Food with Mark Bittman

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, First Partner of California, joins Mark and Kate to talk about what actually happened when the state decided every public school kid deserves two free meals a day, and that more than half of those meals should come from California farms. It sounds like a policy conversation, but it's really a story about scratch kitchens, nacho bowls, salad bars, fountain milk, and what it looks like when someone decides to treat school lunch like it matters. They cover the Farm to School roadmap Jennifer built from the ground up, how California became the first state to pass universal school meals legislation, why LA Unified now only buys local, and what it would take for other states to do the same.

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

A few links relevant to today's episode:

More information about California's Farm to School Program: https://cafarmtofork.cdfa.ca.gov/farm_to_fork/focus_areas/farm_to_school.html

More information about the 2026 California Farm to School Summit, October 14-15 in Sacramento: https://cafarmtoschoolsummit.com/

and, of course, Hot Lava Fudge Cakes from How to Cook Everything Kids: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/hot-lava-fudge-cakes/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nik Sharma is a former molecular biologist who left his lab for a kitchen and never looked back. He's a three-time James Beard finalist, an editor-in-residence at America's Test Kitchen, and the author of Fundamentals of Flavor. We cover what baking soda actually does to meat (the meatball revelation alone is worth the episode), why you can marinate all day in yogurt but never in vinegar, and the four elements of nature as a framework for understanding everything that happens in a kitchen.

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

The Bittman Project is featuring two recipes from Nik Sharma's Fundamentals of Flavor:

Sparkling Water Pancakes with Spiced Stewed Pineapple: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/sparkling-water-pancakes-with-spiced-stewed-pineapple/

Poached Eggs with Green Chutney + Yogurt: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/poached-eggs-with-green-chutney-yogurt/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Justin Ellen is a phenom baker at just 22 years old, has almost a million Instagram followers, and his debut cookbook "Better Than Grandma's" is out this week. He appeared on Netflix's "Is It Cake?" at just 18, fooling the judges twice, while also missing his prom and graduation to film it. This episode was recorded in person at Mark's house in Glynwood, where Justin and Mark made bread pudding from Justin's book. Justin talks to Mark and Kate about starting his baking business accidentally at 15, making Mary J. Blige's birthday cake, and why being a young Black male baker in public matters to him. Mark talks about his own grandmother too.

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

The Bittman Project is featuring three recipes from Justin Ellen's "Better Than Grandma's":

Bread Pudding: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/bread-pudding/

Chocolate Cobbler: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/chocolate-cobbler/

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/carrot-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/

Here's what Mark and Kate mentioned in today's podcast: Fly by Jing Garlic Noodles, https://link.amazon/B0dL6xWe3

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marion Nestle is turning 90 today and she has not slowed down. Her new book, Sugar Coated, co-written with former Kellogg vice president Lisa Sutherland, tells the story of US food and nutrition policy through cereal boxes — complete with full-color reproductions of every front and back panel of All-Bran, Rice Krispies, and Froot Loops going back to the early 1900s. Mark and Kate talk with Marion about how Kellogg broke the FDA, why the cereal industry's playbook is identical to the tobacco industry's, and what it means that RFK Jr. just declared war on petroleum dyes. Marion also reveals that Kellogg's original health food cereal was partly invented to stop people from . . . well, you'll see. 

Get an excerpt from Sugar Coated on The Bittman Project: https://bittmanproject.com/marion-nestle-sugar-coated/

Here's what Mark and Kate mentioned in today's podcast:

Yeti carbon steel pan: https://yetius.pxf.io/PzgrMz

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mara Fleishman is the co-founder and CEO of the Chef Ann Foundation, which has reached more than 19,000 schools, 35,000 school food professionals, and nearly 6 million students in its work to replace ultra-processed food with fresh, scratch-cooked meals. Before that, she spent a decade at Whole Foods as their global director of partnerships. We talk about what school food actually looks like now versus what it looked like a generation ago, why the biggest barrier to change is not budget but workforce, and how the Chef Ann Foundation is building purchasing cooperatives that connect small districts directly to local farms. Mark also has some thoughts on MAHA.

Here's what Mark and Kate mentioned in today's podcast:

Look What You Made Me Do, by John Lanchester: https://bookshop.org/a/18956/9781324131342

Whistler, by Ann Patchett: https://bookshop.org/a/18956/9780063511637

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this revisiting of an episode from last summer, the up and coming queen of ice cream talks to Mark and Kate about how her ice cream brand, Malai, mimics her childhood; what it means to build your own culture; sourcing intentionally with no shortcuts—and why having a values-driven business is so important to her; and why her parents are the best people ever (and her #1 fans). 

The Bittman Project is featuring three recipes from Pooja Bavishi's book, Malai:

Cold Coffee Milkshake: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/cold-coffee-milkshake/

Chocolate Cardamom Sauce: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/chocolate-cardamom-sauce/

Crunchy Ice Cream Balls: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/crunchy-ice-cream-balls/ 

Read more about Pooja on The Bittman Project: https://bittmanproject.com/q-and-a-with-pooja-bavishi/

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joseph Ogilvy is the author of Tin Can Coast: A History of Industry, Greed, and Fishing in the Golden State. When Mark first saw the book, he exclaimed "Finally. At last!" The book is a history of the fisheries and fishing communities of the California Current, which is the ocean system that made the state of California: almost 2000 miles of the most productive waters on earth. Mark and Kate talked to Joe about how he went from chef to writer, why he felt the need to write such a comprehensive history, and a couple of the notable stories within.

Read an excerpt from Tin Can Coast on The Bittman Project:

 https://bittmanproject.com/industry-greed-and-fishing-in-the-golden-state/

Here's what was mentioned in today's podcast:

Tin Can Coast: A History of Industry, Greed, and Fishing in the Golden State, by Joseph Ogilvy: https://bookshop.org/a/18956/9781639736812

Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck: https://bookshop.org/a/18956/9780140187373

Mark's Steamed Clams with Pasta: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/steamed-clams-with-pasta/

Sal's Place: https://www.salsplace.co/

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark has known Jean-Georges Vongerichten since 1987, when he arrived in New York. They've written books together. They've remained close friends for nearly 40 years. Today, they talk about Jean-Georges growing up in Alsace on pork fat, juniper berries, and parsley as the only herb anyone grew, and on arriving in New York when the Union Square Greenmarket was two stands selling apples and potatoes, and on watching the whole thing transform over four decades.

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, a special conversation Mark had in June with Congressman Jim McGovern (MA) at the Good Food for All Summit in DC. McGovern has spent decades in Congress fighting to protect SNAP, fund school meals, and push food security to the center of the policy conversation. He and Mark cover a lot of ground: why the food system isn't broken so much as designed, the difference between food rhetoric and actual food policy, what to make of the MAHA movement, the case for a Department of Food, and what Mark has been building with Community Kitchen.

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're bringing this one back. Hawa Hassan was born in Mogadishu, fled the Somali Civil War at four, spent time in a refugee camp in Kenya, and arrived alone in Seattle at age seven. She went on to win a James Beard Award and write two of the most distinctive cookbooks in recent memory. In this conversation, she and Mark and Kate talk about her book Setting a Place for Us, which travels to eight countries affected by conflict and asks what food means when everything else has been taken away. She talks about the visa crisis that nearly stranded her in Paris on the way to Kinshasa, the hug she found in Beirut when she expected hostility, and why she always goes looking for the best of a society, not the worst.

The Bittman Project is featuring three recipes from Hawa Hassan's book, Setting a Place for Us: 

Rice Bread: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/rice-bread/

Fresco de Melon (Cantaloupe Juice, with or without rum): https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/fresco-de-melon/

Madesu (Stewed Red Beans): https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/madesu-stewed-red-beans/

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.