The Sporkful

In cooking and eating, sound is the forgotten sense. But you can tell whether you're cutting scallions correctly, or how good your chocolate is, by the sounds they make.

This episode originally aired on January 17, 2016 and April 2, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne Saini with engineering help from Tom Glasser, Chase Culpon and Bill O’Neill. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, No...

Dan brings his whole family on the podcast this week to answer your questions, just as they did in an episode six years ago. When a couple in South Dakota calls in with a disagreement over menu planning, can Dan and his wife Janie offer a workable solution? And the disputes keep coming with couples arguing over deli meat, cucumbers, and ketchup on mac and cheese. Plus, one listener asks: How does Dan react when his family doesn’t l...

José Ralat’s job at Texas Monthly magazine is so unique that when he got it five years ago, it made national news. One headline read: “The Job You Wish You Had: Taco Editor.” Yes, taco editor. Back in 2020, José traveled more than 10,000 miles around the state eating tacos in preparation for Texas Monthly's Taco Issue, that comes out only once every five years. In this week’s podcast, we tag along as he hits the road in search of t...

Dan and Radiolab's Jad Abumrad explore the new frontier of weed-infused foods with a pastry chef. They'll tell you how it tastes. They'll tell you how it makes them feel. And they'll tell you what happens when you eat way, way too much of it.

This episode originally aired on June 7, 2015, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, Talia Ralph, and the Radiolab team, with editing help from Shoshana Gold. Sound design by Alex Overin...

As the Minnesota State Fair kicks into high gear, we’re talking with one of the state’s most iconic food personalities. Beatrice Ojakangas, who turned 90 this year, has Minnesota roots going back to the 1800s. She grew up milking cows and churning butter on a family farm, before her first blue ribbons at the State Fair launched her on a path to culinary innovation. She wrote the first Finnish cookbook published in the U.S. and inve...

Why are politicians trying to ban lab-grown meat? Is Chipotle secretly serving smaller portions? And just how good is that new cereal mix by Jason and Travis Kelce? We dig into these questions and more in this edition of the Salad Spinner, our rapid-fire roundtable discussion of the hottest and oddest recent food news. Joining us in the Spinner are Josh Scherer and Nicole Enayati, co-hosts of the Mythical Kitchen podcast A Hot Dog ...

The founder of Milk Street hates celebrations and says pleasure is annoying. This week, Chris Kimball tells us why he thinks cooking is supposed to be hard, and how he got this way. Plus, he and Dan bond over their shared food obsessiveness and clash over their differences in the kitchen -- and in life.

This episode originally aired on August 25, 2019, and was produced by Dan Pashman. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma...

Jameela Jamil may be best known for her role on the NBC show The Good Place. On the show, her character’s nonprofit work is a punchline, but in real life, Jameela’s activism on issues of fatphobia and sexism is no joke. She’s spoken in UK Parliament and successfully lobbied social media companies to change how they operate. Now, she hosts the podcast I Weigh where she talks with experts and celebrities about mental health, body ima...

Pretty much every restaurant has salads, and yet how often do you get really excited to eat one? In restaurants and at home, most salads seem to be there because the person making the meal felt obligated to offer them. And diners eat them for the same reason. This week we set out in search of salads that you’ll still be talking about weeks later. We hear from Chef Ayesha Nurdjaja of Shuka and Shukette in New York City, who makes Da...

Is it unethical to sample an ice cream shop's flavors and not buy anything? A married couple calls in for advice, and Cooks Illustrated's Dan Souza reveals the artisanal ice cream industry's biggest secret. Plus, two listeners who run a French fry stand together call in to debate the definition of a condiment.

This episode originally aired on February 26, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne Saini, with editing by Peter Cl...

Celery doesn't get a lot of love these days. But it was the avocado toast of the late 1800s and early 1900s. People thought it had magical powers, and the hottest chefs in New York City were making celery-fed duckling, mashed celery, fried celery, and celery tea. So why did celery fall from grace? And can this once vaunted vegetable make a comeback? Reporter Maya Kroth and our friends at the podcast Proof, from America’s Test Kitch...

Food writer Khushbu Shah and chef Edy Massih each released their first cookbooks this spring. Both works are part of a new generation of cookbooks that take inspiration from specific cuisines without being beholden to them. These books aren’t about preservation — they’re a reflection of their authors’ specific experiences. Which is why Khushbu and Edy may not do it the way your grandmother does it. They join Dan live on stage at Co...

In this episode of the Sporkful, a former Shea Stadium food vendor tells Dan about the worst gig in the ballpark. Plus a North Carolina peanut man tells us how they get the salt inside the shell, and Mike Pesca from The Gist tells us how much free advertising Cracker Jack got from being included in "Take Me Out To The Ball Game".

This episode originally aired on July 29, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Kristen...

We’re back with our annual game show Two Chefs And A Lie! Here’s how it works. Dan talks with three “chefs.” Two of them are real chefs, one is an imposter. Dan can ask each of them just five questions, and then has to guess who the liar is. And you can play along too! Dan lost the first two games, but he won last year. Can he start a streak? Can he, and can you, spot the fake chef?

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman,...

Recently, a friend of restaurant critic Tim Hayward called him a glutton. This week, our friends at the Life and Art from FT Weekend podcast dig into that label with Tim — and he explains why he embraces the label. Then, Life and Art host Lilah Raptopoulos speaks with food and drink editor Harriet Fitch Little about dinner parties. What’s the perfect vibe — and the perfect soundtrack? How can you throw a dinner party that both gues...

After months of searching, we finally meet Ted Ngoy, aka "the Donut King", and learn what happened to him. He's returned to the Cambodian community seeking redemption. But will he find it?

(This is part two of a two-part series; scroll back in your feed for part one.)

This episode originally aired on April 30, 2018, and was produced by Anne Saini and Dan Pashman, with editing by Peter Clowney. The Sporkful team now includes Emma Morg...

After escaping Cambodia's Killing Fields, Ted Ngoy built a donut empire in California. Then he lost it all, and disappeared. This week we're searching for the Donut King and his legacy. (This is part one of a two-part series. The second part comes out on Friday.)

Additional info:

• Chad Phuong's Cambodian-Texas Battambong BBQ (Southern California)
• Dary and Sreyrot Chan's gourmet donut shop Sweet Retreat (Long Beach, CA)
• Greg Nichols'...

Everything Molly Baz puts out — from her best-selling cookbooks Cook This Book and More Is More, to her Instagram pics and YouTube videos, to her wine brand — seems so perfectly cool and stylish, so carefully considered, so intentional. But also, so authentically HER. How does she do that? Well, as she tells Dan when he visits her at her home in Los Angeles, a lot of it has to do with her “innate confidence” in who she is and what ...

In 2016, the Library of Congress posted Rosa Parks' personal documents online for the first time. Buried under postcards from Martin Luther King and lists of volunteers for the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a pancake recipe, written on the back of an envelope — which included the addition of peanut butter to the batter. On this week's episode, we visit Adrienne Cannon, a specialist in African-American history at the Library of Congres...