50 Tastes Of Gray

​Pastry chef Melanie Underwood hates cheesecake — and wrote the book on it anyway. A warm, funny, no-filter conversation about teaching cooking, trusting yourself in the kitchen, and why food has no barrier it cannot cross.

After 25 years at the Institute of Culinary Education, plus pastry posts at the Four Seasons and the Plaza in New York, Melanie now teaches from her home kitchen. She runs Nourish and Gather, teaches mindfulness and sound baths, and built Tart AF — always fabulous, always flaky — around the permission she gives students to trust themselves.

In this 27-minute cut: why "I know" is the worst thing a cooking student can say, the husband who suggested 32 students with knives, the month she showed up at a hotel every day until they gave her an apprenticeship, the mentor who told her to apply for the Four Seasons job — and watched Melanie get it — plus Junior's vs. Cheesecake Factory, a four-ingredient quark cheesecake, the Tart AF origin story, warm vanilla pudding, the potluck war over store-bought food, borrowed spoons, and the most impossible person she ever cooked for.

If you've ever stood in your kitchen wondering what to cook, or felt judged for how you cook, this one's for you.

Chapters:
00:00 An Egg Any Way She Can Get One
00:14 'I Know!' (No, You Don't) — Blame Shitty Influencers
01:08 32 Strangers With Knives? Absolutely the Hell Not
01:48 Screw Your Gadgets — A Microplane and a Knife Will Do
02:17 Mama's Band-Aid Knife & the Onion-Gravy Rebellion
02:59 Bette, Claire & the Student Who Got Baked (Not the Good Kind)
03:52 Pre-Law Dropout Pestered a Hotel Daily Until They Caved
05:10 The Boys Said She Wouldn't Get It — She Got the Four Seasons Job
05:48 Escape From Cold Prep: Born to Bake, Baby
06:24 No Barrier Food Can't Cross — Dumplings Prove We're All Cousins
07:47 I Hate Cheesecake — So Obviously I Wrote the Book
09:02 Four Ingredients, No Crust, Zero Apologies: The Quark Cheesecake
10:41 Enter Tart AF (Yes, THAT AF)
11:39 Kellogg Would Crush You — and a Teen Called It Cringe
13:01 The Bear: Real Kitchens, Real Meltdowns, Real Humans
14:05 Pudding Is a Sweater You Can Eat
14:37 Dr. Jekyll & Ms. Tart: Sweet by Day, Spicy by Night
16:02 She Dropped the F-Bomb, a Lady Gasped — Then She Doubled Down
17:27 Flat? That's Just Code for Needs More Acid
18:13 Saffron Cheesecake & 'Don't Bring Store-Bought or Don't Come'
20:29 Wanted for Spoon Theft: Stories in Spoons
21:13 Turn the Tables: The Most Impossible Producer She Ever Fed
21:51 Teenagers Are Bankrolling DoorDash — $400 a Week, Salty & Broke
23:05 Cooking at Home Is Cheaper — Close Your Eyes & Trust Your Fridge
24:42 She Married a Chef and Had No Idea — Plot Twist!
25:34 Follow Her, Then Book a Flight to Hawaii: Aloha!
FOLLOW MELANIE UNDERWOOD Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourishandgather.co Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/NourishandGatherco/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieunderwood/ Substack: https://substack.com/@tartaf
FOLLOW MATTHEW GRAY
50 Tastes Of Gray: Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules. New episodes weekly.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/50tastesofgray
Facebook: https://facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii
Substack: https://50tastesofgray.substack.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@50TastesOfGray
Subscribe, and tell us in the comments: what's the one thing you were told you "can't" put in a dish?

#PastryChef #Baking #50TastesOfGray #MelanieUnderwood #ChefInterview

Same men, better chairs. Matthew Gray compares the Morocco he remembers from the 1970s with the Morocco Siham Lahmine lives in today, in Fez.

Siham Lahmine was born in Fez, lives there now, and runs Morocco Travel Organizer, which describes itself as Morocco's first woman-owned culinary and luxury heritage tour company. But this episode isn't about her resume. It's about food as inheritance.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

Matthew remembers Morocco in the 70s: men squatting on the road, women doing all the visible work, little boys swarming to be his guide. Siham tells him what Fez is today. Sitting, not squatting. A community that is a radar. A 1,200-year-old Medina where you feel it if you don't belong. She's careful not to generalize: she's talking about the men you see on the street, not every man.

And we talk food the way Siham's mom would want us to. Not just tagine and couscous.
- Bissara: fava bean soup thickened in a clay tagine with cumin and olive oil
- Pastilla from Fez: shredded chicken, fried ground almonds, caramelized onions, honey, and FIFTEEN eggs, topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon
- Tanjia: meat and spices buried in hot ashes for three hours. You know it's done when you shake it and the bone stops sloshing
- Medfuna ("the buried"): a nomadic pizza from the Sahara
- Berber vs. Amazigh: why Siham avoids the word Berber, and what the original people of Morocco call themselves

FAVORITE MOMENT: Siham's grandmother called couscous "the royal ball." She'd squeeze the grain with vegetables and meat, roll it in her hand, and feed it directly to her grandchildren. Eating with your hands brings bliss, baraka. That's inheritance.

And Siham's mom? Her kitchen is her kingdom. She says yes, yes, yes, then pushes you out without realizing it. Aunties, daughter, and a son who cooks for himself in Germany, all kicked out. Matthew wants to steal the technique.

IF YOU'RE GOING TO MOROCCO: Siham says visit the Marrakech souk by 6 pm, when the carts are coming in and the movement starts. And try timija tea in the High Atlas Mountains, a woolly plant that looks like mint and grows by the rivers. Spiky and sweet.

Salam means peace. Bislama means goodbye.

FOLLOW SIHAM LAHMINE
https://MoroccoTravelOrganizer.com/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089627667747
https://www.instagram.com/moroccotravelorganizer/

FOLLOW MATTHEW GRAY
50 Tastes Of Gray: Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules. New episodes weekly.
50TastesOfGray@gmail.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/50tastesofgray
Facebook: https://facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii
Substack: https://50TastesOfGray.substack.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@50TastesOfGray

About Matthew: Grand Diplôme Le Cordon Bleu Paris, cooked on the road for The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, private chef for Robin Williams, Dan Aykroyd and Paramount studio heads. Chef since the '80s, Hawaii since the '90s.

"I don't care about monetizing. I care about engagement, respect, and making friends. I go for the funny bone, not the jugular."

#Morocco #MoroccanFood #50TastesOfGray

Why does a Harvard Medical School scientist miss home the most when he's hungry?

Dr. Saravanan Thangarajan left Chennai for Boston with a Harvard tag and a suitcase full of spice he couldn't find near Harvard. We talk teeth, temples, Tamil, and what he's eaten today.

This one is rice, spice, and a lot of heart.

WHAT WE COVER ON THE CUTTING BOARD:

00:00 Why a Harvard scientist was tired of smart-people podcasts
00:42 I butcher his name. He fixes it. (Saravanan 101)
02:15 Chennai → Boston: He left everything for the Harvard tag
04:10 Why dentistry? "My sister made it look cool… until I got in"
06:30 WHAT HAVE YOU EATEN TODAY? Rice, spice, and missing home
08:20 No Indians near Harvard Med, so he found the temple
09:30 Caste is your last name — Gen Z says "we care about vibe"
11:00 "Is mother alive? Is child alive? We never ask are you OK" - maternal mental health
12:30 Pandemic phone calls for oxygen beds → art → NYC billboard
13:30 How to say goodbye: Vanakkam to Aloha

Guest: Dr. Saravanan Thangarajan - Dentist, Artist, Harvard Medical School Researcher
Host: Matthew — 50 Tastes Of Gray with Matthew

#Harvard #harvardmedicalschool #tamil #chennai #boston #dentist #maternalmentalhealth #indianfood #vanakkam #aloha #50TastesOfGray #WhatHaveYouEatenToday #immigrantstory #temple

Sara Causey joins host Matthew Gray of 50 Tastes Of Gray for an unscripted conversation about authenticity, creativity, art, and building a life that feels genuinely hers. A biographer, author, and artist, Causey explains why she rejected the conventional path to success, how she lets creative projects evolve, and why meaningful work often requires stepping beyond what feels safe.

In this episode:
Causey defines “eccentricity of purpose” as living authentically instead of conforming to expectations.

She distinguishes between eccentricity as a marketing brand and eccentricity as a lived reality, including the willingness to be misunderstood.

Causey recounts reaching a corner office at age 39 and realizing that the promised corporate-ladder victory felt hollow.
She discusses regret, reinvention, and the importance of choosing differently with the time that remains.

Her fascination with Richard Burton led to imaginative ideas centered on cinematic grandeur, spectacle, and artistic collaboration.
Causey explains how she lets each writing project determine its own form, genre, audience, and voice.

She argues that creative growth is not about hustle culture, but about challenging yourself and occasionally feeling scared by your own work.
Her book Simply DAG: The Private Man in a Public and Dangerous Office uses an intimate first-person perspective to place readers inside Dag’s negotiations, bomb threats, and moments of danger.

She shares how reader feedback confirmed that the book created a powerful sense of personal connection with Dag.

The conversation closes with Swedish food, cloudberries, pickled herring, and the value of unscripted conversations.

0:00 What "eccentric on purpose" actually means — and why faking it will kill you
0:52 Real eccentric vs. brand eccentric — lipstick, beret, and the biographer they can't accept
1:55 The corner office at 39 that felt like a pyrrhic victory
2:52 Regret is a trap — don't die with your music still inside you
4:28 Modern cinema is digital vomit — and why Richard Burton still ruins me
5:50 My rebellion against sameness — bring back the robes, the gold, the spectacle
7:21 I let the Muse tell me — stop holding your art in a death grip
8:56 If you feel safe in your art, you're doing it wrong
10:03 Simply DAG scared me — challenging the gatekeepers
10:56 The Simply DAG elevator pitch — you're not reading history, you're IN it
13:25 Screw the scripted interview — real conversation keeps your brain alive

Sara Causey Contact Info:
Website: https://saracausey.com
Books: https://saracausey.com/my-books
Podcast: The Causey Consulting Podcast
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-causey/
"Decoding the Unicorn" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DSCS5PZT

Follow Matthew Gray:

50 Tastes Of Gray — Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules. New episodes weekly.

50TastesOfGray@gmail.com

Instagram: @50tastesofgray
Facebook: facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii
Substack: 50TastesOfGray.substack.com
YouTube: @50TastesOfGray

#introvert
#careerchange
#highlysensitiveperson

What if numbness isn't apathy — but overload?

In this episode of 50 Tastes of Gray, I sit down with writer and journalist Maria Cassano (The Good Girl Recovery Guide, upcoming memoir Numb, Party of One - Feb 2027) for an honest conversation about depersonalization, derealization, and the cost of being the "good girl."

Maria shares what it was like to feel gone for years, why people-pleasing and hyper-empathy can tip the nervous system into shutdown, and how everyday rituals — coffee, boundaries, and yes, magic shell — became tools for coming back.

We get into:

The real lived experience of depersonalization vs. the clinical definition
Good Girl Recovery: unlearning performative care
Boundaries as a nervous system practice, not just a concept
Finding safety and pleasure in small sensory rituals
Reclaiming "I'm Good Now" without pretending you were never hurt
Maria's writing: The Good Girl Recovery Guide on Substack — https://mariacassano.substack.com/

If you’ve ever felt numb, checked out, or “too much” and “not enough” at the same time — this one is for you.

Jenny Linford grew up across Ghana, Trinidad, Singapore, Italy, and London, experiences that shaped her lifelong fascination with flavor, markets, and regional food traditions. In this episode, Jenny explains the difference between British supper, dinner, and pudding; shares her family’s Queen of Puddings recipe; and tells the story of Nigella Lawson DM’ing her to say she was a fan.

We explore her self‑taught path into food writing, her global childhood, the immigrant food shops that taught her how to cook, and how she researched London’s food scene before the internet. Jenny talks about Singapore hawker centers, regional Italian food, the rise of British cuisine, the decline of fishmongers, and why markets matter more than ever.

She also discusses cookbook production, writing for Kew Gardens and the British Museum, artisan cider and cheese, AI’s impact on food publishing, and her cheese podcast A Slice of Cheese. This conversation is warm, generous, nostalgic, and full of food stories that last.

Follow Jenny Linford:

https://JennyLinford.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/jlinford

Follow Matthew Gray:
🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray — Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules. New episodes weekly.

📩50TastesOfGray@gmail.com

📸 Instagram: @50tastesofgray
📘 Facebook: facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii
✍️ Substack: 50TastesOfGray.substack.com
▶️ YouTube: @50TastesOfGray

#foodwriter #britishfood #globalflavors #homecooking #foodstories

A delightfully unhinged conversation about sourdough, butter wars, cat cuddles, Pittsburgh fries, and the chaos of being human.

He paid fifty bucks to mail sourdough to Canada — and somehow that wasn’t even the strangest part of the conversation.

This episode is pure, delightful silliness. It’s food, life, marketing, cats, Pittsburgh fries‑on‑everything culture, Dan Aykroyd, poop, and the kind of unexpected stories that only happen when two people stop trying to be serious and just hang out.

We talk about homemade sourdough, the cold‑butter debate, gluten‑free cornflake chicken, and why Will’s smoothie is measured like a NASA experiment. We wander into Pittsburgh comfort food, childhood memories, outdoor adventures, and the existential question of whether cornflakes should be allowed to “sing.”

But the episode also gets surprisingly useful:
Will breaks down why marketing is storytelling, why sales is not marketing, and why home buyers respond to emotion more than specs. We get into real estate humor, home‑buying psychology, and why “new vs. used” is more of a feeling than a feature list.

Along the way, we hit:

Gluten sensitivity and the hidden places gluten lurks

Cats with human names and the art of cat‑armpit cuddling

Why adults should go outside and act like kids

The smell of rain (petrichor) and why it makes people feel alive

Celebrity chefs, BLTs, avocado toast, and Pittsburgh fries‑on‑everything culture

Chainsaws, yard work, and the joy of doing something physical

Neurotic New York Jew humor, childhood nostalgia, and cultural identity

Travel stories, music memories, and the food that reveals who you are

If you like food, weird stories, sharp conversation, and a little observational nonsense, this episode is your jam.

#Sourdough

#FoodPodcast

#Marketing

#Storytelling

#podcastinterview #50TastesOfGray

Katie and Chris Bowick sit down with me on 50 Tastes Of Gray to talk openly about addiction and the ways it shaped their lives. This conversation is not a recovery seminar. It is not a redemption arc. It is two people telling the truth as they remember it, even when those memories do not match.

We explore how addiction rearranged their timelines, how humor survived the hardest years, and how storytelling becomes a way to hold conflicting truths at the same time. The episode moves between laughter, tension, and reflection. It stays human. It stays honest. It stays in the gray.

Follow Chris & Katie:

Coloring Outside the Lines: A Love Story in the Gray of Addiction, Recovery, and Redemption​

Available https://shorturl.at/uxhcj

📘 Facebook: @LoveThroughTheGray

📸 Instagram: @LoveThroughTheGray TikTok: @lovethroughthegray

▶️ YouTube: @LoveThroughTheGray Follow Matthew Gray:

🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray — Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules. New episodes weekly.

📸 Instagram: @50tastesofgray

📘 Facebook: facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii

✍️ Substack: 50TastesOfGray.substack.com

▶️ YouTube: @50TastesOfGray

#SoberLiving #AddictionRecovery #MarriedCouples #RecoveryJourney #50TastesOfGray

Decadent & Notorious pretty much sums up Mindy Crosato.

She's the force behind Decadent Creations and the creator of Notorious B.A.G.E.L., two very different expressions of the same obsession: making food interesting.

On 50 Tastes Of Gray, Matthew Gray sits down with Mindy for a wide-ranging conversation about macarons, champagne, unconventional bagels, food waste, culinary creativity, French food, family and building food businesses.

Mindy talks about the precision behind her macarons, including her memorable “happy elf” meringue test, and why she personally still makes roughly 1,000 macarons a week.

Then there's Notorious B.A.G.E.L.

Mindy explains why she created a separate business around her bagels and why she deliberately went in an unconventional direction. Chicken soup bagels, Frito pie bagels, furikake, kimchi egg and inventive cream cheeses are part of the mix.

The conversation also gets into champagne and sparkling wine, including Mindy's love of Spanish traditional-method sparkling wine, her reputation as a food snob, and the memorable story of her “divorce bottle” of Dom Pérignon.

One of the most fascinating parts of the conversation is Mindy's approach to food waste. Her bakery has developed what she calls “carryover pathways” and “utilization pathways,” finding new uses for products that might otherwise be discarded. Brioche and croissants become bread pudding. Cookies become crumble. Whole leftover pies can become filling for cinnamon rolls.

Mindy also talks about:

Decadent Creations
Collective Market
Portland food and baking
Macarons and meringue technique
Champagne and sparkling wine
Notorious B.A.G.E.L.
Unconventional bagel flavors
Brisket and “salt beef”
French culinary culture
Cooking for family
Her cookbook
Food photography and creative direction
A French-Pacific Northwest supper club
Farmers markets and building a food business
Culinary classes
Food waste and creative reuse

And then Mindy takes over the interview.

She turns the questions on Matthew, getting into what he cooks at home, his spice pantry, roasting coffee, Hawaii and the years he spent building Hawaii Food Tours.

It's a conversation about food, but it's really a conversation about how people think, create, build businesses, and decide what makes life worth tasting.

This is 50 Tastes Of Gray.

00:00 — Decadent & Notorious
00:39 — The early-morning baker
02:09 — Champagne, dosage & Spanish sparkling wine
05:01 — What does “decadent” really mean?
06:02 — The divorce bottle
09:03 — Working with your husband
10:00 — When the dishwasher catches fire
14:47 — French food culture & being a food snob
18:15 — The art of making macarons
19:37 — Mindy's “happy elf” meringue test
21:24 — Why macarons cost so much
22:44 — The fight against food waste
23:05 — Mindy's utilization pathways
26:16 — The Raccoon Baker
28:14 — Mindy's first food memory
29:36 — Burgers, fries & beef suet
32:31 — What do you do with peach skins?
33:15 — Collective Market
36:03 — Mindy's secret smashed-potato seasoning
38:05 — Cooking for people you want to impress
41:32 — The ultimate dessert for her husband
43:09 — The French-Pacific Northwest supper club
46:03 — Speaking French
47:28 — The blended family
49:30 — The next generation of cooks
51:06 — What's Mindy eating today?
53:07 — What makes a great bagel?
54:51 — Notorious B.A.G.E.L.
56:29 — Brisket and salt beef
57:36 — The cookbook & creative life
01:00:19 — Squab, binchotan & French tomatoes
01:02:19 — Mindy takes over the interview
01:02:42 — What does Matthew cook at home?
01:03:13 — The spice pantry
01:04:05 — Roasting coffee the homemade way
01:06:14 — Hawaii Food Tours
01:10:40 — Mindy's cooking classes
01:12:39 — What will Aurelien think?
01:16:10 — Mindy's final pitch
01:16:45 — Aloha

In this episode of 50 Tastes of Gray, Matthew Gray sits down with former private jeweler and mental‑performance trainer Kendra Lockhart for a raw, cinematic conversation about the diamond industry’s hidden corners, the solar‑eclipse tattoo that changed her life, and the reinvention that pulled her out of burnout.

Kendra opens with a powerful story of loss, intuition, and the white‑ink tattoo she carries as a reminder that “the sun never sets.” From there, she reveals the truth behind the jewelry world — the ethics, the chaos, the lab‑grown disruption, and the emotional toll of working inside an industry built on beauty and pressure.

The conversation shifts into identity, mental performance, burnout, and the psychology of rebuilding yourself from the inside out. Kendra explains how she helps people navigate grief, overwhelm, reinvention, and the invisible mechanics of the mind.

And then Chicago enters the room — food, culture, deep dish, tomato allergies, Midwest emotional etiquette, and the soulful moments that define the city.

This episode is about truth, transformation, and the strange, beautiful ways people find themselves again.

Follow Kendra: https://www.instagram.com/kendra.lockhart/

Follow Matthew Gray:

🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray - Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules. New episodes weekly. Subscribe for more. 📸 Instagram: @50tastesofgray

📘 Facebook: facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii

✍️ Substack: 50TastesOfGray.substack.com

▶️ YouTube: @50TastesOfGray

•

#50TastesOfGray

•

#KendraLockhart

•

#DiamondIndustry

•

#MentalPerformance

•

#ChicagoCulture

Ten years ago, Tricia Baxley's husband of twenty-one years died by suicide. What followed wasn't just grief — it was the complete unraveling of who she thought she was.

In this conversation, Tricia opens up about the addiction and enabling that shaped her marriage long before that night, the eerie moment she felt her husband tell her he was "disconnected," and the minister who broke down in tears hearing her story because it was the exact explanation he'd never been able to give for his own attempt decades earlier.

We talk about telling her sons the truth, the fifty fraternity brothers who left their own families on Parents Weekend to show up for her son at the funeral, the unorthodox therapist who screamed at her that none of it was her fault, and how she rebuilt an entire identity from nothing.

This one goes to some heavy places. It's also, ultimately, about resilience.

⚠️ Content note: This episode discusses suicide and addiction in detail. If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) is available 24/7 in the US.

Find Tricia: pathforhealing4.com · Books on Amazon under Tricia Baxley

Follow Matthew Gray:

🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray - Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules. New episodes weekly. Subscribe for more. 📸 Instagram: @50tastesofgray

📘 Facebook: facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii

✍️ Substack: 50TastesOfGray.substack.com

▶️ YouTube: @50TastesOfGray

#resilience #griefjourney #suicideprevention #MentalHealthPodcast #50TastesOfGray

George Switzer walked into the studio as “the guy who runs Queen Anne Ravioli Factory,” but that turned out to be the least interesting thing about him. What followed was one of those rare conversations where a man’s entire life — the chaos, the humor, the heartbreak, the Brooklyn corners, the cops, the catechism, the liquor cabinet, the inheritance battles — all show up without him ever trying to perform.

You opened the episode with the truth: "George doesn’t perform his stories, he just tells them. Laugh, funny, completely unbothered." And later, he summed up his worldview in one line that stayed with you: "Better days are coming… but there’ll be something else to worry about soon enough. You know that’s just the way life is."

This episode is the first half of a two‑hour conversation — the second half was lost to a recording glitch — but what remains stands entirely on its own. It’s Brooklyn, it’s family, it’s food, it’s survival, it’s humor, it’s grief, it’s the strange luck of life, and it’s George.

CHAPTERS:
00:00:00 – This is George Switzer
00:01:06 – They Tried To Snatch My Father's House
00:03:24 – Pizza, Always The Corner, Never The Middle
00:04:25 – The Latchkey Kid
00:06:04 – I'll Stick To Steak
00:07:26 – The Island With One Stoplight
00:08:46 – Unlikely Hero
00:12:15 – The Inheritance
00:13:06 – 26 Years Late To Church
00:15:29 – Outtakes & Wisdom
00:42:03 – That's Just The Way Life Is, I Suppose

Queen Ann Social Media Info:

instagram.com/queenannravioli

facebook.com/queenannravioli

https://www.tiktok.com/@queenannravioli

Queen Ann Ravioli & Macaroni 7205 18th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11204

Follow Matthew Gray:

🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray - Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules.

New episodes weekly. Subscribe for more.

📸 Instagram: @50tastesofgray

📘 Facebook: facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii

✍️ Substack: 50TastesOfGray.substack.com

▶️ YouTube: @50TastesOfGray

#BrooklynStories #ItalianFoodCulture #50TastesOfGray

#BrooklynStories #ItalianFoodCulture #50TastesOfGray

Kristina Gorr is a ghostwriter who's spent her career helping people sound like themselves instead of everyone else. In this episode, she and Matthew dig into the real anxiety writers have about AI accusations, the em dash controversy that made her go viral, what separates ghostwriting from copywriting, and the emotional work of helping someone remember their own life for a memoir. Along the way: Appalachian roots, condiment purism, chocolate snobbery, and a few things you didn't know you needed to know about corn dogs.

Show Notes / Key Topics:

• The em dash debate and why AI writing tends to sound "average"
• Ghostwriting vs copywriting: what's actually different
• Client relationships, NDAs, and attribution in ghostwriting
• Coaching someone through their first memoir
• Growing up in Appalachian Ohio and what stays with you
• The great condiment debate (ketchup gets a pass, mustard does not)
• Chocolate snobbery, whipped cream, and Dubai chocolate bars
• Trading Ohio hills for Hawaii volcanoes

Guest Info:
Kristina Gorr, ghostwriter and founder of Crafted Voice
Website: craftedvoice.com
Newsletter: Write to Lead (craftedvoice.com/write-to-lead)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinagorr/
Instagram: instagram.com/craftedvoice

Category: Arts > Books, or Society & Culture

Episode Tags: ghostwriting, AI writing, em dash, memoir writing, Appalachia, brand voice, creative writing, writing tips, content creation, interview podcast

Chad Gerber is a platinum‑selling musician, inventor, and creative force whose life blends music, technology, chaos, and curiosity. In this episode, we talk about his global lifestyle, the origins of Melocene, the challenges of real‑time remote music, and the deep‑tech breakthroughs behind it.

We also dive into food disasters, childhood cravings, Minecraft therapy, sleep struggles, AI futures, and the strange balance between being both an artist and an engineer. It’s a fast, funny, human conversation full of invention, honesty, and unexpected stories.

This is one of the funniest, most human conversations I’ve had — and yes, the episode ends with Chad glitching out mid‑sentence. We turned it into a bit.

00:00 – “Hi, welcome to chaos.”

00:10 – Chad’s internet footprint + his New York side quest

01:08 – Hydration talk with a man who lives in Arizona

02:04 – Chad’s “I live everywhere and nowhere” lifestyle

03:26 – Melocene: “What if Zoom didn’t suck for musicians?”

04:00 – How Melocene works (aka: witchcraft for audio nerds)

05:28 – Shrinking audio like it’s a pair of jeans in the dryer

06:34 – International demos: the universe says “no”

07:50 – Tech fails, panic sweats, and accidental comedy

09:26 – Kitchen disasters & Robin Williams screaming in your soul

11:13 – Pickles, childhood snacks, and unhinged cravings

13:07 – New York food: the gospel according to Chad

14:38 – Food chaos & stories that should not exist

15:29 – The last thing Chad violently disassembled for fun

16:50 – Government projects & imposter syndrome speedrun

18:31 – Minecraft: therapy for grown‑up children

19:41 – Society’s goldfish brain vs real human connection

22:32 – AI, automation & the future of “are we screwed?”

27:31 – Playing music mid‑conversation like a chaotic bard

29:03 – Sounds that haunt Chad’s dreams (including chalkboard hell)

30:33 – Listening to music like a forensic scientist

32:48 – Building the Woodrow Gerber sonic multiverse

35:03 – Chad’s dream: a choir the size of a small nation

36:23 – The origin of “Woodrow” (not a cowboy, shockingly)

37:29 – Musician + engineer = beautiful, layered chaos

38:54 – Chad tries to find calm (lol)

39:12 – Solving chaos with modular life hacks

40:08 – The AI invention that mutes commercials (bless him)

41:15 – Sleep problems: Chad vs his own brain

43:17 – Podcasts & audiobooks: the adult lullaby

44:04 – The “solution podcast” nobody asked for

44:12 – Chad’s calm alter‑ego appears with a guitar

45:07 – Lightning round: analog, chaos, travel, identity crisis

47:47 – Sounds Chad loves… and sounds he wants to fight

48:41 – Latency: the silent killer of musical joy

49:02 – The tech that changed his life (spoiler: a laptop)

50:25 – Movies, psychology, and celebrity food adventures

54:24 – Chad’s chef era: cooking for famous humans

55:58 – Actors, musicians & the ego Olympics

56:48 – Staying true to art while dodging politics

57:17 – Chad’s inner circle: the people who keep him sane

58:56 – Family, travel & the chaos‑connection tightrope

61:28 – Chad records a promo for his loved ones

62:36 – How art sneaks into everyday chaos

63:17 – Follow Chad online + NYC meetup tease

CHAD’S LINKS: ChadGerber.com Instagram: @ChadGerber

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#MusicTechnology #CreativeProcess #ElectronicMusic

Twenty guests. Twenty sparks. One very human journey. This tasting‑menu episode brings together the small, surprising, emotional moments that stayed with me — the tension, the laughter, the warmth, the honesty. These twenty people each gave me something real, and this episode is my way of honoring that.

This episode features twenty past guests, each bringing their own flavor, energy, and spark. From comedians to cookbook authors, from relationship experts to tech minds, from wine lovers to world travelers, these conversations created moments that lingered long after the recording stopped.

Featured Guests: Diane Dye Femi Oke Gina Barreca Brian Kiley Chef Adina Mullen David Page Andrea Lemieux Angie Callen Nicholas Garrett Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell S. Stephon Brown Sanya Bari Sharief Johnson Valerie Polunas Richard Blank Shafer Stedron Heidi Herman Jamie Meyer Elizabeth Hamilton‑Guarino Michael McGlone

What You’ll Hear: • A tiny confrontation that sparked the whole episode • Humor, tension, warmth, and surprise • Twenty micro‑moments that hit harder than expected • A tasting menu of human connection

Adam Barney walked into this conversation carrying more life than most people admit out loud. He’s a leadership coach, a father, a husband, a son, and a man who has spent the last decade navigating the kind of chaos that strips you down to your real self. Losing his mom to ALS, supporting his dad through hydrocephalus, and helping his wife through chemo — these aren’t bullet points. They’re the architecture of who he is now.

We talk about caregiving as identity, burnout as a signal, leadership as something you can’t fake, and the strange comfort of routines — like his cold‑brew AeroPress ritual that borders on religion. We wander through Boston, Kauai, oysters, currywurst, Irish curry, Brick Lane, festival wristbands, and the way music becomes a map of who we’ve been.

Adam is thoughtful, open, funny, and grounded in a way that makes you feel like you’ve known him for years. This episode is about chaos, connection, and the quiet ways we keep moving forward.

Sound Bites

“Chaos is totally a truth serum.”

“You can’t fake who you are when you’re a caretaker.”

“Legacy is about the ripples you can make.”

🔗 CONNECT WITH ADAM W. BARNEY

Podcast: Is Anything Real?

Book: Make Your Own Glass Half Full

Newsletter: Plugged In Leadership Website / LinkedIn (as applicable)

Follow Matthew Gray: 🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray - Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules. New episodes weekly. Subscribe for more.

📸 Instagram: @50tastesofgray

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✍️ Substack: 50TastesOfGray.substack.com

▶️ YouTube: @50TastesOfGray #leadership

#caregiving #authenticity#Leadership #Caregiving #Authenticity

She wrote a murder mystery to survive turning 40 — literally. British author Gemma Denham sits down with Matthew Gray to talk about her debut thriller The Storm, the “40 Before 40” list that pushed her into writing, and the real controlling relationship she turned into fiction. Gemma opens up about parenting differences between the UK and US, the creative shift from illustrator to novelist, and the hilarious moment her family taped her to a chair for book‑research accuracy.

A cozy‑crime, midlife, creative‑chaos conversation filled with British traditions, personal growth, and the joy of becoming a first‑time author.

📖 The Storm — available wherever books are sold

📲 Follow Gemma: @GemmaDenham on X and Instagram

Follow Matthew Gray: 🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray - Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules. New episodes weekly. Subscribe for more.

📸 Instagram: @50tastesofgray

📘 Facebook: facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii

✍️ Substack: 50TastesOfGray.substack.com

▶️ YouTube: @50TastesOfGray

#50TastesOfGray #author #MurderMystery #DebutNovel

Jay Reifel is a lot of things — simultaneously, always. He's a historical chef who owns a larding needle and uses it. He's a catering director feeding pro baseball teams, law schools, and high-end weddings in the same week. He's a published food writer, a fiction writer with a novel always in progress, a rock climber on unbolted traditional routes, and a chess player who uses the game as a deliberate cognitive reset between creative projects.

He's also writing a new cookbook — not a recipe collection, but a guide built around technique and logic. His argument: once you understand why braising works, you can walk into any kitchen, open the fridge, and cook something delicious without a recipe. The recipe is training wheels. The technique is the actual skill.

In this episode, Matthew and Jay cover: the logic of cooking vs. the tyranny of recipes · traditional climbing in the Shawangunk Mountains · writing fiction in your head on a six-mile walk · playing chess to clear the creative decks · a therapeutic farm in the country with no cell service and a commercial bakery · what being handed an axe and trusted with it can do for a person at their lowest · and carrying a half pig and a recently deceased rooster onto the New York City subway.

The rooster's feet smelled terrible. He felt bad about it.

Find Jay at jayreifel.com or @jayreifel on Instagram. He answers cooking questions in the DMs. He means it.

Christine Smith — better known as The Food Granny — joins me for a conversation seasoned with grit, jam, humor, and the kind of lived‑in wisdom that only comes from a life cooked slowly.

Born in post‑war Yorkshire and shaped by ration‑era kitchens, Christine learned to cook by watching her grandmothers move through a kitchen like it was a language. She talks about simple food, wooden spoons, jam that forces you to slow down, and why Italian food is “peasant food done properly.”

We explore her unexpected journey: breaking her arm in Vietnam, writing a book with one finger on her phone, and accidentally turning her cat Milo into an AI‑generated internet celebrity. We also dive into language, grit, Aussie‑isms that “rip her knitting,” and the joy of embracing who you are instead of performing for the world.

This episode is warm, grounded, funny, and full of the kind of small truths that sneak up on you. Pull up a chair. Pour a cup of tea. Let Milo sleep on the stool next to you. You’re going to love this one.

#TheFoodGranny #50TastesOfGray #CookingStories

Christine Smith – The Food Granny

Website: thefoodgranny.com.au

Instagram: @thefoodgranny

Book: Granny’s Gripes

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🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray — Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules.

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🌺 HawaiiFoodTours.com

▶️ YouTube: @50TastesOfGray

He's the voice that's lived inside your head for years. "Geico could save you 15% or more on car insurance." But Michael McGlone — Brooklyn-born actor, author, and voiceover legend — is so much more than a tagline.

In this episode of 50 Tastes of Gray, host Matthew Gray sits down with McGlone for a wide-open conversation covering food, faith, sobriety, Hollywood survival, and the real story behind one of America's most iconic commercial voices.

Michael reveals how he landed the GEICO campaign and shot 20 spots, why he won't call himself an alcoholic after 20+ years of sobriety, his nightly Warrior Diet ritual of spinach and turkey eaten while watching All in the Family, and the real-life father lines hidden inside The Brothers McMullen — delivered live with Matthew's name dropped right in.

Plus: James Gandolfini's peerless genius, AI versus the human heart, cooking for rock legends, and why love is the only religion that never starts a war.

This is the conversation AI can mimic but never replace.

ABOUT THE GUEST Michael McGlone is an actor, author, and voiceover artist best known for the iconic GEICO "Did You Know?" commercial campaign, his role on NCIS Hawaii, and his breakout performance in Ed Burns' The Brothers McMullen. He has been sober for over 20 years and lives in Los Angeles.

ABOUT THE HOST Matthew Gray is a broadcaster, culinary expert, and Cordon Bleu-trained chef who toured with the Eagles, cooked for Pink Floyd, Robin Williams, and Heather Locklear, and now hosts 50 Tastes of Gray from Honolulu, Hawaii — where food, culture, and real human conversation meet.

New episodes weekly. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

🔔 Subscribe for new episodes | Share with someone who loves great conversation.

Connect with Michael
https://www.michaelmcglone.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdmcg/

Follow Matthew:

🎙️ 50 Tastes Of Gray — hosted by Matthew Gray

Broadcasting from Honolulu. One guest. No rules.

📸 Instagram: @50tastesofgray
📘 Facebook: facebook.com/50TastesOfGrayPodcast
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matthew-gray-hawaii
✍️ Substack: 50TastesOfGray.substack.com
🌺 HawaiiFoodTours.com
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#MichaelMcGlone #geico #50tastesofgray