Matt’s segments for “Connoisseur’s Corner” usually air on WBZ Saturdays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25, and 11:55 AM and Sundays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25 AM.

Recent samples can be found at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1002-Connoisseurs-Corner-28654273/.

If you have ideas for future segments, please send them to Matt@Matts-Meals.com.

The following is a “script” for one of Matt’s segments:

Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our friends and neighbors in the food-service industry!

With many people singing “Oh Tannen-blech” this year on account of the many famous (or infamous) holiday tree mishaps (See Rockefeller Center. Or, better, yet, don’t!), it is good to know that our friends at Harpoon are here to give us something more rich and lush to enjoy!

Building on the century-old relationship with our neighbors in Nova Scotia (who provide a fine fir each year as thanks for the Commonwealth-based crews who came to their aid during an explosive fire in 1917), Harpoon has partnered with Big Spruce Brewing to produce a beer that will hopefully become a new holiday tradition.

Called (appropriately enough)From Nova Scotia With Love, the abbey-style ale is brewed with smoked malts and real spruce tips, and is aged in Glen Breton Single Malt Canadian Whiskey barrels. In addition to bringing a warming 9.0 % ABV, the collaborative brew offers notes of dried fruit, vanilla, and caramel, and wood, making it a great addition to tree trimming or any socially-distant merrymaking, whether or not there is a fire involved.

The relationship between Massachusetts and Halifax is long and storied. This year, start your own chapters with help from Harpoon!

www.harpoonbrewery.com

Matt’s segments for “Connoisseur’s Corner” usually air on WBZ Saturdays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25, and 11:55 AM and Sundays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25 AM.

Recent samples can be found at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1002-Connoisseurs-Corner-28654273/.

If you have ideas for future segments, please send them to Matt@Matts-Meals.com.

The following is a “script” for one of Matt’s segments:

Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our friends and neighbors in the food-service industry!

Though traffic at Boston Public Market may be down as many of the businesses in the area are closed or limited, the folks inside have been busy expanding their offerings and outreach.

In their new geothermally-heated facility in their native Holliston, Boston Honey Co. is offering their famously farm-fresh honeys, skin care products, and beeswax candles, as well as the opportunity to see and learn about their hard-working bees! They are also looking forward to bringing in food trucks and a picnic area. The new venue also acts as a sort of BPM west, as Haymarket helpers like Q’s Nuts, Alex’s Ugly Sauce, American Stonecraft, and Peterman’s Boards and Bowls will also be sold at Boston Honey Co’s new HQ.

Speaking of Qs Nuts, the creative team has come up with some amazing new tastes for the holidays (or anytime), including a seasonal roast called Winter Solstice that contains ginger, anise, cranberries, and brandy! As always, they ship fast and their nuts make a great stocking stuffers and gifts for friends and colleagues (and for yourtself!).

Down the center aisle of the Market, Beantown Pastrami Co. has been selling their meats by the pound and preparing home sandwich kits that include their homemade pickled cabbage, coleslaw, and half-sour pickles. Beantown Pastrami Co. has also been tempting folks to come in from the cold with an incredible pastrami chili. Even though some of us may have the time to cure our own, all of these items are well worth the trip to Boston. And if you insist on staying home, they deliver via What’s Good so you can support downtown faves without going downtown!

www.bostonpublicmarket.org

www.beantownpastrami.com

www.bostonhoneycompany.com

www.qsnut.com

Matt’s segments for “Connoisseur’s Corner” usually air on WBZ Saturdays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25, and 11:55 AM and Sundays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25 AM.

Recent samples can be found at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1002-Connoisseurs-Corner-28654273/.

If you have ideas for future segments, please send them to Matt@Matts-Meals.com.

The following is a “script” for one of Matt’s segments:

Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our friends and neighbors in the food-service industry!

Even though tourism is down, there are still many reasons for even locals to visit the Boston Harbor Hotel. Since Covid began, Boston’s only AAA Five-Diamond and Forbes Five-Star waterfront hotel has been thoroughly sanitized and now operates according to the strictest health guidelines, making it a great place to base a staycation or weekend away from the confines of home.

Another great reason to visit will kickoff January 12 when legendary local Chef Daniel Bruce reaches around the wine world to bring the Boston Wine Festival back for its 32^ndyear!

In addition to opportunities to sample Chef Bruce’s amazing food, the Festival offers oenophiles chances to taste (and even take home) some of the world’s finest wines and to meet the masters who make them. Among the favorites who are scheduled to return are Doubleback, Frog’s Leap, and Zenato. Other highlights are set to include the Battle of the Cabernets on January 15 and 16 and the Moet and Chandon takeover February 12, making for a pre-Valentines’ experience that can’t be beat!

If you plan on tasting a few more than usual, special rooms are being set aside at a Festival rate of $275. Reservations are being sold in packs of two, four to six to assure appropriate spacing and maximal enjoyment, so be sure to get in on the bubbly fun as soon as possible. It will make for a great break and will also help sustain one of Boston’s best hotels and one of its proudest traditions.

www.bostonwinefestival.net

www.bhh.com

Matt’s segments for “Connoisseur’s Corner” usually air on WBZ Saturdays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25, and 11:55 AM and Sundays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25 AM.

Recent samples can be found at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1002-Connoisseurs-Corner-28654273/.

If you have ideas for future segments, please send them to Matt@Matts-Meals.com.

The following is a “script” for one of Matt’s segments:

Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our friends and neighbors in the food-service industry!

In honor of their 24^thbirthday, Shmaltz Brewing has developed a new brew that is perfect for the Chanukah revelers or anyone who wants a delicious beer that has everything they love and more! The Golden Jelly Doughnut Pastry Ale is made with 600 pounds per batch of all-natural raspberry and cherry puree and a generous dollop of pure vanilla. It’s sufganiyotmeets suds and it is AMAZING!

On a more somber but no less delicious note, Shmaltz is also partnering with Moustache Brewing to release their RBG IPA in honor and memory of the late legend Ruth Bader Ginsburg (z”l). The beer will also pay tribute to International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day (who knew thatwas a thing?!). 

If that were not enough, Shmaltz has also partnered with the chocolate connoisseurs at Primo Botanica and custom espresso roaster Alias Coffee and will be featuring both at their tasting room in Troy, NY (which is just over the border and worth a sneak trip to try).

So whether you want to celebrate the Festival of Lights or memorialize one of the brightest lights in judicial history, Shmaltz has you covered!

https://shmaltzbrewing.com

Matt’s segments for “Connoisseur’s Corner” usually air on WBZ Saturdays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25, and 11:55 AM and Sundays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25 AM.

Recent samples can be found at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1002-Connoisseurs-Corner-28654273/.

If you have ideas for future segments, please send them to Matt@Matts-Meals.com.

The following is a “script” for one of Matt’s segments:

Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our friends and neighbors in the food-service industry!

Especially with the pandemic still raging, there is no better place to be this holiday season than home with a good book and yummy homemade foods.

In that spirit (and that of Chanukah) the food-minded folks at Manischewitz have partnered with the Jewish book promoters at PJ Library to create new holiday tradition called the Chanukah House Cookie Kit.

Taking a tip from its gingerbread neighbors, this kosher creation offers families of all persuasions a chance to build a holiday house that they can design, decorate and then devour. Each kit comes with cookies, icing, and even a candy menorah to put in the window for all to see (that is, until somebody eats it!). Each kit will also offer info about PJ Library (which gives nearly 250,000 books a year to children across the U.S. and Canada) and, for each kit purchased, PJ Library will donate a book to children who do may have one, let alone eight.

We know that you may not be able to visit the homes of those you love this year, but at least you can send them a home that they can enjoy creating almost as much as the one you have created with them!

pjlibrary.org

www.manischewitz.com

Matt’s segments for “Connoisseur’s Corner” usually air on WBZ Saturdays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25, and 11:55 AM and Sundays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25 AM.

Recent samples can be found at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1002-Connoisseurs-Corner-28654273/.

If you have ideas for future segments, please send them to Matt@Matts-Meals.com.

The following is a “script” for one of Matt’s segments:

Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our friends and neighbors in the food-service industry!

As a kid, I remember visiting friends and seeing their Advent calendars prominently displayed. When I inquired I was told that the family would open one window per day and reveal wither a figurine that would later be added to their family crèche or a sweet treat!

Now, I know that my folks get eight nights of fried foods, but a candy a day for 24 days- Come on!

Fortunately, our friends at Sugarfina have come up with an ecumenical solution. In addition to their Merry Christmas and Holiday Cravings eight-piece Bento boxes and the famed 24 Tastes of Christmas set, they are also offering the new 8 Nights of Light box.

Designed to look like a traditional channukiah(the nine-branched candelabra used at Chanukah), this handsome set reveals a quartet of Kosher-certified cookies and candies on each night of (or leading up to) the Festival of Lights. Among the offerings are such Sugarfina faves s Robin’s Egg Caramels, Champagne Bubbles,Heavenly Sours, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels, andBlueberry Jelly Beans, so there are sure to be favorites for all of your friends and family members.

So if you relate to the contemporary chestnut “Lonely Jew on Christmas,” at least you no longer have to be left out of the countdown to your winter holiday. And who knows? When they see you enjoying Sugarfina treats, your friends may want to spin the dreidel too! 

www.sugarfina.com

Matt’s segments for “Connoisseur’s Corner” usually air on WBZ Saturdays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25, and 11:55 AM and Sundays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25 AM.

Recent samples can be found at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1002-Connoisseurs-Corner-28654273/. 

If you have ideas for future segments, please send them to Matt@Matts-Meals.com. 

The following is a “script” for one of Matt’s segments:

As much as I have come to know about the food scene, Louisa Kasdon knows far more! As a food writer and broadcaster on WBUR and The Boston Globe and the creator of the cookbook celebration known as the Readable Feast, Kasdon has covered events and talked to people that I still dream about.

That is why it was no surprise to me to learn that her latest delicious venture – the fun food podcast “Let’s Talk About Food” (www.letstalkaboutfood.com) – has become a weekly podcast on the Heritage Radio Network.

Drawing on decades of her own experience and a full 10 years worth of first-person stories from foodie friends, Kasdon’s show demonstrates the power of food to elicit memories and to bring people together  (and couldn’t we all use a bit more of that these days?).

While many of Kasdon’s culinary interlocutors are well-known writers and chefs, she wisely realizes that everyone has food-related stories to tell and so invited listeners of all sorts to suggest and offer their own stories to enrich and enliven the radio stew.

As if that weren’t enough, Kasdon and her colleague and friend Annie Copps will be presenting the fifth annual Readable Feast New England Cookbook Awards (which also include other kinds of food-related writing) December 9 at 5 PM. Voting is open and information is available at www.thereadablefeast.com. It is sure to be a fun and inspiring event, especially for newly-minted home cooks who have taken up the spoon to keep Covid madness at bay.

Matt’s segments for “Connoisseur’s Corner” usually air on WBZ Saturdays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25, and 11:55 AM and Sundays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25 AM.

Recent samples can be found at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1002-Connoisseurs-Corner-28654273/.

If you have ideas for future segments, please send them to Matt@Matts-Meals.com.

Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our friends and neighbors in the food-service industry!

Matt’s segments for “Connoisseur’s Corner” usually air on WBZ Saturdays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25, and 11:55 AM and Sundays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25 AM.

Recent samples can be found at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1002-Connoisseurs-Corner-28654273/.

If you have ideas for future segments, please send them to Matt@Matts-Meals.com.

Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our friends and neighbors in the food-service industry!

Matt’s segments for “Connoisseur’s Corner” usually air on WBZ Saturdays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25, and 11:55 AM and Sundays at 7:25, 8:25, 9:25 AM.

Recent samples can be found at https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1002-Connoisseurs-Corner-28654273/.

If you have ideas for future segments, please send them to Matt@Matts-Meals.com.

If you know any other Vetrepreneurs©, email Matt@TheRobinsonReporter.com.

Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting our friends and neighbors in the food-service industry!