NC F&B
PODCAST
Hospitality industry veterans, Max Trujillo and Matthew Weiss, get behind the scenes of North Carolina's burgeoning food and beverage culture. Hear from local chefs, sommelier's, distillers, farmers, brewers and the whole lot of them in the NC F&B podcast.
Max is an LA sommelier/restauranteur/wine distributor that moved he and his family to North Carolina in 2013. He ran restaurants in Raleigh over the last few years as their General Manager & Wine Director.
Matthew is a certified sommelier from New York. His experience ranges from restaurant/bar to importing some of the finest wines in the world. He moved his family to North Carolina last year and works as a wine distributor.
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"Our intention is to create a behind-the-scenes conversation between industry professionals. Whether we are speaking with an advanced level sommelier about their wine program or a chef about breaking down an entire pig, we just want the conversation to be real, unedited and honest. The food and beverage world is a unique industry, and North Carolina's food scene is growing everyday.
Take a listen. We hope to entertain, teach and inspire while offering some specific information about the NC food scene."
-Max & Matt
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MAX TRUJILLO, CO-HOST/PRODUCER
Max pursued his love for the food and beverage industry, all the while studying music and performing since he was a child. He grew up in the Bay Area of California, but at 20 years old he left for Los Angeles where he performed on stage, screen and in the recording studio. He received a recording certification from the famed Musicians Institute in Hollywood. While performing, he paid the bills tending bar for the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group. There, he developed a passion for wine. which led to a position as the Wine Director and Manager at the iconic Café del Rey, in Marina del Rey, California.
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Eager to further enhance his wine education, he took a position at Southern Wine and Spirits (now Southern Glazer's), California's largest beverage distributor, where he earned his certification as a sommelier. Max’s reputation and wine knowledge preceded him and he soon became courted by many National distributors, ultimately taking a position with Jackson Family Wines.
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It wasn’t until Max moved his family to North Carolina that he was able to fuse both of his passions, food & music, together. Together with his podcast partner Matthew Weiss, they created the North Carolina Food and Beverage Podcast. Max was able to use his recording education to start producing the podcast as well as all of the music for the production.
Trujillo created his own production company, Trujillo Media, responsible for producing podcasts, such as the nationally recognized Holderness Family Podcast, The Pencil Pushers Podcast, Something Else About Food with Candice Townsend and the new local show Raising Raleigh.
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Together, Trujillo Media's shows have been downloaded over 1.5 million times in less than 2 years.
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In the fall of 2018, Trujillo opened a consulting firm with other creative minds in the heart of Raleigh, North Carolina called
The Kitchen Raleigh. Their individual disciplines consist of operations, multi-media production, photography, social media management, branding and graphic design. Their focus is promoting the food and beverage industry from a creative perspective.
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MATTHEW WEISS, CO-HOST/CO-CREATOR
At the age of seventeen, Matthew Weiss was on a “Clark Griswold-esque” family vacation through the Relais & Châteaux of Southern France. On that trip, his father asked him to speak to the sommeliers and select the wines each night. Through those conversations, Matt discovered an affinity for food and wine.
During Matt’s senior year in college at NYU, he was inspired by Bobby D (aka Robert De Niro) and began studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. After graduating with a degree in History, Matt moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. As the cliché goes, he earned his keep bartending. In 2004, Matt returned home to New York and worked for Joe Bastianich at his original NYC restaurant, Becco. Matt “cut his teeth” in Italian wine and was seasoned for a career in wine and beverage. Six months later, Hollywood lured him back to star in a play. Needing a day job, he served as a Wine Specialist at Bristol Farms where he learned the retail side of booze.
Eventually, Matt met Max in LA and was hired to work with him at the famed Café Del Rey. Together they trained their palates and flexed their beverage director muscle. Matt’s passion for wine and beverage overtook his enthusiasm for acting, and one again, returned to NYC to study at the American Sommelier Association
(ASA). There he received his first of two sommelier certifications, and later completed the certification level through the Court of Master Sommeliers. Matt was then prepared to work for a who’s who of Michelin-starred restaurants and NYC chefs, such as David Bouley, Christopher Lee and Laurent Tourondel. Matt was best known for running BLT Prime’s wine and beverage program.
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After 10 plus years of working in bars and restaurants, Matt seized the opportunity to work at the pinnacle of wine sales and marketing with Wilson Daniels, the renowned importer of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Furthering his passion for wine, he served as an adjunct professor at the ASA to teach burgeoning sommeliers. Prior to heading down south, Matt ran the sales team for Baron Francois, a NYC based importer and distributor of fine wine and craft spirits.
Smitten by the charm of southern hospitality and expecting a little Weiss on the way, Matt and his 33-week pregnant wife packed up their 600 square foot NYC apartment and two dogs to move to the Triangle. Seeing the rise of craft spirits and foodie enthusiasm, Matt was eager to become part of the Triangle’s rising F&B family. Tapping into his passion for fine wine, Matt is currently a wine distributor, selling in the Triangle of North Carolina.
House Voice: Brian Hoyle @bigredpilot HotAirMarketing.com
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