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A healthy gut can change your life! Today's guests are Bobbi Giudicelli and Michael Giudicelli, mother and son co-founders of Read The Ingredients, 100% gluten-free and vegetable products that are marketed. Prior to RTI, Bobbi successfully founded and ran other companies throughout her career. Michael spent the first 8 years of his career in business when his mother, Bobbi, suggested that he joined her in a previous company. After dealing with several personal losses, Bobbi took a look outside of traditional western medicine and began her journey of understanding nutrition. That’s when they decided to sell part of that business to start Read The Ingredients, taking advantage of a gap in the market to start their own adventure. Bobbi and Michael know that nutrition is the answer to feeling better, because what we eat determines how we feel and how we perform in all aspects of life.
Highlights
To learn more about Bobbi and Michael, follow them on Instagram, or visit their website.
Follow us on Instagram or visit our website and stay inspired by our blogs, featuring a collection of posts about lifestyle, food, and so much more.
Listen to our past episodes!
Go back home.
Download Podcast Transcript
A healthy gut can change your life! Today's guests are Bobbi Giudicelli and Michael Giudicelli, mother and son co-founders of Read The Ingredients, 100% gluten-free and vegetable products that are marketed. Prior to RTI, Bobbi successfully founded and ran other companies throughout her career. Michael spent the first 8 years of his career in business when his mother, Bobbi, suggested that he joined her in a previous company. After dealing with several personal losses, Bobbi took a look outside of traditional western medicine and began her journey of understanding nutrition. That’s when they decided to sell part of that business to start Read The Ingredients, taking advantage of a gap in the market to start their own adventure. Bobbi and Michael know that nutrition is the answer to feeling better, because what we eat determines how we feel and how we perform in all aspects of life.
Highlights
To learn more about Bobbi and Michael, follow them on Instagram, or visit their website.
Follow us on Instagram or visit our website and stay inspired by our blogs, featuring a collection of posts about lifestyle, food, and so much more.
Listen to our past episodes!
Go back home.
Changing the Market with Vegetable and Gluten-Free Products with Bobbi Giudicelli and Michael Giudicelli.
Julia Chebotar 00:04
Spice up your life with me Health Chef Julia, as I set out on the journey of What is Healthy. In each episode, we'll explore the different meanings of healthy for some healthy means indulging in something decadent and delicious. For others. It's a mental health day and a good workout. There's more to health than just food. It's about living well, enjoying your life and having fun. Having you heard redheads do it best. Come with me, and we'll find out just what healthy is. Welcome to a new episode of What is Healthy? Podcast where we share every hack to get healthier and a more sustainable lifestyle. I'm Chef Julia and today we'll be talking to Bobbi and Michael Giudicelli. It's great to have you and not to mention your a mother and son team. So please tell me all about you guys and how you guys started this company. I'm really excited to try it. And I love what you guys stand for, like I got the packaging, and I love that it's like there's absolutely no preservatives or any kind of like, unhealthy ingredient. And I love the fact that you freeze them and then put them into the microwave, please, please tell us all about it because I am really interested to learn more.
Bobbi Giudicelli 01:10
Okay, great. So I'll start and then periodically I will suggest that Michael pipe in because I do have a tendency to go on a little more than he. But just to give you a little background as far as being a mother and son team. We This is our second company together. And our first venture together started with I brought him into a company that I had just started about 10 years ago, and to open up a new division. And we did that very well for a good 10 years. And then we sold off most of that company to start read the ingredients. Read the ingredients really came from. For me it was a personal passion. My whole journey with healthy eating and nutrition also started about 10 years ago, it was really born out of necessity out of watching people around me get very sick die of cancer, heart disease, dementia, all kinds of things that I finally put my foot down and said it is time for me to take a look at what it is to live healthy. And you know, I always thought I was healthy. I always thought I understood nutrition. And I didn't. I always felt like being active and being fit, which was part of our lifestyle. When I was raising kids what kept us healthy. And I come to find out that nutrition really is the key of all the components of being healthy. I think the biggest one and the one one that we do get to control and most people do not realize how much they can impact their lifestyle that way. So yeah, so Michael and I decided, after I had created these recipes, we had decided there was a real need in the market for this there is nothing that is this convenient, this healthy, tastes this good this clean that you can grab and go particularly for breakfast, which is what it's been for me. And for us, I think for the last four years. It's It is our breakfast, and there is just there was such a void in the market. We felt like it makes sense to move on from our last venture and go ahead and create this brand.
Julia Chebotar 03:23
I love that you guys are a family team because I have a vegan restaurant in Manhattan with my parents that's been around since 2001. And the story behind it is similar like family nutrition. My stepdads grandmother, mother was diagnosed with lymphoma. And he quit his job as a psychiatrist and took her to the Kushi Institute, where they lived for like three months and went fully macro. And then he opened the restaurant in her memory. But I am applauding you guys for running a business together for so long. Because I think like year 10 I was like parents, I love you. But in order to save our relationship, I need to like step away. I love you so much, but I can no longer.
Bobbi Giudicelli 04:04
Yeah, well, thank you. We've actually been interviewed several times now just about that about our relationship. And and Michael, why don't you go ahead and share with Julia what you know what this is like from the son point of view, because as a mother, I can talk about it all day long. But I don't get to hear often enough what it's like from his point of view.
Michael Giudicelli. 04:25
Yeah, no, and I'm sure Julia can probably you can relate to a lot of what I'm going to say I mean it. It's a no, it's been great. I mean, I understand going into this that Bobby had a head start of let's call it 2530 years more business variance than I did. So it's not so much that I knew my role, but I knew that I had a lot of learning to do and what often take a take a backseat to hear what Bobbi had to share in terms of her experience and her advice in any given situation. So for me, it was great. A great learning experience. And it was also one where my and I'm going to use air quotes here. For those who are just listening, my boss was very understanding of my position in the company, but also had great faith that I could do the job. I mean, it would be a very bad business move for Bobby to bring me in. As someone who had no business inclination, and then hoping me to help her successfully run a business, I would just be, I mean, it would be a huge misstep. And we wouldn't be where we are today. If that were the case, though. So I mean, yeah, it's been, it's been great. And you're right, after 10 years, you do have occasional moments that Bobbi and I can very much have candid conversations with each other. They look like this is what's happening. In fact, last week, you know, we had one of those great conversations where quite frankly, I did something to piss Bobby off. He called me and she goes, you know, what this is bothering me. And, and we talked it through. And I mean, and we will continue to do that. And you know, that's not going to be the last time where probably I'm gonna piss her off.
Julia Chebotar 06:00
I mean, I'm sure you've been doing it a lot for for your whole life.
Michael Giudicelli. 06:04
Yeah, and now she can ground me.
Julia Chebotar 06:08
Yeah, I was gonna ask you guys quarantining in the same house.
Michael Giudicelli. 06:12
Yeah, no, absolutely not. We wouldn't be working together any longer if we were. But no, it's been great.
Julia Chebotar 06:19
I love it. So when you guys tell me more about the brand and how it got started. Like, I know, you mentioned a little bit about you creating the recipes and realizing that nutrition is important. But I want to hear more about like the products and how it all got started.
Bobbi Giudicelli 06:34
And so I'm going to let my foot tell most of the story, but I will tell you that. For me personally, it really did hit close to home, I will tell you, I hate to use this word, but I feel like I was reborn when I found nutrition as the answer to feeling better, physically feeling better, emotionally, feeling better in every aspect of my life. And I often say and I'm not shy about telling my age, but I often say and it is 100% true, I have more energy. Now as a 65 year old, then I did as a 40 year old and I was very active then, and tried to be very active more than I was able to now I don't feel I'm limited at all by how I feel. I am very active, I ride horses, I play lots of pickleball I'm in the gym every single morning with the gyms in my house. And none of that makes me feel like I'm 65 or whatever that's supposed to feel like it you know it. And so for me, it was very personal. And then Michael can tell you more about the products and what it is for him
Julia Chebotar 07:42
I have to say that like you don't look 65 like you look really for the listeners just to tell them she looks really good.
Bobbi Giudicelli 07:50
Thank you so much I appreciate
Michael Giudicelli. 07:53
The products were really built out of a void that we found mean Bobby and I are both very discipline like hardline people. So when we look at let's say breakfast, which in this case, this is the boy that our products bill, we didn't find a convenient, healthy like completely nutritious breakfast available on the market that also was gluten free low sugar, and at this point now 100% plant based so that's why Bobby started making the products and then it started catching on with family members who aren't necessarily vegan or aren't necessarily looking for a low sugar diet, but they could appreciate what how these products made them feel. I mean, they were they felt full for a lot longer than let's say having a bowl of Raisin Bran for instance. So it's easy for Bobby and I to be as disciplined as we are and say look no sugar means no sugar and that's that and we're doing this and so when we started sharing it with other people that weren't you know of the same mindset as us that also appreciated what we're offering and the clean ingredients and and the you know the the really good macro panel on the back of the package and we we said look, we've we've got something here let's let's fill this void and take it to market. So that's what we did. And it's been you know, we've been iterating a couple of times to really get the product to where it is now where we initially started with only one of four skews was completely plant based. And that was actually off of the suggestion of a friend of ours who is a gastroenterologist when she said you know why don't you explore taking the eggs out that's a big thing. So we did for one and then for whatever reason we looked at each other and went Why didn't we do this for the rest of them? This is silly. So so since then we've added a couple flavors and removed any animal products from all of our skews and it's um, right now we've got a great line that we're confident in.
Julia Chebotar 09:49
Yeah, I so I was traveling all week and I have my pack my doorman we're like you have a perishable package that says you need to freeze it. We put it in the staff freezer for you and like I came back and then like had it ready for me. So I'm like, I can't wait
Michael Giudicelli. 10:03
Well, and now you can take that same package with you when you do travel instead of going there.
Julia Chebotar 10:07
That's true. I was just at the airport, and there's absolutely nothing to eat. Absolutely nothing like you. Obviously, it's goldfish Reese's, like junk food, there's the only non soda drink is water, you can't find anything. And coming from coming from a person who is in like the vegan and health space, I'm not vegan 100%. But get like, lean towards that way. Think about like every cereal bar or on the go breakfast. Everything contains some sort of preservative, chemical dye or animal product.
Bobbi Giudicelli 10:46
The other thing is Julia. First of all, you're our perfect customer. And I'll tell you why your journey sounds similar to mine. So the other reason we had to take the eggs out is I became completely 100% plant based in my diet about four years ago. And I found out if I can only one of the four products we have on the market, we now have six products. But if I can only want to four, there's something wrong with this picture. And we realize that, okay, if we offer this vegan product, or 100%, plant based product, we're actually helping the consumer who's mindful of wanting to be leaning more toward plant based and away from animal products. And that's really, I mean, at the core of who we are as a company, what our intention is, what our mission is, is to help people realize what healthy is. So we're not just marketing to the vegan community, we're marketing to the mindful about nutrition community,
Julia Chebotar 11:45
I feel like you guys are helping everybody feel better. In that sense. You're definitely filling the void, not just for vegans or plant based people, I think it's just in general helping us as a world I guess, be more mindful of what we put in our bodies.
Bobbi Giudicelli 11:58
Absolutely. And the other thing that you said is, the other thing that was happening at the time that I was altering my diet is I needed to be traveling a whole lot from coast to coast and where we fly out of Sacramento, flying to the east coast is an all day event because there's no nonstop and so I was traveling all the time. And I've literally like you said I couldn't eat there was nothing in the airport, there was nothing in the plane, there's very little if you're going out to eat, especially for breakfast. And the thing about making these a breakfast product is the other part of my nutrition journey that was really realized is there was a time I didn't eat breakfast at all. And you know, no matter how many times you hear breakfast is the most important meal of the day is like yeah, sure, sure. Just like you will gain weight if you drink diet soda. Yeah, sure, sure. You know, people don't that doesn't make sense when they are not mindful or aware or or educated. And so what I did find out is when I started eating breakfast, and I started being much healthier, and I also was there I'm very, very gluten sensitive. So gluten was not an option. There's very little you can eat for breakfast and absolutely nothing but what I realized is eating breakfast starts your entire day differently than not eating breakfast, whether you eat it at six in the morning, nine in the morning, or 11 in the morning or at noon, or whenever you eat it, it changes your whole day it changes how you feel physically. And if you eat an unhealthy breakfast, it will change your whole day not for the better. If I ate a healthy breakfast.
Julia Chebotar 13:32
Absolutely. You'll feel like lethargic and tired and just like lazy but if you need to be nutritious, you have energy last year the whole day.
Bobbi Giudicelli 13:40
Right and the sugar products that are I mean literally everything that is out there for breakfast and the frozen section, which is where we will be when we're in retail absolutely has sugar in it or has you know you're going to spike and the other thing we're very conscious of and we we'd really like you know that we put it in here for our the young parents who are sending their kids off to school with either a breakfast that's going to have them so they can't focus so they can't sit still so they can't whatever all the things that sugar does to you
Julia Chebotar 14:11
like the future Valley bars or the what were those? The bars in the old days they had like the jelly center and there was just like,
Michael Giudicelli. 14:19
like a neutral grain or something.
Julia Chebotar 14:21
Yes, yes, yes, it was the nutrigrain bars.
Bobbi Giudicelli 14:24
We try not to use too many names. We don't like to pick on anybody out there. But really you go across the board that bowl of cereal, there is very there are very few cereals that you'll give your kid that are really good for them. And it's like the parents who are crazy busy. And even now and kids are learning at home are crazy busy to get their kid in front of the computer get themselves in front of the computer, all the things that are happening right now. It's just there's so few choices of what you sit your kid down and start them off a carpet properly and so that they can focus and I will tell you it personally it's has made a world of difference. The other thing is that it makes it so you're not hungry in two hours, you really have the energy, you have the focus, you have this, I keep using the word stability because for me, that's what it feels like. You've just feel like you're more on a plane and how you feel rather than the spikes that you're gonna get with normal traditional breakfast quick bread
Julia Chebotar 15:23
That's so important in our day to day lives for like our work and our families and just like to have that structure and energies needed. I know that you said that you don't want to talk badly about brands, which we're not. But I want to ask, Is there like a few vegan brands out on the market that you guys that inspired you to make it vegan or lean this way to a frozen?
Bobbi Giudicelli 15:44
I can tell you honestly, the answer to that question is no. That's why we did this. We never, I never ever would have gone. I have founded several different companies in different industries never did CPG before. I will tell you, I went into this blind Michael definitely undersold himself when he told you that, you know, in this brand, and this company that we have started together, we are on almost equal footing with what we have to learn there is so much about this industry to learn it, I'm telling you, if there had been a product out there that would have served the purpose of what we are doing, this never would be. I mean, it just never would have come to be. The other thing. The other thing I do want to mention is really important to me personally, since I have gone 100%, plant based, I mean, I've always been an animal lover, but it's become a moral issue for me. And I really try not to and I hope I most the time accomplish that I don't preach to other people. But these are very, very important topics, what about animals and about the environment, and both of them are so negatively impacted by what Western typical Western diet is. And it, it gets to my core, these are all the things that we can deny exist when we live a more traditional lifestyle, nutritionally and otherwise, I don't know what it is, but I have always loved animals. And now I can't even bear, I just would never be able to eat animal products. Again,
Julia Chebotar 17:22
I think preach away say that I think more and more people need to say that. I don't know, I think the only reason that I haven't gone fully plant based is because I have to go to client's homes and try the food that I'm cooking for them. But like at home, I definitely don't cook that way for myself, I cook a mainly vegan thing. But that even makes me feel like a hypocrite.
Bobbi Giudicelli 17:41
Just curious. Um, could you go to a client's home and introduce them to I know that they hire you with a picture in their mind of what they want. But could you introduce them to a vegan menu?
Julia Chebotar 17:55
Absolutely. And I do try and like do an 8020 as much as I can. And I'll take them up, put them on like a three day vegan cleanse and that kind of thing. But I feel like the moment I leave at they like ordered some sort of, you know, steak or chicken or some sort of like animal protein that like I didn't make for them.
Bobbi Giudicelli 18:14
Yeah, interesting. Yeah, it's very interesting.
Julia Chebotar 18:17
I also tried I like looked into for a while creating a food brand or like a line of product. And it's like very difficult having two co packers and getting it approved. So let, there's just so many so many steps. So congratulations. It's incredible. But along the way, are there like common mistakes that people have when they're starting a food line? Wait, oh, we have some great stories.
Michael Giudicelli. 18:43
Yeah, the first thing I'll share with you is that when we started this journey, I had hair and for those that I've shaved my head down to the skin. It's been a stressful, stressful journey, and we're still on it. Who knows what's what's to go next? Boy, I think like for us, not having been in the industry before. And I mean that that sets us on the backfoot. right from the get go, you know, what would have served us really great is finding somebody an advisor or some someone that could have helped us from day one. I mean, that would have been huge and saving us a ton of money and some expensive mistakes that we made and partnering with the wrong co Packer and partnering with a marketing company that maybe wasn't the best for us. If you don't know the industry, certainly find somebody that does because that'll save you time and money and hair in the long.
Julia Chebotar 19:39
Yeah, I find it so interesting. And like the labels, getting it all tested properly broken down and kept like calorie counting. It's a whole thing, right?
Bobbi Giudicelli 19:48
Yeah, I mean, that's a binary mathematical kind of thing. So that was the least of our challenges. What we're finding is all the relationships that you need to have so the relationship With a co Packer for example, it literally took us two and a half years to find a co Packer that we could work with and we had some real real problems with a few that we tried to work with. I mean I've been I was in the corporate world for working for myself but in the corporate world for a good 2530 or more years and I will tell you we met one of the most difficult people I've ever met in business as a co Packer and it was such a horrible experience if that doesn't just make you go away and go is this whole industry like this because it was just you know we want to move back to back to back and the first one was pretty bad the second one made the first one look good and I mean it was that bad so so that you know that all was challenge number one, the CO Packer the design packaging design things like that went smoother, although we had some missteps there. But the next big hairy monster that we're going to be facing is getting into retail you have so many layers to get into retail yet brokers you have distributors you have the retailer themselves you have and they all work differently that's the one if we didn't have our advisor slash consultant I would have quit I mean we found this guy who is an angel and in my mind and you know he takes any day that I go Oh my God, why are we doing this? And he turns it around Yeah, he gets back in the saddle as do our loyal customers and then we have some customers that put in huge orders once a month because they are addicted to our products as we are
Julia Chebotar 21:36
And the way that people can place orders right now is through the website right so it's like direct to consumer
Bobbi Giudicelli 21:41
Correct it is direct to consumer on our website by within the next two to three weeks we will be launched on Amazon. Oh amazing. Yeah. And then we will be going to out to specialty retail will start on the west coast by the end of this year. We should be in the in the specialty grocery stores
Julia Chebotar 22:00
Isn't getting a product on Amazon also difficult. Like there's a lot of like
Michael Giudicelli. 22:04
No, no, no.
Julia Chebotar 22:06
Okay.
Michael Giudicelli. 22:08
It's I mean, there there are and we're working with one but there are Brand Partners out there that specifically focus on getting you listed properly on Amazon because there are so many hoops to jump through and little nuances and setting up your your item listings and your brand name and tying everything together. That I mean they make they make a business out of it and it's a full time gig so there's no chance that Bobby or I could sit around all day and be working on this. So we are partnering with a one of those agencies to help us navigate through and optimize the Amazon experience for the customers
Julia Chebotar 22:45
And that you guys mentioned there's six there's six flavors that
Bobbi Giudicelli 22:48
We have two distinct kinds of products. We have our loaf which really we call a breakfast sloth because it is the perfect breakfast food as far as I'm concerned not that I'm biased it is has the consistency of a very very dense low for banana or bread or muffin
Julia Chebotar 23:06
That's right like carrot cake my bread banana breads consistency.
Bobbi Giudicelli 23:09
Yeah, yeah, very dense and it's and the four flavors of those are carrot raisin, apple cinnamon, banana nut and chocolate chip. So those are and they all run calorically around 400 to 450 calories. So it is a full meal. But we add no sugar, the sweetness what and they're only subtly sweet. You can taste the nuts you can taste the seeds you can taste everything in it because it is real food in there but it is only very subtly sweet and that's really important that our consumers understand because they've been so conditioned to have you know bite into a sweet bread or a sweet cake or muffin or whatever.
Julia Chebotar 23:52
And people don't realize that sugar is like the number one killer like it causes most autoimmune diseases and heart disease all sorts of things stem from over like over indulging in sugar toxins.
Bobbi Giudicelli 24:04
It is horrible and it was at the it was one of the first things I changed in my diet that sugar was first gluten was second and up by the way artificial sweeteners and sugar together were number one because I was so bad with artificial sweeteners as I was with sugar. So those are the breakfast products and then we offer what we call big bites. And the big bites are they come to two a package two servings in a package so nutritionally and calorically if you ate the whole package, it is a meal also. And but there are also we portioned them into two per package so that it also can be your pick me up in the afternoon. And there are a double chocolate which is like a dark chocolate brownies only subtly sweet and a chocolate chip which is like a binding again subtly sweet because we had no sugar and so you know it's whatever sugars in there is from the ingredients that are in there. So those are the six products we have right now.
Julia Chebotar 24:58
You mentioned that you cut out Sugar that you went plant based Did you Michael?
Michael Giudicelli. 25:03
Not entirely.
Julia Chebotar 25:05
No judgment Sorry? Like?
Michael Giudicelli. 25:08
No, no, no, I did for a month really. And it was an experiment. For me, I like to, I like to test my limits for any different things. But I'm a competitive cyclist. So I really wanted to see I mean, I had a good blood panel that I had done prior to doing this month long plant based test. So I really wanted to see a couple things, one, how it made my energy level feel to what my blood panel looked like when I was finished. And then third was how it affected my performance on the bike. And so at the end of the month, I really, I came to the conclusion that it was inconclusive that it had any real positive effect on most of those things. Now, my blood panel did look a bit better where my cholesterol dropped by about 20 points, which was already pretty decent level before. So it wasn't too concerned about that. But it made me realize that for so many years, I was ignorant to the fact that I love animals like love animals, and I look at an animal I go, I couldn't kill that to eat it. Like if I was starving out in the woods, I'd probably eat a poisonous berry before I ate
Julia Chebotar 26:12
Less work to less mess.
Michael Giudicelli. 26:16
A lot less work. I wouldn't know where to start in prepping. And so it really made me realize it's it's not that hard to give up, you know, animal products. Like I can give up beef and chicken and pork and all that and like I can still now I can feel good about you know, we live in an area where right down the street, our neighbor has like 20 head of Longhorn cattle. And I can look at him and feel great like, Hey, I'm not like I'm not asking you to eat one of you. So yeah, so I'm not now at this point. I'm not 100% plant based and that we have a flock of seven chickens were all eat the eggs from our chickens. And occasionally I'll have fish, but that's as far as it goes.
Julia Chebotar 26:54
But I mean, you're eating right from the source.
Michael Giudicelli. 26:56
So it is Yeah, exactly. I will not. I've told my wife this and she's on board like, we will not buy eggs from a store because of how those chickens are treated in those factory farms. So naturally, chickens will lay during the winter. So between the middle of November to the start of February, we're not eating eggs in our house because our chickens are taking a break.
Julia Chebotar 27:16
Because our chickens are taking a break. I love that.
Bobbi Giudicelli 27:19
Julia there's one other thing that Michael is not sharing with you, as a child, he he started a dairy intolerance, which then as he got when he got older, he ignored. But now he his wife and his two kids cannot tolerate dairy, dairy, it comes to be you know, a lot of vegetarians will go well, I don't eat meat, I don't kill the animals and all of that. From a health perspective. Berry is one of the worst animal products that you can eat.
Julia Chebotar 27:48
We're the only mammal that continues to drink milk after birth.
Bobbi Giudicelli 27:52
Right. I mean, it's unbelievable. And and, you know, it does scare me for the kids today because they really are tying it to cancers of all kinds, because the hormones that you get in dairy, also to your period coming early, all sorts of different things. hormones. Yeah, it's all I mean, it's so unhealthy for you. And interestingly, and I believe this because most of the studies that I will read I make sure they are unbiased study, so they don't come from, you know, the they they're not sponsored by the dairy industry or government or whatever. But it was very fascinating to me to find out that cheese is about as addictive as sugar is
Julia Chebotar 28:32
Yes, if somebody releases a chemical in your brain.
Bobbi Giudicelli 28:36
Well, I'll tell you something else. They're not sure if how much happens in your brain and how much happens in your microbiome. But between sugar and dairy and everything else, it creates such a bad bacteria in your microbiome and that bad bacteria is what gives you the craving to then crave more of whatever that is that your eating that isn't good for you. And I never in a million years believe if you had told me I would ever say these words 35 years ago, I would have said You're crazy. But now I look so forward to making and eating whatever I'm eating say for dinner and I raised my kids without cooking ever a single meal my husband did all the cooking all the grocery shopping. I had a horrible relationship with food. And you know, and now I love what I eat. I love having gotten in the kitchen and creating these recipes and, and finding foods that tastes so good. And eliminating things like dairy and sugar, change your taste buds. I mean they change and they change how sharply you taste things like beans and broccoli tastes so much different to now than they did before.
Julia Chebotar 29:45
Right and just like simply blanched or like it's like a whole different flavor profile. I agree with you so much and like I've watched those videos of the cow make like the milking of the cows and like disinfecting of their sides like It's just awful. And then the amount of chemicals that are put in to pasteurize the milk so that we don't get sick from it.
Bobbi Giudicelli 30:06
It is it is all it's not good for us. And unfortunately, it's an industry that politically we're never, you know, we're never going to be able to get rid of, we're not going to be able to and we're not going to be able to educate, you know, the average person, too, because it's been generations and generations drilled into their head that you know, steak is a good dinner milk is necessary for children, all of these things in it.
Julia Chebotar 30:34
But you you've got milk campaigns.
Bobbi Giudicelli 30:36
Yeah, so yeah. And by the way, I love dogs who bash who who is who started that switch for good organization, which is a she's an Olympic cyclist who has completely fighting that milk does a body good campaign in the whole dairy industry. And she's just amazing. She's like
Julia Chebotar 30:56
and it's switched.org switch for good.org switch.org.
Bobbi Giudicelli 31:00
For good. Yeah, with the number four switch for good.org. Yeah, it's it's fascinating. They also have a podcast, she and her partner or her. Her podcast partner is Alexandra. I can't remember her last name, but she's an actress who is also very much an activist for animals and, and other rights issues. Yeah.
Julia Chebotar 31:20
One thing before we end the podcast, I like to ask everyone if this was your last day on earth, and you had like you had to eat appetizer entree dessert, what would it be? And where I guess you guys can switch off or both do your thing, whatever you like, but like, if it's your last day, what's the one thing that you'd want to go and eat?
Michael Giudicelli. 31:37
Oh, boy. Um, I know.
Julia Chebotar 31:40
And it's like on the spot, so you gotta like,
Michael Giudicelli. 31:43
And especially since I'm not a dessert person, I mean.
Julia Chebotar 31:47
Well, we can skip that one you could do on tray if you'd like.
Michael Giudicelli. 31:50
Yeah, yeah. So I'll just put a quick plug in for for bad manners. Then who previously was Doug kitchen. The we in our house we love we absolutely love their cookbooks. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So there are a few few recipes in there that I enjoy cooking and enjoy eating. So Gosh, if I had to pick one of them, there's probably there's this like spicy but little sweet and tangy barbecue bean burrito recipe that that ama that you make from scratch with pinto beans and Polo peppers and you add a little bit of molasses in there. And it's just so tasty. So that with a little bit of rice that I mean, honestly that would probably be my my. No. And then yeah, I mean, like I said, I'm not really a dessert person. So I'll put a shameless plug in here for probably finish it off with a double chocolate big buy.
Julia Chebotar 32:42
There you go. What about you, Bobby?
Bobbi Giudicelli 32:45
So Michael, and one of my other kids got me the tooth kitchen cookbooks and I sit and I will tell you I'm embarrassed that I rarely open it. But every time we go to Michael's house for dinner, I get the taste a different recipe out of there. So one of the recipes that we had so this would be this would start the meal with the completely vegan and gluten free Caesar salad that is in that cookbook and it is to die for.
Julia Chebotar 33:13
They use they use seaweed right instead of like anchovies for the dressing.
Bobbi Giudicelli 33:18
No. capers give it that kind of anchovy kind of flavor. And it's the dressing is made with almonds and I have since got open the book and made that for them when they came here. But the only thing out of the book I've made but I love that salad and Michael's wife did find a gluten free bread that makes incredible crew times. I would not I didn't I don't love this bread for anything else. But to make crotons out of it. It is really special. So so that would be that would start the meal and then honestly the way I make tacos would be is one of my favorite meals. So I'm not a fan of tofu I use mushrooms every kind of mushroom you can imagine that is not poisonous.
Julia Chebotar 34:02
Absolutely no mommy flavor. I will say my with you. I like I'm not a fan of tofu. I would rather much use like a whole food.
Bobbi Giudicelli 34:09
Yeah, exactly. So and different mushrooms have different consistencies. Some of them are mushy or some of them are firmer and I just love them so I make tacos with that that have a I have found out that the microwave is great for cooking off mushrooms with no oil, no fats, no anything. So if you cut up your mushrooms the way you want them, cut up some onions cut up some put some garlic in there and you just put the ball in the microwave for five minutes and and and are perfect. perfectly done. Oh okay. I will try this. You know you can put hot peppers in it when you're cooking them whatever but it gives you a way without citing and using any added fat so that in a and I have a bunch of different gluten free tortillas that are absolutely whole food no no junk in them that are wonderful. And so I keep switching Off which ones because they all have different flavor also, and I just make I make tacos that way at once a week my husband and I have tacos. He makes his tacos that I would never eat and I make my tacos that one day. He still eats me. Oh, he eats everything he ate since he was a child.
Julia Chebotar 35:16
Okay. Is he does he have a good glass of milk with dinner?
Bobbi Giudicelli 35:20
No. But he
Julia Chebotar 35:21
I experienced that a couple weeks ago is like what do you mean? You want a glass of milk with your dinner? Like Where?
Bobbi Giudicelli 35:26
Well he was raised actually to answer the original question Giudicelli is French not Italian. And so he was raised down in South of France and a country French home. And so no, they from a very early age, probably not 10. But from a very early age. They had wine with dinner rather than milk. But he does eat a lot of cheese. And he does. He does so much red meat, but he eats a lot of chicken and a lot of Yeah, eat animal products are a requirement in his dog. Yeah, so and he's not going to change and I'm okay with that. And now that he's okay that I'm not you know that I have changed and he doesn't give me a hard time. Yeah, so what we do is we cook together, but we cook our own version of whatever. So when I'm eating tacos, he's eating tacos, but we keep it very awkward. Yeah,
Julia Chebotar 36:12
I love it. I want to thank you guys so so much for being on today. I cannot wait. I'm literally going to take the bar out of the freezer and put in the microwave and a little bit and try it and post about it. I'm so excited. Can you please tell the audience where they can find the products, social media, all of the things.
Bobbi Giudicelli 36:28
So rtifoods.com is our website. So RTI for read the ingredients RTI foods dot com and we're on Instagram, read the ingredients at read the ingredients. And Facebook is also Michael
Michael Giudicelli. 36:44
RTI foods on Facebook and and then very, very soon, you know, again, probably in the next couple of days will actually be listed on Amazon. So hopefully, when this goes live will be will be available on amazon.com as well.
Julia Chebotar 36:58
Perfect and let me know when you guys are because I'll do like a swipe up to the Amazon page.
Michael Giudicelli. 37:02
Awesome. Definitely will
Julia Chebotar 37:04
So that's all for today guys. Thank you so much for listening. And remember to follow this podcast and follow me at Health Chef Julia