Special Sauce with Ed Levine
Episodes
Call Special Sauce: Ed and Kenji Take Your Thanksgiving Questions
18 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's episode of Special Sauce, Kenji and I field our listeners' call-in questions, and tackle the pressing concerns that plague Thanksgiving...
Ruth Reichl on the Birth of a Food Revolution
11 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
If you've ever read one of Ruth Reichl's restaurant reviews, let alone one of her books, then you know what a wonderful, natural storyteller she is....
How Rob Kaufelt Built Murray's Cheese From the Rind Up
04 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I like to call this week's Special Sauce guest, Rob Kaufelt, the cheese whisperer. Finding and selling great cheese seems to be what Rob was put on t...
Einat Admony: From RV Park Chef to Budding Falafel Magnate
28 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The background of this week's guest on Special Sauce—chef, restaurateur, and aspiring falafel magnate Einat Admony—isn't that of your typical chef...
Lidia Bastianich: From Refugee to Culinary Star
21 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Considering her many restaurants, books, and television shows, plus her involvement in the gourmet Italian marketplace Eataly, Lidia Bastianich ...
Serious Eats Culinary Director Daniel Gritzer Sings for His Supper
14 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Gritzer, Serious Eats' culinary director, is in many ways our not-so-secret weapon. To learn more about the surprisingly nonlinear career path ...
Alex Guarnaschelli on Cooking for Beyoncé, Jay Z, and Prince
07 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This week's guest on Special Sauce, Alex Guarnaschelli, is constantly juggling the roles of TV chef (she's a regular judge on Chopped), working chef (...
Jane and Michael Stern on the Origins of Roadfood
30 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Serious eaters who have been around awhile, like me, know that the idea of driving across America in search of the best regional food originated with ...
Paulie Gee on the Fear and Joy of Quitting Your Day Job
23 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Pizza lovers know Paulie Gee, a.k.a. Paul Giannone, this week's Special Sauce guest, as the owner of the eponymous pizzeria founded in Greenpoint, Br...
Call Special Sauce: "Taste Is Fabricated In Our Brain"
16 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In our latest call-in episode of Special Sauce, Kenji and Ed address listener concerns over how to rebuild a pantry and how a food’s appearance affe...
Kenji and Ed Tackle Listener Questions of Authenticity and More
09 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this third episode of Call Special Sauce, Kenji and Ed wrestle with tricky questions from Serious Eaters on food allergies, electric stovetops, and...
Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman on Why Failure Is the Key to Success
01 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The arts of making French charcuterie and its Italian cousin, salumi, are two of the highest forms of the craft of cooking. So when I heard that chef ...
Dinosaur BBQ's John Stage on His Unlikely Path to Pitmaster
25 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
On this week's Special Sauce, John Stage, founder of the insanely popular barbecue mini-chain Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, reveals the unusual way he discovere...
Pastry Wizard Stella Parks (BraveTart) on Iconic American Desserts
19 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Serious Eats' pastry expert, Stella Parks, a.k.a. BraveTart, is so disarmingly charming as our guest on Special Sauce, you'll undoubtedly fall in love...
Danny Meyer Tells the Shake Shack Origin Story
11 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In the middle of part 2 of Danny Meyer's interview on Special Sauce comes a shocking admission. In 2001 the first incarnation of the enterprise that b...
Danny Meyer Talks Hospitality and Comfort Food
04 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's episode of Special Sauce-the first of two parts-we talk about how Meyer came to see the pursuit of restaurant-experience perfection as ...
How Roy Choi Plans to Change the World
28 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
On this week's Special Sauce, Roy Choi told me that his new California-based fast food concept, LocoL, is merely trying to change the world, one mostl...
Ed and Kenji Take Your Calls (Part 2)
21 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This week's especial Special Sauce episode (I know that's redundant, but it rolls off the tongue) again features my runnin' and eatin' partner, Kenji ...
Extra-Special Sauce: Ed and Kenji Take Your Calls.
14 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This week's episode of Special Sauce is, well, special. Inspired by Car Talk, one of our all-time favorite radio shows, we did a call-in session featu...
Eric Ripert on the Making of His Memoir and What Inspires Him
07 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I used to think of Le Bernardin chef-restaurateur Eric Ripert as a smart, impossibly charming and handsome chef's chef. But between interviewing him f...
Tom Douglas on the Moral Imperative of Livable Restaurant Wages.
02 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The multiple-Beard-Award-winner and proprietor of 19 Seattle restaurants is whip-smart, even though his mother has never forgiven him for being the on...
Russ & Daughters on How to Keep a 100-Year-Old Family Food Business Fresh
24 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Family businesses are hard. Family food businesses that have lasted four generations, like the New York appetizing emporium Russ & Daughters, are ...
Jessamyn Rodriguez on Hot Bread Kitchen, NY's Bakery Incubator
17 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Ed Levine first met Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez eight years ago, when he happened upon her and her mother selling handmade tortillas at a tiny farmer...
Jim Lahey on the Accident of No-Knead Bread
10 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This week's Special Sauce guest, bread baker extraordinaire Jim Lahey, is a man of strong opinions, provocative ideas, and many talents. He's not on t...
Roy Blount Jr. on Saving Room for Pie
26 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Roy Blount Jr. is one of the funniest writers on the planet. And he loves to eat, and talk about what he's eaten, so he's a made-to-order guest on Spe...
Special Sauce: Chris Ying on the Best and Wurst of Lucky Peach Life
19 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Who knew, in an age of huge magazine companies being sold off like rusty used cars, that you could create a quarterly, delightfully idiosyncratic food...
Special Sauce: Dominique Ansel on Why He Doesn't Take Advice From Anyone
13 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we discuss how Dominique Ansel went from army KP duty to the kitchens of Fauchon in Paris (where he arrived in a clunker he bought fo...
Special Sauce: Sweetgreen’s Nicolas Jammet on His Secrets to Success
05 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The Sweetgreen team has watched their business grow over the past nine years from a single 500-square-foot storefront location in DC's Georgetown, whi...
Special Sauce: Dan Pashman on Arguing for Fun and His Mother's Fajita Obsession
28 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we get into some Sporkful-inspired debates about the purpose of hot dog buns and the ideal shape of pie. We discuss the divide in the...
Special Sauce: Francis Lam on American Identity and Chrissy Teigen's Mac and Cheese
21 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Special Sauce, Lam and I discuss how he tends to "go for the cheeks" and why his parents are proud of him for doing so. He also tal...
Special Sauce: Brooks Headley Wants You to Call Your Mom. Really. Right Now.
14 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Brooks Headley, the punk-rocking, vegetable-whispering owner of Superiority Burger in NYC, says he's "almost insistent upon only being in bands with e...
Special Sauce: Dorie Greenspan Says, "Don't Start Baking With Your Sister's Wedding Cake"
07 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Don't start with your sister's wedding cake," suggests baker and author Dorie Greenspan on this week's episode of Special Sauce. Greenspan has come f...
Special Sauce: Tom Colicchio Part 2 on Hunger, Guitar, and His Favorite Food Lab Recipe
30 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Colicchio is a passionate guitar player and music aficionado, as you'll hear when he sings one of the riffs in the Stevie Ray Vaughan song that we wan...
Special Sauce: Tom Colicchio on the 3 Things Every Chef Should Know
24 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Colicchio discusses three key things he's learned over the course of his career — the things he thinks every aspiring chef should keep in...
Special Sauce: Marco Canora on Keeping Calm Under Fire
18 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Canora discusses what he thinks restaurateurs and diners misunderstand about the service industry. You'll learn about how he deals with tho...
Special Sauce: Jonathan Gold on How to Jonathan Gold Someone
10 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Special Sauce - which, I must warn you, is a bit NSFW, unless you're surrounded by some really adventurous eaters with good sense...
Special Sauce: Michael Pollan on Cracker Jack and Childhood Gardens
03 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
On this week's Special Sauce, journalist, author, professor, and activist Michael Pollan - author of In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and...
Calvin Trillin Part 2 on Gumbo, Writing, and Cole Porter
25 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this second half of my interview with The New Yorker staff writer, Calvin Trillin, you'll learn what major roux-related mistake would keep him fr...
How Sliced Bread Got Calvin Trillin Into College
18 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of our podcast, you'll find out how Calvin Trillin came to be a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of 30 books, including Amer...
Pete Wells on Writing, Ketchup, and 2-Star Restaurants
04 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Pete Wells of the New York Times is perhaps the nation's most influential and powerful restaurant critic, but, as you'll hear on this week's Special ...
Carla Hall on Crank Calls, Hot Chicken, and Unlocking Your Creativity
28 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"Cooking is the way I can give a piece of my heart to someone," says The Chew's Carla Hall. On this week's Special Sauce, I chat with Hall about how s...
Dale Talde on Fried Chicken, Ranch Dressing, and Growing Up Filipino
21 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
"In America, you don't get what you don't ask for," says chef-restaurateur, Top Chef contestant, and cookbook author Dale Talde. "You have to punch an...
Brian Koppelman on Pizza, Sushi, and What It Takes to Be a Screenwriter
15 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
On this week's episode of Special Sauce, Ed talks to Brian about his undying-and sometimes heretical-love for pizza, how gluttony ties into his upcomi...
David Simon on The Wire, Raw Oysters, and Richard Pryor
07 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
On this week's Special Sauce, I talk to David Simon—one of the smartest, funniest, and most thoughtful serious eaters I have ever broken bread wit...
Laura Lippman on the Baltimore Food Scene, Crime Writing, and Journalism
17 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
"I'm a very average cook, but I'm a very happy cook," crime novelist Laura Lippman explained to me on this week's podcast. Lippman is far from your av...
Susie Essman Talks Bacon, Profanity, and Vegetarianism
03 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
I've known the great comedian and actress Susie Essman for nearly 20 years, and I've always been disappointed that she'd never cursed me out the way s...
Rich Torrisi Talks Curiosity, Craftsmanship, and Carl Sagan
19 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Rich Torrisi's name hits headlines all the time, but the renowned chef—and managing partner of one of New York City's hottest restaurant groups—ad...
Gail Simmons Shares Her Journey From Personal Assistant to Top Chef Judge
12 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When I first met her more than a decade ago, Gail Simmons was no television personality. She was the not-at-all-lowly assistant to Jeffrey Steingarten...
J. Kenji López-Alt on The Food Lab, Baths, Karaoke, and Becoming a Cook
05 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Even if you've read every one of his columns on Serious Eats and every page of his weighty tome "The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science", y...
A Conversation with Phil Rosenthal
29 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The first episode features my good friend Phil Rosenthal, who's a successful restaurant investor and the creator of Emmy Award-winning TV show Everybo...