Your Last Meal with Rachel Belle

After leaving Top Chef after a 17-year run as Emmy-nominated host and executive producer, Padma Lakshmi vowed to never host another food competition show again. She created and hosted Taste the Nation, an exploration of American food through the lens of immigrant and indigenous communities, continued to write cookbooks (Padma’s All American is her latest) and do activist work for the ACLU and UN.  

But last week, her new cu...

This week, we are re-airing one of my favorite episodes with singer-songwriter, surfer and filmmaker Jack Johnson! This interview was extra special, because it was exactly 20 years after the first time I interviewed Jack, when I was a budding, baby reporter, writing for an alt-weekly in my college town, and his music career was just getting started.  

Jack is an environmentalist and he tells me the great lengths he takes to...

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Yotam Ottolenghi, chef and author of 9 bestselling cookbooks, co-owner of 12 restaurants and delis and a longtime columnist for the Guardian and The New York Times. 

In a lightening round with host Rachel Belle, Ottolenghi reveals his favorite food holiday (hint: he and Rachel bond over a love for sour cream); his opinion of British food as an Israeli transplant; and...

If you're an adventurous cook, chances are you’ve made on Ottolenghi recipe! The chef and newspaper columnist has written nine bestselling cookbooks, including Jerusalem, Plenty and Comfort, and co-owns 12 restaurants and delis, mostly in London.  

Yotam and I talk about how he found his way to a food career (he has advanced degrees in completely different subjects) and tackle philosophical questions like: Is cooking an art...

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Lachi, award-winning recording artist, CEO of RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), host of the PBS series Renegades, and author of the new book, I Identify as Blind. 

In a spirited lightening round, Lachi speaks to her true passion: melting cheese on anything and everything; we debate pulp vs no pulp in orange juice; ketchup vs no ketc...

Lachi is an award-winning recording artist, CEO of RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), host of the PBS series Renegades, disability advocate and author of the new book, I Identify as Blind: A Brazen Celebration of Disability Culture, Identity and Power. She’s also a joyful, gregarious ray of sunshine! 

Like the name of her book implies, Lachi is legally blind. She tells host Rachel Belle how...

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Chuck Klosterman, the pop culture obsessed best-selling author, critic and journalist. 

Chuck moved from New York City to Portland, Oregon in 2017, a city known for its creative, eclectic, innovative restaurant scene. A scene that, you will hear, Chuck does not appreciate! Please enjoy his rant. He talks about the book that most inspired his writing career, the impor...

In this fantasy world, where my guests can choose anything they want for their hypothetical last meal, there is something very charming and humble about choosing...leftovers. Which is exactly what bestselling author, critic and journalist Chuck Klosterman did! 

Chuck told me he’s not that into food, then proceeded to deliver hot take after hot take, passionately opining on everything from candy bar innovation to turkey cons...

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Neko Case, Grammy-nominated artist and author of the best-selling memoir, The Harder I Fight the More I Love You. Her brand-new album is called Neon Grey Midnight Green. 

On this week’s lightning round, Neko talks about her favorite fair food (her grandma worked at a food stand at her local fair when she was a kid!), what she listens to when she cooks and her farmer ...

The only thing Grammy-nominated musician Neko Case craves more than crisp-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside popovers is Hungarian food from a 61-year-old restaurant in Ohio. Neko tells host Rachel Belle about her favorite Eastern European dishes and how eating at The Balaton helped her reconnect with her long-lost heritage.  

But back to popovers! We’re joined by a pastry chef who baked thousands of popovers every day, f...

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Jonathan Russell, vocalist, guitarist and founding member of the band The Head and the Heart. 

In this week’s lightning round, Jonathan talks about the joy of picking up the tab, what back-up dish he often brings to holiday meals (just in case he doesn’t like the version the hosts made!) and what he loves to cook when he returns home from tour. 

Listen to the full epi...

Jonathan Russell is one of the founding members (vocals, guitar) of The Head and the Heart, a band that organically formed at weekly open-mic nights at Seattle’s Conor Byrne Pub.  

Russell didn’t grow up with happy memories around the dinner table. He tells host Rachel Belle about his natural inclination to eat alone, why a crab boil is the perfect meal for an introvert and how working in bars and restaurants changed the wa...

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Alice Waters, award winning chef, creator of the iconic 54-year-old restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley California, food activist and author of the new cookbook, “A School Lunch Revolution.” 

In this week’s lightning round, Alice talks about a memorable school lunch from her own childhood, her signature holiday dish, and her favorite comfort food, as someone who eats...

Alice Waters opened her iconic Berkeley, California restaurant Chez Panisse 54 years ago, introducing the concept of farm-to-table eating to Americans and only serving local, seasonal produce at peak ripeness. She’s also a food activist, and through The Edible Schoolyard Project, has spent the past 30 years showing schools how to integrate locally farmed, organic produce into their cafeterias. 

On today’s episode, Alice sh...

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from chef and best-selling cookbook author Gaby Dalkin, who's known online and on social as What’s Gaby Cooking. 

In this week’s lightning round, Gaby and host Rachel Belle bond over their favorite childhood birthday cake, Gaby shares the late-night, stand-over-the-sink snack she’d never put in a cookbook, and surprises Rachel with her answer to the question, “What do yo...

Earlier this month, at Seattle’s Town Hall, Rachel Belle was a guest on a sold-out, live taping of Seattle Eats with host Tan Vinh, the award-winning food and drink writer for The Seattle Times. Bestselling cookbook author and chef, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt was also a guest!

The first segment of the show is dedicated to Thanksgiving: we learn about a local sushi chef’s recipe for teriyaki turkey, how green bean casserole factors...

Best known to her millions of followers as What’s Gaby Cooking, the Los Angeles-area chef is a best-selling cookbook author, creator of the Dalkin & Co spice blend line and you can eat her food at Gaby’s in Neighborly food hall.  

Gaby tells Rachel Belle how she went from being a tragically picky eater to having a career as a chef, shares which celebrity she private cheffed for, and the dish that literally broke her we...

Prolific, five-time James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Dorie Greenspan is the queen of sweets, and she just released her 15th cookbook, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes. 

Famous for her beloved World Peace Cookies and many baking books, including one she wrote with Julia Child, it's not surprising that Dorie wants to start and end her last meal with dessert. What's wrong with eating dessert first, anyway? Rachel chats with Ayu...

Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka’s last meal, and the reason why she sometimes carries cooked scallops in her bag, trace back to her unstable, unpredictable childhood. She talks about being kidnapped by her grandmother and why a gluten-free spaghetti dinner brings her comfort, even as someone who doesn’t have a gluten sensitivity. 

Atsuko’s first foray into entertainment was working at an ice cream chain that made employees sing a...