For years, I've been trying to pitch articles to the New York Times food section and for years I've been failing. On a total lark, I invited Emily Weinstein, the food and cooking editor for the Times, on to my podcast and in a mind-blowing turn of events, she said yes! Today's episode, then, gets down to the nitty-gritty: what does Emily look for in a pitch, what are her pitch pet peeves, how do you pitch a recipe vs. a journalistic story? We also learn about Emily's background in food, how she ...
Jul 25, 2022•52 min
Kate McDermott is the author of two widely-celebrated books on pie (The Art of the Pie and Pie Camp; Publisher's Weekly called The Art of the Pie "one of the best books written on the subject") and teaches a regular pie-making workshop at her home in Washington State. Today she comes on The Amateur Gourmet Podcast to school me on all things pie: from judging fruit's ripeness with a refractometer to rolling the perfect circle, Kate not only talks technique, she also talks temperament. She believe...
Jul 18, 2022•58 min
What's the secret to writing a really good recipe? How do you make it unique while also making it simple enough for people to do at home? Enter Jessie Sheehan, celebrated baker, TikTok superstar, and author of the brand new cookbook, Snackable Bakes. In today's talk, we cover everything from coming up with the initial recipe concept, bringing it into the kitchen, testing it, and then freaking out that it's too close to somebody else's. We get into the nitty-gritty of weights vs. cups, how to fin...
Jul 11, 2022•59 min
This year's James Beard awards COMPLETELY shut L.A. out of the mix, awarding the country's second largest city zero citations for what is commonly considered one of the most vibrant, exciting, and relevant food scenes in the country. Here to talk us through the controversy is Farley Elliott, Senior Editor of Eater L.A., who has lots to say, not just on this subject, but on many others too. We cover everything from food trucks to fine dining, from Wolfgang Puck to Jordan Kahn, from Union in Pasad...
Jun 29, 2022•45 min
Before I got hit by Covid, I spent an hour talking to the delightful coffee expert Ever Meister — who I met at my first favorite coffee shop, Joe on Waverly in the early aughts — about all things espresso, cappuccino, and, most importantly of all, latte art. Meister's been something of a fairy godmother when it comes to my homemade coffee drinks. If you've been following me on TikTok, you can see my efforts at achieving a heart or rosetta pattern. In today's episode, Meister gives me point-by-po...
Jun 15, 2022•43 min
Have I got a podcast for you! Well: it's for you if you're, like me, OBSESSED with collecting vintage Pyrex and bowls and plates and other kitchen doodads. My guest is a purveyor of all such things: Nicole Miller, who runs @Pyrexnplants on Instagram and has her own Etsy shop. Our conversation covers everything from how she got into all this in the first place, whether or not she's a hoarder, how her family feels about her collecting, what she looks for when she goes to estate sales, what it's ac...
Jun 01, 2022•44 min
I was the perfect audience for my own podcast this week because Craig (my husband, in case you're new) is going to be back and forth to NY over the next five months to edit his movie, and I'll be visiting often, and — crisis! — I don't know where to eat. Add to that the fact that people still ask me: “Hey, Adam, I'm going to New York soon, what are the hot new restaurants?” As if I know! Enter Ryan Sutton. Not only is he the James Beard award-winning chief food critic at Eater NY, he's a born an...
May 18, 2022•52 min
What a thrill to share this week's Amateur Gourmet Podcast: an episode dedicated entirely to Julia Child! We're lucky enough to have the creator of the show Julia (and an award-winning playwright) Daniel Goldfarb here to talk all about how the show came about, casting Sarah Lancashire as Julia, taking liberties with the biography, shooting in Boston, and whether they actually made all of that food on set. But first we have one of the most delightful people in the food world, and also one of the ...
May 11, 2022•1 hr 5 min
It's Mother's Day this Sunday! Do you know what you're cooking yet? Or what you want your family to cook for you? Please welcome Sarah Copeland to the stage. She's not only a prolific cookbook author (The Newlywed Cookbook, Feast, Every Day is Saturday, and her latest, Instant Family Meals), she also happens to be a mom. In today's episode, we talk about Mother's Day strategies (pancakes, waffles, polenta!), but we also talk about being a food-loving mother and how to get your kids to eat the ki...
May 04, 2022•49 min
So excited to talk about my favorite subject — COLLECTING COOKBOOKS! — with none other than the founder of Stained Page News, one of the premiere destinations for cookbook news online: Paula Forbes. Paula and I are such cookbook geeks that this conversation sounds like it's sped up, but it's just us being super geeky and enthusiastic. Find out which cookbooks we're proudest to have in our collections, which ones we actually use, and which white whale cookbook is out there that Paula hopes to get...
Apr 27, 2022•55 min
The late Pulitzer Prize-winning L.A. food writer Jonathan Gold once wrote about Kevin Bludso's BBQ: “The brisket that issues from those battered smokers is a paradigm of meat, beef that disappears so quickly that, if it weren't for a feeling of satisfying fullness, you might swear that you had less eaten it than dreamed it.” Kevin Bludso is a BBQ legend and now, with the help of my pal Noah Galuten (a James Beard-nominated cookbook author and co-host, with his wife Iliza Schlesinger, of Don't Pa...
Apr 20, 2022•56 min
I don't know about you, but I'm insecure when it comes to wine. It's just so overwhelming. What's the difference between natural wine and regular wine? Why is some super expensive wine not worth it and some cheap wine a great bargain? How do you learn all of the things you're supposed to learn about mouthfeel and terroir and structure? Welcome to Wine Week, my attempt to clear things up for you and me and anyone else confused by wine. I've invited two wine professionals with wine podcasts on to ...
Apr 13, 2022•1 hr 4 min
It's my favorite time of year: spring! So many delicious things to eat (fava beans, artichokes, strawberries) and so many ways to prepare them. That's why I've invited two notable food writers on to the podcast to talk about their favorite spring cooking strategies. First, L.A. Times cooking columnist Ben Mims swings by to tell us about his newfound love for radishes, his savory approach with rhubarb (peppercorns and olive oil!), and how he turns spring flowers into syrups that he can stir into ...
Apr 06, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Welcome to the debut of The Amateur Gourmet Podcast! Fans of Lunch Therapy: don't worry. You'll still get all of the in-depth interviews that you loved before, only now we're doing it on a theme. And this week's theme is FOOD TV. Natasha Leggero, host of the brand new TBS cooking competition show Rat in the Kitchen, comes on to talk about judging a cooking show, talking about food on TV, traveling with Ludo, what she cooks at home, her dad sending back his pasta, and being married to someone who...
Mar 30, 2022•1 hr
So excited to have Dan Souza on the pod today! Not only is he the editor-in-chief of Cook's Illustrated, he's a regular on one of my all-time favorite cooking show's: America's Test Kitchen on PBS. Today our conversation covers everything from his responsibilities as editor-in-chief, how difficult it was to make changes to the Cook's Illustrated format when he took over, what he makes when he doesn't feel like cooking, his love for seafood, and his obsession with tea. We also talk about his perf...
Mar 23, 2022•57 min
If you like musicals, you've gotta listen to today's episode of Lunch Therapy. My patient is none other than Ben Rimalower, the only person I know who loves Patti LuPone as much as I do — so much so, that he wrote and performed a one man show about it called Patti Issues (which was a NYT Critic's Pick!). He's since gone on to write and star in another one-man show, Bad with Money, as well as writing for outlets like Vulture, Out, and Time Out New York. You may also recognize him as Countess LuAn...
Mar 16, 2022•58 min
This week's Lunch Therapy patient, Cathy Barrow (aka: Mrs. Wheelbarrow), is the highly accomplished author of four cookbooks — Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry (an IACP Winner for best single-subject cookbook), Pie Squared (a James Beard-award nominee for baking and desserts), When Pies Fly, and her most recent, Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish. In today's session, we talk all about the bagel, how she came up with a winning recipe, how she left her career in marketing to become a la...
Mar 09, 2022•58 min
My Lunch Therapy patient this week, Andy Baraghani, made a name for himself at Bon Appetit with his viral videos and approachable-yet-exciting recipes. He's now the author of a brand new cookbook, The Cook You Want to Be, which arrives on shelves April 26th. In today's session, we talk all about Andy's sense of discipline and how it changed during the pandemic. We also cover his Iranian background, the different kinds of food his mother's family made vs. his father's family, his favorite cooking...
Mar 02, 2022•59 min
My patient this week is Matt Rodbard, founder and editor of Taste and co-author of Koreatown and the co-author of the brand new cookbook, Food IQ: 100 Questions, Answers, and Recipes to Raise Your Cooking Smarts. Our conversation hits some juicy topics like cultural appropriation, how editors handle accusations against chefs in their publications, and how Jewish people are obsessed with meals and going to the bathroom. Happy listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 23, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Rebecca Metz plays Pam Adlon's funny and very humane manager on FX's Better Things (one of my favorite shows) and that's just the beginning: she's been working in Hollywood for decades and has been on everything from Gilmore Girls to Malcolm in the Middle to Shameless to AJ and the Queen. Today's session is all about what it means to be in actor in Hollywood: the craft itself, the brutality of auditioning, how you persevere, and, most importantly, what you eat. Find out what Rebecca has for brea...
Feb 14, 2022•1 hr
The Washington Post calls Mary Roach "America's funniest science writer" and the fact that she's the author of six NYT bestselling books (including Stiff, Gulp, and her latest, Fuzz), pretty much confirms it. I fell in love with her voice recently when I picked up Gulp on a whim -- the book is disgusting, hilarious, and fascinating -- so imagine my delight when she agreed to come on my Lunch Therapy. In today's session, Mary talks about her "reckless" adventures, including the time she became so...
Feb 07, 2022•59 min
Hello from New Orleans! We've been having a blast and eating ourselves silly, but one of the friends we're traveling with, Jonathan Parks-Ramage (author of Yes, Daddy), is a VEGETARIAN which is pretty challenging here. So, seeing as we're in the same hotel, I invited him on today's Lunch Therapy to talk about being a vegetarian in New Orleans, how the menu at the first restaurant where we went literally had zero vegetarian options, the carrot bolognese he ate at Coquette, whether or not he's mis...
Feb 03, 2022•30 min
One of my oldest food blogging friends is Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef, who went on to write the books My Berlin Kitchen and Classic German Baking, and is currently working on Classic German Cooking as well as her new Substack newsletter, A Letter from Berlin. In today's session, we talk all about the link between Luisa's food writing and her emotions (something she's always excelled at), how homesickness led her into the kitchen, the specific West Berlin community where she grew up, and ho...
Jan 31, 2022•58 min
Hey, guess what? We're headed to New Orleans this Sunday to visit our friend Ryan O'Connell, who's been there for a few months filming the reboot of Queer as Folk (which he both stars in and helped write). Obviously, I've been OBSESSING over where we're going to eat, and constantly texting Ryan about it, so hear us talk about the plan, as well as what Ryan's been eating there, how he deals with all of the excess while filming nude scenes, and why you might catch him eating at Houston's. We also ...
Jan 27, 2022•51 min
Whether you you know Drew Droege from his viral Chloe Sevigny parodies, his critically-acclaimed plays Bright Colors and Bold Patterns & Happy Birthday, Doug, or his numerous appearances on shows like Drunk History, Search Party, and Bob's Burgers, chances are you're a fan. In today's session, learn all about Drew's cooking habits (spoiler alert: he hasn't turned on his stove in six years), growing up in South Carolina, how his family doesn't think he's funny, and his dad's snobbery at Wendy...
Jan 24, 2022•1 hr 1 min
L.A. Times food critic Bill Addison recently published his list of the 101 Best Restaurants in L.A., an annual tradition that started with Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer, Jonathan Gold. So today I invited him on the pod to talk through his process, which restaurants made the cut, which ones didn't, how the pandemic influenced his decisions (how do you evaluate a restaurant if you're only eating their food from a carton?), and how the recent reckoning in the food world regarding race and repr...
Jan 20, 2022•49 min
Tejal Rao is The New York Times' restaurant critic for California, a cooking columnist for The New York Times Magazine, and the author of the Times' weekly vegetarian newsletter, The Veggie. In today's session, Tejal opens up about losing her sense of taste and smell when she had Covid, what it felt like to get it back, how she's adjusted to life in Los Angeles, and being a picky eater as a child. We also cover the start of her career as a food critic, how she goes about writing a review, whethe...
Jan 17, 2022•58 min
Bestselling cookbook author and blogger David Lebovitz swings by the pod today to talk about his recent announcement that he's shifting from his food blog to his Substack newsletter. This resonated for me because David and I started our food blogs around the same time (him in 1999, me in 2004) and I've been on a similar journey, fully embracing my newsletter which goes out twice a week (you can sign up here!). David and I get into the nitty gritty: how food blogs have changed, the tediousness of...
Jan 13, 2022•40 min
What does a veteran Saturday Night Live writer eat? Find out on this week's Lunch Therapy when Sudi Green joins us for a session. Not only is Sudi an accomplished writer and comedian, but she also happens to be my across-the-street-neighbor! Find out how we met, what she ate when she worked at SNL, whether or not she likes her routines, being from Delaware, and how she's adjusted to living in L.A. We also cover her mother's Iranian background, the food that she ate growing up, visiting Iran with...
Jan 10, 2022•55 min
Lots of us (including myself) are starting the new year with a diet. The question becomes: will we stick to it? Should we stick to it? Are all diets problematic to begin with? What's the point? For today's bonus episode, I invited my friend Dr. Deanie Eichenstein (@drdeanie) to talk about all of these issues and more. We cover everything from the way we perceive ourselves vs. the way the world perceives us, what constitutes "healthy," our fat-phobic society, Lena Dunham, why I shouldn't feel sha...
Jan 06, 2022•40 min
