Special Sauce with Ed Levine

This week on Special Sauce , reporter Heather Haddon and columnist Adam Chandler of The Wall Street Journal give us the lowdown on why securing a restaurant reservation is damn near impossible these days. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

There are quite a few beautiful Dolly Parton remembrances that have been published since her death, but only one that talked about Dolly's love of food and the many contributions Parton made to the food culture. Today's guest on Special Sauce , Amy McCarthy , former Eater writer and editor and one of Ravenous' employee owners, wrote that smart and thoughtful piece about Dolly, so smart and thoughtful I thought she could come on the show and talk about it. Amy turned out to be the perfect Special Sauce guest. Long Live Dolly Parton. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week the terrific writer and podcaster Tommy Tomlinson gives us a poignant and hopeful update on his lifelong battle with his weight. Thanks to GLP-1 drugs he has lost more than 130 pounds in the last 2 years. Tommy and I share our GLP-1 drug experiences. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week on Special Sauce we talk to Goldbud Farm 's Chuck Mansfield, who happens to grow the best peaches in the world. He'll even tell serious eaters how he does it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week on Special Sauce we take a deep dive into the world of cheesemongering with two of the stars of the documentary 'The Big Cheese' , Adam Jay Moskowitz and Courtney Johnson . Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this reheated episode of Special Sauce, former Serious Eats editor and writer Sho Spaeth talks to us about his book, Homemade Ramen , a 2026 James Beard Foundation Book Award nominee. Sho is the Lead Editor and Writer at ChefSteps , and the most passionate and knowledgeable ramen geek I know. He truly believes in the power of ramen! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Are Yemeni coffee shops the next big thing? On this reheated episode from 2025 serious eaters will meet Mokhtar Alkhanshali who has braved gunfire and jail and AK-47s as he tries to bring single origin Port of Mokha Yemeni coffee to the world. His story is the stuff of movies! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week on Special Sauce Dr. Dana Small , a professor at McGill University and one of the leading experts on the neuroscience of food decisions, and longtime friend of the podcast Pete Wells of The New York Times join us to explain how the pleasure and enjoyment of food can be the most important element in helping us stick to a healthier diet. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

How does a family business survive more than a century of selling smoked fish, bagels, and candy? Russ and Daughters ' Niki Russ Federman explains all. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

If there is a smarter or better TV critic than T he New York Times 's James Poniewozik I have yet to come across him or her. So when I was dying to talk to someone about The Bear 's moving final season I rang up James and he graciously agreed to come on Special Sauce to talk about it. We had a blast talking about Carmy and Sydney and all the other finely etched characters on the show. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Here at Special Sauce we love pie in all its forms: we love shepherd's pie, apple pie, key lime pie, lemon meringue pie, and our absolute favorite, peach pie. And given that we're coming up on America's 250th birthday and Americans love pie we thought we'd reheat one of our favorite pie episodes to get in the spirit of things. Stacey Mei Yan Fong catalogued her love of pie when she published 50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant's Love Letter . Even if you don't love pie her story is well worth listening to. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week on Special Sauce serious eaters get to eavesdrop on part 2 of my hilarious and informative conversation with burger mavens Kenji and Hamburger America 's George Motz . Nobody knows more about cooking and eating burgers than these two burger mavens. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As one of the millions of long-suffering Knicks fans I am still basking in the afterglow of the team's historical and magical run. I decided I had to devote another episode of Special Sauce to the team's amazing playoff run to the NBA championship. And who better to join me on mic than the The New York Times' terrific writer Matt Flegenheimer , who to my way of thinking has become the poet laureate of Knicks fandom. He explains that he too can't believe what we have all just witnessed. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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

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 now one of the founding editors of the new food newsletter Caper . Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 been in precipitous decline. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 way. We talked about hot dog styles both ubiquitous and obscure, from the famous Chicago hot dogs with french fries on top at Gene and Jude 's near O'Hare Airport to the deep-fried hot dogs poetically known as rippers at Rutt's Hut in Clifton, N.J. So to honor this most humble of foods from around the country and the world as we head into Memorial Day weekend we decided to reheat one of J.J.'s terrifically entertaining and informative episodes about our mutual love of hot dogs. And just for the record I still have two Gray's Papaya hot dogs for lunch a couple of times a week. Please don't tell my cardiologist...or my wife. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 Off Madison to talk and taste bagels. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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 a couple of years ago to talk about his company Chosen Family , whenever the playoffs shift into high gear I think back to the entertaining, surprisingly revealing, but mostly just plain fun time we had with him on Special Sauce. So without further adieu here's multitalented Channing Frye talking basketball and wine, LeBron James, and Josh Hart. Speaking of which, go Knicks! On to the Finals! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices