On this episode of Special Sauce serious eaters will meet Roy Shvartzapel, who makes transcendent panettone at his LA online bakery From Roy. 

With the holiday season in full swing, this serious eater's attention turns to eating and baking cookies. And who better to shoot the breeze with on this rich topic than author and baker Erin Jeanne McDowell, who has been called the fairy godmother of baking. She's got some tricks for us.

As we go about planning our upcoming holiday feasts, it's a pretty good bet that at some point we're going to pick up a bottle of wine or two to share with family and friends. That's why I'm returning to my conversation with someone who's been a guiding light for wine connoisseurs and beginners alike, Eric Asimov, the wine critic for The New York Times.

Thanksgiving leftovers can sometimes be a freighted topic for serious eaters. Last year, trying to quell my own Thanksgiving leftovers anxiety and confusion, I had Deb Perelman and J. Kenji Lopez Alt, longtime friends and co-hosts of their own podcast The Recipe, on Special Sauce. We covered a lot of ground in our discussion, everything from the joys of eating leftover cold pie for breakfast to the wisdom of waffling your leftover stuffing. We had so much fun that I decided it was worth reheating and serving to serious eaters again this year. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving and the holiday season are upon us and that means this serious eater's thoughts turn to pie! And so I thought I would perform a public service by inviting perhaps our greatest pie baking teacher, Erin Jeanne McDowell from the YouTube series 'Happy Baking', to come on Special Sauce and talk about all things pie.

If you're like me, you're probably already worrying about holiday dinners and parties that you might have to bring stuff to. And at least some of us might be a little punchy at the thought of cooking or baking for friends. So to the rescue comes friend of Special Sauce, Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman. 

On this episode of Special Sauce The New York Times's wine writer Eric Asimov shares his democratic and unsnobby approach to both food and wine, which invites newcomers and longtime enthusiasts to explore their own wine experiences.

On this episode of Special Sauce I talk to author and fellow pie lover Stacey Mei Yan Fong about her new book '50 Pies, 50 States, An Immigrant's Love Letter to the U.S. Through Pie'.

In part two of our discussion, Ruth Reichl and I get into how the American government has played a major role in corrupting our food system.

On this episode of Special Sauce legendary food critic Ruth Reichl talks about the documentary film "Food & Country" which she stars in and co-produced.