Lunch Therapy

The art world visits the food world on Lunch Therapy today with our patient, Simon Haas. Simon comes from a super talented family -- his mother's an opera singer, his father's a stone carver, and his older brother, Lucas, is an actor who you may remember from Mars Attacks and Witness -- and then there's Simon and his twin brother, Nikolai, aka: the Haas brothers, movers and shakers in the art world with pieces featured at the Smithsonian, LACMA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In today's session, we talk all about the similarities between cooking and sculpting, his interest in high and low culture, the traveling he did as a kid with his family, and his favorite place to eat in the world. We also talk about holding on to your inner voice in both cooking and art-making, when to listen to critics, being a control freak and an emotional eater, and how he got the confidence to do what he does. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lukas Volger is the author of five -- that's right, FIVE -- cookbooks, including Bowl: Vegetarian Recipes for Ramen, Pho, Bibimbap, Dumplings, and Other One-Dish Meals and Start Simple: Eleven Everyday Ingredients for Countless Weeknight Meals. He's also the co-founder of the influential queer magazine Jarry, which won a James Beard award in 2016 for John Birdsall's essay, Straight-Up Passing. In today's session, Lukas talks about the diet he's currently on, how he approaches recipe-writing, the kind of food that he ate growing up, his mother's love of recipes (which she kept in a folder), and whether or not that had anything to do with him starting a food magazine. We also cover his pandemic wedding, working at a bakery with a flexible muffin batter, his love for Laurie Colwin, and which songs he likes to sing at karaoke. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stand-up comedian, Cobra Kai actor, and podcast host Dan Ahdoot (@standupdan on social media) and I met each other year's ago at a coffee shop in the West Village, and now I'm a professional lunch therapist and he's the host of a brand new Food Network show called Raid the Fridge (premiering December 28th at 10 PM). In today's session we talk all about seeking out the best restaurants when he travels, telling his parents that he wanted to be a comedian, arranged marriages, his mother's cooking, Turmeric, and the time his dad poured pasta sauce into boiling pasta water. We also cover new sensitives in the worlds of food and comedy (specially: cultural appropriation), taking chances, making chocolate soufflés with dinner guests, and how he stays in shape while eating such delicious food. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Kim is so accomplished at such a young age, I need my own lunch therapist to talk about it. A former senior editor at Food52, he's now a staff writer for The New York Times food section, a monthly columnist for The NYT Magazine, and the author of the upcoming cookbook: Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home. In today's session, we talk all about Eric's indirect path into the food world, the cookbooks that inspire him the most, creating recipes, whether food writing can be taught, and the Korean concept of "hand taste." We also cover whether or not he reads the comments, how far he feels he can push traditional Korean recipes, listening to his boyfriend's feedback, and coping with racism at work. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first rule of lunch therapy is "never cook for your patient," but I break that rule today with director Craig Johnson (The Skeleton Twins, Alex Strangelove) for a very good reason: I'm married to him. In today's very special episode, we go deep on his submissiveness about food, his love for all things gooey, why he feels uncomfortable in formal/fusty dining rooms, and his love for apple pie. We also talk about how we travel together, hosting dinner parties together, grazing on set, forgetting to eat, and why we always fight about donuts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My best friend Diana recently moved with her husband and kids back to New York from L.A. (I know, I need my own therapist to deal with this!). As a consequence of being back on the east coast and nearer to family, she's now cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for TWENTY people total. All of her siblings will be their with their spouses and kids, plus her parents, and to make things even more complex several of the guests are vegan and several of the guests have celiac (aka: they're gluten-free). So how is Diana, a wonderful cook, going to tackle all of this? Will there be turkey? Tofurkey? How's she dealing with stuffing, with gravy, with dessert? Find out in today's bonus episode of Lunch Therapy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's Lunch Therapy patient, Bill Esparza, is the James Beard Award-winning author of LA Mexicano who's considered by many to be America's leading expert on Mexican food. He's also a renowned saxophonist who's traveled the world playing music with Brian Setzer, Bryan Adams, and Colin Hay. In today's session, Bill explains how to spot a good taco truck, how the pandemic impacted street food, growing up Mexican-American, his grandmother's cooking, and how he didn't learn Spanish until he was in his thirties. We also cover eating while on the road with musicians, how he finds new places to eat, starting his blog in the early 2000s, and where a birria newbie (yours truly) should get birria in L.A. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nervous about Thanksgiving? Lunch Therapy is here to help! NYT cooking guru (and the author of 42 cookbooks... wow) Melissa Clark was kind enough to answer a ton of cooking questions posed to me by my followers on Instagram. What's a foolproof menu for a first time Thanksgiving chef? Do you brine the turkey? Wet or dry? What about spatchcocking? How do you make things in advance and serve everything hot? What's the deal with gravy? Pie crust? Mashed potatoes? Hear all of your Thanksgiving cooking questions answered as Melissa and I talk turkey. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you've ever watched a YouTube cooking video, there's a good chance you've encountered Carla Lalli Music, the former Food Director for Bon Appetit, and the author of two NYT bestselling cookbooks: Where Cooking Begins (which won the James Beard Award for Best General Cookbook) and, her latest, That Sounds So Good. In today's session, Carla talks all about growing up with her journalist parents (her mom was a restaurant critic), how she differentiated from them, how she made the decision to go to culinary school, and how she got her start in food magazines. We also learn about her cookbook writing process, if she can ever know when a recipe's going to go viral (spoiler: she can't!), why she doesn't own a microwave, and what her sons have learned from watching her cook. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chef Jeremy Salamon has been working in restaurants for years -- Locanda Verde, Buvette, Prune, and The Eddy, to name a few -- and next week he's opening his very own restaurant in Brooklyn called Agi's Counter, named after his Hungarian grandmother. So how do you go from restaurant-as-idea to an actual restaurant that people are going to be eating in this upcoming Monday? Jeremy walks us through it: from the concept to the fundraising to planning the menu to hiring a staff to designing the space. And that's just the beginning! Hear all about it in today's episode and if you live in NYC, go visit Jeremy next week at his grand opening in Crown Heights. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices