Things that are definitively a cure to seasonal affective blues: Watching a movie like Singin’ in the Rain and/or When Harry Met Sally and/or Paddington. Baked apples with cinnamon, maple, and miso. Ordering the sweater you’ve been eyeing online. Making a big pot of chili and thus having cozy food for the whole week, and/or sharing it with friends. And then putting flowers in the empty tomato can that you used to make said chili, because it’s actually a super cute vase.
In today’s newsletter: PB&J are surprisingly litigious, JD Vance doesn’t know what a “kid” is, and an interview with an LA small biz owner determined to help you beat lactose intolerance.
In business: Smuckers is suing Trader Joe’s for making an Uncrustable dupe—though if we’re trademarking cutting off the crust of a sandwich, I fear that every six-year-old in America is owed billions. Is this a frivolous lawsuit? Maybe. Is it also how I learned that the NFL collectively consumes 80k Uncrustables every season? Yes. Do I want to see a Law & Order episode about it wherein food scientists are arrested while at work crafting the perfect, crustless PB&J? Yes, shit in the world is way too dark right now and Dick Wolf needs to take a hint.
In culture:
Solange Knowles is a new scholar-in-residence professor at USC, and relatedly, I guess I am going back to college.
Cosmopolitan magazine launched its new book imprint (in partnership with Sourcebooks) in NYC this week.
The Diplomat (Netflix) Season 3 is out, featuring the West Wing marriage (in the West Wing, no less) you didn’t know you needed, but now you need more than oxygen. No? Just me?
In politics: Portlanders are doing anti-ICE protests exactly right—dressed as frogs, dinosaurs, and unicorns, obviously—as part of “operation inflation,” aka making ICE/CBP look like even bigger dickheads than they already are, by demonstrating how unnecessary and embarrassing all this federal backup is. Hot tip: Even if you’re not in Oregon, you can buy a blow-up costume for someone who is.
The growing list of universities declining Trump’s college compact now includes mine (and his, lol) alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Brown, USC, and M.I.T. The proposal would have allowed the federal government to have a say over things like hiring and admissions in exchange for funding—something Donald would have learned is officially called a “bribe” had he done well in school.
A “Young Republicans” Telegram group chat featuring racist and homophobic slurs, references to rape as “epic,” members including a state senator, and messages as subtle as “I love Hitler” was exposed this week in Politico, but JD Vance wants to reassure all you “pearl clutch[ers]” out there—they’re just dumb kids making dumb jokes!!!! Specifically, these “kids” he’s referring to are between the ages of 18 and 40. So I guess that means Vance, 41, will soon be going through puberty. Finally, an explanation for all the angst and eyeliner.
And Cheryl Hines wants to assure us all that the worm only ate “a little bit” of her husband RFK Jr.’s brain. The rest, of course, she dines on every night.
Reminder that Saturday 10/18 is the next “No Kings” nationwide protest.
Find your local one here.
✈️ Tip: I made a flight reservation this week on United Airlines, which I never fly, and this is simply an unsponsored endorsement of something they apparently have called a “FareLock.” Basically, I paid $5 to keep the low fare I had snagged for three days while I made sure with the friends I will be visiting that those dates worked. Then I booked it at that price. All airlines should do this, it’s brilliant and truly the least they could do, since every time I fly I have three centimeters less leg room.
Hot tip: Sheep’s milk is for the upset tummy girlies.
Friend of Hot Tip Ishika Das Desmukh started her small-batch sheep’s yogurt brand le zette with her husband just a few years ago, and now their incredible labnehs and tzatzkis are becoming a fixture at LA farmers markets and specialty grocers. (Hot tip: Their fig labneh is a game changer.) I chatted with Ishika this week about her pivot from tech into sheep, why her products work so well for those of us that are lactose intolerant, her favorite LA spots, and what’s next.
Tell us about the origin of le zette. You and your husband were on a trip to Turkey, right?
Yes! We were in Turkey and drinking tons of ayran (a Turkish yogurt drink) to beat the heat and wash down spicy kebabs, and it got us thinking about how the US doesn’t have as big a yogurt culture as the Mediterranean/Middle East. We wanted to bring back a slice of food-as-medicine from these ancient cultures!
Had you always been a sheep’s milk girl, or was it relatively new to you?
It’s something we chanced upon but have been obsessed since! We wanted to emulate the same creaminess that ayran has, and stumbled upon sheep’s milk as an incredible ingredient—it’s actually creamier given its higher protein, calcium, and fat than cow’s milk! And since it’s naturally A2 dairy, it was perfect for a lactose intolerant girly like myself.
Not a question, but have to tell you: I have endometriosis, I’ve had cyst removal surgery, and cow’s milk dairy really doesn’t work for me anymore because of the inflammation in my body. But every single le zette product I’ve tried has been totally fine for my stomach—in addition to being delicious, obvi.
It’s honestly so amazing! When I was pregnant and looking to eat the recommended 100g of protein a day, it was really hard to do being lactose intolerant. But having access to le zette made it easy! I was eating sheep’s yogurt all day.
Outside of Turkey, what are the other places, experiences, trips, and flavors that inspire you?
I grew up in Dubai so I’m a huge shawarma, hummus, and labneh stan—and it has to be exactly the proper way. We cook a lot of French and Italian at home, interspersing traditional Indian and Pakistani dishes that our moms (who are both incredible chefs) made, the cornerstone of our childhood experiences.
What are your favorite ways to incorporate le zette into your daily meals, and where are some of the unexpected places you sneak it in?
For our labneh—with eggs, as a caesar salad dressing base with some anchovies & lemon, or as a crudites dip. I love the tzatziki and chipotle ranch with air fried french fries (easy weeknight dinner!), and my sneaky way of consuming our frozen yogurt is for weekend brunch—it’s basically yogurt and olive oil!—in a bowl topped with potato chips!
Ideal pairings for a le zette spread?
I love pairing le zette with sheep’s cheeses! My favorite these days is an alpine style cheese “Aries” from Shooting Star Creamery, created by a young woman cheesemaker named Avery Jones, who is bringing her own flavors and textures to cheesemaking (taking after family tradition from her father, Reggie Jones, who runs Central Coast Creamery.) Paired with a glass of Pinot Noir and some fresh farmer’s market fruits, you’ll have a charcuterie board paying homage to California and all its beautiful bounty!
Who is a dream le zette spokesperson? Let’s manifest this.
Honestly I’m a big Allison Roman girly—Dining In made me fall in love with cooking. But if Daniel Boulud liked le zette I might die and go to heaven.
You’re a mom to a toddler, running a start-up, and at farmers’ markets every weekend. So I must know, what is your morning coffee routine?
An oat milk macchiato whipped together in the time it takes to heat up my toddlers morning milk cuppa enabled by our 1-touch espresso machine + a splash of Koatji milk!
You’ve got friends visiting you in LA for the weekend. Where are the non-negotiable spots–food and otherwise–you wouldn’t dare miss?
The no-misses are probably: Venice beach walk with goodies from Gjusta Grocer in the morning, Mini Kabob for the best kebabs in the country for lunch, and a nice Hollywood night dining at Motherwolf, and ending the night at Gold Diggers or Zebulon.
What are the parts of starting your own business in the food space you never could have anticipated?
I didn’t realize just how varied food businesses can be! Running a made-to-order, short shelf life dairy brand is more like operating a small creamery, while running a beef tallow chip company is likely more similar (logistics, marketing, margins!) to a make-up brand, and food digital marketers are more like influencers! Based on where you fall within the food spectrum, building a business and brand are incredibly different, so it’s super important to find your people in your part of it all, and not to get bogged down by comparison-as-the-happiness-thief.
You spent a long time working in tech and finance before starting le zette. Post-pandemic, I know a lot of people in our generation are going through a bit a lot of an identity crisis regarding work/life balance and how much time we want to spend at a desk. What’s your advice to anyone contemplating a career pivot?
Follow your strengths and do it with 100% conviction until you’re 1000% convinced it’s not right for you. You have far greater conviction around what doesn’t work for you after immersing yourself in it for 6 months vs. contemplating your life’s choices on your therapist’s proverbial sofa. And if you make strong choices in whichever direction you go, each experience will reveal itself to be a big building block in some capacity, even if not imminently evident as linear.
And of course, what’s next?! Aka, when are you going to be shipping nationwide, so I can send this labneh to everyone I know.
We hope to be national one day!!! We’re entering our first regional grocer in Q1, and looking to build a community with customers at farmers markets and retailer pop-ups in SoCal first, and then we will see where the wind takes us, but a few incredibly exciting ventures are in motion!
~ le zette can be found online here and in stores like McCall’s Meat & Fish Co., Cookbook Market, LA Grocery & Cafe, The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills, and Gjusta Grocer. ~
Previously on Hot Tip:
