The Dave Chang Show

On an episode for the ages, Dave Chang takes us through a full deck of unforgettable dishes—the ones he never stops thinking about. He covers 50-plus brushes with culinary perfection, from childhood up through trips to Tokyo and Texas and Sao Paulo and Mumbai. It's a core-memory highlight reel like no other, the benchmarks Dave uses to measure everything else, never assembled in one place beyond h...

Did one ramen chef’s last-minute decision to photograph the very first service at Noma Tokyo's pop-up … irreversibly change the course the restaurant world has been on ever since? To investigate, Dave sends roving correspondent Chris Ying to talk to Ivan Orkin himself about the day in question—and then hunts for parallels in the far reaches of high fashion. Also: the state of Dave’s fridge, solo e...

How the heck are we supposed to figure out where to eat in 2022 anyway? On the heels of an unforeseen but absurdly good Peking duck dinner, Dave and Chris consider the ever-expanding restaurant-recommendation complex, and the risks and rewards of going off the grid. Plus: mummy innards, not watching the trailer, crispy shrimp, the penicillin principle, Ben Wallace, eating turbot at Elkano, an L.A....

After spending the first half of the show grappling with the existential questions, from the prehistory of the known universe to the future of going out to eat, Dave and Chris collect some on-the-ground intel from two longtime experts on life in the ATL: Stephen Satterfield and, of course, Steven Satterfield. Also covered: Gaten Matarazzo, Ina Garten, physicist sellouts, infinite Big Bangs, Fishma...

In-N-Out Burger has had an almost unparalleled run as one of the most beloved operations in the western U.S., but there’s still one holdout rolling doubtfully past the drive-thru. His name is Dave Chang. Dave, Chris, and Noelle break down what In-N-Out does so well, and why he can’t just let love in. Also discussed: all-out waffles, North Korean noodles, Dave’s Park’s BBQ order, Southern Californi...

In a brief respite between his travels, Dave Chang teaches you everything you need to know about making dashi at home, then decodes his interview with Chris Bianco. He explains the classic-to-modern chef spectrum, the significance of legendary chefs Roberto Donna, Jean-Louis Palladin, and David Tanis, Bianco's gumption in the face of titans of industry, the lifecycle of perfecting a new dish, and...

With a new restaurant open in L.A. and 30 years of gorgeous pizzas bearing his name in Phoenix, AZ, Chris Bianco has a lot of stories to tell. He returns to the pod to talk with Dave about building the most beautiful tower you’ve ever seen, bringing the sequel without the prequel, getting paid a barrel of beer on the Lower East Side, arming yourself with science, salads telling you what they want...

With his trip to Italy in the rearview, Dave takes to the mic to break down the surprising highs and occasional luggage-related lows of a week or so overseas, as well as: hotel-room tipping, Italian airport food, looking at the countryside from a train, bringing salumi on the flight back, Friulian wine, simple trattorias in the middle of nowhere, Negroni spritzes, not taking photos, Vecchia Roma,...

Six months in, Evan Funke’s Mother Wolf is one of the hottest tables in Hollywood—but getting there took 15 years of obsession with the practice of pasta, where lessons are learned one tortelloni at a time. Evan and Dave discuss the long climb to the mountaintop, plus: George Carlin, Thomas Bernhard, staying true to your vision, Hosteria Giusti, L.A. glamour, eating pasta for analytical purposes,...

What do you do when your kid only wants plain rice—or worse, rice with American cheese? With the help of our friends at buybuy BABY, Dave and Chris kick off 'Clean Plate Club,' our new series on cooking for kids, with a conversation about the toughest diner out there: the picky eater. Also: going from dad of one to dad of two, unreliable advice, first-year fears, steel-wool slinkies, chicken nugge...

After spending 20 years crafting campaigns for the likes of Nike, John Jay jumped into a new role as President of Global Creative for Uniqlo—and there’s a lot more he wants to do yet. Dave calls up John to talk about finding inspiration in unexpected places, DJing at Space Lab Yellow, learning from Juan Mari Arzak, the glory years of Bloomingdale’s, an invitation from Ralph Lauren, invisible impro...

With a trip to Italy on the horizon, Dave’s wondering what it is we’re looking for when we fly halfway around the world—and Noelle and Chris are here to help him find some answers. Also on the itinerary: Clark Griswold, the lunacy of restaurant week, meeting at the painting next to the clock under the bridge, Noelle à Bordeaux, dodging the guided-tour junket, the Balthazar equation, traveling vs....

Wylie Dufresne blazed a relentlessly creative trail for a generation of adventurous restaurants—and more recently, he’s been making pizza. It was only a matter of time before he returned to the show to tell Dave and Chris what he’s learned, and why there might be hope for the homemade-pizza practitioner after all. Also: taking salads off the menu, post-grunge food, Wylie’s slice order, holding piz...

Marshall Goldsmith works as an executive coach with some of the most successful people alive—and finds they’ve often mastered everything except how to be happy. He returns to the show to talk with Dave and Chris about his new book, 'The Earned Life,' and what it tells us about how to be grateful, achieving everything and being miserable, fulfillment vs. regret, an infinite set of previous Daves, n...

After a vintage ‘Dave Chang Show’ solo intro and a bicoastal dining update, Dave ushers in Chris and Noelle for a rapid-fire run through the rest of the Required Eating checklist—featuring thoughts on Chinese herbal digestifs, premium nighttime cereal, restaurant economics, scallion hyperinflation, Noelle’s calamari marketwatch, ordering three-quarters of a sandwich, 108-hour beet preparations, No...

Chris and Dave call up the pair behind the best-selling 'Notes from a Young Black Chef' to discuss their brand new cookbook 'My America,' and what it reveals about how we’ll all be eating in the years to come. Also: Playing to your strengths, giving birth to a word baby, cross-country recipe testing, re-upping on jambalaya at the dog park, Kwame’s Harry Potter House, a yin-yang of dolphins, Maggi...

After last week’s Dave-induced derailment, it’s time at last for the gang to relay their Required Eating reports—and suddenly, everyone’s putting up numbers. Also encountered along the way: misleading fish marketing, a diner deep dive, Bobby Van’s, Noelle the Fanpire, 10 a.m. mozzarella sticks, a delightful eggplant parm, Hawaiian-style rib eye, a belated lemon-pepper defense, Elite Yelper Chris Y...

Dave and Chris call up Acre Venture Partners co-founder Lucas Mann to talk about how a future-focused VC firm engages with the tough-to-change worlds of food and agriculture—and about why Dave and Acre decided to work together. Plus: Patagonia vests, alternative protein, brilliant and world-changing people doing totally off-the-wall shit, getting a degree in Tibetan Buddhism, pork cocoons, 3D-prin...

The MOIF team reconvenes to review the Required Eating challenges handed down last week—and what was meant to be a finale turns into more of a cliffhanger. But then, Dave, Chris, and Noelle dust themselves off and dive into: celebrity hotel-room cooking, Dave’s Batman rankings, a disappointing shrimp cocktail, bacon-to-lettuce ratios, when to wake up, dreams of hyper-efficiency, the Michael Pollan...

The Great Pizza Debate continues with Recipe Club veteran and New World Sourdough author Bryan Ford stepping up to contend with unrepentant homemade pizza skeptic Dave Chang—but when the doppio-zero dust clears, whose pizza path will the world choose to follow? Plus: haircut narcolepsy, pan de coco, Dave making Jamaican food, heirloom Hot Pockets, putting bread on a pedestal, pulling up to the ret...

Dave, Chris, and Noelle are shaking up the show with a newly kinetic, activity-driven MOIF format—and if you're reading this, we're roping you into it, too. Also discussed: Diet Dr. Pepper, ordering London broil at a diner, Iron Chef, Dave's spinach-artichoke dip, encountering Biscoff cookies beneath 35,000 feet, asking for a second meal on a flight, restaurants making their own charcoal, fried-ri...

John Walker was earning accolades for his work as a brewer in Santa Fe when he heard about a different kind of challenge—starting up a first-class nonalcoholic brewery. He tells Dave and Chris about what drew him to Athletic Brewing, amid a conversation covering temperance pairings, shift drinks, the Am-I-Stupid test, mowing the lawn in a shirt and tie, the great taste of cheap beer, Mosaic hops,...

The gang returns for another late-night Q&A—but first, as a little warm-up, we recap Dave’s visit to Pizzeria Bianco, Chris’s Newport Seafood birthday experience, dinner-course deluges, and what happens when the kitchen writes Hufflepuff on the ticket. Then the questions begin. Confronted on this episode: potato antimatter, figs on a plate, gas station Jojos, curly fry engineering, the beauty of a...

Eighteen months after opening the doors at West Oakland’s Horn BBQ, Matt Horn has lines down the block, a second restaurant, and a new cookbook out this week—but finding that success was far from easy. Matt talks to Dave and Chris about the many long nights and moments of truth along the way, as well as the meal in Japan that Dave can’t stop thinking about, hangover salvation, bloomin’ onions, the...

On their latest fact-finding expedition, Dave, Chris, and Noelle criss-cross the Western U.S. to consider becoming a carrot-cake household, 'Harry Potter' geography, fish maw soup, Peking-style pork chop, Chris and Noelle’s recent visit to Vegas, Bang Bar walking snacks, bathtub eating, wasabi-pea rice krispies, Dave taking another swing at Soylent, Chris’s Popeyes order, John Cougar Mellencamp, a...