Learn about some of the assistants to your favorite celebrity chefs on this HRN Community Sessions segment! Mariana Cotlear, former assistant to José Andres, sits down with Laura Ryan, assistant to chef Tom Colicchio, and Mandy Oser, former assistant to chef Eric Ripert. Learn how all of these women came to work for such high-profile chefs despite their different career paths. Find out how the world of food relates to subjects like law and politics. What is an average day like for a celebrity chef assistant? Listen in to find out why chefs are generally very charitable, and how camaraderie often leads to collaboration in the kitchen. Learn what aspects of the job are the most trying and challenging. Thanks to our sponsor, Hearst Ranch, and thanks to The California Honeydrops for today's music!

"A big reason I didn't end up in the kitchen is because I can't do the same thing everyday." [11:00] -- Laura Ryan, assistant to Tom Colicchio

"My position is unique; you can take it to a lot of different areas in the industry." [14:35] -- Mandy Oser, former assistant to Eric Ripert

Severine interviews Nik Bertulis, an Oakland-based scientist and farmer researching and engineering ways to make use of urine in agricultural systems.

This week's episode of Cooking Issues starts off with a slightly off-topic discussion: food aesthetics. Tune in to hear Dave Arnold and Nastassia Lopez talk about the the importance of the appearance of a dish or cocktail versus its taste. What role does food presentation have in defining the quality of a meal? Later, Dave tackles a question about centrifuges and clarifying agents, as well as some methods to re-bottle vermouth. Dave offers some equipment suggestions to a caller, and follows up about picky-eating children. Check out this listener's suggestions for children's foods here. What is involved with making a maraschino cherry? All this and more on this episode of Cooking Issues! This program has been sponsored by White Oak Pastures.

"We're in an era now where a lot of food work is done on the Internet, in books, on television programs, and demonstrations. There's a lot of work that's done where you can tell that it's done for the look, and not necessarily the taste."

"When you're doing a demo or dish or a cocktail it's important to have it look appetizing. The way a dish looks can be enchanting and captivating and make an already good tasting thing taste better, but nothing is worse than something that's taken forever to make look great but doesn't even taste good."

-- Dave Arnold on Cooking Issues