The Pittsburgh Dish

059 Amy Knight: From Naval Service to Kitchen Classroom

• Doug Heilman • Season 2 • Episode 59

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What happens when a 20-year Navy veteran with a passion for global cuisine decides to trade her military uniform for an apron? Amy Knight's journey from Naval Officer to owner of Flour Power Cooking Studios reveals the unexpected parallels between naval leadership and culinary education.

(1:05) Amy has created a vibrant community space where cooking becomes a vehicle for confidence-building, memory-making, and even community service. "I just love watching the wheels turning," she shares, describing the moment when a child realizes they can create something delicious from scratch. Her weekly classes serve preschoolers through teens, while popular family cooking sessions regularly sell out, offering parents and children the chance to bond over homemade pasta or chicken piccata without worrying about kitchen cleanup.

(18:42) Knight's global travels during her naval career exposed her to cuisines that transformed her palate. These experiences inform the diverse cooking classes she now offers, including adult "Sip and Stir" BYOB workshops featuring international themes and Iron Chef-style competitions that often benefit local charities. The studio also hosts corporate team-building events that Knight describes as opportunities for colleagues to "duke it out in the kitchen" while developing collaborative skills.

What truly sets Flour Power apart is its commitment to service, mirroring Knight's military background. The studio's annual "Lasagna-thon" produces dozens of meals donated to community members in need, while also teaching young people that cooking can be a form of giving back. As Amy prepares for summer camps, she remains focused on creating opportunities that blend culinary skills with community connection. 

(33:50) And later in the show, we ask our resident wine expert Catherine Montest if 'rosé all day' is still a thing. Plus Ryan Peters dishes up a Pasta alla Vodka that rivals any restaurant meal. This episode is a multi-course of culinary delight. 

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Doug:

Welcome to The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman, how do you go from service in the Navy to serving the community with a cooking studio? We learn about the journey of Amy Knight and Flour Power. As warmer months approach us, is rosé all day still a trend? We pose that question to our resident wine expert, Catherine Montest. And what pasta sauce is easy enough to make at home but feels like a luxurious restaurant treat? Ryan Peters of Peters Pasta shares one of his home favorites. All that ahead, stay tuned. The Pittsburgh Dish is supported by Chef Alekka LLC. Book Chef Alekka for an in-home menu experience like her wine dinner, southern comfort, mostly French, or even bougie brunch. Just visit her website at chefalekkacom. Now on to the show. Thank you so much for coming over and for being on the show. Would you introduce yourself to our listeners and what you have going on right now in the world of food?

Amy:

Hi, I am Amy Knight. I'm the owner and operator of Flour Power Cooking Studios Pittsburgh. What do I have going on right now? We're, you know, we're getting ready for the strawberry jello pretzel salad competition. Uh, we're also gearing up for summer camps. Those are right around the corner, um, and we're just kind of chugging along doing our weekly classes and our family classes, and on the weekends we're killing it with birthday parties.

Doug:

Oh, that's excellent. I think we should tell our listeners if they haven't heard of or visited your business. Let's talk a little bit more about Flour Power. This is the only location right now in Pittsburgh, but there are a few others throughout the country, right?

Amy:

Absolutely. There's about 20 locations throughout the country. Somebody just recently signed a contract in the Philly area, so I think there'll be three locations coming to Philly in the next year or so, but yeah, this is the only one in Pennsylvania at this time. We all operate similarly, but we have different markets as well.

Doug:

Yes, can I say it's like a franchise you own it.

Amy:

It is a franchise and I do own the Pittsburgh location.

Doug:

So you can kind of do a few things like how you want.

Amy:

Absolutely. I mean we, you know, amongst the owners, we share information and some things work for some and some things don't work for others. So again, different markets.

Doug:

I think I always had the idea at first, when I met you, that it was a kids cooking school, but you do so much more, so let's let's talk about some of the classes. You did mention that there are summer camps coming up, like if someone were to visit your website or just talk to you about your business. You know what are some of the offerings that you have right now.

Amy:

So right now we do a membership model for weekly classes and we have four age groups. We have the preschool, the little chefs, the tweens and the teens. That's a great value because you can do as little or as many of the classes that we offer in the month. Also, on the weekends we're always doing birthday parties, so we're kind of jam-packed Saturdays and Sundays with birthday parties.

Doug:

It would be a great location for that. It's nice and big. There's two sort of major kitchen areas, but then you move tables around and stuff, so there can be a lot of even cooking areas if you're doing a class.

Amy:

Absolutely, and we reconfigure depending on, like, how many people are going to show up, what it is we're doing, so it really just depends. So definitely a lot of versatility within our kitchens. Usually, like every couple of Friday nights, we do a kid's night out. In fact, we have one coming up this Friday. Basically it's for ages five to 12 and it's a two hour cooking party and it's.

Amy:

You know, you just pay the one price for the one class and you're not like committed or anything. And then we do a couple of family classes a month and that seems to be like our sweet spot. The family classes are really doing well.

Amy:

Most of them sell out very quickly, Um, and there's a lot of, like you know, memories made and a lot of just a lot of energy that happens in these family classes and I just love it because we get we see a lot of familiar faces, cause they just love it and they're coming back.

Doug:

I love what you're saying about the memory making with the families, because, a maybe they don't cook as much at home we hear that a lot, you know people have sort of lost that at home experience and B they're in a place that is not their kitchen, so maybe your staff is helping them clean up and it's even like a little easier, right.

Amy:

Oh, absolutely, and I'm guilty too. Like at home with my kids. I'm not ready to like tear that kitchen apart, but if we're at flower power I'm like let's do it.

Catherine:

Let's make a mess.

Amy:

You know we can clean it up quick and I think there's definitely some comfort there where your kids are kind of letting loose and making a mess and being themselves and being comfortable, and you don't have to clean it up.

Doug:

I love that when you have the classes that are geared towards kids and families. What are some of the dishes or, like the cuisine topics that you are doing?

Amy:

So pasta is a huge one. I mean we do it pretty frequently just because it sells out so quick, Like homemade pasta Homemade pasta from scratch.

Doug:

Wow.

Amy:

And people are like blown away, especially for, like younger kids, like how easy it is for them to execute this whole process. We just had a family class recently and we made chicken piccata which is like my favorite dish ever and everybody like loved it and the kids like gobbled it up and I think the parents are like surprised you know that kids are going to eat some capers and like go for something, that's a little bit different from you know chicken fingers and stuff.

Amy:

Um, we'll have like pizza parties or we have things that are like breakfast themes. So we'll we'll or like a brunch theme or we do like a breakfast pizza or like a breakfast casserole and some other things. Usually there's three recipes involved in the family's classes, so it just depends. Sometimes they're aligned with the holidays.

Doug:

Everything's really hands-on too, oh yeah absolutely.

Amy:

And like in during December, we do a lot of cookie baking, so that's big. And we even have like a gingerbread class where they you know, they don't even have to put the house together. We put it together for them and all they have to do is, like, make it look beautiful. Oh, they're just decorating it out.

Doug:

Now here's the funny thing, like I personally have been to your place half a dozen times or more, but it's never been for a kids or family class, so let's talk about those other things that you do beyond the kids classes. These are the nighttime, is it sip and stir? How do you like to label these events?

Amy:

Yeah, I mean we call them sip and stirs. We casually call them sip and stirs BYOBs. But we do do adult classes. We do a couple a month and then I'm always looking to collaborate or raise money for nonprofits. So we do these Iron Chef cook-offs. I think most of the ones that you've been to we were raising money for something.

Amy:

And they're such a good time. Honestly, it always blows my mind when we do these Iron Chef cook-offs, where we get these people together and half of them walk in and tell me that they don't know how to make toast and then they pull off these like masterpieces that are edible, and then I think they're also surprised too. They're like wow, I can't believe we did this.

Catherine:

I want to do it again.

Amy:

I mean you're, you're always kind of on the tasting end. So you know firsthand that it's delicious.

Doug:

It is delicious and truly what they pull off within an hour or so and they have, as you said, it's sort of Iron Chef, in that they have a surprise ingredient that they have to incorporate. So how well do they do that? I think most of the time I've been there it has been for some kind of fundraising event, so I'm trying to think of some of the partners. The first time I was in your location, we did lasagna love, we did like a lasagna cooking a thon and then those were delivered out to a bunch of like agencies and places that could feed those lasagnas. Um, I think, am I getting it right? Like Baker Leadership and, uh, Variety, yeah, so we've raised money for variety like we.

Amy:

We hosted uh Zoe Pekach was a guest uh chef and we did like a dessert themed night that was a big success. We sold out of that and all that money went to variety. Um, I think variety. I tried to like mix it up. Like that year I really had a goal of like trying to do a different non-profit every month and then rotate through chefs and stuff and unfortunately I had to pivot cause it.

Amy:

It just wasn't. I really thought it was good, I don't know. I just thought, oh, this is going to be great, Like two of these great worlds are going to come together and for good and kind of thing.

Doug:

And well, you still are doing a lot of it. It may not be happening.

Amy:

It's mostly happening for just the one non-profit though, and part of it is too, is you know, they kind of get the word out as well, and so I I think you need that help when you're collaborating with something like both sides of that collaboration really need to work to make it a success, and variety has done that for sure and variety is a children's charity.

Doug:

if folks aren't familiar, uh, we just did one for the Leukemia Society, is that right?

Amy:

Correct the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society, which is still ongoing until June. But we have different opportunities that we're raising money for that campaign.

Doug:

So if somebody is out there and they're like, oh, this is a good idea, they could contact you and you could put a night together for them if they have a charity, some organization or some cause like that that they're working for. I think the setup in the last one I went to they were like groups of four, they paid $100. And then we did two rounds of what did we call it? It's not chopped. So we did two rounds of like an iron chef and they won a gift certificate to a great restaurant, and then all of this money gets donated to, like, the campaign that we're trying to do?

Amy:

Yeah, I mean, I just cover my costs for that event you know which are minimal. And then, yeah, the rest of the money and I I tried to give it a push like the day of. At the end of the day, it's literally four people and they're paying 25 to have like a full meal and, yeah, they get to eat.

Doug:

They get to eat everything that they make and they're being judged against the other teams. That night I think we had six teams. It was so much fun and as a judge, I would say to me six teams was, but I have been there where there's 10. And so you're judging like 10 tastings and 10 desserts or whatever, and, oh my gosh, I was so full. The first one I did.

Amy:

Oh yeah, and I think six is a good number, especially like being able to like get around the kitchen, and so I think, probably going forward, that's probably a number we'll try and stick with. But we yeah, we've had the 10 in there which I can't even imagine being a judge for that. No.

Doug:

Let's take just a quick step back to if you're not doing an event specifically for a charitable organization, but you are doing an adult as we said sip and stir class, where people can bring in some wine or beer and cook. What are some of the dishes or menus you've put together for an event like that?

Amy:

So the most recent one we did was a Thai themed one, and we were really focused on lemongrass. So we had a drink that had lemongrass in it, and then we had two main courses that had lemongrass in it. One was a tofu dish and one was like a chicken dish. And I will tell you, for somebody that's not a vegan and doesn't really go and eat tofu, the only time I eat tofu is in miso soup.

Doug:

Okay.

Amy:

They made the most delicious tofu. I mean, I was like I'm going to start making this You're a convert.

Amy:

Yes, it was delicious, so we'll have like international themes, or it might be like a sweets kind of thing, or it might be again a pasta thing. The pasta again, we kind of thing. Or it might be again a pasta thing, uh, the pasta again. We kind of keep bringing it back cause it's just so popular. And it's one of those skills that like, literally, you have some eggs and flour at home, you can just go ahead and whip it up. Um, also another thing we do a lot of is like corporate team building events.

Amy:

So, kind of structured like the iron chef, but, like you know, when you work nine to five with the same people, if you get a chance to go duke it out in the kitchen. It's a lot of fun. So we do those. We've hosted quite a few groups for that and they always just love it. And it's again crazy because you'll have somebody in the group. That's like I don't know how to cook and somebody is a leader in their group group and they've tasked them with something to help them make something amazing.

Doug:

I would love that as a corporate team builder. So, amy, I'm wondering, like with all of these events, do you create the theme or the recipes, or is this something you're sharing amongst your other?

Amy:

flour power, so we get a lot of these recipes from corporate. However, a lot of the lesson plans and recipes were put together by some of the owners or some of the staff members. You know we've contributed some of the international lesson plans. Even like my 12 year olds really into anime, so we put together an anime lesson plan that was like Japanese themed Wow.

Doug:

You know, so. So you did that. Yes, okay, and then the other flour power schools could use it too.

Amy:

Yes, once it gets approved by corporate. We do have a head chef at corporate. Once she gives it the okay, then it's live and people can use it. So there are definitely also like some lesson plans that we get and they have some recipes that I'm like let's do this a little bit different, you know. Or like let's omit that. Or like, do it like this.

Doug:

So you have the agency to really customize things and make it your own and make it more adaptable for your audience.

Amy:

Absolutely.

Doug:

Yeah, that's great. I want to pivot a little bit and ask you know, when did you discover Flower Power and decide that you wanted to open a shop here in Pittsburgh?

Amy:

franchises. So I knew that like, oh, I'd never owned a business and I really don't know the first thing about it. Let me get like a business in a box and try that out. So I looked, I pulled like the macaron string. I also really wanted to get into doggy daycares but it's so expensive. So I saw that in writing. Like I can't do this.

Amy:

Like I can't afford this. So I was like, let me, let me keep looking, let me keep looking. I need something that obviously is going to be successful in this area and something I can share with my children. Like I can take my kids to work and it's fine.

Catherine:

They'll just blend right in.

Amy:

And I was like, oh gosh, this would be so awesome. I want to do this. I'm more of like a a food consumer than I am a cooker.

Catherine:

You know what I mean. Like.

Amy:

I love like foods from all over the world, you know, especially like being in the Navy and traveling to so many different countries and trying so many different things. I, I just love all food you know, except for beets. I do not like beets.

Doug:

Okay.

Amy:

You haven't been won over yet Never, so. So yeah, I was like this is going to be perfect and I actually spent like a couple of years trying to get it up and running because of COVID, like I was getting ready to sign a lease literally when we shut down for COVID. And that just set everything back by like two years.

Doug:

Yes, how long has your shop been open?

Amy:

It'll be three years in July, okay, so 2022? Yes, Okay, july 2022. And then, yeah, I mean, I guess I'm glad that it worked out the way that it did, because there was other locations that opened right in the middle of COVID and they're no longer.

Doug:

Yeah, they couldn't weather the storm.

Amy:

No, and I mean, who could you know?

Doug:

So you have been open for three years. You've weathered some storms. You kind of had better timing than some. What other lessons have you learned becoming this business owner from you know? Air quotes, business in a box.

Amy:

Yeah, so I mean there's definitely a seasonality to what we do. You know the summer camp is a big thing for us. You know we have 10 weeks of kids that are there for five days a week, eight hours a day. But like we sell those summer camps in January and we're spending money for those camps in June, July, August. So, you know kind of like figuring out how to. How do you make all that work?

Doug:

Your whole year is this big plan, right, right.

Amy:

And so living it and seeing it and learning from it. That, hmm, we need to hold off on spending money on these things and then back to school is different. I think there's a fact out there that there's more birthdays in September than any other month, so we do have a lot of birthday parties in September. During the summertime people don't really want to have indoor birthday parties. We wish they did, though.

Ryan:

It's quite airy in there Right.

Amy:

It's so bright in there. You know they want to be out by the pool and things like that, and I don't blame them, but just kind of realizing like, oh, weekends are going to be a little slower in the summer. So yeah, I mean definitely like Each quarter is very different.

Doug:

Yeah, if somebody is out there thinking about opening their own small business, whether it's similar to yours or not, I'm sure there's lessons they can take away. That you have been like, oh my gosh.

Amy:

I'm guilty of being a consumer and walking in and purchasing something and thinking, oh, like I just paid this amount for something that probably costs $3 to make. But people forget how much insurance is, how much all these serve save, how much rent is.

Doug:

And you have employees there.

Amy:

Employees that I pay a livable wage. Yeah, and it's. You know, again I'm guilty. But like thinking that whole thing through, like oh, this lady is selling me a sticker and that sticker is cute, but it costs 10 cents in China. Well, guess what?

Doug:

Like it's $5 overhead for this sticker right here, and I get it.

Amy:

I really get it. Yeah, this is Amy Knight with Flour Power Studios, Pittsburgh, and you're listening to The Pittsburgh Dish.

Doug:

I want to take a step back because you have mentioned it earlier. Before being this business owner, you had a very different career. Can you tell us a little bit about your service history?

Amy:

Sure, I was in the Navy for a little over 20 years.

Doug:

Wow.

Amy:

I spent about 10 years enlisted for a little over 20 years. I spent about 10 years enlisted and then, thanks to the Navy, I got a degree, a bachelor's degree, in strategic intelligence. And then I applied to officer candidate school and was picked up. I was a surface warfare officer for five years and those are the officers that are on the ships, they're kind of the management on the ships. I then I had a daughter, so I decided that I needed to be on shore duty and I applied to be a human resources officer. So then I spent the last five years in Pittsburgh. I was the operations officer for Navy, recruiting for three states. So, yeah, I mean I have some leadership experience. Sure, I think that's also something that, like I pride myself on you know, as the owner and operator of Flower Power is just being able to work with these young people and kind of empower them to make decisions and be the best version of themselves they can be.

Doug:

Yes, I am really interested to know number one where did you grow up?

Amy:

I'm from Akron, ohio, okay, so not too far away.

Doug:

And then when you were on I want to say this in the right way, so you can correct me a naval ship. Do I want to say that?

Amy:

Were you on a carrier.

Doug:

Were you on a destroyer.

Amy:

I've been on both. I've been stationed on four ships, so I've been stationed on an aircraft carrier, two destroyers and a frigate.

Doug:

Wow, so we don't even have frigates anymore. I was like I don't know that one. Yeah, I was on one of the last ones. Oh, and did you travel all around the world?

Amy:

Yeah, I did Um so when I first joined the Navy, I think like a couple of years into it. Uh, september 11th happened.

Doug:

And when did you enlist?

Amy:

I enlisted in 99. I was 18 years old.

Doug:

Oh my goodness.

Amy:

So I was 20 years old when September 11th happened Wow. So it really changed the face of what a deployment looked like for the Navy.

Ryan:

Yes.

Amy:

A lot of what we were doing is shaking hands and kissing babies.

Doug:

Yes.

Amy:

And now-.

Doug:

It became real.

Amy:

Yeah, we were on alert, we were going and we weren't necessarily pulling into port. We were kind of guarding countries and, you know, working with our allies to make sure that the world was safe.

Doug:

Wow, and where all over the world did you get to go?

Amy:

I've been. So I've been stationed on ships that were in the West Coast and then also stationed on ships that were in the East Coast. So they go to different places. So the West Coast, you know, I've been to, like Australia. I've been to Hong Kong I've been to. Also when I was on the West Coast we did like a South American tour, so we were kind of like going after drug runners and stuff.

Amy:

So that was very different. And then when I was stationed on the East Coast, I actually took a ship that was an East Coast ship and took them to Japan to do a whole port change.

Catherine:

So I lived in Japan for a year and so then those port visits are very different.

Amy:

You know Guam, we did Guam quite a few times.

Doug:

We have a big station in Guam right, A big base.

Amy:

Which fun fact I was actually born in Guam.

Doug:

Really.

Amy:

Yeah, my parents were both in the air force.

Doug:

Were they.

Amy:

Oh, my goodness.

Doug:

So you've carried the family tradition of military service. Thank you so much for your service.

Amy:

Thank you, my sister's also in the Navy, by the way.

Doug:

Oh my gosh, is she still? She is, oh my gosh, 27 years Wow. So out of curiosity, cause I don't know this, when you would be in a foreign country, did you ever have, you know, shore leave time that you could go explore? Yeah, it was.

Amy:

It just depended on where we pulled in, because there was different rules. Whoever the admiral was for that territory at the time, there might be some restrictions. We also had a time where we had a commanding officer that he wouldn't let anybody stay overnight anywhere. So the whole deployment. You had to go out and come back.

Doug:

Get on the ship.

Amy:

Whereas typically, if you weren't assigned a specific duty day while you were in port because you'd be in port for three or four days, and if you didn't have duty, then you could stay overnight in a hotel.

Doug:

Oh, like a little vacation.

Amy:

Yeah, a little vacation, and honestly, like when I tell people some of the stories of some of the port visits, like I couldn't pay for that trip.

Doug:

Right.

Amy:

You know, like we pulled into the French Riviera and literally like I felt like a million bucks, Like I was on this like vacation and I'm surrounded by like just this great environment. You know, and I'm like gosh, I just got a free ride over here.

Doug:

Yeah. So there's this just amazing experience for all those young people out there that are thinking about military service. You can have serious times and you can have some really uh, you can have some perks to the job too.

Amy:

Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean some of the places that I've been, like. I've been to Australia like several times and I mean it just would have cost me so much money to go there. I ran like a relay marathon in Perth with some friends on the ship.

Amy:

You know what I mean and I've done some of the coolest. I went on an Outback trip in Australia where literally it was like Crocodile Dundee was our tour guide. Well, you know, we were seeing like kangaroos jumping around in the wild and we were riding these glue factory horses. And oh, oh, my gosh.

Doug:

So I want to bring back to food a little bit. When you had all of these adventures, did that give you exposure to the cuisine of the area? I mean, did you try the food Were you? Becoming more adventurous when you were on these travels.

Amy:

I mean, there's things, so many things, that I ate, that I'd never ate, you know, up until that point, and then I come back and they're like my favorite foods. Oh my gosh, yeah.

Doug:

Because they were probably part of a core memory. Now, oh, yeah, absolutely.

Amy:

I was stationed in England for two years and near where I lived was like a huge Lebanese population and Lebanese food is like some of my favorite food now.

Doug:

Yeah, it's stuck with you. Yeah, for sure. Are there any other dishes that are still like? I crave that all the time, or I want this so chicken korma.

Amy:

I've never had chicken korma until I was like overseas and like I try it like everywhere. If I see it on a menu, um, I have to have it. Or like a Peking duck Again, I had that in England. Um, they have like the ducks hanging in the window, but like when they serve it with like those little pancakes and the plum sauce and um and they shred it in front of you Like. I just love that you know.

Doug:

So I want to take just a kind of another step further back. What was food life like growing up in Akron and with your family being in the military? Like, did folks cook for you? Did you cook at an early age, or was your service time a big expansion to your kind of culinary experience?

Amy:

A hundred percent A big expansion experience. A hundred percent a big expansion. Sorry, mom. Um, yeah, my mom may have. She had like five recipes in her bag yeah, meatloaf, tuna, noodle, casserole, pot roast, spaghetti and shake and bake something oh my gosh, very all-american, yeah, standard dishes um, yeah, so, uh, I definitely like.

Amy:

I think when I was a teenager, I was like if I was home, like during the summer, and my parents were at work, I was trying to like whip something up. It's weird because when I was a kid, I was not one of those kids where my parents went and bought all these like kids snacks.

Doug:

No, my parents none of that.

Amy:

Yeah, it was like if you're not making yourself some shake and bake chicken, you're probably not going to eat lunch today or whatever. I guess my point is is like you had to be creative and like put something together because there was not going to be a Swiss roll in the cabinet.

Doug:

No. So, amy, thinking about your time in the Navy and that sort of culinary experience, is that maybe one of the things that made flower power more attractive?

Amy:

Absolutely. I love food, except for beets. I love all food and I just, yeah, I'm like this is so fun I mean even today, when I am there, like this is so fun. And the way kids like light up when they make something and they just can't even believe it.

Amy:

And sometimes you know how kids are like they might act like it's not a big deal, but then when their parents come to pick them up, they cannot wait to tell them that they made something, or like I mean just watching them kind of like the wheels turning, like wow, I really did not know I could make that like that, you know so, but yeah, I mean it's, it's a fun place to be. I honestly, the stressful part of flower power is the behind the scenes. It's not the actual, like being there doing it.

Doug:

It looks chaotic, but you kind of thrive in that, oh yeah, I'm like oh, we got this.

Amy:

We're about to make a masterpiece.

Doug:

You're making experiences and memories. You're building skills and confidence.

Amy:

Yeah, and you know every kid that comes in there like we're not expecting them to be like totally in love with cooking or baking or whatever, but there's so much that goes into cooking and baking the math, the science, yeah, into cooking and baking the math, the science. Like, honestly, if we're sparking some sort of creativity or some, even like some kid trying to figure out, like maybe this is a path I want to take that has nothing to do with food. That's good too.

Doug:

Absolutely. You are building so many other skills beyond. Just do I know how to roll out some dough? I love it. So, since we are there, let's talk about what's ahead. Do you have any events or other goals or anything coming up throughout the year or the summer? I know you mentioned the kids cooking camps are coming up.

Amy:

So one of the things we just recently started that I want to stick with is I do have like a girl that she's one of our manager's daughters. That's like doing a recipe like every Monday. She puts it together and we do like a little video. So I you know she's also in acting school, so I feel like we're helping each other. Yes, Because she's getting that like on camera time, and you know I'm working on my editing skills too.

Doug:

But is this going on like YouTube or the website we just put?

Amy:

it on instagram for now. So maybe maybe, if it, you know, grows and stuff, maybe we'll do something else but, yeah, so she. So she's doing that. One of the goals I had like last year and it's still like really like close to my heart. I just haven't as executed as I would love to do like a real, like a Pittsburgh teen competition you know, like where they really like duke it out.

Amy:

I just haven't like kind of pulled the trigger to like structure that, but I would love that and I just I think there's some teens out there that probably know what's going on and could really pull something amazing off.

Doug:

You just sparked an idea for me. Like you know, I see like quiz shows and stuff of competing high schools. Maybe there could be like a, a cooking high school showdown or something you know around the areas that could be fun.

Amy:

Oh yeah, I love that. It's funny, cause sometimes on Saturday mornings, when I'd have like the morning news on and I let it keep going, they'll do like those trivias. That's what I'm thinking.

Doug:

Yeah, yeah.

Amy:

So do that with food. Yeah, I like it. I like it, anything else. We do lasagna thon we're still planning on doing that again this summer. Every year it's gotten bigger and better. And honestly, and you've been there.

Doug:

I'll try and come again.

Amy:

Yeah, but one of the things that is also a good opportunity is we can allow kids to volunteer and they love that.

Doug:

They get to see the acts of service and sort of get that understanding of you can cook for other people that are in need, and so it's not just about having fun but it's really about serving the community.

Amy:

So I think, with that thought and I've talked to like Tom Baker about this before, about volunteerism for little people, you know, kids that are like my kids age, like seven year olds and stuff, you know, I know that there are some avenues of where kids do volunteer but the opportunities are kind of small. But I would love to have some sort of regular opportunity at flower power where we're making food for somebody or whatever, but like having kids involved. Um, you know, not to get off topic, but the competition coming up, I have a kid team that's helping me with the strawberry jello pretzel salad. Really like involving kids as much as possible.

Doug:

The earlier the better.

Amy:

Absolutely yeah.

Doug:

I used to work with someone and really her family just instilled a lifetime of service, whether that's civilian service, you know, versus military service. But you're always doing some kind of service because it's so fulfilling to your community and I think that your location for me has brought that out multiple times and I think you're just doing great stuff, so thank you.

Amy:

Yeah, thank you.

Doug:

Why don't we do this for our listeners? Would you go ahead and plug your social handle so they can see that recipe video or your website or anything else you have going on where people can contact you?

Amy:

Sure. So as far as like Facebook and Instagram, it's Flour Power Pittsburgh, and that's flower spelled F-L-O-U-R like bread flour Correct.

Doug:

We haven't said that yet.

Amy:

Listen if you guys screw that up. I've done it too. I'll send myself a text or something and I'll all of a sudden type in F-L-O-W-E-R and I'm like what are you doing?

Doug:

Amy.

Amy:

But yeah, so Flour Power Pittsburgh, and then online it's flourpowerstudioscom, and then you just select location Pittsburgh.

Doug:

And then, amy, if they do go to the website, that's where they can see, under Pittsburgh, your current classes or anything you have coming up, right yeah.

Amy:

There's a couple of different views. You can kind of navigate through what it is you're looking for, or you can just look at there's a calendar view. You can see what's coming up ahead.

Doug:

Great Amy. Can you remind us where your Flower Power cooking studio is located?

Amy:

Yeah, we're in Allison Park on Route 8, hampton Township, so we're literally like a mile from the Turnpike.

Doug:

Oh, yeah, all right, amy. I always have a final question for our guests. The name of the show is The Pittsburgh Dish. What's the best dish you've had to eat this past week, this past week?

Amy:

So we went to. It's across the street from Flour Power and it's called K Asian Bistro and Sushi Bar and they have this appetizer called K-Style Duck Roll and it's so good. It has the hoisin sauce and it has like a spicy sauce on it. Roll, and it's so good. It has the hoisin sauce and the uh has like a spicy sauce on it and it's just delicious.

Doug:

This is back to the Peking duck that you love.

Amy:

Absolutely Like. It's just my again, my, my 12 year old eats it with me because it's so good.

Doug:

Best bites this week. Amy Knight, thank you so much and thanks for being on the Pittsburgh dish.

Amy:

Thanks for having me. I'm so happy that you invited me on, and I just love every time we work together. It's been great.

Doug:

Me too. Thanks again. Up next, have you been guilty of drinking rosé all day? We check in with Catherine Montest to see if this trend still has legs. Hey everybody, we're joined today with our resident wine expert, catherine Montest. Of Your Fairy Wine Mother, Catherine. We're moving into some of the warmer months of the year and I think sometimes people's tastes change for wine, would you say that happens for you in the summer. Oh, I think so, absolutely.

Catherine:

Doug yeah.

Doug:

I sort of recall a couple summers ago. This term rosé all day was kind of a trend. Does that still hold true, or will it hold true for this summer?

Catherine:

Absolutely. Rosé is delightful. A lot of the red wines that we like to gravitate toward during the winter months can kind of feel heavy during the summer.

Doug:

Yeah, that's what I think.

Catherine:

And rosé wines are not made from rosé grapes per se, but they're made from red wine grapes. Okay, and there's a couple of different methods that are used and a whole bunch of different red wine grapes. And there's a couple of different methods that are used and a whole bunch of different red wine grapes. So if you're a red wine lover and you want to lighten things up, you can move into a rosé for the summer and still enjoy some of the same flavors, but without the tannins and the heaviness.

Doug:

Yes, oh, I like this, yeah, so it could still be a trend that's been going on for years.

Catherine:

Oh, absolutely, and I think that the offerings that are available to us today are much more widespread than your mom's old white Zinfandel.

Doug:

I think so what you're saying is our rosé all day has matured to a degree.

Catherine:

Absolutely Okay, absolutely so if you're someone who likes a Pinot Noir or a Cab Franc, or even a Gamay, you would want to look for wines from France in the. Loire Valley, because those grapes are grown there and they'll pick some of the grapes and one of the ways of making a rosé wine is to press the grapes and just take some of that juice away.

Doug:

Okay.

Catherine:

And the color doesn't come from the juice inside the grape. The color comes from the skin.

Doug:

Oh, I think I have heard this before?

Catherine:

Yes, so when the juice has a little bit of contact with the skin, from a few hours to a couple of days, it'll pick up a light color and it doesn't pick up all those heavy structured tannins and things from long time sitting on the skins.

Doug:

But it does get that little blush.

Catherine:

It gets a flush of color and it gets a lot of the really wonderful ripe fruit flavors. Okay, yeah, another way that rosé wines can be made is to take to to ferment white wine and red wine separately and then just start adding a little bit of red wine to the white.

Doug:

Just to give it that blush again, until you get the color and the flavor profile that you're looking for. Okay, so is that a bad thing?

Catherine:

No, not at all. Okay, it's really depends on, you know, what's inspiring the winemaker and when the grapes came in from the field and they started their vinification process, what makes sense for that year's harvest.

Doug:

Yeah, because every year is a little different. This is a natural product, absolutely. Are there any particular rosés that you gravitate towards?

Catherine:

Lately I've been drinking a rosé made from Grenache and Grenache is a really fun grape very fruity flavors of raspberry and cherry and just a nice soft finish, like it's not real harsh once you've swallowed. The flavor just kind of gently drifts away after a few seconds. So rosés from Grenache are really delicious and over the weekend I served a really nice rosé at a function and it was from Oak Hill Winery in Lodi, california, and it was absolutely bright, refreshing, delicious and wonderful notes of cherries and raspberries and strawberry and it was just wonderful for a little garden party.

Doug:

Oh, that sounds great. You are educating me in a different way because you know, I am truly a novice on things. So what we are saying with rosé wines, they can come from different types of grapes, and do the bottles identify that?

Catherine:

A lot of times they do, but sometimes it's really dependent upon the place.

Doug:

Okay.

Catherine:

Here in the United States we tend to put the name of the grape on the bottle.

Doug:

Okay.

Catherine:

Over in Europe, they tend to name things from the area in which it was grown the terroir, terroir, the terroir or the region? Yeah, can't say it terroir, the terroir or the region, yeah, yeah, can't say it. Um, and some of the best rosés they've been making for hundreds of years from the provence region of france and you can get grenaches from the provence region of france as well okay.

Doug:

So if I am taking a trip to get some rosé wine, looking for some grenache based grapes, and if they say that here in the States it's maybe Lodi Valley, and where again? From France, do you like Provence? Okay, and those also are making great rosés with Grenache.

Catherine:

Absolutely, and also Syrah. So if you're someone who likes a petite Syrah, those rosés from that area come in that grape too.

Doug:

Okay, Catherine, I think we're still going to be drinking rosé all day sometime this summer.

Catherine:

Yes indeed.

Doug:

You can follow Catherine on Instagram at urfairywinemother. That's U- R fairy wine mother. When it comes to home cooking, do you ever surprise yourself with a recipe that turns out restaurant-worthy? This week, Ryan Peters delivers a dish with his homemade pasta a la vodka. Hey, everybody, we're joined with Ryan Peters of Peters Pasta. Ryan, when we've talked in the past, you're always making the fresh pasta and you have that fancy pasta-making machine. I love some of the shapes you make, and I did just catch a video with one of my favorite sauces. It was a vodka sauce. Yeah, could you take us through that recipe for listeners at home?

Ryan:

First off, I want to say it's so simple. It's very, very simple. So many people love vodka sauce nowadays and they don't realize how simple it is to make. You can make it at home. It's just a few ingredients. So I usually start with some onions and garlic. Get those you know sweated down a little bit, get those out of the pan and I like to do like a hot Italian sausage round. I had never seen that before.

Doug:

What a great idea.

Ryan:

I mean, you can do it without any protein, you can do it with like a roasted chicken breast, really whatever you want. I just I don't know. I like the, the flavor and the texture of the sausage in there. Yes, um, so I'll brown that up in a pan, get that out, and then I go in with some tomato paste, let that caramelize really brown, really really brown like I think a lot of home cooks they'll look at that and be like it's burnt but like no, that's really good flavor, great flavor.

Ryan:

And then we use the vodka to deglaze that get all of those tasty bits up, um so it's really burn out most of the alcohol at that point.

Doug:

Then too, yeah, just the flavor.

Ryan:

If vodka has a flavor which I don't even think there's much left at that point after you, you burn it off, right, um. But I will sometimes actually add a little bit more in raw at the end, yeah, just to kind of give it that bite a little bit. So then we'll add the cream in there and it just kind of then the onions and the garlic and the sausage, everything goes back in there and just kind of simmers away and it becomes this really, really almost luxurious pasta dish that you make in five minutes. Heaven, it's so good Looks so good.

Doug:

Yeah, the day that I was watching that video, you made a really cool shape. What's the shape pasta that you like?

Ryan:

it's a ruffly, yeah, so that's my favorite shape for pasta alla vodka and for a lot of pasta dishes. It's called radiatory um, and it's. It's got these really like intricate little ridges and it's, yeah, it just catches the sauce.

Doug:

So, so perfectly, it's fantastic finish with a little fresh basil little basil, maybe a little parmigiano-reggiano if you're feeling fancy.

Ryan:

But even you don't even need it, though, too. It's one of those things where you don't need to top it off with a bunch of stuff.

Doug:

It's so good on its own, yeah we'll definitely link to the recipe on the blog. Pasta a la vodka and what's the pasta shape again, radiatory, radiatory. Ryan peters, thanks so much for being on The Pittsburgh Dish, thank you. You can find Ryan on social media at PetersPasta and his podcast, Knead to Know. Do you have a recipe? Share it with us. Just visit our website at wwwpittsburghdishcom and look for our share a recipe form. If you enjoyed the show, consider buying us a coffee for this episode or supporting the show monthly. You can find links to those options at the bottom of our show description and if you want to follow my own food adventures, you can find me on social media at Doug Cooking. That's our show for this week. Thanks again to all of our guests and contributors and to Kevin Solecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.

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Douglas Heilman

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