Local Guys Turn Love of Food into Podcast
For a couple guys from the northwest suburbs, the saying “food for thought” is more than a phrase.
Brooklyn Center’s Bryan Pierce and Danny Sussman of Robbinsdale love food so much, they do a weekly show titled the Food Scientists Podcast.
On the show, they consume calories and carbs, and talk salt and sugar.
“I must have eaten 12 kinds of Pop-Tarts in one day,” Sussman said. “They tried to sell me on Pop-Tarts.”
Full of Opinions
The podcast originates from Amy Zajack’s apartment in St. Paul. She provides the equipment and studio. Sussman and Pierce show up.
“We have fans,” Pierce said. “I guess we’ll call them that, who send us nasty things to eat.”
The co-hosts fill up on food, which leaves them full of opinions.
“This tastes like an onion that you’d find in the garbage after it has been there a week later,” Pierce said about a product he recently sampled.
The threesome has been doing the podcast for 13 months and just taped their 60th show.
“I always say it’s not a podcast about food,” Sussman said. “It’s a podcast about love. The love of food.”
“People think we eat like this all the time,” said Pierce. “We don’t. I think.”
The food scientists sample stuff from the U.S. and around the globe.
“We’ve gotten into a bit more of the weird international foods,” Sussman said. “I mean weird to us as Americans, not necessarily weird to them.”
Mixing Entertainment with Food
The food fanatics are slowly cultivating a following. They even receive treats from their fan base.
“We had a fan in Japan who sent us all different Kit Kats,” Sussman said. “We had a fan who was in Australia and sent us a bunch of typical Australian snack food.”
“They’ll pay money to have wasabi Oreos shipped from China,” Zajack said.
The podcasts are a mix of entertainment and information. The hosts are often on a sugar high.
“The Kit Kat brand in America is owned by Hershey,” Sussman said. “But in the rest of the world it’s Nestle.”
They also dish up educational and interesting food factoids.
“Creme in Oreos,” Pierce said. “It’s spelled c-r-e-m-e. Not c-r-e-a-m because there’s no dairy in it.”
The podcast does not have an advertising budget. They rely mostly on word of mouth to get recognition.
