Stay Connected3x James Beard Award winner. Named one of TIME’s 100 Best Podcasts Of All Time. We obsess about food to learn more about people. It’s not for foodies, it’s for eaters. Hosted by Dan Pashman, inventor of the viral pasta shape cascatelli.
Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of The Sporkful ad-free. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.
Copyright: © SiriusXM
Recently, a friend of restaurant critic Tim Hayward called him a glutton. This week, our friends at the Life and Art from FT Weekend podcast dig into that label with Tim — and he explains why he embraces the label. Then, Life and Art host Lilah Raptopoulos speaks with food and drink editor Harriet Fitch Little about dinner parties. What’s the perfect vibe — and the perfect soundtrack? How can you throw a dinner party that both guests and hosts will actually enjoy? And can you still host even if you’re a bad cook? They answer all these questions and more.
Additional links:
The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell. Publishing by Shantel Holder and transcription by Emily Nguyen.
Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
After months of searching, we finally meet Ted Ngoy, aka "the Donut King", and learn what happened to him. He's returned to the Cambodian community seeking redemption. But will he find it?
(This is part two of a two-part series; scroll back in your feed for part one.)
This episode originally aired on April 30, 2018, and was produced by Anne Saini and Dan Pashman, with editing by Peter Clowney. The Sporkful team now includes Emma Morgenstern, Andres O’Hara, Jared O’Connell, Nora Ritchie, and Ella Barnes. Publishing by Shantel Holder and transcription by Emily Nguyen.
Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
After escaping Cambodia's Killing Fields, Ted Ngoy built a donut empire in California. Then he lost it all, and disappeared. This week we're searching for the Donut King and his legacy. (This is part one of a two-part series. The second part comes out on Friday.)
Additional info:
This episode originally aired on April 23, 2018, and was produced by Anne Saini and Dan Pashman, with editing by Peter Clowney. The Sporkful team now includes Emma Morgenstern, Andres O’Hara, Jared O’Connell, Nora Ritchie, and Ella Barnes. Publishing by Shantel Holder and transcription by Emily Nguyen.
Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Everything Molly Baz puts out — from her best-selling cookbooks Cook This Book and More Is More, to her Instagram pics and YouTube videos, to her wine brand — seems so perfectly cool and stylish, so carefully considered, so intentional. But also, so authentically HER. How does she do that? Well, as she tells Dan when he visits her at her home in Los Angeles, a lot of it has to do with her “innate confidence” in who she is and what she likes. As she puts it, “It’s just not that hard to decide whether you like something.” She explains what makes a quintessential Molly Baz recipe, and how she thinks about her signature visual aesthetic. Plus she takes Dan inside her recipe development process as she bakes the sixth version of a cornbread that will either end up in her newsletter, or in the trash.
The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, Jared O'Connell, and Ella Barnes.
Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In 2016, the Library of Congress posted Rosa Parks' personal documents online for the first time. Buried under postcards from Martin Luther King and lists of volunteers for the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a pancake recipe, written on the back of an envelope — which included the addition of peanut butter to the batter. On this week's episode, we visit Adrienne Cannon, a specialist in African-American history at the Library of Congress, to see the recipe firsthand. Then we travel to Detroit to share a meal with Mrs. Parks' nieces, who published their aunt's favorite recipes in their book, Our Auntie Rosa. Finally, Dan heads to Nicole Taylor's kitchen to make those peanut butter pancakes.
This episode originally aired on May 1, 2017, and April 12, 2021, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, Shoshana Gold, with editing by Dan Charles. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Jared O'Connell, and Nora Ritchie.
Every other Friday, we reach into our deep freezer and reheat an episode to serve up to you. We're calling these our Reheats. If you have a show you want reheated, send us an email or voice memo at hello@sporkful.com, and include your name, your location, which episode, and why.
Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
For years, chef Yia Vang operated his restaurant Union Hmong Kitchen in a trailer outside of a brewery in Minneapolis. Last year, he finally opened his first brick-and-mortar restaurant, and it already feels like a neighborhood institution — especially in the region of the U.S. with the largest community of Hmong refugees from southeast Asia. Over a meal of whole grilled branzino, Hmong sausage, purple sticky rice, and a lot more, Yia tells Dan about his mission to tell his parents’ story — and the story of the Hmong people — through his cooking. Yia also talks about his own journey: he was born in a Thai refugee camp, moved with his family to Amish country, and then worked as a church “lunch lady” before breaking out on his own. Now he’s fighting tooth and nail to open a new restaurant that will fully celebrate Hmong food the way he envisions.
The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell. Publishing by Shantel Holder and transcription by Emily Nguyen.
Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In the second half of our Best of the Book Tour series, we’re answering your questions! We’ll tackle the most frequently asked questions Dan got on the tour, and the ones he never saw coming. Plus we’ll hear from other folks who worked on Anything’s Pastable about the recipes that were cut from the book, and the ones that created the most conflict between Dan and his collaborators. Finally, Dan answers the question on everyone’s mind: Now that he’s conquered pasta, which food will he take on next?
The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell, with production this week by Johanna Mayer and editing by Tomeka Weatherspoon. Publishing by Shantel Holder and transcription by Emily Nguyen.
Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The comic, actor, writer, and podcast host, best known as Conan O’Brien’s late night TV sidekick, tells us why he chose a really nice refrigerator over a sports car. And he traces his issues with weight back to a childhood ice cream outing with his grandmother.
This episode originally aired on July 29, 2019 and January 31, 2017, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Ngofeen Mputubwele. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell.
Every other Friday, we reach into our deep freezer and reheat an episode to serve up to you. We're calling these our Reheats. If you have a show you want reheated, send us an email or voice memo at hello@sporkful.com, and include your name, your location, which episode, and why.
Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
For six weeks this spring, Dan hit the road for the biggest tour in Sporkful history, all in celebration of his cookbook Anything’s Pastable. He traveled to ten cities and spoke with a stacked line-up of chefs, comedians, and journalists in front of live audiences. In this first of two episodes we’re releasing of the best moments from the tour, Claire Saffitz, Sam Sanders, Lindy West, Joanne Lee Molinaro, Pati Jinich, Andy Richter, Kae Lani Palmisano, Kim Severson, Dan Souza, and Ann Kim sit in the host chair and ask Dan questions about the book, his strongly-held food opinions, and more, covering ground we didn’t get to in our original series about the cookbook. Nothing is off the table. Claire Saffitz admits to ruining her pan making spaghetti all'assassina. Pati Jinich processes her shock over Dan’s pasta enchiladas. And Lindy West plays a game with Dan that’s definitely not appropriate for the whole family.
The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell, with production this week by Johanna Mayer and editing by Tomeka Weatherspoon.
Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
"Natural flavors” show up on ingredient lists for all kinds of foods. But what does that mean exactly? We get a peek into the secretive science of flavoring when we talk with Marie Wright of ADM, who’s created more than 1,000 flavors in her 30+ years as a flavor chemist. She explains how natural flavors are made, why lemon flavor doesn’t contain lemon juice, and why flavoring plant-based burgers is so hard. Then she walks Dan through a series of experiments to teach him to taste food the way she does. (You can do your own versions with instructions at sporkful.com.) Plus, Marie responds to criticism about the rise of natural and artificial flavors in processed foods, and their role in the obesity epidemic.
This episode originally aired on June 26, 2020, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, and Andres O’Hara. It was edited by Tracey Samuelson and mixed by Jared O’Connell. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O’Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O’Connell. Publishing by Shantel Holder and transcription by Emily Nguyen.
Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
