Your Last Meal with Rachel Belle

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Shabazz Palaces' Ishmael Butler: Slow Roasted Chicken Dinner Aug 11, 2022

Show notes

There must have been a magical elixir flowing from the drinking fountains at Seattle's Garfield High School. Alumni include Jimi Hendrix, Quincy Jones, Macklemore and our very special guest Ishmael Butler, rapper and founding member of Shabazz Palaces and Grammy Award winning hip-hop group Digable Planets.
Host Rachel Belle first met Ish eight years ago, when she interviewed him at his house for a column called Show Us Your Fridge. So, it felt right to indulge in another round of culinary voyeurism and take a peek into the healthy home cook's refrigerator.
Ish and Rachel discuss the Shabazz Palace song Chocolate Soufflé, so Seattle pastry chef Brittany Bardeleben joins the show to walk us through how to make the fussy French dessert, and opines on why you rarely see it on menus these days.
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Sona Movsesian: In-N-Out Burger Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

Sona Movsesian has been Conan O'Brien's assistant for 13 years, and podcast co-host for five, but their relationship feels more like brother and sister. Sona loves snacks, and Conan loves to manically knock them out of her hands. Sona likes to watch TV at her desk, and Conan likes to tell the world what an awful assistant she is. And her new book, The World's Worst Assistant, is an up close and personal look at just this sort of high jinks.

A card carrying, native Californian, it is Sona's birthright to love In-N-Out Burger -- and she does! So professional hamburger expert, George Motz, joins the show to do a deep dive on the iconic hamburger chain. Why isn't there an In-N-Out in your town? What does it mean to order your fries Animal Style? Why do the employees smile so much? George tells all!

Sona loves chocolate. She eats it every day. And if she doesn't? She gets a headache. Neuroscientist Dr Nicole Avena is an expert on this topic and tells host Rachel Belle why humans are born to be addicted to sugar.

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This episode is sponsored by Ooni Pizza Ovens, the world's first portable pizza oven company! Rachel Belle has been making incredible, chewy, bubbly, melty pizzas in her Ooni for more than three years. If you want to make the best homemade pizza of your life visit: www.ooni.com/yourlastmeal

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Hannah Berner: Nana's Eggplant Parmesan Jul 07, 2022

Show notes

In this spirited interview with host Rachel Belle, comedian Hannah Berner realizes her true calling: talking excitedly about how much she loves to eat! And she has what many of us dream of, a spunky Italian grandmother who cooks up a big pot of sauce every Sunday, has a pantry full of pasta, and feeds her family plate after plate of Italian-American food until they're unbuttoning their pants at the table.

Nana Vera joins the show to tell us how she makes her famous eggplant parmesan, and shares an old Italian wives' tale about why it's always important to salt your eggplant before cooking.

Hannah went to college in Wisconsin, where it's perfectly normal for a Bloody Mary to hit the table garnished with a fragrant bouquet of hamburgers, corn dogs and egg rolls. Rachel chats with the owner of Milwaukee's Sobelman's Pub and Grill, who believes he was the one who started this deliciously gimmicky national trend.

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John Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls): Sweet Lady Jane Apple Pie Jun 16, 2022

Show notes

When John Rzeznik is on tour, he only requests one thing: a plain, grilled chicken breast. But, to his frustration and amusement, chefs can't resist zhuzhing up the bird with their own brand of pizzazz. He shares his long, arduous chicken-y journey with host Rachel Belle, including the story of a celebrity chef who tried to come to his rescue.

John wants to cap off his last meal with a deep dish apple pie from Sweet Lady Jane, a Los Angeles institution frequented by folks like Barbra Streisand and the Kardashians, so Rachel calls them up to find out what makes the pie so special.

And while we're on the subject of pie, John has plenty to say about pizza -- his favorite pizzerias just so happen to be two of the oldest in the United States. Host Rachel Belle chats with the owner of NYC's Lombardi's, America's first pizzeria.

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Lola Kirke: Ben & Jerry's Phish Food & Fernet Jun 02, 2022

Show notes

Lola Kirke isn't particularly interested in modern day restraint and Instagram wellness trends. She stays up late, likes to drink, eats whatever she wants and just released a Jane Fonda era workout video as a companion to her new album, Lady For Sale.

Lola loves Phish Food, a Ben & Jerry's collab with the jam band Phish, that just-so-happens to be celebrating its 25th anniversary! Host Rachel Belle chats with the iconic ice cream company, and Phish's long-time manager, about the history of the flavor and why it's the only product Phish has ever put its name on.

Do you drink Fernet? If so, you're either a bartender or you impressed your bartender by ordering it. Rachel interviews a San Francisco bartender, whose bar sells more Fernet than anywhere else in the country, to learn more about the history of the drink they call the "bartender's handshake."

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Taylor Hanson: Caprese with Perfect Tomatoes & Burrata May 19, 2022

Show notes

Taylor Hanson is the middle brother in Hanson, the band he's been performing in with his brothers Isaac and Zac since he was nine years old. So it's not surprising that this Oklahoma boy had a palate changing culinary epiphany while touring in Europe when he was 15.

That epiphany revolved around a perfectly ripe, locally grown tomato, and anyone who's ever picked a pink, mealy tomato slice off their burger knows that commercially grown tomatoes leave much to be desired. Host Rachel Belle chats with Dr. Harry Klee, a horticulture professor who has worked for nearly three decades to develop a flavorful, affordable grocery store tomato. And he answers the question: why are supermarket tomatoes so bad??

And the Oklahoma Historical Society joins the show to share the story behind Oklahoma's official state meal.

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Dan Harris: Butter & Truffle Fettuccini + Warm Sugar Cookies May 05, 2022

Show notes

Dan Harris is Type A, self-help skeptical and looks the part of a TV anchorman. But he recently quit his 20 year career at ABC News to fully embrace his side hustle: convincing Americans to meditate. Dan wrote a memoir, 10% Happier, about his unlikely journey to mindfulness, that has since expanded into a podcast and meditation app.

Dan loves sweets, specifically cookies, and even more specifically, warm cookies delivered by Insomnia Cookies. Host Rachel Belle speaks with Insomnia's founder and CEO, who started the company nearly 20 years ago when he was a 20 year old living in a college dorm room.

And we'll do some cookie detective work: what's going on when a batch of cookies spread in the oven or come out dry and cakey? Cookbook author and host of Zoe Bakes, Zoë François, joins the show to troubleshoot the most common cookie baking mistakes and shares how she became a professional baker after growing up in communes and cults that forbade sugar.

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Remi Wolf: Korean BBQ + Banchan Apr 21, 2022

Show notes

When soul/funk/pop artist Remi Wolf hopped on Zoom to chat with host Rachel Belle, she was getting ready to leave for a tour that would take her away from her LA home through October. So she was trying to eat every last remaining scrap of food in her fridge and pantry. Stars, they're just like us! Remi talks about her love of concocting meals from the wee bits and bobs hanging around her refrigerator and her disregard for planning or using recipes.

Before she was a professional singer, Remi was a junior Olympics skier and she developed some...interesting eating habits on the slopes. One snack was strange enough that Rachel reached out to the FDA to confirm/deny its safety.

And Irene Yoo, the Korean American chef and creator of Yooeating, joins the show to talk about banchan, arguably the best part of a Korean BBQ meal!

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Kenji Lopez-Alt: Mapo Tofu Apr 07, 2022

Show notes

When Kenji makes a late-night grilled cheese sandwich in his kitchen, with a Go-Pro camera strapped to his head, more than 10 million YouTubers tune in to watch. His recipe for scrambled eggs was the New York Times' most clicked on recipe in 2021 and every book he writes goes straight to the bestseller list, including his newest, The Wok: Recipes and Techniques.

But his last meal goes back to his childhood, when he was more focused on being a scientist than a sous chef. The defining ingredient of Kenji's last meal is Sichuan peppercorn, a spice that numbs and tingles the tongue and is, frankly, not a peppercorn at all. Dr Stuart Farrimond joins the show to explain the science behind the Sichuan peppercorn and answers host Rachel Belle's questions about spice, such as: can you learn to like spicy foods or is a tolerance for heat genetic?

But if there's one reason to listen, it's to learn Kenji's well-researched method of how to boil eggs with guaranteed easy-to-peel shells.

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Julia Sweeney: Nanaimo Bars Mar 24, 2022

Show notes

By the end of this episode, you'll feel like the charming, hilarious and down-to-earth Julia Sweeney is your best friend! Julia and host Rachel Belle discuss everything from her true love of eating alone (and how that makes her husband feel) to the 60th birthday gift she gave herself: never dieting again.

Julia wants to cap off her last meal with Canada's favorite, no-bake, layered dessert: the Nanaimo bar! Rachel chats with Joyce Hardcastle, the contest winner who created the city's official recipe back in 1986, and the current mayor of Nanaimo, about the history of the bar and how ubiquitous it is in the Vancouver Island city it was named after.

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Get tickets to Julia Sweeney's Spokane, WA live shows on March 26th, 2022!

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