Kelly Fields is the force behind Willa Jean, a restaurant and bakery named after her grandmother, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, Kelly started cooking and baking when she was young and studied under the legendary chef Susan Spicer. She worked at a number of prestigious restaurants and traveled extensively to work with lots of different chefs before she opened Willa Jean in 2015. Her hard work has been celebrated by pretty much every food media outlet there...
May 21, 2019•59 min•Ep. 22
Vallery Lomas, winner of the 3rd season of The Great American Baking Show, is not only a phenomenal baker, but is also a food writer, blogger, photographer, soon-to-be cookbook author, and former lawyer. She started backing and blogging years ago while she was in law school and while she practiced law, which she did full-time for 8 years. She was cast on the 3rd Season of the Great American Baking Show, an ABC spin-off of the hugely popular Great British Baking Show. Vallery prepared for, compet...
May 08, 2019•48 min•Ep. 21
Mona Talbott and Kate Arding are the forces behind Talbott & Arding, a cheese and provisions shop, in Hudson, New York. Mona and Kate approach their food, shop, and community with intention and love. They sat down with Julia to talk about what their lives were like before they opened their business, how they navigate running it together as a couple, and more. Mona has over 25 years experience in the culinary industry. She began her cooking career as a camp cook in remote logging camps in her...
May 02, 2019•57 min•Ep. 20
Cécile McLorin Salvant is a jazz vocalist who was born and raised in Miami with her French mother and Haitian father. She started classical piano studies at age 5 and began singing in a children’s choir at 8. Cecile moved to France in 2007 to study both classical voice and also law. When she was there, she began learning about and singing jazz and recorded her first album, Cécile. She soon won the prestigious Thelonious Monk competition. Her second album, WomanChild was nominated for a Grammy. H...
Apr 25, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 19
Elazar Sontag, a cookbook author, freelance writer, and editor at Serious Eats, talks to Julia about cooking, writing, anxiety, Guy Fieri, and more. There are also answers to listeners' questions and a shoutout to The Trevor Project. Some follow-up links! For more about Elazar, head here . For more about Elazar's book* Flavors of Oakland*, head here . For Julia's recipe for Charoset Quinoa from Now & Again , featured by Great Jones, head here . Don't forget to use your discount code for your...
Apr 18, 2019•43 min•Ep. 18
Julia speaks with writer and editor Hali Bey Ramdene about her career and the nuances of telling stories about food. Hali holds a Masters in Gastronomy from Boston University and after school she moved to Des Moines, Iowa where she was the Associate Food Editor at Better Homes and Gardens for three years. She then returned home to Albany, NY where she worked from home for The Kitchn , first as a Food Editor and then as the Food Director. Hali is now happily freelancing. She and Julia talked abou...
Apr 03, 2019•55 min•Ep. 17
Julia kicks off the second season of Keep Calm and Cook On with Cecile Richards , who was the president of Planned Parenthood for more than a decade and who Vogue magazine has called a “heroine of the resistance.” Cecile’s late mother, the incredible Ann Richards, was the Governor of Texas and Cecile so clearly follows her mother’s meaningful footsteps doing work fighting for social justice and women’s rights. As she wrote about in her book Make Trouble , Cecile has been an activist ever since s...
Mar 27, 2019•55 min•Ep. 16
This episode features the first official Equity at the Table event. It is a recording of a panel conversation moderated by Klancy Miller, an EATT Advisory Board member and author of Cooking Solo . Host Julia Turshen was the author on the panel and was joined by Kara Rota , a cookbook editor, Cindy Uh, a literary agent with Thompson Literary Agency , and Heami Lee , a photographer who shoots cookbooks plus other work. They cover everything from book proposals to writing, shooting, and promoting a...
Mar 19, 2019•54 min•Ep. 15
On this special bonus episode of Keep Calm and Cook On, Julia shares a recording of the final event for her Now & Again book tour— a panel conversation at the Atlanta History Center with Rosalind Bentley (of the Atlanta Journal Constitution ), Kim Severson (of the New York Times ), Deborah VanTrece and Lorraine Lane (of Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours ), the cookbook author Virgina Willis , and the literary agent and consultant Lisa Ekus . In the conversation, the women share their experi...
Mar 12, 2019•38 min•Ep. 14
Julia sits down with two of the women behind the scenes at Oxo. Becca Del Monte is a Product Engineer who works mostly on fruit and vegetable tools and Lua O’Brien is a Product Category Director for food storage. They discuss how they got into their careers, what goes into making products (literally and emotionally), and what excites them about their work. For more about Oxo: Oxo.com . For more about Julia: JuliaTurshen.com ....
Mar 07, 2019•41 min•Ep. 13
Liz Alpern is passionate about bringing people together through food. She is the creator of Queer Soup Night . Each QSN a time to feel welcome who identify as queer to not feel like an exception in the room. There are now Queer Soup Night communities across the country. Liz is also the co-founder of The Gefilteria and co-author of The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods . Liz and her co-founder Jeffery’s mission for their work is to reclaim and revolutionize Ashkenazi cuisi...
Feb 27, 2019•48 min•Ep. 12
Hawa Hassan (of Basbaas , a line of Somali condiments) and Beth Linskey (formerly of Beth's Farm Kitchen ) join Julia for a conversation about friendship and mentorship and how both can transcend age, race, and place. Hawa started her company Basbaas because she wanted to shift the narrative about being Somali. In her words, “What could be a better way to do that than through food?” To get her company off the ground, she enlisted her mentor Beth. Beth is the creator of the New York-based jam com...
Feb 20, 2019•41 min•Ep. 11
Award-winning cookbook author and former human rights campaigner Yasmin Khan sits down with Julia to talk about her new book, Zaitoun , and the logistics of a career transition, the importance of rest, the way food can be an entry point to conversation, and why we have to hold onto hope. Yasmin's first book, The Saffron Tales , includes recipes and stories from the Persian Kitchen. It’s a very personal book as Yasmin grew up between Iran, where her mother is from, and England. The Saffron Tales ...
Feb 13, 2019•55 min•Ep. 10
Ashley Christensen cares as much about people as she does about food. The Raleigh-based chef and restaurateur started cooking when she was in college and now runs an empire of restaurants in the Triangle in North Carolina including Poole’s Diner which she opened over a decade ago. She employs over 200 people and is known for not being afraid to speak up. Ashley’s cooking, restaurants, and cookbook have been celebrated by outlets like Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, The New York Times , and Eater a...
Feb 07, 2019•48 min•Ep. 9
Jamaican sisters, cookbook authors, and restauranteurs Suzanne and Michelle Rousseau join Julia for a conversation about the spirit they bring to their work and the experiences that have informed how they approach life. It’s a conversation about learning to trust your own voice, to embrace fear, to be your own champion, and to just keep going. Michelle and Suzanne have a long history of collaboration. They’ve run a boutique, a catering business, restaurants; they’ve appeared on television and ha...
Jan 30, 2019•50 min•Ep. 8
Sara B. Franklin is a writer, teacher, oral historian, and a home cook. She teaches food culture and writing at both NYU and at the Wallkill Correctional Facility. Her first book, Edna Lewis: At the Table with An American Original , came out in 2018. Before the book came out, Sara finished her dissertation based on a series of oral history interviews she conducted with Judith Jones, the famous editor who worked not only with Edna Lewis who but also Julia Child and so many more— she also, remarka...
Jan 24, 2019•55 min•Ep. 7
Asha Gomez, the chef and cookbook author, sits down with Julia for a conversation that casts a wide net and covers everything from switching gears to finding your own voice and using it. They discuss her venue, The Third Space, and the impetus behind it. They talk about finding out what works by first finding out what doesn't. They talk about how Asha continuously explores her two Souths— the area of Southern India where she’s from and the area of the American South where she calls home. They al...
Jan 18, 2019•50 min•Ep. 6
Jody Williams and Rita Sodi— the women behind Buvette, I Sodi, and Via Carota and the upcoming Bar Pisellino— join Julia for a personal conversation about their partnership, both personal and professional. They talk about how they feel about labels, what they hope to instill in their employees, and the energy and feel they work to create in their restaurants. "We want to make a place that we miss," said Jody. There are also answers to listeners' questions and a shoutout to God's Love We Deliver ...
Jan 09, 2019•50 min•Ep. 5
Sara Elise, who runs the catering company Harvest & Revel and the creative brand Blind Seed, and Yemi Amu, the co-founder of Oko Farms and specialist in aquaponics, join Julia for a personal conversation about how to create your own path from the ground up. The conversation centers on figuring out careers in and around food and features honest reflections from both Sara Elise and Yemi about being Black women in food in Brooklyn. There are also answers to listeners' questions and a shoutout t...
Jan 03, 2019•32 min•Ep. 4
Von Diaz, the author of Coconuts and Collards: Recipes and Stories from Puerto Rico to the Deep South, and her mother, Yvonne Webb join Julia for a personal conversation about the experience of creating the book and life after its publication. The takeaway? In Yvonne's words: "you can't change what you don't acknowledge." The conversation centers on the act of writing down history and talking about it and being honest about it, and how doing that can both cement and advance relationships. There ...
Dec 18, 2018•51 min•Ep. 3
Samin Nosrat is the award-winning, best-selling author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, which is also the name of her new Netflix Series. Through her work, Samin has taught thousands of people to trust their instincts in the kitchen— and even learn that they have them in the first place. A true teacher, she demystifies and explains and inspires. Samin and Julia have an open and honest talk about everything from mental health and therapy, to money, and even poetry...
Dec 11, 2018•59 min•Ep. 2
Georgine Drewes is 90 years old and is a longtime volunteer at Angel Food East, an organization to cooks and delivers homemade meals to homebound clients. Julia and her wife Grace met her when they started volunteering there two years ago. Julia speaks to Georgine about how she got into volunteering, how others can, what it means to her, and the importance of kindness. There are also answers to listeners' questions and shoutout to Drive Change (find out more about them here ). For more about Jul...
Dec 06, 2018•25 min•Ep. 1
Welcome to Keep Calm and Cook On, a new podcast from bestselling cookbook author Julia Turshen. For more about the show, head here !
Nov 19, 2018•1 min•Ep. 1
