Bitchin' About Food

We’re back! It’s been a minute. Kath and Jan start 2024 off with a bang (okay, a few weeks late) with Los Angeles power couple Joe and Pepper Edmiston, our beloved engineer Will’s parents, who graciously come to the studio en route to the symphony for a free-wheeling, often hilarious and spirited talk about marriage, food, children, grandchildren, rabbits, pigs and best of all, Pepper’s secre...

Kath and Jan close out the year with a visit from the luminous Peggy Dunne, where we discuss far-ranging topics, such as Peggy’s many careers, health and nutrition, depression, acting, blue-green algae and how she somehow managed to marry a guy who was an amazing cook and astonishingly, in the ultimate ‘way to work it’, continues to cook for her even ten years after their separation! A lovely...

When Kath and Jan met their pal Maripat Donovan, it was during the run of “The Good Times Are Killing Me” in Chicago, which was supposed to run for six weeks and ran for a year and half. Right after that, Maripat originated her one-woman show “Late Nite Catechism” which was also supposed to run for six weeks…thirty years ago (it’s still running – in fact, Kath does it too)!! We discuss rehabb...

It’s a Thanksgiving Special Family Event as our beloved menschy engineer Will makes the trek to the LAX area with all his equipment (and his two dogs!) so we can interview Jan’s Mom Frima and Jan’s Aunt Barbara in person on Kath’s patio!  It’s a sizzling holiday extravaganza as the ladies wax nostalgic on what food was like in the old days. We talk about last meals, fussy eater...

Happy Podcastaversary….to US! Kath and Jan celebrate one whole YEAR of podcasting with our original beloved engineer Nick Sheist in what we hope will be an annual tradition with him, being our pre-Thanksgiving guest! We discuss far-ranging topics beyond food, but of course…food too. Nick brings homemade pumpkin bread to start us off, which Jan immediately samples. We talk about Nick’s up...

Kath and Jan do their first Zoom interview ever (with a little spotty sound quality) and travel virtually to Portland, Oregon where Kath’s adopted daughter Shari Zinn-Hoorn lives. Okay, she isn’t really Kath’s daughter, but if Kath *did* have a daughter, she would want one like Shari. We discuss how they met and how Shari’s mango-avocado combo won Kath over immediately. We discover...

It's Burger Day as Kath and Jan finally wrangle our engineer Will Edmiston into talking about his burger obsession and we definitely get more than we bargained for! Be sure and book his space for your studio needs at  www.peerspace.com  (search podcast studio Santa Monica). We talk about his Mom's surprise pet pigs, dogs, burgers and how you really can't judge a book by its cover wh...

Kath and Jan are blown away by the gorgeous and generous Paula Ayala who shows up with a towering red velvet cake adorned with BAF beads! Kath quickly realizes that she could neither bake that cake nor make those beads if someone had a gun to her head. Jan immediately renounces giving up sugar. Paula talks about her Argentine roots and how her mom made simple, delicious food, which inspi...

Kath and Jan are joined by old theatre pals and long-time married couple, Michael Shepperd and Hutchins Foster. We reminisce about the old days in Chicago when Kath, Jan and Michael were in “The Good Times are Killing Me” at City Lit, which was supposed to run for 6 weeks and ended up running for over a year, and is considered by all of us to be a true career highlight. Jan speaks of a v...

Kath and Jan welcome the powerful dancer Daisy Kate Jacobson to the podcast as we parse the meanings of lissome, lithe and willowy as it relates to dancers. Like a true dancer, however, Daisy prefers to concentrate on strength, rather than patriarchal labels.  We talk about Daisy's evolution from being a tiny child chorus member in The Nutcracker to playing the lead, Clara.  After attend...

Once known as the Harriet Tubman of comedy, (due to all the comics she shepherded into Los Angeles from Chicago), actor-director-writer-improviser (and co-founder of Second City Etc.) Jane Morris joins Kath and Jan in the studio as a last-minute, showbiz clutch replacement for a guest who was sick. We talk about her Mom’s upbringing in an orphanage run by sadistic nuns and how when she marrie...

As supreme luck would have it, en route from Japan to their home in London, Cris Cole and Christine St. John pop in to visit Kath and Jan in the studio for an hour of catching up on old times. Christine and Kath reminisce about their early salad days in what we now know was the Golden Age of Chicago Theatre, from about 1985 to whenever we left in the nineties. Kidding, not kidding. We di...

New episode! Kath thought she was a talker, but she met her match in our lively and joyous guest, Frederick Johnson, who regales Kath and Jan with tales of growing up in a family where everyone had multiple names and ate macrobiotic food! Frederick talks about his battle with Valley Fever and how in recovery, he left the healthy stuff behind and craved the bad (good) stuff, like tacos and cereal.&...

New episode! The Midwest Reset! Sound issues plague Kath who was on the move for some remote sessions in the Midwest, all while trying out a new microphone. Kath and Jan and Will hash out the mic issues - it's pretty much a "user error issue" the user being Kath. But Will works some magic to reduce the static, but the sound is muffled in spots. Or maybe Kath’s friends are muffled in...

Guten Morgen says Kath and Jan as we are joined by the delightful and super stylish Ania Cremer, who flew into town all the way from Berlin to visit her Los Angeles boyfriend. We discuss Kath’s Dad’s quest for good German food for his entire life. We talk about Kath’s paternal grandmother Lindemann’s recipes. We try and pronounce Kartoffelklöße with limited success. Kath posts...

Ciao! Kath and Jan revisit the past, the ancient-long-ago-BEFORE-COMPUTERS-AND-THE-INTERNET-past when they are joined by their dear old friend and mentor, Eugene Ferraro, who was teaching film at Stephens College where Kath and Jan met in 1978. Gene has always supported both of their artistic endeavors for decades now and so it was a real treat to get him on the podcast. We talk of cours...

New York, New York, it’s a toddlin’ town, as Kath and Jan visit with a dear pal (a true New York transplant) Francesca Rollins. We discuss New York vs. LA food, her parents’ busy showbiz careers and how they entertained and cooked. We talk about delicatessen vs. appetizing, Zabar’s vs. Russ & Daughters, and how her mother Jane had a special guy who helped her at Zabar’s when it came...

The amazing Sheila Linderman (Judy’s pal) joins the podcast for a spirited and lively conversation about many far-ranging topics: how a background in science really does help when it comes to baking and pastry in general. Growing up Orthodox and Kosher. How Chicago’s Pickle Barrel restaurant started her on the road to non-kosher foods. Ditching medical school for a culinary art...

It’s all about the rolls in the latest episode of Bitchin’ as Kath and Jan are visited by Jan’s work pal Lou. Kath is under the weather, but motors through with Jan’s help as Lou talks about getting notes on cooking from her 5 year old daughter and how this same daughter, now grown, is an ace cook and does all the holidays! Kath reminds everyone that Thanksgiving is only 6 months away. Lou ta...

The future looks bright with nomadic adventurers Sarah and Dana at the helm. Kath and Jan are visited by two young (so damn young) girls who are pretty much the future of everything: antiques dealing, documentary filmmaking and best of all, food. Have you heard of Regenerative Organic Gardening? Yeah, neither had we. Learn all about it and how Sarah and Dana came literally slid...

Kath and Jan are visited by dear old pals Ralph Flores and Tom Carroll. Like Kath and Jan, they have known each other for over 40 years. Also, like Kath and Jan, only one of them does the cooking (Ralph). We talk of how we all came up together in Chicago and how Ralph inspired Kath early on with his incredible creative recipes and amazing parties. We hear stories of Ireland (To...

Jan’s dear pal Judy Hing joins the podcast to discuss her long history of Asian food in California. From her grandfather’s Chinese restaurant in San Diego to her grandmother’s Chinese stall in the original Farmer’s Market, Judy tells a tale of growing up surrounded by food. We discuss the dichotomy between what Judy’s family would serve to American customers vs. what they actually ate at home...

When you lose weight, where does that fat go? Big Fat Myths by Ruben Meerman. Energy Density. Carbon Credits. Listening to your body. Losing weight, keeping it off and eating whatever you want, without the help of Big Pharma. Kath and Jan are joined by old friend and antique dealer extraordinaire Lynne, who takes them on her fascinating journey with food, weight loss, the...

Do you believe in elves? Kath and Jan do. We are joined by Kath’s old elf pal (long story) and fellow Capricorn Tom Hall, who became Jan’s instant BFF when he showed up with cookies. We discuss Tom and Jan’s shared Kentucky roots, we revisit the unfortunately named Hot Brown, we talk about San Diego Mexican vs. Los Angeles Mexican food and how the San Fernando Valley is an untapped treasure i...

Kath and Jan are flying solo today without a guest! We discuss many topics. Kath makes amends to Jan for constantly interrupting her. We talk about food recommendations that go nowhere, toughest recipes, easiest recipes, restaurants we miss in LA, Jan’s massive weekend of cooking for beloved family, how Jan almost burned down the house and herself, Kath’s bacon-taters moment and cooking for 4...