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| THE LET'S DINE OUT SHOW |
| Allan Borgen: Allan is a well-respected restaurant critic for the past 20 years. He hosted, produced, and wrote the "Lets Dine Out Show" on PBS for the past 9 years. He had the same responsibilities on the “Table for Two” television show that aired for 9 years on PBS. Borgen is also a member of the Southern California Restaurant Writers as well as the International Association of Food, Wine and Travel Writers. He also has 10 years of restaurant experience, co-owned a very successful catering company, has taken numerous restaurant management and chef's' training classes. Allan is the restaurant critic for the San Bernardino County Sun and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Newspapers. In addition to his sense of humor and spontaneity, Allan has a passion for helping people as well as for the culinary profession and is an avid cook. E-mail: Allan Borgen Call: 909-910-3463 |
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| Co-Host Cliff Young aka "The Minister of Culinary Awareness" has over 30 years of experience in the restaurant industry, starting as a dishwasher to designing and building his own. He is a member of the Association of Food journalists, writes locally for the IE Weekly. When not lecturing at culinary schools or working on a new screenplay. Cliff can usually be found at any local comedy club pursuing another passion of his...TO BE FUNNY! He brings a fresh and intriguing insight into the world of food, beverages, travel and entertainment. Cliff is also the owner/operator of Inland Empire Coffee and hosted the IE Coffee radio show which was the #1 show on coffee in the world. Like Allan, he is spontaneous, has a great sense of humor and has worked in the food industry for over 30 years. E-mail: Cliff Young Website: IE Coffee.com Here is a recent article in the San Bernardino Sun about Cliff Young and Inland Empire Coffee: The best coffee in the I.E. John Weeks, Staff Writer Article Launched: 07/29/2008 06:30:30 PM PDT Jack Brown, meet Cliff Young. Cliff Young, meet Jack Brown. I've been wanting to introduce these two, so I can start buying my favorite coffee at my favorite store. Brown, of course, is chairman and CEO of Inland Empire-based Stater Bros. Supermarkets. Young is founder of Redlands-based Inland Empire Coffee, which is an awesome local product that should be more widely available throughout the Inland Empire. I love coffee, and there's plenty of decent coffee around. I know that. But I want the really good stuff. I mean, I can walk a couple of blocks in any direction and hit a Starbucks or two. But Starbucks is closing stores now, including almost a dozen locations in the Inland Empire. And besides, Starbucks coffee costs too much. And I don't like the long wait. And I don't like having my name scrawled on the cup. ("Hello, my name is John and I'm a coffeeholic!") Plus, the menu at Starbucks is too complicated. I don't want a grande fruity fudge frappe mocha loco with vanilla pixie sprinkles. I just want a cup of coffee that tastes like coffee. Coffee that tastes like Inland Empire Coffee. Trouble is, Inland Empire Coffee is a bit of a challenge to find. I can order it online, or drive over to Redlands and visit Augie's Coffee House or Gerrards Market. I love Augie's, and Gerrards, but they aren't exactly around the corner from me, so I can't get there as often as I would like. Stater Bros., on the other hand, is totally around the corner from me. And just about everyone else in the Inland Empire. Stater Bros. has more than 160 stores. I think they all should carry Inland Empire Coffee. It would be very convenient for all of us. Young, who lives in Calimesa with his two daughters, founded his company in 1994. He calls himself the "Roastmaster General." He searches the world for the "best of the best" coffee beans, he says, then buys only the top 1 percent. He roasts the beans in small batches of 25 pounds, and "pulls and cups" a sample from each batch to ensure quality. "Artisan roasting is a slow process and requires a great deal of attention, but the result is fresh coffee bursting with all the regional flavors and characteristics of the bean," he says. The company offers many varieties of coffee and tea. My favorites are the "Inland Empire" coffee blends. There's a Redlands Blend, for example, and a Seven Oaks Espresso Blend, and an Inland Empire House Blend. Each comes with entertaining blending and cupping notes. Check out the blending notes for Inland Empire House Blend: "Inland Empire House Blend brings together two spectacular high-grown Central American coffees. The coffees grow at an altitude of over 7,000 feet. This high altitude produces a yield of very dense beans that develop a concentrated, focused flavor. Beans are large, uniform and sparkling in their acidity." Now, that's coffee! It's no wonder that Young does coffee well. He's a bit of a do-gooder in general. He recycles, uses fluorescent lighting and runs his roasters during the cool of night, to save energy. He works with the "Trees for the Future" organization that has planted a quarter-million new trees worldwide. He also works with "Adopt a Village," a program that offers assistance to poor people in coffee-producing countries. This summer he led a drive to donate a ton of coffee to American troops overseas. To learn more about Inland Empire Coffee, visit the company's Web site at www.iecoffee.com. Or you can contact Young at iecoffee@gmail.com, or call him at (909) 528-5290. He's probably busy talking to Jack Brown right now, but he'll get back to you as soon as he can. |
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