What if we told you these two words: Vegan butchers. You might be thinking, "HOW?!" Well, Brendan decided to investigate and talk to Aubry and Kale Walch, who founded The Herbivorous Butcher in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Listen as our intrepid host visits Aubry and kale to learn the innovative ways their shop is challenging its soy-based competitors.
Prime rib, that staple cut of beef favored by many a mid-century restaurant, is enjoying a comeback. It's been showing up on menus in trendy eateries in New York City and elsewhere. So, to learn about prime rib, Rico went to Lawry's The Prime Rib to learn all about the classic dish from executive Chef and fourth-generation employee Ryan Wilson.
In the past decade or so chefs have become celebrities. So, it's kind of remarkable that pioneering chef Jeremiah Tower isn't better known. However, a new documentary from filmmaker Lydia Tenaglia sets out to change that with "The Last Magnificent." It profiles Tower's role in changing what and how Americans eat and why his personal flaws might've contributed to his obscurity.
We were talking about this around the office, and realized we didn't know much about how salt does what it does. To fix all that, Rico sat down with Eric Schulze, a science writer and Senior Scientist at Memphis Meats in the Bay Area. During our chat, Eric taught us everything from salt basics to the science of "dry brining" your next steak.
The New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov recently wrote about a Manhattan restaurant called Italienne that serves wine in a totally different way. Brendan wanted to learn more about how the ritual started and its intended purpose. So, he lured Eric to the DPD New York studio by promising they could drink Beaujolais while they talked about this.
This week we launch an occasional Main Course series we're calling "Menu Mysteries." In which we check out a restaurant's menu and have the chef decode some of the lesser known ingredients on it. Listen as Rico raids the pantry of L.A.'s Wolfdown, and learns that skordalia is not a flower.
We've talked before about the rebirth of Scandinavian cuisine, but we've never heard about a common Danish breakfast food that Brendan has been calling "beer porridge." It's is a dish Claus Meyer -- one of the best restaurateurs in Denmark -- has been selling since he moved to New York. Hear Brendan get a lesson on the classical Danish breakfast food and the importance of rye in Scandinavian cuisine from Claus himself.
This weekend's Super Bowl showdown is between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. And since we featured a cocktail made for us at a Boston bar earlier in the show, Rico figured it'd only be fair to represent Atlanta on this episode as well, in form of pimento cheese. Listen our host get schooled on a little history of the cheese, then bite into a tasty twist on the cheesy treat.
This week, the Michael Keaton flick "The Founder" hits theaters. It's about Ray Kroc, the man who turned hamburger joint begun by the McDonald brothers into an empire. Author Lisa Napoli explores that story and more in her new book "Ray and Joan." She shares some golden arches history from the quest for the perfect fry to the disastrous Hula Burger.
We've covered tons of hybrid foods over the years: from sushirritos, to cronuts, to Donnolis, and more. After a while, we kind of agreed that we wouldn't heed their siren calls anymore... until we heard a new shop had opened up in Manhattan that was getting a reputation for their scallion pancake cheesesteaks. So, how does the hybrid dish stack up against true cheesesteaks? Our Philly-raised host visited the Lower East Side eatery serving them up to try it out himself.