Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Car Cuisine: Car Companies in the Food Business

Episode Date: February 21, 2026

This week, we look at the link between food and cars. Did you know that Volkswagen makes sausages.And Rolls-Royce makes honey.Did you know cars have even been named after foods and beverages – like the Mitsubishi Pistachio and the Suzuki Cappuccino.It’s true – and it’s tasty marketing.We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you don’t, subscribe ad-free here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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This is an apostrophe podcast production. We're going to show you our big new studio baker. That's a spicy meatboard. What love doesn't conquer. Alka-Seltzer will. What a relief. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. Recently, the Michelin Guide teamed up with chefs in Toronto and Vancouver to create an unusual experience.

And there was a third partner, too, car sharing company, Turro. The Michelin Guide to the World's Best Restaurants has always professed that extraordinary food is always worth a detour. So, the guide, the chefs, and Turro partnered to create, drive to table. For $250, guests could book a day. drive-to-table exclusive package. To begin with, each chef chose a luxurious vehicle from Turo that guests would enjoy for the day. Then the guests were treated to a coveted reservation for two at that chef's Michelin-starred restaurant and enjoyed a table-side chat with the chef himself. Lastly, guests stayed overnight at a five-star hotel near the restaurant.

This drive-to-table package combined gourmet eating with luxury. Automobiles. In Toronto, two Michelin-Star restaurants participated. Chef Stephen Malnard selected a beautiful vintage 1987 Mercedes-Benz 560-SL convertible for his guests. They then enjoyed a Malnur curated tour of Toronto in their Mercedes, which included tickets to the Art Gallery of Ontario. Then the guests were treated to a dinner for two at Chef Malnard's Michelin-Stard Mexican restaurant Ketzel, located near Kensington Market.

A little north in Yorkville, chef Rob Rossi chose a bold 2019 Porsche Panamara for his guests. He also curated a driving tour of Toronto. Then his guests enjoyed a delicious meal at his Michelin-starred restaurant, Osteria Julia, inspired by Northern Italian cuisine. All guests then stayed overnight at the Hazleton Hotel in Yorkville. Canada's only five-star luxury boutique hotel. In Vancouver, Chef J.C. Porriet chose a sleek Audi Q4-Eatron for his guests. They got into that expensive Audi and enjoyed a driving itinerary as selected by Chef J.C.

That took in some of the more interesting sites of the city. Later, they enjoyed an intimate three-course dinner at St. Lawrence, Chef J.C.'s Michelin-Start restaurant, which combines classic French and Quebec cuisine. Over in Vancouver's Chinatown, chef Joel Watanabe handpicked a luxurious Mercedes-Benz GLC class for his guests. They, too, were given a chef-selected driving itinerary of Vancouver, and after they were treated to a sumptuous meal as Chef Watanabe's innovative Japanese-Italian restaurant, Kisatanto.

and all guests enjoyed an overnight stay at the luxurious five-star Fairmont Pacific Rim. The drive-to-table events attracted a fair amount of press, and while it may sound odd that Michelin chefs would partner with a car-sharing company, it really isn't. After all, the Michelin Guide to Find Dining was born to get people into cars. The automotive world has a long history with food. For decades, automakers have also been in the food business. And what they make will surprise you.

From sausages to hot sauce, these food products have car logos on them. Some of the most prestigious car brands are restaurateurs. And some automobiles have even been named after food groups. You're under the influence. Food has had a long relationship with cars. As you may remember, we did a story on the Michelin Guide. It was started by the Michelin Brothers back in 1900. They wanted to encourage people to drive more,

so they would need to buy more Michelin tires. So the brothers created a booklet that contained roadmaps dotted with places to stop and eat. The booklet eventually morphed into a fine dining guide. It lists restaurants and gives out highly desired ratings. So, a restaurant with a Michelin star means it's very difficult to get reservations. But it's easy to forget that the Michelin Guide was created to fuel more driving trips. That link of food to automobiles was just beginning.

The first drive-in restaurant in North America was opened in the 1920s. Some of the earliest fords came with picnic baskets. As far back as the 1940s, rudimentary cup holders were available in some vehicles, which were small indentations on the inside of glove box doors. When highway construction began in the 1950s, it meant people could leave expensive cities and move to the suburbs. That urban sprawl meant people now had longer commutes, and that's really when people started eating in their cars.

In the 1980s, Chrysler came out with the first minivans, which had actual cup holders for the first time. One model even had 19 cup holders. According to David Page, author of Food Americana, if you add up grocery stores, convenience stores, takeout, home delivery, and drive-through fast food, over 80% of meals are takeout and usually involve a car. That means 50% of food.

50% of the time we leave our house and get in our car, food is part of the journey. I remember the day I got my driver's license. The first stop I made was to a drive-in A&W restaurant. With the explosion of drive-thrus these days, eating in cars has become an accepted way of life. By the way, boomers spend the most time eating inside their vehicles, whereas millennials and Gen Zs spend the least. But while getting in cars to get food has been happening for years, the relationship is surprisingly deeper than that. For decades, car companies have actually been making foods.

Yes, you heard right. According to Atlas Obscura, the Fiat Motor Company held a contest back in 1911. It challenged chocolate companies to create a confection to celebrate the launch of the new Fiat Tipo model. One company called Majani, located in Bologna, Italy, submitted a cremino chocolate with alternating layers of hazelnut chocolate and almond paste. In total, it had four layers as a tribute to Fiat's new TIPO 4. The Fiat Cremino chocolates continued long after the Tepo 4 rode off into the history books.

They are still sold today, more than a century later, and still sport the Fiat logo, on the packaging. The president of Fiat once lamented that they sold more Fiat chocolates than Fiat's. Volkswagen product number 398-50A is not a car or a car component.

This is Volkswagen's very own sausage. Yep, 30 Volkswagen employees turn out 18,000 curry-wurst sausages a day. These beechwood-smoked sausages, flavored with a signature curry ketchup, are served in Volkswagen Company cafeterias. They were also packaged up and given to Volkswagen customers as gifts,

because nothing says thank you like a sausage. In 2021, Volkswagen decided to discontinue the sausage and serve a vegetarian and vegan menu instead. But employees protested, and the sausage was brought back, in 2020. For Volkswagen's 75th anniversary in the USA, Volkswagen of America distributed free bottles of product number 0-0010 ZDK-259-101,

their very own proprietary blend of curry ketchup. Take a look at the pepper grinder on your dining room table. If it is tall, curvy, is usually made of wood, and twists. You can thank carmaker Pujo for that. The Pujo brand was founded by two Pujo brothers back in 1810. They converted their family flour mill into a steel mill and gained a reputation for manufacturing saw blades, umbrellas, and bicycles. 30 years later, Pujo began producing household goods

and manufactured a popular coffee grinder. Then in 1874, the company came out with a beautiful pepper mill. Pujo christened its pepper grinder the Model Z. Yes, they sucked at names, but the pepper grinder was stunning and it caught on. The grinding mechanism is made of case-hardened steel. When the mill is twisted, it grinds pepper in a two-step process.

First, the mechanism cracks the peppercorns, immediately releasing the rich aroma, then it grinds the beef. pepper. This fresh-cracked aroma is unique and unlike that of typical store-bought pepper. And Pujo was still 15 years away from producing its first automobile. The unique shape of the Pujo pepper mill has influenced pepper grinders to this day. While the Pujo family no longer controls the auto company, it does control Pujo Savour that makes the pepper grinders and other household products.

So the next time you grind a little pepper onto your dinner, you can thank a French car company. When we come back, car companies use a little buzz to make you a sweet offer. If you're enjoying this episode, you might also like. Gone in 60 Seconds, Crazy Automobile Stunt Commercials, Season 14, Episode 26, where we tell the story of a car commercial where a vehicle, was dropped out of an airplane so it could dramatically fall to Earth with a parachute. Except, the parachute failed to open. You'll find the episode on your favorite podcast app.

Porsche makes a honey of a car, and the car maker also bottles, honey. Porsche maintains 300 acres of undeveloped land near its Leipzig factory. The company's fast cars are tested in off-road conditions there, and it shares the wild flower meadows with 50 colonies of bees. Portia oversees 3 million bees in those colonies. Each colony produces about 55 kilograms of raw honey each year. Porsche bottles that spring blossom honey and sells it at its Leipzig customer center. Not to be outdone, Sister Brand Audi has 17 hectares of land where 90 wild bee species have

established colonies. If you prefer an upscale honey, both Bentley and Rolls-Royce have bee colonies. Rolls-Royce, in particular, keeps six colonies at its Goodwood Apiary near West Sussex, England, containing more than 300,000 bees. Alas, the world's most exclusive honey is only given to Rolls-Royce buyers, who spend an average of $400,000 per car. Or think of it this way. Every $400,000 bottle of honey comes with a free Rolls Royce.

Back in 2020, Ford's Performance Division unveiled its Mustang Mock E. 1400 race car. Reportedly, the EV had seven motors, three up front and four in the back. Total horsepower? 1400. And because EVs are basically silent, the Mock E.V had a military-grade speaker in case near the trunk that could emit any sound you desire. So, if you wanted it to sound like an F-1 car, you could just press a button. Or if you wanted it to sound like a herd of galloping horses, you could have that too.

Ford wanted a creative way to launch the scorching performance of its Mustang Mock E Race car. To celebrate the vehicle, the automaker came out with a bottle of hot sauce. It was described as notes of smoke, charred earth and plenty of insanely hot peppers. It was so hot, Ford didn't sell it to the public. The closest you could get to the Ford hot sauce was to search the hit show Hot On YouTube

and watch host Sean Evans and Ford performance driver Von Gittin Jr. eat chicken wings smothered in the hot sauce and see if they could eat the wings without crying. Speaking of the wings, speaking of the wings, Ford, the Detroit-based car company published a series of cookbooks in the 1950s. Titled the Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Eating Places, each volume contained recipes for various dishes from the most popular restaurants in America. Each entry showed a beautifully illustrated picture of the restaurant, hotel, or inn,

gave a short history of the establishment, then listed a recipe for the house specialty. As the book's cover said, it was both a guide and a cookbook, enabling a diner to have his cake in a famous restaurant and eat it at home too. When you unfolded the dust jacket, it contained an illustrated map of the country, noting all the restaurants mentioned in the book. It was a twist on the Michelin Guide, but rather than reviewing the restaurants, it merely tempted you to drive to them in your shiny, new Ford. 2026 marks two anniversaries.

It's the 75th anniversary of Formula One and the 90th anniversary of the Kit Kat bar. So they decided to celebrate together. Kit Kat is now the official chocolate bar of Formula One. Instead of the usual four-finger bar, Kit Kat has molded its chocolate into the actual shape of a Formula One race car. The Kid Cat Take a Break theme was a perfect link to F1 pit stops. But it's more than that.

Kid Cat is leveraging the increased excitement around F1 racing, the result of the top-rated drive-to-surviv Netflix series. Kit Kat's chocolate cars also signal a shift in confectionery marketing. According to confectionery news, this collaboration of bars and cars is showing other brands that this isn't just a novelty pairing. It's a marketing strategy that fuses entertainment, sports, and play, allowing brands like Kit Kat to get sweet exposure to worldwide audiences. A number of automakers are also restaurateurs.

In 1950, Enzo Ferrari opened a canteen for his workers across from the Ferrari factory. The canteen soon became a legendary location and even hosted the 1981 meeting that changed Formula One racing forever. Named the restaurante Cavalino Marnello, the eatery has been transformed by a famous chef and has been granted its first Michelin star. It serves Ferrari-themed dishes inspired by classic Italian cuisine, served in an elegant atmosphere with Ferrari red walls

and automotive memorabilia. It's the Formula One of Fine Dining. Back in 1910, the three Renault brothers purchased a building at 53 Chanselise in Paris. In 1963, the car company turned the building into Pub Renault, a watering hole for locals and visitors. In the year 2000, the car company turned the building into La Tourier Renault. The ground floor contains a merchandise shop and rotating exhibits from Renault Formula One cars.

Race fans can stop by to watch an F1 Grand Prix, then visit the Renault Car Walk Cafe on the second floor, and enjoy outdoor seating overlooking Paris's most famous boulevard. The Carwalk Cafe offers a luxury food experience at a Renault price. Carmaker Lexis is also in the food business. It operates a cocktail lounge and restaurant in the meatpacking district of New York called Intersect by Lexus. It also has locations in Dubai and Tokyo. Part of the appeal of Intersect is that it features a changing roster of experts. The cocktail lounge is overseen by a guest craft cocktail expert and the second floor full-service restaurant has a rotating chef in residence.

These master chefs come from all over the world, many from Michelin-rated restaurants. The inspiration for Intersect comes from a Lexus core value called Amanatashi, defined as an unwavering commitment to exceptional hospitality. When we come back, cars named after, food groups. So we know Volkswagen makes sausages, Rolls-Royce makes honey, and Ford makes hot sauce. But did you know that there have been vehicles named after foods and various beverages? It's true.

In 1970, Datsun, now Nissan, released the Datsun Cherry. It was in production from 1970 to 1977, was sold mostly in Japan and Europe. and the Datsun Cherry was the company's first front-wheel drive vehicle. Nissan also made a vehicle called the S-cargo. Manufactured from 1989 to 1991, the Nissan S-cargo was a small, retro-styled van. Its exterior shape resembled a snail. Therefore, the name was a double entendre, meaning small cargo, which was shortened to S-cargo, which sounded like the French word,

for snail. From 1991 to 1998, the Suzuki Motor Corporation manufactured the Suzuki Cappuccino. It was a two-seater sports car with a novel three-piece detachable hardtop. It could be transformed from a coupe to a teetop to a full convertible. The Suzuki Cappuccino is now a highly prized collectible car. Seems Japanese car companies were very comfortable, naming cars after food groups. The Mitsubishi Pistachio was a limited-edition hatchback built for only one model year in 1999.

With just 72 horsepower and with less than half the weight of a Toyota Camry, the pistachio was very fuel-efficient with low emissions. The American Chocolate was an automobile manufactured in New York from 1902 to 19. The American Chocolate Machinery Company didn't make chocolate. It made vending machines that sold chocolate. The company was run by a man named Walter William, a Swiss engineer, who began building cars back in 1898. He decided to expand his business by assembling automobiles in his factory. The American chocolate car, not to be confused with Kit Kat, was built mostly from imported components,

and the first models were displayed at the 1903 New York automobile exhibition. Soon it became clear that American Chocolate was a confusing name for a car company, so it was eventually changed to the Walter Gasoline Car. Back in 1889, two businesses merged in Birmingham, England. John C. Unions Limited joined forces with William Aldean Sun, to form the All Days and Onions pneumatic company limited. Originally, the company made tools

and blacksmithing equipment, but over time transitioned to making bicycles, then motorcycles. In 1898, the company produced its first All Days and Onions automobile. It was powered by a 10-horsepower engine and the car was stylish and beautifully appointed. The upholstery was plush

and the carefully designed roof, hood, and windscreen meant that inclement weather was no deterrent to a pleasurable drive through the English countryside. All Days and Onions manufactured cars until 1918. Why drive a lemon when you can drive an onion? On one hand, it's surprising that some car companies are also food companies. They seem like two distinct diametrically opposed business. But then again, the link between automobiles and food has been with us since the first car rolled off the assembly line. And when you realize that 50% of the time when we leave our houses and get into our cars, food is part of the journey.

So it only makes sense that carmakers would want to leverage that link. Food is very emotional. It can be a comfort food, a sweet treat, or a meal to see. celebrate. Breaking bread is social connection, which makes food a powerful marketing tactic. When Volkswagen serves employees its sausages, it's a long-held tradition. When Fiat offers its branded chocolate wafer, it's a piece of Fiat's long history. When Ferrari invites you into its prestigious restaurant where modern Formula One racing was hatched, it can be a meaningful experience. That's why when cars meet cuisine, it's a powerful intersection when you're under

the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terestream mobile recording studio. Producer Debbie O'Reilly, Chief Sound Engineer Jeff Devine, theme music by Casey Pick, Jeremiah Pick, and James Aiton, tunes provided by APM music. Follow me at Terry O'Influ. This podcast is powered by ACAST. Terry's top slogans of all time. Number 16. AT&T. Reach out and touch someone.

See you next week.