The Amateur Gourmet Podcast: Recent Episodes
Adam Roberts
Are you a person who loves to cook but every now and then you screw up? You've come to the right place! Since 2004, Adam Roberts (aka The Amateur Gourmet) has been writing about his adventures and misadventures in the kitchen. He's the author of three books (including the upcoming Broadway cookbook, Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway) and the author of a biweekly newsletter for Substack. Each week on The Amateur Gourmet podcast, there's a theme, interviews with famous chefs, writers, actors, and cookbook authors connected to that theme, plus visits from friends and family, and lots of yodeling. If you like what you hear, be sure to become a paid subscriber and you'll have access to twice weekly recipes, essays, bonus podcast material (including Ten Feisty Food Questions with that week's guest), plus threads where you can engage with other Amateur Gourmet fans about food topics that you care about. Just know there's no judgment here: we all screw up in the kitchen!
amateurgourmet.substack.com
My patient today is the illustrious food stylist and recipe developer Susan Spungen, the author of the brand new book Veg Forward, and the founding editor at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. You very likely have seen her work food styling for such films as Julie & Julia, It's Complicated, and Eat, Pray, Love. In today's session, we talk all about the tricks of the trade, what props to use when taking food pictures, how she photographed her whole book using her iPhone, and why an overhead shot is preferable to one from the side. Then we dig into the good stuff: I finally get to ask her the question I've been wanting to ask for over a decade... How is it possible that Meryl Streep cooks chocolate croissants from scratch for Steve Martin on a date in It's Complicated? How did she nail the Sole Meunière in Julie & Julia? And what's Martha Stewart really like? All of this and more in today's delightful session.
This week's Lunch Therapy patient, Anya von Bremzen, is the author of a brand new book, National Dish, that's been called "a fast-paced, entertaining travelogue" by The New York Times. In today's episode, we learn all about the ways Russia uses borsch for propaganda, the meat pie with ketchup she ate growing up (her family's version of "pizza"), living in Jackson Heights, and living part time in Istanbul. We also learn about the ways food and nationalism intersect, being a winner at the very first James Beard awards, and how beloved New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast came to do the cover of her book.
Jeff Gordinier is one of the most prolific, influential food writers in the biz: not only does he work on Esquire's Best Restaurants list every year, he contributes regularly to The New York Times as both a food writer and a poetry critic (!) AND he's the author of the book Hungry, for which he traveled around the world with René Redzepi, frequently hailed as the world's best chef. In today's session, we learn all about Gordinier's new interest in eating healthy (and the toll the Best Restaurants list took on his body), why the pandemic essentially ended fine dining as we knew it, and how a man who doesn't drink can choose the best bars in the US. We also cover growing up in Southern California, the impact (or lack of impact) René Redzepi had on his cooking, and his love for making tea.
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Welcome back to Lunch Therapy! We start this brand new season with Lee Sung Jin, the creator of Netflix's hit show BEEF. I worked with Lee several years ago on the ABC sitcom The Real O'Neals and since then he's gone on to write for Dave, Tuca and Bertie, and now his breakout, runaway hit starring Steve Yeun and Ali Wong. In today's session, we talk all about Lee's name change (when I knew him, he was Sonny Lee), the road rage incident (and bathroom incident) that inspired the show, and the terrible eating habits that he has when he's on set. We also cover his favorite Korean dishes, why Ali Wong's picture isn't on the wall at Park's BBQ, the best Japanese restaurant in L.A., how you know when to stop rewriting, and the time that he ate a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts in the writer's room and raced to a Best Buy to use the bathroom.
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My guest today is the creator of one of my favorite podcasts of all time, The Mystery Show with Starlee Kine. If you haven't listened to that, turn this off and go do that first. It's amazing. I asked Starlee if she had a favorite recipe and she didn't. I asked her if she had a favorite thing to eat in L.A. and she sent me to Griffith Park to eat the California Veggie Sandwich at The Trails in Griffith Park. Unfortunately, it was pouring down rain and I had a cold, so I couldn't actually make it there -- instead I recreated the sandwich at home. Find out how it went, why Starlee chose it, all about her childhood in California, how she forgets to eat, and the foods that she finds gross. We also cover her career, how she got started at This American Life, whether or not she wants to continue podcasting, and why, when I move to New York, I should live in Williamsburg.
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Vegan chef Chris Tucker (@veganchefchristucker) is a private vegan chef -- he's making vegan desserts for Elton John's Oscar party in two weeks! -- who appeared on Season Four of The Great American Baking Show. In today's episode, Chris sends me Heidi Swanson's recipe for caramelized mushrooms with chilies and peanuts and lime and cilantro which I served up with ramen noodles. We talk all about how Chris got into veganism, his former career as a hair stylist, how he deals with difficult clients, and what he likes to serve at parties. We also cover the myths surrounding veganism (like the idea that it's automatically healthy), how he gets enough protein into his diet, and how some foods like noodles and kale actually have protein in them too.
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Today's guest, Homa Dashtaki, is the co-founder (along with her father) of The White Mustache yogurt, some of the most celebrated yogurt in the country. She's also the author of a brand new cookbook called Yogurt & Whey (coming out March 5th) that gives away her signature yogurt recipe as well as all of the things you can make with the yogurt itself and the whey, including these out-of-this-world whey pancakes which are seriously the best pancakes I've ever eaten (go to amateurgourmet.com for the recipe!). In today's talk, we cover the genesis of Homa's business, what it's like working with her father, how she went from selling yogurt at farmer's markets to having it in stores, and what the process actually is for making yogurt. We also learn about the legal battles she fought in order to make yogurt with her hands as opposed to machines, the food that she loves the most when she visits Iran, and her favorite thing to do with labneh.
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Our guest this week, Aaron Hutcherson, is a writer and recipe developer for The Washington Post's Voraciously and recently moved to Washington, D.C. for the gig. In today's episode, we learn all about Aaron's previous career as a wealth manager on Wall Street, how he grew up loving being in the kitchen with his mother, and how her unpretentious approach to food inspires the recipes he writes to this day -- including today's "you've got to taste this" dish of chicken thighs roasted with butter and onions. We also cover his time at culinary school, how race enters into his work, the things he misses the most about living in New York, and what his parents think of his career. You can get the recipe for this week's dish -- and every episode's dish -- on amateurgourmet.com.
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This week Karan Soni, who you may recognize from Deadpool or Miracle Workers, shares a recipe from the Dishoom cookbook for Keema Pao: a punchy combination of yogurt, ground lamb, and an herb paste made with mint and cilantro. Learn all about Karan's childhood in India, how his parents sent him to a boarding school to lose weight, how he learned to cook for himself when he arrived in America to go to USC, the difference between Northern Indian and Southern Indian cooking, and why his mom is the world's best cook. If you'd like the recipe, and all recipes from previous episodes, visit amateurgourmet.com.
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This week we're shaking things up, shifting from a "you've got to taste this" recipe to a "you've got to taste this" field trip! LA Times food writer and host of The Bucket List Jenn Harris knows more about L.A. food than most people twice her age; that's because she grew up here with a Jewish grandmother and Chinese grandmother who love to eat. Today she sends me to the San Gabriel Valley, specifically to the Kang Kang Food Court, for sheng jian bao: the dreamiest hybrid of a soup dumpling and a crispy bao you can imagine. We talk all about Jenn's discovery of this hole-in-the-wall (hint: her grandmother knows things) and then cover her career in food journalism, her friendship with Jonathan Gold, and whether or not we could pull off a matzo ball soup dumpling.
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One of my favorite bakers (and favorite people) is Nicole Rucker, owner of Fat & Flour in the Grand Central Market here in L.A., and the very first guest on my very first podcast, Lunch Therapy. In today's episode of "You've Got to Taste This," Nicole sends me a recipe for Silesian Heaven crispy pierogis from "Pierogi" by Zuza Zak. These pierogis are stuffed with dried fruit and well-seasoned pork, boiled, and then fried in butter with sesame seeds. Spoiler alert: they were out of this world! They were also a huge hit at Nicole's Cookbook Club, which is why she was inspired to send the recipe my way. In today's chat we talk all about her cookbook club and also cover the food she cooks at home, healing from a burn, why she's done putting miso into sweet desserts, and her hacks for banana bread. Get the recipe for these pierogis on amateurgourmet.com.
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This week's "You've Got to Taste This" recipe comes to us from Felicity Spector, a Harvard Fulbright scholar and London-based journalist, whose interest in Ukraine and Russia far precedes the current conflict there. That interest certainly informs her recipe choice: Makoviy Rulet, a braided babka-ish bread studded with apples and infused with a sweet, complex, frangipane-like poppyseed paste. It's a recipe by Felicity's friend and food-writing colleague Olia Hercules, who's been movingly writing about her family's strife in Ukraine, dealing with the horror of the Russian occupation. Amazingly, Felicity herself has driven into Ukraine from London to bring supplies to bombed-out bakeries there. We talk all about that in today's conversation, one that runs the gambit from British food's bad image in the nineties to her love for a NY-style bagel with whitefish. We also cover the process of making the makoivy rulet, which I served at a dinner party to great acclaim. If you want the recipe, you'll be able to find it on amateurgourmet.com.
Also: if you'd like to donate to any of the charities mentioned, here are the links:
World Central Kitchen
Cook for Ukraine
Bake for Ukraine
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Welcome to "You've Got to Taste This," my brand new podcast centered around dishes that are so good, you've simply got to taste them. My first guest is Noah Galuten, author of the upcoming Don't Panic Pantry Cookbook, inspired by the YouTube show he does with his wife, comedian Iliza Shlesinger. For today's episode, Noah offers up his pasta with dried porcinis, fresh rosemary, and a zippy tomato sauce that's so good, it's already entered my normal pasta rotation. In addition to explaining the recipe's origins, today we talk about everything from his solo trip to Noma in Copenhagen (where he ate reindeer penis), the best way to make pizza at home, and why fiber is more important than anything else in your diet.
As for the recipe, here it is! If you make it, be sure to take pictures and tag me on Instagram @amateurgourmet. And if you have ideas for future episodes/guests, shoot me an e-mail at amateurgourmet@gmail.com.
Noah Galuten's Pasta with Mushroom Rosemary Tomato Sauce
from The Don't Panic Pantry Cookbook
1/2 ounce dried mushrooms
Salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium onion, diced (I prefer red onion in this dish)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
Pinch of crushed red pepper
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound dried pasta
Freshly grated Parmesan, pecorino, or a similar sharp, aged cheese
Extra-virgin olive oil
- Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and add 1/2 cup warm water. Allow the mushrooms to soak until fully softened, about 30 minutes. Reserving the soaking water, scoop out the mushrooms, transfer them to a cutting board, and finely chop them.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Generously salt the water.
- In a large skillet or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Sauté, stirring occasionally until the alliums are just wilted, about 2 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-high, add the chopped mushrooms, and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onions are browning a bit at the edges, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add the crushed red pepper and rosemary sprigs, stir, and toast for 30 seconds. Add the white wine and reserved mushroom soaking liquid (leaving behind any sediment at the bottom of the bowl) and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to deglaze any browned bits. Allow to simmer until the liquid is mostly evaporated.
- Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and stir. Once it is bubbling, reduce the heat to a simmer and continue simmering, covered, for about 10 minutes.
- Cook the pasta: Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook to about 1 minute shy of the package directions.
- Reserving 1 cup or so of pasta water, drain the pasta and transfer it to the pan with the sauce. Increase the heat to a steady simmer and stir constantly, adding a splash of pasta water as needed to get a sauce that fully coats the pasta without being soupy or overly dry, 1 to 2 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust.
- Serve immediately in bowls, topped with cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.
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Now I know most of you already have your Thanksgiving desserts planned out, but just in case you need a little inspiration, I invited Charlotte Druckman (Women on Food, Kitchen Remix) on the podcast to discuss all the pies she tasted recently for a New York Magazine article. We're talking Thanksgiving pies from New York's best bakeries with exciting innovations like gingersnap crusts, butterscotch pumpkin, and apple buttermilk. In addition, we talk pie making at home, what we'll be eating at our own Thanksgivings, and, as a special bonus, Charlotte's brownie hacks (she's a brownie expert).
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The author of the brand-new, hotly-anticipated Puerto Rican cookbook DIASPORICAN, Ilyanna Maisonet, swings by the podcast today to talk all about cooking Puerto Rican. We cover achiote oil, her mother's mushroom chicken, which ingredients are different in Puerto Rico vs. the U.S., persimmon cookies, and lots more. Plus: learn how Illyanna pivoted from culinary school to a food writing career, how the cookbook came about, the obstacles she faced, and how she landed on such a striking cover image.
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Everyone's favorite cookbook author and NYT columnist, Melissa Clark, is back on the pod to talk all about that tricky old subject: weeknight dinners. With her brand new cookbook, Dinner in One, Melissa proves that it takes just a few flourishes to turn a humdrum meal into something special. Today we talk about Thanksgiving on a sheet pan (!), how to do the dishes, parenting a picky child, how her cookbooks sank to the bottom of the ocean, cleaning clams, washing lettuce, and how she'd tackle roast chicken in a Best Roast Chicken of All Time contest.
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Jonathan Melendez is a chef, food photographer, and the creator of the blog The Candid Appetite. Recently he's started the biggest job of all: he and his partner Julian (I met them both last year at a Christmas party) are the proud parents of a newborn baby boy named Theodore. How has fatherhood changed his cooking habits? What kind of relationship does he want Theodore to have to food and cooking? What role does culture play into all of this? Join us for a hearty, heartfelt conversation about fatherhood and food.
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Jonathan Melendez is a chef, food photographer, and the creator of the blog The Candid Appetite. Recently he's started the biggest job of all: he and his partner Julian (I met them both last year at a Christmas party) are the proud parents of a newborn baby boy named Theodore. How has fatherhood changed his cooking habits? What kind of relationship does he want Theodore to have to food and cooking? What role does culture play into all of this? Join us for a hearty, heartfelt conversation about fatherhood and food.
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I've been cooking along to show tunes since I first started cooking twenty years ago... so imagine how excited I am that the Broadway cookbook that I cowrote with Gideon Glick (star of Spring Awakening, Little Shop of Horrors, and a Tony nominee for To Kill a Mockingbird), Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway, is coming out this October 4th! Gideon actually received his copies in the mail a few days ago (mine are on their way) and so I had to invite him on the podcast to talk all about our cookbook, how we came up with the idea for it, how we wrote it, and which recipes and puns are our favorites. We also dive into Gideon's career: learning about his first professional acting gig at seventeen (costarring with Cynthia Nixon and Ethan Hawke), the fiasco of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, being part of the phenomenon that was Spring Awakening, and transitioning into film and television. It's a great talk and only 2% of it feels like QVC, I promise.
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Andrea Nguyen ís the prolific author of eight cookbooks, including Vietnamese Food Any Day, The Pho Cookbook, Asian Tofu, and The Banh Mi Handbook. She's also the co-host of a brand new podcast called Everything Cookbooks where she, along with her co-hosts Molly Stevens, Kate Leahy, and Kristin Donnelly discuss the ins and outs of the cookbook publishing world. That's the very subject of today's talk -- the cookbook biz! -- and Andrea lays out how she got her start, how she keeps getting books published, when to self-publish, how you support yourself (spoiler alert: you don't!), and lots more. So if you've ever thought about publishing a cookbook, or just like collecting cookbooks and want to learn more about how the sausage is made, this is the episode for you.
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When Chef Vishwesh Bhatt started serving his Indian-inflected Southern food at SnackBar in Oxford, Mississippi, the food world was so dazzled, the James Beard committee nominated him for Best Southern Chef five times before he finally won in 2019. His new book, I Am From Here, captures what makes his cooking so original and specific to him and his journey from Gujarat India to the American South. In today's conversation, we get at the heart of his idiosyncratic cuisine -- from cornbread infused with curry leaves and chilies to his signature dish, okra chaat -- and how it reflects who he is as a person as his identity has shifted along with his geographical location. It's a deep conversation with a thoughtful chef and it'll make you very, very hungry.
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What's it like to be gay and to love food? Today's guest Dan Pelosi (aka: Grossy Pelosi) knows a little something about it. Having grown up 3/4ths Italian (the other 1/4 is Portuguese), Dan had food foisted on him at a young age. But how did he reconcile that with the body-obsessed gay-culture that he became a part of once he got older? It's a similar issue for me having grown up in a Jewish family where skipping a meal was more alarming than getting a fake ID (my mom actually made me get a fake ID, but that's a story for another time). So today's discussion is very candid, emotional, and honest -- tackling a taboo subject that very few of us talk about in the food world: body image vs. being able to enjoy food without feeling shame. Plus: learn about Dan's internet stardom, which Portuguese dishes he loves the most, and how he runs his growing empire.
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What's it like to be famous on TikTok? Ask Chef Jon Kung who has 1.5 million followers on there and is frequently on lists of TikTok's best food accounts. Learn how he went from being a chef in Detroit to being a full-time TikToker, what his process is, whether he writes his narrations or improvises them, what kind of camera he uses, how he thinks about his sex appeal, and the impact he's had on his subscribers.
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For years, I've been trying to pitch articles to the New York Times food section and for years I've been failing. On a total lark, I invited Emily Weinstein, the food and cooking editor for the Times, on to my podcast and in a mind-blowing turn of events, she said yes! Today's episode, then, gets down to the nitty-gritty: what does Emily look for in a pitch, what are her pitch pet peeves, how do you pitch a recipe vs. a journalistic story? We also learn about Emily's background in food, how she interacts with Pete Wells about his reviews, whether or not she "reads the comments," and which food writers have influenced her the most.
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Kate McDermott is the author of two widely-celebrated books on pie (The Art of the Pie and Pie Camp; Publisher's Weekly called The Art of the Pie "one of the best books written on the subject") and teaches a regular pie-making workshop at her home in Washington State. Today she comes on The Amateur Gourmet Podcast to school me on all things pie: from judging fruit's ripeness with a refractometer to rolling the perfect circle, Kate not only talks technique, she also talks temperament. She believes that both you and the dough have to be chill for your pie to be successful, and that's just a small taste of the pie wisdom that she brings to today's talk. So gather up your rolling pins, put on your aprons, and let's talk pie!
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What's the secret to writing a really good recipe? How do you make it unique while also making it simple enough for people to do at home? Enter Jessie Sheehan, celebrated baker, TikTok superstar, and author of the brand new cookbook, Snackable Bakes. In today's talk, we cover everything from coming up with the initial recipe concept, bringing it into the kitchen, testing it, and then freaking out that it's too close to somebody else's. We get into the nitty-gritty of weights vs. cups, how to find your voice in your cooking, when to employ outside testers, and how you know when a recipe is done. As a bonus, Jessie shares some of her favorite cookbooks and bakeries in New York, including Mah-Ze-Dar and L'Appartement 4F. If you like it, be sure to share it and/or leave a nice review!
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Hey podcast listeners,
This year’s James Beard awards COMPLETELY shut L.A. out of the mix, awarding the country’s second largest city zero citations for what is commonly considered one of the most vibrant, exciting, and relevant food scenes in the country.
Here to talk us through the controversy is Farley Elliott, Senior Editor of Eater L.A., who has lots to say, not just on this subject, but on many others too. We cover everything from food trucks to fine dining, from Wolfgang Puck to Jordan Kahn, from Union in Pasadena all the way to Pasjoli in Santa Monica.
It’s a great talk! Listen here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Your pal,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
Before I got hit by Covid, I spent an hour talking to the delightful coffee expert Ever Meister — who I met at my first favorite coffee shop, Joe on Waverly in the early aughts — about all things espresso, cappuccino, and, most importantly of all, latte art.
Meister’s been something of a fairy godmother when it comes to my homemade coffee drinks. If you’ve been following me on TikTok, you can see my efforts at achieving a heart or rosetta pattern…
In today’s episode, Meister gives me point-by-point feedback, talking to me about microfoam, distribution, liquid dynamics, and all of the other elements that go into making a coffee shop-worthy latte.
Know someone who’s trying to make coffee shop-worthy drinks at home? Send this podcast their way.
While Breville isn’t sponsoring me, I’m definitely sponsoring them because damn do we love our Breville Barista Pro.
Just today alone we made: two oat milk cappuccinos, one oat milk cortado, and one iced oat latte in the afternoon. It’s as easy as sticking the portafilter under the grinder, pushing in until it starts to overflow, tamping down, brewing a double shot, and steaming the milk. I asked Craig, who was wary about getting an espresso machine, what he thinks of it now and he says: “I love it.”
And if each of those drinks cost $5 each, as they might at a coffee shop (with tip), we’re definitely saving money in the long run (4 drinks X $5 = $20; $20 X 40 = $800, which means in 40 days, the machine pays for itself). So I highly recommend, if you love coffee shop espresso drinks, get one of these babies for yourself. And then listen to this week’s podcast… Ever Meister will set you up good.
Happy listening!
Your friend,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
Have I got a podcast for you!
Well: it’s for you if you’re, like me, OBSESSED with collecting vintage Pyrex and bowls and plates and other kitchen doodads.
My guest is a purveyor of all such things: Nicole Miller, who runs @Pyrexnplants on Instagram and has her own Etsy shop.
Our conversation covers everything from how she got into all this in the first place, whether or not she’s a hoarder, how her family feels about her collecting, what she looks for when she goes to estate sales, what it’s actually like at an estate sale when someone just died, and — most dangerous for me — what to actually search for when you’re looking for vintage kitchen goodies.
You can listen above or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
And be sure to become a paid subscriber so you get my Ten Bonus Questions with Nicole tomorrow in your inbox, plus my Thursday newsletter.
Happy shopping/listening!
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
I was the perfect audience for my own podcast this week because Craig (my husband, in case you’re new) is going to be back and forth to NY over the next five months to edit his movie, and I’ll be visiting often, and — crisis! — I don’t know where to eat. Add to that the fact that people still ask me: “Hey, Adam, I’m going to New York soon, what are the hot new restaurants?” As if I know!
Enter Ryan Sutton. Not only is he the James Beard award-winning chief food critic at Eater NY, he’s a born and bred New Yorker, who (like me) grew up on Long Island and is as passionate about his city as Billy Joel (who also, like us, is also from Long Island).
In today’s pod, Ryan wakes me up to the modern Korean Renaissance happening in NYC — with restaurants like Atomix, Attaboy, Cote — and weighs in on the whole Eleven Madison Park scandal vis-a-vis their new vegan menu.
Know someone going to NY soon? Send this their way!
Then I bully him into giving me lists: what are the best old school spots that are still worth visiting? (The Clover Club is new to me.) What are the best new spots? (I’m curious about Hawksmoor.) Best pizza places? (Ryan weighs on on the hype surrounding Lucali and offers some alternatives.) WHAT’S THE BEST BEST BEST EVERYTHING?
Well: no spoilers, but Ryan delivered. I just listened to it back and made a list with almost twenty places on it. I’ll have a lot of ground to cover when I go to visit Craig next month.
Become a paid subscriber and get my bonus ten questions with Ryan Sutton tomorrow! (Including: most overrated NYC restaurant, go-to bagel order, and where he’d have his last NY meal.)
Give it a listen and let us know your favorite NYC restaurants in. the comments.
Happy listening!
Your friend,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
What a thrill to share this week’s Amateur Gourmet Podcast: an episode dedicated entirely to Julia Child!
We’re lucky enough to have the creator of the show Julia (and an award-winning playwright) Daniel Goldfarb here to talk all about how the show came about, casting Sarah Lancashire as Julia, taking liberties with the biography, shooting in Boston, and whether they actually made all of that food on set.
But first we have one of the most delightful people in the food world, and also one of the most accomplished, Dorie Greenspan — author of multiple cookbooks and now the essential XOXO Dorie Newsletter — here to talk about collaborating with Julia on the Baking with Julia cookbook.
Dorie shares delightful stories about going to Julia’s kitchen for the first time, how Julia felt about the various impressions of her, and the very first thing that they ate together.
Listen above or wherever you normally listen to podcasts.
To hear my bonus ten questions with Daniel Goldfarb tomorrow, become a paid subscriber now!
Bon Appetit!
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
It’s Mother’s Day this Sunday! Do you know what you’re cooking yet? Or what you want your family to cook for you?
Please welcome Sarah Copeland to the stage. She’s not only a prolific cookbook author (The Newlywed Cookbook, Feast, Every Day is Saturday, and her latest, Instant Family Meals), she also happens to be a mom.
In today’s episode, we talk about Mother’s Day strategies (pancakes, waffles, polenta!), but we also talk about being a food-loving mother and how to get your kids to eat the kinds of foods that you yourself love to eat. When do you make exceptions about processed sugar? (Her Halloween story is hilarious.) Is it ultimately a good thing to give your kid a little Taco Bell? (I think yes.)
So enjoy today’s free episode, and if you want to hear my bonus episode with Sarah — where I ask her Ten Feisty Food Questions — be sure to become a paid subscriber, and you’ll also get tomorrow’s paid-subscriber only email.
Have a great Mother’s Day, everyone!
Your friend,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
So excited to talk about my favorite subject — COLLECTING COOKBOOKS! — with none other than the founder of Stained Page News, one of the premiere destinations for cookbook news online: Paula Forbes!
Paula and I are such cookbook geeks that this conversation sounds like it’s sped up, but it’s just us being super geeky and enthusiastic.
Tomorrow, for paid subscribers, not only will you get to hear my Ten Bonus Questions with Paula (where we find out which iconic cookbook she finds to be just “meh” and which ones she’d save in a fire), but I’ll also share with you my favorite cookbooks of all time. If you don’t want to miss that, subscribe here:
And just so you get to join the fun: what are YOUR favorite cookbooks that you have in your collection?
Happy listening! (And don’t blame me if you spend a small fortune on cookbooks afterwards….)
Your friend,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
The late Pulitzer Prize-winning L.A. food writer Jonathan Gold once wrote about Kevin Bludso’s BBQ: “The brisket that issues from those battered smokers is a paradigm of meat, beef that disappears so quickly that, if it weren’t for a feeling of satisfying fullness, you might swear that you had less eaten it than dreamed it.”
Kevin Bludso is a BBQ legend and now, with the help of my pal Noah Galuten (a James Beard-nominated cookbook author and co-host, with his wife Iliza Schlesinger, of Don’t Panic Pantry on Instagram) he’s authored a cookbook: The Bludso’s BBQ Cookbook.
The book is unique because, in addition to it’s extremely useful recipes for making BBQ at home (and it’s very doable: just listen to the podcast!), the book also tells Kevin’s unique story of growing up in Compton and spending his summers in Corsicana, Texas. It’s a beautiful portrait of his family and his community and it’s as much a great read as it is a great culinary resource.
I could go on and on, but I think the interview speaks for itself. Enjoy listening to Kevin and Noah and, if you’d like to hear more, become a paid subscriber and you’ll have access to my Ten Bonus BBQ Questions with Kevin and Noah tomorrow.
Until next time!
Your friend,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hi everyone,
I don’t know about you, but I’m insecure when it comes to wine.
It’s just so overwhelming. What’s the difference between natural wine and regular wine? Why is some super expensive wine not worth it and some cheap wine a great bargain? How do you learn all of the things you’re supposed to learn about mouthfeel and terroir and structure?
Welcome to Wine Week, my attempt to clear things up for you and me and anyone else confused by wine.
I’ve invited two wine professionals with wine podcasts on to walk me through all of the things that I don’t understand about wine.
Elle Clifford hosts The Wine Situation, a delightful podcast that I once appeared on the day that Elle found out she passed the tests to become a certified sommelier.
With her expertise and approachability, I ask her all about her obsession with wine, how she affords drinking the good stuff, how she got interested in all of this in the first place, the way she chooses the right words to describe what a wine tastes like, and how she retains so much information about so many different types of wine.
The Amateur Gourmet Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and to support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get bonus episodes and newsletters every Thursday.
But first, I invited on Mike Stone of The TallMikeWine Podcast on to talk about his job as a tasting room manager at Nicholson Ranch Winery.
How do you go from being a DJ to a tasting room manager? Mike has the story (and voice) for you. He also explains what he does every day at his job, how he motivates others in the tasting room to describe the same wines in different ways, and what he’s currently drinking that he recommends.
In terms of what I’ve been drinking lately, as I mention on the podcast, I just bought a case of natural wine from Psychic Wines in L.A. and I’m working my way through it.
Which leads to the question: what wine are you currently drinking? Do you have a staple or do you go through different phases? Let us know in the comments.
Thanks for listening!
If you want to hear my Ten Feisty Wine Questions with Elle Clifford on Thursday — including questions like “What’s a wine that you’re supposed to like that you hate?” and “What’s your favorite book about wine?” — be sure to become a paid subscriber so that you get it in your inbox.
See you back here on Thursday!
Your friend,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
It’s my favorite time of year: spring! So many delicious things to eat (fava beans, artichokes, strawberries) and so many ways to prepare them. That’s why I’ve invited two notable food writers on to the podcast to talk about their favorite spring cooking strategies.
First, L.A. Times cooking columnist Ben Mims swings by to tell us about his newfound love for radishes, his savory approach with rhubarb (peppercorns and olive oil!), and how he turns spring flowers into syrups that he can stir into sodas.
Then, NYT contributor and author of the new cookbook, I Dream of Dinner (So You Don’t Have To), Ali Slagle stops by to talk about her spring cooking approach: from boiling artichokes and eating them with store-bought mayonnaise to doing nothing with spring strawberries (“I just eat ‘em raw.”)
We also talk about her growing up in LA, her grandmother who lives near me and apparently makes amazing food for her neighbors that they don’t eat (hello! I’m right here), how she pitches stories to The New York Times, her decision to leave Brooklyn with her boyfriend after the pandemic to travel the country, and who tastes her food to give her feedback.
Make sure to become a paid subscriber so you can hear tomorrow’s bonus episode with Ali where I pepper her with TEN FEISTY FOOD QUESTIONS. (Here’s last week’s with Natasha Leggero.)
As for my own favorite spring recipes, here’s that strawberry rhubarb pie I mentioned when I talked with Ben.
You can get the recipe here.
And all of that talk of fava beans reminds me of that amazing fava bean toast that I made last year.
You can read about it in this archived newsletter.
What are your favorite spring recipes? Let us know in the comments!
Okay, off to the market….
Your friend,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
Welcome to the debut of The Amateur Gourmet Podcast!
Fans of Lunch Therapy: don’t worry. You’ll still get all of the in-depth interviews that you loved before, only now we’re doing it on a theme. And this week’s theme is FOOD TV.
Natasha Leggero, host of the brand new TBS cooking competition show Rat in the Kitchen, comes on to talk about judging a cooking show, talking about food on TV, traveling with Ludo, what she cooks at home, her dad sending back his pasta, and being married to someone who keeps kosher (comedian Moshe Kasher).
Before that, though, my good pal Jonathan Parks-Ramage comes on to talk about his love for Top Chef (we dish on who’s the hottest) and, more importantly, Kids Baking Championship on Food Network. Is it a celebration of youthful obsessions with all things culinary? Or is it a new way for stage parents to force their kids into the limelight?
Hope you enjoy the new format…
And please don’t complain about the yodeling. I love it!
If you want to hear my Ten Feisty Food Questions with Natasha Leggero tomorrow, be sure to become a paid subscriber. Just because I’m feeling nice, here’s a 20% coupon!
See you back here mañana,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
So excited to have Dan Souza on the pod today! Not only is he the editor-in-chief of Cook’s Illustrated, he’s a regular on one of my all-time favorite cooking show’s: America’s Test Kitchen on PBS.
Today our conversation covers everything from his responsibilities as editor-in-chief, how difficult it was to make changes to the Cook’s Illustrated format when he took over, what he makes when he doesn’t feel like cooking, his love for seafood, and his obsession with tea.
We also talk about his perfectionism, what it means to make “the perfect” version of something, how he wants to empower people with techniques, and how he uses cookbooks to move away from his perfectionistic habits.
If you want to hear more with me and Dan, tomorrow I’m posting a bonus episode where I ask him ten rapid-fire questions including: “What’s the best technique you’ve learned in your time at America’s Test Kitchen?” and “Which three spices would you bring to a desert island?” Subscribe here to have access to that:
As for the subtitle of today’s post — Is this the end of Lunch Therapy as we know it? — the answer to that is: yes!
Starting next week, I’m going to delve further into the process of blending my podcast with my newsletter by rebranding Lunch Therapy as The Amateur Gourmet Podcast.
What that means is that podcast episodes will now correspond more to what I’ve been cooking and eating and thinking about food-wise. So after making Melissa Clark’s rhubarb-upside down cake (see Monday’s newsletter), I might ask Melissa Clark to come on to talk about cooking with rhubarb now that rhubarb’s in season.
Or after writing about finding the best restaurants when you travel, I might ask Bill Addison, who was the roving correspondent for Eater National before becoming the food critic for the LA Times, to come on to talk about his restaurant-finding strategies.
A good example of what I’m talking about is when I hadDavid Lebovitz on to talk about moving his blog to Substack after I wrote the essay: When Food Blogs Become Newsletters.
Mainly, I want the new pod to be less about me playing the role of food psychologist and more about me just talking about food and cooking and restaurants and food media with people who love all of that as much as I do!
So that’s the plan for now! Let me know what you think in the comments.
See you back here tomorrow for Thursday’s newsletter and bonus episode…
Your friend,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
If you like musicals, you’ve gotta listen to today’s episode of Lunch Therapy. My patient is none other than Ben Rimalower, the only person I know who loves Patti LuPone as much as I do — so much so, that he wrote and performed a one man show about it called Patti Issues (which was a NYT Critic’s Pick!). He’s since gone on to write and star in another one-man show, Bad with Money, as well as writing for outlets like Vulture, Out, and Time Out New York. You may also recognize him as Countess LuAnn’s cabaret director on The Real Housewives of New York.
With his friend and frequent collaborator, Daniel Nolan, Ben is currently hosting Cast Offs, a weekly show on Monday nights at 8 PM at Club Cumming in New York where they play games like Dolly, Concert, Kill (who you’d want to see in a revival of Hello, Dolly, who you’d want to see in concert, and who you’d want to kill) and “Name That Belt.”
In today’s session, Ben talks all about his dislike of mayonnaise and blue cheese, his relationship with Patti LuPone (she made him veal meatballs!), his world famous salad, his obsession with Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups, and the impossible meat Bolognese he made for a dinner party. We also cover his complex relationship with his dad (who came out to Ben’s family in the early 90s), where he likes to eat in the theater district, his mother’s very dry brisket, and what it’s like being on set during a Housewives shoot.
If you enjoy today’s session and you want to hear Ben talk more musical theater, paid subscribers can join us for tomorrow’s bonus session when I ask Ben “Ten Musical Theater Questions About Food.” Become a paid subscriber and not only will you get access to that bonus podcast, but you’ll get to read tomorrow’s essay all about my new healthy weekly meal plan, and have access to our ongoing Top Chef Thread. It just takes one click.
Thanks dolls! (← That’s Patti speak),
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Hey everyone,
This week’s Lunch Therapy patient, Cathy Barrow (aka: Mrs. Wheelbarrow), is the highly accomplished author of four cookbooks — Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry (an IACP Winner for best single-subject cookbook), Pie Squared (a James Beard-award nominee for baking and desserts), When Pies Fly, and her most recent, Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish
In today’s session, we talk all about the bagel, how she came up with a winning recipe, how she left her career in marketing to become a landscape designer, learning from her grandmother and great-grandmother in the kitchen (recipes like chopped liver, chicken soup, and cinnamon-swirl coffee cake). We also cover the time she ran a fish market, getting discovered by the NYT, how she makes her latkes with no matzo meal, and how “a nice piece of fish” isn’t just something my grandfather said.
If you enjoy today’s episode, be sure to share it!
And become a paid subscriber if you’d like to hear tomorrow’s bonus episode with Cathy, where I ask her TEN BAGEL QUESTIONS including “most outlandish cream cheese flavor?” and “what goes on your ultimate bagel?”
Cream cheesily yours,
Adam
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Hey Wednesday friends,
My Lunch Therapy patient this week, Andy Baraghani, made a name for himself at Bon Appetit with his viral videos and approachable-yet-exciting recipes.
He’s now the author of a brand new cookbook, The Cook You Want to Be, which arrives on shelves April 26th.
In today’s session, we talk all about Andy’s sense of discipline and how it changed during the pandemic. We also cover his Iranian background, the different kinds of food his mother’s family made vs. his father’s family, his favorite cooking smell from childhood, his love for fancy restaurants as a kid, and how he started his career by just walking into Chez Panisse and asking for a job.
We also cover the recipe that he’s proudest of: his kuku sabzi, or Persian frittata.
You’ll find the full recipe below.
Enjoy the podcast above — listen for the brand new introduction! — and if you’d like to hear 10 fun rapid-fire questions with Andy, including his favorite movie theater snack, his favorite brand of olive oil, and his favorite breakfast cereal, sign up for the full Amateur Gourmet/Lunch Therapy experience below and get it in your inbox tomorrow.
Become a paid subscriber and get access to Thursday bonus podcasts (featuring ten bonus questions with that week’s guest), exclusive Thursday newsletters, and subscriber community threads.
Happy listening!
Your friend,
Adam
Andy Baraghani’s Kuku Sabzi
Originally published in Bon Appetit
Ingredients
8 servings
5 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 medium leek, white and pale-green parts only, finely chopped
5 large eggs
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
1½ cups finely chopped cilantro
1½ cups finely chopped dill
1½ cups finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves
Instructions
Step 1
Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a 10" skillet over medium. Cook onion and leek, stirring occasionally, until very soft but not brown, 10–12 minutes. Transfer to a plate and let cool. Wipe out skillet; set aside.
Step 2
Whisk eggs, salt, baking powder, pepper, and turmeric in a large bowl. Using a rubber spatula, mix in onion mixture, cilantro, dill, parsley, and fenugreek. (Egg mixture should look thick and very green.)
Step 3
Heat broiler. Heat remaining 3 Tbsp. oil in reserved skillet over medium. Pour in egg mixture; spread evenly across pan with spatula. Cover and cook frittata until bottom is just set, 8–10 minutes. Uncover and broil, watching carefully, until top is set, about 1 minute. Let cool slightly, then slide out onto a platter.
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Hey everyone,
Welcome to my first-ever Substack-hosted episode of Lunch Therapy!
That’s right, I migrated my podcast over to Substack so that I could merge it with my newsletter. Now I get to send each week’s episode directly to your inbox with bonus material like recipes, images, links, etc. For example, my patient this week, Matt Rodbard (founder and editor of Taste and co-author of Koreatown) was generous enough to give us the full recipe for his lunch: a whole roasted fish from his brand new cookbook, Food IQ: 100 Questions, Answers, and Recipes to Raise Your Cooking Smarts.
Here’s the recipe in PDF form, so you can print it.
(Note: Matt did his with sea bass instead of salmon and used mirin, soy sauce, and scallions, but the process is exactly the same.)
You can listen to my whole conversation with Matt in the player above or wherever you listen to podcasts (it’ll still go out to Apple podcasts, Spotify, etc.). Our conversation hits some juicy topics like cultural appropriation, how editors handle accusations against chefs in their publications, and how Jewish people are obsessed with meals and going to the bathroom.
But wait, there’s more!
I recorded an extra 20 minutes with Matt where I peppered him with questions like: “What are your desert island cookbooks?” “What’s the most overrated dish?” and “Marry, Eff, Kill: Ketchup, Mustard, or Mayonnaise?”
If you want to hear the answers in tomorrow’s bonus podcast, become a paid subscriber and you’ll get it in your inbox just like this one.
Don’t forget you’ll also get Thursday’s paid subscriber’s only email AND the opportunity to join in threads, like this one I just posted about cooking Brussels sprouts.
Have a great day and don’t forget to eat lunch!
Your friend,
Adam
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
Rebecca Metz plays Pam Adlon's funny and very humane manager on FX's Better Things (one of my favorite shows) and that's just the beginning: she's been working in Hollywood for decades and has been on everything from Gilmore Girls to Malcolm in the Middle to Shameless to AJ and the Queen. Today's session is all about what it means to be in actor in Hollywood: the craft itself, the brutality of auditioning, how you persevere, and, most importantly, what you eat. Find out what Rebecca has for breakfast on shoot days, what she makes to unwind at home, how she overcame people-pleasing to become a better actor, and the food she ate growing up with a Jewish caterer grandfather.
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The Washington Post calls Mary Roach "America's funniest science writer" and the fact that she's the author of six NYT bestselling books (including Stiff, Gulp, and her latest, Fuzz), pretty much confirms it. I fell in love with her voice recently when I picked up Gulp on a whim -- the book is disgusting, hilarious, and fascinating -- so imagine my delight when she agreed to come on my Lunch Therapy. In today's session, Mary talks about her "reckless" adventures, including the time she became somebody's "pee buddy" to study bashful bladders, the time she accidentally chatted up a Yakuza in Tokyo, eating fetal duck bills at a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, and bungee jumping (which she says is way safer than skiing). We also cover rebelling against her traditional family, cursing at the dinner table, whether or not her mother farted (spoiler alert: she didn't), how her palate expanded when she moved to San Francisco, and what, exactly, a narwhal tastes like.
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Hello from New Orleans! We've been having a blast and eating ourselves silly, but one of the friends we're traveling with, Jonathan Parks-Ramage (author of Yes, Daddy), is a VEGETARIAN which is pretty challenging here. So, seeing as we're in the same hotel, I invited him on today's Lunch Therapy to talk about being a vegetarian in New Orleans, how the menu at the first restaurant where we went literally had zero vegetarian options, the carrot bolognese he ate at Coquette, whether or not he's missing out on a major cultural experience, etc. We recorded over Zoom and for some reason, I sound like I'm underwater and I almost didn't post this, but it's a great convo... so try to ignore the technical issues and enjoy yourself!
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This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
One of my oldest food blogging friends is Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef, who went on to write the books My Berlin Kitchen and Classic German Baking, and is currently working on Classic German Cooking as well as her new Substack newsletter, A Letter from Berlin. In today's session, we talk all about the link between Luisa's food writing and her emotions (something she's always excelled at), how homesickness led her into the kitchen, the specific West Berlin community where she grew up, and how she sought it out again later in life. We also cover people's perception of German food, what she loves about it, her other culinary identities (American, Italian), taking on the mantle of her cookbooks, and which foods she misses the most from the U.S.
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Hey, guess what? We're headed to New Orleans this Sunday to visit our friend Ryan O'Connell, who's been there for a few months filming the reboot of Queer as Folk (which he both stars in and helped write). Obviously, I've been OBSESSING over where we're going to eat, and constantly texting Ryan about it, so hear us talk about the plan, as well as what Ryan's been eating there, how he deals with all of the excess while filming nude scenes, and why you might catch him eating at Houston's. We also cover non-food topics such as the Sex and the City reboot, how Kim Catrall is playing his mom (!), and his brand new novel, Just By Looking at Him.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
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Whether you you know Drew Droege from his viral Chloe Sevigny parodies, his critically-acclaimed plays Bright Colors and Bold Patterns & Happy Birthday, Doug, or his numerous appearances on shows like Drunk History, Search Party, and Bob's Burgers, chances are you're a fan. In today's session, learn all about Drew's cooking habits (spoiler alert: he hasn't turned on his stove in six years), growing up in South Carolina, how his family doesn't think he's funny, and his dad's snobbery at Wendy's. We also cover his hatred for papaya, the time he was Harvey Weinstein's waiter at the Emmys, how he got his revenge when he got stiffed at a Brazilian steakhouse, and the life lessons he's learned from teaching improv at The Groundlings.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe
L.A. Times food critic Bill Addison recently published his list of the 101 Best Restaurants in L.A., an annual tradition that started with Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer, Jonathan Gold. So today I invited him on the pod to talk through his process, which restaurants made the cut, which ones didn't, how the pandemic influenced his decisions (how do you evaluate a restaurant if you're only eating their food from a carton?), and how the recent reckoning in the food world regarding race and representation impacted his decision-making. He also tells us which restaurants he suggests visitors to L.A. to hit up first, why it's so hard to get a reservation at the Times' Restaurant of the Year, and which restaurant would've been #102.
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Tejal Rao is The New York Times' restaurant critic for California, a cooking columnist for The New York Times Magazine, and the author of the Times' weekly vegetarian newsletter, The Veggie. In today's session, Tejal opens up about losing her sense of taste and smell when she had Covid, what it felt like to get it back, how she's adjusted to life in Los Angeles, and being a picky eater as a child. We also cover the start of her career as a food critic, how she goes about writing a review, whether she worries about hurting a chef's feelings, going with her mom to Noma Tokyo and eating raw shrimp covered with ants (spoiler: her mom liked it!), and setting the internet on fire with her article claiming that California's bagels are better than New York's (I agree).
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Bestselling cookbook author and blogger David Lebovitz swings by the pod today to talk about his recent announcement that he's shifting from his food blog to his Substack newsletter. This resonated for me because David and I started our food blogs around the same time (him in 1999, me in 2004) and I've been on a similar journey, fully embracing my newsletter which goes out twice a week (you can sign up here!). David and I get into the nitty gritty: how food blogs have changed, the tediousness of dealing with Google recipes, the relentlessness of some commenters, the casual nature of writing a newsletter, and how we're all handling the shift into video.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
What does a veteran Saturday Night Live writer eat? Find out on this week's Lunch Therapy when Sudi Green joins us for a session. Not only is Sudi an accomplished writer and comedian, but she also happens to be my across-the-street-neighbor! Find out how we met, what she ate when she worked at SNL, whether or not she likes her routines, being from Delaware, and how she's adjusted to living in L.A. We also cover her mother's Iranian background, the food that she ate growing up, visiting Iran with her family, her father's love for ice cream, lima beans as a snack, and how she's going to deal with the yappy dogs next door.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Lots of us (including myself) are starting the new year with a diet. The question becomes: will we stick to it? Should we stick to it? Are all diets problematic to begin with? What's the point? For today's bonus episode, I invited my friend Dr. Deanie Eichenstein (@drdeanie) to talk about all of these issues and more. We cover everything from the way we perceive ourselves vs. the way the world perceives us, what constitutes "healthy," our fat-phobic society, Lena Dunham, why I shouldn't feel shame about eating pasta, Selling Sunset, and her ultimate advice for eating "healthy" in the new year.
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The art world visits the food world on Lunch Therapy today with our patient, Simon Haas. Simon comes from a super talented family -- his mother's an opera singer, his father's a stone carver, and his older brother, Lucas, is an actor who you may remember from Mars Attacks and Witness -- and then there's Simon and his twin brother, Nikolai, aka: the Haas brothers, movers and shakers in the art world with pieces featured at the Smithsonian, LACMA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In today's session, we talk all about the similarities between cooking and sculpting, his interest in high and low culture, the traveling he did as a kid with his family, and his favorite place to eat in the world. We also talk about holding on to your inner voice in both cooking and art-making, when to listen to critics, being a control freak and an emotional eater, and how he got the confidence to do what he does.
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Lukas Volger is the author of five -- that's right, FIVE -- cookbooks, including Bowl: Vegetarian Recipes for Ramen, Pho, Bibimbap, Dumplings, and Other One-Dish Meals and Start Simple: Eleven Everyday Ingredients for Countless Weeknight Meals. He's also the co-founder of the influential queer magazine Jarry, which won a James Beard award in 2016 for John Birdsall's essay, Straight-Up Passing. In today's session, Lukas talks about the diet he's currently on, how he approaches recipe-writing, the kind of food that he ate growing up, his mother's love of recipes (which she kept in a folder), and whether or not that had anything to do with him starting a food magazine. We also cover his pandemic wedding, working at a bakery with a flexible muffin batter, his love for Laurie Colwin, and which songs he likes to sing at karaoke.
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Stand-up comedian, Cobra Kai actor, and podcast host Dan Ahdoot (@standupdan on social media) and I met each other year's ago at a coffee shop in the West Village, and now I'm a professional lunch therapist and he's the host of a brand new Food Network show called Raid the Fridge (premiering December 28th at 10 PM). In today's session we talk all about seeking out the best restaurants when he travels, telling his parents that he wanted to be a comedian, arranged marriages, his mother's cooking, Turmeric, and the time his dad poured pasta sauce into boiling pasta water. We also cover new sensitives in the worlds of food and comedy (specially: cultural appropriation), taking chances, making chocolate soufflés with dinner guests, and how he stays in shape while eating such delicious food.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Eric Kim is so accomplished at such a young age, I need my own lunch therapist to talk about it. A former senior editor at Food52, he's now a staff writer for The New York Times food section, a monthly columnist for The NYT Magazine, and the author of the upcoming cookbook: Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home. In today's session, we talk all about Eric's indirect path into the food world, the cookbooks that inspire him the most, creating recipes, whether food writing can be taught, and the Korean concept of "hand taste." We also cover whether or not he reads the comments, how far he feels he can push traditional Korean recipes, listening to his boyfriend's feedback, and coping with racism at work.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The first rule of lunch therapy is "never cook for your patient," but I break that rule today with director Craig Johnson (The Skeleton Twins, Alex Strangelove) for a very good reason: I'm married to him. In today's very special episode, we go deep on his submissiveness about food, his love for all things gooey, why he feels uncomfortable in formal/fusty dining rooms, and his love for apple pie. We also talk about how we travel together, hosting dinner parties together, grazing on set, forgetting to eat, and why we always fight about donuts.
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My best friend Diana recently moved with her husband and kids back to New York from L.A. (I know, I need my own therapist to deal with this!). As a consequence of being back on the east coast and nearer to family, she's now cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for TWENTY people total. All of her siblings will be their with their spouses and kids, plus her parents, and to make things even more complex several of the guests are vegan and several of the guests have celiac (aka: they're gluten-free). So how is Diana, a wonderful cook, going to tackle all of this? Will there be turkey? Tofurkey? How's she dealing with stuffing, with gravy, with dessert? Find out in today's bonus episode of Lunch Therapy.
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Today's Lunch Therapy patient, Bill Esparza, is the James Beard Award-winning author of LA Mexicano who's considered by many to be America's leading expert on Mexican food. He's also a renowned saxophonist who's traveled the world playing music with Brian Setzer, Bryan Adams, and Colin Hay. In today's session, Bill explains how to spot a good taco truck, how the pandemic impacted street food, growing up Mexican-American, his grandmother's cooking, and how he didn't learn Spanish until he was in his thirties. We also cover eating while on the road with musicians, how he finds new places to eat, starting his blog in the early 2000s, and where a birria newbie (yours truly) should get birria in L.A.
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Nervous about Thanksgiving? Lunch Therapy is here to help! NYT cooking guru (and the author of 42 cookbooks... wow) Melissa Clark was kind enough to answer a ton of cooking questions posed to me by my followers on Instagram. What's a foolproof menu for a first time Thanksgiving chef? Do you brine the turkey? Wet or dry? What about spatchcocking? How do you make things in advance and serve everything hot? What's the deal with gravy? Pie crust? Mashed potatoes? Hear all of your Thanksgiving cooking questions answered as Melissa and I talk turkey.
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If you've ever watched a YouTube cooking video, there's a good chance you've encountered Carla Lalli Music, the former Food Director for Bon Appetit, and the author of two NYT bestselling cookbooks: Where Cooking Begins (which won the James Beard Award for Best General Cookbook) and, her latest, That Sounds So Good. In today's session, Carla talks all about growing up with her journalist parents (her mom was a restaurant critic), how she differentiated from them, how she made the decision to go to culinary school, and how she got her start in food magazines. We also learn about her cookbook writing process, if she can ever know when a recipe's going to go viral (spoiler: she can't!), why she doesn't own a microwave, and what her sons have learned from watching her cook.
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Chef Jeremy Salamon has been working in restaurants for years -- Locanda Verde, Buvette, Prune, and The Eddy, to name a few -- and next week he's opening his very own restaurant in Brooklyn called Agi's Counter, named after his Hungarian grandmother. So how do you go from restaurant-as-idea to an actual restaurant that people are going to be eating in this upcoming Monday? Jeremy walks us through it: from the concept to the fundraising to planning the menu to hiring a staff to designing the space. And that's just the beginning! Hear all about it in today's episode and if you live in NYC, go visit Jeremy next week at his grand opening in Crown Heights.
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Laurie Woolever spent the past decade working as Anthony Bourdain's assistant. She's now the author of two books, one the NYT bestselling Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography and the other, co-written with Bourdain before his passing, World Travel: An Irreverent Guide. In today's session, Laurie opens up about her time working with Tony, explains how her voice is present in the biography without giving her own testimonial, and offers up her insight into what happened in his final days. We also zero in on Laurie herself: her journey from Cornell to culinary school to being a private chef to working for Mario Batali -- spending time in the Babbo kitchen -- before landing her job as Anthony Bourdain's lieutenant.
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Halloween's coming up this Sunday and as we all shop for candy to give out (and inevitably eat ourselves), the question arises: which Halloween candy is the best and which is the worst? In today's bonus episode, LA Times cooking columnist Ben Mims joins me to rank our least favorite Halloween candy and our most favorite Halloween candy. Will you agree or disagree? Only one way to find out....
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Hetty McKinnon is one of the most prolific food writers out there. She's the author of four bestselling cookbooks, including her most recent, TO ASIA, WITH LOVE. She also creates recipes for The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Delicious, Food52... the list goes on and on. In today's session, Hetty and I fly right out of the gate with a conversation about "authenticity" as an anachronistic word, how far she feels she can stray from her family's recipes, and how far she can stray from MY concept of what should go on a bagel. (It gets very intense, but in a fun playful way.) We also cover Australia as an influence on her cuisine, what she thinks about when she thinks about "home," and what it was like living through the pandemic in New York with three children.
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My patient this week, Vallery Lomas, has been through a lot! The winner of the first season of The Great American Baking Show -- and the first black winner of the entire Baking Show franchise -- Vallery never had her victory air on TV because the show got cancelled after one of the judges was accused of sexual harassment. Vallery had the last laugh, though; she sold a baking book, Life Is What You Bake It, that's out now in stores and it's winning raves... Publisher's Weekly called it "an inspiring collection" and I've been telling everyone I know to buy it. In today's session, Vallery walks us through the entire Baking Show experience: what it was like cooking in England (metric system!), how it felt getting judged by Paul Hollywood, and what her emotions were like when she found out the show was cancelled. We also cover her childhood in Louisiana, how she transitioned from the law to a career in food (just like me), and how she goes about developing a recipe.
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For this week's bonus episode, I asked my Instagram followers to ask me questions that I could answer in a Q&A. How do you cook a duck breast? Does buttermilk really tenderize meat? What's the most overrated food trend right now? And what do I think of this season of The Great British Bake-Off? Find out in this week's episode and if you'd like to submit a question, give me a follow on Instagram (@amateurgourmet) or send a question to lunchtherapist@gmail.com.
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One of my all-time favorite cookbooks has always been The Gift of Southern Cooking, co-written by the iconic and legendary Edna Lewis -- who blazed the trail for black chefs everywhere with her cooking and her writing -- and my patient today, her friend and colleague, James Beard award-winning chef, Scott Peacock. It was such a thrill to get to talk to Chef Peacock about his time with Ms. Lewis (as he calls her), to hear how she impacted his life, helped him embrace his Southern roots, and taught him about the importance of quiet in the kitchen. We go deep about Scott's original ambivalence about the South, how it was tied to his grandmother's poverty, his sense of shame, and how all of that changed after that first meeting with Ms. Lewis over coffee at Dean & Deluca in New York.
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In this very special Thursday episode of Lunch Therapy, my parents -- Heidi and Bradley Roberts -- talk about how they lost sixty pounds each (!!) during the pandemic. Hear all about what they ate, how they exercised, how they stayed the course, how they rewarded themselves on the weekends, and how they got back on the horse when they slipped. I found it inspiring, maybe you will too!
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John deBary is the author of DRINK WHAT YOU WANT, a mixology book that demystifies the art of creating cocktails at home, a skillset that John perfected first as a bartender at New York's legendary PDT and then for nine years as bar director for the Momofuku group. In today's session, we talk to John about washing lettuce, serving others. vs himself, being "a courtly bartender," performance anxiety, and studying drinks on flashcards. We also talk about the first successful cocktail that he invented at PDT (The Norman Inversion), the elements of a cocktail, rhubarb Amaro, how he chooses a drink at a restaurant, and raising $7 million for restaurant workers during the pandemic.
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It's apple pie season... but what if you don't know how to make an apple pie? Let me be your apple pie therapist and walk you through it. There are lots of things to think about: butter vs. shortening, food processor vs. fingers, Granny Smith vs. an assortment of apples. In this session, I walk you through the entire process: from keeping your butter cold (I say that a lot), to peeling your apples, to rolling out your pie dough, to getting it beautifully brown in the oven. Take it from me, a former pie wimp... if I can make a gorgeous apple pie, so can you.
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Chelsea Peretti is a comedian, writer, actress (she played Gina Linetti on Brooklyn 99) and she's our patient this week on Lunch Therapy. in today's session, Chelsea talks about her dad's cooking, whether she's an extrovert or introvert, her issues with fish skin, her mom's tart and tangy salad dressing, and why she loves artichokes. We also talk about looking for something spiritual when hunting for food, an actor she once met who ate a cup of broccoli on their birthday, how she got into stand-up comedy, where she likes to eat on the road, and whether or not I could kill a cow.
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In this very special bonus episode of Lunch Therapy, I dig into one of my favorite topics: dinner parties. I've been throwing dinner parties forever and here I walk you through my most recent, a birthday dinner for three of my closest friends. How did I plan the menu? How did I approach the grocery store? When did I start cooking? How did I deal with dishes? How did I know how much food to make? What did I listen to in the kitchen? Hear all of these questions answered, and more, in this solo session. And if you have more questions about dinner parties, feel free to ask them: shoot me an e-mail at lunchtherapist@gmail.com (it's best if you record the question as a voice memo so I can use it in an upcoming episode!).
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Zach Schiffman is a 25 year-old stand-up comedian in Brooklyn who's worked for Full Frontal with Sam Bee and currently works for Tooning Out the News. In today's session, we talk about the foods that Gen Z-ers eat, Zach's fear of knives, the Jewy food that his mom makes, and his love for dessert. We also cover the courage it takes to do stand-up comedy, feeling more Jewish than gay, his dad's obsession with pocket knives, and his talk show-themed Bar Mitzvah.
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Bonus episode alert! Recent Lunch Therapy patient Ben Mandelker and I went to dinner together this week at a new L.A. restaurant called Bari and, in this bonus episode, we walk through our meal course by course to render a verdict. We also cover topics such as: restaurant tops and bottoms, breaking the fast, how much to drink at dinner, how to pronounce fagiolini, digestifs, and our true feelings about wax beans. If you'd like to be featured in a future bonus episode, send me a food-related question via voice memo to lunchtherapist@gmail.com. I'd love to answer your questions!
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Food blogger and cookbook author Jenny Rosenstrach (Dinner: A Love Story, Dinner: The Playbook, How to Celebrate Everything) has a brand new cookbook out, The Weekday Vegetarians, which just hit #3 on the NYT bestseller list. In today's session, we talk about being a three-day empty nester (her youngest daughter just went off to college), how she goes about writing a cookbook, what she's been eating since her theree kids went to school, and how she and her husband negotiate who cooks what. We also get into setting boundaries in terms of how much she shares online, her Jewish and Italian roots, and how she's been taking pictures of her food since the early nineties.
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Today's Lunch Therapy patient is my friend Ben Mandelker, the co-host of one of the most popular podcasts out there: WATCH WHAT CRAPPENS, a pod that dissects nearly every detail of every show that airs on Bravo. In today's session, we talk to Ben about Jill Zarin (my favorite Housewife), how Giada DeLaurentis got him into cooking, the link between eating crappy food and watching crappy TV, and putting pepperoni into pasta. We also cover how being gay makes you want to be the golden child, his inability to eat berries or stone fruit, the worst matzah ball soup he ever made, and where we all stand on Alison Roman.
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If there were a Mount Rushmore of food bloggers, Molly Wizenberg would definitely be on it. Her food blog, Orangette, was pioneering in the way that she fused together personal storytelling, atmospheric pictures, and recipe-writing (it won the James Beard Award in 2015 for Best Food Blog). Since then Molly's written three books -- A Homemade Life, Delancey, and her most recent, The Fixed Stars (now in paperback) -- as well as co-hosted the podcast, Spilled Milk, which is now in its eleventh years. In today's Lunch Therapy session, Molly talks about getting burned out with food writing, how she parents her daughter, June, food-wise, and what it was like to open up a restaurant without being emotionally equipped to do it. We also talk about the ethics of personal storytelling, what she considers oversharing, and what she teaches her students in her writing workshops.
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Lisa Donovan is the James Beard award-winning author of "Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger," a widely celebrated memoir about her time in the restaurant industry. She's also equally acclaimed for her baking: food critic Bill Addison has called her "one of the South's best pastry chefs" for her work at City House, Margot Cafe & Bar, and Husk, where she was famous for her buttermilk chess pie. In today's session, we hear all about her writing sabbatical in New Orleans, the difference between pleasing people and taking care of them, how her two kids represent the two sides of herself, and how Austrian pastries influenced her trajectory. We also talk about her recent diagnosis of Celiac, trying to remember how to be in love with food, developing her voice in cooking, where to eat in Nashville, and how she actually doesn't like desserts that much.
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Tara O'Brady is the multitalented food journalist (Saveur, Jamie Oliver, Bon Appetit) and cookbook author (Seven Spoons) who lives in Ottawa, Canada with her husband and two children. In today's session, we talk all about differentiating herself from her parents' cooking, the dish that she would make to best represent her, what she wants for her kids food-wise (it involves Pop-Tarts), and mixing work and normal life. We also get into the systematic racism she encountered after publishing her first cookbook, how that's stopped her from writing the next one, and how things have changed enough to maybe make her reconsider.
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Jake Cohen is such a nice Jewish boy, my mom wishes I could be more like him! He's the author of the NYT bestselling cookbook Jew-ish, he's got hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram, and Katie Couric loves his matzoh ball soup. In today's session, we talk all about body image, being chubby as a kid, staying in shape, his Bar Mitzvah theme, and the purpose of ritual regardless of belief. We also talk coming out to himself, going to the Culinary Institute of America, marrying a Persian Jew, and how he's coined the phrase Hot Soup Summer.
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Today's a watershed day on Lunch Therapy: we have our first couple! Byron Lane and Steven Rowley are both published authors; Byron's the author of A Star is Bored (now in paperback) all about his time working as Carrie Fisher's assistant. (It's a great read... I just finished it.) And Steven Rowley is the author of three widely-acclaimed novels: Lily and the Octopus, The Editor, and his newest, now in bookstores, The Guncle. In today's session, we talk about being on separate food journeys as a couple, who does the dishes, moving to Palm Springs, Byron's travels with Carrie Fisher, and hiding food around the house. We also talk about Byron's recent bout with cancer, how that changed his diet, getting married during quarantine, avoiding lectins, what are lectins?, and what they'd serve each other for their dream meals.
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Kishori Rajan is the producer of such shows as HBO's Random Acts of Flyness and Eater's Guide to the World and is currently the vice president of development and production for Tessa Thompson's production company, Viva Maude. In today's episode, Kishori talks about her mother's amazing cooking, how she can't quite master it herself, how she likes to cook for a dinner party, and how she overcomes disaster (like the time she dropped an entire Basque cheesecake on the floor). We also cover producing food television, the qualities of a good producer, whether or not she's a perfectionist, the Supper Club she does with her friends, and the early days of food blogging.
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My patient today, Steve Sando, is the man behind everyone's favorite heirloom bean company, Rancho Gordo, which got many of us through the pandemic with their jewel-like bean offerings. In today's session, Steve talks about, well, beans: how to cook them, when to salt them, why they make so many of us so gassy. We also get personal, talking about Steve's childhood in Sausalito, his dad's diving for abalone, feeling like an outsider, his trips to Mexico, being bad with money, starting a business, and raising his own sons around the dinner table.
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Kristin Johnson (no, not Kristen Johnston from 3rd Rock from the Sun) is a delightful, whip-smart therapist-in-training who lives in Bellingham, Washington and happens to be my sister-in-law and this week's lunch therapy patient. In our session, Kristin talks about why she wanted to come on the podcast, cooking for her parents, her theory about why people are obsessed with their food choices, and how she almost made me cry arguing about vegetarianism. We also cover char on pizza, beheading a chicken, catching and eating Dungeness crabs in the San Juan Islands, and her second dinners.
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Today's patient, Mayukh Sen, is something of a wunderkind in the food world. At 29, he's the winner of a James Beard award for best profile, the author of the upcoming book "Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America," and a professor at NYU (!!), plus he writes about film for outlets like The Atlantic, Film Comment, and the Criterion Collection. In today's session, Mayukh reveals that he came into the food world by accident, why he prefers writing about other people to writing about himself, his anxiety about food poisoning, and his annoyance with the idea that going to a certain restaurant confers on you a special status. He also opens up about spending time with his mother during quarantine, how she cooked him three meals a day, his recent sobriety, losing his father just before winning the James Beard award, and how grateful he is to his parents for allowing him to fulfill his professional dreams.
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Colu Henry is a hugely accomplished food writer, with articles in The New York Times and Wine Spectator, and a beloved cookbook that's right up my alley: Back Pocket Pasta. In today's episode, we learn all about Colu's background as a cabaret performer, her transition into food writing, working for chefs like Scott Conant and Marcus Samuelsson, and growing up with an Italian grandmother. We also cover ego and selflessness in cooking, how to read a wine bottle, people-pleasing, and -- as a special treat -- she even sings a little.
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Noah Galvin is a star of stage and screen. You may have seen him on Broadway in Dear Evan Hansen or Waitress, or maybe you know him from his stints on ABC's The Real O'Neals (where I was a writer for two seasons) or, his newest gig, The Good Doctor. In today's session, Noah talks all about cooking Thanksgiving in a closet in Vancouver, growing up on tour as Gavroche in Les Miz, and how he balances his love of food and cooking with his life as an actor. We also talk about time that he spent cooking with his father, how he navigates time in the kitchen with his boyfriend, actor Ben Platt, and why refrigerated chicken is a no-no in a grilled chicken salad.
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Celia Sack is the owner of one of the most beloved and important cookbook stores in the country and maybe the world: Omnivore Books in San Francisco. In today's session, Celia talks about her childhood adventures digging through other people's stuff, eating a roast beef sandwich on the way to an animal rights rally, her background selling rare books (with a specialty in golf books), and coming out to her parents during the AIDS crisis. We also talk cookbooks: which cookbooks she would save if her store was on fire, which lesser-known cookbooks she recommends, and how she deals with the political fallout of some of the authors she carries in her store.
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There are very few people who don't love Cole Escola, whether it's from their viral videos or as Chassie on "Cooking at Home with Amy Sedaris" or as Chip on Season 3 of "Search Party." In today's Lunch Therapy session, we get into Cole's neuroses, which all began with an episode of Oprah about the germs on the top of a soda can. We cover protein powders, acid reflux, veganism, whether or not they ate a latke at my latke party, and sanitizing grocery items. We also cover their hatred for fish and broccoli stems, the funniest thing that Amy Sedaris ever did to them (it involves popcorn), Hamburger Helper, desserts, boyfriends, and Alicia Silverstone.
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One of my desert island cookbooks is The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook (based on recipes from the Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia), so imagine my delight that Cheryl Day -- who co-wrote it with her husband Griffith Day -- allowed me to analyze her lunch on this week's Lunch Therapy. Cheryl, a James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef and a cofounder of Southern Restaurants for Racial Justice, reveals that she's actually a Californian (!!), talks about moving to the South, her brushes with racism there, and how she manages to run a business with the person that she's married to. We also cover her mother's lemon meringue pie, how Southerners have a sweeter palate than Californians, what she looks for when she goes to a bakery, and the foods that she loathes the most (see: gizzards).
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Surprise! Here's another episode for you this week, featuring one of my best friends, Jonathan Parks-Ramage, author of a brand new novel that's out today called YES, DADDY. In today's episode, Jonathan shamelessly plugs his book (just kidding: I read it, and it's soooo good), talks about his time as a waiter in a gaystaurant, the notorious pork chop incident at the beginning of our friendship, and his people-pleasing instincts. I also ask some hard-hitting questions about not grating his own nutmeg, chickening out when it came to making my Caesar salad dressing, and how his scrambled eggs are ruining my marriage.
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Broti Gupta is way too accomplished for someone her age. Not only has she written for television (Speechless, Friends from College); she's also written for The New Yorker AND The New York Times. In today's lunch therapy session, we talk all about cooking for her boyfriend (and vice-versa), Mark Wahlberg's weird schedule, her mother teaching her recipes over FaceTime, and her need to please authority figures. We also cover Patti LuPone, growing up Indian in Kentucky, her love for cumin, cooking for her parents, and how hot it is in Southern India.
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Kate Berlant is one of the funniest comedians out there -- you've seen her in "Search Party," "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," "Sorry to Bother You" -- and she's the co-host of the hilarious podcast POOG. In today's session, we learn all about Kate's quarantine malaise, her dinner party anxieties, her linguine with clams, and where she sat in the school cafeteria. We also hear about her tendency to lean on yams, her recipe for a lycheetini, get a tour of her mother's kitchen, and how her screen name was almost CaperHottie.
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He's the quintessential New York food writer and he's here to talk about the quintessential New York Lunch. Ed Levine, the founder of Serious Eats and author of Serious Eater (as well as New York Eats and Pizza: A Slice of Heaven) opens up in today's session about losing his parents at a young age, how restaurants took on a familial role for him, how his parents' communism affected his food writing, and the way these formative experiences shaped his psychology and career later in life. We also talk about the future of food media, the best bagels and bialys, Katz's pastrami, our grandmothers' pickles, Nathan's, and how he roasts a chicken.
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Time Out New York once said of Isaac Oliver: "If David Sedaris and Fran Lebowitz had a baby who wrote about subways, theater patrons, and b*s, he might be a lot like Isaac Oliver." The author of the hilarious book of essays, Intimacy Idiot, artist-in-residence at Joe's Pub, and television writer (High Maintenance, GLOW) joins us this week and boy is he in need of some serious lunch therapy. Find out why Isaac eats lunch at 5 o'clock, how he likes to be bossed around by Ottolenghi recipes ("he's got me up to my elbows in harissa!"), why his parents helped him choose a porn to watch on Christmas (!), his relationship to Baltimore crabs, and why he's terrified of cooking for others.
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Soleil Ho is the James Beard award-nominated food critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and one of the most important voices currently working today in food. In today's Lunch Therapy session, we talk about reviewing restaurants during Covid, what's fair game and what isn't, the food that her mother made for her growing up in New York, how she channels her anxiety into writing, how Ruth Reichl helped her overcome her fears about publishing reviews, how she sees her job as an opportunity to correct chefs' bad behavior, and what she puts on her avocado toast.
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Tucker Shaw wears many hats: he's executive editor of Cook's Country Magazine, the former food critic for The Denver Post, the author of Everything I Ate, and, in a former life, a young adult novelist. In today's session, Tucker talks about his grandparents who were subsistence farmers in Maine, how he's coping in quarantine living above a Russian grocery, cooking from books in junior high school, and the night he saw me at Marie's Crisis. We also cover him getting tapped to be a professional food critic, how scary it was to write his first review, educating himself on wine lists (etc.), and moving to Boston to start work at America's Test Kitchen.
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Karina Longworth is the creator and host of one of the most popular and beloved podcasts out there, "You Must Remember This," which focuses on the secret and forgotten history of early twentieth-century Hollywood. In today's session, Karina talks about growing up in Studio City in the 1980s, her obsession with old movies from a young age, her mother cooking her way through Bon Appetit Magazine, taking over the cooking duties after her mother's death, and trying to recreate the chocolate mousse pie from the December 1981 edition. We also cover bodies as commodities in Hollywood, going to art school, going to premieres with her husband, Knives Out & Star Wars director Rian Johnson, her love for soup and soft foods, and what Jay-Z and Beyonce ate at the Chateau Marmont.
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Marco Canora is a true superstar chef: he's a James Beard Award winner (Best Chef New York), a celebrated cookbook author ("Salt To Taste," "A Good Food Day"), the chef/owner of one of New York's best restaurants, Hearth, and purveyor of the best broth in the country with his company Brodo. On Today's Lunch Therapy, we talk about his Tuscan mother's cooking, learning through osmosis, why real-world experience is more important than culinary school, and his early job making prepared foods at Dean & Deluca in SoHo. Then we talk the early days of Gramercy Tavern with Tom Colicchio, helping to open Craft (where the kitchen saw heavy-hitters like David Chang and Damon Wise), having his fish reviewed in The New York Times by Ruth Reichl, going out on his own to open his own restaurant, and how Hearth's identity continues to change with the times. PLUS: my friend Jonathan Parks-Ramage talks about learning how to cook in the Corona crisis during today's intro.
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Molly Stevens has always been one of my favorite cookbook authors. Her cookbook "All About Braising" remains a desert island disc for me (that's a reference to another podcast) and her new cookbook "All About Dinner" is full of the kinds of recipes everyone should be making now to comfort themselves and their families. With mandatory social distancing, I was super disappointed that Molly's book tour was postponed and that she wouldn't be able to come to Lunch Therapy headquarters in person; but then I hit upon an idea: what if we used FaceTime? So in today's first-ever FaceTime Lunch Therapy session, Molly and I talk about her growing up in Buffalo, being the third of four children, seeking solace in the kitchen, her love for technique, and how she wound up in Vermont. We also cover her literary ambitions, how a food career crept up on her, working at Anne Willan's cooking school in France, realizing that a career in food could be meaningful, and how she got into publishing her own cookbooks. PLUS: as a bonus, my parents make a cameo from Boca in today's intro.
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Bricia Lopez is the co-owner of Guelaguetza, one of L.A.'s most beloved Oaxacan restaurants (a favorite of the late, Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer, Jonathan Gold) and the co-author of Oaxaca: Home Cooking from the Heart of Mexico. In today's session (recorded two weeks ago, before mandatory social distancing), Lopez talks about growing up in a restaurant, her family's journey from Oaxaca to L.A., sharing a single bedroom in her aunt's house with six of her family members (her parents and her three siblings), and why that was ultimately a positive experience. We also cover her obsession with Saved By The Bell and Full House, meeting Mario Lopez in real life, not being allowed to get sick as a kid, how McDonald's was the ultimate status symbol, and why yellow mole holds a special place in her heart.
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"Fergus Henderson is the most influential chef of the last two decades, even though you have likely never heard of him." That's a quote from the late Anthony Bourdain and it helps put into perspective the craziness of today's episode of Lunch Therapy: one of the world's greatest chefs, Fergus Henderson, and his business partner, Trevor Gulliver, came to my apartment and let me ask them about their lunch. Our conversation runs the gambit from why Fergus loves offal ("I was drawn into a world of innards and extremities"), what Trevor thinks of natural wine, the link between Fergus's father being an architect and the architecture of the dishes he serves at St. John in London. We also talk about Fergus's Parkinsons diagnosis in 1997, the sense of loss in having to leave the kitchen, how his marriage works with his wife, Margo Henderson (also a celebrated chef), how he feels about their son becoming a chef, and whether or not he and Trevor are opening a restaurant in L.A. As a lunch therapist, I should apologize for one aspect of this conversation: booze may have been imbibed during the recording of this podcast. To my colleagues in the lunch therapy community, my humblest apologies. burp
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Esther Tseng is a food writer in L.A. -- she writes for The L.A. Times, Food & Wine, Eater -- with a surprising secret: she works a normal nine-to-five job in retail finance. In today's session, we talk about her childhood in New Berlin, Wisconsin, her parents moving here from Taiwan, the Taiwanese food that her mother made at home (including delicious-sounding Bah Tzang), her being embarrassed by her father's accent, and how she attempted to assimilate by going to UCLA... only to find that she didn't fit in with the Asian community there. We also cover the realties of supporting yourself as a food writer, the ethics of taking free trips, getting mugged on the way to the farmer's market (!), and her favorite restaurants in L.A.
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It's not every day that a rock star becomes a therapist and then eats lunch and comes on a podcast to analyze it, but that's precisely what happens in today's episode of Lunch Therapy with former Grizzly Bear front man, Ed Droste. Learn why Ed decided to give up the not-so-glamorous life of a musician, the kind of food he ate on the road, how he dealt with reviews and Tweets, how he got over his stage fright, and the role therapy played in his life. We also talk about Ed's parents' adventurous eating, loving lobster but hating the juicy explosions, how he makes a salad, Postematesing from Sqirl, his obsession with candles, and how his neighbor roasts a chicken.
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I'm pinching myself, because Ruth Reichl -- former editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine, author of countless books (including "Tender at the Bone," "Comfort Me with Apples," "Garlic and Sapphires," and "Save Me The Plums), and the former food critic for both the L.A. Times and The New York Times -- is my patient today on Lunch Therapy. We cover her childhood in Greenwich Village, growing up with a mentally ill mother, learning to cook as a means of survival, and her resistance to being taken care of as an adult and how that informed her job as a restaurant critic. We also cover the role of criticism in general, why Alice Waters is such a polarizing figure, the heightened nature of her stories, knowing MFK Fisher and James Beard, and where she likes to eat in L.A.
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Jen Agg has been called "the most influential restaurateur in Toronto" -- she currently owns Grey Gardens, Rhum Corner, Le Swan, and Bar Vendetta -- and her book, "I Hear She's A Real B***h," was praised by Anthony Bourdain as: "A terrific, beautifully written, frank, and funny memoir." During today's session, Jen talks about her attention to detail, dealing with prickly customers, what it felt like publishing such a confessional memoir, and her ambition to open the best restaurant in Toronto. We also cover her unattainable standards, the food scene in Toronto, serving horse (!!), the secret to her tomato sauce, and whether or not she'd hire me as a server.
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As The Carpetbagger for The New York Times, Kyle Buchanan covers the awards season with profiles of nominated actors (including recent ones of Brad Pitt, Adam Driver, and Renée Zellweger) and in-depth analysis of the movie industry's biggest nights. He also happens to be our neighbor (our dogs are best friends) and in today's session, Kyle makes himself vulnerable in a way he never has before: by talking about food. We talk about his favorite foods as a kid, saying a prayer for the lamb before eating lamb chops, why he thinks his relationship to food is "deranged," and his aversion to vegetables. We also cover his favorite food movies, ordering a Seamless Sizzler steak, the relationship between food and "self-care," and the solitariness of cooking just for yourself.
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Nik Sharma is the award-winning author of the cookbook "Season," the creator of the pioneering food blog A Brown Table, and a regular recipe columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. In today's session, Nik talks about his recent move to L.A., how the food scene here compares to the food scene in San Francisco, growing up in India, his early interest in science, how science impacts his cooking, and why he detests turnips. We also talk about his coming out, how it was a criminal offense to be gay in India, his family's reaction, his moving to the States to go to grad school, and how and why he quit his PhD program to become a food writer.
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Turn on your TV and there's a good chance you'll see Barrett Foa: he's been playing Eric Beale on NCIS: Los Angeles for eleven years. In addition to that, Barrett's been on Broadway (Avenue Q! Spelling Bee!) and he most recently played Prior Walter in Angels in America at the St. Louis Rep. In today's session, Barrett describes "The Foa Philosophy," talks about growing up in New York City, learning etiquette at fancy restaurants, his pet peeves on dates, and why it wasn't such a stretch for him to enjoy Burning Man. We also talk about him losing his mom four years ago, her own involvement in the food world (she's in the Le Cirque documentary), bulking up and losing weight for various parts, why he enjoys planning trips, and whether or not this podcast will get him a boyfriend.
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Susan Feniger is a force to be reckoned with in the food world. Along with her business partner Mary Sue Milliken, Feniger has received countless awards (including the prestigious Julia Child Award and the Jonathan Gold Award), opened several legendary restaurants (including The Border Grill), co-hosted one of the first Food Network shows (Too Hot Tamales), appeared on Top Chef Masters, and authored countless cookbooks. I'm so thrilled to have her as my patient on today's Lunch Therapy and our-hour session covers her early years in Ohio, her mother's midwestern Jewish cooking, her living in a teepee that she sewed for herself in Vermont, meeting her first husband there, realizing she was gay, separating from him and then setting him up with her business partner (Mary Sue) who's still married to him today (!!!). We talk about working for Wolfgang Puck at Ma Maison (where she'd see Orson Welles on the regular), working for a closeted gay chef in Chicago, working at a Michelin three-star restaurant in La Napoule, France (where she learned a killer salad dressing), and how she began to gravitate to Indian food and Mexican food through her travels. We also cover her brand new restaurant, Socalo, where she works the line (sometimes fifteen hours a day) and still finds the time to do meaningful charity work (she's helped raise $48 million dollars for scleroderma research).
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Buckle your seatbelts: for the first Lunch Therapy recorded in 2020, I decided to switch things around with an actual psychologist, Dr. Deanie Eichenstein, who puts my lunch under the microscope. Learn all about my pre-med years and my decision to go to law school, how I got from there to being a writer (meeting Craig in the process), and how choosing my lunch is often a question of shifting identities. We also cover how smell plays an important role for me, my fear of pooping in coffee shops, and how my people-pleasing instincts make it difficult not to go overboard at dinner parties.
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You may remember Luke Matheny from the 2011 Academy Awards, when he won for Best Live Action Short and said: "Uh, I should've gotten a haircut." Since then, Luke's gone on to direct ten episodes of Marc Maron's Maron and to be the showrunner of Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street. Today's session is a surprisingly emotional one: we cover the night of the Oscars, why he thinks cheesesteaks are the most delicious of all meals, his relationship to authority, rushing his son to the emergency room after giving him peanut butter. We also talk about why you need rules before you can improvise (in both burgers and filmmaking), his love of pancakes as a kid, why he smiles big when he talks about sweet food, his grandmother's Pennsylvania Dutch Pot Pie, and learning that the person who he thought was his grandfather wasn't really his grandfather.
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Ben Mims is a cooking columnist for the L.A. Times, a cookbook author (Air Fry Every Day), the former Test Kitchen Director of Lucky Peach magazine, and a former food editor at both Saveur and Food & Wine. In today's session, we cover Ben's childhood in Mississippi, his unwillingness to mix sweet and savory, why he loathes lettuce, and how he went to culinary school to become a food writer. We also discuss the link between his coming out and his distaste for pork tenderloin, the hazing he endured at Jean-Georges and Perry Street, whether or not he has OCD, and how he comes up with his recipes.
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Rachel Shukert is one of the funniest writers I know -- she's written books, plays, recaps of Smash for Vulture -- and now she's an accomplished TV writer, having worked on shows like GLOW and the upcoming Babysitter's Club, for which she was the showrunner. Today's session (which came after her real therapy session) covers Rachel's ambivalence towards cooking, her butcher grandfather and vegetarian parents, her two year-old's attitude towards food ("Eating, yuck!"), and what it was like growing up Jewish in Omaha, Nebraska. We also talk about her eating disorder in college, how meat helped her overcome it, what she craved when she was pregnant (a sandwich from DaVinci's in Lincoln), her Lithuanian grandmother, and how she makes her savory kugel.
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Zach Brooks is the founder of Midtown Lunch, an iconic food blog that helped people working in midtown Manhattan find a decent place to eat back in the early aughts. Since then, he's hosted the super successful podcast "Food is the New Rock" and become the general manager of Smorgasburg L.A. During today's session, we find out why asking about his lunch is "too dark," what the meal was that inspired him to start his blog, and why he thinks the late, great Jonathan Gold hated him. We also cover "authenticity," his parents' divorce, cooking for his children, and why L.A. beats New York as the better lunch city.
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Punam Patel is the Emmy-nominated co-star of Netflix's "Special" -- she's also appeared on "Kevin From Work" and "I Feel Bad" -- and on today's Lunch Therapy she declares, right out of the gate: "I am food." Hear all about her two-part lunch (three-part, if you include the apple cider doughnut), her trip to Spain, her exercise lunches vs. her no-exercise lunches, and her dad's famous meat curry that she can no longer eat (she's a pescatarian). We also talk about her dieting up through her thirties, arbitrary standards of beauty, what it's like dealing with that in Hollywood, and what it means to be a Brown Butter Jew (will somebody make the t-shirt?).
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James Rich grew up on a cider farm in Somerset, England, so it shouldn't be a surprise that he just wrote a cookbook called "Apple: Recipes from the Orchard." In today's session, James talks about getting engaged to his fiancé Pip in Palm Springs, how Yotam Ottolenghi was involved in their initial meeting, and why he's not eligible to go on The Great British Baking Show. We also get into the various breeds of apples, how cider is actually made, leaving Somerset for Barcelona and London, and how his feelings have changed regarding where he's from.
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Karley Sciortino is the hilarious creator of the blog Slutever, which is now a TV show in its second season on Vice; she's also the sex and dating columnist for Vogue Magazine. On today's episode, we talk about the relationship between food and sex, how Karley differentiated from her food-loving family, and the journey she's gone on with her body image (it involves TJ Maxx and TCBY). We also cover her time living as a freegan in a London squat, why she refuses to eat tongue, and the most surprising thing she's encountered involving food and sex (it made me fall out of my chair laughing).
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Remember the name Lewaa Nasserdeen: if he’s not running Hollywood in ten years, I’ll tear up my lunch therapy license! I met Lewaa when we were both staff writers on ABC’s The Real O’Neals and since then he’s been a writer/co-producer on Netflix’s Daredevil, starred in his own pilot, acted on NCIS: New Orleans, and gotten an overall deal at Skydance TV (where’s he developing all kinds of original content). In today’s session, we talk about growing up Lebanese in Alberta, Canada, where his mother — a professional pastry chef — showed love through food and the ripple effects that had for Lewaa later in life. We get into body image, developing a sense of humor as a defense mechanism, the first time he brought a boyfriend to his mother’s house for dinner, and why he wouldn’t dare try to recreate his mother’s food in his own kitchen.
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You've been smitten with her since the early 2000s, and today Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen is my patient on Lunch Therapy. We talk everything from her efforts to recreate the brown bread she ate in Ireland, whether or not she's the heir to Ina Garten, and how her German-Jewish mother found salt and pepper to be "edgy." We also cover her brief career as an art therapist, what it means to have a food blog in 2019, and how she deals with people feeling like they know her.
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Mark Harris is the celebrated author of Pictures at the Revolution and Five Came Back, as well as a journalist for The New York Times, The Guardian, and Vanity Fair (for which he's covering the Oscars this year). In today's session, Mark talks about whether great food can rise to the level of great art, the truth about his typical day-to-day lunch journey, his favorite cookbooks, his favorite recipes, and how he and his husband (Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner) offer feedback when the other one cooks. Mark also waxes lyrical on his love for sandwiches -- sandwiches that know no bounds (Chinese food on a sandwich!) -- as well as the elements that truly make a sandwich great.
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Melissa Clark is one of the most prolific food writers working today: she's the author of 43 cookbooks, as well as a weekly columnist for The New York Times AND a new podcast host ("Weeknight Kitchen with Melissa Clark"). She also turns out to be the perfect Lunch Therapy guest because both of her parents are psychiatrists. During today's session, we talk about how she comes up with a recipe, how she empowers people to have "personal responsibility in cooking," how she deals with criticism online (including for the famous pea-guacamole, denounced by TWO presidents, that wasn't even her recipe). We also go deep on how she used cooking to get her parents' attention, how she cultivated her voice as a writer, what she gets out of reading Proust, and whether or not baking brownies made her popular in high school.
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The man, the myth, the legend: David Lebovitz himself is this week's Lunch Therapy patient! The author of The Sweet Life in Paris, L'Appart, My Paris Kitchen, and The Perfect Scoop, David generously met with me when I was in New York and filled in the blanks about his life before he moved to France: his childhood in Connecticut, his years as a film student at Ithica (making doorknob slasher films), working at the Cabbagetown Cafe, traveling through Europe, and arriving in San Francisco just as it was becoming America's most exciting food city. Learn how he charmed Alice Waters during his interview, how he got lured into the world of pastry, and how he finds balance both in his cooking and in his life.
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Christine Vachon is one of the most celebrated producers in the world of film and if I told you some of the movies she's made, your head would spin: Carol, Still Alice, Far From Heaven, Happiness, Velvet Goldmine, Kids, Boys Don't Cry, I Shot Andy Warhol, Craig's favorite movie ("Safe" by Todd Haynes) and one of my favorite movies ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch" by John Cameron Mitchell). On today's podcast, find out what she eats for lunch, what she considers the cinematic equivalent of a chicken Caesar salad, what she cooks for her family, and how she deals with the food Nazis at her daughter's school. We also cover her favorite food films (not what you'd guess!), her favorite food city in the world (spoiler: it's San Sebastian), and why one of the worst nights of her life was dinner at Blue Hill Stone Barns.
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In 2008, The New York Times named Jeremy Fox's restaurant Ubuntu (in the Napa Valley) the second best restaurant in the United States. On today's Lunch Therapy, you'll learn how the pressure of that led Fox to leave the restaurant, re-examine his life, and to start all over again in Los Angeles, where he now runs three restaurants: Rustic Canyon (where my husband and I got engaged!), Tallulah's, and the newly opened Birdie G's. We also cover how he comes up with his novel food ideas (see: white chocolate and peas), reading Yelp, why explaining food to people is like explaining a joke, which foods he hates, and why folding towels is a key skill if you're working in his kitchen.
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Batten down the hatches: today's Lunch Therapy guest is none other than... my mother! Yes, Heidi Roberts is visiting from Boca Raton, Florida and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to put her in the Lunch Therapy chair. We talk everything from cruises to diners to Weight Watchers to selling pickles with her mother at the Roosevelt Field Flea Market. We also get into more emotional territory towards the end (though we did have some technical difficulties; don't worry, you can still hear everything). So crack open those Sweet n' Low packets and enjoy today's session with my mom.
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If I told you that there's a person who's not only written for 30 Rock, but also for The Comeback and The Larry Sanders Show, you'd say: "Such a person couldn't exist! Those are three of the greatest comedies of all time." Well such a person DOES exist and his name is John Riggi. In today's session, John talks about his mother's Italian restaurant in Cincinnati, Ohio, the link between comedy writing and cooking, feeding the 30 Rock writer's room on the Chopped set, connecting with his Italian roots, and recreating his mother's tortellini by touch. We also cover negotiations with spouses over dinner, similarities between Italians and Jews when it comes to meals, and, finally, how Italians eat pasta all the time without getting fat.
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Marquita Robinson is a super successful TV writer working in L.A. (Blackish, GLOW, You're The Worst) and in today's session we journey back with her to her childhood on an Air Force base in Okinawa, Japan. We talk everything from You've Got Mail ("That caviar is a garnish!"), switching from Morton's to Diamond Crystal, her parents' love for Teriyaki sauce, the family's move to the Azores, Taco Rice, and what it's like to experience America America for the first time. Also: I make a joke so bad, Winston throws up.
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Bill Addison is the James Beard award-winning food critic for the Los Angeles Times and, in today's session, we go deep into his past, Ratatouille-style, and learn about his formative restaurant experiences (he still remembers the name of the waiter!), his obsession with Lebanese food, his capacity for self-criticism, and his mother's potato rolls. We also talk about his writing technique, L.A. as the greatest food city in America, and why he gets so mad when a restaurant sends over a free dish.
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Carey O'Donnell is a comedy writer for TV (Billy On The Street, Heathers, Summer Camp Island) and a hilarious presence on Twitter (@ecareyo), where he brilliantly satirizes popular culture. Today's session starts lightly enough: we talk about his artist boyfriend, the Parmesan soup they eat together, growing up a swimmer, outside Philadelphia, with his mom cooking him breakfast at 4 AM. Then we get deep: talking about his struggles with addiction, his recovery, and how the whole journey may have been foreshadowed by an encounter with a blueberry pie.
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The author of Dappled: Baking Recipes for Fruit Lovers, and the four-time blue-ribbon winner of KCRW's Good Food Pie Contest, comes to Lunch Therapy headquarters on the heels of announcing her departure from the bakery she founded, Fiona. We get into the emotions of that -- at the time of her lunch therapy session, the news hadn't gone public yet -- and then we explore the path she took to become a celebrated baker (not, as she points out, a pastry chef). We also cover baloney burritos, the walnut tree in my backyard (!), and fake vegetarianism.
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The actor (Atypical, Murphy Brown, Alex Strangelove) and stand-up comedian (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) reports on his lunch with surprising specificity, confesses to his nickname growing up ("Picky Nicky"), sings the praises of his mother's Indian cooking, and revisits the period when he gave it all up for Lunchables.
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The co-showrunner of HBO’s Girls confesses her true feelings about eating lunch, weighs her reasons for weighing burgers, menu-plans her upcoming nuptials based on the food at her favorite restaurant, and turns the tables on her lunch therapist, advising him on how to loosen up in order to throw the perfect Sunday afternoon dinner gathering.
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The Emmy-nominated star and creator of Netflix's Specialwalks us through his salad at Sweetgreen and along the way revisits traumatic lunches from childhood (room temp Taco Bell), Zagat adventures with his dad, and what he'd order if he could have any lunch in the world.
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