The Sporkful

“The time has come for us to change the coffee brand that we offer and we want your input!” The email came from Myiesha Gordon in the HR Department at WNYC. Like many others, Myiesha hated the office coffee. This week we follow her as she sets up a taste test and an office-wide coffee election. We'll find out why office coffee is so important to people, plus we'll talk to a caffeine researcher abo...

McDonald’s soft-serve machines break down so often that a corner of the internet is awash in memes and videos about their unreliability. Enter Jeremy O’Sullivan and Melissa Nelson, two entrepreneurs who wanted to fix the broken machines. They thought they'd succeeded — until McDonald’s told its franchisees to stay away. This week we talk with Jeremy, Melissa, and Andy Greenberg, the Wired reporter...

In honor of July 4th, we’re exploring an important part of American history – the contributions of enslaved Black chefs, whose work influences American cuisine to this day. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson brought the enslaved chef James Hemings, brother of Sally Hemings, with him to France to train under the French culinary masters of the day. Hemings created a cuisine that was half French, half Virgini...

Summer is here, and for years, Dan has spent part of his summer in New England visiting family and friends. This week he’s visiting two New England summer institutions. First is Woodman’s —known as the place where fried clams were invented—in Essex, Massachusetts, the clam capital of America. Dan chats with the owner, Steve Woodman, about the origin of their fried clams, and sits down for a meal w...

Dan goes inside Consumer Reports , the independent nonprofit that tests and rates everything from toaster ovens to frozen pizzas to luxury cars. CR takes testing very seriously, and Dan gets to see their process in action. It all starts with an undercover shopper who goes by the pseudonym Jim. Then Dan visits the labs at HQ, where he sees how a gas range is poked, prodded, and brought to its limit...

How do restaurants decide who gets the worst tables? Why are Americans obsessed with the German supermarket chain Aldi? And should iced coffee only be consumed in hot weather? We get into all that and more in our Salad Spinner! Dan is joined by Deena Shanker , who covers food and health for Bloomberg Businessweek , and Elazar Sontag , food critic at The Washington Post. They discuss why Diet Coke’...

As a struggling young actor, Ty Burrell pretended to be a guest at hotels to get the free breakfast buffet. Now he fights the urge to pocket food at the Emmys. He talks about his hors d'oeuvres strategy at fancy Hollywood events, getting his kids to eat slower, and how Utah's arcane liquor laws actually benefitted the two Salt Lake City bars he owns. This episode originally aired on September 4, 2...

In just a few weeks, the United States will mark its 250th birthday, with celebrations all across the country. But when cake artist Grace Pak started looking into it a few months ago, she realized the festivities were missing something crucial: a birthday cake! Now, she’s been tasked with making it. It’ll take a month to complete and include contributions from dozens of members of Congress. The fi...

For comedian and former Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj , biryani is more than a delicious food. It's a guide to life: pulling out the good bits and pushing the weird stuff to the side. And when you're a third-culture kid, Hasan says, you pick and choose which parts of the two cultures to make part of your life. This week, we get Hasan's take on how performing stand-up comedy is like eating...

For decades starting in the 1940s, Ebony was one of the only magazines created by Black people that spoke directly to Black people. It showed Black Americans falling in love, playing sports, dressing in style, gathering together – and eating. Freda DeKnight was the magazine’s first food editor, publishing recipes that were international and sophisticated, challenging the stereotype that Black Amer...

Piña coladas are way better in theory than in practice. Take it from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. "The tragedy of the piña colada is that it was never wholesome. From the very start the piña colada was built on something horrible, which is Coco Lopez ," she says, referring to the canned cream of coconut junk that's long been the stomachache-inducing base of the drink. This week Rachel tells us how sh...

Last year we got an email from a young woman named Eleanor Sigel that said: “I’m training for the Taco Bell 50k . With ten Taco Bell stops in thirty miles, it should be a fun run, so I thought I'd invite you to join me.” While Dan had absolutely no interest in running 31 miles, eating that much Taco Bell, or combining the two endeavors into one, we decided to follow Eleanor as she took on the chal...

Nicole Taylor went through a phase where she rejected the soul food she grew up with. She called it all "slave food." Truth is, we all make judgments about what food is for which people, whether or not we realize it. Why are we willing to pay more for Italian and Japanese food than Chinese and Mexican? As we find out in this week's Reheat, it has nothing to do with the ingredients. And in the seco...

Matt Shearer, aka Reporter Matt , has made a name for himself with his social media stories about some of the quirkier denizens of Massachusetts. One of his most famous is about the massive public outcry over the closure of both locations of Dunkin’ in Stow, MA -- which led to a surprising development. Reporter Matt joins us live on stage at WBUR CitySpace in Boston, along with cookbook author Omi...

Is mulch really necessary in the garden? How should you keep pests away from your strawberries? What’s the best way to keep your tomatoes from toppling over? As the weather warms up, we answer your most pressing gardening questions, with Keyatta Mincey . She’s the founder of A Sip of Paradise , a community garden for people in the hospitality industry in Atlanta. Keyatta tells us how she got this...

Caity Weaver is a journalist who lives for a food quest. Her latest adventure has her crisscrossing the country in search of the best free restaurant bread in America. Now, after polling hundreds of people and traveling 13,000 miles, she’s convinced she’s found it. Read Caity’s cover story in The Atlantic : “ I Found It: The Best Free Restaurant Bread In America .” The Sporkful production team inc...

Allie Rowbottom ’s great-great-great uncle bought the patent to Jell-O from its inventor in 1899 for $450, then sold it in the 1920s for $67 million — nearly a billion dollars in today’s money. Lately, Allie’s been obsessed with how all that Jell-O money shaped America, and her own family. It’s funded generations of Rowbottom women, including Allie, but it’s also been a shadow they can't escape. J...

Over the past few years, Houston has taken in more Afghan refugees than any other American city. When refugees arrive, Omer Yousafzai is there to welcome them. He owns The Afghan Village restaurant, which has become a community hub and gathering place for Afghans and non-Afghans alike. This week Dan heads to Houston to share a meal with Omer at his restaurant. Over palau and kabobs — cooked with t...

Humorist, CBS Sunday Morning correspondent, and former Cooking Channel host Mo Rocca joins Dan to talk about his grandma, debate whether square or round ravioli is better, and tell us which variety is the Kenny G of ravioli. Plus Mo and Dan debate Latin grammar, and Mo tells us about a meal that almost killed him. This episode originally aired on September 22, 2014, and September 19, 2016, and was...

Do you need to ask your partner if you can double dip? How guilty should you feel about not eating leftovers? We’re taking your calls and helping you settle your food disputes! Joining Dan to help are Ham El-Waylly , author of Hello, Home Cooking , and Pailin Chongchitnant , who just released a tenth-anniversary edition of her book Hot Thai Kitchen . We also puzzle through questions about when to...

First up in this Reheat double-header: The comedian and podcast host Phoebe Robinson tells us how to navigate a big meal in tight jeans, who should pay on a first date, and what it’s like to go out to eat when you’re in an interracial relationship. In the second half: Husband-and-wife comedians Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher co-host a podcast and often perform standup together. In their Netflix...

Eva Longoria is a household name for her work as a TV star, director, and producer. But when she sits down with Dan, she reveals another side of her personality: She’s a huge food nerd. She explores this side in her new CNN show, Searching for France , and on her podcast Hungry for History . This week, Eva shares some of the most surprising things she’s learned in the Searching For series, from ho...

Is a buttered roll a sandwich? What about a hot dog? Is it still brunch if it’s 2pm? Should sparkling water be called water? Dan debates food and language with Peter Kim , formerly of the Museum of Food and Drink in NYC, and Helen Zaltzman from The Allusionist podcast. This episode originally aired on April 27, 2015, and was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne Saini. The Sporkful team now includes Da...

Years ago, when Dan was at Disney World with his family, he saw a gumbo recipe on the wall in the queue for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Since then, he’s wondered: Is the recipe real? Where did it come from? This week, he finds out the answer, and much more, when he gets a rare look behind the scenes at Disney World. Dan meets several Imagineers, the designers behind so many of the magical elements at...

Live on stage from Chicago! Hot Doug explains why he turned down millions and closed his famous sausage shop. Plus, filmmaker and food writer Kevin Pang talks about his documentary, For Grace , about Chef Curtis Duffy . Chef Curtis joins us to discuss his journey to the top, and to reveal his favorite candy. This episode originally aired on August 3, 2015, and was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne...