What foods do Sporkful listeners resolve to eat more of in the new year, and why? And what’s Dan’s New Year’s food resolution for 2025? All is revealed in our annual year-end spectacular. We also replay one of the Sporkful crew’s favorite episodes of the year, with comedian Gary Gulman. Gary did so many food bits early in his stand-up career that h…

When comedian Hari Kondabolu isn't delivering incisive jokes about politics and identity, he's dreaming of being locked inside a magical bakery. Hari tells us why you shouldn't ask him about Indian food, and shares his take on whether famous food scenes with Apu on The Simpsons are racist or not. This episode originally aired on May 6. 2018, and wa…

It’s time for our Salad Spinner Year In Review! On today’s show, we discuss the strangest and most surprising food stories from the past year with Joe Yonan from The Washington Post and Nikita Richardson from The New York Times. We share some of the biggest food trends of 2024—the ones we want to see more of, and the ones we wish would go away—and …

In 2020, Samin Nosrat, author of the bestselling cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat, and Hrishikesh Hirway, host of the podcast and Netflix show Song Exploder, teamed up to create Home Cooking, a podcast where they answer listeners’ cooking questions, make lots of bad puns, and share their passion for cookies, among other foods. They join Dan this week an…

Kristina Cho and Bryan Ford have a lot in common. They’re both children of immigrants, third-culture kids who got into food not through restaurants or culinary school, but by launching their own blogs. They dreamed of quitting their day jobs so they could write about food full-time. And when they took that plunge, they wrote debut cookbooks that ex…

We learn about the holiday drink that’s the centerpiece of Puerto Rican Christmas celebrations, and we hear how Hurricane Maria changed Christmas for one Puerto Rican family. This episode originally aired on December 3, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Shoshana Gold, with editing by Dan Charles. The Sporkful team now includes …

The holidays are a time when many of us have a few extra drinks — or spend time with people having a few extra drinks. This week we’re talking with LP O’Brien, an award-winning mixologist in Washington, DC. A couple years back, she decided to quit drinking, a decision that she says made her better at her job. We find out how that’s possible, and ho…

The comedy icon discusses the role food can play in comedy and drama. Plus, he tells us why learning a new part is like eating spaghetti and how he reacts when people in the audience bring food into the theater. This episode originally aired on October 30, 2017, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, with editing by Dan Charles. The Sporkful …

"I've always been a fan of food," comedian Fortune Feimster says in her 2020 stand up special, Sweet and Salty. She joined the swim team in grade school just for the snacks. As a chubby kid who became a chubby adult, she often played her body for laughs. But in recent years her approach to both comedy and food has evolved. Fortune talks with Dan ab…

Tunde Wey learned to cook at home with his family in Nigeria. Sean Sherman grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Today they're both using food to explore politics and educate diners about the world beyond the dinner table. "Food is a delicious tool," says Tunde, "but it's pointing to something bigger." This episode originally aired…

A couple years ago, Abigail Keel started having debilitating attacks of vertigo. Once she got a diagnosis, the treatment seemed simple enough: reduce your salt intake to 1500 milligrams per day. But that change upended Abigail’s life in ways she never expected, altering her relationship with food, and leading her to question the way we think about …

"White people are comfortable anywhere," says restaurateur Andy Shallal. "In order for a Black person to walk into a space, there need to be signals that say, 'You're welcome.'" In this week's show we decode those signals, which include the decor and music, the staff and other customers, and more. These codes tell you what kind of place a restauran…

What do Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and The Diary of Anne Frank have in common? A woman named Judith Jones fought for both of them to be published. Judith was an editor with a vision, someone who was able to see the potential in books that so many others dismissed. This week Dan talks with Sara B. Franklin, author of the new b…

Jake Cohen didn’t care much about Jewish food when he went to culinary school and worked in high end restaurants. But when he met his future husband, Jake was introduced to the Middle Eastern Jewish recipes of his in-laws, like tahdig and kubbeh. Soon, he was mining his own family’s Eastern European Jewish recipes, and putting his spin on matzo bal…

Before the James Beard Awards, there was the man himself. Beard was the first celebrity chef of the TV era, preaching home cooking and fresh, local food even as frozen TV dinners gained popularity. But he also had to navigate the complexities of being a closeted gay man in a time when the kitchen was considered a place for women. Dan talks with foo…

Sam Kass shares stories of his time as the Obama family’s chef — cooking on Air Force One, smuggling special ingredients into the White House, and creating a dish that came to be known as 'lucky pasta.' This episode originally aired on October 29, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Aviva DeKornfeld, edited by Gianna Palmer, and …

Bobby Flay has competed in more than 700 TV cooking challenges and written a dozen cookbooks. But at heart, he still thinks of himself as a restaurant chef. In his new book, Chapter One, Bobby looks back on his career, from dropping out of high school and working as a busboy in New York City, to opening his first restaurants in the ‘90s, to competi…