Here at Special Sauce we love pie in all its forms: we love shepherd's pie, apple pie, key lime pie, lemon meringue pie, and our absolute favorite, peach pie. And given that we're coming up on America's 250th birthday and Americans love pie we thought we'd reheat one of our favorite pie episodes to get in the spirit of things. Stacey Mei Yan Fong catalogued her love of pie when she published 50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant's Love Letter. Even if you don't love pie her story is well worth listening to. 

This week on Special Sauce serious eaters get to eavesdrop on part 2 of my hilarious and informative conversation with burger mavens Kenji and Hamburger America's George Motz. Nobody knows more about cooking and eating burgers than these two burger mavens. 

As one of the millions of long-suffering Knicks fans I am still basking in the afterglow of the team's historical and magical run. I decided I had to devote another episode of Special Sauce to the team's amazing playoff run to the NBA championship. And who better to join me on mic than the The New York Times' terrific writer Matt Flegenheimer, who to my way of thinking has become the poet laureate of Knicks fandom. He explains that he too can't believe what we have all just witnessed. 

With grilling season underway I felt the time was right to talk burgers with Kenji and Hamburger America's George Motz. We talk burger history, burger cooking methods, and all things burger. 

As one of the millions of long-suffering New York Knicks fans, I decided I had to devote an episode of Special Sauce to the the team's amazing playoff run. Joining me on the pod is the The New York Times's Matt Flegenheimer, who wrote a great piece about NYC coming together to celebrate this magical run the team is on so far, and food writer Chris Crowley, a former Serious Eater who is now one of the founding editors of the new food newsletter Caper. 

This week on Special Sauce we talk to Mateo Kehler, the cheese visionary behind Jasper Hill Farm.  Mateo and his brother Andy, carpenters by trade, pooled together their life savings and bought a 200 acre dilapidated dairy farm in Greensboro, Vermont, in 1998. They were cheesemakers on a mission to save a disappearing way of life in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, where dairy farming had been in precipitous decline. 

I have written thousands of words about the joys of eating hot dogs, so when Memorial Day rolls around, this serious eater's thoughts immediately turn to the humble frankfurter. A couple of years ago we had my friend and fellow food writer J.J. Goode on Special Sauce to talk about our love for the hot dog in all its forms, including the many regional styles we both have encountered along the way. We talked about hot dog styles both ubiquitous and obscure, from the famous Chicago hot dogs with french fries on top at Gene and Jude's near O'Hare Airport to the deep-fried hot dogs poetically known as rippers at Rutt's Hut in Clifton, N.J. 

So to honor this most humble of foods from around the country and the world as we head into Memorial Day weekend we decided to reheat one of J.J.'s terrifically entertaining and informative episodes about our mutual love of hot dogs. And just for the record I still have two Gray's Papaya hot dogs for lunch a couple of times a week. Please don't tell my cardiologist...or my wife.

This week on the pod we are back with Part 2 of our deep dive into bageldom with bagel baker and celebrated chef Mark Strausman of Mark’s Off Madison in NYC. He and I taste-tested bagels from Wall Street darling PopUp Bagels, which was just valued at 300 million dollars, a classic traditional NY bagel concern Utopia Bagels, next-gen sourdough bagel bakery Apollo, and of course, Mark’s own bagels.

Like slice pizza and smash burgers bagels are having a moment. One concept Pop Up Bagels was just valued at $300 million in its most recent round of financing. Pop Up's rip and dip bagels are a viral sensation but have left some traditional bagel purists unimpressed. One of those purists is the great chef turned master bagel baker Mark Strausman, so we traveled to Mark's restaurant Mark's Off Madison to talk and taste bagels. 

Like many serious eaters I am a serious NBA fan. And although the playoffs this year have just gotten underway, they are already proving to be thrillingly entertaining for people like me who have no skin in the game -- other than an unabated lifelong passion for the New York Knicks and just about any and all underdogs. Ever since we had NBA champ and former Knick Channing Frye on the pod a couple of years ago to talk about his company Chosen Family, whenever the playoffs shift into high gear I think back to the entertaining, surprisingly revealing, but mostly just plain fun time we had with him on Special Sauce. So without further adieu here's multitalented Channing Frye talking basketball and wine, LeBron James, and Josh Hart. Speaking of which, go Knicks! On to the Finals!