With the do-or-die plans for MDM’s next phase finally in motion, Dave, Chris, and Noelle sit down for a soul-baring state of the union. They discuss how Dave thinks about big swings in the face of existential risks, in restaurants, and everywhere else. Also: the coming XLB strain, Dave building his ark, restaurant problem-solving vs. real-life problem-solving, Rob Dyrdek, the one-basket strategy, “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” what gives restaurants a pulse, enjoying the moment when you have a d...
Oct 24, 2022•56 min
Venturing behind the scenes of the best kitchens of the world and Dave’s own decidedly uneven TikTok feed, Dave and Chris map out the best ways to navigate over-the-top marathon dinners, social media pseudo-experts, and several other perils of modern life—and then debate how and when the Wheel of Constraint might rear its spinning head again. Plus: Nobu water, temperance menus, surviving the French Laundry wine pairing, Kool Moe Dee, brutally hard canapé stations, bailing after the bread course,...
Oct 20, 2022•56 min
Midway through their eating careers, how do Dave and his fellow food obsessives appraise the dishes they first loved, and how do they find new ones to rank as great? Dave lays out what he looks for now, then he and Chris compare notes on the do’s and don’ts of shopping at Asian grocery stores. Also: recording in the pillow room, Dave’s football career, foie gras dreams, the lost art of sauces, a perfect pluot, Nantua crayfish, Grace’s favorite K-town market, navigating the five chives, 99 Ranch,...
Oct 17, 2022•57 min
Looking at a hopefully post-pandemic New York from all different angles—the vibe-drenched streets of Dimes Square, a festival stage in Chelsea, Jean-Georges’s lastest masterwork in the South Street Seaport, and the moments after a could-have-been-worse car crash on the West Side Highway—Dave’s offering up some predictions of what’s next for his hometown. Then, to round things out, Chris and Noelle tag in for a whirlwind MOIF, covering such timeless topics as driving snacks, post-apocalyptic In-N...
Oct 13, 2022•54 min
Dave and Chris are breaking in the new MDM office with an on-the-fly #AskDave, covering all the topics other shows are afraid to talk about: fear in Home Depot, MacGyver-ing your own podcast studio, treating scimitar wounds, NASA-approved hot sauces, the problem with tater tots, bachelor pad grocery budgets, Transitions lenses, burping your kimchi jars, psilocybin butter sauce, and Dave’s favorite vegetable. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Ba...
Oct 10, 2022•57 min
Chasing the thrill of a DIY meal from Nairobi to Japan to Alhambra, Dave and Chris ponder hot-pot economics and then call up 'Chefs vs. Wild' host Kiran Jethwa for a closer look at what its contestants were up against—and at where it might go next. Also encountered along the way: unapologetically Asian farmers markets, jalapeño cream cheese rolls, cooking a whole ostrich, watching George Clinton at the Hartford jai alai center, WC dad fails, cabbage arbitrage, not getting trampled by an elephant...
Oct 06, 2022•59 min
With another new MDM show out on Hulu, Pizzana chef and 'Best in Dough' judge Daniele Uditi weighs in on great pizza, bizarro pizza, and pizza that should probably be called something else entirely. Then Dave, Chris, and Noelle dive into their own 'Best in Dough'-inspired pizza reveries. Plus, working in kitchens vs. working in TV, Manhattan cyclist Dave Chang, breakfast pizza, matzoh pizza, the wellspring of pizza authority, when a game becomes your life, dipping some bread in the Sunday gravy,...
Oct 03, 2022•59 min
In celebration of Majordomo Media’s newest Hulu show, 'Chefs vs. Wild,' Dave, Chris, and Noelle appraise their own chances of making it through a multi-day, survivalist-foraging gauntlet in the remote Canadian wilderness—and Chris calls up contestant Viet Pham to hear how intense the adventure really was. Also: 'Survivorman,' 'Naked and Afraid,' imagining what would happen if the people on 'Alone' could cook, Dave volunteering as tribute, bringing out Perkins’s tent for Season 2, hermit Chris, c...
Sep 29, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Inspired by the last episode, Dave went fishing—and returned with stories of crushing defeat on the high seas and exhilarating victory at the hotel restaurant. Plus: a toast to Chris Bianco, angering the Mayan gods, a little lobster shack near Punta Allen, searching for John Borda, thermo-irreversible gels, confidence cooking, Mr. Beast Burger, skiing the quadruple black diamond, watching elves on your iPad, explaining Númenor on a boat, potato salad sandwiches, befriending paleontologists, Son ...
Sep 26, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Determined to eat more seafood but dismayed by what he sees on the shelf, Dave surveys the state of the seascape for the American home cook, and offers a few of his rules for steering clear of the second-rate stuff. Also: restaurant fish vs. supermarket fish, breaking out the yanagi, the deliciousness of fish skin, shellfish protocol, spicy tuna rolls, dining-room aquariums, swordfish au poivre, 'A Fish Called Wanda,' my friend pompano, Bordier butter, citrus partisanship, serving anchovies to g...
Sep 22, 2022•54 min
In a rare before-sunset Q&A, Dave fields a new volley of listener questions—and returns fire with takes on mori soba, typhoon summers, masochistic salarymen, the permafat tonkotsu layer, kimchi fridges, Idaho shrimp, Pharrell Williams, a Chris Ying dancing meme, baked ziti, Korean-mom rumor networks, blanching beef, lemur puffs, egg rafts, gelatin wizardry, deploying the giant ice ball at the hot pot spot, bringing your air fryer to McDonald’s, craft-service sandwiches, and a lunch-mystery Matlo...
Sep 19, 2022•53 min
With summer over and school in session, it’s officially a new year for restaurants—and Dave has a few soon-to-open places on his must-visit list, and a few predictions to make about where things might go next. Plus: Hugo escape tactics, pre-K John Bonham, fake Momofuku menus, the no-PR approach, making bad situations happen, befriending your nemesis, the return of Superiority Burger and Torrisi Italian Specialties, Kwame Onwuachi, Mariscos Jalisco, the rise of hwe, grocery-store kimbap, crossing...
Sep 15, 2022•1 hr 8 min
With a passel of hungry, up-and-coming eaters to please, Dave and Chris face a big question every day: Can their cooking help their kids embrace new tastes and new combinations? (And: Is it too late to expand their own deeply seasoned palates, too?) They call up “disgust studies” expert Dr. Paul Rozin to learn more, and offer up an array of their own takes on flying with kids, the A-Team, condensed Hanukkah, the milkshake cow, Dave’s older brother, sea cucumber fried rice, imagining the next uni...
Sep 12, 2022•1 hr 8 min
A week by the seaside has Dave finding inspiration at both Wetzel’s Pretzels and Nobu Malibu, and thinking about all the shapes the second half of a creative career can take. He catches Chris up on his misadventures, and contemplates Robuchon potatoes, the Santa Monica promenade, hot dogs on tasting menus, spirulina boosts, stroller dogs, vampire rules, knockoff mercenaries, fried rock shrimp, what some restaurants can get away with, the Nobu Goodbye, Peruvian sushi, storing your knife rolls, LC...
Sep 08, 2022•57 min
With a couple more 'Bear' episodes under his belt, Dave dives into a breakneck elucidation of one of the show’s dramatic engines—the classical Escoffier kitchen brigade system, and the huge role it still plays in top-tier restaurants today. Analyzed along the way: Frank Ceruti, the two types of CDC, piano ranges, coal runners, sabotaging Chris at the poissonnier station, fish fumet, meat-roast squires, simplifying your playbook, telepathic collaboration, kitchen design remorse, cooking with a mi...
Sep 01, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Culture moves in cycles, and so too do the ways we eat—which has Dave looking for early warning signs of what’s around the corner. He fills us in on what he’s hearing from peers, what the arc of modern plating presages about the turns to come, and a whole lot more, including: pizza-shop paninis, top-tier bodegas, trompe-l’oeil grill marks, New York in the mid-'90s, analog cooking, the Nirvana–Nickelback cycle, what Fergus Henderson likes to drink, Russian service, sorrel salmon, vertical food, s...
Aug 29, 2022•55 min
Fresh off finally watching the first episode of 'The Bear,' Dave breaks down what the show reveals about the surreal ways time can move inside an ambitious kitchen. Plus: a nail-biting moment at Fresh Brothers Pizza, the Golden Idol, Julian Jaynes, Delta-lounge buffet medleys, steak-for-two-for-one, seven-minute family meal, night porters, Hainanese chicken rice, the beauty of Greek pizza, the eureka-moment dish-creating golden hour, and an inspiring night at L.A.’s boundary-breaking Yangban Soc...
Aug 25, 2022•1 hr 8 min
A Cometeer-fueled trip to the Codfish State has Dave buzzing with new discoveries about how to make familiar things just a little bit better—and how to make the modern-day airport experience a good bit worse. Also covered: what to eat near Gloucester, Joe Versus the Volcano, Spider-Tracers, a shout-out to Claud, Tristar strawberries, Jimmy Nardellos, gourmet Cold Stone, Dave becoming a coffee taster, making miso in Kyoto, three-buck Chardonnay, Wrigley’s gum, haddock bites, sublime Rhode Island ...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Altered-state Dave and Chris embark on another late-night Q&A, covering the sublime, the agonizing, and everything in between—including Aaron Rodgers’s offseason activities. Also, Dave’s thoughts on the Road House remake, Conor McGregor taking up acting, the boba flavor Blade Runner test (and Dave’s current order), extra dense oat milk, near-future gorgonzola, irrational food aversions, imperial deer tendon, Dave’s senior thesis, a Momofuku Christmas dinner, five-hour tea ceremonies, drinking Gu...
Aug 18, 2022•1 hr
Every parent dreams of giving their kids a perfect mix of the delicious and the nutritious—but once those kids begin to get other ideas about what they’d like to eat, the most important ingredient might be a little misdirection. With the help of our friends at buybuy BABY, Dave and Chris present our second Clean Plate Club summit on the highs and lows of surreptitious nutrition. Plus: parent theory vs. parent reality, bento box success rates, Dave’s case for chocolate milk, pre-K peer pressure, ...
Aug 15, 2022•56 min
There’s no better way to celebrate Dave Chang’s forty-fifth trip around the sun than an end-of-summer MOIF, featuring such hot-button topics as: Mike Birbiglia, a flawless visit to Providence, mid-meal malingering, touching the stew, Dion Waiters, dish traffic control, the In-N-Out-order phantom zone, shrimp heads, seasonal restaurants, Midwest supper clubs, fear of teenagers, and the farmers’ market hummus guy Hydra. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall...
Aug 11, 2022•58 min
Before Neo learned to read the green rain of code that made up the Matrix, before even Sherlock Holmes devised a way to describe a man based on a glance at a forgotten walking stick, restaurant kitchen staff were doing pretty much the same thing every time a new order ticket came into their kitchens. Dave, Chris, and Noelle dig into what can be gleaned from those black-and-white lines listing entrées and appetizers and share a few stories about how it's gone right and wrong for them, before Dave...
Aug 08, 2022•59 min
Food may be a universal language, but how much gets lost in translation when you're eating in a place where you're not a native speaker? Dave shares a few of his recent linguistic travails, and compares notes with Noelle and Chris, before revisiting the rural Osaka ramen-shop moment that very likely changed his life. Also: Dave as the Park's BBQ shepherd, locals-only restaurants, a return to Duck House, Chris in Las Vegas, inauspicious fork drops, velveting the shrimp, doing whatever it takes to...
Aug 04, 2022•1 hr 10 min
On a bounteous, bento box-style multi-segment episode, Dave delves into a few recent home-cooking successes before turning to a whirlwind assessment of the fast-food french fry landscape (23:00) and finishing off with a few ways forward for restaurants in our image-saturated age (41:45). Also discussed: cultural chewiness preferences, Dave's favorite protein, family-friendly jangjorim, mapo tofu, 'Top Gun', 'The Birth of Tragedy', Jean-Georges's steakhouse, the next dining hotbeds, and making fo...
Aug 01, 2022•1 hr 10 min
On an episode for the ages, Dave Chang takes us through a full deck of unforgettable dishes—the ones he never stops thinking about. He covers 50-plus brushes with culinary perfection, from childhood up through trips to Tokyo and Texas and Sao Paulo and Mumbai. It's a core-memory highlight reel like no other, the benchmarks Dave uses to measure everything else, never assembled in one place beyond his brain—until now. Host: Dave Chang Producers: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad ...
Jul 28, 2022•1 hr 26 min
Did one ramen chef’s last-minute decision to photograph the very first service at Noma Tokyo's pop-up … irreversibly change the course the restaurant world has been on ever since? To investigate, Dave sends roving correspondent Chris Ying to talk to Ivan Orkin himself about the day in question—and then hunts for parallels in the far reaches of high fashion. Also: the state of Dave’s fridge, solo eating at home, Shakey’s PIzza, pickled jalapeños, pork chop prep, Margaret Zhang, Art Culinaire, set...
Jul 25, 2022•1 hr 5 min
How the heck are we supposed to figure out where to eat in 2022 anyway? On the heels of an unforeseen but absurdly good Peking duck dinner, Dave and Chris consider the ever-expanding restaurant-recommendation complex, and the risks and rewards of going off the grid. Plus: mummy innards, not watching the trailer, crispy shrimp, the penicillin principle, Ben Wallace, eating turbot at Elkano, an L.A. restaurant trinity, Dave in Japan, Kappabashi yakitori, Oriental Garden, on-set lunch, overlooking ...
Jul 21, 2022•1 hr 3 min
After spending the first half of the show grappling with the existential questions, from the prehistory of the known universe to the future of going out to eat, Dave and Chris collect some on-the-ground intel from two longtime experts on life in the ATL: Stephen Satterfield and, of course, Steven Satterfield. Also covered: Gaten Matarazzo, Ina Garten, physicist sellouts, infinite Big Bangs, Fishman Lobster Clubhouse, good meals at bad restaurants, Noma Tokyo, Copenhagen Chinese food, fried mozza...
Jul 18, 2022•1 hr 6 min
In-N-Out Burger has had an almost unparalleled run as one of the most beloved operations in the western U.S., but there’s still one holdout rolling doubtfully past the drive-thru. His name is Dave Chang. Dave, Chris, and Noelle break down what In-N-Out does so well, and why he can’t just let love in. Also discussed: all-out waffles, North Korean noodles, Dave’s Park’s BBQ order, Southern California mumbo-jumbo, small-town athleticism, jalapeño poppers, the perfect iceberg lettuce, eating a hambu...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 9 min
In a brief respite between his travels, Dave Chang teaches you everything you need to know about making dashi at home, then decodes his interview with Chris Bianco. He explains the classic-to-modern chef spectrum, the significance of legendary chefs Roberto Donna, Jean-Louis Palladin, and David Tanis, Bianco's gumption in the face of titans of industry, the lifecycle of perfecting a new dish, and how failure is a crucial part of the creative process. Host: Dave Chang Producer: Sasha Ashall Addit...
Jul 11, 2022•54 min
