By Jennifer Ersalesi
From an early start in New York City, Christina Cates learned quickly that she loved being part of the exciting and chaotic restaurant world. Recently, she was presented with the unique opportunity to host a weekly radio talk show, "Culinary Confidential". This is Rutherford interviewed Christina to learn more about her career and radio show.
TIR: How long have you lived in Rutherford? What do you love most about living here?
Christina Cates: I’ve lived in Rutherford for 6 years. My parents are from Rutherford originally so I was brainwashed early on in life that we would all live in Rutherford one day, nonnegotiable lol. What I love most is that it’s diverse and very family-friendly. It’s a walking town and I take my kids on long walks around our beautiful town especially down the vibrant Park Ave. I love always seeing a familiar face when I’m out and about.
TIR: Can you tell us about your career?
CC: My background is in hospitality. I went to the Art Institute of NYC two weeks after graduating high school. It was downtown in NY so I was immediately submersed into the hustle and bustle of NY. I wound up only doing the restaurant management courses and as soon as I graduated I secured a job at Tavern on the Green at 20 years old. I responded to an ad in The NY Times. They hired me as a hostess and 2 weeks later elevated me to an assistant manager. By the time I left there, 5 years later, I was the assistant restaurant director. From there I went to the Palm in Tribeca and worked there for 8 years. When I left there I left as the General Manager. From there I went down the street to Almond -Tribeca, my friend’s restaurant. I moved over to Almond on 22nd Street after that. I worked up until one week before I had my oldest son, Kingston. After that, I had to put my restaurant career on hold to raise my children. The lifestyle is too demanding.
TIR: You recently began hosting a weekly radio talk show, "Culinary Confidential". What inspired you to start this talk show?
CC: Culinary Confidential is something that found me and not the other way around. But I’m a firm believer that when opportunity knocks you answer! So there’s a little fake it until you make it happening right now! But a regular guest of mine at the Palm Tribeca, Lucas Ferrara, set me up with this show. He has a radio show on the same station and he heard a podcast I did for his radio engineer and immediately forwarded it to the station and said, "I think there’s something here. Christina seems like a natural and there’s no Culinary show of its kind on the air right now so we should give this a try." The station felt the same way. It all happened very quickly within a month and here we are! It has been a great outlet for me though because hospitality is my passion so it makes me feel like I’m still involved without having to work the 80 hours a week you have to work in restaurants.
TIR: What can people expect to hear when they listen to "Culinary Confidential"?
CC: People can expect to hear real-life stories of the industry. The show will cover every corner of food and beverage whether you’re a farmer or celebrity chef and everything in between. I’m always curious about how people got started in their careers so that’s often a question I ask almost all of my guests.
TIR: Have you had a favorite interview so far?
CC: I’ve enjoyed all of the interviews I’ve done so far because they’re all people I know and love in the industry. I will say that the episode with the Song e Napule guys was a ton of fun because they were just so happy to be part of the show. The recent show I did with hotel executives, Allison Reid & Chip Ohlsson, was a HUGE hit. I had a ton of people messaging me live when it aired saying how informative it was. So that made me really happy.
TIR: In December you will speak with Chef Renee Faris of Erie Bakery in Rutherford. What are you most looking forward to about this upcoming interview?
CC: I find Chef Renee to be incredibly talented and hands-on in her bakery. Every time I go there she’s there. I want to talk to her about how she makes that work-life balance work with being a small business owner and mother. She has also worked at some very popular places in NY so I want the behind-the-scenes scoop in the kitchen about what that time of her life was like and what she learned on her journey.
TIR: What else are you planning for "Culinary Confidential"?
CC: So right now I’m committed to doing this show for a year. I want to put together 52 fantastic episodes and see what comes of it. If something expands from this then fantastic but I’m just laser focused right now on making each episode different, creative, informative, and fun.
TIR: As a world traveler, where is your favorite place to visit?
CC: I like to go to Europe every year. I try and go to one new country a year as part of my personal travel bucket list but often go back to some old haunts. Sometimes I just want to go to Paris for a weekend for a croissant and a coffee and walk around with no agenda. For me traveling is therapeutic and helps me clear my head. I don’t need to go long .. just a weekend jaunt helps me reset. But I’ve had some really magical trips in Bali, Brazil, and Greece. You know what kind of trips I’m talking about .. those trips that help change perspective and you come back a new person!
TIR: Where can people listen to your radio show?
CC: Culinary Confidential airs every Sunday night at 9pm on AM 970 : The Answer. After it airs, it streams on every major streaming platform … Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, iHeart, Apple Podcast, YouTube.
TIR: Anything else you would like to share?
CC: I just want to share that I’m grateful for this new opportunity and to try something new at 40. I started this year feeling uncertain about this new decade but keeping an open mind has led this opportunity to me. It’s a lot of hard work for the one-hour show a week … more than I realized when I got into it. But it’s been very rewarding. I still work full-time for my family’s business and am a single mom so have a lot of balls in the air but it’s been a very fun year and can’t wait to see what else is in store!