Nancy Matsumoto has lived an extraordinary life. From a young age, her love for writing and storytelling led to an accomplished and wide-ranging career as a journalist and author.

Ever curious, she has never limited herself to a single subject. Although much of her work has focused on food and culture, Nancy has also written about sake, childhood nutrition, and her family’s history, including a moving book of translated poetry based on her grandparents’ writings during their internment as Japanese Americans in World War II.

Her latest book, Reaping What She Sows, takes readers on a journey through a distinctly female lens, offering insight into how care, leadership, and creativity can shape a more just and sustainable food system. Deeply researched and beautifully told, the book follows inspiring women working in agricultural reform in the American South, coffee and cacao production in Belize and Guatemala, regenerative mezcal making in Mexico, and beyond.

For our final episode in the Only a Woman series, Nancy reflects on how the stewardship of our food systems is deeply maternal and shares the lessons we can all learn about nourishment, resilience, and change.

Schnitzel & Stories will be back with season 4 in 2026.

Palisa Anderson inherited more than a restaurant, she inherited a legacy. Following in the footsteps of her mother, Amy, who founded Chat Thai in 1989 as a young newcomer to Sydney, Australia, Palisa grew up immersed in hospitality. Her childhood was spent between kitchens and dining rooms, where she developed an instinctive understanding of food and a deep respect for ingredients.

After graduating from the university, she spent a decade abroad, working in Hong Kong, London, New York, and Tokyo. But when she returned home, it wasn’t just to rejoin the family business, it was to transform it.

Rather than relying on imported ingredients, Palisa sought to reconnect their restaurants to the land. She founded Boon Luck Farm, where she grows Thai herbs, rare Asian vegetables, and over 30 varieties of citrus. Her guiding belief is simple yet profound: human health begins with soil health.

Through regenerative farming and reforestation, the farm restores depleted land, captures carbon, and rebuilds biodiversity, proving that agriculture can be both ethical and economically viable. Today, Boon Luck Farm supplies 50–80% of the produce served across 15 restaurants, including Chat Thai’s five locations.

Palisa’s story stands as a powerful testament to what is possible when tradition, migration, and ecological responsibility come together, led by women determined to nourish both people and the planet.

Care and Feeding is about relationships, and we were fortunate to speak with bestselling author Laurie Woolever about her memoir. Beyond being a writer, she is also an editor, public speaker, and former cook. For nearly a decade, Laurie served as the right hand to the late author, TV host, and producer Anthony Bourdain.

Over the years, she has worn many hats, private cook, nanny, caterer, busgirl, recipe tester, farmhand, video store clerk, and food editor. From 1999 to 2002, she was Mario Batali’s assistant, contributing to Holiday Food (2000) and The Babbo Cookbook (2002). She later edited and recipe-tested Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook (2004) before working as an editor at Art Culinaire and Wine Spectator.

Her memoir is raw and unflinching, shedding light on the realities of being “the woman behind the man” while carving her own powerful voice in food writing.