About The Fridge Light
Join top food writer Chris Nuttall-Smith for an obsessive, fascinating journey through the hidden stories of the things we eat. Each episode chows down on one food phenomenon, revealing the unexpected cultural ingredients.
Part science, part business, part psychology — always fresh and delicious.
The Fridge Light staff bios
Chris Nuttall-Smith
Chris Nuttall-Smith is a well-known food writer and critic, most recently with The Globe and Mail; a profile in The Guardian (UK) said of his weekly restaurant column, "His influence, both positive and negative, is colossal." He has also served as food editor, chief restaurant critic and dining columnist at Toronto Life, resident judge on Top Chef Canada, and lead writer/critic for enRoute magazine's annual Canada's Best New Restaurants list.
He's travelled the world on his stomach, eating fried chicken and okra in Afghanistan, shashlik and sugar beets in Iran, rubberized prawns and warm guava juice in Cuba — possibly his worst food experience of all time — and millet porridge in Uganda, where he spent a month living in a tent under a mango tree. Nuttall-Smith's writing on food, politics, business and travel has appeared in Lucky Peach, Esquire, Toronto Life, enRoute, Report on Business, The Walrus, The Wall Street Journal and New York magazine.
His first real job in journalism was as an associate producer for CBC Radio Vancouver's The Early Edition.
Michelle Macklem
Michelle Macklem is a radio producer and sound designer. Her documentary and fiction radio work has aired on CBC, BBC and ABC. Michelle uses vivid sound design to explore the atmospheric and ambient nature of audio. She holds an MA in Media Studies and Communications. Her adoration for all things audio led her to starting the online experimental sound community called Constellations. When she's not mixing it up in the studio, she can be found out and about recording forests, fields and waterfalls. Recently, she's been a producer with CBC Original Podcasts including Sleepover with Sook-Yin Lee and The Fridge Light. Twitter: @michmacklem
Zoe Tennant
Zoe Tennant is a radio producer, multimedia journalist, and avid noodle eater. Her work has been published and broadcast by The Walrus, CBC, The Globe and Mail, Monocle, among others. She was a finalist for the Scottish Documentary Institute's new talent award for her work on ice cream truck culture in Glasgow. Zoe holds a Master's degree in journalism and is an alumna of the award-winning Reporting in Indigenous Communities program taught by Duncan McCue. Recently, she was the founding Associate Editor of the national scholarly journalism site The Conversation Canada. Twitter: @zoehtennant
Alison Broverman
Alison Broverman is an award-winning radio producer, arts reporter and occasional playwright. On air she has taste-tested a data drink machine (for CBC's Spark), and simultaneously donated blood and conducted an interview (for Here and Now). In print, she has pitted vegetables against each other tournament-style (onion won). Her written work has appeared in The National Post, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Quill and Quire, and The Canadian Theatre Review, among many other publications. She has produced several CBC radio programs including How To Do It, Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids, The Doc Project, and Podcast Playlist. Twitter: @brovermania
Veronica Simmonds
Veronica Simmonds is a radio experimenter and avid bread eater. Her documentaries have aired on CBC, ABC and BBC. Her radio art work has aired in a weather observatory in France, a hair dryer in Pittsburgh, and a grain silo in Norway. Her love of the internet has led her to create interactive web experiences such as Body of Water and her love of hair led her to create her podcast Braidio, where she braided hair on air. These days she works with CBC Original Podcasts producing Sleepover with Sook-Yin Lee, Alone: A Love Story and now, The Fridge Light! Twitter: @veesimmonds
Paolo Pietropaolo
Paolo is a Peabody-Award-winning audio documentary producer, sound designer and writer/broadcaster passionate about building bridges through storytelling. He is a two-time winner of the Prix Italia, most recently for The Signature Series, and previously for the documentary series The Wire: the Impact of Electricity on Music. Since 2012, Paolo has been the host of In Concert, the award-winning classical music performance program on CBC Radio 2. When he's not mixing audio, he's probably mixing soil in his vegetable garden. Twitter: @paolopp
Lisa Godfrey
Lisa Godfrey is a longtime radio producer (Ideas, Q), writer, and constant snacker. For her last meal, she would like a nice cold negroni and one perfect tomato.