BEYOND THE PLATE WITH CAROL

In 2017, Carol Erickson had a heart attack at her home in New Boston, New Hampshire. The firefighters who showed up that morning saved her life. One of them was Bill Mortimer -- and he's our guest today. Bill is a Firefighter and AEMT at Hudson Fire Department in Hudson, NH. You may have seen him on NH Chronicle making smash burgers for his crew. But there's a story behind why Carol really wanted to get him on Beyond the Plate -- and in this episode, we get into all of it. <...

Carol brought At the Plate all the way to Greece for this one -- recorded on the back of a 52-ft sailing yacht named Baron, at the end of a 7-day charter through the Greek islands with Yachtsailing.com. In this episode, Carol sits down with the two people who made the whole trip unforgettable: Chef Dimitri, who left traditional restaurant kitchens behind for life cooking on the water, and Captain Theo, who's been sailing since he was a kid in a sea scout dinghy. We talk about: • Why Dimitri's ow...

He played 8,000 shows in Las Vegas. Won 27 Emmys. Built a kindness empire. And now he's in the burger business -- and he's only 6 months in. In Episode 57 of Beyond the Plate with Carol, Carol Erickson sits down with Justin Spencer -- founder of Recycled Percussion, creator of the Emmy Award-winning Chaos & Kindness TV series, and co-owner of the fast-growing NH smash burger concept BAD BRGR. What starts as a conversation about burgers turns into one of the most raw, funny, and deeply honest episodes we have ever recorded. What you'll hear in this...

She moderates a 188,000-member food community. She runs the financials for a nonprofit fighting hunger in New Hampshire. She's a CPA who spent years baking custom cakes out of her London apartment and learning everything from YouTube. And she does all of it as a volunteer -- because she loves New Hampshire and the people in it. In Episode 58, Carol Erickson sits down with Michaela Herrholz -- moderator for the New Hampshire Eats Facebook group and volunteer CFO/COO of Nourish New England -- over lunch at 90 Low in Concord. This one is...

She started Manchester Craft Market with 17 cents in her pocket -- literally. Today, Jessica Moores runs a marketplace for 307 local makers inside the Mall of New Hampshire, and on this episode of Beyond the Plate with Carol, she's telling Carol Erickson the whole story. From picking things up off the side of the road to pay for her kids' clothes, to a strict anti-AI policy protecting local artists, to the 2020 story that somehow turned into their first million-dollar year -- this conversation covers all of it. In this episode: • How Ma...

They quit their jobs -- one of them literally two days before we sat down together -- to run a BBQ food truck full time. Nick and Ben of Sigs Kitchen BBQ out of Fremont, New Hampshire are two brothers who turned a pandemic cooking hobby, a gaming username, and a leap of faith taken in memory of their mom into one of the most talked-about food trucks in New Hampshire right now. In this episode, we get into all of it: • Where the name "Sigs" actually comes from -- a...

When Phil Meyer first got online during the COVID lockdowns, he found people trashing New Hampshire food. His response? Prove them wrong. That mission -- plus a conversation that happened right here at Cask and Vine in Derry -- turned into New Hampshire Eats, a Facebook group now 200,000 members strong. Carol sits down with Phil at Cask and Vine for one of our At the Plate episodes -- out of the studio and right inside one of NH's favorite spots. In this episode: • How NH Eats grew fr...

He built three of Manchester's most talked-about spots from scratch -- and now he's opening a fourth. Dan Haggerty, co-owner of Industry East, Stashbox, and Moka Pot, sits down with Carol Erickson to talk about how a dishwasher at 14 ended up building one of the most creative small business empires in downtown Manchester. In this episode: • The traveling mixology business that became Industry East -- and how it almost looked completely different • The hot dog that saved the liquor license (and became their most iconic menu item) ...

Jakob Norris built Wicked Tasty from a single food truck into a multi-divisional hospitality company -- food truck, corporate café, full-service catering, a licensed bar program called Wicked Thirsty, and a seasonal mountain kitchen at Dartmouth Skiway. He did it in four years. And he did it with almost ten years clean and sober. This is one of the most honest conversations we've had on Beyond the Plate. Jakob opens up about losing his dad at 12, how kitchens became his anchor, what it felt like the day he chose recovery, and why second c...

She produced an Emmy-nominated food show, visited hundreds of restaurants across New England, and then -- at 65 -- did something nobody saw coming. Helen Ryba is the founder of Green Envy Wellness on Elm Street in Manchester, NH -- part art shop, part craft classroom, part community gathering space. Carol sat down with her right inside the shop for one of the most fun, warm, and surprising conversations Beyond the Plate has ever had. In this episode: • How a gnome tree class went viral...

New Hampshire's hospitality industry sends $340 million to state coffers every year -- and most legislators still don't give it enough credit. Mike Somers has spent 17 years making sure that changes. In this episode of Beyond the Plate with Carol, Carol Erickson sits down with Mike Somers, President & CEO of the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association (NHLRA) -- the 106-year-old organization that fights for every restaurant, hotel, bar, and hospitality business in the state. Mike started as a busboy in Central Florida, worked his way up through every...

Tom Boucher turned down a full scholarship to Villanova to wait tables. He never looked back. In this episode, Carol Erickson sits down with Tom Boucher -- CEO and majority owner of Great NH Restaurants, the family behind T-BONES, Copper Door, and Cactus Jack's. Forty years. Nine restaurants. Over $1.5 million donated back to New Hampshire communities through FEEDNH.org. And on this episode -- a brand new concept he's never talked about publicly. We get into: • The Villanova scholarship he turned down to stay in...

He took over a neighborhood dive bar on Wilson Street in Manchester just a few months ago -- and he's running the whole thing solo. One man, one kitchen, and food that's stopping people in their tracks. Mike Ivas grew up in Salem, NH, learned to cook from his grandfather who handed him a chef's knife before first grade, and spent seven years in the kitchen at the Cheesecake Factory in San Diego before coming home to New Hampshire. When he took over The Alibi Aftermath, he had one goal: prove that a...

She grew up along the Mexican border, learned to cook by watching her mom, and has been feeding her New Hampshire community for over 30 years. In this special Cinco de Mayo episode, Carol invites her friend of 15+ years, Silvia Boissonneault, into her personal kitchen to cook together -- and the result is one of the most real, warm, and delicious episodes of Beyond the Plate yet. Silvia walks Carol through making pastel -- a layered Mexican lasagna made with corn tortillas, chile verde chicken, homemade salsa verde, poblano peppers, and Oaxacan cheese. Along...

Sue Pappalardo came back -- and she came back with a lot to say. Sue is the owner of Aunty's Italian Kitchen, an Italian food truck based in Salem, NH, and she was first on Beyond the Plate back in Episode 19. A year later she's got a full season under her belt, a bigger event calendar, new menu items, and an idea so good Carol was ready to place an order on the spot -- a jar of her dad's slow-simmered sauce... with a meatball hiding inside. ...

She spent 25 years as a Director of Engineering in tech. Then chronic illness nearly took her out -- and a plant-based diet changed everything. Kelley-Sue LeBlanc didn't just get better. She built The Sleazy Vegan, one of New Hampshire's most recognized food businesses, four years running. In this episode, Carol sits down with KSL -- as she's known -- to talk about the real origin story behind The Sleazy Vegan: the years of chronic pain, the desperation that led to a plant-based diet, and the moment she laughed herself to tears over a business name that made...

For 35 years, Ray Duhaime has been quietly helping New Hampshire restaurants stop advertising for other people's brands -- and start owning their own. As founder of Private Label Specialties in Goffstown, NH, Ray created the Arrow Root Beer you order at the Red Arrow Diner, the Moe Java mug sitting on your counter, and the T-shirt with the dictionary definition of "diner" on the back. Most people have no idea who he is. That changes today. In this episode, Carol and Ray go back 35+ years -- from the early days of delivering cases of root beer out...

Rick Broussard spent nearly 30 years as the editor of New Hampshire Magazine. Ask him how he wants to be introduced these days and he'll tell you: Grandfather of Eight. In this episode, Carol sits down with one of the most quietly influential people in New Hampshire media and culture. They cover the night a teenage Taylor Swift played the Best of NH Party because Rick said yes (her guitar was bigger than she was), what it actually took to build NH Magazine from scratch, and Granite Orpheus -- a no-budget feature film 10 years in the making that...

He was Episode 6. Now he's back for Episode 41 -- and a lot has changed. Dante Marino, owner of DeadProof Pizza, was one of the very first guests on Beyond the Plate -- back when he was running pop-ups, grinding it out at Torch, and dreaming of a permanent spot. Since then: Best Pizza in New Hampshire from WUR, Best Food Truck and Pop-Up from NH Magazine, and a Restaurant of the Year win at the NH Hospitality Leadership Awards -- where Bobby Marotte introduced him to the room and Dante gave a speech straight from the...