December 26, 2014 – This week restaurant brokers Eric and Robin Gagnon are interviewing a guest panel of bloggers and restaurant critics. The written word has a powerful impact on the restaurant business and guests Ari LeVaux, a nationally syndicated food columnist, Amy Riolo, an award-winning author and Matthew Robinson, owner of The Culinary Exchange weigh in.
Join us as our guests with a passion for food discuss how they influence the restaurant scene with the power of their keyboard or pen. Those in the restaurant radio show audience seeking an outlet for their creative juices can tune it to see how these successful artists got started and grew their blog or online presence.
The restaurant brokers ask their panel how the restaurant industry overlaps for those working in a virtual world versus the real world. The answers may surprise you. Our guest critics still subscribe to the undercover visit where the restaurant owner never knows he was there until the review is in print. On the other hand, bloggers embrace interaction with restaurant owners and are ready to cooperate in marketing ventures. Matthew Robinson of the Culinary Exchange says restaurateurs have a “Love Hate relationship with bloggers.”
Where does this panel see the industry going and how will powerful alliances between print and restaurants or virtual and real world change the restaurant business? One guest says, ““Restaurants need to find out who are the top bloggers and cater to them. They have a powerful influence and can make or break your business.” Tune in as we Satisfy your Appetite for Acquisition, Feed the Need for Restaurant Reality and Serve up a Recipe for Business Success in the nation’s most successful radio show in the industry.
Listen to the entire restaurant radio show on GLN the Good Living Network next week, Monday at 2pm EST and Tuesday at 9PM EST.
This Week’s Guests:
Ari LeVaux
Ari LeVaux is a nationally syndicated food columnist, and is a restaurant critic in Albuquerque for the Weekly Alibi. He blogs for The Atlantic and Slate on food, and he developed himself into a food critic for newspapers -- with a syndicated column.
Amy Riolo
As an award - winning author, chef, television personality, cuisine and culture expert, and educator, Amy Riolo makes frequent appearances on numerous te
levision and radio programs both in the United States and abroad, including Fox TV, CBS, Montgomery and Fairfax County TV, Nile TV, The Travel Channel, Martha Stewart Living Radio, WHYY, and Abu Dhabi Television. Amy also created and appeared weekly in ninety second cooking videos entitled “Culture of Cuisine” which air on nationally syndicated news shows on 28 different channels across the United States, totaling a reach of over 300 million people. One of her videos recently reached a record of four million hits.
Amy’s most recent book, The Mediterranean Diabetes Cookbook, (American Diabetes Association) was released in March 2010, received a starred PW review, won the 2011 Nautilus Book Award and was named “Best. Diabetes. Cookbook. Ever” by DiabetesMine.com. Her second book Nile Style; Egyptian Cuisine and Culture (Hippocrene Books) won the World Gourmand Award for "Best Arab Cuisine Book" in the United States and was just released in a second edition. Her first book, Arabian Delights; Recipes & Princely Entertaining Ideas from the Arabian Peninsula was chosen as one of the “16 Volumes Worth Staining” by
the Washington Post (Capital Books, 2007). Amy also contributed to The Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia and co-wrote The Al Tiramisu Restaurant Cookbook: An Elevated Approach to Authentic Italian Cuisine with award-winning chef/restaurateur Luigi Diotaiuti. She is currently completing The Ultimate Mediterranean Diet Cookbook which will be released in April 2015 and The Italian Diabetes Cookbook which will be released in January 2017.
Amy is a Culinary Advisor for The Mediterranean Food Alliance. He work has appeared in numerous print media including USA Today, Cooking Light magazine, The Washington Post, CNN.com, The Wall Street Journal, Gulf News, Popular Anthropology Magazine, The UAE National, and international newspapers and hundreds of blogs. She is also the author of a noted culinary/cultural blog called Amyriolo.blogspot.com.
Amy is frequently asked to lecture and give demonstrations on diabetes-friendly eating, and cuisine and culture at medical conferences, book fairs, universities, culinary symposiums, museums, embassies, fundraisers, libraries, and farmer’s markets on over three different continents, and five states in the USA. Last year her live audiences alone totaled 18,350 people. With the addition of podcasts, her popularity and viewership has grown immensely.
She is a member of The International Association of Culinary Professionals, Cornell Club DC, Les Dames d’Escoffier (Global Culinary Initiative Chair), Slow Food DC, The James Beard Foundation, and the Culinary Historians of Washington. Amy has taught recreational classes at Living Social, Sur la Table, and Open Kitchen in Washington, DC. Internationally, she had led professional and recreational cooking classes in Italy, Egypt, and UAE.
As a successful restaurant consultant and graduate of Cornell University, Amy enjoys developing concepts, action plans, recipes, training seminars and guides, and themes for corporations, restaurants, and hotels. Amy has created menus for many world leaders, earning her the title “Cook to the Kings” from a Cairo newspaper in 2008. She has consulted international business owners on bakeries, cafes, restaurants, and culinary stores where she taught vocational baking classes for thousands of pastry chefs.
Amy also uses her culinary expertise to write scripts for culinary movies and television programs. She just completed filming a demo for the Two to Travel television series with Chef Luigi Diotaiuti. The duo also created a video documentary entitled The Beauty of Basilicata at the James beard Foundation. They will also led a culinary cruise from Istanbul to Athens on Oceania Cruises in October 2014.
In addition to her professional work, Amy spends a great deal of her time supporting philanthropic efforts. Amy can often be found mentoring culinary students, teaching children’s cooking classes, and participating on panels for charity events. One of the highlights of her volunteering career was chairing the Baltimore Luxor Alexandria Sister City Committee which enabled her to obtain a grant to provide clean drinking water for a village outside of Luxor, Egypt. Amy is based in the Washington, DC area and travels extensively through the Mediterranean region.
Matthew Robinson, The Culinary Exchange
Matthew Robinson has spent almost 2 decades in the food industry as a scientist, product developer, and spokesperson for the food industry, interpreting the complexities of various topics into easy and usable information. He innovates every day, creating WOW moments in his kitchen and beyond. He has a Master of Science degree from the University of Georgia in Nutrition Science and a diploma from the professional culinary program at the French Culinary Institute in New York City. Matthew is the founder of exCLAIM International, a nutrition science and claims strategy consultancy that helps clients turn the complexities of science and new innovations into communications that are compelling and beneficial to the consumer and health care professional.
He is also creator of The Culinary Exchange website and this blog. Oh yeah, and he’s published a pretty incredible book: Knickerbocker Glory: A Chef’s Guide to Innovation in the Kitchen and Beyond.
Matthew spends a great deal of time innovating both in and out of the kitchen. Because his passion is food, he has eaten his way across Europe for the past eight years.
About We Sell Restaurants
We Sell Restaurants is the nation’s largest restaurant brokerage firm specializing in restaurants wanted (restaurants for sale), leasing a restaurant and franchise restaurant resale’s. The We Sell Restaurants brand is known nationwide for professionalism, industry knowledge, and unmatched service. They can be found online at www.wesellrestaurants.com. The firm is franchising their brand nationwide and has offices in Florida, Georgia, Colorado, Tennessee and South Carolina.
The We Sell Restaurants radio show will be on the air on GLN the Good Living Network next week, Monday at 2pm EST and Tuesday at 9PM EST. It is available for download on iTunes as well.