The Sporkful

In the final episode of “Anything’s Pastable,” the recipes are done — but they’re all in Google Docs. Now Dan has to bring them together into an actual book, with a cohesive visual style. So he hires an art director who scours flea markets for just the right props to bring the book’s personality to life. Then Dan heads to the Bay Area for the photo shoot, which means cooking nearly every recipe fr...

As Dan’s cookbook deadline approaches, recipe testing kicks into high gear — and he attempts to develop a few recipes on his own. But scorched pans and sauce spills lead to frayed nerves. Can he rediscover the creative spark that got him excited about this project in the first place? Preorder Dan’s cookbook today (including signed copies), and see if he’s visiting a city near you on his tour of bo...

In part two of “Anything’s Pastable,” Dan embarks on an epic trip across Italy in search of lesser-known pasta dishes — and to learn about the evolution of pasta more broadly. He starts in Rome, where food writer Katie Parla reveals a shocking truth about pasta. Then an Italian food historian challenges Dan’s thinking about carbonara. Finally, he heads south to meet a chef who was there when a reg...

After Dan’s pasta shape, cascatelli , went viral, people everywhere were cooking with it and sending him photos of what they were making. As exciting as that was, he was disappointed that most folks were only making a handful of well-worn dishes with this new shape. So Dan decided to write a cookbook to show the world that there’s so much more you can and should be putting on all your pasta shapes...

Gary Gulman did so many food bits early in his stand-up career that he joked he was "a strictly food-based comic." But as his comedy started to evolve in new directions, the role of food in his act changed, too. Instead of observational humor, Gary now uses food in a more personal way — from talking about ice cream as a window into his clinical depression, to skewering income inequality through a...

Violence, death threats, and bagels, oh my! In this final episode of Deep Dish season one, Sohla and Ham explore the origins of bagels, and the tough-as-nails Eastern Europe immigrants who created a thriving bagel business in New York. When the mafia tried to muscle its way into the bagel business, the bagel bakers fought back — but in the process, they failed to see a bigger threat. Sohla tells t...

One table in New York's Adda Indian Canteen is underperforming the others. And in a business with razor-thin margins, that's a real problem. In this special collaboration with Sally Helm and NPR's Planet Money , we enlist the help of a tape measure-wielding professor to try to turn the loser table into a winner. It turns out that how a restaurant treats its real estate might be more important than...

Stanley cups are all the rage, but did you know they’ve been around for decades? So what happened to make them go viral? We chat about that and much more, including the internet’s love affair with Josh wines, competitive hot pepper eating, and a food-based test of true love, in this edition of the Salad Spinner. This week’s rapid-fire roundtable discussion of the latest food news features the TV h...

Tacos al pastor are an iconic Mexico City dish — but a relatively new addition to Mexican cuisine. And they only came to be with influences from halfway around the world. Ham and Sohla share the surprising story of al pastor’s origins, then Ham visits Taquería Ramírez , one of the most talked about taco spots in Brooklyn, to learn their unique method. Make sure you listen all the way to the end of...

New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells has been called the most feared food writer in America. He can make or break a restaurant with the power of one of his reviews. When he goes out, he does so in secret, making reservations under fake names because he doesn't want restaurants to know that he's coming. This week Pete takes Dan on an undercover mission to a New York restaurant. Then they tal...

In 1964 Rocky Aoki, a Japanese immigrant, created hibachi restaurants in America when he opened his first Benihana. Rocky later said that he based his concept on the idea that "Americans enjoy eating in exotic surroundings, but are deeply mistrustful of exotic foods.” The restaurant took off, but Rocky's legacy is complicated. In this week's show we hear from people who knew Rocky, and we talk wit...

Today on Deep Dish, Sohla and Ham explore the history of Korea through the story of a rice cake. Tteokbokki (Korean rice cakes) are as popular in Korea as hot dogs are in the U.S. Ji Hye Kim , the chef and owner of Miss Kim in Ann Arbor, Michigan, fell in love with tteokbokki as a kid in South Korea. When she moved to Michigan, her attempt to recreate a taste of home led her to tteokbokki’s surpri...

Introducing Deep Dish, a new podcast from The Sporkful hosted by Sohla and Ham El-Waylly! Sohla and Ham are chefs, recipe developers, YouTube stars — and they’re married. In each episode, Sohla and Ham uncover the surprising story behind a dish, then go back to their kitchen to see what they’re inspired to cook up. All episodes of Deep Dish will run here in The Sporkful feed. In this first episode...

Over the past few years there has been an explosion in new products in grocery stores, from barbecue sauces to nut butters to seltzers. Big brands have dominated the shelves for decades, but small startups have elbowed their way in thanks to a surprising strategy, which reveals something about how supermarkets actually make money. Dan goes to a grocery store with John Stanton , a professor at St....

Ben Abbott wants to pair his meals with drinks, but as a Mormon, he doesn't drink alcohol. So Dan journeys to Galco’s Soda Pop Stop , an offbeat soda shop in Los Angeles, to find Ben some beverages. Plus, linguist John McWhorter explains why some people say soda, coke, or pop. This episode originally aired on January 21, 2015, and again on March 25, 2019. It was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini...

The most common New Year’s resolution Americans make is to lose weight. For many years, that was Aubrey Gordon ’s resolution, too. But one conversation with a friend led Aubrey to rethink the way we talk about fat people and weight loss. Now, as a fat activist, Aubrey writes about anti-fat bias and the physical and emotional realities of being a fat person in the world. This week she tells us why...

From tortilla chips to tree bark, from fancy cheese to toe cheese, there’s a world of smells all around us that tells us a lot about food, drink, and everything else. So says legendary food scientist Harold McGee in his new book, Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World’s Smells . Harold joins us to explain the connection between wet dog smell and fermented cabbage, and why we should have more “smell...

What foods do Sporkful listeners resolve to eat more of in the new year, and why? And what’s Dan’s New Year’s food resolution for 2024? All is revealed in our annual year-end spectacular. Plus we replay one of the Sporkful crew’s favorite episodes of the year, with the comedian Zarna Garg, who found her voice during turbulent times in her life. Zarna spent 16 years as a stay-at-home mom. Now she s...

Samin Nosrat, author of the best-selling cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat , joins Dan to talk about feeling like an outsider, sexism and pretentiousness in food, and the finer points of toast. This episode originally aired on October 8, 2018. It was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Aviva DeKornfeld, with editing by Gianna Palmer, and mixing by Dan Dzula. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashm...

Since the Michelin Guide was created in 1926, it has awarded about 3,000 stars to select restaurants around the world. And while Michelin has a ton of brand recognition, the system it uses to rate restaurants is also famously secretive. Today on The Sporkful, we pull back the curtain on the guide and speak with a former Michelin inspector about his experience handing out stars. Then we talk with E...

We are back with another Salad Spinner, and this time it’s our year end edition! Remember when Starbucks debuted olive oil coffee? Or when Grimace, the McDonald’s mascot that looks like a purple blob, became a queer icon? This rapid-fire roundtable discussion covers all the biggest, strangest, and most surprising food stories of 2023, with our panelists: Jaya Saxena , correspondent at Eater , and...

The native Minnesotan explains why a little internal bleeding can't keep her from a treat, and why the way she eats salad is like the way she deals with depression. This episode originally aired on April 24, 2016, and again on April 15, 2019. It was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Ngofeen Mputubwele, with editing help from Gianna Palmer and special thanks to Paula Szuchman. The Sporkful t...

Fuchsia Dunlop has written some of the best known English-language books on Chinese cooking, spending years at a time immersing herself in different regions of China in order to learn the area’s dialect and culinary specialties. But as she tells Dan, that wasn’t her original plan. She moved to Chengdu in her 20s because she wanted to live abroad and knew the food there would be great. Still, she s...

When Jody Scaravella lost his grandma, his mom, and his sister within a few years, he opened a restaurant in their honor, as a way of dealing with his grief. But the restaurant, Enoteca Maria on Staten Island, NY, had a twist: the chefs were all Italian grandmas, or nonnas. After a few years, Jody started inviting grandmas from all over the world to cook at his restaurant. In this week's show, we...

Starting this week we're pulling one classic Sporkful from the deep freezer every other Friday and sharing it with you! We're calling these episodes "Reheats." If you have one you want to hear, email us at hello@sporkful.com ! This week to kick things off: We discuss the beauty and tyranny of tradition, as well as the Wheel Of Infinite Thanksgiving Anxiety, with legendary food writer Mimi Sheraton...