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Seeds of hope for our broken food system
New year, new ideas.
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We revisit a conversation with Austin Frerick who shares the stories of seven agricultural titans, their rise to power, and the consequences for the rest of us.
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Nancy Matsumoto celebrates the women who are fighting Big Food by building sustainable food systems.
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At Alma Backyard Farms in Compton, co-founder Erika Cuellar feeds the soil and the soul with programs targeting youth and people who were once incarcerated.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
More Episodes
Our favorite interviews of 2025
A year in the life of food.
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Michael Shaikh tells the stories of people preserving their culinary traditions amid war and violence.
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Ted Genoways considers José Cuervo's colorful history, from eluding Pancho Villa's death threats to bringing tequila north of the Mexican border.
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Sarah Ahn's viral food videos of her mom have captivated millions of viewers with their behind-the-scenes look at Korean cooking and multigenerational life.
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Humberto Raygoza aka the Chori-Man links four generations using one chorizo recipe.
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Olivia Haver loves cheese so much, she has devoted her career to babysitting it.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
The story of an iconic Chinese restaurant
Generational family recipes take center stage.
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Kathy Fang spent her childhood shaped by 24 square blocks of San Francisco, where her father manned a wok, feeding hungry customers at the House of Nanking.
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Forager Pascal Baudar hunts down wild seeds and grains.
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Jess Shadbolt helms the kitchen at King, the ingredient-focused New York City restaurant with an aesthetic of eating simply but lavishly.
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One of the world's foremost authorities on libations, former Shakespeare professor David Wondrich delivers the history of the cocktail in comic book form.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
The best pancakes in LA
A breakfast odyssey begins.
- Food & Wine contributing editor Khushbu Shah shares where to grab the best stack of pancakes in Los Angeles.
- Hetty Lui McKinnon puts salad at the center of the table for intimate gatherings.
- Molecular biologist Nik Sharma tests taste buds with Sichuan peppercorns.
- Golden Delicious apples come to the Mar Vista Farmers Market.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Go global with your holiday baking
Fire up the oven and get creative with your holiday baking.
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Kat Lieu offers 108 Asian cookie recipes that you can bring to your next cookie exchange.
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Maureen Abood unlocks memories as she finds inspiration in the Lebanese bakeries of Dearborn, Michigan.
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An American baker living in Berlin, Laurel Kratochvila dips into the Polish canon with black breads, bagels, sour rye breads studded with caraway, and challah.
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Jūrgen Krauss, everyone's favorite trombone-playing Great British Bake Off contestant, prepares for the holidays with traditional German Christmas treats.
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LA Times restaurant critic Bill Addison visits Sora Craft Kitchen, a Turkish restaurant in DTLA.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
The Best Cookbooks of 2025
It's a cookbook bonanza!
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Celia Sack of Omnivore Books on Food shares a roundup of the year's best cookbooks, including graphic novel memoirs and one of the only Cambodian cookbooks written in English.
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Bee Wilson explores how quotidian kitchen items become powerful symbols, representing friendship, grief, love, superstition, safety, and even political resistance.
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Design curator and writer Corinne Mynatt became fascinated with culinary objects she found at flea markets and began researching their history and function.
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New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi follows a Haviland china set that has graced the table of five generations of women.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
A fabulous Thanksgiving potluck with Good Food's chosen family
All the best food with people you actually like? We're in!
- We kickstart Thanksgiving with Nashville chef Arnold Myint, author of Family Thai, who joins Evan Kleiman to co-host a special Thanksgiving episode about chosen family.
- Although Minneapolis chef Yia Vang cooks Hmong food that's rooted in his family's refugee story, he treats tradition as something living and adaptable.
- Atlanta chef Deborah VanTrece, who has been transforming narratives about soul food, brings us a bunch of killer sides.
- Bar expert and cocktail consultant John deBary has just the thing for keeping your holiday libations fun, festive, and nonalcoholic.
- What better way to complete the Thanksgiving meal than a few unapologetically sweet desserts from pastry chef Justin Burke?
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Surveying "sushi row" and its spectacular seafood
Raw fish reaches its apex on a stretch of Ventura Blvd. that's home to the highest concentration of sushi restaurants in the US.
Brant Cox of The Infatuation surveys the sushi restaurants of Ventura Boulevard.
- Chef and TV host Andrew Zimmern imparts lessons from his time on the water to set up home cooks for seafood success.
- Ixta Belfrage creates recipes that embrace her multicultural lens and Brazil's layered cuisine.
- For nearly two decades Aldo Sohm has poured wine at Le Bernardin in New York City, creating harmony between what's in the glass and on the plate.
- Chef Michael Fiorelli of Fiorelli Pizza pairs Brussels sprouts with persimmons and pomegranates in a salad that screams autumn.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Instant ramen gets a gourmet upgrade
Pull out that package of ramen and get ready to dress it up!
- Instant ramen is most frequently associated with tired clichés about quick dorm room eats but Peter J. Kim wants us to rethink the dried noodles.
- Beloved baker Dorie Greenspan takes the cake in a new collection of recipes.
- LA Times restaurant critic Bill Addison pays a visit to Cafe 2001.
- Fighting our food confusion with science, journalist Julia Belluz and scientist Dr. Kevin Hall attempt to answer, "Why do we eat the way we eat?"
- Chef Harry Posner of Tomat explores farmers market pomegranates.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Taking stock of food culture with Ruby Tandoh
Exploring African flavors, Japanese fermentation, and a Paris farmers market.
- Ruby Tandoh traces how our culinary tastes have transformed in our 24/7 food obsession.
- Yasmin Khan manages stew recipes without meat.
- Kenji Morimoto was tasked with making pickles in his family's kitchen and that assignment blossomed into a love of fermentation and putting his DIY projects to use.
- Born in a refugee camp in Somalia, Meymuna Hussein-Cattan ended up launching a celebrated refugee aid organization as well Flavors from Afar, which earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
- For the Market Report, Gillian Ferguson heads to Paris where she catches up with chef David Lebovitz at the Marche d'Aligre.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Spooky Halloween recipes from Elvira and your local cemetery
Hosting a Halloween party, veganizing Korean cuisine at home, and the horrors of labor throughout the food system:
- Elvira, Mistress of the Dark AKA Cassandra Peterson IRL dons her towering black beehive and blood-red lipstick for a collection of hair-raising recipes just in time for Halloween.
- When we last talked to her, three years ago, Rosie Grant had already gone TikTok viral for prowling cemeteries to find the tastiest gravestone recipes. Now, she has an entire book devoted to these dishes as well as interviews with the families of the dearly departed.
- Joanne Lee Molinaro AKA the Korean Vegan shares her love of tofu and a recipe for a Kimchi Queso Mac and Cheese in her newest cookbook.
- Underpaid, undervalued, and unsafe — that’s the trifecta of problems plaguing food system workers, according to Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern and Teresa M. Mares, who chronicle labor across our food chain.
- Memo Torres delivers an update on the fallout of ICE raids in the hospitality industry.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
A Diwali recipe to celebrate the Hindu festival of lights
Celebrating Diwali, Thai roots meet Nashville soul, a soju party, yaupon as a potential coffee alternative, and green satsumas:
- Khushbu Shah shares how she celebrated Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, growing up in the Midwest, and this year's plans.
- Chef Arnold Myint, who grew up at his family’s beloved International Market & Restaurant, which introduced Thai food to Nashville, has a new book, Family Thai, that's both a primer on Thai cooking and a tribute to the flavors he inherited from his mother.
- At Orion Bar in Brooklyn, Irene Yoo and her husband, Nick, get playful with soju and upend Korean alcohol traditions.
- How expensive does coffee need to get before we start looking for alternatives?
- Writer KC Hysmith considers yaupon, the only caffeinated plant grown in North America, for its potential as a coffee alternative.
- Chef Miles Thompson shops for green satsumas at the farmers market.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Samin Nosrat Makes Good Things Better
Samin Nosrat discovers "Good Things"; a bar devoted to women's sports; winter squash at the farmers market.
- Samin Nosrat chats about the pressure she felt following the success of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, relinquishing perfectionism, and the importance of ritual in connecting with others and yourself.
- Married couple Janie Trinh and Stephanie Ellingwood founded Silver Lake's Untamed Spirits, a bar devoted to women's sports.
- Gillian Ferguson takes us to the farmers market to meet Ben Norton, the chef behind Darling, Sean Brock's grill house and hi-fi lounge in West Hollywood.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Fixing our broken food system and the glory of tacos
How do you fix a food system that isn't simply broken but has been captured, top to bottom, in the name of profit?
- Our food system isn't simply broken, it has been captured, top to bottom, in the name of profit. Austin Frerick shares the stories of seven agricultural titans, their rise to power, and the consequences for the rest of us.
- For almost a decade, renowned Mexican chef Enrique Olvera veered away from serving tacos at Pujol, his Michelin-starred Mexico City restaurant. Now, he celebrates them with taco omakase at the bar.
- Oaxacans claim if you eat chapulínes (grasshoppers), you will return to Oaxaca. Anthropologist Jeffrey H. Cohen looks at the consumption of these insects and the women who make a living selling them.
- Travel and food writer Caroline Eden hiked between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, discovering recipes along the way.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Chef Jeremy Fox moves from vegetables to meat
Passionfruit, overlapping food crises, and what federal spending cuts mean for local food banks
- Seven years after chef Jeremy Fox released On Vegetables, he offers a cookbook with a different focus, On Meat.
- Michael Flood of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank explains what the massive cuts to SNAP, USAID, and DOGE mean for local food assistance programs.
- Dr. Stuart Gillespie analyzes the cascade of overlapping crises impacting our food system — and he proposes solutions.
- At the farmers market, passionfruit from Carpinteria goes into an LA mole.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
The fight to raise minimum wage for tipped workers
The real story behind "no tax on tips" and the best vegan cheese
- Eyal Press reports on the fight to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers
- Animal and food activist Miyoko Schinner prides herself on making dairy-free butters, creams, and cheeses
- Chloe Sorvino exposes the hidden corruption and corporate greed within the meat industry
- Mike Cirone travels from See Canyon near San Luis Obispo to share his apples with farmers market shoppers.
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Going garden-to-table
Going garden-to-table and how immigration raids are impacting LA's restaurant workers
- Canning evangelist Kevin West puts his home garden to work in the kitchen
- Journalist Andrew Lopez reports on how ICE raids are impacting Boyle Heights
- Rudy Espinoza shares how Inclusive Action supports communities affected by the immigration raids
- Journalist Kim Severson explores the creation of the perfect peanut
- Vannak Tan serves Cambodian-style seafood at A&J Seafood from a shack in San Pedro
- Alvaro Bautista brings dates from Mecca to the farmers market in Santa Monica
Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
Unpacking the MAHA agenda
Is America any healthier, yet?
- Mother and son Jyoti and Auyon Mukharji stay rooted in their Indian heritage while living in the Midwest.
- Journalist Lisa Held sorts through the details of the recently leaked draft of the MAHA strategy report, a year after Make America Healthy Again debuted.
- Public health advocate Marion Nestle was cautiously optimistic in the early days of MAHA. What's her perspective now?
- Lior Lev Sercarz explores the many varieties of peppercorns.
- The weekly market report features chef Zach Pollack's use of sweet peppers.
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Cool down with paletas, ice cream & room temp food
- Elizabeth Mateo expands her family's 40-year-old paletas business.
- Filmmaker Eddie Schmidt weaves together scenes of the men and women who drive ice cream trucks from in his documentary, Popsicle Culture.
- Adrienne Borlongan of Wanderlust Creamery makes ice cream inspired by travel and adventure.
- On a stroll, David Owen uncovered the remnants of Berkshire Ice Company, a century-old business which shipped ice around the world. His curiosity sent him on a journey investigating the history of refrigeration and cooling technologies, which along with convenience, harbor harsh impacts on the environment.
- Bee Wilson embraces room temp dishes while acclimatizing food temperatures to the weather.
Connect with host Evan Kleiman by subscribing to KCRW's Good Food on Substack.
Any which whey: America's protein obsession
The protein powder boom, anchovies, ancient Roman recipes, and more!
- Whey, the liquid byproduct of cheese making, was once considered waste. It's now a key ingredient in the protein powders that dieters and weightlifters are downing in ever-greater amounts — and that means big changes for the dairy industry, reports Kevin Draper.
- Horror film producer turned food historian Christopher Beckman chronicles the anchovy's place in the European cooking canon.
- Sally Grainger reinterprets Roman recipes taken from Latin texts.
- As students head back to school, we catch up with Jack Bobo, Executive Director of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies.
Sign up for our weekly Good Food newsletter and connect with host Evan Kleiman on Substack.
What's behind the historic honeybee hive die-off?
You better bee-lieve it, we're talking about honeybee headaches.
- Former beekeeper Adam Novicki explains the causes of this year's historic honeybee die-off
- Sawdust covered floors, free peanuts, and stiff martinis are hallmarks of Chez Jay, which celebrates 66 years along Route 66
- Jenny Linford explores cooking, eating, and drinking through objects in the British Museum's collection
- Chef Katie Reicher of legendary San Francisco restaurant Greens shares vegetarian recipes from her repertoire
- Baker Nicole Rucker adopts a fruit tree and sets her sights on a glazed peach pie
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Preserving culinary traditions amid war and violence
When everything falls apart, food is sometimes all we can cling to.
- Michael Shaikh looks to those who are preserving their food and culinary traditions in the aftermath of war, displacement, and global violence
- Lee Svitak Dean and Linda Svitak are Minnesota sisters who collaborated on a book that highlights people from vastly different circumstances all over the globe
- Toni Tipton-Martin showcases the creativity of women who bring soul to Southern cuisine
- In his new novel, Mark Kurlansky explores how an ancient cheesecake recipe and a conniving landlord change one Manhattan block forever
- Get happy, it's tomato season at the farmers market!
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Glorious galettes with peak summer fruit
Although Good Food loves pie, we're also Team Galette!
- Podcaster Ben Naddaff-Hafrey dives into the legal tussle hidden in the nooks and crannies of Thomas' English muffins
- Artist and cook Linda Dangoor leaves a trail of recipes from Baghdad and Beirut to Ibiza and Paris
- Fátima Juárez and Conrado Rivera of Komal explain that the secret to great masa starts with great corn
- It's peak summer fruit season, which means it's time for recipe developer and stylist Rebecca Firkser to explore the art of the galette
- With all the recent closures of classic LA restaurants, reporter Jennifer Swann explains why crowds are lining up around the block to get one last taste of the past
- At Lucia, chef Adrian Forte shares how he uses shado beni (aka culantro, not to be confused with culantro) in his Caribbean dishes
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