Bitchin' About Food

Kath and Jan do their first Zoom interview ever (with a little spotty sound quality) and travel virtually to Portland, Oregon where Kath’s adopted daughter Shari Zinn-Hoorn lives. Okay, she isn’t really Kath’s daughter, but if Kath *did* have a daughter, she would want one like Shari. We discuss how they met and how Shari’s mango-avocado combo won Kath over immediately. We discover that Shari took over cooking at home as a young child, which makes sense, seeing as how she herself is now an ace cook. We find out who does most of the cooking in her marriage to Laura (drumroll, it’s Shari) and how Laura, like Kath, loves to grocery shop. We reminisce about a shared Thanksgiving meal a few years back which prompts Jan to request Shari’s favorite dish: green bean casserole. Kath agrees, as long as Jan cooks it. A lovely episode with a true foodie. Listen in!

It's Burger Day as Kath and Jan finally wrangle our engineer Will Edmiston into talking about his burger obsession and we definitely get more than we bargained for! Be sure and book his space for your studio needs at www.peerspace.com (search podcast studio Santa Monica). We talk about his Mom's surprise pet pigs, dogs, burgers and how you really can't judge a book by its cover when it comes to burger joints in Los Angeles, or anywhere for that matter. Will teaches us about the different styles of regional Los Angeles burgers and reveals his favorite burger places both in the Valley and on the West Side of LA. We discuss his two newest acquisitions, Patty and Milkshake (Moo), the two sweetest pups in the world and we discuss how Will is somehow able to fervently love animals while also maintaining the ability to eat them. Find him on Instagram @roadsidewithcheese A rare juicy episode for sure. Listen in!

Kath and Jan are blown away by the gorgeous and generous Paula Ayala who shows up with a towering red velvet cake adorned with BAF beads! Kath quickly realizes that she could neither bake that cake nor make those beads if someone had a gun to her head. Jan immediately renounces giving up sugar. Paula talks about her Argentine roots and how her mom made simple, delicious food, which inspired Paula to seek out more complex and far-ranging dishes. Paula talks about her two lovely little girls and how the oldest one is basically her kitchen helper and has learned to bake little cakes all by herself! Paula talks about her father and grandfather, (Hector Ayala and Hector Ayala, Jr) both of whom are well-known Argentine musicians (she is pictured here facing her father’s album cover). Kath asks how Paula is able to cook these amazing meals in a tiny Joseph Eichler kitchen and Kath also confesses that she is obsessed with watching Paula’s posts of her beloved partner Greg fixing things around their house, not to mention her cakes. Paula reveals that she uses edible glitter on certain baked goods which leads Kath down a dark path of what happens to that glitter ‘down the road’. Kath and Jan are so enamored of Paula that they offer to move in and be mother’s helpers (Kath) and cake taste-testers (Jan). Paula graciously demurs. You can find Paula and Greg’s beautifully curated designs and items for sale on Instagram @paula_gregorio (don’t forget the underscore between) and also you can see Paula’s cakes and other crafts @thewellseasoned A delicious and fabulous conversation – listen in!

Kath and Jan are joined by old theatre pals and long-time married couple, Michael Shepperd and Hutchins Foster. We reminisce about the old days in Chicago when Kath, Jan and Michael were in “The Good Times are Killing Me” at City Lit, which was supposed to run for 6 weeks and ended up running for over a year, and is considered by all of us to be a true career highlight. Jan speaks of a very dark time in her life and how Michael managed to shine a little light on her to help her. We talk about Michael and Hutch’s meet-cute at that infamous seedy bar in Brooklyn. We plug their various projects, including their YouTube channel @boozinwithgays4123 (can also be found on Facebook facebook.com/boozinwithgays) and how sometimes the demon gin can cause their own broadcast to devolve into fighting. We plug Michael’s latest show Blood at the Root at Open Fist (www.openfist.org). Michael recalls his beloved mom Choice and how by the time Michael was of age, she was kind of over cooking, since she had six children, but many decades apart. Hutch remembers a series of Salvadoran housekeepers who had to do all the cooking under the tutelage of Sally, his glamorous mom. Kath tells the story of how she begged Hutch for five years to get his family’s famous eggnog recipe – which she finally did. Michael tells Jan how to properly cook a pork chop. We talk about who cooks in the marriage (Hutch) and how their kids feel about food. It was so great to catch up with old friends who we don’t get to see that much, even though we live in the same damn city, but that’s LA for you. A terrific conversation – listen in!

Kath and Jan welcome the powerful dancer Daisy Kate Jacobson to the podcast as we parse the meanings of lissome, lithe and willowy as it relates to dancers. Like a true dancer, however, Daisy prefers to concentrate on strength, rather than patriarchal labels.  We talk about Daisy's evolution from being a tiny child chorus member in The Nutcracker to playing the lead, Clara.  After attending Juilliard, she worked with LA Dance Project and now is a protégé of Twyla Tharp, after working on Twyla’s reboot of “Nine Sinatra Songs.”  Kath and Jan realize they are old enough to remember the original version of that piece in back in the day.  We discuss Daisy’s Franco-American roots, her commitment to being mostly vegan, and how to maintain balanced eating with the torching of calories that comes with dance.  We talk about Daisy and her boyfriend sharing cooking duties and eating disorders within the dance community. Daisy reveals how she needs to supplement her diet with animal products to help with a hip injury.  Finally, Daisy almost convinces Kath & Jan to take an adult ballet class, currently the subject of a documentary she is working on.  As long as we can wear sweats, we are in.  A fascinating and illuminating conversation.  Listen in!

Once known as the Harriet Tubman of comedy, (due to all the comics she shepherded into Los Angeles from Chicago), actor-director-writer-improviser (and co-founder of Second City Etc.) Jane Morris joins Kath and Jan in the studio as a last-minute, showbiz clutch replacement for a guest who was sick. We talk about her Mom’s upbringing in an orphanage run by sadistic nuns and how when she married Jane’s Dad, she created a magical life for her children, including food. We talk about Jane’s favorite recipes and Jan lasers in on Mexican lasagna that will haunt her dreams. Kath talks about Jane’s famous chicken pot pie recipe and Jane reveals she has to cook a little differently for her husband now. Also this: if you are an actor or a writer or an improviser or someone who wants to be any/all of those things, please check out their website:  www.fanaticsalon.com You will immersed in a creative atmosphere like no other! We were so grateful Jane came over at the 11th hour for a chat – a great conversation – listen in!

As supreme luck would have it, en route from Japan to their home in London, Cris Cole and Christine St. John pop in to visit Kath and Jan in the studio for an hour of catching up on old times. Christine and Kath reminisce about their early salad days in what we now know was the Golden Age of Chicago Theatre, from about 1985 to whenever we left in the nineties. Kidding, not kidding. We discuss their food history with their parents, what Kath learned when she traveled around the world with them and Christine’s famed Chicken Á L’Orange and Lean Cuisines. We discuss how Christine’s life turned to Technicolor (think Wizard of Oz moment) when she realized her new husband was an ace cook. Christine has since taken over the cooking duties and we discuss the contrast of their two cooking styles: Cris energetically improvises and Christine measures calmly. We also discuss Veganism and their forever commitment to it and both Jan and Kath both once again realize that they eat way too much meat. A truly wonderful conversation – listen in!

New episode! Kath thought she was a talker, but she met her match in our lively and joyous guest, Frederick Johnson, who regales Kath and Jan with tales of growing up in a family where everyone had multiple names and ate macrobiotic food! Frederick talks about his battle with Valley Fever and how in recovery, he left the healthy stuff behind and craved the bad (good) stuff, like tacos and cereal. We discuss the fact that at one point he lost 30 pounds and didn’t even realize it. Frederick also talks about his first job working alone in a snack bar from morning till night under the watchful eye of a future corrections officer. He then reveals that he can make killer greens with smoked turkey as well as pecan pie, which assures him an instant spot at Kath’s Thanksgiving table. We could have talked for hours! Listen in!

New episode! The Midwest Reset! Sound issues plague Kath who was on the move for some remote sessions in the Midwest, all while trying out a new microphone. Kath and Jan and Will hash out the mic issues - it's pretty much a "user error issue" the user being Kath. But Will works some magic to reduce the static, but the sound is muffled in spots. Or maybe Kath’s friends are muffled in spots and the mic is fine. Aren’t we all a little muffled in spots? Jan makes amends to her sister about Olive Garden. We discuss the host/hostess dilemma, which is this: food is enjoyed by guests, but the creator of the food is not happy with it. Does that matter? We discuss the opposite problem as well, when the hostess loves the food, but it doesn’t agree with the guest – Kath’s newest attempt at Detroit-style pizza is cited as an example, which doesn’t agree with Jan. Kath and Jan revisit one of their favorite haunts in El Segundo, JAME, and discuss the delicious-ness. Will reveals that he has an Instagram account devoted solely to burgers! Kath reflects on time spent with her dearest oldest friends as well as her brother and sister in law, all while driving around in a huge scary muscle car that her rental car company tricked her into taking! She also talks about the angry mob she faced at O'Hare. We play all the Midwest snippets for Jan, who hears them for the first time and we discuss them afterwards. Jan discovers that Kath thought bees made honey for humans, not themselves. What are they going to do with it anyway? Listen in!

Guten Morgen says Kath and Jan as we are joined by the delightful and super stylish Ania Cremer, who flew into town all the way from Berlin to visit her Los Angeles boyfriend. We discuss Kath’s Dad’s quest for good German food for his entire life. We talk about Kath’s paternal grandmother Lindemann’s recipes. We try and pronounce Kartoffelklöße with limited success. Kath posts an old German recipe on the blog. Ania talks about how the later someone stays at a party in Germany the more successful it is. Kath realizes she is probably an awful host as her motto is generally “please leave by 9”. Jan is so distracted by the chocolate Ania brought as a gift that she momentarily forgets she is recording a podcast. Ania recalls food from her youth and also talks about the thriving and mercurial Berlin food scene. A fascinating conversation – listen in!