Special Sauce With Ed Levine

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

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.

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.

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.

This week on Special Sauce 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.

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

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

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.

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. 

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

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Last week, we got an inside look at the father son relationship at the heart of the YouTube series, Hunger Pangs. This time we pick up our conversation with Kevin Pak, the Editorial director of Digital at America's Test Kitchen 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).

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.

On this episode of Special Sauce the great "pie-stress" Chrissy Kinsman is back with pie tips for amateur baking.