Good Food

This week on Good Food: Six of America's 50 best restaurants are in California. Restaurant critic Tejal Rao reveals why Jacaranda, Comal, and Yeratmas Bakery & Deli made the cut. Perilla's Jihee Kim makes a corn salad with yuzu and doenjang while Apricot Lane Farms' Nathan McCallie is losing avocados and picking lettuce early. Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.  

This week on Good Food: In Happy Snacking, Don't Die, Alexis Nikole Nelson, AKA Black Forager, turns overlooked plants into cordials, cookies, and lox. Farmer Megan Strom and chef Juan González talk about turning Mesa Agrícola, their farm-to-taco project, into one of America's best restaurants. Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

KCRW’s Good Food partnered with Grocery Goblin for “In-Store Stories,” a series of readings this fall. The first in the series centered around the theme of lunchtime, where listeners filled the aisles at Sabzee Market in Encino. Vanessa Anderson shares why she chose the themes for her five storytellers. Chef Angel Dimayuga reveals their father’s uncredited idea for the McDonald’s Extra Value Meal and journalist Lauren Bethke eats nachos with a dominatrix and her gimp at an LA diner.   Egg is the theme for our next In-Store Stories event at Fresco Community Market on Sunday, October 18. Purchase tickets here.

This week on Good Food: Growing up in wartime Beirut, Jad Youssef's family table was a refuge. In Lebnani, the chef shares the dishes that got his family through. Date farmer Alvaro Bautista explains which of his seven varieties are "juicy juicies" while pastry chef Steph Chen of Sugarbear Bakes adds Medjools to a carrot cake. Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.  

This week on Good Food: Chef Meherwan Irani sold cars and imported jewelry before finding his true calling — bringing India's street food to the masses. Khushbu Shah surveys LA's vanishing Indian lunch buffets for her new series, Value Meal. Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

This week on Good Food: After decades of covering famine abroad, journalist Roger Thurow asks why we allow hunger to persist in the world's wealthiest nation. Chez Mar chef Wesley Barden poaches Asian pears for a French salad while farmer Phil Rhodes explains why this year's harvest is so small. Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.  

This week on Good Food: Move over, kombucha. Ken Albala travels the world to explore how fermentation transforms cuisines. Paul van Ravestein and Monique Mulder look at the history of New York City through its pickle vendors. Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.  

Sharing an episode of the new podcast Expense Account. We all know eating out in New York has become an extreme sport. If you treat dining out like a full-time obsession—and care about the scene just as much as what’s on the menu—you need to listen to Expense Account. Expense Account uses food as an entry point into bigger conversations about restaurants, culture, taste and how it all relates to life and the world at large. Hosted by J Lee, food critic at Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me media empire, J has one million opinions about food. But since he wants to hear everyone else’s take, J will talk to chefs, writers, musicians, actors and more. Like writer Molly Baz, chef Carla Lalli, and PBS host Pati Jinich. You’ll hear about their best meals and worst meals. Favorite spots around the world. And you might even get a peek inside their fridges to find out how they’re really eating. The conversations will start with food, but will always wind up somewhere else, because food is culture, and everybody eats. I’m going to play the first episode for you now. In it, J Lee talks with chef and author Carla Lalli about her journey from Shake Shack to Bon Appetit, her new cookbook, and why we should eat our feelings. Listen to more episodes of Expense Account at https://lnk.to/expenseaccountTR  

This week on Good Food: Tucked away in the hills above Los Angeles, Richard Christiansen creates an almanac for gardening, cooking, and home projects at Flamingo Estate. Chef Joshua Whigham of Casa Leo visits the farmers market where Christine Brown of Rincon Tropics sells passion fruit from her coastal farm. Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.  

This week on Good Food: Tchelly Moise helped lead the first American slaughterhouse strike in nearly 40 years. He and journalist Ted Genoways explain how JBS, the world's largest meat producer, relies on vulnerable immigrant labor, and what's happened since the US government terminated Temporary Protected Status for many of the workers who keep the plant running. Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.