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Monday, April 27, 2015

Serafina Palandech Co-Founder Hip Chick Farms Speaks OUT









In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Serafina Palandech, Co-Founder of Hip Chick Farms a California based LGBT owned organic, frozen poultry product company providing easy meal solutions for busy families. Hip Chick Farms was recently featured on the Food Network's "Food Fortunes" where they joined food savvy entrepreneurs from across the nation to seek startup funding. The startup company was founded by Serafina Palandech and her wife Jennifer Johnson a former sous chef at Chez Panisse under Alice Waters who was credited with starting the global sustainable foods movement. For the last 14 years Jen has served as the Executive Chef for Ann and Gordon Getty in San Francisco. Hip Chick Farms makes healthy gourmet, artisan frozen products that provide time-crunched families delicious and easy food solutions. At present they have four free-range chicken products including gluten-free chicken nuggets, chicken meatballs, gluten-free chicken wings and organic chicken fingers. They recently developed a partnership with Whole Foods and will be expanding their product line as well as increasing availability in other supermarket venues nationwide. We talked to Serafina about she would like to accomplish with Hip Chicks Farms and her spin on our LGBT issues.

Now that marriage equality is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court we asked what she would like to see happen for LGBT equality in the next few years. Palandech stated, “Jen and I spoke about this at length and we both share that marriage equality is incredibly important and that we’re happy to see it progressing the way that it is but we also believe that trans issues and equal equality for trans folk are incredibly important within the LGBTQ community. We need to shift our focus there and more of our energy to ensuring access to education, access to jobs, safety and equality under the law for trans people. Secondly, I would say that women’s equality within the LGBTQ movement sometimes does not get as promoted. So equality, equal pay for women is a very important issue to us as well.”

Serafina Palandech graduated University of California, Santa Cruz with a BA in Women’s Studies and Art. She’s a veteran nonprofit executive, project manager, strategic planner and event organizer who before co-founding Hip Chick Farms spent more than fifteen years helping nonprofit organizations access private funding streams through event production and corporate/donor relationships. In her role as Event Director for MZA Events, Inc., she oversaw the planning and execution of AIDS Walk San Francisco, a 1.5 million dollar campaign that raised more than 3.7 million dollars per year with some 25,000 registrants and 400,000 individual donors. Just prior to launching Hip Chicks, Jen founded and ran Tugboat Events, a boutique event production company which produced charity events for organizations in the Bay Area. Serafina, Jen and daughter Ruby Rose live on their farm the Ramblin’ Rose in Sebastopol, California. They believe in the value of family and together building a business that helps their local economy, farmers and suppliers.
For More Info: hipchickfarms.com

Friday, April 17, 2015

Daisy Martinez Is Dining Out For Life To Fight HIV/AIDS









In this exclusive audio interview Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with Daisy Martinez, chef, television personality, author and spokesperson for Dining Out For Life the HIV/AIDS fundraiser. Dining Out For Life hosted by Subaru® will take place Thursday April 30th in 60 cities across North America. The event was conceived 25 years ago in Philadelphia and the concept is quite simple. More than 3,000 participating restaurants donate a generous percentage of that day’s proceeds to support service providers in their region to fund care, prevention, education, testing, counseling and other essential HIV/AIDS services. An estimated $4 million will be raised in just one day of dining. Last year Dining Out For Life assisted over 350,000 people, delivered over 1.8 million meals and provided housing for 8,097 clients. It also fulfilled vital health services with 5,572 patients receiving health insurance, 5,491 receiving pharmacy assistance and 1,948 were provided with dental aid. We talked to Daisy about being a spokesperson for this fabulous event and her spin on our LGBT issues.

When asked what her personal commitment is to LGBT civil rights Martinez stated, “I was a child of the seventies so I lived through losing too many friends to the AIDS scourge. In addition I have various family members that are gay that I support 120%. It’s really funny because in my circles I’m know as ‘The Lady of The Gay’ because most of my friends are gay, I think I have one token straight friend. The LGBT community has been very supportive to the Daisy brand. They come to my classes; they buy my books; they show up for book signings. I get tons of fan mail from them. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t like to differentiate. I don’t like to say LGBT because they’re my friends and I don’t make that distinction. They’re my friends and that’s it.”

Daisy Martinez attended the French Culinary Institute in New York to study Culinary Arts where she received first prize for her final project “The Passionate Palate”. Upon graduation, Daisy worked as a prep-kitchen chef on the set of PBS’ Lidia’s Italian American Table for her long time mentor chef and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich as well as a private chef in New York City and as the owner of a small, boutique catering business also called The Passionate Palate. In 2005 Daisy launched her new career with “Daisy Cooks!” on PBS and her cookbook “Daisy Cooks! Latin Flavors That Will Rock Your World” was an IACP nominee and American category finalist, as well as the winner of the Best Latino Cuisine Cookbook in the world by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. As Daisy’s star ascended she met Rachael Ray at an event which led Ray’s production company to produce "Viva Daisy!” which debuted on the Food Network in January 2009. 2015 will mark Daisy’s fourth year as spokesperson for Dining Out For Life. She’s joined by three other celebrity spokespeople for this fabulous fundraiser including actor Pam Grier (Foxy Brown, The L Word), designer Mondo Guerra, winner of Project Runway All-Stars and Ted Allen host of the Food Network series “Chopped”.
For More Info: diningoutforlife.com 

Friday, April 10, 2015

The Dinah Red Carpet Celebrities Celebrate 25 Years









In this exclusive audio montage Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ talks with celebrities on the Red Carpet at The Dinah Palm Springs which recently celebrated its 25 anniversary. First we talked to comedian Dana Goldberg who performed at “The Dinah Comedy Night” hosted by Suzanne Westenhoefer with Gloria Bigelow and Dinah Leffert. Dana expressed her concerns about Indiana’s Religious Freedom Bill and gave us her spin on marriage equality headed to the U.S. Supreme Court later this month. Then we chatted with actress and producer Sarah Croce known for her sitcom “Unicorn Plan-It” about three lesbian co-workers living in West Hollywood. This was Sarah’s third year attending The Dinah. Next we talked to Michelle Bonilla who hosted a take-off show of Fashion Police during the event. Michelle was one of the first openly gay Latina actors in Hollywood when she appeared on NBC’s ER as the sexy Latina paramedic "Harms". Then we chatted with the cast of Showtime’s documentary “L Word Mississippi: Hate the Sin”. While at The Dinah cast members Brandiilyne Dear and her partner Susan Mangum got married. We talked to them about that and their thoughts about LGBT equality.
Filmmaker Caryn K Hayes then talked to us about what she hoped to experience while at The Dinah. Caryn's most recent web series, “Entangled With You” has already won five awards with three other nominations and has just launched its second season. Additionally she has produced, written and coordinated numerous documentaries, short films, independent features, TV pilots and commercials. Pop recording artist Ivy Levan who performed at “The White Party” on Friday night to a packed crowd of thousands of lesbians also walked the red carpet. Next we were surrounded by the cast of “The Lphabet”, the web series that airs on AfterEllen. Brittany Ashley, Ever Mainard, Lindsay Hicks, Faith Choyce, Lianna Carrera, Fawzia Mirza and Amy Jackson Lewis were adorable and very vocal about creating a dialogue with our LGBT community and excited about marriage equality once again reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. We concluded with Billboard Top 40 superstar Christina Perri, the extraordinary voice behind the hits “Jar of Hearts” and “A Million Years” who headlined “The White Party”. Christina is a fierce straight ally and shared personal stories about how important LGBT equality is to her. When asked what advice she would give to LGBTQ teens who are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers Perri stated, “I feel like I could say a million things and it’s also related to honestly anyone who is having self-esteem issues. Specifically going through issues like that it’s about community. I think the thing to do is have people around you. You go where the love is, not where the love isn’t…”
The 25th anniversary of The Dinah brought together thousands of lesbians from around the world to celebrate and party with celebrities, celesbians and allies including headliner 2015 Grammy nominee Meghan Trainor known for her infectious hit “All About that Bass” who headlined “The Black Party” on Saturday. This was our first experience at The Dinah and we want to thank our host Mariah Hanson founder and producer of the event for such a fabulous experience.
For More Info: thedinah.com