Richelle Yacon is a certified Senior Flavorist at Embassy Ingredients, where she builds the flavours found in foods across grocery store shelgfs alongside a team that also develops colours and bakery ingredients. She earned her certification through the seven-year Society of Flavor Chemists apprenticeship, after starting her career in quality assurance.

In this conversation, Richelle breaks down what a flavourist actually does day to day, how a cinnamon roll flavour is built from a customer brief, and why she calls the job equal parts art and chemistry. You'll also hear about the process of becoming a Certified Flavour Chemist, why math and fine motor skills matter in the lab, and how starting in quality assurance led her into the flavour lab.

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Shownotes

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro
03:40 - What Is Flavour?
05:43 - A Day in the Lab
10:45 - Where Art Meets Science
12:13 - The Seven-Year Apprenticeship
15:17 - Richelle's Career Path
22:28 - Training Your Senses
25:33 - Chemicals and Dosage
27:15 - Why Get Certified?
33:00 - Importance of Learning
37:06 - Skills Needed as a Flavourist
39:30 - Teamwork in Flavor Creation
42:06 - Other Roles in the Lab
44:25 - Advice for Students

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📙 Career Guides
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Tamanna Ramesh works in customer commercialization for Coca-Cola's North America food service team, supporting a 400 person sales and marketing organization, and also founded Spark Academy, a career coaching business for food industry professionals navigating job searches, negotiations, and visa pathways.

In this conversation, Tamanna breaks down what her day-to-day at Coca-Cola actually looks like, how she's helping build an agentic AI tool so her team can stop hunting for files and information, and why the way you talk about your own work matters just as much as the work itself. You'll also hear how Spark Academy grew from an accidental side hustle into a business, and why Tamanna thinks about her career as a garden instead of a straight pipeline.

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Shownotes

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FREE RESOURCE FOR LISTENERS
Tamanna is sharing her "Network Like a Pro" resource with our listeners. Use the passcode FOODGRADS to access it: Get the Networking Playbook

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Introduction
01:55 - Her Coca-Cola Role, Explained
04:39 - Connecting Teams Across a Big Org
09:44 - What Is Agentic AI?
12:37 - Building the AI Search Tool
16:39 - AI Advice for Students
20:15 - From Food Scientist to Business Role
23:05 - Embracing Experimentation
24:50 - Starting Spark Academy
31:23 - A Client Success Story
36:21 - Advice for the Next Generation

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🌐 Spark Academy Website

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Sienna Corral, Partnerships Lead, and Lila Sonmaz, Head of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning, are co-founders of the World Food Forum Quebec Chapter, an FAO initiative connecting young leaders working on food security and sustainability.

In this part two conversation, Sienna and Lila open up about their very different paths into food advocacy, how they measure whether their work is actually making a difference, and why you don't need a job title in the food industry to already be part of the system. You'll also learn ways on how you can get involved in food advocacy even as a student in school.

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Shownotes

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro
01:37 - Chapter Mission Recap
02:51 - Lila's Path Into Food Systems
04:17 - Sienna's Path Into Food Systems
05:55 - Sienna's Role: Partnerships Lead
06:54 - Lila's Role: Measuring Impact
08:31 - Chapter Partners & Agri-Food's Scope
11:34 - What a Win Looks Like
13:09 - Chapter Events & Launch Party
14:39 - Who Can Get Involved
15:37 - Sustainable Gastronomy Week Results
18:02 - Current Projects & Proud Moments
19:23 - How Many WFF Chapters Exist
22:22 - Is the Food System Working?
25:10 - The Power of Language
26:48 - Making Agri-Food Feel Accessible
28:19 - Moving From Caring to Acting
30:11 - Empowering Youth Involvement
33:02 - Different Levels of Involvement
34:41 - Final Advice: Start Small

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💼 Sienna Corral LinkedIn
💼 Lila Sonmaz LinkedIn

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