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Dan goes inside Consumer Reports, the independent nonprofit that tests and rates everything from toaster ovens to frozen pizzas to luxury cars. CR takes testing very seriously, and Dan gets to see their process in action. It all starts with an undercover shopper who goes by the pseudonym Jim. Then Dan visits the labs at HQ, where he sees how a gas range is poked, prodded, and brought to its limits. This includes testing the oven’s self-cleaning feature against a mixture so foul, it’s legendary. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell, with editing help this week from Devon DiComo. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Author and podcast host Malcolm Gladwell immigrated to Canada when he was young, the child of an English father and Jamaican mother. He’s always felt like an outsider. He hated maple syrup, in a town that hosts the largest one-day maple syrup festival in the world. That outsider’s perspective served him well as he became a cultural observer, and over the years, Malcolm’s trained his critical eye on food. He calls flavored seltzer “an abomination” and Earl Grey tea “a bridge too far.” He also talks with Dan about his food-related work, from what chunky tomato sauce says about our food preferences, to the supposed merits of appropriating food, and he explains why he only drinks five liquids. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

By day, Scott Wiener leads pizza tours around New York City. By night, he shares his Brooklyn apartment with his world record-holding pizza box collection. Since going all in on pizza, he’s visited tomato farms in California and buffalo farms in Italy, and even planned entire vacations around visits to pizza box factories. This week, Scott schools us on the history of pizza — from its humble invention to its unlikely rise to culinary fame and fortune. Plus, he takes Dan out for a slice (or three), and they discover the one thing about pizza that divides them. Visit the Scott's Pizza Tours website for more info about tours and online classes. You can also donate to Scott's nonprofit, Slice Out Hunger. This episode originally aired on Jun 18, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini and Aviva DeKornfeld, and edited by Peter Clowney. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

In France, you either leave your desk during lunch, or you’re breaking the law. Which makes Kaitlin Plachy, an American expat in Strasbourg who secretly eats at her desk most days, an outlaw. So why do the French have this law? Our friends at the podcast Rough Translation found that one popular theory — that the law is meant to preserve French culture — is not as correct as many people believe. So what is the explanation? And can Rough Translation convince Kaitlin to take a break? Rough Translation is a podcast that tells stories from far off places that hit close to home, and you can find all their episodes here.  Rough Translation is hosted by Gregory Warner. The team includes Adelina Lancianese, Pablo Arguelles, Katz Laszlo, Luis Trelles, Justine Yan, Tessa Paoli, Emily Bogle, Liana Simstrom, Bruce Auster, Josh Newell, Greta Pittenger, and Anya Grundmann, with help from Eleanor Beardsley, Robert Krulwich, and Sana Krasikov. The French news tape in the episode is from Radio France and Radio Monte Carlo. Music by John Ellis and FirstCom Music and Audio Network.  The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Chefs and YouTube stars Sohla and Ham El-Waylly first met in culinary school, where they geeked out over hydrocolloids and molecular gastronomy. Since then they’ve gotten married, opened (and closed) a restaurant together, and spent countless hours collaborating in the kitchen, on screen and off. Dan talks with Sohla and Ham about their latest cookie obsessions and dream restaurant desserts. Then, they all try to solve a food dispute between listeners about ideal pancake size. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell, with editing help this week from Tanaka Muvavarirwa. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

After 15 years as an opera singer and winning a Grammy and a Tony, Alexander Smalls got turned down for a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera. He’d hit the same glass ceiling that held back many Black opera singers before him. He went home, drank a bottle of wine, and came to a realization: "I couldn't own an opera house, but I could own a restaurant." In the decades since, Alexander has served upscale Southern food in New York, researched the food of the African diaspora in the Americas, Asia, and beyond, and fused cuisines in award-winning cookbooks. His biggest project to date is an African food hall in Dubai, and he plans to open similar food halls around the world. Alexander shares his story with Dan, and also his food, when he cooks up his own spin on shrimp and grits.  The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell, with editing help this week from Tanaka Muvavarirwa. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

What has to happen for Vietnamese lemongrass barbecue sauce to take up as much space as Texas barbecue sauce on an American grocery store shelf? There’s a whole generation of young entrepreneurs — many of them women of color — making packaged foods that are expanding the palate of American shoppers. This week, live on stage in Brooklyn, Dan is talking with two of these businesspeople: Chitra Agrawal, founder of Brooklyn Delhi, and Vanessa Pham, the CEO of Omsom. Chitra and Vanessa have taken different approaches to their businesses, but they’ve faced similar challenges — trying to figure out how to grow while staying true to themselves. One of the struggles they share: The debate over whether to place their items in the “ethnic” or “international” aisle of the grocery store.   The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Dan goes on an adventure around Los Angeles, starting at the airport. Where is he going? He doesn't know. He doesn't have a plan. The one thing he does know is that he's going to attempt to travel through time to eat a piece of coconut cake from Patys Restaurant, which he should have eaten three years ago. With an Atlas Obscura article as his guide, what could go wrong? This episode originally aired on July 16, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Aviva DeKornfeld, with editing help from Rob McGinley Myers and mixing by the Reverend John DeLore. The Sporkful production team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Wherever Phil Rosenthal goes, he wants to eat — which explains the name of his Netflix show, Somebody Feed Phil. He travels the world with wide eyes, an empty stomach, and a bottomless supply of delight at the people and food he encounters. And before Somebody Feed Phil and his new podcast Naked Lunch, Phil created the hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which used food as a key source of tension between the characters. Over lunch at Frenchette, Dan and Phil swap menu strategies, dissect the role of food in a classic Raymond episode, and get into Phil’s relationship with his parents, who were Holocaust survivors who didn’t understand his passion for fine dining.  The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell, with editing help this week from Tanaka Muvavarirwa. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Dan gives up the hosting chair and becomes a contestant in our most popular (and only) Sporkful game show, 2 Chefs And A Lie! The game is simple. Dan talks with three “chefs.” Two are real, and one is a faker with a made-up resume. Dan gets five questions per chef to determine who’s legit, and who doesn’t know their bass from their elbow. The best part: You can play along! Can you spot the fake chef? The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Barbecue is America’s culinary national pastime. Dozens of  books have been written about it, food writers criss-cross the country looking for the best places, and people wait hours to eat at the most famous spots. In his book The Cooking Gene, culinary historian Michael Twitty traces the path that barbecue traveled from West Africa to the American South — and how enslaved cooks in plantation kitchens created Southern cuisine. But the barbecue journey doesn’t stop there. During the Great Migration, Black Americans brought the foods they created in the South with them to places like Chicago. Dan visits Uncle John’s BBQ, just south of Chicago, to learn about — and eat — a type of barbecue that only exists there. Check out Kevin Pang’s article about Chicago’s “barbecue divide” in Saveur. This episode originally aired on December 10, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Aviva DeKornfeld. It was edited by Gianna Palmer and Kristin Torres, and mixed by Casey Holford. The Sporkful production team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O’Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O’Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Fernando Frías was a successful cafe and restaurant owner in Havana, but when Fidel Castro came to power, the government nationalized Fernando’s businesses and imprisoned him when he tried to leave the country. Eventually he got out, settling near Miami like so many other Cuban expats. Even though Fernando never went back to Cuba, he was always searching for pieces of his homeland in the Cuban-American community in Miami. This week Dan talks with Fernando’s son, Carlos Frías, who’s now the food editor at The Miami Herald. Carlos was close with his father until he was tragically murdered two years ago. In his grief, Carlos sought a new connection with his father by writing about Miami’s first ventanita.  The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell, with editing help this week from Kimmie Gregory. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

You might know Stephen Satterfield as the host of Netflix’s High on the Hog, but he’s also one of the only Black food magazine publishers in the country. Inspired by his work as a sommelier and in the South African wine industry, Stephen launched Whetstone Media to tell stories about how food and people are connected to the land they came from. But even as Whetstone grew and became profitable, none of the hundreds of investors he met with would write him a check. Then, this past year, that all changed. Now Stephen has to face a new challenge: learning to lead from a place of success. This is the third and final episode of our series "By Us For Everyone." The first two episodes, “The Table Freda Built” and “Nicole Taylor Busted Through The Door Of Food Media,” are available wherever you get podcasts. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell, with editing help this week from Hali Bey Ramdene and Alexis Williams. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

When Nicole Taylor was writing her first cookbook, publishers were expecting her to focus on soul food — because she’s Black. Like Freda DeKnight, the Ebony food editor we heard about last week, Nicole knew that Black American food was much more than that. Now, several years later, Nicole has released Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations. “Black Americans need this Juneteenth cookbook because we need a slice of joy,” says Nicole. She talks with Dan about her journey from her first book to now, why she wanted to reclaim watermelon from racist tropes, and the importance of writing about celebration in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. This is part two of our series “By Us For Everyone,” a look at how Black American food is represented in media, past and present, and how those portrayals change when Black people are in charge of them.  Listen to part one of “By Us For Everyone” in your podcast feed. It’s called “The Table Freda Built.” The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell, with editing help this week from Oluwakemi Aladesuyi, Hali Bey Ramdene, and Alexis Williams. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Today ahead of Juneteenth we’re launching “By Us For Everyone,” a three-part series about how Black American food is represented in media, and how those portrayals change when Black people are in charge of them. In the 1940s and ‘50s, Ebony was one of the only magazines created by Black people that spoke directly to Black people. It showed Black Americans falling in love, playing sports, dressing in style, gathering together – and eating. Freda DeKnight was the magazine’s first food editor, publishing recipes that were international and sophisticated, challenging the stereotype that Black American food was limited to soul food. Dan speaks with historian Donna Battle Pierce about Freda’s legacy, then meets Charla Draper, another Ebony food editor, at the Ebony test kitchen. After sitting unused for more than a decade, the kitchen and its original 1970s appliances have been restored and transported to New York for a new exhibit by the Museum of Food and Drink. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell, with editing help this week from Oluwakemi Aladesuyi, Hali Bey Ramdene, and Alexis Williams. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Dan’s dreams come true when he visits The Simpsons writers’ room to talk about the role food plays on the show and behind the scenes. Turns out the writers are just as obsessed with food as all of the show’s food jokes suggest. Plus, Simpsons creator Matt Groening explains how new technologies have changed the show’s food jokes over time. This episode originally aired on August 13, 2018, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Aviva DeKornfeld, and was mixed by Dan Dzula. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

When you’re served a plate with a variety of foods on it, should you put a bit of each on the fork to create one multi-faceted bite? Or alternate between foods? A married couple comes to us for mediation in this dispute. Plus, is it okay to eat eggs that were hard boiled for Easter decorations after they’ve sat in a basket for a month? Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings, hosts of the podcast For Colored Nerds and real-life best friends, join Dan to take your calls and resolve your food disputes! They also discuss their own food quirks and quarrels, including how to satisfy a craving for a fake TV cake from 30 years ago, trying Cheez-Its for the first time as an adult, and wedding food anxiety. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

The London restaurant Darjeeling Express is the place to go for an outstanding mutton kebab, and for celebrity sightings. But the chef behind this hotspot has no formal culinary training. Asma Khan started her cooking career hosting secret supper clubs in her apartment, when her husband was traveling for work. Now she's staffed her restaurant entirely with women, all of whom learned to cook as housewives and nannies. As she tells Dan, her advocacy is driven by the pain she faced as the second daughter in her family, in a society that prized boys over girls. We also hear the unlikely story of how her restaurant was funded, why she will absolutely never put papadams in a tuna sandwich, and her new cookbook, Ammu. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. This episode was mixed by Marcus Hahm. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

It’s Elkhart, Indiana, 2001. Two inches of Heather Coleman's turkey club disappear from her office fridge. The thief is nowhere to be found. And Heather’s life will never be the same. In this tribute to the hit podcast Serial, we investigate the shocking true story of an office fridge food theft. This episode originally aired on March 12, 2015, and was produced by Dan Pashman and Anne Saini, with editorial help by Chris Bannon and Leital Molad. The Serial theme song was composed by Nick Thorburn. The Sporkful production team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O’Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O’Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Over the past year, Houston has taken in more Afghan refugees than any other American city. When they arrive, Omer Yousafzai is there to welcome them. He owns The Afghan Village restaurant, which has become a community hub and gathering place for Afghans and non-Afghans alike. Dan heads to Houston to share a meal with Omer at The Afghan Village. Over palau and kabobs — cooked with the help of Omer’s nine-year-old son — they talk about how Omer’s time as a defense contractor in the war in Afghanistan inspired him to open the restaurant, the place’s rocky first days, and why some people eat there for free. If you are looking for organizations helping to resettle Afghans and Ukrainians displaced by war, you can check out The Alliance in Houston, and the International Rescue Committee. The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell. Transcript available at www.sporkful.com