  It’s your turn to share your stories about money and finances! Take out your phone, record a voice memo, and send it over to hello@copperandheat.com.  And please don’t forget to take our listener survey here!

Welcome to the first ever Copper & Heat Family Meal, the mini episodes for you, our listeners, to share your stories. Help us as we ramp up for season 2 by taking our listener survey here.  Take out your phone, record a voice memo and send it to hello@copperandheat.com. For season 2, we want to hear about your experiences with money. Here’s a couple ideas, but feel free to tell us any wild story you have.  Was there a time you were scared shitless to negotiate a raise?  How about your first experience staging and how you figured out how to pay for it, or figured out you couldn’t? What was the first time you experienced the divide between FOH and BOH? Or maybe you have a time (or several times) where you weren’t paid what you thought you were going to be paid. Can’t wait to hear from you!

It’s been a wild few months for us at Copper & Heat! Back in April we won a James Beard Broadcast Media Award and we’re still reeling. In this episode, Katy talks to Geraldine DeRuiter, another James Beard Media winner, about some of the complicated feelings that come along with winning an award, being in the spotlight, and how we keep creating.   There’s a couple of Geraldine’s blog posts that we talk about in the episode, here they are!  “I Made The Cinnamon Rolls From Mario Batali’s Sexual Misconduct Apology Letter” “I Won A James Beard Award and I Think You Are So Great”   For more info on this year’s James Beard Media Awards: View the full list of winners here View the full Media Awards Ceremony here   Geraldine and I talk about some of the issues with representation and recognition in awards, but there’s so much more to the topic. Here are a couple other articles about what’s happening (or not happening) to improve representation in food media:    Five Major Takeaways From the 2019 James Beard Awards by Hillary Dixler Canavan A Critic for All Seasons by Korsha Wilson For Our Food Culture To Diversify, Our Restaurant Criticism Needs To, Too by Irene Li

This is the last episode in the Be A Girl season. Over the last 7 episodes, we’ve talked about a lot of the challenges facing women working in restaurant kitchens - from the hierarchical structure of the kitchen, to the stereotypical view of women’s cooking. Though there aren’t any clear-cut solutions we ask: What has changed? How are those changes affecting people in the industry? Where do we go from here? Check out these other podcasts. All their episodes are great, but these are some of our favorites about women’s stories. Racist Sandwich Sheet Pan Chicken with a Side of Social Justice (w/ Julia Turshen) Only White Guys Get to be Geniuses (w/ Jen Agg) The Pav to Success (w/ Preeti Mistry) BONUS EPISODE: FUCK THE PATRIARCHY Radio Cherry Bombe Episode 153 Int’l Women’s Day State of the State The Harassment Culture and How to Move Forward Gravy Pop-up Identity: Dinner Series Cultivate Belonging Hostesses of the Movement Keep Calm & Cook On On Telling Women’s Stories with Sara B Franklin On Partnership with Jody Williams and Rita Sodi   Here are some organizations and businesses that are doing some really cool things in the industry: La Cocina “is a nonprofit working to solve problems of equity in business ownership for women, immigrants, and people of color” by providing business mentorship, incubation, and marketing for new food businesses. The Table - The mission of The Table is to “empower and support womxn in the food industry… The Table is committed to closing the gap in representation and leadership fo womxn in the food industry. By providing an environment to cultivate and showcase talent, we will create a paradigm shift in championing the next generation of chefs and independent food makers.” Radical Xchange “is an experience based collective. We use food and beverage as a converyor for art, music, history and community.” This year (2019) they hosted the first Resistance Served conference that was all about giving “context to the hospitality industry and celebrate what Black and African-American peoples have created.” Equity At The Table operates under the mantra “Build a longer table, not a higher fence.” it is a “digital directory for women/non-binary individuals in food with a focus on POC and LGBTQ+ members. Cherry Bombe is a biannual magazine, podcast, and annual Jubilee conference that celebrates women and food.