Good Food

Just in time for the Academy Awards, journalist and historian Hadley Meares uncovers two of LA's earliest celebrity restaurants. Tejal Rao, critic at large at the New York Times and a KCRW PieFest judge, talks about the beauty, the versatility, and the wow factor of savory pie. "The McSatan" and "The Bruja" are on the menu at Evil Cooks where Alex Garcia and Elvia Huerta are on a mission to "Make Tacos Great Again." JR Ryall went f...

After a three-year, in-person hiatus, KCRW's Good Food PieFest & Contest returns — with a vengeance. Claire Saffitz answers the most burning after-dinner question with a new cookbook. Noah Galuten opens the cupboard and looks at pantry staples with fresh eyes. Reclaiming her identity, Homa Dashtaki abandons a legal career to make yogurt. Chef Farokh Talati explores his Parsi roots in his first cookbook. Finally, Alex Weiser bri...

From Malibu to the San Gabriel Valley, the documentary "The Oldest Vine" explores the history of winemaking in Los Angeles. Amy Luftig and her business partner launched the first winery to open in Los Angeles since Prohibition. Hannah Che reimagines classic Chinese dishes for the vegan palate. Serena Alagappan explores the techniques and culture of eating with our hands. Former filmmaker Adam Alexander discovered an unusual pepper ...

Matt Haines has sampled more than 80 king cakes from New Orleans bakeries, just in time for Carnival season. Professor Psyche A. Williams-Forson considers the stereotypes and stigmas of race and diet. Beekeeper Adam Novicki breaks down the exacting process of almond tree pollination in California. Michael Martinez of LA Compost has an update on the ins and outs of the green composting bin. Malli chefs Elizabeth Heitner and Nestor S...

With a modest Kickstarter campaign, Jenny Nguyen decided to flip the script on the traditional sports bar, opening a watering hole dedicated to supporting women’s athletics. Avish Naran puts a twist on traditional sports bar fare with an Italian-American and Indian mashup at Pijja Palace. Beny Ashburn and Teo Hunter of Crowns & Hops team up with Allagash to curate beer with purpose. Mara Herbkersman and Emily Bielagus are poise...

Tanya Holland recalls her family’s migration and how settling in California influenced her own brand of soul food. Asma Khan runs the only professional Indian kitchen with an all-female staff and her latest cookbook pays tribute to the women behind the food. When Sonal Ved decided to untangle the origins of Indian cuisine, she decided to tackle one specific dish — the samosa. Chef Johnny Lee steps back from Pearl River Deli to reas...

Mexican chef Margarita Carrillo Arronte says Americans have the wrong impression of food which isn’t all about comfort — fat and fried. When a chef told Carolina Aboumrad and Ricardo Olvera that his dream product was huitlacoche, they decided to import it to the U.S. Ricardo Ortega aims to make tortillas using honest ingredients at his tortilleria, Kernel of Truth Organics. Lexis-Olivier Ray of L.A. Taco rounds up the city’s best m...

Simran Sethi explores how to reconnect with the earth through mushrooms in her series “Fruiting Bodies” for the Museum of Food and Drink. Andrea Gentl shares how her experiences photographing mushroom hunters inspired her to reconnect with her upbringing and bring mushrooms into her home kitchen. Rain means mushrooms for Tutti Frutti. Barbara Whyman tells us about foraging them and Travis Hayden has ideas for how to cook with them....

Amid news that he is again shifting concepts at Noma, René Redzepi discusses the restaurant’s reinvention. “The Woks of Life” documents the Leung family’s history through food. Sylvia Wu brought an Angeleno sensibility to Chinese food, expanding the cuisine and its fans. Tejal Rao explains her impact and legacy. Yotam Ottolenghi and Noor Murad embrace make-ahead condiments, dressing, and sauces in their latest test kitchen cookbook...

Mary Beth Albright discusses the new field of psychology that examines how food and eating are linked to mood. After sitting on a panel with five billionaires, Douglas Rushkoff began exploring how the megarich are preparing for the end of the world. Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft returns with an update on cultured meat. Curators Zane Cerpina and Stahl Stenslie rethink eating habits, challenge food taboos, and explore new recipes for humani...

*This episode originally aired on October 15th, 2022*

Some people measure the passing of time by the weather. Some people measure it by holidays. Good Food measures it in tortillas. Every year, for the last five years, host Evan Kleiman helps Gustavo Arellano judge KCRW's Tortilla Tournament. Every year, it has gotten bigger and more competitive. Every year, listeners learn a little more about the su...

This week, the Good Food team revisits their favorite segments of the year. KJ Kearney, founder of Black Food Fridays, works to recognize the contributions of his ancestors every week. Anthropologist Deepa Reddy explains banana diversity in India which makes the fruit ubiquitous and vital to the country’s culture. Food scholar Darra Goldstein describes the evolution of Russian cuisine despite scarcity and isolation. To understand h...

Screenwriters Seth Reiss and Will Tracy tackle issues of class, consumerism, art, and privilege in "The Menu." Katianna and John Hong, the husband-and-wife duo behind Korean American restaurant and deli Yangban Society, discuss their blended Hanukkah and Christmas traditions. Michael W. Twitty, an African American Jewish writer and culinary historian, considers the "braid of influences" that have shaped his Hanukkah traditions. Wan...

Soup is delicious, easy to make, versatile, and a great way to use leftovers. But despite its many virtues, it's not terribly chic or exciting. Journalist and cultural commentator Anne Helen Petersen aims to change that. Born of peasant food to become a national dish, food writer and cook Zuza Zak dedicates a new cookbook to the Polish pierogi. Chris Scott, a chef known for his Brooklyn soul food restaurant Butterfunk, draws out th...

Bookstore owner Celia Sack shares her annual picks for best cookbooks with a surprising trend from first generation authors. Anna Voloshyna, a Ukrainian-born food writer and cooking instructor living in the Bay Area, she gets closer to home by sharing family favorites and modern reimaginings of traditional recipes. Ghetto Gastro’s cookbook “Black Power Kitchen'' aims to change the narrative of Black food through history, art, cultu...

Author and essayist Priya Basi, the co-founder of Authors for Peace, reflects on hospitality and the roles of host and guest beyond the act of feeding someone. Environmentalist Paul Greenberg examines his relationship with his father and fishing. Environment lawyer Thomas Linzey looks at the rights of water from the point of view of water itself. Journalist Lucy Jones reflects on how the return to nature aids both the body and mind...

As America prepares for its biggest cooking holiday of the year, Good Food taps cook and food writer Andy Baraghani to co-host a special Thanksgiving episode with Evan Kleiman. Peppering in answers to listeners’ most troubling kitchen and hosting dilemmas, the duo is joined by chef and artist DeVonn Francis, who has unique entertainment activities to keep the conversation lively while leaving politics and religion off the table. Pi...

Food writer Rossi Anastopoulo shares the not-always-sweet history of pie in America. Rose Levy Beranbaum delivers the gospel of snickerdoodles in an epic cookbook devoted to cookies. Brian Levy deploys fruits, nuts, grains, and dairy to create "no sugar" desserts. Former Gramercy Tavern pastry chef Claudia Fleming is back with her first cookbook in 20 years, focusing on both savory and sweet baking. Local pie maven Nicole Rucker re...

“Diasporican,” the first cookbook by food columnist Illyanna Maisonet, explores Puerto Rican cuisine off the island. Lulady Moges brings Ethiopian dishes to the table in under an hour. In an excerpt from his three-part KCRW series “Exploring Africa in LA: A Little Ethiopia Story,” independent producer and LA native Shaka Mali Tafari introduces listeners to Mr. Fekere, owner of Rosalind’s, the city’s first Ethiopian restaurant on Fa...