True Crime Culinary

What happens when food science tries to create candy without consequences? In this True Crime Culinary bonus episode, Leah Llach breaks down the infamous sugar-free gummy bear disaster — from the rise of artificial sweeteners and America’s sugar-free craze to the internet reviews that turned one bag of candy into online legend. Learn the history of sugar substitutes, why sugar alcohols can cause d...

The history of endurance sports is basically the history of humans trying to avoid bonking by aggressively eating increasingly weird snacks. This week on True Crime Culinary, Leah Llach looks at the 2007 Chicago Marathon heat disaster, the sticky rise of PowerBar and GU, California’s endurance culture boom, and why athletes went from believing food during races was weakness… to carrying caffeinate...

Fortune cookies aren’t actually Chinese — and their history connects immigration, war, restaurant culture, and one devastating murder investigation in Queens. In this episode of True Crime Culinary, Leah traces the surprising origins of fortune cookies from Japanese tea gardens to Chinese takeout counters across America. Along the way, she explores how World War II and the internment of Japanese A...

A horse wins a race by a hair… and then the paint starts dripping down its legs. This week on True Crime Culinary , Leah dives into one of the strangest scandals in horse racing history: the 1984 Fine Cotton scandal, where gamblers swapped a racehorse, used spray paint to disguise it, and nearly pulled off the perfect betting con. But somehow, this story also leads directly to the history of Snick...

Where does ketchup come from—and why does it taste so good? In this episode of True Crime Culinary , we explore the origin of ketchup (from Chinese kê-tsiap to tomato-based Heinz) and break down a real fast food incident sparked by a ketchup dispute. Learn how ketchup evolved—and why it’s more powerful than it seems. Heinz Company History Overview of Henry J. Heinz founding the company in 1869, ea...

Where did brownies actually come from—and how did they go from a color-themed party trend to one of the most trusted desserts in America? In this episode of True Crime Culinary , Leah Llach explores the surprisingly layered history of the Chocolate brownie—from 1880s “brown” dinner parties and molasses-based proto-recipes to the rise of boxed mixes and the invention of Betty Crocker (who, famously...

Football used to be chaos. Then a group of underestimated players from Carlisle changed everything. In this episode: the real story behind the forward pass, the rise of Jim Thorpe, and how a system built to erase identity ended up reshaping America’s game—right down to the snacks. Pro Football Hall of Fame — Jim Thorpe https://www.profootballhof.com/players/jim-thorpe → Thorpe’s career, stats, and...

Before KitKat, chocolate had a problem—it was messy, melty, and weirdly inconvenient to eat. So in 1935, one factory set out to fix it. The solution? A chocolate bar you could snap —built for quick breaks, clean bites, and factory-floor practicality. But behind that simple design is a stranger story: A name borrowed from a 1700s pie club. A worker suggestion that reshaped how we eat chocolate. A g...

A mysterious swelling. A missing nutrient. And a cure hiding in plain sight. This episode traces how ancient remedies, coastal diets, and one simple ingredient—seaweed—helped solve a silent public health crisis. Long before scientists understood iodine, people were already treating the problem… they just didn’t know why. Follow for more bite-sized stories where food quietly changes everything. htt...

A deadly outbreak. A frozen landscape. And a race against time powered by sled dogs—and survival food that most people have never heard of. In 1925, when diphtheria threatened the remote town of Nome, Alaska, 20 mushers and over 150 dogs relayed life-saving serum across 600+ miles of brutal winter conditions in just over five days. But behind the story of Balto and Togo is something quieter—and ju...

In 1814, a brewery in London exploded—unleashing over 300,000 gallons of beer into the streets. The result? A deadly wave of porter that tore through homes, collapsed buildings, and killed eight people in one of the strangest industrial disasters in history. In this episode, we trace the story of the London Beer Flood, the origins of Guinness, how stout is made, and how one of the world’s most ico...

In February 1972, five members of the United Red Army took a woman hostage inside the Asama-Sansō Lodge in the mountains of Nagano, Japan. What followed was a ten-day siege broadcast live across the country , with nearly 90% of Japan tuning in to watch negotiations, psychological tactics, and the final dramatic assault. But viewers noticed something unexpected during the long winter standoff. Outs...

What does sparkling water have to do with one of the strangest disasters in modern history? In 1986, a quiet volcanic lake in Cameroon suddenly released a massive cloud of carbon dioxide that suffocated 1,746 people and thousands of animals overnight. In this episode of True Crime Culinary , we explore the haunting story of Lake Nyos and the science behind the bubbles. From Henry’s Law and volcani...

A tuna melt in Lake Tahoe sent me down a rabbit hole. How did a fish once harvested through ancient Mediterranean trap fisheries become a cheap pantry staple — and sometimes a luxury item worth thousands? In this episode, we trace tuna’s journey from seasonal coastal ritual to industrial global commodity, uncover a real corporate price-fixing scandal involving major canned tuna brands, and explore...

What do a collapsed gold mine in Tasmania and a Swiss breakfast classic have in common? A single muesli bar. In this episode of True Crime Culinary , we start nearly a kilometer underground at Beaconsfield Mine , where two trapped miners rationed one muesli bar while rescue crews drilled through unstable rock to reach them. From there, we rewind to early-1900s Switzerland, where physician Maximili...

In this episode of True Crime Culinary , Leah unpacks one of the most misunderstood legal moments in American history: the so-called “Twinkie Defense.” In 1978, former San Francisco supervisor Dan White murdered Mayor George Moscone and civil rights icon Harvey Milk inside City Hall. At trial, White’s attorneys argued diminished capacity, pointing to severe depression and sudden changes in behavio...

In this episode of True Crime Culinary , Leah tells the story of Emily O’Brien , a young Canadian entrepreneur whose life took a dramatic turn after being caught carrying drugs across a border. What followed was incarceration — and an unexpected turning point. While serving time, Emily noticed how food became a rare point of connection inside prison. With limited resources and a small weekly allow...

When police in New Jersey discovered more than 500 pounds of pasta dumped along a quiet creek, the case went viral — and nowhere. No charges. No answers. From that bizarre crime scene, this episode of True Crime Culinary travels to Egypt, where pasta becomes part of koshary, the nation’s beloved street food and a UNESCO-recognized cultural tradition. One story of waste. One story of survival. Beca...

In January 2017, 20-year-old Birna Brjánsdóttir disappeared after a night out in Reykjavík. The last confirmed footage shows her walking alone down Laugavegur, eating a falafel pita. Within days, Iceland launched the largest search in its modern history. This episode of True Crime Culinary recounts the facts of Birna’s case and follows an unexpected thread: how falafel — a dish that began as fasti...

They drilled through concrete. They lined up multiple trucks. They stole more than 100 tons of something most people would never notice. In early 2022, one of the largest agricultural heists in Israeli history left investigators baffled. The target wasn’t gold, fuel, or electronics — but a food so ordinary it barely registers as valuable… until you understand its history. In this episode of True C...

In 2002, Gwen Araujo , a 17-year-old transgender girl, was murdered in California for living openly as herself. In this episode of True Crime Culinary , host Leah Llach tells Gwen’s story with care, personal reflection, and historical context — examining how everyday cruelty escalates, how violence is excused, and how one case helped change the law. We follow Gwen’s life, the night of the attack,...

In November 1939, a lone German carpenter and clockmaker came within minutes of assassinating Adolf Hitler — inside a Munich beer hall. In this episode of True Crime Culinary , we explore the Beer Hall Bombing , one of the closest and least-known assassination attempts of World War II history, and the everyday objects that filled the room where it nearly happened. Beer halls weren’t just bars in e...

A man dressed as Santa walks into a bank… and no one hits the alarm right away. In this episode of True Crime Culinary , we start with a real holiday robbery and follow the trail all the way to a plate of cookies left out in the dark. Why does Santa work as a disguise? Why do we trust him so completely? And why, of all things, do we leave him cookies? From medieval European Christmas baking and sp...

Candy canes feel harmless — festive, nostalgic, impossible to take seriously. But this episode asks a simple question: why do we trust sweet, familiar objects so easily? We start with a real-world reminder that even a cane can hide danger, then trace the history of sugar itself — from chewed sugarcane in Southeast Asia to hand-pulled sugar sticks in medieval Europe. By the 1600s, refined sugar had...

In this episode of True Crime Culinary , we unwrap the chilling story of Christiana Edmunds — the Victorian poisoner who slipped strychnine into chocolate creams — and trace chocolate’s own extraordinary journey across continents and centuries. We go way back: to the Indigenous origins of cacao in Central and South America, where chocolate was medicine, ritual, ceremony, and even currency. Then we...