Special Sauce With Ed Levine

On this episode of Special Sauce we revisit our chocolate-centric conversation with Mr. Chocolate himself Jacques Torres just in time for Valentine's Day. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Super Bowl is coming up, so for Super Bowl party food advice who better to turn to than Kenji. The man loves chicken wings and pizza and he gives us some sage advice about making them at home. But he does not love football.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

After falling in love with Italy, my good friend engineer and serial entrepreneur Bob Lang and his wife, environmental writer Alice Outwater, decided to buy a three acre vineyard called La Collina Delle Amici (The Hill of Friends) in Piedmont in 2021. How's it going for them so far?  Well, we're going to find out in this week's episode of Special Sauce. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this episode of Special Sauce, grassroots food activist and farmer Karen Washington joins us to spread her message of food justice, the concept that healthy, nutritious food is a human right. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this episode of Special Sauce we go deep into the definition, history, and evolution of the New York pizza slice with Scott's Pizza Tours founder Scott Wiener. 

On this episode of Special Sauce we pay tribute to the great author, chef and cooking teacher Raghavan Iyer. He introduced much of America to the joys of cooking and eating Indian food.  We talked to Raghavan last in March of 2023 about his life, his work, and the last book he ever wrote, "On The Curry Trail". Raghavan talked openly and movingly about his terminal Stage 4 cancer diagnosis and the work he was doing on healing comfort food. His voice occasionally wavered -- you could hear the pain in it -- but he was clear-headed and just as articulate as ever. Raghavan had so much to say, we devoted two episodes to his story, which we have condensed into one. Tragically, he died just as the two episodes dropped. So give a listen to the wit and wisdom of Raghavan Iyer. 

With the new year fast approaching we thought we would help bring it in by re-releasing -- or should I say reheating -- one of our favorite 'Special Sauce' episodes of all time. It features both my extraordinary conversation with  Michelle Zauner and a great talk about the relationship between food and music with Kenji. Michelle is the founder and lead singer of the great indie rock band Japanese Breakfast. And her NYT best-selling memoirist is titled 'Crying in H Mart'. 

On this episode of Special Sauce serious eaters will meet Roy Shvartzapel, who makes transcendent panettone at his LA online bakery From Roy. 

With the holiday season in full swing, this serious eater's attention turns to eating and baking cookies. And who better to shoot the breeze with on this rich topic than author and baker Erin Jeanne McDowell, who has been called the fairy godmother of baking. She's got some tricks for us.

As we go about planning our upcoming holiday feasts, it's a pretty good bet that at some point we're going to pick up a bottle of wine or two to share with family and friends. That's why I'm returning to my conversation with someone who's been a guiding light for wine connoisseurs and beginners alike, Eric Asimov, the wine critic for The New York Times.

Thanksgiving leftovers can sometimes be a freighted topic for serious eaters. Last year, trying to quell my own Thanksgiving leftovers anxiety and confusion, I had Deb Perelman and J. Kenji Lopez Alt, longtime friends and co-hosts of their own podcast The Recipe, on Special Sauce. We covered a lot of ground in our discussion, everything from the joys of eating leftover cold pie for breakfast to the wisdom of waffling your leftover stuffing. We had so much fun that I decided it was worth reheating and serving to serious eaters again this year. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving and the holiday season are upon us and that means this serious eater's thoughts turn to pie! And so I thought I would perform a public service by inviting perhaps our greatest pie baking teacher, Erin Jeanne McDowell from the YouTube series 'Happy Baking', to come on Special Sauce and talk about all things pie.

If you're like me, you're probably already worrying about holiday dinners and parties that you might have to bring stuff to. And at least some of us might be a little punchy at the thought of cooking or baking for friends. So to the rescue comes friend of Special Sauce, Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman. 

On this episode of Special Sauce The New York Times's wine writer Eric Asimov shares his democratic and unsnobby approach to both food and wine, which invites newcomers and longtime enthusiasts to explore their own wine experiences.

On this episode of Special Sauce I talk to author and fellow pie lover Stacey Mei Yan Fong about her new book '50 Pies, 50 States, An Immigrant's Love Letter to the U.S. Through Pie'.

In part two of our discussion, Ruth Reichl and I get into how the American government has played a major role in corrupting our food system.

On this episode of Special Sauce legendary food critic Ruth Reichl talks about the documentary film "Food & Country" which she stars in and co-produced.  

On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to Sullivan Street Bakery founder Jim Lahey about his revolutionary no-knead bread making technique.

On this episode of Special Sauce, Kenji and I dig deep into his (almost) foolproof pan pizza recipe. 

On this episode of Special Sauce we meet Rollen Chalmers, a third-generation African-American rice farmer based in South Carolina, who is reclaiming his roots one grain of Carolina Gold rice at a time.