PODCAST · arts
Communal Table
by Food & Wine
Hello beautiful people! This is the archive of Food & Wine Pro's Communal Table podcast. Chefs and restaurant workers take great care of everyone else, but often they need a little help themselves. Each week, Food & Wine’s executive features editor Kat Kinsman talks with hospitality pros about how they manage their business, brain, and body for the long haul. Some of our very special guests include Samin Nosrat, Nigella Lawson, David Chang, Pete Wells, and more. Follow Food & Wine's new podcast Tinfoil Swans wherever you listen.
Episodes
-
Communal Table Presents: Tinfoil Swans from Food & Wine
Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a new series of intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting interviews with the biggest names in the culinary industry, sharing...
-
Nigella Lawson Talks Solitude, Imperfect Housekeeping, Squishy White Bread, and Listening to Your Food
Like many of us, Nigella Lawson has spent the last 13 months hunkered at home, in an endless cycle of cooking, eating, washing up (reluctantly), and doing it all again just hours later. Unlike the rest of us, she's adapted her practices into a glorious cookbook—called Cook, Eat, Repeat—that...
-
Preeti Mistry Is Hanging Out with Puppets, Planning a More Inclusive Food Future
We're living in a golden age of Preeti Mistry and the world is so much more delicious for it. The Juhu Beach Club chef, cookbook author, speaker, and podcaster (among other things) can currently be seen teaching kids and puppets alike about the marvelous universe of herbs and spices on the…
more -
Sam Fore Talks Feeding Restaurant Workers in Need, Therapy, and Tomato Pie
When chef Sam Fore sees something she can fix, she jumps in to help. As the restaurant industry was devastated by COVID-19, she joined The LEE Initiative to help make sure that workers were being fed—and help create a system where the whole community could benefit in the long term. That's just…
more -
Sam Fore Will Not Stay Silent, and That's a Very Good Thing
When it comes to calling out cruddy behavior, chef Sam Fore has never been afraid to speak her mind. Growing up as a first-generation Sri Lankan American in North Carolina, she had a supportive community (and a mom who always warned her about how her mouth would get her in trouble—not that she...
-
Pinky Cole Talks About Entrepreneurship, Intentions, and Setting People Up for Success
Pinky Cole has always known that she would lead an extraordinary life. As a girl growing up in East Baltimore, she wasn't sure what form that would take, but when her friends were outside playing, she was setting goals for herself, like "earn my first million by age 30." Which she did. Next…
more -
Adrian Lipscombe Talks Black Land Ownership, Texas Tribulations, and Studying Sake
When city planner and architect Adrian Lipscombe visited a cafe in La Crosse, Wisconsin for a business meeting, little did she know she'd end up moving her family up all the way from Austin, Texas, running the cafe herself, and revitalizing a whole section of the city. And if running a restaurant...
-
Matt Jennings Talks Sobriety, Pivots, Flextaurants, and How Chefs Can Evolve
The day Matt Jennings woke up on his bathroom floor, he knew something had to change, or else he'd die. Five years later, the chef and cookbook author is sober, happy, healthy, and on a mission to help other people in the industry find their way forward—even if it looks nothing like they'd...
-
Vinny Eng Talks Mutual Aid, Empathy, and the Art of Hugging Trees
The day after Vinny Eng was named as one of Food & Wine's 2019 Somms of the Year, he said his thank yous for the accolade, then promptly announced that he was stepping away from the industry for a while to work on a political campaign. For those who know Vinny, this wasn't a surprise, because the...
-
Anita Lo Talks Solo Cooking, Throwing Butter, and Constant Reinvention
Little did she know at the time she was writing it, but Anita Lo's Solo: A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One became, for many, the ideal guide for this time in history. The 2001 Food & Wine Best New Chef and much-lauded chef, author, and TV personality joined Communal Table from her home on Long...
-
Claudette Zepeda Talks Cutting Through White Noise and Becoming the Leader She Needed to See
When Claudette Zepeda was at her most stressed-out, as she puts it, "my neck went away." Her shoulders were in a permanent state of hunch and she'd been advised at a new job to bring her "knives and anti-anxiety medication." But she learned along the way to advocate for herself, for people who'd...
-
Norma Listman and Saqib Keval Talk Mole, Valuing Mexican Food, and What Restaurant Family Means
It's hard to open a restaurant. It's indescribably stressful to have to open your restaurant four separate times, for reasons (earthquake, local government corruption, pandemic) out of your control. But Norma Listman and Saqib Keval believe in the vision of Masala Y Maiz, their Mexico City...
-
The Food & Wine Team Talks Dal and Roti, Sopping, Broiling, and Citrus
January is a particularly cruel month. The days are short, the holidays past, and hey—we're still living in a freaking pandemic. But we've all got to find joy where we can, and this comes in the form of the recipes and stories we're running this month, celebrating the particular pleasure of…
more -
Carl Sobocinski Talks About Investing in People and Closing His Restaurants to Stop the Spread
Restaurateurs live their lives by the numbers, and when Carl Sobocinski saw COVID-19 case rates racking up in Greenville, SC, he knew he had to take action. Even though it wasn't mandated by local or state law, he voluntarily closed down all but one of his restaurants for a period after the...
-
Kiki Aranita Talks About Closing Her Restaurant, Collective Trauma, and Selling Sauce
A year ago, Kiki Aranita was in Hong Kong for a cousin's wedding when she heard the first rumblings about a virus that was highly contagious and beginning to spread. There's no way she could have known that just months later, she'd have to shut down her much-loved Philadelphia restaurant Poi Dog...
-
How to Holiday in Limbo
No one on earth needs to be told that this is a holiday season unlike any other because we're all living it. If you're a listener of this podcast you are painfully aware of the kind of year it's been, and that no one quite knows the way forward. In this year, more than any other, joy, rituals…
more -
Rocco DiSpirito Talks About Why Therapy Is a Lifesaver and How to Snap Back to Feeling Like a Chef
In 1999, Food & Wine named Rocco DiSpirito as one of its Best New Chefs—a vote of confidence in the future of a brilliant young cook who earned the esteem of his peers as well as a rabid fanbase of diners captivated by the handsome fella who quickly became a staple of the gossip pages. Just a few...
-
Bryan Washington Talks About Showing Up, Growing Up, and Morning-After Omelets
Bryan Washington's extraordinary new novel 'Memorial' shares the story of two men in love and at a crossroads in their four-year relationship, when some family dynamics shift and they have to reevaluate who they are in the world, and to one another. There's also a ton of great food on every other...
-
The Food & Wine Kitchen Team Talks About What's on the Thanksgiving Table in 2020
The holidays this year will look a lot different. With COVID-19 still raging across the country, celebrations will be smaller, sometimes huddled around a Zoom screen or FaceTime, but there are still things to celebrate. In a special episode of Communal Table, Food & Wine's Senior Food Editor...
-
Vivian Howard Talks About Southernness, Pride, Pivots, and Politics
It took leaving home for Vivian Howard to appreciate where she'd come from. The chef, restaurateur, TV star, and author of the new cookbook This Will Make It Taste Good is the daughter of an Eastern North Carolina tobacco farmer, and everything she saw on TV told her that she shouldn't be...
-
Timothy Hollingsworth Talks About Kitchen Intensity, Belonging, and Cooking for Your Mom
In what feels like a different lifetime, The Final Table star and vaunted chef Timothy Hollingsworth sat down in the Food & Wine studio to talk about his path from dishwasher to chef de cuisine at The French Laundry to striking out on his own as a restaurateur (Otium LA, CJ Boyd's, and Freeplay...
-
Joe Yonan Talks About Beans and Being Seen
Before COVID-19 brought life as we know it to a halt and people started hunkering down at home, stirring up comforting stews, Joe Yonan stopped by Food & Wine headquarters to talk about his gorgeous—and prescient—new cookbook, Cool Beans. The Washington Post food editor opened up about his…
more -
Dale DeGroff and Julie Reiner Talk About the Cocktail Renaissance and What Comes Next
In July 2019, which seems like a lifetime ago, beverage pros from around the world converged on New Orleans for the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference—an annual event highlighting and celebrating the best of bar culture past, present, and future. Veteran bartenders Dale DeGroff and Julie...
-
Kelly Fields Talks About Writing a Cookbook, Weathering Storms, and Accepting Help
For years, people had been poking at Kelly Fields to write a cookbook, but she resisted. She'd been perfecting her craft as a pastry chef in some of New Orleans' most lauded restaurants, and expanded her scope into the savory realm at the wildly successful Willa Jean, winning a James Beard Award…
more -
Eric Rivera Talks About Pivoting, Selling Plants, and Planning Ahead
When COVID-19 sent the hospitality industry into a tailspin, Eric Rivera had already charted a course to the next destination. His restaurant, Addo, has always been a venue for innovations both cultural and culinary, so a sudden shutdown of indoor dining was a chance to explore new ways of…
more -
The Communal Table Podcast: Erick Williams
When Erick Williams began working in restaurants, it was a means to an end. The Chicago native believed the best way he could serve his community would be through rehabbing neglected buildings in his neighborhood, and he was just looking for a way to fund that. But over the next two and a half...
-
The Communal Table Podcast: Jenny Dorsey
When Jenny Dorsey was working in the fashion world at the start of her career she found herself looking at the people above her and realizing it wasn't the life she wanted for herself. Subsequent culinary and business school taught her a lot about what she really valued—and also where she felt...
-
Restaurant Lawyer Jasmine Moy Talks About Reopening, Racism, and Rent
It feels like a lifetime ago that restaurant lawyer Jasmine Moy sat for a conversation about what people need to know before they open a restaurant. Public life has changed in almost unfathomable ways since that podcast in May, 2019, with the spread of COVID-19 and the overdue national reckoning…
more -
Justin Burke Talks About Inclusive Spaces, Being a Queer Single Dad, and Baking As Activism
Justin Burke is renowned for his "modern gramma" style of baking, but is perhaps just as appreciated for the inclusive spaces and community he creates wherever he goes. In the weeks before the pandemic shut down the world, Burke—who makes his home in North Carolina—sat down at Food & Wine HQ to...
-
The Communal Table Podcast: Devita Davison
In her work as the Executive Director for FoodLab Detroit, Devita Davison has been laser-focused on making sure that residents of her beloved city have access to and equity in the systems that bring healthy food to their tables. In the era of COVID-19, with Black and brown people bearing the…
more -
The Communal Table Podcast: Romy Gill
Romy Gill was getting ready to sell her jewelry to finance her first restaurant. As an immigrant to England from India—and a woman—she was finding it very difficult to get a bank loan, but they didn't know Romy Gill. After a BBC feature, she not only got the loan to open Romy's Kitchen, but went…
more -
Paola Velez Talks About the Art and Pleasure of Being an Empathetic Leader
Paola Velez was listening to the James Beard Award finalist announcements hoping for the chance to cheer on some friends and colleagues. She was gobsmacked to hear her own name called out in the Rising Star Pastry Chef category. No one else was surprised. The Kith/Kin dessert master is revered…
more -
How Restaurant Editor Khushbu Shah Picked Food & Wine's Best New Chefs 2020
For months, Food & Wine's Restaurant Editor Khushbu Shah spent every waking (and sleeping) second scouting out restaurants across the United States and Puerto Rico to assemble the 2020 class of Best New Chefs. Just a very short time after her final flight, restaurants all over the country closed...
-
The Joy of Cooking Is Here for You
There's a good chance that The Joy of Cooking is somewhere in your orbit, whether it's a vintage edition handed down through your family, a copy bestowed upon you when you moved away from home, or even the newest version that came out at the end of 2019. What many people may not realize is that…
more -
Trigg Brown Talks About Taking Care of Vulnerable Workers
When it became evident that the COVID-19 pandemic was going to hit New York, Trigg Brown had some tough decisions to make. As the chef-partner of Win-Son and Win-Son Bakery in Brooklyn, he was listening closely for guidance from authorities, but it was slow in coming and he did what he thought…
more -
Ellen Yin and Gia Vecchio Talk About a New Mental Health Resource for the Industry
Even before COVID-19 laid waste to the industry, mental health and addiction were issues that disproportionately affected hospitality workers. Now with a staggering segment of the population laid off and most people isolated from the routine and people they relied on, things are more dire than…
more -
Rachael Ray Won't Rest Until Everyone—and Their Pets—Is Fed
Some people are just called to a life of service, and Rachael Ray gratefully counts herself among them. When the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation, she didn't have to think twice. She built charity into her business from the very beginning so that her brand would financially support the care...
-
Kwame Onwuachi Talks About Restaurant Recovery and Representing Inaudible People
On a recent press call with the Independent Restaurant Coalition, Bronx-raised chef Kwame Onwuachi pointed out the painful truth that a tiger at the Bronx Zoo was able to get a COVID-19 test, and yet the human beings in his home borough don't have access to that care and are getting sick and…
more -
Hospitality Veteran John Winterman Talks About Opening a Restaurant During a Pandemic
John Winterman got fired from his first restaurant job in 1986, and he's been in love with the industry ever since. He honed his appetite for fine dining under the stewardship of Charlie Trotter and Gary Danko, ascended the ranks in Daniel Boulud's empire to become maitre d' at the flagship…
more -
Edward Lee Talks About Making a Pivot and Feeding His Community
Louisville-based chef Edward Lee is the kind of person who sees a community in crisis and doesn't think twice—he steps in and figures out a way to keep people fed. When the government furloughed workers, he rallied the people around him to make meals for those who were suddenly without a…
more -
Everything Restaurants Need to Know About Dealing with Their Landlord
It's nearly the first of the month and for most businesses (and people) the rent is due. But what happens if you're a restaurant owner who has had to scale back or shut down entirely due to coronavirus? Can you just not pay, or is there anything the government is working on to help? Food & Wine...
-
Angie Mar Talks About Grief, Getting Creative, and Pushing Through
Angie Mar arrived back in New York City from a stint cooking in London, and found a restaurant landscape completely changed. After a painful period of self quarantine for the safety of the people around her, she put on her game face, went to her restaurant, and made some tough but necessary...
-
Steve Palmer Talks About Resources for Maintaining Sobriety in a Crisis
When Steve Palmer and Mickey Bakst started Ben's Friends, they had no idea that it would be the force that it is today. What began as an industry-specific recovery meeting in Charleston, SC has since transformed into a national lifeline for chefs, servers, bartenders, and other hospitality…
more -
Ming Tsai Talks About the Fears Restaurant Workers Face and Actions to Take
Ming Tsai is one of the best-known chefs in America, but that doesn't insulate him from the onslaught of challenges and unknowns that the restaurant industry is facing right now. Rather, he's had to take quick action to take care of his employees and community—especially the most vulnerable...
-
How to Use Your Voice and Ask for Help
Restaurant workers are usually the last people to ask for help because they're too busy serving others. On today's Communal Table podcast, as COVID-19 spreads across the country, Food & Wine senior editor Kat Kinsman shares resources and coping strategies for chefs, servers, bartenders, and other...
-
Restaurant Workers and Owners Scramble to Figure Out Next Steps As Coronavirus Spreads
As COVID-19 spreads across the country, restaurant workers and owners are in uncharted waters trying to figure out how to take care of their employees, stay in business, and feed their community. Food & Wine senior editor Kat Kinsman spoke by phone from her home in Brooklyn with Salem, MA pastry...
-
Anxiety, Coronavirus, and Making Sure Your Local Restaurants Stay in Business
During times of crisis, restaurants are there for us. They're where we celebrate, gather, catch-up, connect, and nourish ourselves body, mind, and spirit. At this unprecedented and uncertain moment when people are told to socially isolate because of coronavirus, many of them are in danger of...
-
Jay Rayner Talks About Restaurant Criticism, Coronavirus, and Confronting His Own Mortality
In addition to writing books, playing gigs as a professional musician, hosting podcasts, performing one-man shows, and appearing on TV shows like Masterchef and Top Chef, Jay Rayner has served the last 20 years as restaurant critic for The Guardian. The question he has received with extreme...
-
Sarah Robbins Talks Vulnerability, Celebrities and What the Military Taught Her About Hospitality
Whether you're away from home for business or pleasure, you're in a vulnerable spot when you stay in a hotel, away from your normal patterns and dependent on other people. Sarah Robbins knew hospitality was her calling, got an ROTC scholarship to put herself through school to learn all about it,...
-
Emma Bengtsson Talks About Open Kitchens and (Reluctantly) Learning to Sit Still
Emma Bengtsson has always been stubborn and driven, and in many ways, it's served her well. Growing up as an elite athlete, she developed the intense discipline it took to rise to the top, and when she started working in kitchens, the same rules applied. She worked through the often intense pain…
more
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Hello beautiful people! This is the archive of Food & Wine Pro's Communal Table podcast. Chefs and restaurant workers take great care of everyone else, but often they need a little help themselves. Each week, Food & Wine’s executive features editor Kat Kinsman talks with hospitality pros about how they manage their business, brain, and body for the long haul. Some of our very special guests include Samin Nosrat, Nigella Lawson, David Chang, Pete Wells, and more. Follow Food & Wine's new podcast Tinfoil Swans wherever you listen.
HOSTED BY
Food & Wine
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Communal Table have?
Communal Table currently has 103 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Communal Table about?
Hello beautiful people! This is the archive of Food & Wine Pro's Communal Table podcast. Chefs and restaurant workers take great care of everyone else, but often they need a little help themselves. Each week, Food & Wine’s executive features editor Kat Kinsman talks with hospitality pros about how...
How often does Communal Table release new episodes?
Communal Table publishes regularly with 103 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Communal Table?
You can listen to Communal Table on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Communal Table?
Communal Table is created and hosted by Food & Wine.
URL copied to clipboard!