Today we’d like to introduce you to Winston Carter and David Zwick.
Tell us about your business/company. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
We host a podcast called Try It, You’ll Like It, and as we say at the top of every episode, it is “the podcast where we have our guests try a food they hate one last time.” Our guests range from chefs and restaurateurs we admire in the LA culinary scene as well as actors, comedians, and other entertainment industry types. At the end of the day, if we think it’s weird that you don’t like eating apples (any apples at all, this was real), we want to hear about it.
Each episode involves us interviewing our guests about their relationship with food and how they landed on disliking that episode’s featured grub. Each episode is different. Sometimes the mere idea of a food scares our guests (see natto, a Japanese fermented soybean from our Jeremy Raub/Eagle Rock Brewery episode) but more often, we deal within the realm of “anti-nostalgia,” with guests who have a memory of this food from childhood and based on that memory alone, they have not returned to this food in decades.
Unlike most podcasts, we’re not a chat show. We don’t spend an hour going on tangents without dealing with the subject in hand. Since our guests try the food on our show, we make a point of trying to offer up at least three bites where the featured food is the the main component ingredient in each dish. We’ve made our own candy corn from scratch as part of some of our more conventional recipes but we’ve gone wile with dishes like a liver crepe cake or a “honey” made from ultra-reduced Guinness Beer.
Because we cook for our guests, there’s an added entertainment element when we’re cooking for some of the best chefs in LA. When we have to boil sweet potatoes for Johnny Zone of Howlin’ Ray’s or serve up gingerbread to Ted Hopson of The Bellwether, we know we’re going in at a deficit because we lack both their talent in the kitchen and their culinary experience (plus they hate these foods). So when we can turn our guests around with one item, we’re thrilled and we hope our audiences are as excited for our successes as we are.
And because podcasts are an auditory medium, we consider our Instagram a necessary visual companion to our show. All of our food posts are there (@tryitlikeiitpod), in addition to the filmed reactions of our guests trying their food for the first time.
Can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. You can include as little or as much detail as you like.
We met through the LA comedy community, performing improv out of the indie comedy scene and at UCB. We very quickly bonded over the same food-related YouTube channels and food shows and started trading recipes and techniques. We especially got excited about trying restaurants we had not been to in LA. Winston has some background as a line cook and David is just a hobbyist but neither of us currently work in the food industry. So our podcast has given us a foot in the door to food experiences that never would have been on the table for us a year ago before we launched the podcast.
What’s your neighborhood?
We live in Echo Park and Koreatown but we’re not afraid of venturing west of the 405 or head east down the 10 as we do try to feature guests from all over Los Angeles and the surrounding area. We’ve both lived in LA for almost a decade and since we’re a podcast, we make a point of not letting geography affect who we feature as guests on our podcasts.
Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Like anything in LA, it’s a grind. We’ve seen podcasts spring up on iTunes and already have thousands of listeners, but since neither of us started this out as social media influencers, it has been a grind to build an audience. But given the concept of our show, we’ve been amazed at the response from who we’ve asked to join us guests. Chefs and comedians we admire have said yes to the show without hesitation and we’re hoping to keep that momentum going.
We also have to be concerned with chewing on mics, something that not every podcast has to deal with but it’s something we’re very conscious of so as to not be triggering to listeners with misophonia. We make a concerted effort to edit out all chewing for the tastings at the end of our episodes. Many other food podcasts don’t bother with this, but it is something that we are vigilant about with our show to try to make it an enjoyable listening experience for as much of our potential audience as possible. .
How do you, personally, define success? What’s your criteria, the markers you’re looking out for, etc.?
This may feel like saying we want to be the big fish of a small pond, but truly, if we can get to the point of being in the top 10 food podcasts on iTunes consistently, we feel like we will feel like our show has reached the height it was supposed to attain.
Pricing:
The show is free but like any podcast, our currency is subscribers, ratings, and reviews. At the end of most episodes, we do free giveaways every month for our listeners. So if you like opportunities for food-related freebies or podcast merchandise, you’ll at the very least enjoy the last couple minutes of every show.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: http://wearecampfire.media/podcasts/try-it-youll-like-it/
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/try-it-youll-like-it/id1336694972?mt=2
- Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/campfire-media/try-it-youll-like-it-2
- Instagram: @tryitlikeitpod
- Twitter: @tryitlikeitpod
Image Credit:
Wyoh Lee
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
