The Sporkful

Kwame Onwuachi learns to cook in the middle of the ocean... In the past year, Kwame Onwuachi has become one of the fastest rising star chefs in America. His DC restaurant, Kith and Kin, is widely considered one of the best in the country. But he went through countless twists and turns to get there. His story is so wild that he wrote a memoir, Notes From A Young Black Chef, that's now being made into a movie starring Lakeith ... Read more

The Daily Show correspondent has a lot of food opinions... Ronny Chieng’s recurring segment on The Daily Show is called “Everything Is Stupid,” and you could say that’s the theme of a lot of his stand-up, too. His style is often grumpy and caustic. But the one thing he won’t call out as stupid is a restaurant. In this week's podcast he explains why. He also talks about his meticulous system for keeping track of restaurants h... Read more

It’s that time of year again… We’re closing out 2019 with our annual tradition -- having you tell us what foods you resolve to eat more of in the new year, and why. Plus Dan reveals his own food resolution for 2020, and we replay our April Fool's episode from earlier this year. We think you'll enjoy the satire even more knowing from the beginning that it's a joke.

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A visit to a very exclusive holiday party... When Jody lost his grandmother, mom, and sister within a few years, he opened a restaurant to deal with the grief. But this place is very different from other Staten Island Italian joints.

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Angie Mar's book is “a giant ‘F you’ to every other cookbook"… When Chef Angie Mar threw a party recently to celebrate the release of her new book, people were drinking from mini champagne bottles with straws. Her favorite part was “watching my guests scoop obscene amounts of caviar on their French fries and gnaw on rib bones, butter dripping down their arms on to their tuxedos.” This image encapsulates the whole feeling... Read more

The former Daily Show correspondent talks food and his triple identity: Indian, British, American… Aasif Manddvi isn't a fan of American food excess – except when it provides the perfect metaphor for his own tri-cultural upbringing. He talks about making sense of his dueling identities, his love of peanut butter, and the fight he had with his father over a Big Gulp. Catch his new podcast, Lost at the Smithsonian, from Stitch... Read more

Virginia is for (wine and cheese) lovers... Can you make a good vegan cheese? What in the world is orange wine? We find out when Dan heads to the Fire, Flour, & Fork Festival in Richmond, VA, to talk with the craftspeople building the growing wine and vegan cheese scenes in the state.

A Forager’s Life

Dan goes foraging!...Jay Marion is a master forager who lives in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. One chef says, “Jay can consistently find world-class ingredients just by going for a walk in the woods.” This week, Dan joins Jay for one of those walks, and hears the story of how his business got to where it is today. Jay Marion had the foraging knowledge he got from his grandparents, and the business sense to... Read more

Poet Tommy Pico tells the story of building his own indigenous food history from scratch... A few years ago, Tommy Pico, a queer indigenous American poet, and lover of junk food, set out to learn how to cook. But rather than turn to the past to find an indigenous food history, he turned to friends to build his own. His new book FEED, an epic poem, chronicles that journey. Tommy and Dan chat about the horrors of airport vegetaria... Read more

Myq Kaplan is a linguist, vegan, and stand-up comic, so he and Dan debate the definition of water and whether eggless vegan mayo should be called mayo. Plus, is picking all the pretzels out of a snack mix wrong? A philosophy professor tells us what Socrates would say. Live on stage from Tufts University!

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We visit one of America’s most famous plantations with three descendants of enslaved Virginians...

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson brought the enslaved chef James Hemings, brother of Sally Hemings, with him to France, to train under the French culinary masters of the day. Hemings used what he learned to create a cuisine that was half French, half Virginian, and brought it back to Jefferson's plantation, Monticello. French f... Read more

The word "plantation" pops up a lot in the food world – Plantation Mint Tea, Plantation Chicken, Plantation Rum. But it's not a culinary term. It doesn't indicate certain spices or cooking methods. So what are white people in food who use this word trying to evoke? Inspired by a piece by food writer Osayi Endolyn, we go on a mission to find out. In the process, we try to learn something about whiteness in America... Read more

To love making bread as much as Jeff Yankellow does, "you have to be crazy," he says. Jeff's official title at KinArthur Flour is Regional Sales Manager, but we like to think of him as the Chief Flour Nerd. He joins us this week to tell the story of the time he competed for the bread world's biggest prize, to answer listener questions about baking,... Read more

We go behind the scenes of one of the web's most beloved food shows, Gourmet Makes, with host Claire Saffitz of the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen. In each episode Claire tries to figure out how to make an artisanal version of a classic junk food, using an approach very different from other food TV shows. In this week's p... Read more

This fall, there’s a new apple coming. It’s been 20 years in the making, and its launch will be the biggest in apple history. How was it invented? What makes it special? And will it live up to the hype? We hear the story behind this apple's conception and birth, with help from Helen Zaltzman of The Allusionist podcast, and NPR reporter Dan Charles.

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In this special Sporkful investigation, we order sandwiches around New York City to find out whether places make smaller sandwiches for women.

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This week, our entire episode is a game: Two Chefs And A Lie. The rules are simple. We call three purported chefs. Dan asks them five — and only five — questions each. And together, we try to separate fact from fiction. Can you decipher which of these chefs 

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Simon Doonan has been called "the world's most famous window dresser," but he never wanted to be that stereotype of a fashion person, looking down his nose at everybody. He's always encouraged people to "dress like themselves." In other words, his approach to fashion is a lot like Dan's approach to food. And yet, people still expect both of them to be judgmental. So what does that say about our cultur... Read more

Husband-and-wife comedians Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher give marital advice in their Netflix special and their podcast, The Endless Honeymoon. So this week they join us to help Dan and his wife Janie work out long-simmering arguments over hand soap and dinner parties. Plus, Natasha and Moshe discuss their own marital tensions about dining out, finances, and soup.

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