Carla Hall on Crank Calls, Hot Chicken, and Unlocking Your Creativity

Special Sauce: Francis Lam on American Identity and Chrissy Teigen's Mac and Cheese: 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 talks about how normal it is for writers to hate writing—but why he still encourages aspiring authors... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

57 min listen

Laura Lippman on the Baltimore Food Scene, Crime Writing, and Journalism: "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 average writer, though. The Washington Post has called her "one of the best novelists around, period."... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

50 min listen

How Sliced Bread Got Calvin Trillin Into College: 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 American Fried; Alice, Let's Eat; and Third Helpings, which are now collectively known as The Tummy... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

26 min listen

Danny Meyer Tells the Shake Shack Origin Story: 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 became the global phenomenon Shake Shack was a hot dog cart in Madison Square Park that was part of an... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

37 min listen

Dale Talde on Fried Chicken, Ranch Dressing, and Growing Up Filipino: "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 and kick and scream to get what you want." On this week's episode of Special Sauce, I talk to Talde-one... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

53 min listen

A Conversation with Phil Rosenthal: The first episode features my good friend Phil Rosenthal, who's a successful restaurant investor and the creator of Emmy Award-winning TV show Everybody Loves Raymond. PBS is now airing his latest creative endeavor, I'll Have What Phil's Having, a... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

26 min listen

Tom Douglas on the Moral Imperative of Livable Restaurant Wages.: 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 only one of her eight children not to go to college. Tom's also funny, opinionated, and generously... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

51 min listen

David Simon on The Wire, Raw Oysters, and Richard Pryor: 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 with—about how his years as a beat reporter made their way into his television work.... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

40 min listen

Jessamyn Rodriguez on Hot Bread Kitchen, NY's Bakery Incubator: Ed Levine first met Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez eight years ago, when he happened upon her and her mother selling handmade tortillas at a tiny farmers market in West Harlem. Even back then, he could tell that Jessamyn was a force to be... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

48 min listen

Calvin Trillin Part 2 on Gumbo, Writing, and Cole Porter: 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 from revisiting a restaurant, some of his secrets for speechwriting (or not writing, rather),... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

29 min listen

Special Sauce: Dorie Greenspan Says, "Don't Start Baking With Your Sister's Wedding Cake": "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 far from the self-described "sweet little home baker" that she once was, and has a lot of advice for... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

47 min listen

Brian Koppelman on Pizza, Sushi, and What It Takes to Be a Screenwriter: 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 upcoming Showtime series, Billions, and the moment when Wonderama broadened his culinary horizons. You'll... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

45 min listen

Gail Simmons Shares Her Journey From Personal Assistant to Top Chef Judge: 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, the feared and revered Vogue food critic. (And she had to survive a ridiculously arduous interview... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

45 min listen

Dinosaur BBQ's John Stage on His Unlikely Path to Pitmaster: 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 discovered his calling. Growing up, Stage had a soft spot for his mother's Italian-American cooking,... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

43 min listen

Carla Hall on Crank Calls, Hot Chicken, and Unlocking Your Creativity: "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 she hopped around on her career journey, going from being an accountant at Price Waterhouse... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

40 min listen

Lidia Bastianich: From Refugee to Culinary Star: Considering her many restaurants, books, and television shows, plus her involvement in the gourmet Italian marketplace Eataly, Lidia Bastianich might seem like a known quantity to serious eaters all... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

40 min listen

Call Special Sauce: BraveTart, Trashy Snacks, and Holiday Baking: Let's face it: One of the main reasons we look forward to the holiday season is the copious amount of baked goods we get to make and eat. So, with that in mind, I invited our pastry wizard, Stella Parks (aka BraveTart), to take calls on a special... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

46 min listen

Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman on Why Failure Is the Key to Success: The arts of making French charcuterie and its Italian cousin, <em>salumi</em>, are two of the highest forms of the craft of cooking. So when I heard that chef and cooking teacher Brian Polcyn and journalist Michael Ruhlman, the authors of... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

55 min listen

Special Sauce: Brooks Headley Wants You to Call Your Mom. Really. Right Now.: Brooks Headley, the punk-rocking, vegetable-whispering owner of Superiority Burger in NYC, says he's "almost insistent upon only being in bands with extremely volatile characters, myself included." In this week's episode of Special Sauce, I talk with... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

51 min listen

Rich Torrisi Talks Curiosity, Craftsmanship, and Carl Sagan: 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—admits that he doesn't much care for all the media attention. "I don't have a taste for it, I... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

46 min listen

Special Sauce: Tom Colicchio on the 3 Things Every Chef Should Know: 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 mind. You'll learn about how a prison library book pushed Colicchio into the kitchen, and how... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

44 min listen

Pete Wells on Writing, Ketchup, and 2-Star Restaurants: 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 Sauce podcast, he's soft-spoken, funny, and thoughtful-and eminently fair-minded. by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

59 min listen

Susie Essman Talks Bacon, Profanity, and Vegetarianism: 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 she did her TV husband, Jeff Garlin, on Curb Your Enthusiasm. So I asked her to let me have it right... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

35 min listen

J. Kenji López-Alt on The Food Lab, Baths, Karaoke, and Becoming a Cook: 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", you'll still find out some surprising—and funny—stuff about Kenji López-Alt... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

50 min listen

Special Sauce: Michael Pollan on Cracker Jack and Childhood Gardens: On this week's Special Sauce, journalist, author, professor, and activist Michael Pollan - author of In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire - discusses what's kept him in the garden, in the kitchen,... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

49 min listen

Special Sauce: Marco Canora on Keeping Calm Under Fire: This week, Canora discusses what he thinks restaurateurs and diners misunderstand about the service industry. You'll learn about how he deals with those issues, his guilty pleasures, and why sometimes it's good to have someone remind you to just calm... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

55 min listen

Special Sauce: Chris Ying on the Best and Wurst of Lucky Peach Life: 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 magazine and get more than a hundred thousand people to pony up $28 a year to subscribe? On this... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

48 min listen

Special Sauce: Dominique Ansel on Why He Doesn't Take Advice From Anyone: 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 for $400), to being the pastry chef at New York gastronomic palace Daniel. We also talk about what... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

52 min listen

Danny Meyer Talks Hospitality and Comfort Food: 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 anathema to his own business, and take a look at his five founding principles of hospitality. I could... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

39 min listen

Eric Ripert on the Making of His Memoir and What Inspires Him: 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 for Special Sauce and reading his moving and evocative memoir 32 Yolks, I've since realized that... by Special Sauce with Ed Levine

52 min listen

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Carla Hall on Crank Calls, Hot Chicken, and Unlocking Your Creativity

Carla Hall on Crank Calls, Hot Chicken, and Unlocking Your Creativity

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