Kathleen Flinn | author | The Kitchen Counter Cooking School

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“Standing on the stage delivering the graduation speech at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris is not the optimal time for an existential crisis.”

So begins The Kitchen Counter Cooking School from award-winning writer Kathleen Flinn. Whereas Flinn’s first book tells her tale of earning a diploma from the world’s most famous cooking school, her second commences two years after she’s left the hallowed kitchens of Paris. She’s back, standing in an opulent ballroom just off the Champs-Elysées, rows of graduates before her, a line of chefs in tall toques behind her, about to address the crowd. Everyone is waiting to hear what she has to say–including Flinn, who finds herself wondering what wisdom she can possibly impart to to others when she still wasn’t certain what to do with her degree.

I sat down with Kat after her grueling two-month-long book tour to find out exactly how she went from the hallowed halls of Le Cordon Bleu and the cobblestone streets of Paris to garishly lit supermarkets and crowded Seattle kitchens that were in most cases overstocked with processed foods. She explained it all began with a chance encounter with a hapless, harried mom in a market. After seeing all the packaged foods in the woman’s cart, not mention wasted money on overpriced meat cuts, Kat rifled through the groceries–replacing some, ditching others–and helped her make better shopping and cooking decisions. In less than an hour, the woman walked out with healthier foods, several recipes, and kitchen confidence–something she always lacked. Kat no longer wondered what to do with her tony degree. And we’re all the better for it.

Read an excerpt from The Kitchen Counter Cooking School.

Melissa Clark | author | In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite

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I guess you could say that Melissa Clark and I have been orbiting each other for years. She’s a regular columnist for the New York Times; I’ve been to the New York Times—twice. She’s authored and co-authored a battalion of  30 cookbooks; I have all of her cookbooks. Yes, it’s clear that Melissa and I were destined to eventually meet up for a podcast, considering our intense professional involvement. Not.

That still doesn’t mean I haven’t admired Melissa’s work from afar and from my kitchen. But it did mean I was hesitant to ask her to join me for a podcast. Yet within seconds of Mac Mail’s whooosh notification of sending out the invitation, she replied, “Sure!”

It’s usually not a good idea to meet your idols—because most come with feet made of 100 percent certifiably organic earthly clay. But not Melissa. She bounded into the studio, dropped her coat, (not unlike Barbra Streisand in “Funny Girl”), and launched into the whirlwind that was her day. It took everything I had to stop her from not giving away all this great info without being in front of a microphone. For instance, did you know if you cook garlic or onions to the burning point, adding more oil and cooking them low and slow a bit longer will render them sweet? Nether did I.

Listen along while we discuss her latest book, In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite, its 150 recipes, and her lovely accompanying essays—in essence, her “search for deliciousness.” Along the way, Melissa will teach you how to eat today, right now, this very moment. And what’s better than that?

Our Favorite Melissa Clark Recipes

Northern Fried Chicken
Hanger Steak with Onions, Mushrooms, and Potatoes
Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake
Un-Pumpkin Pie
Apple and White Cheddar Scones
Mini-Muffin Financiers
Red Eye Devil’s Food Cake

Have a question for Melissa about In the Kitchen or cooking? Or want to leave her a message? You know what to do below.

Joanne Chang | author | Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe

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I first met Joanne Chang, owner of Flour Bakery, in Boston, last spring. Neither Joanne nor Flour were the object of my visit: I was there to meet a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. But the moment I walked in and was met by the sweet, yeasty aroma of pastries well baked, I was hooked. The line, even at that off hour of the morning, was long. I was having a hard time deciding what to eat while I waited for my friend and finally narrowed it down to two choices: Homemade Pop-Tarts and Homemade Oreos. Seeing how fast the Oreos were flying out of the display case, I opted for them.

Sublime, is all I can say. They were four times the size of their less-than-stellar packaged cousins, and 1o times as tasty. The filling had nary a one of those impossible-to-pronounce ingredients. Nothing but butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt. And the cookies were crisp and rich with a dark, almost smoky chocolate flavor.

To flip through Joanne’s cookbook is like tripping lightly through our childhoods–or those of us of a certain age who grew up in the States. A Taiwanese-American raised by immigrants in a home bereft of anything sweet, Joanne lusted after the treats that filled her friends’ lunch boxes. (Why does that sound familiar?) Determined to make them herself, she marched into her mother’s kitchen at an age when she could barely see over the stove and began experimenting. Fast forward a few decades and Flour is the result—both the bakery (of which she has three) and the book.

During our chat, Joanne traced her attachment to deeply American treats, her desire to best what was on supermarket shelves, and the struggle to leave behind a Harvard education in mathematics in order to pursue her love of all things floury–much to the stunned silence of her parents. And we discussed what it was like to beat Bobby Flay at his own game on “Throwdown with Bobby Flay.” He and his team were convinced they could top Joanne’s amazing sticky buns, but to no avail.

And, yes, at the end that’s me getting a little too intimate with some of her treats. If I ever lose my job in the food world, our engineer at the recording studio assured me I just might have a future in over-dubbing adult films. Take a listen.

Flour Recipes

Homemade Oreos
Milky Way Tart

Have a question for Joanne about Flour the cookbook or Flour Bakery? Or want to leave her a message? You know what to do below.

Dorie Greenspan | author | Around My French Table

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The hardest part of interviewing the always-charming Dorie Greenspan is, well, connecting with her when we’re both on the same continent. Dorie, as most of you know, is one of those infernally blessed people who get to split her time between Paris and New York (with frequent sojourns to Connecticut). And it’s this bifurcated life that gave rise to her latest book, Around My French Table. It’s a personal chronicle of the recipes, foods, and dishes she cooks and serves chez Dorie.

What’s so refreshing about Around My French Table is that it slips out of the handcuffs of tradition and often gives needed CPR to staid dishes. Dorie’s not afraid to wrestle French classics to the ground, pin them, and have her way. But never in a bullying manner–that’s so un-Dorie. Instead, she enhances them, often lightening them, but always interpreting them with just the slightest American accent. Case in point: Almond Flounder Meunière. It reminds me of that old Osmond ditty, “A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock and Roll.” The dish is the love child of sole amandine and sole meunière. Flounder (in place of the classic but shamefully expensive sole) is coated with almonds like the former and then cooked in brown butter, like the latter. Simple, easy, and accessible.

Dorie also enjoys taking supermarket ingredients and making them devilishly “stylish and haute.” Take her Cinnamon-Crunch Chicken. It’s little more than a chic version of the American standard of chicken breasts in a cream sauce. Her twist is to use crème frâiche and to stir in crushed speculoos (AKA cinnamon spice biscuits). It’s one of those I-wish-I-had-thought-of-it-first recipes.

During our conversation, we cover a lot of ground–everything from my confession of my long-held feelings (Dorie is my culinary crush), to life as a true jet setter, to what prompted her to write such a personal book, and how Around My French Table nicely bookends her previous work, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Take a listen.

Around My French Table Recipes

Almond Flounder Meunière
Cauliflower-Bacon Gratin
Cinnamon Crunch Chicken

Have a question for Dorie about Around My French Table? Or want to leave her a message? You know what to do below.

Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern | authors | Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef

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I have to admit that several years ago, I didn’t give much though to anything gluten-free. The whole phenomenon of gluten intolerance seemed to me an all-too-convenient way for food manufacturers to cash in by creating a syndrome where, as least in my world, none existed. “Gluten-Free!” screamed from packages of string cheese, bags of apples, and cans of baby peas. But, um, weren’t they always gluten-free? Did manufacturers think I was that dumb not to realize it?

I probably would have trundled blindly along in my wheat-saturated life if it weren’t for the occasional reprimand from readers that we don’t have a gluten-free recipe section (which has since been remedied) and an off-the-cuff conversation with Shauna James Ahern, AKA Gluten-Free Girl. During our leisurely phone call, she explained that ever since being diagnosed with celiac disease in 2005, she’s looked at her life as half full rather than half empty. She rattled off all kinds of dishes she could indulge in without worry. Wait, huh? I did a double take–if you can do a double take on the phone. She sounded just like those smarmy food manufacturers, except she had nothing to gain from this. Well, except her health.

It was then that I realized two things. One, I wanted to highlight for our readers foods that were naturally gluten-free, hence the GF category. And two, I knew I had to meet this remarkable and remarkably upbeat woman.

Flash forward a couple of years. Her and Danny’s book, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, was coming out, and I called to invite them into the studio to talk about their newest joint venture. (Their first joint venture, their daughter Lucy, was conked out in her stroller.) During the course of the interview, Shauna and Danny reminisced about their love story, much of which is included in the book; discussed how Shauna’s dietary restrictions spurs them on to eat better and healthier without sacrificing flavor or pleasure; and how the book isn’t just for the gluten intolerant and those who love them. The pages are filled with dishes that are perfect for people who love food and each other. Period.

Take a listen. You’ll hear a lot of inspiring and insightful comments from Shauna and Danny. One thing you won’t hear, though, is Lulu’s amazing lung capacity. She woke up in the middle of the session to see a small, bald, be-spectacled engineer sporting agressive tattoos. Ten minutes later Shauna and Danny were back in their seats picking up exactly where we left off. Pros, I say. Pros.

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef Recipes

Gluten-Free Multigrain Waffles
Braised White Beans
And, although it’s not in the cookbook, it’s still one of our most searched for recipes,  Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Have a question for Shauna and Dan about Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef? Or want to leave them a message? You know what to do below.

Amanda Hesser | author | The Essential New York Times Cookbook

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After much wrangling, David finally sat down with the harried, busy, sleep-deprived New York Times food columnist and editor Amanda Hesser to record a podcast about her monumental accomplishment, The Essential New York Times Cookbook. The tome is a collection of the most noteworthy recipes that have appeared in the pages of the Times since the mid-1800s, when the paper began covering food.

The Essential New York Times Cookbook, which weighs in at a whopping 4 1/2 pounds, is arranged in a unique fashion: within traditional chapters such as salads, poultry and game, breads and baking, the recipes are arranged chronologically. This structure allows the cook—and reader—to trip lightly, or thoughtfully, through the past 150 years of American food—or at least the food presented by the Old Gray Lady, as the Times hasn’t alway been as ecumenical in coverage as it has during the past decade or so.

In the podcast, Hesser explains that she, together with assistant Merrill Stubbs, sent out a request to New York Times’ readers as to their favorite recipes from the paper. To their surprise, they were inundated with thousands of responses via e-mail and snail mail—many containing treasured yellowed clippings as fragile as pressed leaves. Soon, categories of favorite dishes became apparent: chicken recipes, dessserts, and anything from the Minimalist Mark Bittman. Still, many individual recipes (some listed below) distinguished themselves as all-time winners.

The duo was then left with the daunting task of reaching back into the archives to find those recipes they felt wove a story through time—creating a culinary narrative arc, if you will—and rewriting them for the modern cook without being unfaithful to the dishes. In all, Hesser includes  more than 1,400 recipes (which I’m honored to be part of with my Jacques Torres-inspired ultimate chocolate chip cookies).

The Essential New York Times Cookbook—part chronicle of American eating, part history book—is destined to share shelf space with Craig Claiborne’s classic New York Times Cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, and Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Listen in.

The Essential New York Times Cookbook Recipes

David Eyre’s Pancake
Boeuf Bourguignon | Burgundy Beef
Purple Plum Torte
Teddie’s Apple Cake

Have a question for Amanda about The Essential New York Times Cookbook? Or want to leave her a message? You know what to do below.

Virginia Willis | author | Bon Appétit, Y’All

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Last year David had the online equivalent of a good ole front-porch chat with Virginia Willis, food writer, chef, and author of the IACP-nominated cookbook Bon Appétit, Y’all! Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking. The book, a collection of recipes that encompass her Atlanta upbringing, includes gems from her mom, grandmother—whom she called Meme—and aunts. Willis also studied in France, at L’Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, and she deftly folds in favorites from that time in her life. These unlikely bedfellows–Southern cooking and classic French cuisine–inform and act as a counterpoint to each other, in the end giving classic Southern dishes a French twist.

Willis has a sterling culinary pedigree, starting in Atlanta as an apprentice to food writer, author, and TV personality Nathalie Dupree. She worked with Dupree on four PBS series and cookbooks, including the James Beard award-winning Comfortable Entertaining. She also was an editorial assistant to culinary icon Anne Willan. In New York City, she assumed the mantle of kitchen director for Martha Stewart Living Television, a program she’s appeared on many times.

Despite her vast experience and globe-hopping, at heart Willis is a down-home girl all too eager to pass on a recipe, a bit of advice to aspiring food writers, a kind word—all of which she does in this podcast. So grab a tall, cool glass of sweet tea, sit back, and listen to this fascinating woman talk about what matters most in life: family, food, and fun. And in that order.

Virginia Willis’ Recipes

Burgundian Honey Spice Bread
Meme’s Pound Cake
Georgia Peach Soufflés

Have a question for Virginia? Or want to leave her a message? You know what to do below.

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Lucinda Scala Quinn | author | Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys

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David has a long chat with Lucinda Scala Quinn, vice-president and editorial director of food and entertaining at Martha Stewart Omnimedia, and, most recently, author of the IACP-nominated Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys. The book is the result of cooking for four men—her husband and three sons, not to mention a house full of brothers while she was growing up. Scala Quinn discusses the male-patterned eating, explains how to keep on top of he-man appetites, describes the power of a well-prepared meal, and tells how to raise kids who love food and who can fend for themselves.

Recipes
Chili
Cheddar Corn Bread
Vinegar-Glossed Chicken

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David Guas | author | DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style

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David sits down with David Guas, author of DamGoodSweet—a love letter to the Big Easy. Guas talks about New Orleans’ rich traditions, its unique culinary language, and the role the women in Guas’s life played in shaping his love of cooking and baking.

DamnGoodSweet Recipes

Lemon-Herbsaint Poppers
Sweet Potato Tart Tatin
Lemon Doberge Cake

Lisa Schroeder | author | Mother’s Best

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David chats with Lisa Schroeder, the juggernaut behind Mother’s Bistro & Bar and Mama Mia Trattoria, both in Portland, Oregon, about her new book. Along the way they touch on the importance of family at the table, the need for good, stick-to-your-ribs meals, and $15,000 crab cakes.

Recipes from Mother’s Best

Poached Pear, Rogue River Blue Cheese, and Hazelnut Salad
Bacon and Cheddar Macaroni and Cheese
Chicken and Dumplings