Good Food

Culinary producer Courtney Storer and actor Liza Colón-Zayas from The Bear show us how they prepped for Season 2. When Uli Nasibova found ice cream and gelato too sweet, she decided to make her own. Dominick DiBartolomeo started working at the Cheese Store of Beverly Hills as a pre-med student and now has keys to the front door. Joanne Lee Molinaro found a (probably) AI-generated knockoff of her award winning cookbook, The Korean Vegan, being sold on Amazon. Italian cooking instructor Viola Buitoni offers ideas for using summer produce. 

Historian Amy Brady chips away at the 200-year-old history of ice in America. Martin Riese's fascination with the taste of water began as a child in Germany, where more than 500 brands are sold. Memo Torres namechecks a dozen must-try tacos in Van Nuys. Susan Jung pays homage to fried chicken across East and Southeast Asia. After a two-year wait, Jihee Kim brings her banchan to a brick-and-mortar in Echo Park.

What happens when you equip three podcast producers and a host with two tents, an egg spoon, and some marshmallows? We decided to find out. We sent the Good Food team camping but we knew they'd need a little help. So we called some experts. 

Podcast host Ivy Le ventures outside to answer the couch-surfers' burning questions. Canadian food journalist Chris Nuttall-Smith eschews cans of beans for cocktails and campfire paella. Seasoned camper and local chef Shannon Swindle swings by the farmer's market to help pack the cooler. Monique Caulfield shares the secrets of axe throwing. Ashley Jones collects and refurbishes vintage cast iron skillets. 

PS - We've also come up with a KCRW Picks: Campfire Songs playlist filled with great tunes for the great outdoors.

This week, Good Food highlights conversations with authors and journalists who took home a 2023 James Beard Media Award. Irina Georgescu hungered for familiar Easter recipes while baking her way through the overlapping cultures of Romania. Professor Psyche A. Williams-Forson considers the stereotypes and stigmas of race and diet. Andy Baraghani takes the lessons he learned working the line at restaurants and applies them to the home kitchen. LA pitmaster Kevin Bludso describes how his grandmother's tough love and rap video catering gigs led him to barbecue success. Chef Vishwesh Bhatt reflects on his childhood in India and how his cooking took shape in the American South. "Diasporican," the first cookbook by food columnist Illyanna Maisonet, explores Puerto Rican cuisine off the island.

David Cooley reminiscences about The Abbey, the West Hollywood cafe and bar he opened in 1991. Rax Will discusses gender-neutral greetings and recommends a few queer pop-ups in LA. Stacey Mei Yan Fong bakes pies to represent all 50 states, as seen through the eyes of an immigrant. Daniel Miller delves into the history of sushi in Los Angeles and how two businessmen scoured Japan for the next great food product. Finally, growing stone fruit for the better part of his life, Troy Regier has peaches and nectarines ripe for the perfect summer sandwich.

Hetty Liu McKinnon navigates grief with an ode to her father and vegetables. Chef José Andrés says the pickiest eater in his family wasn't one of his three daughters, but his wife. Chef Alisa Reynolds travels the world finding food that feeds both body and soul. Ryan Mitchell returns to North Carolina to continue a multigenerational barbecue business. In anticipation of his Echo Park restaurant opening, Miles Thompson shops the farmer's market for his Baby Bistro pop-up.

Virginia Sole-Smith exposes society's anti-fat bias and the issues surrounding childhood obesity. Restaurateur Karan Gokani revels in his first tastes of Sri Lankan food and traditional hoppers made of fermented rice and coconut. Mark Arax looks at the future of water in California's Central Valley. At Chao Krung, Katy Noochlaor explains how her parents put familiar Chinese dishes on their menu to lure in customers before Thai food was popular. Finally, Bob Wiebe brings his short-lived plucots to market while chef Macklin Casnoff shops for his newly-opened Melrose cafe.

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 for Swiss chard to use at his eponymous new Beverly Hills restaurant.

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 in full swing at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, and Clemence de Lutz has a recipe for the clafoutis she grew up making. Banana diversity in India makes the fruit ubiquitous and vital to the country's culture, as anthropologist Deepa Reddy explains. Kate Lebo's curiosity about fruit is endless, despite all the pits and its brief window of ripeness.

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 Cabral join forces for the perfect asada. British writer Louise Gray evaluates how far her produce travels compared to fruit and veg for a typical Californian. Parked at Sunset Triangle Plaza, blue food truck Simón doles out mariscos and asada with a twist.