The Sporkful

Dips are having a moment — from a dips-only restaurant in Atlanta to Martin Short playing a character who only eats dips. But TV host and Cosmo columnist Alyse Whitney was a self-described Dip Queen long before they got hot, and she proves it in her new cookbook, Big Dip Energy: 88 Parties in a Bowl for Snacking, Dinner, Dessert, and Beyond. She joins Dan in the studio to share her royal decrees on the right shape for a dipper, usi...

You may think you know LeVar Burton. After starring in the seminal 1977 mini-series Roots, he hosted Reading Rainbow and starred alongside Sir Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: The Next Generation. These days he hosts the podcasts LeVar Burton Reads, in which he reads his favorite short fiction, and Sound Detectives, for kids who want to explore the magic and mystery of sound. But did you know that, as a teenager, LeVar bought steaks a...

Naama Shefi remembers visiting her husband’s grandmother for the first time, and being astonished by the stories tucked into each dish on the dinner table. That moment led her to start the Jewish Food Society, an organization that preserves and celebrates the diversity of Jewish food from around the world, which as Naama is quick to point out, goes far beyond Eastern European classics like brisket, kugel, smoked fish, and potato kn...

Laura and Beth Winters are fraternal twins who come from a family of proud picky eaters. But after high school, Laura left home for college and started exploring new foods, while Beth stayed close to home and continued to eat the same way she did growing up. What does their story tell us about nature vs. nurture, and the kinds of judgments we make about picky eating? Then later in the show, we talk with psychologist Christopher Rut...

You probably know Guy Fieri from his TV shows: Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and Guy's Grocery Games. Or maybe you remember Pete Wells's epically scathing review of Guy's restaurant in New York City. But what you don’t know: The real Guy Fieri wants to open an all-organic restaurant. The real Guy Fieri hates that iconic bowling shirt with the flames. The real Guy Fieri feels like he’s always trying to keep up — and that it’s really ...

In the final episode of “Anything’s Pastable,” the recipes are done — but they’re all in Google Docs. Now Dan has to bring them together into an actual book, with a cohesive visual style. So he hires an art director who scours flea markets for just the right props to bring the book’s personality to life. Then Dan heads to the Bay Area for the photo shoot, which means cooking nearly every recipe from the book one last time. When he ...

As Dan’s cookbook deadline approaches, recipe testing kicks into high gear — and he attempts to develop a few recipes on his own. But scorched pans and sauce spills lead to frayed nerves. Can he rediscover the creative spark that got him excited about this project in the first place?

Preorder Dan’s cookbook today (including signed copies), and see if he’s visiting a city near you on his tour of book signings and live podcast tapings...

In part two of “Anything’s Pastable,” Dan embarks on an epic trip across Italy in search of lesser-known pasta dishes — and to learn about the evolution of pasta more broadly. He starts in Rome, where food writer Katie Parla reveals a shocking truth about pasta. Then an Italian food historian challenges Dan’s thinking about carbonara. Finally, he heads south to meet a chef who was there when a regional specialty called spaghetti al...

After Dan’s pasta shape, cascatelli, went viral, people everywhere were cooking with it and sending him photos of what they were making. As exciting as that was, he was disappointed that most folks were only making a handful of well-worn dishes with this new shape. So Dan decided to write a cookbook to show the world that there’s so much more you can and should be putting on all your pasta shapes, cascatelli and beyond! There’s onl...

Gary Gulman did so many food bits early in his stand-up career that he joked he was "a strictly food-based comic." But as his comedy started to evolve in new directions, the role of food in his act changed, too. Instead of observational humor, Gary now uses food in a more personal way — from talking about ice cream as a window into his clinical depression, to skewering income inequality through a discussion of Pop-Tarts. Gary joins...

Violence, death threats, and bagels, oh my! In this final episode of Deep Dish season one, Sohla and Ham explore the origins of bagels, and the tough-as-nails Eastern Europe immigrants who created a thriving bagel business in New York. When the mafia tried to muscle its way into the bagel business, the bagel bakers fought back — but in the process, they failed to see a bigger threat. Sohla tells the story, and she learns the secret...

One table in New York's Adda Indian Canteen is underperforming the others. And in a business with razor-thin margins, that's a real problem. In this special collaboration with Sally Helm and NPR's Planet Money, we enlist the help of a tape measure-wielding professor to try to turn the loser table into a winner. It turns out that how a restaurant treats its real estate might be more important than how it cooks its food — at least wh...

Stanley cups are all the rage, but did you know they’ve been around for decades? So what happened to make them go viral? We chat about that and much more, including the internet’s love affair with Josh wines, competitive hot pepper eating, and a food-based test of true love, in this edition of the Salad Spinner. This week’s rapid-fire roundtable discussion of the latest food news features the TV host, chef, and restaurateur Vivian ...

Tacos al pastor are an iconic Mexico City dish — but a relatively new addition to Mexican cuisine. And they only came to be with influences from halfway around the world. Ham and Sohla share the surprising story of al pastor’s origins, then Ham visits Taquería Ramírez, one of the most talked about taco spots in Brooklyn, to learn their unique method. Make sure you listen all the way to the end of the episode to hear Ham cook up tac...

New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells has been called the most feared food writer in America. He can make or break a restaurant with the power of one of his reviews. When he goes out, he does so in secret, making reservations under fake names because he doesn't want restaurants to know that he's coming. This week Pete takes Dan on an undercover mission to a New York restaurant. Then they talk about the nuts and bolts of Pete’...

In 1964 Rocky Aoki, a Japanese immigrant, created hibachi restaurants in America when he opened his first Benihana. Rocky later said that he based his concept on the idea that "Americans enjoy eating in exotic surroundings, but are deeply mistrustful of exotic foods.” The restaurant took off, but Rocky's legacy is complicated. In this week's show we hear from people who knew Rocky, and we talk with a hibachi chef who's one of the m...

Today on Deep Dish, Sohla and Ham explore the history of Korea through the story of a rice cake. Tteokbokki (Korean rice cakes) are as popular in Korea as hot dogs are in the U.S. Ji Hye Kim, the chef and owner of Miss Kim in Ann Arbor, Michigan, fell in love with tteokbokki as a kid in South Korea. When she moved to Michigan, her attempt to recreate a taste of home led her to tteokbokki’s surprising history as a delicacy of the ro...

Introducing Deep Dish, a new podcast from The Sporkful hosted by Sohla and Ham El-Waylly! Sohla and Ham are chefs, recipe developers, YouTube stars — and they’re married. In each episode, Sohla and Ham uncover the surprising story behind a dish, then go back to their kitchen to see what they’re inspired to cook up. All episodes of Deep Dish will run here in The Sporkful feed.

In this first episode, Sohla and Ham dive into the story ...

Over the past few years there has been an explosion in new products in grocery stores, from barbecue sauces to nut butters to seltzers. Big brands have dominated the shelves for decades, but small startups have elbowed their way in thanks to a surprising strategy, which reveals something about how supermarkets actually make money. Dan goes to a grocery store with John Stanton, a professor at St. Joseph’s University, to see this bat...