Listen Now

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.