The Dinner Plan

Mélanie Masarin wants you to feel less stressed out about hosting. She says that her rule with friends is: “If I’m home, you can come over.” Her pantry is stocked with tinned fish and olives, and other little snacks to serve—but her ideal setup for a dinner party is prep-ahead recipes like ratatouille that can be served at room temperature. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, Mélanie shares a behi...

Want to make better pizza at home but not sure how to start? Today's guest, David Tamarkin of King Arthur Baking Co., is the co-author of The Book of Pizza . This episode of The Dinner Plan podcast is packed with advice, sharing how to hack your oven for better pizza crust, how to choose toppings depending on the style of pizza you're making, and how to fit pizza-making into a weekday schedule. Wh...

Camping food doesn't have to mean freeze-dried meals you reconstitute with water. On this week's episode of The Dinner Plan, Emma Frisch, the author of Feast by Firelight, shares cooking inspiration for your next outdoor adventure, and tips for camping trip meal planning, the best way to pack your cooler, and thinking ahead so you don't end up cooking dinner in the dark. Get Emma's pork chop and c...

A traditional Japanese meal highlights a range of flavors and cooking methods, but that doesn't have to mean a ton of weeknight cooking. The key, according to cookbook authors Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, is a common version of meal prep that's highlighted in their new book, Japanese Comfort Cooking . So many sozai—those side dishes that go with your rice—can be made in advance to serve over the...

It's early to name the best cookbooks of 2026, but spring was so impressive and jam-packed that The Dinner Plan team joined up with Matt Rodbard of This Is TASTE , another favorite food podcast, to produce this special episode highlighting the best cookbooks from the first half of the year, along with a preview of some of the really exciting new cookbooks that will be published this fall. Get link...

You've probably seen Alexandra Stacey's Instagram account, @frenchfamilyfood, but now she has a whole cookbook of salad recipes that make the most of whatever produce is in season. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, host Maggie Hoffman talks with Alexandra about the French salads Alex grew up with, the way she devises new dressings for different types of salads, and the worst salad she ever had....

Georgina Hayden has written cookbooks that highlight traditional Mediterranean recipes, but her latest, MEDesque , is a little looser, full of weeknight dinner ideas inspired by various ingredients and dishes that are beloved in the region. "I've interviewed priests and grannies" about traditional Greek and Cypriot cooking, Georgina says, "But with this one, I've just had a bit more fun and been a...

If you looked in chef Claudette Zepeda's fridge, you’ll likely find the sauce she needs to turn a Costco rotisserie chicken into quick weeknight enchiladas for her kids, but there are a few more key flavor boosters, which she tells us all about in this episode of The Dinner Plan. Claudette shares some of the techniques and iconic Mexican dishes highlighted in her new cookbook, Cooking the Borderla...

Meal prep is much easier when you're grilling, and Noah Galuten's new cookbook, Grill Time! , will inspire you way beyond boring containers of plain grilled chicken. Noah offers fun ways to season grilled vegetables, smart salad inspiration, and the trick for turkey burgers that never dry out (and don't fall apart either). In this conversation with The Dinner Plan host Maggie Hoffman, Noah shares...

If you’ve been watching Next Gen Chef on Netflix, you’re probably curious about what it's really like to go to school at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. Brigid Washington’s new memoir, Salt, Sweat & Steam, is set at the same culinary school as the Netflix show. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, Brigid recounts her kitchen triumphs and failures—and what she learned from things...

In her new cookbook, Ammazza!, chef Hillary Sterling writes that “a scathing NewYork Times review left me with so much self-doubt that I stopped creating new dishes for fear of judgment and failure.” In this episode of The Dinner Plan, Hillary talks with host Maggie Hoffman about how she lost her confidence and creative drive in the kitchen, and how she found her cooking creativity again. If you’v...

If you love Turkish food, you probably already know about cookbook author Özlem Warren. Her newest book, Istanbul, offers a chance to taste the kinds of dishes you'd find in different sorts of eateries around the city. “One of the reasons that I wrote Istanbul was the fact that, it really is not just kebabs and this and that, that you might just see superficially, perhaps in a touristy areas. You...

Anna Stockwell literally wrote the book on how to host dinner parties—it's called For the Table and it's great. So it's no surprise that she has great hosting advice to share in this episode of The Dinner Plan, including how to juggle a full weekend of meals when you have houseguests visiting. She also shares tips for enhancing easy dinners, simple desserts, and evenings with friends with one key...

Alana Kysar has always needed to be flexible in the kitchen: In Hawaii, most ingredients are shipped from thousands of miles away, and sometimes you simply can't get what you were hoping for. But her new book, Aloha Veggies , goes even further, celebrating Hawaiian flavors but without ahi, shrimp, spam, or beef. In the 100th episode of The Dinner Plan podcast, Alana shares how she figured out vege...

Isa Chandra Moskowitz has been writing about vegan cooking for decades now, and so many vegans and vegetarians have learned to cook and bake from her many cookbooks. In this week's episode of The Dinner Plan, Isa shares a peek into her new book, which focuses on truly quick vegan dinners—meatless and dairy-free weeknight dinner ideas that work even when you only have 30 minutes. Isa explains how t...

Trinity Mouzon Wofford doesn’t want to be locked into meal planning. Her advice: get into the routine of putting together a base layer of component cooking, transforming raw ingredients into something that's easily assembled into a salad, a soup, a rice bowl, or a pasta. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, Trinity urges home cooks to relax into the process of doing some things by hand on a slow da...

If you get a weekly vegetable box or CSA box—or you just go a bit wild buying vegetables at the market—this episode of The Dinner Plan is for you. Host Maggie Hoffman interviews Joe Woodhouse, the author of Weeknight Vegetarian , a cookbook that's full of appealing vegetable recipes. In this conversation, Joe shares his weekend meal prep routine for getting vegetarian dinners on the table througho...

London-based chef Nargisse Benkabbou has contributed a lot of quick weeknight recipes to NYT Cooking, but in this conversation with The Dinner Plan's host Maggie Hoffman, the author of Madaq shares her preference for big batch dinners that cook low and slow. These hands-off meals don't require more prep time, but the flavors deepen in the oven or on the stove, and each dish can be used multiple wa...

Jorge Gaviria and Fermín Núñez's new book, Vitamina T , highlights recipes for homemade versions of beloved Mexican street foods like tortas, tamales, tacos, and more. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, Jorge and Fermín share stories behind their favorite recipes—and their tricks for making even your simplest, easiest dinners at home more delicious. They also offer advice for using up everything...

Top Chef alum Sheldon Simeon has a new cookbook out, called Ohana Style , that's all about cooking family dinners. But sometimes feeding your people is a bigger affair, and Sheldon has opinions about the best things to bring to a potluck. On this episode of The Dinner Plan podcast, Sheldon Simeon chats with host Maggie Hoffman and shares his strategy for potluck leftovers, his advice for prepping...

Reilly Meehan really knows his stuff in the kitchen, which means his private chef videos on social media are especially compelling. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, Reilly shares his path from the competition cooking circuit to the life of a private chef cooking dinners for clients, what he actually cooks for their weeknight dinners, and insights on how you can add a little flourish to your dai...

Chef Christine Flynn has cooked in restaurants in Nantucket, Toronto, and Beaune, but these days, she's trying to feed a family great food on a budget. Her new book, Easy Does It , offers chef-inflected weeknight dinners, impressive sides, salads, and sauces. It's also particularly smart about leftovers. "I think when people get leftover fatigue," Christine says, that's because they're simply rehe...

Ham El-Waylly has a restaurant—Strange Delight in Brooklyn—but the chef's new book, Hello Home Cooking , is not a restaurant cookbook. In this interview with host Maggie Hoffman, Ham shares his most important tips for home cooks, including smart farmers market shopping advice, thoughts on your nonstick cookware, and his favorite thing to put on a salad. He also shares his most beloved out-of-print...

Anissa Helou wrote her first book about Lebanese cooking in 1994. In this week's podcast conversation (recorded February 24), Anissa shares the story of that book, which largely focused on her mother's recipes, and the differences between that first 250-recipe collection and her new cookbook, Lebanon: Cooking the Food of My Homeland . Anissa's new book dives into Lebanese regional specialties, and...

Anna Hezel's new book is full of fun party food you can serve when you're entertaining—and this conversation with Anna offers tips for hosting without stress. Learn how Anna likes to serve party food in courses of quick snacks, heartier appetizers and warm dishes, and even dessert, and get her thoughts on the things we can learn from cocktail parties of generations past. If you've been in a cookin...