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Tinfoil Swans

Tinfoil Swans

Food & Wine 95 Episodes Aug 25, 2026

Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting conversations with the biggest names in the culinary industry and beyond, sharing never-before-heard stories about the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made them who they are today. You'll hear from icons and innovators like Daniel Boulud, Padma Lakshmi, Tristen Epps, and Maneet Chauhan, going deep on their formative experiences, the dishes and meals that made them, their joys, doubts and dreams, and what's still on the menu ahead. New episodes every Tuesday.

Episodes

Alex Stupak and the David Lynch Cheeseburger
Alex Stupak and the David Lynch Cheeseburger Aug 25, 2026 3870 Alex Stupak has built a career by questioning what food can and should be. The Empellón chef and restaurateur and 2013 Food & Wine Best New Chef talks about rebellion as a creative force, what pastry taught him about transformation, and why he thinks we all want the cheeseburger right now. He also digs into David Lynch, punk rock, the lessons of a restaurant that broke his heart, the tension betwe
Tiffanie Barriere and the Extra-Fancy Kool-Aid
Tiffanie Barriere and the Extra-Fancy Kool-Aid Aug 18, 2026 3287 Whether she was mixing extra-fancy Kool-Aid as a kid, shaking cocktails at Applebee's, helping people forget their airport anxiety, or teaching a cocktail class, Tiffanie Barriere has always known how to make a drink feel special. The 2024 Food & Wine Drinks Visionary talks about finding her voice as a Black woman behind the bar, the radical hospitality of One Flew South, telling the overlooked st
Eli Sussman and the Most Miserable Dining Experience Anyone Could Have
Eli Sussman and the Most Miserable Dining Experience Anyone Could Have Aug 11, 2026 4002 Chef, restaurateur, author, and satirist Eli Sussman talks about growing up in a food-loving family outside Detroit, the painful mistake of giving away his treasured cookbooks, leaving a comfortable career in advertising to start over as a line cook, and the hard-earned lessons of opening his own restaurants, and why he had to change his shirt three times when New York Times critic Pete Wells came
Encore: Vikas Khanna and the Beautiful Lie That Saved His Childhood
Encore: Vikas Khanna and the Beautiful Lie That Saved His Childhood Aug 4, 2026 2909 When Vikas Khanna was growing up in a small town in India, he was bullied by the other children for wearing braces on his legs and not being able to play like them. But his grandmother and sister saw him for who he truly was: a lion. They brought him into the kitchen, and he roared to life. An extraordinary life at that, where he makes movies, writes books, feeds millions of hungry people, and run
Patrick O'Connell and the Paul Newman Diversion
Patrick O'Connell and the Paul Newman Diversion Jul 28, 2026 3932 Patrick O'Connell has spent nearly five decades building The Inn at Little Washington into one of America's most celebrated restaurants. At the age of 80, he is finally sharing his story in the memoir, Main, Middle & Gay. In this conversation, he shares the childhood experiences that shaped his lifelong pursuit of beauty, opening a restaurant as half of a gay couple in rural Virginia, finding his
Ayesha Nurdjaja and the Beefsteak Charlie's Buffet
Ayesha Nurdjaja and the Beefsteak Charlie's Buffet Jul 21, 2026 3346 Chef and Food Network star Ayesha Nurdjaja shares how one Lidia Bastianich recipe steered her away from law school to the kitchens of Felidia, A Voce, Artisanal, and then her own restaurants Shuka, and Shukette. She opens up about defying her family's expectations, breaking the cycle of toxic kitchen culture, the realities of running restaurants, her new cookbook Mediterranean All the Way, and why
Daniel Patterson, Sarah Lewitinn, and the Killing Moon
Daniel Patterson, Sarah Lewitinn, and the Killing Moon Jul 14, 2026 3758 When Daniel Patterson and Sarah Lewitinn (a.k.a. Ultragrrrl) went on their first Hinge date, neither of them was in a great place. No one was, really, because it was in January of 2021. Daniel is an acclaimed chef who'd just been through a divorce and couldn't be in his natural habitat of restaurants. Sarah had spent her whole life in the music industry and found herself burned out — not even able
Aaron Franklin and the Cranky Pitmaster Pivot
Aaron Franklin and the Cranky Pitmaster Pivot Jul 7, 2026 3223 Aaron Franklin, the Hot Luck Festival founder and James Beard Award-winning pitmaster behind Franklin Barbecue, talks about the long road from tinkering with guitars at his grandparents' music shop and playing punk shows to teaching himself brisket on a $99 backyard smoker. He shares stories of the warmth and support of Austin community that helped turn backyard barbecues into a national pilgrimag
Encore: Pati Jinich and the Bedtime Cookbooks
Encore: Pati Jinich and the Bedtime Cookbooks Jun 30, 2026 3613 With her shows Pati's Mexican Table and La Frontera and cookbooks Treasures of the Mexican Table and Mexican Today, Pati Jinich uses her exceptional empathy, political science background, and fearless curiosity to share the stories of the people living, creating, and cooking all around Mexico, and celebrate our shared humanity. For the Season 2 finale, Jinich joined Tinfoil Swans to talk about lea
Arjav Ezekiel and the Color of Hospitality
Arjav Ezekiel and the Color of Hospitality Jun 23, 2026 3126 When Arjav Ezekiel arrived in America at age 12, the first person he met was Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Years later, after navigating life as an undocumented immigrant, he would help build Birdie's in Austin, Texas, into one of the country's most celebrated restaurants. He reflects on the burden of keeping secrets, the people he calls his "guardian angels," why making people feel seen has bec
Omar Tate, Cybille St. Aude-Tate and the Mix CDs
Omar Tate, Cybille St. Aude-Tate and the Mix CDs Jun 16, 2026 3820 Over the course of three months, Cybille St. Aude-Tate and Omar Tate met, got married, and started the project of Honeysuckle. It's one of the most ambitious and personal restaurant projects in America right now, with a mission of preserving Black history, honoring Haitian and African American foodways, and creating a welcoming to all space where guests can encounter stories, traditions, and peopl
Scott Conant and the Power of the Necklace
Scott Conant and the Power of the Necklace Jun 9, 2026 3132 Scott Conant wanted to be a plumber, but getting shut out of a vocational school class set him down a different path. The 2004 Food & Wine Best New Chef and Food Network star reveals the exact dish that convinced him to devote himself to Italian cooking, the emotional fan encounters — from a grieving mother to a man struggling to stay alive — that reshaped how he thinks about television fame, how

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