Special Sauce with Ed Levine

On this episode of Special Sauce we're talking about the film ‘Fresh’, which Amy Nicholson in the New York Times described as a wickedly funny cannibal romance. The movie stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan and Jonica T. Gibbs Helping me savor the best cuts of the film are two terrific food writers and film enthusiasts, J. Kenji Lopez Alt and the Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this episode we revisit our conversation with Fly by Jing founder Jing Gao. Jing has not been idle since we spoke to her last August. She's getting ready to open Sua, a restaurant/market in LA in July. And in September her first cookbook, The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp: Spicy Recipes and Stories from Fly By Jing's Kitchen, is being published. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this episode of Special Sauce James Beard Award Winning Chicago Chef Beverly Kim tells us how how she went beyond serving food to serving her community. Kim explains how she juggles motherhood, running two restaurants, and her activism. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week on Special Sauce Ed Levine talks about the difficulties of work-life balance in the restaurant biz and much more with the James Beard Award-winning chef Beverly Kim. Her first restaurant Parachute is the critically acclaimed contemporary Korean restaurant in Chicago she runs with her husband Johnny Clark. Together they won Best Chef in the Great Lakes category, at the James Beard Awards in 2019. These days Beverly and Johnny are also busy with their second restaurant, Wherewithal, and with raising their three children. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week on Special Sauce, Kenji and film critic Glenn Kenny dig into The Menu, the satirical horror comedy film set in an exclusive restaurant on a private island. The film, starring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor Joy, skewers foodies, the ultra wealthy, celebrity chefs, and so much more. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week on Special Sauce, we're revisiting a great 2022 episode about pizza featuring the great pizzaiolo Anthony Mangieri and his friend and fellow pizza lover Billions co-creator Brian Koppelman. At the time pizza purist Mangieri had just reopened Una Pizza Napoletana on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Now because Tony loves sipping espresso in cafes he has recently turned Una into a cafe on Saturday mornings serving coffee, pastries like an olive oil layer cake, and even a mortadella sandwich on house-baked bread. And now in a surprise twist Anthony Mangieri now has a line of frozen pizzas made in Italy with buffalo mozzarella called Genio della Pizza. And when I caught up with Koppelman he told me that he's been so busy with writing and producing season 7 of Billions that will see the return of Damian Lewis and his character Bobby Axelrod, AKA Axe, he hasn't even had time to do much pizza exploring. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week on Special Sauce Kenji goes deep into his foolproof pan pizza recipe, which is one of Serious Eats' most popular posts of all time. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Kenji created quite a stir recently with his column on Chicago Thin Crust Pizza in the New York Times. We're gonna talk about that column and many other pizza related topics on this episode of Special Sauce. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

*It is with much sadness that we acknowledge the passing of this week's guest on Special Sauce, Raghavan Iyer. Raghavan died just after we posted the second part of our extraordinary conversation. Iyer was a passionate, fierce advocate for Indian food and culture. As I mentioned in the episode he probably taught more Americans to cook Indian food than anyone else. And he faced his longtime battle with cancer with uncommon grace, courage, and determination.  This week on Special Sauce we continue our conversation with Indian food evangelist Raghavan Iyer. You'll hear more of Raghavan's insights on curry history, and we'll hear how living with his cancer diagnosis changed his outlook on food and life. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Raghavan Iyer has written 6 influential cookbooks on Indian food, including the all-time classic 660 Curries. On this episode of Special Sauce we’re going to hear about his own personal food journey, from the family table in Mumbai to a publishing lunch at Betty Crocker that changed his life. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices