Good Food

By KCRW

Society & Culture

What's Good Food about?

Evan Kleiman's taste of life, culture and the human species.

4.6

785 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

Chinese doughnuts and comfo...

06.03.2023

Jean Trinh shares the story of her refugee family's connection to Chinese crullers. Cookbook author, teacher, and omnivore Andrea Nguyen offers vegetarian Vietnamese recipes for the home cook. Bill Addison finds comfort at Luyixian in Alhambra. Chef Evan Funke shops ...

Good Food episodes:

06.03.2023 Chinese doughnuts and comfort food, vegetarian Vietnamese Jean Trinh shares the story of her refugee family's connection to Chinese crullers. Cookbook author, teacher, and omnivore Andrea Nguyen offers vegetarian Vietnamese recipes for the home cook. Bill Addison finds comfort at Luyixian in Alhambra. Chef Evan Funke shops ...
05.27.2023 Cooking with fruit, cherries, bananas Abra Berens, a native Michigander, uses peak-of-the-season fruits in a wide array of preparations. From the Underground Railroad to the Oregon Trail, KCRW's Tyler Boudreaux traces the history of the Black Republican cherry. High in sugar and acid, cherries are ...
05.20.2023 El Cholo turns 100, inside Taco Bell’s innovation kitchen, asada Ron Salisbury reminisces on 100 years of El Cholo, California's oldest Mexican restaurant, opened by his grandparents in 1923. Antonia Hitchens reports from the Taco Bell innovation kitchen on the frontlines of the stunt food wars. Bricia Lopez and Javier ...
05.13.2023 Preserving family recipes, grandma influencers, edible arrangements Anissa Helou explains the importance of preserving your heritage through food. With the world, and New York Times critic at large Tejal Rao, watching, grandmothers are the new influencers of the online kitchen. California girl Claire Ptak moved to London; ...
05.06.2023 First grade pie winner, Norwegian baking, Porridge + Puffs returns Oliver Kaplan shares his method for making a 1st Place blueberry pie. Nevada Berg holes up in her cozy Norwegian farmhouse where she bakes along with the seasons. Scientist and historian Marci R. Baranski explores the legacy of the Green ...
04.29.2023 Leftovers, kombucha, cake walk for reproductive justice With nearly 40% of the food bought in the U.S. tossed out, Tamar Adler finds delicious destinies for leftovers. The pandemic and an impulse to curb food waste led Balo Orozco to create Sunset Cultures, an artisanal kombucha and preserves ...
04.22.2023 Curry leaves, funeral halva, custard pies Culinary wunderkind Flynn McGarry's memoir demonstrates passion, discipline and maturity — and he's only 24. Zee Husain cultivates laksa leaves, huacatay, sambar cucumbers and kadipatta (curry leaf) plants. Halva, a popular sweet throughout Armenia, the Middle East and India, has ...
04.15.2023 José Andrés, Trans-Siberian Railway, Ramadan Los Angeles Times columnist and KCRW contributor of "Orange County Line" Gustavo Arellano discusses the importance of recognizing Anaheim's Little Arabia neighborhood. Chef José Andrés drops by to discuss his new LA restaurants and his work with World Central Kitchen. ...
04.08.2023 Eggs, raising chickens, restorative farming Lizzie Stark hatches stories exploring the cultural history and uses of eggs while sharing her personal story. Cookbook author Irina Georgescu hungered for familiar Easter recipes while baking her way through the overlapping cultures of Romania. Tove Danovich loves raising ...
04.01.2023 Croissants, ‘Party Down,’ Passover cooking Kate Reid was a successful Formula 1 engineer who designed race cars before shifting gears to make croissants. Jennifer Yee makes vegan croissants at Bakers Bench, where she uses a plant-based substitute for butter. Tejal Rao breaks down "Party Down," ...
03.25.2023 Pie is not a drag, coffee for all, dry-aged fish If RuPaul, Rose Nylund and Julia Child had a baby, she'd be Bertha Mason, a Midwestern pie-baking drag queen with a killer sour cream and raisin pie recipe. Shanita Nicholas and Amanda-Jane Thomas put their legal careers in the rearview ...
03.18.2023 Fungal apocalypse, Cambodian food, cream pies Joe and Celia Ward-Wallace opened South LA Cafe with a mission to fight racial, social and economic inequality. Their next project? Overseeing the Natural History Museum's entire food and beverage program. The first season of "The Last of Us" concluded ...
03.11.2023 Celeb restaurants, Irish desserts, making tacos metal Just in time for the Academy Awards, journalist and historian Hadley Meares uncovers two of LA's earliest celebrity restaurants. Tejal Rao, critic at large at the New York Times and a KCRW PieFest judge, talks about the beauty, the versatility, ...
03.04.2023 The Pie Contest returns, Parsi food and pantry cooking After a three-year, in-person hiatus, KCRW's Good Food PieFest & Contest returns — with a vengeance. Claire Saffitz answers the most burning after-dinner question with a new cookbook. Noah Galuten opens the cupboard and looks at pantry staples with fresh ...
02.25.2023 California winemaking, plant-based Chinese, the history of rare seeds From Malibu to the San Gabriel Valley, the documentary "The Oldest Vine" explores the history of winemaking in Los Angeles. Amy Luftig and her business partner launched the first winery to open in Los Angeles since Prohibition. Hannah Che reimagines ...
02.18.2023 King cake, bees, composting, chicories Matt Haines has sampled more than 80 king cakes from New Orleans bakeries, just in time for Carnival season. Professor Psyche A. Williams-Forson considers the stereotypes and stigmas of race and diet. Beekeeper Adam Novicki breaks down the exacting process ...
02.11.2023 Female and Indian sports bars, Korean comics, edible underwear With a modest Kickstarter campaign, Jenny Nguyen decided to flip the script on the traditional sports bar, opening a watering hole dedicated to supporting women’s athletics. Avish Naran puts a twist on traditional sports bar fare with an Italian-American and ...
02.04.2023 California soul food, matriarchal Indian kitchens, chickens Tanya Holland recalls her family’s migration and how settling in California influenced her own brand of soul food. Asma Khan runs the only professional Indian kitchen with an all-female staff and her latest cookbook pays tribute to the women behind ...
01.28.2023 Mexican vegetarian, corn smut, tortillas, veggie sandos Mexican chef Margarita Carrillo Arronte says Americans have the wrong impression of food which isn’t all about comfort — fat and fried. When a chef told Carolina Aboumrad and Ricardo Olvera that his dream product was huitlacoche, they decided to ...
01.21.2023 Fungi, fermentation, vinegars, ground meat Simran Sethi explores how to reconnect with the earth through mushrooms in her series “Fruiting Bodies” for the Museum of Food and Drink. Andrea Gentl shares how her experiences photographing mushroom hunters inspired her to reconnect with her upbringing and ...
01.14.2023 Noma, ‘The Woks of Life,’ remembering Sylvia Wu, carrots Amid news that he is again shifting concepts at Noma, René Redzepi discusses the restaurant’s reinvention. “The Woks of Life” documents the Leung family’s history through food. Sylvia Wu brought an Angeleno sensibility to Chinese food, expanding the cuisine and ...
01.07.2023 Emotional eating, recipes for future catastrophes, Haitian soup Mary Beth Albright discusses the new field of psychology that examines how food and eating are linked to mood. After sitting on a panel with five billionaires, Douglas Rushkoff began exploring how the megarich are preparing for the end of ...
12.31.2022 'Maíz is life' — the history, science, and politics of masa This episode originally aired on October 15th, 2022 Some people measure the passing of time by the weather. Some people measure it by holidays. Good Food measures it in tortillas. Every year, for the last five years, host Evan Kleiman ...
12.24.2022 Best of 2022: Black Food Fridays, bananas, rye, Scottish bakes This week, the Good Food team revisits their favorite segments of the year. KJ Kearney, founder of Black Food Fridays, works to recognize the contributions of his ancestors every week. Anthropologist Deepa Reddy explains banana diversity in India which makes ...
12.17.2022 The Menu, Hanukkah, tamales, French cakes Screenwriters Seth Reiss and Will Tracy tackle issues of class, consumerism, art, and privilege in "The Menu." Katianna and John Hong, the husband-and-wife duo behind Korean American restaurant and deli Yangban Society, discuss their blended Hanukkah and Christmas traditions. Michael ...
12.10.2022 Comfort food — soup, pierogies, Italian cuisine Soup is delicious, easy to make, versatile, and a great way to use leftovers. But despite its many virtues, it's not terribly chic or exciting. Journalist and cultural commentator Anne Helen Petersen aims to change that. Born of peasant food ...
12.03.2022 Best cookbooks of 2022, Ukrainian food, salt, curry Bookstore owner Celia Sack shares her annual picks for best cookbooks with a surprising trend from first generation authors. Anna Voloshyna, a Ukrainian-born food writer and cooking instructor living in the Bay Area, she gets closer to home by sharing ...
11.26.2022 Rediscovering nature — fishing, mushrooms, hospitality Author and essayist Priya Basi, the co-founder of Authors for Peace, reflects on hospitality and the roles of host and guest beyond the act of feeding someone. Environmentalist Paul Greenberg examines his relationship with his father and fishing. Environment lawyer ...
11.19.2022 Smoked Thanksgiving turkey, sides, pies As America prepares for its biggest cooking holiday of the year, Good Food taps cook and food writer Andy Baraghani to co-host a special Thanksgiving episode with Evan Kleiman. Peppering in answers to listeners’ most troubling kitchen and hosting dilemmas, ...
11.12.2022 Cookies, cakes, sugar-free desserts, pies Food writer Rossi Anastopoulo shares the not-always-sweet history of pie in America. Rose Levy Beranbaum delivers the gospel of snickerdoodles in an epic cookbook devoted to cookies. Brian Levy deploys fruits, nuts, grains, and dairy to create "no sugar" desserts. ...
11.05.2022 Puerto Rican food, Little Ethiopia, Nigella Lawson “ Diasporican ,” the first cookbook by food columnist Illyanna Maisonet, explores Puerto Rican cuisine off the island. Lulady Moges brings Ethiopian dishes to the table in under an hour. In an excerpt from his three-part KCRW series “ Exploring ...
10.29.2022 Tombstone recipes, Chicano sweets, and a boiled head… Graduate student Rosie Grant pays respects by baking recipes found on tombstones. Jessica Stevenson waxes nostalgic about vintage Halloween candy and today’s sour favorites. W. Scott Poole, who teaches a course in the history of horror, explains perennial fears of ...
10.22.2022 Two culinary memoirs, an African nuptial ceremony, and a tortilla winner In his new memoir, Chef Keith Corbin reflects on his childhood in Watts and awakening his palate in prison. Marion Nestle is best known for her groundbreaking work “Food Politics” but her path to get there was winding, as she ...
10.15.2022 'Maíz is life' — the history, science, and politics of masa Some people measure the passing of time by the weather. Some people measure it by holidays. Good Food measures it in tortillas. Every year, for the last five years, host Evan Kleiman helps Gustavo Arellano judge KCRW's Tortilla Tournament. Every ...
10.08.2022 Two Buck Chuck, Vishwesh Bhatt, White House Food Conference Wine critic Esther Mobley looks back at the legacy of Fred Franzia, who championed inexpensive wine and brought Two Buck Chuck to the masses. Chef Vishwesh Bhatt reflects on his childhood in India and how his cooking took shape in ...
10.01.2022 Apples, cider, tortilla tournament, ancient healing Rare apple hunter Tom Brown, who's been crisscrossing his native North Carolina and beyond, is on a mission to find and save America's rare apples. Co-owners Chelsey Rosetter and Benny Farber are the duo behind Benny Boy Brewing, where they ...
09.24.2022 Remembering Marcella, kimchi, pickles With her cookbook “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking,” Marcella Hazan introduced a legion of Americans to a new cuisine — changing the way many cook and eat. Kimjang is a celebration in Korea. Eric Kim describes the days-long process of ...
09.17.2022 One-pot recipes, hot dogs, burgers Cookbook author Melissa Clark reaches for a single pot or pan to create entire meals in one fell swoop. When Bobby Green heard there might be a chance to revive the popular Tail O’ the Pup hot dog stand, famous ...
09.10.2022 Chuseok, milk, bananas, school lunch Food & Wine Best New Chef Ji Hye Kim puts a Midwestern spin on classic Korean dishes to celebrate the harvest festival known as Chuseok. Journalist Ruth Conniff describes the complicated relationship between midwestern dairy farm owners and the undocumented ...
09.03.2022 Eating and drinking celluloid: Food and wine in film Boiling and blending, filmmaker Peter Strickland likens creating music in a band to layering ingredients in a recipe. His satirical horror film is “Flux Gourmet.” Zimbabwean winemaker Tinashe Nyamoduka strives to demystify the vine and promote inclusivity. Documentary producer-director Lori ...
08.27.2022 Indian cuisine, chowder, wine Indian chef and author Maunika Gowardhan celebrates thali — a complete meal served on one plate that offers six taste sensations. Anthropologist Deepa S. Reddy takes a deep look at the Indian soup rasam and its cultural-socio meanings. Craig Fear ...
08.20.2022 Uyghur cuisine, Instagram food, saké, tomatoes Bugra Arkin runs Dolan's, one of only a handful of Uyghur restaurants in the United States. He had an unlikely, and not entirely happy, path to becoming a restaurateur. Coinneach MacLeod spent much of his time during the pandemic baking. ...
08.13.2022 African supergrains, Russian fermentation, Colombian food in Long Beach Geologist David R. Montgomery and biologist Anne Biklé explore the relationship between soil health and human health. Senegalese chef Pierre Thiam works to make fonio a global grain while keeping its production in Africa. Chef Bonnie Frumkin Morales explains the ...
08.06.2022 Black Food Fridays, remembering Diana Kennedy, vegan butchers KJ Kearney, founder of Black Food Fridays, works to recognize the contributions of his ancestors one day at a time. LA Times Food Editor Daniel Hernandez and chef Gabriela Camara remember Mexican food and culture icon Diana Kennedy. Spirits writer ...
07.30.2022 Insects, salmon farming, chemicals in food, ‘true’ prices Sea levels are rising. The amount of sea ice is shrinking. Record-breaking temperatures are scorching countries that are woefully unprepared for the heat. In California, drought has become a semi-permanent feature of daily life. And fires, which were once a ...
07.23.2022 Russian food, fishing for sport, African cuisines Food scholar Darra Goldstein describes the evolution of Russian cuisine despite scarcity and isolation. Environmentalist and author Paul Greenberg recalls fishing with his father but says the time has come to eliminate the “trophy catch.” Andy Baraghani takes lessons he ...
07.16.2022 Peanuts, watering the garden, composting, melons Journalist Jori Lewis weaves together the history of the peanut from its beginnings in Bolivia, to cultivation in Senegal, and its ties to slavery. Horticulturist Yvonne Savio shares secrets to watering the garden during high temperatures. Michael Martinez works to ...
07.09.2022 Echo Park’s Nayarit, “The Bear,” dips, tlayudas Historian and professor Natalia Molina reveals how her grandmother’s restaurant, Nayarit, brought the immigrant community together in 1960s Echo Park. In the new FX series “The Bear,” actor Jeremy Allen White plays Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, a chef with struggles both ...
07.02.2022 James Beard Award winners, The Black Forager, Dish City Good Food revisits conversations with newly-minted James Beard Award winners and the podcast that took home the medal for Audio Programming. Alexis Nikole Nelson, aka The Black Forager, found her audience on TikTok but has grown her following as she ...
06.25.2022 Italy, aperitivi, Roman cuisine, the art of doing nothing Vicky Bennison adapted her popular YouTube series “Pasta Grannies” into a cookbook that shares the secret’s of Italy’s best home cooks. Benedetta Jasmine Guetta gives a lesson in the history of Jewish cooking in Italy. Tour guide and author Sophie ...

Older episodes

Good Food

What's Good Food about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Good Food episodes:

Chinese doughnuts and comfort food, vegetarian Vietnamese

Cooking with fruit, cherries, bananas

El Cholo turns 100, inside Taco Bell’s innovation kitchen, asada

Preserving family recipes, grandma influencers, edible arrangements

First grade pie winner, Norwegian baking, Porridge + Puffs returns

Leftovers, kombucha, cake walk for reproductive justice

Curry leaves, funeral halva, custard pies

José Andrés, Trans-Siberian Railway, Ramadan

Eggs, raising chickens, restorative farming

Croissants, ‘Party Down,’ Passover cooking

Pie is not a drag, coffee for all, dry-aged fish

Fungal apocalypse, Cambodian food, cream pies

Celeb restaurants, Irish desserts, making tacos metal

The Pie Contest returns, Parsi food and pantry cooking

California winemaking, plant-based Chinese, the history of rare seeds

King cake, bees, composting, chicories

Female and Indian sports bars, Korean comics, edible underwear

California soul food, matriarchal Indian kitchens, chickens

Mexican vegetarian, corn smut, tortillas, veggie sandos

Fungi, fermentation, vinegars, ground meat

Noma, ‘The Woks of Life,’ remembering Sylvia Wu, carrots

Emotional eating, recipes for future catastrophes, Haitian soup

'Maíz is life' — the history, science, and politics of masa

Best of 2022: Black Food Fridays, bananas, rye, Scottish bakes

The Menu, Hanukkah, tamales, French cakes

Comfort food — soup, pierogies, Italian cuisine

Best cookbooks of 2022, Ukrainian food, salt, curry

Rediscovering nature — fishing, mushrooms, hospitality

Smoked Thanksgiving turkey, sides, pies

Cookies, cakes, sugar-free desserts, pies

Puerto Rican food, Little Ethiopia, Nigella Lawson

Tombstone recipes, Chicano sweets, and a boiled head…

Two culinary memoirs, an African nuptial ceremony, and a tortilla winner

'Maíz is life' — the history, science, and politics of masa

Two Buck Chuck, Vishwesh Bhatt, White House Food Conference

Apples, cider, tortilla tournament, ancient healing

Remembering Marcella, kimchi, pickles

One-pot recipes, hot dogs, burgers

Chuseok, milk, bananas, school lunch

Eating and drinking celluloid: Food and wine in film

Indian cuisine, chowder, wine

Uyghur cuisine, Instagram food, saké, tomatoes

African supergrains, Russian fermentation, Colombian food in Long Beach

Black Food Fridays, remembering Diana Kennedy, vegan butchers

Insects, salmon farming, chemicals in food, ‘true’ prices

Russian food, fishing for sport, African cuisines

Peanuts, watering the garden, composting, melons

Echo Park’s Nayarit, “The Bear,” dips, tlayudas

James Beard Award winners, The Black Forager, Dish City

Italy, aperitivi, Roman cuisine, the art of doing nothing

Other shows like Good Food: