Why are politicians trying to ban lab-grown meat? Is Chipotle secretly serving smaller portions? And just how good is that new cereal mix by Jason and Travis Kelce? We dig into these questions and more in this edition of the Salad Spinner, our rapid-fire roundtable discussion of the hottest and oddest recent food news. Joining us in the Spinner are…

The founder of Milk Street hates celebrations and says pleasure is annoying. This week, Chris Kimball tells us why he thinks cooking is supposed to be hard, and how he got this way. Plus, he and Dan bond over their shared food obsessiveness and clash over their differences in the kitchen -- and in life. This episode originally aired on August 25, 2…

Jameela Jamil may be best known for her role on the NBC show The Good Place. On the show, her character’s nonprofit work is a punchline, but in real life, Jameela’s activism on issues of fatphobia and sexism is no joke. She’s spoken in UK Parliament and successfully lobbied social media companies to change how they operate. Now, she hosts the podca…

Pretty much every restaurant has salads, and yet how often do you get really excited to eat one? In restaurants and at home, most salads seem to be there because the person making the meal felt obligated to offer them. And diners eat them for the same reason. This week we set out in search of salads that you’ll still be talking about weeks later. W…

Is it unethical to sample an ice cream shop's flavors and not buy anything? A married couple calls in for advice, and Cooks Illustrated's Dan Souza reveals the artisanal ice cream industry's biggest secret. Plus, two listeners who run a French fry stand together call in to debate the definition of a condiment. This episode originally aired on Febru…

Celery doesn't get a lot of love these days. But it was the avocado toast of the late 1800s and early 1900s. People thought it had magical powers, and the hottest chefs in New York City were making celery-fed duckling, mashed celery, fried celery, and celery tea. So why did celery fall from grace? And can this once vaunted vegetable make a comeback…

Food writer Khushbu Shah and chef Edy Massih each released their first cookbooks this spring. Both works are part of a new generation of cookbooks that take inspiration from specific cuisines without being beholden to them. These books aren’t about preservation — they’re a reflection of their authors’ specific experiences. Which is why Khushbu and …

In this episode of the Sporkful, a former Shea Stadium food vendor tells Dan about the worst gig in the ballpark. Plus a North Carolina peanut man tells us how they get the salt inside the shell, and Mike Pesca from The Gist tells us how much free advertising Cracker Jack got from being included in "Take Me Out To The Ball Game". This episode origi…

We’re back with our annual game show Two Chefs And A Lie! Here’s how it works. Dan talks with three “chefs.” Two of them are real chefs, one is an imposter. Dan can ask each of them just five questions, and then has to guess who the liar is. And you can play along too! Dan lost the first two games, but he won last year. Can he start a streak? Can h…

Recently, a friend of restaurant critic Tim Hayward called him a glutton. This week, our friends at the Life and Art from FT Weekend podcast dig into that label with Tim — and he explains why he embraces the label. Then, Life and Art host Lilah Raptopoulos speaks with food and drink editor Harriet Fitch Little about dinner parties. What’s the perfe…

After months of searching, we finally meet Ted Ngoy, aka "the Donut King", and learn what happened to him. He's returned to the Cambodian community seeking redemption. But will he find it? (This is part two of a two-part series; scroll back in your feed for part one.) This episode originally aired on April 30, 2018, and was produced by Anne Saini a…

After escaping Cambodia's Killing Fields, Ted Ngoy built a donut empire in California. Then he lost it all, and disappeared. This week we're searching for the Donut King and his legacy. (This is part one of a two-part series. The second part comes out on Friday.) Additional info: Chad Phuong's Cambodian-Texas Battambong BBQ (Southern California) Da…

Everything Molly Baz puts out — from her best-selling cookbooks Cook This Book and More Is More, to her Instagram pics and YouTube videos, to her wine brand — seems so perfectly cool and stylish, so carefully considered, so intentional. But also, so authentically HER. How does she do that? Well, as she tells Dan when he visits her at her home in Lo…

In 2016, the Library of Congress posted Rosa Parks' personal documents online for the first time. Buried under postcards from Martin Luther King and lists of volunteers for the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a pancake recipe, written on the back of an envelope — which included the addition of peanut butter to the batter. On this week's episode, we visi…

For years, chef Yia Vang operated his restaurant Union Hmong Kitchen in a trailer outside of a brewery in Minneapolis. Last year, he finally opened his first brick-and-mortar restaurant, and it already feels like a neighborhood institution — especially in the region of the U.S. with the largest community of Hmong refugees from southeast Asia. Over …

In the second half of our Best of the Book Tour series, we’re answering your questions! We’ll tackle the most frequently asked questions Dan got on the tour, and the ones he never saw coming. Plus we’ll hear from other folks who worked on Anything’s Pastable about the recipes that were cut from the book, and the ones that created the most conflict …

The comic, actor, writer, and podcast host, best known as Conan O’Brien’s late night TV sidekick, tells us why he chose a really nice refrigerator over a sports car. And he traces his issues with weight back to a childhood ice cream outing with his grandmother. This episode originally aired on July 29, 2019 and January 31, 2017, and was produced by…