The Recipe with Kenji and Deb – Details, episodes & analysis

Kenji and Deb will be back September 9 with all new episodes. Watch this space!

Kenji has many pans going on the fire at all times, one of which was directing this year’s Community Curated Series for Seattle Arts & Lectures. In January 2024, he invited his future podcast bestie Deb onstage with him to chop it up about recipe development (and theft!), family, and greasy bags of Dick’s. 

Thanks to Alison Stagner and Woogee Bae of Seattle Arts & Lectures for their help.

In preparation for this episode, Deb and Kenji fed their children so many pancakes that they are now on a pancake strike. But before you start feeling sorry for these young people, don’t forget they got to taste the rainbow of pancake styles. Tall and fluffy. Crisp and fluffy. Thin and crispy. The hottest pancake in the world right now, the Japanese soufflé. Tough life, kids!

We learn why baking soda, baking powder, and buttermilk feature prominently, and the technique for “the absolute fluffiest pancake”.

Recipes Mentioned:

• Smitten Kitchen pancakes
• Serious Eats pancakes
• Chez Ma Tante pancakes on NYT Cooking

Kenji and Deb have history with meatloaf that goes way, way back, to summer camp in the 80s. It was not love at first taste, but Deb has a moment of clarity and achieves meatloaf enlightenment. Kenji and Deb chew over “meat batter”, how many Meat Loaf references in one podcast episode constitutes audio malpractice, and if parents who send their teenage children to the store for one ingredient are monsters. 

Recipes Mentioned:

• Deb’s Turkey Meatloaf for Skeptics (from Smitten Kitchen Keepers) 
• Kenji’s Classic Meatloaf (excerpted from The Food Lab, courtesy of Serious Eats)

Most people are familiar with the stuff in the blue box, but what might seem like a simple dish holds many nuances, from achieving that perfectly smooth cheese melt to avoiding greasiness or lumpiness. Find out why mac and cheese holds a special place in Kenji's heart and the results of Deb’s experience making Kenji’s three ingredient recipe.

Recipes Mentioned:

Deb’s Stovetop Mac and Cheese (courtesy of Smitten Kitchen)

Kenji’s Stovetop Mac and Cheese (courtesy of Serious Eats)

New from Radiotopia, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb. Join us to hear what goes into writing our recipes — the techniques we test, the ingredients we taste — so that you can be on your way to creating your own perfect recipe. Whether you're cooking meatloaf, pancakes, or chicken soup, we got you, and you've got this. Episode 1 drops February 26. Follow us on Instagram @kenjianddeb and visit our website.

The Recipe - coming to Radiotopia in 2024!

Thanks to our friends at Special Sauce for allowing us to share this episode. Deb, Kenji, and host Ed Levine talk about ye olde days of early food blogging and the backstory of The Recipe.

We know you don’t want to burn your food in the kitchen (unless it’s a char/sear kinda situation), but you know what else you don’t want to burn? You, the cook. Deb and Kenji reveal their tips for avoiding cooking burnout, as well as how to mine your own sodium citrate at home. Did your eyes get whiplash reading this? Buckle up because your letters took us all over the map: biscuits for every purpose, what kind of pancakes Barbie would eat, how to cook like a boss for 1-2 people. 

After putting out our first batch of episodes, we put out a call to our listeners — any questions? You sure did. Thanks to listeners from around the world who heeded our call, we bring you our first mailbag episode. Kenji and Deb debunk the 30-minute recipe, contemplate tiers of butter, go down the soup dumpling rabbit hole, and much more.