Special Sauce with Ed Levine

Ed Levine

About

Serious Eats' podcast Special Sauce enables food lovers everywhere to eavesdrop on an intimate conversation about food and life between host and Serious Eats founder Ed Levine and his well-known/famous friends and acquaintances both in and out of the food culture.

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353 episodes

Channing Frye: NBA Champ and Wine Guy, Part 2

Channing Frye had so much to say about wine, hoops, and life we decided to devote a second episode to him and his company Chosen Family Wines.

27m
May 10
Channing Frye: NBA Champ and Wine Guy

How do you go from being an NBA champ to starting a wine company? Find out on this episode of Special Sauce when we interview Chosen Family Wines founder Channing Frye.

31m
May 03
Anajak: Thai Taco Tuesday & More

We're back with more wit and wisdom from Justin Pichetrungsi, the chef-owner of the award-winning Anajak Thai in Sherman Oaks, California. We'll hear about the origins of Thai Taco Tuesday and so much more.

25m
Apr 26
Anajak Thai - Justin Pichetrungsi

This week on Special Sauce we hang out with Justin Pichetrungsi, the James Beard Award-winning chef-owner of the justifiably heralded Anajak Thai in Los Angeles (Sherman Oaks to be exact). How and why he went from working in animation at Disney to taking over his family's restaurant makes for quite a story.

26m
Apr 19
Phil Rosenthal: Live & Much More

This week on Special Sauce I talk to my old friend Phil Rosenthal about the new season of Somebody Feed Phil, his national tour, and Just Try It, the children's book that he wrote with his daughter Lily

30m
Apr 12
Kenji: Teriyaki in Seattle

This week on Special Sauce we talk teriyaki with Kenji, who is on a quest to visit every chicken teriyaki joint in Seattle.

25m
Apr 05
Jacques Torres - hot chocolate

This week on Special Sauce we talk hot chocolate with Mr. Chocolate himself, Jacques Torres. Jacques makes my favorite hot chocolate mix.

24m
Mar 29
Kenji and Deb: The Recipe Podcast

This week on Special Sauce we get the backstory of Deb Perelman and J. Kenji Lopez Alt's brand new podcast The Recipe.

35m
Mar 22
Slow Noodles: A Story of Love, Loss, and Resilience

This week on Special Sauce we hear the remarkable story of Chantha Nguon, a Cambodian woman who suffers unbearable losses and unspeakable tragedies suffered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge by imagining the taste of her mother's cooking.

39m
Mar 15
Dorie Greenspan's Cookie Advice

This week on Special Sauce Dorie Greenspan zooms in from Paris with lots of helpful cookie baking advice.

22m
Mar 08
Nancy Silverton: Foolproof Baker's Recipes

This week on Special Sauce, James Beard Award-winning chef and baker Nancy Silverton talks about her new book ‘The Cookie that Changed My Life’. Any serious eater who loves to bake should check it out.

38m
Mar 01
Dorie Greenspan's Low Key Baking Brilliance

This week on Special Sauce we get some brilliant, common sense home baking advice from home baking wizard Dorie Greenspan.

26m
Feb 24
Burlap and Barrel Pt 2 + vox pop

This week on Special we continue our deep dive into the world of dried spices with Ethan Frisch and Ori Zohar, founders of Burlap & Barrel. And we hear from some serious eaters about their experiences with buying, using and storing their dried spices.

31m
Feb 16
Jacques Torres, Mr. Chcocolate Redux

For Valentine's Day I dug up this classic interview with Mr. Chocolate, Jacques Torres. He gives us a succinct master class in making bean to bar chocolate, from growing the cacao beans to making milk, dark, and white chocolate creations to sell in his shops and online.

28m
Feb 09
Crystal Wilkinson On Kitchen Ghosts

This week on Special Sauce I talk with former Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson, author of the culinary memoir, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks.

30m
Feb 02
Burlap and Barrel

This week on we talk to the good guy spice whisperers Ethan Frisch and Ori Zohar, who are the founders of the socially conscious spice company Burlap & Barrel. They are on a mission to to build new international spice supply chains that are equitable, transparent, and traceable.

31m
Jan 26
Toni Tipton Martin 2: African American Cocktails and More

This week on Special Sauce we delve deeper into Toni Tipton Martin's seminal research into African-American cooking and cocktails.

23m
Jan 19
Toni Tipton Martin: African-American Cookbooks

This week on Special Sauce we talk African American Cookbooks with Cook's Country editor in chief, food historian, and writer Toni Tipton Martin.

26m
Jan 12
Harlem Seafood Soul's Tami Treadwell Redux, Part 2

This week on Special Sauce we hear part 2 of one of our favorite interviews of 2022 with the inimitable Tami Treadwell, the charismatic founder of Harlem Seafood Soul.

27m
Jan 05
Re-release: Harlem Seafood Soul Part 1

As the year draws to a close we thought we'd repeat (or should I say reheat) a couple of our favorite Special Sauce episodes for your listening pleasure. Harlem Seafood Soul's Tami Treadwell has a great story to tell and she tells it compellingly on Special Sauce. Tami just opened up a spot in Brooklyn's DeKalb Food Hall, so I went to pay her a visit. As usual Tami's food was seriously delicious. Crispy well-seasoned fried chicken, peppery mac and cheese, and killer cornbread. And Tami's unique brand of hospitality made every customer a friend before their food was even served. Tami told me that she's working on an exciting new truck. So happy holidays, Tami, and to all you serious eaters out there as well. As always, thanks for listening. 

38m
Dec 29, 2023
George Motz: What Makes A Great Burger

This week on Special Sauce we hear more about what makes a great burger with Hamburger America's George Motz

22m
Dec 22, 2023
George Motz: Hamburger America

Ths week on Special Sauce I catch up with my old running partner George Motz, America's first bona fide burger scholar. George has just opened his very own burger joint Hamburger America.

28m
Dec 15, 2023
Fuschia Dunlop on Chinese Cuisine, Part 2

This week on Special Sauce we go really deep into Fuschia Dunlop's latest book, ‘Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food’. It just got a rave front page review from NYT book critic Dwight Garner.

23m
Dec 08, 2023
Fuchsia Dunlop on Chinese Cuisine

This week on Special Sauce, we’ll hear about Fuchsia Dunlop’s journey from her first Chinese cooking classes to the researching and writing of her 7th book, Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food https://www.amazon.com/Invitation-Banquet-Story-Chinese-Food-ebook/dp/B0BWGKNK7G. We'll find out what she's learned about the country's history and culture in her many years of exploring Chinese cuisine, and why she says she'll never get bored of eating and writing about Chinese food.

25m
Dec 01, 2023
Thanksgiving Leftovers with Kenji and Deb

On this episode of Special Sauce Kenji Lopez Alt and Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman come to our rescue with some helpful hints about what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers.

18m
Nov 24, 2023
Thanksgiving: Kenji and Deb Reduce Your Stress

On this episode of Special Sauce Kenji and Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman give us some tips on how to cook up a Thanksgiving feast in a small space without stressing out.

45m
Nov 17, 2023
Hetty McKinnon: The Vegetable Whisperer Part 2

This week on Special Sauce we hear more about the joy of vegetables and the importance of family with “Tenderheart” author Hetty McKinnon.

31m
Nov 10, 2023
Hetty McKinnon: The Vegetable Whisperer

On this week's Special Sauce I talk to food writer Hetty Liu McKinnon.With her five vegetarian cookbooks, her popular Substack newsletter, and her ingenious vegetarian recipes for the New York Times, food writer Hetty has been called the vegetable whisperer, and rightfully so.

31m
Nov 03, 2023
Hunger Pangs Part 2: A Father and Son Connect Through Food

Last week, we got an inside look at the father son relationship at the heart of the YouTube series, Hunger Pangs https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnbzopdwFrnbzSq4XeVpcql9-j_RRXAdL. This time we pick up our conversation with Kevin Pak, the Editorial director of Digital at America's Test Kitchen https://www.americastestkitchen.com/and his dad, Jeffrey, and learn about how they transformed their success online into a new book, A Very Chinese Cookbook: 100 Recipes from China & Not China (But Still Really Chinese) https://shop.americastestkitchen.com/very-chinese-cookbook.html.

29m
Oct 27, 2023
Hunger Pangs Part 1: A Chinese-American Family Food Saga

On this episode of Special Sauce I talk to food writer Kevin Pang and his dad Jeffrey about how they bridged their substantial generation gap through their shared love of food and cooking.

23m
Oct 20, 2023