Special Sauce with Ed Levine

Totonno's, the iconic, century-old Coney Island Brooklyn pizzeria, has been put up for sale by the family who founded it. On this episode of Special Sauce we talk about Totonno's pizza, legacy, and future prospects with NYT restaurant critic Pete Wells and the eminent pizza scholar Scott Weiner, the owner of Scott's Pizza Tours. 

The great pastry chef and chocolate maker Jacques Torres wrote one of my all time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes. On this episode we chat about that recipe, the role of salt, and what chocolate to use. Plus we hear from some serious eaters on the crispy vs. gooey cookie debate.

On this episode of Special Sauce we take a deep dive into the beyond desperate hunger situation in Gaza with humanitarian Sulieman Mleahat who has been working in the Middle East for more than twenty years. 

NYT's Pulitzer Prize-winning food culture reporter Kim Severson gives Special Sauce listeners fascinating insights into Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen operations in Gaza and elsewhere. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.