Special Sauce with Ed Levine

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: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 New York Times' terrific writer Matt Flegenheimer, who to my way of thinking has become the poet laureate of Knicks fandom. He explains that he too can't believe what we have all just witnessed.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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

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 magical run the team is on so far, and food writer Chris Crowley, a former Serious Eater who is now one of the founding editors of the new food newsletter Caper.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 to save a disappearing way of life in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, where dairy farming had been in precipitous decline.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 the hot dog in all its forms, including the many regional styles we both have encountered along the way. We talked about hot dog styles both ubiquitous and obscure, from the famous Chicago hot dogs with french fries on top at Gene and Jude's near O'Hare Airport to the deep-fried hot dogs poetically known as rippers at Rutt's Hut in Clifton, N.J. So to honor this most humble of foods from around the country and the world as we head into Memorial Day weekend we decided to reheat one of J.J.'s terrifically entertaining and informative episodes about our mutual love of hot dogs. And just for the record I still have two Gray's Papaya hot dogs for lunch a couple of times a week. Please don't tell my cardiologist...or my wife. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 bagel concern Utopia Bagels, next-gen sourdough bagel bakery Apollo, and of course, Mark’s own bagels. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 great chef turned master bagel baker Mark Strausman, so we traveled to Mark's restaurant Mark's Off Madison to talk and taste bagels.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 any and all underdogs. Ever since we had NBA champ and former Knick Channing Frye on the pod a couple of years ago to talk about his company Chosen Family, whenever the playoffs shift into high gear I think back to the entertaining, surprisingly revealing, but mostly just plain fun time we had with him on Special Sauce. So without further adieu here's multitalented Channing Frye talking basketball and wine, LeBron James, and Josh Hart. Speaking of which, go Knicks! On to the Finals! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 esteemed Carnitas Uruapan. I checked in with Zareen and Marcos this week to get an update on the situation.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 life and times of the best chef you might never have heard of.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 he or she tackles this most subjective undertaking.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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

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 youtuber, Kenji Lopez-Alt. Kenji worked in many serious restaurant kitchens in Boston for a number of years after graduating from college, before opening his own restaurant Wursthall in San Mateo, California. Can fine-dining restaurant kitchens become kinder and gentler places? What should happen to Redzepi? We mull over these questions and more on this episode of Special Sauce. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 "City of Angels'.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 restaurant criticism in general. And it's not just social media to blame.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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

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 woes.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 hear his health and diet journey revealed just as many unexpected truths about how to eat right.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 pizza and wings at home. I've had Kenji's wings and his pan pizza, and they are both seriously delicious and pretty simple to make. We should note that Kenji is no sports fan. In all the years I've known him I can't remember one conversation about sports. But maybe as a resident of Seattle he has found a reason to root for the Seahawks.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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, and business in general, have left restaurant owners wondering about their survival. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 offers his prescription for many of the problems that plague the wine biz.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 person and virtually. As you will hear, it hasn't been easy, but according to Kerry, it's all been worth it.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 one in the motor city Mamba has in a few short years opened a successful restaurant Baobab Fare, a food truck Waka by Baobab, and Soko, a retail business selling East African curated sauces, coffee and beverages, chocolate jewelry, and apparel. Mamba's story is especially resonant given the cruel anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 is a thriving immigrant population in Charlotte. Joining Manolo is the terrific food writer Kathleen Purvis, who was the longtime food editor of the Charlotte Observer.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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

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

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 breakfast after Thanksgiving? They don't always agree, but Kenji and Deb always have a great time when they get together.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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, "Is it dangerous to cook your stuffing inside the bird?" (Kenji says the answer is yes) Or "What kind of salt to use in your pie dough?" Stella even suggests how to toast sugar to make your desserts a little less sweet!  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 in Chicago. Street vendors are scared to set up shop and many restaurants find themselves with many empty tables that were previously filled. Here to keep us up to speed about what's happening in the Windy City is the Chicago Tribune's Zareen Syed and Marcos Carbajal, the second generation Mexican-American owner of Carnitas Uruapan. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to Kenji Lopez-Alt and his partner concert violinist Tessa Lark about their Reese's obsession. Just in time for Halloween.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Former Serious Eats editor and writer Sho Spaeth talks to us about his new book, Homemade Ramen. Sho is the most passionate and knowledgeable Ramen geek I know. He truly believes in the power of ramen.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

How and when and why did sushi become one of America's most popular convenience foods? The Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times food reporter Julia Moskin explains all on this episode of Special Sauce.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to the terrific Southern food writer John T. Edge about his memoir House of Smoke: A Southerner Goes Searching for Home. His journey from a childhood in a small town in Georgia that in many ways still celebrated the Confederacy to running the Southern Foodways Alliance is a remarkable one.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to Island Grown Initiative (IGI) co-executive director Caroline Pam about her organization's efforts to combat food insecurity on Martha's Vineyard during the Trump era. As much as 20% of the island's year-round population suffers from some form of food insecurity.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On June 27th we posted a great conversation I had with L.A. Taco editor-in-chief Javier Cabral about what's going on in California with the cruel, inhumane and dangerous ICE raids that have had a devastating effect on L.A.'s vibrant and diverse taco culture. I haven't been able to stop thinking about the situation both in California and all over the country. So I thought that this week would be an appropriate and even necessary moment to reheat Javier's episode. Obviously much has happened in LA and elsewhere in the ensuing weeks and months, none of it good, in fact all of it truly awful. And L.A. Taco continues to do some incredible reporting on the situation in L.A. It's also aggregating reliable news stories about the nightmarish anti-immigration crackdown from elsewhere. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to the restaurateur's restaurateur Drew Nieporent about his lifelong love affair with restaurants. Nieporent partnered with Nobu Matsuhisa and movie star Robert DeNiro to open Nobu in NY. And even before Nobu, Nieporent played a leading role in establishing NYC's Tribeca neighborhood restaurant scene when he opened Montrachet in 1985.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Brazilian immigrants, who now comprise 20% of the year-round population, have added immeasurably to the quality of life on Martha's Vineyard. On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to Brazilian grocer, owner and compulsive entrepreneur, Elio Silva, about Brazilian foodways and life on the island. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Labor Day weekend is here and for many serious eaters that means it's burger time. Most of my favorite burger recipes come from today's guest on Special Sauce is the James Beard Award-winning chef and food writer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. You'll hear really helpful cooking tips for all kinds of burgers; smashed, turkey, black bean, and vegan. So listen up to get the most out of your cookout this weekend!  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As Labor Day approaches my thoughts invariably turn to burgers. In fact, I have embarked on a quest to find the best burger to be had on Martha's Vineyard. And when I think of burgers the first person I think of is burger scholar and Hamburger America owner George Motz. George was such a great guest on Special Sauce a couple of years ago that listeners have been clamoring for us to reheat one of his episodes, so that's what we're posting this week. I just texted George, who told me that the fourth completely revised and expanded edition of his terrific book Hamburger America will be published next year. That's great news for burger lovers! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Farms on Martha's Vineyard have been disappearing for a hundred years now. The land is just too valuable. On today's Special Sauce we hear how one farmstead, Morning Glory Farm, has managed to feed people year-round on the Massachusetts island for 50 years now.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Phil Rosenthal, the host and creator of Netflix's Somebody Feed Phil, works harder than just about any person I know in food media. What is he working on these days? A concert tour, a diner named after his parents (and co-stars) Max and Helen, a charitable initiative Somebody Feed the People, and so much more.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

There are so many compelling chef origin stories to be told, but I am hard-pressed to think of a more compelling and heart-rending one than today's guest on Special Sauce, Cristina Martínez, the James Beard Award winning chef-owner of two extraordinary world-class Philadelphia restaurants, South Philly Barbacoa and Casa Mexico. As she wrote on her website, "My name is Cristina Martínez, and my story is one of resilience, passion, and courage, full of deep and painful challenges." Listen to her story now.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

You wouldn't think I'd find some of the best fresh pasta I'd ever had on Martha's Vineyard, but I did. The maker of that pasta, Katie Leaird, tells serious eaters about how and why she ended up on an island raising two children under the age of 6 by herself while churning out pounds of fresh pasta every week. It ain't easy!  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It seems like every season of 'The Bear' is subject to more scrutiny and analysis than any play by The Bard himself,  Shakespeare. Every scene and every character's persona is being sifted through like cake flour. So like many serious eaters I know, I got hooked on the Bear. I have binge-watched all four seasons, including the latest, which I watched in two sittings. On a previous episode of Special Sauce I discussed the first season of 'The Bear' with Kenji Lopez-Alt and The New Yorker's Helen Rosner. As food writers, and in Kenji's case as someone who's cooked in restaurants like the one depicted in the series, they offered invaluable perspective. And though I have been devouring all the informed takes on season 4, one struck me as being particularly incisive and just spot on. That one is by James Poniewozik, the chief TV critic of The New York Times which means according to his NYT bio, that he has the largest beat in the world. And that beat now includes joining the conversation on Special Sauce.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Nina Mae Levin has been making world-class pizza on Martha's Vineyard for five years now. And she sells every pie she makes during the Vineyard summer season! So why is it so hard for Nina to make a sustainable living on this idyllic but complicated island? We find out on today's episode of Special Sauce. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices