It all started with some amazing sweetbreads at the Gallery Grill. I feel like I’ve always known Arlene Stein, but we really didn’t talk until she invited me to lunch one day. There, in the dining room that seems to soar through the sky-high ceilings of Hart House’s Great Hall, we talked non-stop about ideas for events and projects and ‘blink’ a radio show. The sweetbreads with brown butter and fresh papardelle were so good I almost tweeted about them, but stopped myself. Twitter doesn’t need to hear about every fracking thing I swallow.

Radio? Did she say radio?

Does radio even exist anymore? When I think of radio, I think of a big concrete box out in the middle of the desert, inside the walls are lined with blinking lights and there’s a giant ipod on shuffle in the center of the room – meanwhile Armageddon has descended and one crazy old guy in an Airstream is broadcasting about safe zones, he’s the only human voice on the airwaves, but we’re all dead so it doesn’t matter.

Maybe I saw that in a movie.

Anyway, I wasn’t super interested in radio when Arlene brought it up, saying that she might be able to get some airtime on CIUT.

Then I thought about it a bit more and talked with a girl at work, Siobhan Ozege, (who I call See-O-Ban but she pronounces it Chiffon. @#&%!) host of CIUT’s Electric Boogaloo.

She made it sound like a lot of fun.

So based on the fact that it might be fun, I found myself in Arlene’s office with some of her well-dressed coworkers, Jeff Cameron and Alexis Chapman (all three of them looking they’ve just walked off the set of Good Morning America, while I look like I just came from an episode of Intervention), talking about the content and breakdown of our proposed show. Jeff and Alexis host a show called Beyond the Classroom on the station and they would be giving us four time slots to do our show, which I wanted to call Swallow. For reasons that are obvious – I love birds.

Arlene wasn’t too keen on the name because she has a naturally dirty mind, but I convinced her to go with it.

We laid out a plan for our four episodes and I went to work looking for people to interview while Arlene zipped off to New York.

She returned with the news that her busy schedule wouldn’t allow her to be fully involved in the project so I continued on alone – glad to be able to think clearly without her dirty jokes muddying my mind, to be honest.

Swallow Food Radio’s first episode aired on July 23rd and the others will follow each Thursday from 11am to noon.

The show is all about food with musical breaks provided by the greatest Canadian of all time, Stompin’ Tom and an incredible line-up of guests. We focused on the Toronto restaurant scene for episode 1. We had recommendations for some great out of the way lunch joints from our man on the street segment, followed by a round table discussion with chefs Anthony Rose (The Drake), Matty Matheson (Oddfellows) and owner Andrew Hunter (Buddha Dog) about how Toronto’s restaurant and food scene has grown in the past five years. I finished up the show with a one on one interview with Jamie Kennedy. He talked about what he’s been going through with his business and how he’s re-building and maintaining his company. Next week’s show will be all about beer and will have Joel Manning from Mill Street and Chris Goddard from Steam Whistle on hand to talk about Ontario’s beer scene, with tips on proper chugging technique. I’ll also talk with Kevin Brauch about his latest adventures in New York City – tune in to find out what he got up to with Jay-Z! It will air the day of Hart House’s incredible Craft Beer Festival, which is where I’ll be on the 30th, eating roast pig and drinking heavily.

Our third episode is all about cheap food, with Wayne Roberts and Chef Michael Smith talking about the real cost of cheap food and what it’s doing to our world and the people who grow or catch our food for us. The round table will feature farmer and head of Kawartha Ecological Growers, Mark Trealout, and Arlene Stein, they’ll be talking about how to eat well cheaply, without resorting to Hungry Man dinners.

Our fourth and final episode will be all about the future of food media. Dana McCauley will be talking about her many roles in food media and how she juggles all of them. Our round table will include people from all the food media outlets with Rachel Low, head of Red Apple Productions, Malcolm Jolley, editor of the site you’re reading right now and Signe Langford freelance writer for magazines and newspapers. They will talk about the challenges each outlet is facing right now and what is happening to keep their content fresh and interesting. My one on one interview will be with Chef Lynn Crawford, she will talk about the changes she’s seen over the years with the Food Network and where she thinks the channel will go.

All the shows will be available to listen to on my website after they’ve aired.

I may have a face made for radio but I’ve been working out and now have a body made for high def, check it out at my website www.ivyknight.com and click on the Swallow page, ogle freely.

Writer, cook, radio producer and multi-media-darling, Ivy Knight is a proud Parkdale resident.