Chef Andrew Gruel of Calico Fish House on Pacific Coast Highway in the Sunset Beach area of Huntington Beach and the Co-Host of the “SoCal Restaurant Show” for the last eight years joins us to celebrate the 12th Anniversary of the launch of the “SoCal Restaurant Show” on AM 830 KLAA radio reaching all of Southern California.
We’re live today from the Jute Patio overlooking the well-maintained 9-hole golf course at Westdrift Manhattan Beach – an Autograph Collection Hotel and the Official Hotel of the inaugural Manhattan Beach Food & Wine which continues tonight from 7 to 10:00 p.m. (VIP admission at 6:00 p.m.) at Manhattan Village.
All of our distinguished chef guests this morning are participants in the Festival.
For today’s very special anniversary show we’ll be joined by some of the high-profile and uber-talented chefs cooking at Manhattan Beach Food and Wine including Eric Klein, Executive Chef, Partner and Senior Vice President Culinary for Wolfgang Puck Catering, Host Chef Neal Fraser of Redbird & Vibiana, The Bay Area’s Chris Cosentino and Jayro Martinez of Westwood Coast Steakhouse in Costa Mesa. Also, Lisa Fontanesi, the long-time Los Angeles Director for C-CAP, the benefiting charity of Manhattan Beach Food & Wine.
Special thanks to our loyal Presenting Sponsors, Melissa’s World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats, for their unwavering support over the years. And to our listeners – we appreciate you tuning-in.
All of this and heaping helpings of extra deliciousness on this week’s not-to-miss show!
Good morning, Southern California, and welcome. If you're food obsessed, you've come to the right place. Join us for the next two hours and you won't go away hungry. One of the first American culinary icons junior child said, "People who love to eat are always the best people." We agree. Live today from the boutique West Rift Manhattan Beach and autographed collection hotel, the official hotel of Manhattan Beach Food and Wine. The SoCal restaurant show is on the air. And good morning and welcome. And yes, it is a very special day here at the SoCal restaurant show on AMA 30K LAA. It is our 12th anniversary show, if you want to believe that. And to celebrate in style, I am overlooking the 3-par 9-hole golf course at the West Drift Manhattan Beach, an autographed collection hotel, which is the official hotel of Manhattan Beach Food and Wine. And as part of our 12th anniversary celebration, we are celebrating the inaugural Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival, which continues tonight at Manhattan Village. And I am happy at this point to bring in my eight-year co-host on the SoCal restaurant show. Andrew Grohl to join in his festivities. And I am Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show. Chef Andrew, good morning and welcome. Ah, good morning, Andy. Sorry, I can't be there with you. Chef Andrew, as we explain over the years of the show, you are a working executive chef. You have a very busy restaurant in the Sunset Beach area of Huntington Beach. And also, you have a growing family. Because Chef Andrew, eight years ago, I think he only had two kids. And I do believe now you're up to four. That is correct. Chef Andrew, a lot of responsibility there. And you also have a very ambitious travel schedule because you do a lot of traveling, promoting sustainable seafood and some of your other passions. So I think that's a good thing. Chef Andrew, what are your highlights? Over your last eight years with the SoCal restaurant show. I know in particular you really enjoy doing the Ask the Chef segment every week, which we enjoy having on the show because it provides good information to our listening audience from the perspective of a working executive chef. But in addition to that, we also have a large constituency in our listening audience of chefs and restaurateurs and people in the hospitality industry, which always is a bit of a surprise to me. How do you react to all of that? Well, I think we got a lot of people within the industry listening. I know because they come in and they tell me they listen. So that's great. And I think over the years it's been a blast. And some of the most exciting things, I mean, obviously we've been able to travel, right? We've done the remote show out in Chicago. We did the show in-- at the Tonga was wonderful. That was a great one. And then we obviously got to do the Microbrew Festival the next day, some wonderful shows, some wonderful tastings. Well, the coolest is obviously all the books also that you've been able to kind of review. And then I get to take a look at myself as well as we interview the authors, having Meathead on. That one's a huge fan of his, so great to talk with him. But it's been wonderful, it's been wonderful all these years. And I commend you, Andy. Well, Chef Andrew, we appreciate your support over the years. And in talking about support, we do want to acknowledge our longtime sponsors who have been with us since day one, which, again, pleases me, no end, because it's unusual to have long-term relationships with sponsors like we have. But we certainly do need to acknowledge Melissa's world variety of produce and West Coast prime meets for their support of the show for over the last 12 years, which allows us to stay on the air, something we can never forget, because Chef Andrew, as we all know, there's no free lunch. Certainly the case, especially in a world where everybody has a podcast now. So it's still wonderful to be on the airwaves, right? You know, there's something about AM radio that it's just very appealing. And as I'm always fond of saying, in Southern California, as long as we spend the amount of time that we do in our cars, AM radio and talk radio is a very viable medium. And it was 12 years ago, and it still is in October of 2024. So it's something we never take for granted, but it definitely is a reality. And we enjoy, as you do Chef Andrew, supporting the restaurant and hospitality industry, because unfortunately, over the last 12 years of the show, editorial opportunities for restaurants and chefs, reaching the point of diminishing returns, because the print outlets that were so viable 12 years ago, the glossy magazines of 12 years ago, few and far between. So fortunately, we're still here being able to tell those stories of those small family-owned restaurants that are doing great and wonderful things, but don't necessarily have the corporate backing or resources or marketing budget to be able to handle that. And I know it's something you have a great appreciation for, because you are a serial entrepreneur yourself. Yeah, certainly. It's interesting you say that, because I was just getting into a conversation with the social media world last night about how corporateism and all these corporate concepts have taken over a lot of Main Street. There's been a little bit of a lack of flavor, but when I listen to this show and we get to talk to so many people, I'm reminded all of the wonderful independent mom-and-pop entrepreneurs out there, and the flavor of those one-off restaurants that still exist. And I know people love. That's the thing, people yearn for them. Sometimes they're harder to find, but they're there. No, Chef Hander, absolutely. Sometimes you really have to look behind the scenes and be a little careful about how you discover them. But they are out there if you want to make that tiny little extra effort to find them. And again, it wasn't easy before the pandemic. As you know now, it's even tougher. And as you pointed out to our listening audience over the years, we don't get political on the SoCal restaurant show, but we do talk about food politics. And California, unfortunately, we all live here. We love it. I would not want to live anywhere else. But California is a difficult place to do business. And we need to make it easier for these family-owned businesses, besides restaurants, to be able to make a living here. I mean, it's the basis of the economy, as you pointed out before. Yeah, it certainly is. I mean, California is blessed with the geography and terroir that's better than any place in the world, in my opinion. And the produce that comes out of here and the products and the bounty of the ocean. I mean, it is such an amazing state from a culinaryan's perspective. And everybody knows that. I mean, from Napa Valley all the way down to San Diego and everything in between. So I am-- I do admire the restaurants that have come out of California and the businesses. And especially those who have been able to get out successfully, because there's certainly a lot of landmines and a lot of hurdles. But it's been good to talk about them. And I think it's been very interesting, as we've kind of covered a lot of the different ways in which California sets a standard for certain things and then kind of experiments with other policies. And then the country looks on to see whether it's going to work or it's not going to work from the way in which they raise pigs and the way in which they harvest and distribute all the products here in California. So we're at the epicenter. But I think just generally, if all the listeners go out and support a lot of those independent one-off restaurants, whether it's getting local pizza versus a dominoes pizza and nothing wrong with dominoes, but just understanding that local main street feel, that's going to help California from a business perspective as well. Chef Andrew, amen to that. Again, we wanted you to be part of the opening segment here today, instead of the closing segment, to celebrate the 12th anniversary. Hopefully, we will have many more years of doing this. And again, your contribution is very important and definitely appreciated. And I know you've had a crazy busy week because you had the Pacific Air Show last weekend. And it's festival season now in Southern California, too. So definitely a lot going on. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. We're proudly presented by Melissa's World Variety Produce, Winery Return. Yes, Chef Jettila, who was my co-host for the first three years of the SoCal restaurant show. And we're very happy to welcome him back to his show.
