Special Sauce with Ed Levine

Latest Episodes:

Special Sauce: Brooks Headley Wants You to Call Your Mom. Really. Right Now. Apr 14, 2016

Show notes

Brooks Headley, the punk-rocking, vegetable-whispering owner of Superiority Burger in NYC, says he's "almost insistent upon only being in bands with extremely volatile characters, myself included." In this week's episode of Special Sauce, I talk with Headley, the author of Fancy Desserts, about food and music—the connection between the two obsessions goes way back for him, though he doesn't allow any music in his restaurant kitchen.

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Special Sauce: Dorie Greenspan Says, "Don't Start Baking With Your Sister's Wedding Cake" Apr 07, 2016

Show notes

"Don't start with your sister's wedding cake," suggests baker and author Dorie Greenspan on this week's episode of Special Sauce. Greenspan has come far from the self-described "sweet little home baker" that she once was, and has a lot of advice for aspiring bakers who want to get their hands in the dough.

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Special Sauce: Tom Colicchio Part 2 on Hunger, Guitar, and His Favorite Food Lab Recipe Mar 30, 2016

Show notes

Colicchio is a passionate guitar player and music aficionado, as you'll hear when he sings one of the riffs in the Stevie Ray Vaughan song that we want to use as the Special Sauce theme song in the near future. We also chatted about his seminal book, Think Like Chef, Colicchio explains that the book took shape only when the recipe testing for it failed in a major way.

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Special Sauce: Tom Colicchio on the 3 Things Every Chef Should Know Mar 24, 2016

Show notes

This week, Colicchio discusses three key things he's learned over the course of his career — the things he thinks every aspiring chef should keep in mind. You'll learn about how a prison library book pushed Colicchio into the kitchen, and how the judges on Top Chef really determine a winner. Next week, you'll learn even more about his work to improve food policy, so stay tuned for part two.

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Special Sauce: Marco Canora on Keeping Calm Under Fire Mar 18, 2016

Show notes

This week, Canora discusses what he thinks restaurateurs and diners misunderstand about the service industry. You'll learn about how he deals with those issues, his guilty pleasures, and why sometimes it's good to have someone remind you to just calm down.

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Special Sauce: Jonathan Gold on How to Jonathan Gold Someone Mar 10, 2016

Show notes

In this episode of Special Sauce - which, I must warn you, is a bit NSFW, unless you're surrounded by some really adventurous eaters with good senses of humor - Gold, Gabbert, and I discuss our shared passion for music and why there might be a connection between music lovers and serious eaters.

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Special Sauce: Michael Pollan on Cracker Jack and Childhood Gardens Mar 03, 2016

Show notes

On this week's Special Sauce, journalist, author, professor, and activist Michael Pollan - author of In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire - discusses what's kept him in the garden, in the kitchen, and writing over the past 30 years.

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Calvin Trillin Part 2 on Gumbo, Writing, and Cole Porter Feb 25, 2016

Show notes

In this second half of my interview with The New Yorker staff writer, Calvin Trillin, you'll learn what major roux-related mistake would keep him from revisiting a restaurant, some of his secrets for speechwriting (or not writing, rather), and why he's envious of Cole Porter.

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How Sliced Bread Got Calvin Trillin Into College Feb 18, 2016

Show notes

In this episode of our podcast, you'll find out how Calvin Trillin came to be a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of 30 books, including American Fried; Alice, Let's Eat; and Third Helpings, which are now collectively known as The Tummy Trilogy. These books inspired succeeding generations of serious eaters (including yours truly) to devote themselves to writing about the pleasures of indigenous regional food.

While enjoying our own lunch around the corner from his home, Trillin and I discuss how sliced bread got him into Yale and the reason he's never cared about covering fine dining. The best part? This interview is a two-parter. Stay tuned for more conversation with Trillin next week.

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Pete Wells on Writing, Ketchup, and 2-Star Restaurants Feb 04, 2016

Show notes

Pete Wells of the New York Times is perhaps the nation's most influential and powerful restaurant critic, but, as you'll hear on this week's Special Sauce podcast, he's soft-spoken, funny, and thoughtful-and eminently fair-minded.

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