Actor Claudia Jessie is just as nonconformist as Eloise, her character on the hit Netflix show Bridgerton. She lived on a houseboat for three years, doesn’t have social media, and opposes multi-tasking. She likes living at a slower pace — and she has the same attitude when it comes to food. Claudia chats with Dan about chip butties, “shelf sweeping” (think: Chopped), and why she sort of wishes she waited until she was a bit older to go vegan. Then, she embodies Eloise to take a BuzzFeed quiz that promises to tell you which Bridgerton character you are based on the desserts you choose. Does the quiz know Eloise as well as Claudia does?The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, Grace Rubin, and Jared O'Connell. Publishing by Shantel Holder and transcription by Emily Nguyen.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

How do parents who adopt kids from other countries use food to connect their children to their birthplace? And what happens when those kids grow up and feel like it wasn't enough? This episode originally aired on July 31, 2017. It was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne Saini, and edited by Dan Charles, with additional editing by Rebecca Carroll, Nicole Chung, and Peter Clowney. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell. Publishing by Shantel Holder and transcription by Emily Nguyen.Every other Friday, we reach into our deep freezer and reheat an episode to serve up to you. We're calling these our Reheats. If you have a show you want reheated, send us an email or voice memo at hello@sporkful.com, and include your name, your location, which episode, and why.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Sotheby’s is about to put a trove of Georgia O'Keeffe items up for sale. While the auction will include paintings likely to go for millions of dollars, we're interested in something less valuable, but to us, way more exciting — O'Keeffe's box of grease-stained, handwritten recipes. This week Dan goes to see the recipes himself and talks with art experts, O’Keeffe scholars, and a woman who cooked for O'Keeffe towards the end of her life to find out what the recipes say about the artist. As for the auction? Well, it doesn't go exactly as planned.To see all of Georgia O'Keeffe's digitized recipes, visit Yale's Beinecke Library website.This episode originally aired on March 29, 2020, and was produced by Emma Morgenstern and Harry Huggins. It was edited by Tracey Samuelson, and mixed by Jared O’Connell. The Sporkful production team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Music producer and artist benny blanco has credits on 29 number one songs, working with stars such as Katy Perry, SZA, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Halsey, and more. But he’s long been as obsessed with food as he is with music. Now, benny’s releasing Open Wide: A Cookbook for Friends. It’s not just a collection of recipes, it’s also a manual for throwing a great party -- a topic that benny takes very seriously. He dishes with Dan on his affection for the George Foreman grill, the dessert that endeared him to SZA, and why he’s like a duck on a pond.If you want to win a copy of Open Wide, sign up for our newsletter by May 24. If you’re already on our mailing list, you’re already entered to win. Open to US and Canada addresses only.On Thursday, May 9, Dan will be teaming up with Café Mars in Brooklyn for a seated dinner featuring dishes inspired by Anything’s Pastable. See the full menu here. Anything’s Pastable will be for sale and Dan will be there to chat and sign copies. Reserve your spot here (scroll down to Experiences). One night only! Can’t make it to Brooklyn? You can catch Dan the following week, Thursday, May 16. He will be hosting a virtual cooking class with Milk Street. As we get ready for summer, he will be featuring two super flavorful, super easy dishes from the chapter of Anything’s Pastable entitled, “Pasta Salads Redeemed: Fresh and Bright, Hold The Mayo.” Watch Dan cook or cook along! Get 50% off with code PASTABLE50 (only for the first 30 people). Then use code COOKWITHDAN for 15% off.The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Shantel Holder, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

The food-obsessed comic discusses eating with his five children, navigating birthday parties and buffets, his dad's steaks, and when it's OK to lie to your kids. Plus he explains why he's the Jean-Claude Van Damme of eating on television.This episode originally aired on July 4, 2016, and July 20, 2015. It was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne Saini, with editing help from Shoshana Gold. Special thanks to Paula Szuchman. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, Shantel Holder, and Jared O'Connell.Every other Friday, we reach into our deep freezer and reheat an episode to serve up to you. We're calling these our Reheats. If you have a show you want reheated, send us an email or voice memo at hello@sporkful.com, and include your name, your location, which episode, and why.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Cookbook author Priya Krishna was a world traveler as a kid. Because of her mom’s job in the airline industry, Priya was able to go to China, Egypt, France, and more, chronicling all of the new foods she tried on her travels in her journal. Now, as an adult, she’s turning her childhood travelogs into the cookbook she wishes she had growing up — Priya’s Kitchen Adventures. She tells Dan why she thinks anyone who wants to become a better recipe writer should write recipes for kids, and we hear from some of the young recipe testers she worked with on the book.If you want to win a copy of Priya’s Kitchen Adventures, sign up for our newsletter by May 10. If you’re already on our mailing list, you’re already entered to win. Open to US and Canada addresses only.The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Dips are having a moment — from a dips-only restaurant in Atlanta to Martin Short playing a character who only eats dips. But TV host and Cosmo columnist Alyse Whitney was a self-described Dip Queen long before they got hot, and she proves it in her new cookbook, Big Dip Energy: 88 Parties in a Bowl for Snacking, Dinner, Dessert, and Beyond. She joins Dan in the studio to share her royal decrees on the right shape for a dipper, using raw vegetables to dip, and the ethics of double dipping. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell, with help this week from Shantel Holder. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

You may think you know LeVar Burton. After starring in the seminal 1977 mini-series Roots, he hosted Reading Rainbow and starred alongside Sir Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation. These days he hosts the podcasts LeVar Burton Reads, in which he reads his favorite short fiction, and Sound Detectives, for kids who want to explore the magic and mystery of sound. But did you know that, as a teenager, LeVar bought steaks and lobsters that “fell off the back of a truck” and brought them home to his mom? Or that he’s very particular about his PB&J sandwiches? In this episode, LeVar dishes on Sir Patrick Stewart’s weird lunches on the Star Trek set and shares his favorite children's books about food. And as proof that he can make anything he reads sound amazing, LeVar favors us with dramatic readings of recipes.This episode originally aired on September 11, 2017 and November 30, 2020, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, with editing by Dan Charles and engineering help from Jared O’Connell. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell.Every other Friday, we reach into our deep freezer and reheat an episode to serve up to you. We're calling these our Reheats. If you have a show you want reheated, send us an email or voice memo at hello@sporkful.com, and include your name, your location, which episode, and why.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Naama Shefi remembers visiting her husband’s grandmother for the first time, and being astonished by the stories tucked into each dish on the dinner table. That moment led her to start the Jewish Food Society, an organization that preserves and celebrates the diversity of Jewish food from around the world, which as Naama is quick to point out, goes far beyond Eastern European classics like brisket, kugel, smoked fish, and potato knishes. Now, Naama and the Jewish Food Society have a cookbook out, called The Jewish Holiday Table, which includes foods from Jews with roots in Spain, Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Zimbabwe, and more. Ahead of Passover, Dan talks with Naama about what she ate growing up on a kibbutz, the culture shock of moving to New York, and her favorite Passover recipes from the book — including a Mexican rendition of gefilte fish. If you’d like to support humanitarian efforts in Israel and Gaza, there are many organizations providing aid, including Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children. You can also support World Central Kitchen, a food aid organization that provides meals all over the world in crisis zones. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Laura and Beth Winters are fraternal twins who come from a family of proud picky eaters. But after high school, Laura left home for college and started exploring new foods, while Beth stayed close to home and continued to eat the same way she did growing up. What does their story tell us about nature vs. nurture, and the kinds of judgments we make about picky eating? Then later in the show, we talk with psychologist Christopher Rutt about picky eating in kids, and we ask: Is picky eating actually a problem?This episode originally aired on January 21, 2019, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Emma Morgenstern. It was edited by Gianna Palmer and mixed by John DeLore. The Sporkful team now includes Emma Morgenstern, Andres O’Hara, Jared O’Connell, and Nora Ritchie.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

You probably know Guy Fieri from his TV shows: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and Guy's Grocery Games. Or maybe you remember Pete Wells's epically scathing review of Guy's restaurant in New York City. But what you don’t know: The real Guy Fieri wants to open an all-organic restaurant. The real Guy Fieri hates that iconic bowling shirt with the flames. The real Guy Fieri feels like he’s always trying to keep up — and that it’s really hard to do so.This episode originally aired on August 17, 2020, and October 17, 2017. It was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Dan Charles.  The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell.Every other Friday, we reach into our deep freezer and reheat an episode to serve up to you. We're calling these our Reheats. If you have a show you want reheated, send us an email or voice memo at hello@sporkful.com, and include your name, your location, which episode, and why.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

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 from the book one last time. When he has to pick the most important photo of all — the cover — the pressure is on. Will his publisher, and his family, judge his book by it?Anything’s Pastable the cookbook is on sale tomorrow, March 19, but you can order it today (including signed copies), and see if Dan’s visiting a city near you on his tour of book signings and live podcast tapings with special guests! Follow Dan on Instagram to see photos and videos from the Anything’s Pastable journey. And if listening to this episode makes you want to go to Italy, now’s your chance! Dan has teamed up with Culinary Backstreets to create a tour that will take you to many of the same places, with many of the same people. Tour Rome with Katie Parla, take a cooking class in Lecce with Silvestro Silvestori, and eat pasta in Bari with Dan!The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell, with editing by Tracey Samuelson and Tomeka Weatherspoon. Original theme music by Andrea Kristinsdottir.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

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 book signings and live podcast tapings with special guests! Follow Dan on Instagram to see photos and videos from the Anything’s Pastable journey. And if listening to this episode makes you want to go to Italy, now’s your chance! Dan has teamed up with Culinary Backstreets to create a tour that will take you to many of the same places, with many of the same people. Tour Rome with Katie Parla, take a cooking class in Lecce with Silvestro Silvestori, and eat pasta in Bari with Dan!The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell, with editing by Tracey Samuelson and Tomeka Weatherspoon. Original theme music by Andrea Kristinsdottir.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

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 regional specialty called spaghetti all’assassina (“assassin’s spaghetti”) was invented. All of this leads Dan to wonder: What does evolution look like in a food culture that’s so often depicted in sepia tones? And what’s his place in that process?Preorder Dan’s cookbook today (including signed copies), and see if he’s visiting a city near you on his tour of book signings and live podcast tapings with special guests! Follow Dan on Instagram to see photos and videos from the Anything’s Pastable journey. And if listening to this episode makes you want to go to Italy, now’s your chance! Dan has teamed up with Culinary Backstreets to create a tour that will take you to many of the same places, with many of the same people. Tour Rome with Katie Parla, take a cooking class in Lecce with Silvestro Silvestori, and eat pasta in Bari with Dan!The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell, with editing by Tracey Samuelson, Tomeka Weatherspoon, and Julia Russo. Special thanks to Katie Parla. Original theme music by Andrea Kristinsdottir.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

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, cascatelli and beyond! There’s only one problem: he’s never written a recipe in his life. In this four-part series, Dan shares the inside story of creating his first cookbook, Anything’s Pastable — from the highs and lows of recipe testing, to a research trip across Italy, to the agonizing decisions over the design of the cover. By the end, you'll never look at a cookbook the same way again.Preorder Dan’s cookbook today (including signed copies), and see if he’s visiting a city near you on his tour of book signings and live podcast tapings with special guests. And follow Dan on Instagram to see photos and videos from the Anything’s Pastable journey!This is Episode 1 of Anything’s Pastable, and Episode 2 is available in your feed right now! The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell, with editing by Tracey Samuelson, Tomeka Weatherspoon, and Julia Russo. Original theme music by Andrea Kristinsdottir.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

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 discussion of Pop-Tarts. Gary joins Dan to discuss his personal and professional evolution over the past 30 years, through a survey of his three decades of food jokes. Plus Gary shares an entirely new joke about the word “spork.”The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

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 the story, and she learns the secrets of hand-rolling bagels from an expert at Shelsky's Brooklyn Bagels. Make sure you listen all the way to the end to hear Sohla and Ham’s bagel taste test! And check out some behind the scenes photos from this episode on Sohla and Ham’s Instagrams.Deep Dish is a production of The Sporkful. The team includes Sohla El-Waylly, Ham El-Waylly, Andres O’Hara, Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell, with additional editing by Josh Richmond and Tomeka Weatherspoon. Original theme music by Casey Holford.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com

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 how it cooks its food — at least when it comes to how much customers spend.This episode originally aired on February 24, 2020, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Sally Helm, Emma Morgenstern, Harry Huggins, and Anne Saini, along with Darian Woods, Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi, Alex Goldmark, Bryant Urstadt, and Isaac Rodrigues of Planet Money. It was edited by Tracey Samuelson and mixed by Jared O’Connell. The Sporkful team now includes Emma Morgenstern, Andres O’Hara, Jared O’Connell, and Nora Ritchie.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

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 host, chef, and restaurateur Vivian Howard, and Amanda Mull, a staff writer at The Atlantic. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

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 the episode to hear Ham cook up tacos al pastor with a twist! You can find that recipe on Ham’s Instagram.Deep Dish is a production of The Sporkful. The team includes Sohla El-Waylly, Ham El-Waylly, Andres O’Hara, Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell, with additional editing by Josh Richmond and Tomeka Weatherspoon. Original theme music by Casey Holford.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.