Lunch Therapy – Details, episodes & analysis

One of my all-time favorite food writers is Amanda Hesser, the co-founder of Food52 and author of The New York Times Cookbook, and it's a huge thrill to have her on Lunch Therapy this week. In today's session, I ask her all about Cooking for Mr. Latte (one of my all-time favorite food books), how she went from being a writer to starting a business, being super detail oriented, portraying herself as unlikable in her book, and the food writers that she read at the start of her career. We also learn about how she doesn't like lunch, the new Food52 offices, her lunch with Julia Child, and most fascinating of all: the CBS Mr. Latte sitcom that never was!

The James Beard award-winning biographer of James Beard, John Birdsall, swings by the office today for a lunch therapy session. We talk all about who'd be the best actor to play James Beard, how the pandemic interrupted his book tour plans, raw onions, working at Deborah Madison's Greens in a Zen Center in SF, and how his gentle temperament worked in a restaurant kitchen. We also cover being out as a chef in SF in the 90s, how the AIDS crisis played out in restaurants, Jeremiah Tower's lawsuit, and much more.

Jeff Gordinier is one of the most prolific, influential food writers in the biz: not only does he work on Esquire's Best Restaurants list every year, he contributes regularly to The New York Times as both a food writer and a poetry critic (!) AND he's the author of the book Hungry, for which he traveled around the world with René Redzepi, frequently hailed as the world's best chef. In today's session, we learn all about Gordinier's new interest in eating healthy (and the toll the Best Restaurants list took on his body), why the pandemic essentially ended fine dining as we knew it, and how a man who doesn't drink can choose the best bars in the US. We also cover growing up in Southern California, the impact (or lack of impact) René Redzepi had on his cooking, and his love for making tea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Broti Gupta is way too accomplished for someone her age. Not only has she written for television (Speechless, Friends from College); she's also written for The New Yorker AND The New York Times. In today's lunch therapy session, we talk all about cooking for her boyfriend (and vice-versa), Mark Wahlberg's weird schedule, her mother teaching her recipes over FaceTime, and her need to please authority figures. We also cover Patti LuPone, growing up Indian in Kentucky, her love for cumin, cooking for her parents, and how hot it is in Southern India. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kate Berlant is one of the funniest comedians out there -- you've seen her in "Search Party," "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," "Sorry to Bother You" -- and she's the co-host of the hilarious podcast POOG. In today's session, we learn all about Kate's quarantine malaise, her dinner party anxieties, her linguine with clams, and where she sat in the school cafeteria. We also hear about her tendency to lean on yams, her recipe for a lycheetini, get a tour of her mother's kitchen, and how her screen name was almost CaperHottie. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He's the quintessential New York food writer and he's here to talk about the quintessential New York Lunch. Ed Levine, the founder of Serious Eats and author of Serious Eater (as well as New York Eats and Pizza: A Slice of Heaven) opens up in today's session about losing his parents at a young age, how restaurants took on a familial role for him, how his parents' communism affected his food writing, and the way these formative experiences shaped his psychology and career later in life. We also talk about the future of food media, the best bagels and bialys, Katz's pastrami, our grandmothers' pickles, Nathan's, and how he roasts a chicken. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time Out New York once said of Isaac Oliver: "If David Sedaris and Fran Lebowitz had a baby who wrote about subways, theater patrons, and b*******s, he might be a lot like Isaac Oliver." The author of the hilarious book of essays, Intimacy Idiot, artist-in-residence at Joe's Pub, and television writer (High Maintenance, GLOW) joins us this week and boy is he in need of some serious lunch therapy. Find out why Isaac eats lunch at 5 o'clock, how he likes to be bossed around by Ottolenghi recipes ("he's got me up to my elbows in harissa!"), why his parents helped him choose a porn to watch on Christmas (!), his relationship to Baltimore crabs, and why he's terrified of cooking for others. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Soleil Ho is the James Beard award-nominated food critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and one of the most important voices currently working today in food. In today's Lunch Therapy session, we talk about reviewing restaurants during Covid, what's fair game and what isn't, the food that her mother made for her growing up in New York, how she channels her anxiety into writing, how Ruth Reichl helped her overcome her fears about publishing reviews, how she sees her job as an opportunity to correct chefs' bad behavior, and what she puts on her avocado toast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tucker Shaw wears many hats: he's executive editor of Cook's Country Magazine, the former food critic for The Denver Post, the author of Everything I Ate, and, in a former life, a young adult novelist. In today's session, Tucker talks about his grandparents who were subsistence farmers in Maine, how he's coping in quarantine living above a Russian grocery, cooking from books in junior high school, and the night he saw me at Marie's Crisis. We also cover him getting tapped to be a professional food critic, how scary it was to write his first review, educating himself on wine lists (etc.), and moving to Boston to start work at America's Test Kitchen. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karina Longworth is the creator and host of one of the most popular and beloved podcasts out there, "You Must Remember This," which focuses on the secret and forgotten history of early twentieth-century Hollywood. In today's session, Karina talks about growing up in Studio City in the 1980s, her obsession with old movies from a young age, her mother cooking her way through Bon Appetit Magazine, taking over the cooking duties after her mother's death, and trying to recreate the chocolate mousse pie from the December 1981 edition. We also cover bodies as commodities in Hollywood, going to art school, going to premieres with her husband, Knives Out & Star Wars director Rian Johnson, her love for soup and soft foods, and what Jay-Z and Beyonce ate at the Chateau Marmont. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amateurgourmet.substack.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices