Salt & Spine – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Episode 166: James Park

This week, James Park joins us to discuss his first cookbook, Chili Crisp: 50+ Recipes to Satisfy Your Spicy, Crunchy, Garlicky Cravings.

James is a seasoned recipe developer and food writer who has been published in outlets including Eater, Food52, BuzzFeed, and Chowhound. After moving from Korea to the American South when he was 13, James began to navigate two cultural identities and continued to turn to food as a medium.

And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know chili crisp has been having a ~moment~ in the United States. While the condiment has become trendy in the US, its roots are deep in Asia and became a more steady consumer product when Lao Gan Ma began producing containers of chile crisp in China’s Guizhou province in the late 1990s. A slew of American brands have emerged with chili crisps and chili crisp-inspired products, with Cathy Erway chronicling the “cult of spicy chile crisp” for TASTE. Just this month, David Chang’s Momofuku brand drove chili crisp headlines after going after (and then backing off) companies using their trademarked term “chili crunch.”

So when James went to write his first cookbook and narrowed his focus on chili crisp, it was in sync with the zeitgeist. Though he considers himself an “unofficial chili crisp ambassador,” James didn’t discover the condiment until later in life, which allowed him to see how he could incorporate it into recipes in creative and unexpected ways.

“Chili crisp opened the door of connections with other Asian cultures for me,” James writes in Chili Crisp. “The more I tasted chili crisp, the more I appreciated it and was proud to be a part of it. It even became my pickup line when making new friends. Do you know about chili crisp? Do you like chili crisp? What's your favorite way of enjoying it? Do you want to try my chili crisp?”

In Chili Crisp, James presents recipes like:

* Kimchi Quesadilla with Chili Crisp

* Savory Morning Oats with Jammy Eggs and Pork Floss

* Chili Crisp Bucatini Carbonara

* Beef Short Ribs Ragu

* Fiery Spaghetti and Meatballs

* Chili Crisp Biscuits with Honey-Butter Glaze

* Chili Crisp Ice Cream Two Ways

* And more!

We’ve got a great chat with James—and of course, we put him to the test in our signature culinary game! Find this episode anywhere you podcast.

Chili Crisp: 50+ Recipes to Satisfy Your Spicy, Crunchy, Garlicky Cravings by James Park

If you already love chili crisp, this book is for you. If you're new to it, this book is for you. With more than 50 recipes, Chili Crisp is here for you, wherever you are on your spicy life journey.

Packed with chili crisp inspiration to take your love of this spicy ingredient to the next level, Chili Crisp provides dozens of no-recipe recipes (like potato chips and chili crisp, a match made in snack heaven) and a handy build-your-own chili crisp formula to inspire you to create your very own version. Soon all your family and friends will be clamoring for a jar.

Well, hello there! It’s been a minute. The Salt + Spine team has been busy taking some much-needed rest—and, of course, planning for an inspiring year ahead. What’s in store? Amazing podcast episodes, naturally, and all the typical goods: exclusive recipes, cookbook giveaways, and behind-the-spine content you won’t find anywhere else. But there’s more brewing. Big stuff! I can’t spill all the beans yet—but stay tuned for a cookbook lover’s dream, coming this summer. Woo!

I hope your 2024 is off to an excellent start. Can you believe we’re already six weeks in? I blinked and it’s Valentine’s Day. And now, I’m so thrilled to be back with all of you to launch our 14th season (!!!) of Salt + Spine.

By the way… It’s a new season of Salt + Spine, and if you love what we do, we would be so grateful if you shared the word! Click below to share this episode with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too.

Before we get to this episode…

🎧 What I’m Listening To

* Absolutely loving this new mini-series from Sohla El-Waylly and Ham El-Waylly in collaboration with The Sporkful team. Episode 1 starts with murder and ends with tamale-inspired soup. Start at the beginning. (Psst, stay tuned for my chat with Sohla soon, too!)

📖 What I’m Reading

* Lots of (very, very deserved) love for The Zuni Cafe Cookbook lately in Eater and TASTE. If you write about TZCC, I will read it.

* I just finished Less and, whew, adored it. I’m late to the party, and it sat on my shelf for several years. But I picked it up recently and couldn’t put it down. I also just finished the behemoth Wellness by Nathan Hill (who’s both an alum of my university and of my college newspaper!) Loved his first novel, The Nix, and Wellness was just as captivating and satisfying.

Episode 165: The State of California Cuisine with Reem Assil, Tanya Holland & Sara Calvosa Olson

Alright, we’ve got some fun conversations in store this season, and we’re starting by letting you into one of our recent, incredible live events. A hearty crowd joined us in the fall at the stunning Mill Valley Public Library, nestled in a great forest of California redwoods, for a chat we called “The State of California Cuisine.”

A lofty title, I know! But we knew just who could bring the modern, representative views of what’s happening in Cali cuisine today: our friends Sara Calvosa Olson, Tanya Holland, and Reem Assil.

* Sara is a Karuk home cook whose first cookbook, Chími Nu’am: Native California Foodways for the Contemporary Kitchen, “reimagines some of the oldest foods in California for home cooks today.” Think: acorn crepes, blackberry braised smoked salmon, wild boar pozole, peppernut mole chicken. Sara bills the book as an “accessible entry for people beginning their journey toward a decolonized diet.”

* Tanya is the award-winning chef and restauranteur behind Oakland’s beloved Brown Sugar Kitchen (no current brick & mortar location), and a well-known culinary personality. Today, the “Top Chef” alumna chairs the James Beard Foundation’s Awards Committee (and sits on the foundation’s Board of Trustees). Her third cookbook, Tanya Holland's California Soul: Recipes from a Culinary Journey West, showcases 80 seasonal recipes rooted in the “key ingredients, techniques, and traditions that African Americans brought with them as they left the South for California, creating a beloved version of soul food.” Alongside recipes, Tanya shares stories of Black Californian food-makers, from farmers to coffee roasters.

* Reem is a Palestinian-Syrian chef-activist based in Oakland, CA, who spent a decade as a labor and community organizer before turning to restaurants and opening Reem’s California. Reem brings her social justice lens to the restaurant industry, pushing for more just economic and labor practices. The La Cocina alumna’s debut cookbook, Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora, “shares stories of the power of Arab communities to turn hardship into brilliant, nourishing meals and any occasion into a celebratory feast.”

We’ve got a great chat with a lively, engaged live audience. And of course, with these three incredible cooks in one room, we had to put them all to the test in our signature culinary game! Enjoy.

We 💚 local bookstores. Pick up your copy of these books via Bookshop:

Coming up this week: Paid subscribers to Salt + Spine will receive three recipes from this week’s featured books:

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. For this week’s recipe—plus exclusive content and hundreds of other featured recipes—become a paid subscriber today.

This Week’s New Cookbook Releases

Catching up with 2024 books here, so these include January releases, too!

* Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson

* The Farm Table by Julius Roberts

* Cool Food: Erasing Your Carbon Footprint One Bite at a Time by Robert Downey Jr. and Thomas Kostigen

* 5 Ingredients Mediterranean: Simple Incredible Food by Jamie Oliver

* Eat More Plants: A Chef’s Journal by Daniel Humm

* 15 Minute Meals: Truly Quick Recipes that Don’t Taste Like Shortcuts by Ali Rosen

* Come Hungry: Salads, Meals, and Sweets for People Who Live to Eat by Melissa Ben-Ishay

* Big Bites: Wholesome, Comforting Recipes That Are Big on Flavor, Nourishment, and Fun by Kate Ashmore

* The Complete Beans and Grains Cookbook: A Comprehensive Guide with 400+ Recipes by America's Test Kitchen

* Après Ski: 100 Cozy Drinks to Warm Up Your Winter by Cider Mill Press

Episode 157: Noah Galuten

In this week’s episode, Noah and I discuss:

* His early interest in both food television (Lidia Bastianich, Ming Tsai) and cookbooks (Marcella Hazan, Edna Lewis),

* How he fell into opening up new locations of Bludso’s BBQ and then teaming up with Kevin Bludso to co-author Bludso's BBQ Cookbook: A Family Affair in Smoke and Soul … and then with chef Jeremy Fox to write On Vegetables: Modern Recipes for the Home Kitchen,

* The pandemic-inspired “Don’t Panic Pantry” video series, which went onto become the concept for his first solo cookbook,

* And the chef’s favorite pantry staples, including dried seaweed.

Plus, as always, we put Noah to the test in our signature culinary game.

The Don’t Panic Pantry Cookbook by Noah Galuten

As the world changes around us, we are constantly vacillating between two different versions of ourselves: the one who wants to be healthier and the one who wants to be excited, or comforted, by the food that we eat. We all want to eat "better," but what does that mean? This book is here to say: Don't panic.

Don't panic about learning how to cook; or environmental sustainability; or nutrition. Don't panic about what to make for breakfast or dinner or midnight snacks, because Noah Galuten has your back! In Noah's kitchen, trying really matters, perfection is overrated, and better is good enough.

We 💚 local bookstores. Pick up your copy of Noah’s The Don’t Panic Pantry Cookbook here.

This week, paid subscribers will receive a recipe for Noah’s Vegan Minestrone with Miso Pesto, his riff on Soupe au Pistou, the “French classic in which a usually mild broth gets livened up at the very end with a dollop of pistou (French pesto) placed onto each bowl.”

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. For this week’s recipe—plus exclusive content and hundreds of other featured recipes—become a paid subscriber today.

Chris Taylor & Paul Arguin are the authors of The New Pie and have won more than 600 pie-baking contests across the country. Also in today's show: Cathy Barrow on her latest, When Pies Fly, and Celia Sack of Omnivore Books.

Find recipes from The New Pie and When Pies Fly on www.saltandspine.com.

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Daniel Leader is the author of Living Bread: Tradition and Innovation in Artisan Bread Making. In the 1980s, he left Manhattan to open his bakery, Bread Alone, in Hudson Valley and his first book, Bread Alone, won the IACP award for best baking book in 1994.

**Featured recipes available on saltandspine.com.

Full episode notes coming soon.

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Full show notes coming soon.

New York Times, "Would You Write a Cookbook for Next to Nothing" by Priya Krishna

Music in today's episode:

• "Bad Flower," Bisou
• "If I Had Money, I Would Have Money," The Basic Income Earth Network

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.