PODCAST · arts
Special Sauce with Ed Levine
by Ed Levine
Serious Eats' podcast Special Sauce enables food lovers everywhere to eavesdrop on an intimate conversation about food and life between host and Serious Eats founder Ed Levine and his well-known/famous friends and acquaintances both in and out of the food culture.
Episodes
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Jacques Pépin Part 1: The Legend at 90+
What a treat it was to go up to Jacques Pépin's home in Connecticut and interview Jacques, his daughter Claudine Pépin, and her husband Rollie Wesen on the occasion of the publication of the 50th Anniversary edition of Pépin's seminal work La Technique. Pépin was even more charming in person.…
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Susie Essman Reheat: An Oldie but a Goodie
This week on Special Sauce we go way back into the Internet time machine (2015!) with the brilliant Susie Essman regaling us with hilarious stories about her years of dues paying in comedy clubs, renouncing vegetarianism when the smell of bacon just became too much for her; and coming up with...
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Meherwan Irani: Indian Street Food Evangelist
James Beard Award-Winning chef and restaurateur Meherwan Irani has written 'Number 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World', a book that celebrates the Indian street food he serves at his restaurants Chai Pani and Botiwalla. On Special Sauce Irani insisted that Indian street food is the best street...
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ICE in Chicago: Still Destroying Food People's Lives
After reading about ICE's ongoing appalling treatment of an Argentine-born Chicago chef Carlos Cantatore in the new online food publication Ravenous, I invited Ravenous' Ashok Selvam and Marcos Carbajal, Chicago-born restaurateur-chef and owner of the esteemed Carnitas Uruapan, on Special Sauce…
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Restaurant Reservation Insanity
This week on Special Sauce, reporter Heather Haddon and columnist Adam Chandler of The Wall Street Journal give us the lowdown on why securing a restaurant reservation is damn near impossible these days. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Dolly Parton: Working Class Food Hero
There are quite a few beautiful Dolly Parton remembrances that have been published since her death, but only one that talked about Dolly's love of food and the many contributions Parton made to the food culture. Today's guest on Special Sauce, Amy McCarthy, former Eater writer and editor and one…
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'The Elephant in the Room' Revisited with Tommy Tomlinson
This week the terrific writer and podcaster Tommy Tomlinson gives us a poignant and hopeful update on his lifelong battle with his weight. Thanks to GLP-1 drugs he has lost more than 130 pounds in the last 2 years. Tommy and I share our GLP-1 drug experiences. Learn about your ad choices:...
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Why Are Goldbud Peaches the Best?
This week on Special Sauce we talk to Goldbud Farm's Chuck Mansfield, who happens to grow the best peaches in the world. He'll even tell serious eaters how he does it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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The Big Cheese: A Movie About Cheesemongering
This week on Special Sauce we take a deep dive into the world of cheesemongering with two of the stars of the documentary 'The Big Cheese', Adam Jay Moskowitz and Courtney Johnson. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Reheating Ramen with Sho Spaeth
On this reheated episode of Special Sauce, former Serious Eats editor and writer Sho Spaeth talks to us about his book, Homemade Ramen, a 2026 James Beard Foundation Book Award nominee. Sho is the Lead Editor and Writer at ChefSteps, and the most passionate and knowledgeable ramen geek I know. He...
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Reheating Some Yemeni Coffee
Are Yemeni coffee shops the next big thing? On this reheated episode from 2025 serious eaters will meet Mokhtar Alkhanshali who has braved gunfire and jail and AK-47s as he tries to bring single origin Port of Mokha Yemeni coffee to the world. His story is the stuff of movies! Learn about your ad...
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Loving Food Can Actually Be the Secret to Eating Less of It
This week on Special Sauce Dr. Dana Small, a professor at McGill University and one of the leading experts on the neuroscience of food decisions, and longtime friend of the podcast Pete Wells of The New York Times join us to explain how the pleasure and enjoyment of food can be the most important...
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The Russ and Daughters Story
How does a family business survive more than a century of selling smoked fish, bagels, and candy? Russ and Daughters' Niki Russ Federman explains all. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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The Bear's Final Season with the NYT's James Poniewozik
If there is a smarter or better TV critic than The New York Times's James Poniewozik I have yet to come across him or her. So when I was dying to talk to someone about The Bear's moving final season I rang up James and he graciously agreed to come on Special Sauce to talk about it. We had a blast...
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A Pie Reheat for the 4th of July
Here at Special Sauce we love pie in all its forms: we love shepherd's pie, apple pie, key lime pie, lemon meringue pie, and our absolute favorite, peach pie. And given that we're coming up on America's 250th birthday and Americans love pie we thought we'd reheat one of our favorite pie episodes…
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Summer Burgers Part 2: Kenji and George Motz
This week on Special Sauce serious eaters get to eavesdrop on part 2 of my hilarious and informative conversation with burger mavens Kenji and Hamburger America's George Motz. Nobody knows more about cooking and eating burgers than these two burger mavens. Learn about your ad choices:...
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The Collective Joy of Knicks Fans
As one of the millions of long-suffering Knicks fans I am still basking in the afterglow of the team's historical and magical run. I decided I had to devote another episode of Special Sauce to the team's amazing playoff run to the NBA championship. And who better to join me on mic than the The…
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Burger Madness Part 1 with Kenji and George Motz
With grilling season underway I felt the time was right to talk burgers with Kenji and Hamburger America's George Motz. We talk burger history, burger cooking methods, and all things burger. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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The Knicks: Orange and Blue Skies, Baby!
As one of the millions of long-suffering New York Knicks fans, I decided I had to devote an episode of Special Sauce to the the team's amazing playoff run. Joining me on the pod is the The New York Times's Matt Flegenheimer, who wrote a great piece about NYC coming together to celebrate this...
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Mateo Kehler: The Cheese Visionary Behind Jasper Hill Farm
This week on Special Sauce we talk to Mateo Kehler, the cheese visionary behind Jasper Hill Farm. Mateo and his brother Andy, carpenters by trade, pooled together their life savings and bought a 200 acre dilapidated dairy farm in Greensboro, Vermont, in 1998. They were cheesemakers on a mission…
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A Hot Dog Reheat for Memorial Day
I have written thousands of words about the joys of eating hot dogs, so when Memorial Day rolls around, this serious eater's thoughts immediately turn to the humble frankfurter. A couple of years ago we had my friend and fellow food writer J.J. Goode on Special Sauce to talk about our love for…
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The Big Bagel Taste Test
This week on the pod we are back with Part 2 of our deep dive into bageldom with bagel baker and celebrated chef Mark Strausman of Mark’s Off Madison in NYC. He and I taste-tested bagels from Wall Street darling PopUp Bagels, which was just valued at 300 million dollars, a classic traditional NY...
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Bagels Are Having A Moment
Like slice pizza and smash burgers bagels are having a moment. One concept Pop Up Bagels was just valued at $300 million in its most recent round of financing. Pop Up's rip and dip bagels are a viral sensation but have left some traditional bagel purists unimpressed. One of those purists is the...
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Channing Frye Reheat: Go Knicks!
Like many serious eaters I am a serious NBA fan. And although the playoffs this year have just gotten underway, they are already proving to be thrillingly entertaining for people like me who have no skin in the game -- other than an unabated lifelong passion for the New York Knicks and just about...
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Can Food Actually Be Medicine? Yes!
The idea that food is medicine has been around for centuries. On this week's Special Sauce The New York Times's Kim Severson and the Aspen Institute's Corby Kummer talk about how doctors, the government, and even insurance companies have been engaged in a half-century long process to treat…
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Chicago and ICE: An Update
Last November ICE launched Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, terrorizing both restaurant customers and workers in immigrant communities all over the Windy City.We heard firsthand accounts of ICE's violent misdeeds by Chicago Tribune reporter Zareen Syed and restaurateur Marcos Carbajal of the...
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A Tribute to Tom Valenti, The Best Chef You Never Heard Of
Tom Valenti, one of my favorite chefs of all time (who also happened to be a swell, generously spirited human being), died suddenly last week. Tom was a friend of mine, so I gathered writer Andrew Friedman (who co-wrote Tom's cookbooks) and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que founder John Stage to celebrate the...
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Ella Quittner: Obsessed With The Best
As someone who has spent the greater part of a half-century searching for and obsessing about where to find the best of any kind of foodstuff, I was immediately drawn to Ella Quittner's book Obsessed with the Best. Quittner and I delved into the pleasures and pitfalls any writer encounters when…
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AI: An Existential Threat to Recipe Developers
Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman explains why she and many other recipe developers and food writers regard AI as an existential threat on this week's episode of Special Sauce. This is serious business, serious eaters. Listen up! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Noma and Redzepi: A Shocking Tale of Abuse
According The New York Times, Noma chef and co-owner René Redzepi physically and verbally abused more than thirty of his kitchen staff between 2010 and 2017. To find out what that means, I sat down with longtime restaurant critic Bill Addison of The Los Angeles Times, and best selling author and...
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LA Taco Reheat: Leading the ICE Resistance One Taco at a Time
This week we're reheating one of our favorite recent episodes on the ongoing struggle between ICE and the immigrant-driven food cultures of major American cities. LA Taco's editor-in-chief Javier Cabral explains how and why his website became one of the leading voices of ICE resistance in the…
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Are Restaurant Critics Obsolete? Part 2
On part 2 of our revealing and refreshingly honest conversation with three of the best food critics in America, Hannah Goldfield of The New Yorker, Bill Addison of The Los Angeles Times, and Elazar Sontag of The Washington Post, all three are not feeling particularly sanguine about the future of...
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Are Restaurant Critics Obsolete? Part 1
Are restaurant critics dinosaurs in the age of social media? We discuss that and more in part one of our critic's roundtable with The New Yorker's Hannah Goldfield, The Washington Post's Elazar Sontag, and The Los Angeles Times' Bill Addison. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Food Critic on a Diet, Part Two: The NYT's Pete Wells
This week Pete Wells and I talk about our mutual worst food enemy, our addiction to sugar. Pete explains how the hidden added sugars in many packaged and processed foods just compound our dietary problems. We also talk about how the mixed messages we get from the government add to our dietary…
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Food Critic on a Diet, Part One: The NYT's Pete Wells
On this first of two episodes featuring The New York Times's Pete Wells, the former Times restaurant critic explains how he learned to eat differently after a trip to his doctor scared the crap out of him. Yes he eats many more whole grains and avoids added sugar any way he can. But as you'll…
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REHEAT: Kenji on Superbowl Food
For millions of serious eaters the Super Bowl has turned into a food event almost on a par with Thanksgiving. With the Super Bowl coming up we thought it would be fun and edifying to reheat last year's Super Bowl episode featuring Kenji Lopez-Alt giving serious eaters sage advice about making…
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ICE Invades Minneapolis
On this episode of Special Sauce the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Sharyn Jackson reports on the devastating effect of the ICE operation on the Twin Cities' restaurant and food community. ICE's terrifying tactics in Minneapolis have been met with many creative forms of resistance. Learn about your…
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The Magic of the Bialy
On this episode of Special Sauce we go deep into the story of the not famous enough Jewish roll known as a bialy (which is far superior to its kind of distant cousin, the bagel) with the celebrated chef, Mark Strausman, who is merely one of the great bialy bakers of our time. Learn about your ad...
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Can Restaurants Survive In 2026
On this episode of Special Sauce the Washington Post's Tim Carman and the Los Angeles Times's Stephanie Breijo discuss the enormous headwinds facing restaurants all over the country in 2026. High food costs, tariffs, the uncertain economy, and the ICE Raids' chilling effect on restaurant workers,...
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Eric Asimov on Saving the Wine Biz
On this episode of Special Sauce, The New York Times's superb wine critic Eric Asimov details the many challenges facing the wine industry. He cites high prices, over-production of factory wine, and the snootiness of too many wine enthusiasts AND the people that serve and sell wine. Eric even...
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The Cherry Bombe Story
On this episode we talk to Cherry Bombe founder, Kerry Diamond. Cherry Bombe is a media company celebrating women in the world of food and drink. Her mission from day one has been to support women in the industry by shining a spotlight on them, sharing their stories, and bringing them together in...
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Special Sauce Reheat: Hamissi Mamba and Baobab Fare
We decided to leave 2025 behind by reheating an episode from 2023 that features the remarkable Hamissi Mamba, who came to Detroit from his native Burundi searching for a better life, leaving his wife Nadia behind not knowing she was pregnant with twins. Despite not speaking English and knowing no...
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ICE Comes to Charlotte
ICE invaded Charlotte a couple of weeks ago and have wreaked their usual havoc on the vibrant food community there. Charlotte food business owner (Manolo's Bakery) and immigration activist Manolo Betancur courageously shared his own experiences dealing with ICE. ICE has completely devastated what...
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Matcha Madness with Pete Wells
The world's gone mad for matcha, and the The New York Times's Pete Wells has the scoop on today's episode of Special Sauce. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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ICE in DC: WaPo's Tim Carman and Warren Rojas Explain All
On this week's Special Sauce the Washington Post's Tim Carman and Warren Rojas explain how ICE Raids and the National Guard deployment in the nation's capital have terrified immigrant restaurant workers and owners. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
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Leftovers Reheat with Kenji and Deb Perelman
Kenji Lopez-Alt and Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman discuss (what else) how they deal with Thanksgiving leftovers in this classic Special Sauce episode from 2023. Leave the meat on the bone or in the fridge or slice it off right away? Stuffing waffles, anyone? Is pie the only thing to have for...
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Turkey Day Reheat: Kenji and Stella Parks Take Calls from Listeners
This year for Turkey Day we reheat a gem of a Thanksgiving call-in show featuring two of the biggest turkey lovers I know; Kenji Lopez-Alt and Stella Parks. Also known as "Brave Tart". They answered serious eater's questions about anything and everything about cooking a Thanksgiving meal. Like…
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What's Missing From Your Favorite Chocolate Bar? It May Be Chocolate!
Many beloved candy bars are now being made without cocoa butter and here to tell us why and how the likes of Rolo, Mr. Goodbar and Almond Joy have been reformulated to exclude the plant-based fat is The New York Times climate reporter, Claire Brown. Learn about your ad choices:...
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Taco Life in Chicago Disrupted by ICE
Over the summer we checked in with LA Taco's Javier Cabral about the scary ICE raids in L.A. and their terrifying effect on the food community there. But the situation in Chicago is in many ways equally dire. ICE raids as part of Trump's Operation Midway Blitz have terrified Latino neighborhoods…
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Yemeni Coffee: The Next Big Thing?
Are Yemeni coffee shops the next big thing? On this episode serious eaters will meet Mokhtar Alkhanshali, who has braved gunfire and jail and AK-47s as he tries to bring single origin Port of Mokha Yemeni coffee to the world. His story is the stuff of movies. Learn about your ad choices:...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Serious Eats' podcast Special Sauce enables food lovers everywhere to eavesdrop on an intimate conversation about food and life between host and Serious Eats founder Ed Levine and his well-known/famous friends and acquaintances both in and out of the food culture.
HOSTED BY
Ed Levine
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Special Sauce with Ed Levine have?
Special Sauce with Ed Levine currently has 477 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Special Sauce with Ed Levine about?
Serious Eats' podcast Special Sauce enables food lovers everywhere to eavesdrop on an intimate conversation about food and life between host and Serious Eats founder Ed Levine and his well-known/famous friends and acquaintances both in and out of the food culture.
How often does Special Sauce with Ed Levine release new episodes?
Special Sauce with Ed Levine publishes regularly with 477 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Special Sauce with Ed Levine?
You can listen to Special Sauce with Ed Levine 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 Special Sauce with Ed Levine?
Special Sauce with Ed Levine is created and hosted by Ed Levine.
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