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Special Sauce with Ed Levine

Special Sauce with Ed Levine

Ed Levine 459 episodes Latest Jun 5, 2026

Special Sauce with Ed Levine is a podcast from Serious Eats where host Ed Levine chats with famous friends and acquaintances about food and life. Each episode offers an intimate conversation that gives food lovers a behind-the-scenes look at the food culture. The show features a mix of well-known chefs, writers, and other personalities from the culinary world.

Episodes

Burger Madness Part 1 with Kenji and George Motz Jun 12, 2026 29:17 With grilling season underway I felt the time was right to talk burgers with Kenji and Hamburger America's George Motz. We talk burger history, burger cooking methods, and all things burger.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Knicks: Orange and Blue Skies, Baby! Jun 5, 2026 45:36 As one of the millions of long-suffering New York Knicks fans, I decided I had to devote an episode of Special Sauce to the the team's amazing playoff run. Joining me on the pod is the The New York Times's Matt Flegenheimer, who wrote a great piece about NYC coming together to celebrate this magical run the team is on so far, and food writer Chris Crowley, a former Serious Eater who is no
Mateo Kehler: The Cheese Visionary Behind Jasper Hill Farm May 29, 2026 40:11 This week on Special Sauce we talk to Mateo Kehler, the cheese visionary behind Jasper Hill Farm.  Mateo and his brother Andy, carpenters by trade, pooled together their life savings and bought a 200 acre dilapidated dairy farm in Greensboro, Vermont, in 1998. They were cheesemakers on a mission to save a disappearing way of life in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, where dairy farming had bee
A Hot Dog Reheat for Memorial Day May 22, 2026 46:16 I have written thousands of words about the joys of eating hot dogs, so when Memorial Day rolls around, this serious eater's thoughts immediately turn to the humble frankfurter. A couple of years ago we had my friend and fellow food writer J.J. Goode on Special Sauce to talk about our love for the hot dog in all its forms, including the many regional styles we both have encountered along
The Big Bagel Taste Test May 15, 2026 32:46 This week on the pod we are back with Part 2 of our deep dive into bageldom with bagel baker and celebrated chef Mark Strausman of Mark’s Off Madison in NYC. He and I taste-tested bagels from Wall Street darling PopUp Bagels, which was just valued at 300 million dollars, a classic traditional NY bagel concern Utopia Bagels, next-gen sourdough bagel bakery Apollo, and of course, Mark’s own
Bagels Are Having A Moment May 8, 2026 26:42 Like slice pizza and smash burgers bagels are having a moment. One concept Pop Up Bagels was just valued at $300 million in its most recent round of financing. Pop Up's rip and dip bagels are a viral sensation but have left some traditional bagel purists unimpressed. One of those purists is the great chef turned master bagel baker Mark Strausman, so we traveled to Mark's restaurant Mark's
Channing Frye Reheat: Go Knicks! May 1, 2026 28:15 Like many serious eaters I am a serious NBA fan. And although the playoffs this year have just gotten underway, they are already proving to be thrillingly entertaining for people like me who have no skin in the game -- other than an unabated lifelong passion for the New York Knicks and just about any and all underdogs. Ever since we had NBA champ and former Knick Channing Frye on the pod
Can Food Actually Be Medicine? Yes! Apr 24, 2026 42:14 The idea that food is medicine has been around for centuries. On this week's Special Sauce The New York Times's Kim Severson and the Aspen Institute's Corby Kummer talk about how doctors, the government, and even insurance companies have been engaged in a half-century long process to treat various medical conditions with food cooked healthily that the government and health insurers pay fo
Chicago and ICE: An Update Apr 17, 2026 43:42 Last November ICE launched Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, terrorizing both restaurant customers and workers in immigrant communities all over the Windy City.We heard firsthand accounts of ICE's violent misdeeds by Chicago Tribune reporter Zareen Syed and restaurateur Marcos Carbajal of the esteemed Carnitas Uruapan. I checked in with Zareen and Marcos this week to get an update on the
A Tribute to Tom Valenti, The Best Chef You Never Heard Of Apr 10, 2026 48:59 Tom Valenti, one of my favorite chefs of all time (who also happened to be a swell, generously spirited human being), died suddenly last week. Tom was a friend of mine, so I gathered writer Andrew Friedman (who co-wrote Tom's cookbooks) and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que founder John Stage to celebrate the life and times of the best chef you might never have heard of.  Learn about your ad choices: d
Ella Quittner: Obsessed With The Best Apr 3, 2026 40:16 As someone who has spent the greater part of a half-century searching for and obsessing about where to find the best of any kind of foodstuff, I was immediately drawn to Ella Quittner's book Obsessed with the Best. Quittner and I delved into the pleasures and pitfalls any writer encounters when he or she tackles this most subjective undertaking.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx
AI: An Existential Threat to Recipe Developers Mar 27, 2026 36:20 Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman explains why she and many other recipe developers and food writers regard AI as an existential threat on this week's episode of Special Sauce.  This is serious business, serious eaters. Listen up! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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