When I interviewed Milk Bar co-founder Christina Tosi last summer we talked about her extraordinary journey from home baker to pastry chef to entrepreneur. Tosi had an inspirational story to tell, and we thought it was a story worth repeating. Of course the peripatetic businesswoman has hardly been resting on her laurels since then. Boxes of Milk Bar soft baked cookies are coming to a grocery store near you, as are pints of Milk Bar ice cream. Christina published All About Cookies: A Milk Bar Baking Book, in November of 2022. And just for good measure (pun intended) the second season of the baking competition show she hosts Bake Squad, is just out on Netflix.

On this episode of Special Sauce Kenji, The New Yorker's Helen Rosner, and I dig further into the first season of ‘The Bear’ and also muse about what we'd like to see in the second season of the show, which is coming to FX this summer. We're all rooting for Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) to find some peace so that Sydney (Ayo Edibiri) can do her thing without being driven crazy.

Kenji and The New Yorker's Helen Rosner reflect on the first season of the compelling TV show The Bear, now streaming on Hulu. J. Kenji Lopez Alt is of course the author of bestselling cookbooks like the Food Lab and the Wok and who cooks on-camera for his own YouTube series, Kenji's Cooking Show. He worked in restaurant kitchens in Boston for many years, and he did a silly thing and opened his own restaurant, Wursthall in San Mateo. The New Yorker's Helen Rosner has spent years writing about restaurants and food and chefs for Eater, Saveur, and Grub Street, among others.

This week I decided to revisit my interview with the extraordinary Grace Young, Why? Well, for starters Grace, cookbook author, cultural anthropologist, and wok therapist, is a wonder, a Chinese-American treasure. And when someone else might be resting on their laurels Young, who has won every award a cookbook author can win, has embarked on a new career and quest as a Chinese-American community activist and advocate. And as you will hear Grace, who was named the James Beard Foundation's Humanitarian of the Year in 2022, is still at it combating Asian-American hate with a new social media campain.

On this episode of Special Sauce we take a deep dive into scrambled eggs with eggspert egg maker J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. He tells us about his latest eggprerimentation with one of the world's favorite egg preparations.

On this episode of Special Sauce The New York Times’s Pete Wells and Brett Anderson, and The New Yorker's Hannah Goldfield all weigh in on what serious eaters are likely to see (and taste) when they walk into restaurants in 2023. They all tell us both what they're excited about and what they're worried about moving forward.

On this episode of Special Sauce I talk to The New York Times's Pete Wells and Brett Anderson, and the New Yorker's Hannah Goldfield about what and where they ate in 2022, and where they think restaurants and the food culture in general are headed.

In 2022 I got a chance to chew the fat with so many interesting people on Special Sauce. I couldn't possibly pick a favorite episode to leave you with, but I can certainly say with confidence that my conversation with NYT food writer Eric Kim is right up there. Eric is thoughtful, a fine recipe developer, and a lovely writer. His book Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home, is terrific. So as the new year approaches I thought we'd leave you with Eric's episode. It's definitely worth another listen or if you didn't have a chance to do so when we first posted it in July, you are in for a treat. And in case you're wondering what Eric is up to these days he texted me that he is hard at work on a new book, a collection of essays. And Eric's next column for the NYT Magazine is a New Year's column on rice cake soup.

On this episode of Special Sauce I talk holiday food with Kenji. In Kenji's case we get to hear about holiday traditions in his Colombia-born wife's family. And we also get to hear about his own family's holiday traditions growing up.

On part 2 of our extraordinary conversation with Harlem Seafood Soul's Tami Treadwell you will hear that Tami's success is bittersweet. Why? Because she's had to overcome so many heartbreaking obstacles to discover that being on the street, and feeding people, is where she truly belongs.