On this episode of the Hot Spot series, Gabriel Ornelas sits down with Yiming Lin. He’s the creator and food ethnographer behind Literally.Starving—the highly popular social media platform and human interest food account he started in the summer of 2022 as a means of understanding his personal relationships with food and creating community as a new resident to New York.

It's no surprise that in less than a year, Literally.Starving has garnered over 3 million subscribers from around the world and has been featured on BuzzFeed, First We Feast, World Journal, Fox News, and numerous other publications. We’re excited to have him at On The Pass where we dig deeper into his creator journey.

This journey began long before the genesis of Literally.Starving and stretches back to when his Chinese immigrant parents sought a better opportunity and escaped China’s one child policy regulations. Yiming’s parents settled in Tampa, Florida and opened a local Chinese-American takeout restaurant, which is where he truly found his love and deep curiosity for cooking and how food brings people together.

In this episode, we discuss the impact of his upbringing in his family’s restaurant, the origins of Literally.Starving, the evolution of both his content creator journey and this platform, and the responsibility and ethics around creating media and having a growing, global platform. It’s a story about entrepreneurship, community building, and following one’s passions.

Hungry for more? Let’s get into our exciting conversation with Yiming Lin of Literally.Starving!

Did you know Colombia is home to 87 indigenous communities and 51,330 species of flora and fauna, which makes it the second-most biodiverse country in the world?

Back in April 2023, Gabriel had the pleasure of spending time in Bogotá, Colombia with our next guests: Chef Leonor ‘Leo’ Espinosa and her daughter, the sommelier and drinks alchemist, Laura Hernández Espinosa. Both are the owners and creative visionaries behind the critically-acclaimed and globally recognized restaurant, LEO.

Chef Leo and Laura are Colombia’s highest-profile women working in gastronomy and have played an integral role in putting Colombia on the global culinary map. Restaurante LEO has ranked in both The World’s 50 Best and Latin America’s 50 Best lists many times, and Leo has been named The World’s Best Female Chef. She also took home the prestigious Basque Culinary World Prize for the social and economic development work she, her daughter, and their team do at their NGO, FUNLEO.

Both inspiring women are on a mission to reintroduce Colombia’s ancestral culinary knowledge, while also supporting the country’s Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities. Colombia has 1.5 million indigenous people who, like elsewhere in the world, have been historically stripped of their rights and left with little resources. Leo and Laura are artfully telling the story of Colombia’s invisible territories and indigenous communities through the experience of fine dining.

Both the food and drinks proposal are uniquely delicious and extremely memorable. Leo and her team bring you on an unforgettable gastronomic journey through Colombia’s incredible biodiversity. It’s been one of Gabriel's favorite meals this year, and this experience has been a catalyst for wanting to discover more of Colombia and learn more about its numerous beauty and offerings. Our hope is that this episode sparks a similar interest and curiosity for listeners to get out and explore Colombia’s rich culture and delicious culinary scene.

This episode was recorded and released in Feb 2021.

Who is Shep Gordon? You’ve probably heard the popular phrase "Chefs Are The New Rockstars" — you can thank Shep for that. He's the visionary who brought chefs like Roger Vergé, Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck, Roy Yamaguchi and Daniel Boulud to the mainstream and coined the term “Celebrity Chefs.”

Coming from a colorful life as a music manager to artists like Alice Cooper, Luther Vandross, Blondie and Teddy Pendergrass to name a few, Shep brought his show business know-how to the culinary arts where he singlehandedly paved the path for chefs to become today's cultural icons.

If you've seen him in the beloved 2013 documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, directed by Mike Myers, his persona is no different in this episode. Being the phenomenal storyteller that Shep is, he shares personal stories about some of today's most iconic chefs before their heydays, what he saw in chefs that encouraged him to create a highway for them to have a better life, and his own journey with food.

Starting any business requires your energy, enthusiasm, and passion for the space, but to catalyze its success, you also need a mission, vision, and business plan. Our next guest, Sherry Villanueva, was a first-time hospitality entrepreneur, but with a focused vision and mission, she’s been able to successfully grow a multifaceted restaurant and hotel company. The mission is simple: Make people happy.

Sherry is the founder and managing partner of Acme Hospitality and proudly serves as the owner and operator of an innovative collection of restaurants and historic hotels. If you’ve spent any time in Santa Barbara, we guarantee you’ve eaten, sipped on a fun cocktail, or enjoyed a glass of wine (or some combination of the three) at one of her spots like Loquita, The Lark, Santa Barbara Wine Collective, La Paloma Cafe, Lucky Penny, Helena Ave Bakery, and numerous others.

With over a decade in the business, Sherry and her team diversified their portfolio several years back, started Acme Lodging, and have since opened historic properties in Grass Valley, Nevada City, and the newly opened 1950’s mid-century modern Palm Springs hotel, Azure Sky.

Sherry discusses helping pioneer Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, gives us a look into her creative process, and foreshadows what we can expect from her and her team in the years to come.

On this episode of the Hot Spot series, Gabriel Ornelas sits down with chef and restaurateaur Sean MacDonald. Sean is the chef/owner of Bar Monette—one of LA’s newest and most talked about restaurant openings located in Santa Monica. Sean was named Canada’s best young chef in 2016 by San Pellegrino and through the years, he has since made his mark on Toronto’s fine dining scene. Thanks, in large part, to his lovely wife Monette—for which his newest Santa Monica concept, Bar Monette, is named after—he made it out west to sunny Southern California.

Shortly after attending his friends and family pre-opening, Gabriel posted on social media saying, "Bar Monette will become your new third place, an instant neighborhood classic with delicious food and an even better vibe...Sean is setting the tone for the impact he will have in Los Angeles." Fast forward a month, it‘s been lovely to see publications such as Forbes, Time Out, Eater, and the Los Angeles Times, who have recently covered Sean’s exciting opening, share their high praises, too.

Listen as Sean talks about the development of Bar Monette, how he approaches challenges and cultivates joy, and how he plans to continue to evolve and grow in the City of Angels.

A little over 2 years ago, we released Season 2 episode 27 titled “The Future of Food and Tech,” featuring journalist and author of “Technically Food”, Larissa Zimberoff.

So much has transpired in the last 2 years since the release of this episode and her book, “Technically Food”. Given the lightning-fast pace the food-tech space moves at, it only made sense to have Larissa back on the podcast for a Part 2.

It brings us great pleasure to welcome Larissa back to the show to enlighten us, once again, on all things food-tech and future foods. If you’re new to this podcast, I suggest you go back and listen to episode 27. Larissa’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Bloomberg and many others.

In this episode, Larissa discusses the responsibility investors have in helping propel the future of food. She provides an update on what’s happening in the alternative protein space, the latest on cultivated meat, and helps answer some questions around when we will see future foods hit grocery stores and restaurants.

“Tea mind,” as referenced by Steve Schwartz, is the simple, celebratory act of serving tea and has well-documented, powerful health and wellness benefits on a physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional level. Over the years, researchers have discovered how the ingredients in a cup of tea can lift mood, improve focus, and perhaps even ward off depression and dementia. The combination of this simple act paired with quality ingredients lends itself to a 360 welness experience.

Master Tea Blender and Founder and CEO of Art of Tea, Steve Schwartz, in large part, has based his career on his belief in the powerful benefits of tea and is on a mission to impact as many lives as possible through tea. Steve lost his mother at an early age, and the tragic loss lead him on a path to discover and explore wellness. He found Ayurveda, the ancient Indian medical system based on ancient writings that rely on a “natural” and holistic approach to physical and mental health.

Steve begins our conversation with a proper tea tasting experience, giving both myself and listeners a snapshot of the art of tasting tea. We get properly grounded, present, and activate our tea minds. He shares his own philosophy around healthy living, which he pulls from his studies of Ayurvedic practices. Steve also provides insight into his travels in search of the perfect product, as well as the numerous lives he gets to interact with along the way.

Grab yourself a cup of tea, get grounded, and enjoy episode 61 with Steve Schwartz, Founder and CEO of Art of Tea.

On this episode of the Hot Spot series, Gabriel Ornelas sits down with entrepreneur and sommelier Kristin Olszewski. Kristin is the Founder and CEO of Nomadica Wine—a premium, sustainably sourced canned wine brand that is looking to make waves in the industry, or as they say on the Nomadica website, they are sourcing universally gratifying wines with flavor profiles that are “serious enough for a glass, but vivacious enough to be sipped out of the can.”

Kristin earned a degree in sustainable agriculture before embarking on pre-med studies at Harvard, but life had different plans for her. She met the owner of a wine bar who sparked her passion for wine, and decided to drop out of Harvard Medical School to earn a Level 3 sommelier certification.

Kristin then spent the next decade working at iconic and award winning establishments like Saison, Osteria Mozza, Gigi’s, Husk and numerous others. Now Kristin is on a mission to disrupt the wine industry and is architecting a plan to draw in younger consumers to the category.

"Everywhere in the world there are tensions – economic, political, religious. So we need chocolate,” says the great Alain Ducasse—iconic chef, creator, and artisan of living. We couldn’t agree more and believe life is so much better because of chocolate. Chocolate is one of the most beloved foods and ingredients around the world. Almost every culture and society have a passionate love affair with it. There is no limit to the power chocolate has in cultivating emotive reactions, and it often accompanies major milestones throughout our lives.

But have you ever been curious about how chocolate is made? The rich history of chocolate? Ever wonder about the ways chefs and chocolatiers from all over the globe put their own unique, creative twists on this ancient super food? At On The Pass, these are questions we often contemplate on, as we are fortune enough to sit down with the best chefs and creatives in the business. We decided to go straight to the source and have on our next guest.

You may remember on a previous episode, Gabriel was in Mérida, Mexico in November 2022, for Latin America’s 50 Best Awards and got to spend time with Philippe Bongrain. Philippe is the CEO of República del Cacao, a Certified B-Corp creating the most authentic Latin American Chocolate hand-in-hand with local communities.

As Chief Executive of one of the premier chocolate manufacturers based in Quito, Ecuador—the birthplace of the modern domestication of premium fine cacao—Philippe provides in-depth insight into his company’s passion and dedication to the craft and a step-by-step process from cacao seed to chocolate bar. Philippe enthusiastically takes us on a journey through Ecuador, the origins of modern-day chocolate making, and República del Cacao’s mission of creating a chocolate with purpose.