This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series will dive deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for.

Padma Lakshmi’s food memories are a kaleidoscope of colors, flavors, and textures. Throughout her travels for her decades-long television career—Top Chef, Taste the Nation, and her latest endeavor as both creator and host of America’s Culinary Cup—she has picked up techniques and ingredients to take back home. These culinary souvenirs include everything from a coconut sambal to the best way to use up leftover goat broth (answer: in a bowl of ramen). If something strikes Lakshmi’s fancy, there’s no gatekeeping. Whether it’s a dish that’s completely new to her or a recipe she grew up with, she’s eager to share it with the world. Her most recent cookbook, Padma’s All American, goes as deep on asun, a Nigerian delicacy that taught her how delicious and versatile goat can be; as it does on dosas, which were a staple of her childhood lunchbox.

In a Zoom interview last month, Lakshmi divulged her favorite accompaniments for the beloved South Indian flatbread: warm, untoasted sesame oil; gunpowder, a ground chile and lentil spice blend; and a Sri Lankan coconut sambal. The latter is inspired by Thiru Kumar, aka the Dosa Man in New York City’s Washington Square Park, which remains especially embedded in Lakshmi’s taste memory: “Even when I didn’t want to have dosa, I would be seduced by the smells coming off his grill,” she shared with a laugh. “And to have such good dosa spitting distance from your home is really a treat.”

Lakshmi’s edition of Amused Bouche should come with a warning: Grab a snack before you keep reading! The vivid descriptions of a Gorgonzola balloon, her mom’s spaghetti upma, and an apple pie-cake hybrid will make your mouth water.

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

Lentils and rice with a side of raita and ginger pickle. This is Indian comfort food. It’s a very simple meal, and I always have lentils and rice in the house—it’s sitting in my fridge now. So I feel like I eat it almost every day, even when I don’t have to.

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

French fries when I was eight. I wanted to show off to my cousins—who lived in India and I was coming from America—and they asked me about french fries. So we made them in the middle of the night in my grandma’s kitchen. My grandmother did not let children touch the stove, but we were adamant to get in there. I think my older cousin cut them into thin matchsticks, but we fried them together. I don’t think we got the oil hot enough because they were soggy and greasy, but that’s the first thing I remember cooking. We dipped them in Maggi Hot and Sweet Tomato Chili Sauce because that was the ketchup of our house.

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

Developing Padma’s All-American was an adventure because I was learning lots of different recipes from all over the world. The biggest thing was cooking goat. It’s not something I cooked prior to this Nigerian recipe for asun. But now I love it so much, I make it all the time. That was really a door opening—I didn’t realize how delicious goat meat is. And in that recipe, the sleeper hit is the broth that you get from boiling the goat with Scotch bonnets, onions, and garlic. There are three quarts of goat broth in my fridge right now that I use for ramen with roasted maitake mushrooms, roast chicken or leftover protein, and chopped spinach, Swiss chard, or bok choy. I throw the greens in at the end before I turn off the heat and finish with some chile vinegar. I make pickled peppers and then take the pickling juice and use it as a condiment.

What’s your treat-yourself splurge?

To me, a treat is something you don’t do very often. In my case—and this is gonna be really lowbrow—I love powdered doughnuts. I get them from The Donut Pub, and they deliver at all hours of the night, which is usually when that craving strikes. In a pinch, I will even get the Hostess mini doughnuts, but I only do it four or five times a year. 

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

There are a few. There’s the Talisman of Happiness; they just published the whole unabridged version in English, which I bought at Kitchen Arts & Letters on the Upper East Side. There’s a great book on Indian food published by Pushpesh Pant called India. It’s the cookbook I use to check my work—if I can’t get a hold of my mom, I’ll reference India. It’s like an encyclopedia, and it goes by region, which is nice. But the one that I probably crack open most is a very old book called Classic Home Desserts. There’s one recipe that I always make, especially from fall to winter and into the holidays. It’s an apple dessert that is half pie, half cake. It’s kind of like an upside-down apple cake, and it’s so simple and so wonderful.

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

Honestly, I don’t think so. But once, my roommate had hung this hideous rack of dusty old spices above the stove. I think I had gone to answer the door, and the whole thing caught on fire! Luckily I put the fire out, but I cannot remember what I was cooking. And all I could say was good riddance because I hated that spice rack. Until the landlord repainted, there was a black arrow of soot pointing upward from the stove where the fire went whoosh!

Which nostalgic foods from childhood bring you the most comfort?

When we first moved to this country and I wanted spaghetti, my mom would make it for me. But everything she cooked, no matter what it was, would still taste Indian because she couldn’t help but add some cumin seeds and a little bit of chile and ginger. So when we had spaghetti, she would call it spaghetti upma, inspired by the South Indian dish made with semolina. She would sauté bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, and cut green beans, then break up the spaghetti, put it into a wok, add water, and leave the pan uncovered. The spaghetti would cook as the water evaporated, and somehow she always got the timing perfect.

When you’re playing dinner party DJ, what’s spinning?

It depends on the mood. I think when you’re creating a playlist, it’s important to start slow and have music that is good for the background but still allows people to talk. But generally, I love D’Angelo, Angie Stone, Alice Coltrane, SZA, and Lauryn Hill. I sometimes put on one of their radio stations, but I don’t play around during the party—I just set the music and don’t pay much attention after.

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests?

I love Trudon candles. They’re the oldest candlemaker in France. In springtime, I like to get big branches and splurge on flowers. I have two or three dealers in the flower market who I tell exactly when the party is so that the flowers will be at peak bloom. I have also been collecting silver for a long time. Every year for my daughter’s birthday, I buy her a couple of serving spoons. One year, I found a pair of spoons from the 1800s that even had her initial monogrammed on them. We don’t use them for everyday meals, but for dinner parties, I tend to bust them out. 

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it.

I once did this food fantasy tour that included a stop at El Bulli. There was a balloon that was made of a really thin layer of Gorgonzola, and it was kind of spectacular because I don’t normally like blue cheese. That beguiled me, and I remember it well.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The post Padma Lakshmi Thinks You Should Eat More Goat appeared first on Saveur.

This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series dives deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for.

Eric Wareheim’s love language is food. Not just the idea of making a meal for someone you love, but going all in to make it an experience. “If you’re going to do something, why half-ass it?” asks the comedian, actor, and two-time cookbook author (Foodheim: A Culinary Adventure and the recently released Steak House: The People, The Places, The Recipes, one of SAVEUR’s picks for the best cookbooks of 2025).

That over-the-top love language applies to both friends and romantic partners, with the two heaviest hitters in his repertoire being beef bourguignon (“because it has to simmer all day”) and homemade pizza, which is “a couple-day process with a wow factor if you haven’t had it before” that has turned his friend group into budding pizzaiolos with their own pizza ovens so they can pay it forward. “I’m very intentional about who I am eating with, what they like, and what I want to show them. It’s really about going the extra mile.”

To bring his latest book to life, he created Eric Wareheim’s Steak House pop-up at three Thompson Hotels in Dallas, Denver, and Savannah, Georgia. He had the chef at each restaurant “pick their favorites from the book…some took the base recipes and made them their own with little tweaks.” By inviting the chefs to play around, Wareheim ensured each collaboration was singular, specific, and truly one-night only. “The whole point of a steakhouse is comfort. Dimly lit, leather booths, everyone is in tuxedos, and it’s comfortable, cool, classy, and celebratory,” he explains. “I wanted to bring that energy and vibe everywhere, along with really great food.”

When Wareheim and I chatted at his Savannah dinner, I asked him how he would transform a home kitchen into a steakhouse for a date night at home. “Everyone should know how to cook a piece of meat properly—that’s a very loving thing to give your date,” he says. “But time management is most important. Get all your prep done, even do your mise en place the day before. As I get older, I need all the energy I can get; I don’t need to be drinking Red Bull before dinner!”

Ultimately, the assembly and cooking part should be a piece of cake (specifically cheesecake, which Wareheim will buy from the store and zhuzh up with Kinder chocolates, fresh berries, or jarred sour cherries). “If you get a great piece of meat, you don’t have to do anything; just salt and pepper and cook it right,” he says. “A wedge salad is classic. Have one side dish like glazed carrots and a bottle of decanted wine that is special, and it will complement it all. And maybe a heart-shaped, hand-written menu and nice candles that won’t drip all over the place. I’m a romantic like that.” Read on for Wareheim’s answers to our Amused Bouche questionnaire.

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

Chicken schnitzel, big lemon wedge, new potatoes, and, for health reasons, broccolini. You know when your body is craving greens? I need something to cut through. My mom is German, and even though schnitzel is Austrian, it’s her schnitzel I’m thinking of. I put it in my first cookbook, Foodheim. Or fried chicken in general. My death meal is a piece of fried chicken from Babe’s Chicken Dinner House in Dallas and a piece of chutoro from Sawada in Tokyo.

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

My mom’s a really good cook, but she would try to be American, which is so funny. She created this taco salad when I went to college that was literally Doritos, French dressing, and olives. I couldn’t believe my mom put this together. It was so not her, but it was so yummy. And I was a vegetarian, so we used that faux crumbled meat. I would take it to college and eat it for days—even cold! I remember asking for the recipe and she was like, “Honey, there’s no recipe!” When you first start cooking, you say, “No, I need to know how many olives they put in here!” and then you realize you can just toss a bunch in and it’ll work out. My mom and I don’t bond on certain artistic things that I wish we could, but we really bond on good food.

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

Lately I’ve been loving Greek sour cherries and finding ways to use them more. Yogurt with sour cherries, a little flaky salt, and olive oil is my go-to.

What’s your treat-yourself splurge?

FatBoy ice cream sandwiches. FatBoys are like a regular ice cream sandwich but square. Then I found FatBoy Juniors. I was trying to be healthy by eating the smaller ones, but then I would end up eating two. When I’m really naughty, I go for the new FatBoy Junior cake pops. They are so silly, really dense, and just good.

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

The El Bulli cookbook I look to for visual inspiration as a plant artist. J. Kenji López-Alt’s The Food Lab is probably my most-used for techniques: I take the ends off garlic and smash to remove the skins; use the hard-boiled egg method for perfect 9-minute eggs; make the beef stew with anchovies, worcestershire, and tomato paste; and follow the technique for how to finish a pan sauce. It’s all these simple little tricks I implement in many different recipes now.

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

I was making tacos a lot and decided to try using a tortilla press for the first time when I had a bunch of friends coming over. I should have practiced! The masa was too wet. It was a whole thing. So after that, I was like, I’m just buying homemade. I live in L.A.,  so it’s easy to find great ones—but I won’t swear off it forever. You gotta have the confidence to just go for it and fail. A big part of cooking is like, “I’m just going to f***ing try it!” 

Which nostalgic foods from childhood bring you the most comfort?

My mom wouldn’t keep much processed food in the house, but she would allow Nutella, Triscuits, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch sometimes. I do the naughtiest thing when I’m grumpy in the morning and eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch with half-and-half like a dessert. And I’m like: “I deserve this!” I also would take shots of A1 as a kid. I just loved sauce. My mom would say, “What are you doing?” and I would be like, “I don’t know, it’s just a big explosion right now!”

When you’re playing dinner party DJ, what’s spinning?

I have so many playlists. Many for dinner parties, some for when people arrive, fun ones for pizza. When I’m cooking bolognese, I listen to Italian disco. When I’m cooking red sauce, like nonna sauce, it’s more Italian American, like The Sopranos soundtrack remixes and Frank Sinatra.

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests?

People will ask why I polish four kinds of glasses for parties, but I want the amaro to be served in a special glass from Modena, Italy, and to bring the bottle out on a cool vintage tray. It’s the little things and extra steps that make every element an experience. And I warm my bread up for a cheese platter—makes a huge difference!

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it.

Sawada in Tokyo. We literally had a group cry after the first time I ate there. It’s run by a husband-and-wife team, and they have embers slowly burning the entire time. And of course their ventilation is perfect, so you don’t even smell it. One of the last pieces is chutoro, and she comes over with this amazing old grate with coals and sears the fish in front of you. It’s not warm, but it has a little kiss of caramelization. It’s so f***ing nuts. It’s so cool! And after an incredible meal with only six people, they give you a hand-painted napkin to take home. We got on the street and everyone was tearing up. We couldn’t believe how special it was.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Recipe: Rib Eye With Roasted Garlic

Get the recipe >

The post Eric Wareheim’s Love Language Is Food, and He Speaks It Fluently appeared first on Saveur.

This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series dives deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for.

Jeff Hiller’s biggest celebrations have always revolved around food. The actor, comedian, and author of Actress of a Certain Age rings in every birthday by trying a new tasting menu with friends and indulging in big slices of pink-frosted, confetti-sprinkled yellow layer cake (made by his husband, Neil, using a recipe from The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread). When he won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Joel on the heartwarmingly hilarious HBO dramedy Somebody Somewhere in 2025, he upped the ante and even celebrated up in the air.

“The Emmys have to fly everyone first class because it’s a union thing, so my husband and I skipped breakfast at the hotel and went straight to the Delta One lounge at LAX. They gave us a little juice and hot towel when we arrived and then sent us to private security where I had to put the Emmy through the X-ray machine. You could see the perfect outline of it in the little frame,” Hiller recalls. “It was so luxurious with waiter service in the lounge, and we ate beautiful vegan sushi, pizza, and a bunch of sweets. We were sitting near Colman Domingo and Meghann Fahy, and it was exciting to chat with them; that’s the part I remember most. Then we got on the plane, and the ravioli they served was so good, and they had all this fancy wine so I was like, ‘I just won an Emmy, I’m going to have Champagne.’ And they had Taittinger Champagne! I never imagined that I would win a gold statue for anything, so I had to celebrate the classic way.”

From career milestones to little treats, Hiller’s genuine appreciation for both the big and small things in life couldn’t be clearer. Read on for his Amused Bouche questionnaire, complete with a cooking disaster story that will definitely stick with you.

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

I am vegetarian now, but a banh mi that has really good bread—crunchy-soft but not so crumbly that it gets everywhere—and a big schmear of pâté. My husband makes a banh mi with pea protein inspired by one at Zabar’s that’s really good, but this sandwich would be the real pork version. I love mush. I would also eat mashed potatoes every day for the rest of my life. I like a mono taste for my potatoes, so no gravy, just cream, butter, and salt. Pure!

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

My mom taught me how to make French toast when I was young. We always made a big stack with leftover bread that was going to go stale, with eggs, milk, a little cinnamon, and strawberries and blueberries or other fruit on top. Making French toast now makes me think of her since she passed away, and my husband really loves it, too. He always says, “A sandwich made by somebody else is so much better than a sandwich that you make yourself,” and that goes for my French toast and makes me feel proud.

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

As part of a silent auction for the Roundabout Theater Company in N.Y.C., the cast of Somebody Somewhere did a cooking class with chef Amanda Freitag. The winners, John and Colleen, were really sweet and they brought their kids and their kids’ friends to make ricotta gnocchi. I am so not a cook, but chef Amanda made it so easy and exciting. She showed us all how to roll and cut and then made a butter and sage sauce. I also spontaneously made a pecan pie a few days ago after my sister reorganized my kitchen cabinets, and I realized I had a full bottle of Karo corn syrup. It was very willy-nilly, but it turned out so good with the perfect jelly-like consistency.

What’s your treat-yourself splurge?

Two of my best friends, Liz and Jeff, and I all have birthdays in the same week of December, so we go to a really fancy place, often with a tasting menu. In New York we have done A Voce, Del Posto, Emporio, Blackbarn, Hearth, Babbo, Kings Co Imperial, and Superiority Burger over the years. Another great meal was at Don Angie in the West Village for their pinwheel lasagna. Funny story: Jesse Tyler Ferguson told me that trying to make that recipe nearly killed him. My friend Amy also made it but just did it as a classic lasagna instead of the complicated pinwheels, and it came out amazing. I wouldn’t ever make it—I always just want to go out to have a good time, enjoy the food, and not have to clean up afterward. And if I want to eat more tomorrow, I’ll take a few bites home to go.

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

My husband is the cookbook person in our household, and he has used the Moosewood Cookbook since college. I love this white bean bake he makes from it, the miso soup that he puts his own little twists on, and a French onion soup that is more hearty and almost like a stew. It’s all about the mush for me.

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

When my friend Liz and I hosted my 30th birthday party, we created a signature cocktail that had simple syrup in it. It was a house party with 100 people, and the simple syrup coated the kitchen floor. I mopped it every day for a month and it was always just a little sticky, and my hand would randomly stick to the counter. Until the day we moved out, we’d be like, “Whoops, there’s my shoe!” Never go to a house party with a simple syrup drink. 

A couple of times I have really biffed it with just burning things because I am easily distracted. There are times where the smoke alarm goes off when I have vegan sausages on the stove, and it’s so much smoke all of a sudden and I’m like, “AHHH!”

Which nostalgic foods from childhood bring you the most comfort?

My meemaw would make a sandwich with the dirtiest, whitest bread with mayonnaise and two slices of the most processed of processed cheeses. When you would squeeze the sandwich, the mayonnaise would kind of squirt out, and I loved it. If I had not had that as a child and encountered it now, it would be disgusting. But it holds a lot of sentimental value for me.

When you’re playing dinner party DJ, what’s spinning?

I’ll pick a song that I want the mood of and then choose that radio station. Usually something mellow like Joni Mitchell or Maggie Rogers that I like the vibe of but won’t be distracted by. My playlists are normally like [sings a song from the musical Carousel] “June is bustin’ out all over!” so I gotta keep it tame.

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests?

Just good conversation. I’m really good at putting the right people together and keeping the conversation flowing all night.

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it.

There was a seafood stew in Dublin that I didn’t even really know what it was, and then I ate it and I was like, “DAMMMMMN!”

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The post Comedian Jeff Hiller’s Favorite Category of Food Is “Mush” appeared first on Saveur.

This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series will dive deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for.

Pastry chef David Lebovitz says bakers only have one job: making people happy. And he has been doing that for decades, working in restaurants since he was 16 years old, spending 13 years at the legendary Chez Panisse, and writing nine cookbooks since 1999. His impressive career earned him SAVEUR’s first-ever Blog of the Decade award in 2019, and this year, he re-released his first cookbook, Ready for Dessert, as a fully revised compendium of his tried-and-true recipes—plus some new ones to add to the collection.

One of the most surprising sleeper hits in his expansive recipe vault is marjolaine, a layered and lightly sweet cake that he describes as “the first French cake I fell in love with.” His version swaps laborious buttercream for a simple crème fraîche-based icing that tempers the overall sweetness of the dessert. That icing (flavored with praline and vanilla) is layered with a nutty meringue, chocolate ganache, and more praline into a show-stopping centerpiece that’s perfect for the holidays—or any special occasion.

You’ll actually be baking alongside Lebovitz if you add marjolaine to your party menu. During our chat for this edition of Amused Bouche, he decided to make it for his Christmas celebration this year, which will be a feast of oysters and pasta with clams. “The best part about this cake is that it needs to be made ahead, so it’s one less thing to be panicking about during the holidays!” he says. 

Below, he shares an incredible meal that he flew to Jerusalem just to enjoy, a surprising after-dinner chartreuse and chocolate routine, a recipe he can’t seem to crack, and his chocolate soufflé origin story.

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

I love fried chicken a lot, in any form. The one I remember the most is Andy Ricker’s fish sauce wings at the now-closed Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon—I think his recipe has like two cups of fish sauce in it! It’s all about the crispy chicken skin, and the sauce makes it just so salty, spicy, and delicious. I miss his restaurant.

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

When my sister and I were old enough to be left alone, we would eat TV dinners most of the time, but one night when I was 15 or 16, I decided to make a chocolate soufflé from one of my mother’s cookbooks. It was called The Settlement Cookbook: The Way to a Man’s Heart—which I don’t think you could get away with saying now—and I can still remember the scent of the Baker’s chocolate, the very dark chocolate my mom bought that really didn’t taste or smell good.

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

I bought two shokupan pans when I was in Japan earlier this year, and I’ve been looking at milk bread recipes, and they’re all very involved. I might just buy it! I tried working at a bread bakery, and it was very hard work…so I never became a bread baker; I’m very admirative of bread bakers.

What’s your treat-yourself splurge?

The coffee merveilleux at Aux Merveilleux de Fred. It’s crisp meringues that are sandwiched with very stiffly whipped cream and then rolled in coffee crunchies made of crumbled meringues. I went in there to learn how to make them for my previous book, My Paris Kitchen, and they told me the cream needs to be whipped more than you think—basically a whipped butter that’s very rich; you should be able to taste the fat globules forming—and the meringue should be airy and crunchy. A lot of Americans come to Paris and think they don’t like meringue, but they’ll be watching as the pastry chefs make them in the window. I’ll stop them and say: “You need to go in and get one!” and they’re probably writing to their friends saying a crazy guy is harassing us about meringues on the street.

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

Chez Panisse Desserts. After working there for so many years, it really sums up the philosophy and the ethos of Alice Waters’ restaurant and pastry chef, Lindsey Shere, who laid the foundation for my life as a cook and a baker. Their philosophy was to find really good products—like the best oranges or chocolate—let them speak, and not mess them up. As far as favorites, there’s never been a better dessert than the Chez Panisse almond tart. Just thinking about it makes me smile. It’s so good!

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

My biggest kitchen disaster is granola bars. There are great recipes out there, and I’ve tried to come up with my own for years. Once, I made the most amazing granola bars using peanut butter frosting leftover from making cupcakes. I just added some oats and baked it, and it turned into the best granola bar I’d ever had. I tried to repeat it four times and I couldn’t, so I gave up.

Which nostalgic foods from childhood bring you the most comfort?

My mom wasn’t much of a baker, but she would make tapioca pudding for dessert sometimes. She would put it in this red Pyrex bowl, and I’d sit around waiting for it to be cool so I could eat it. And then I realized…oh, you can eat it warm! That changed everything, and it remains one of my favorite desserts. I love both the flavor and the texture.

When you’re playing dinner party DJ, what’s spinning?

My mix is a blend of disco, Tom Tom Club, Lionel Richie, David Guetta, TLC, George Michael, Donna Summer, Green Day, Mike Chenery, Milli Vanilli, Dua Lipa, and Fine Young Cannibals.

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests?

I like to bring out bottles of chartreuse after dinner and serve it with really good chocolate. There’s green chartreuse, which is very strong, and yellow chartreuse, which is lighter and a little sweeter. Both pair really well with chocolate and are best served freezer-cold or in chilled glasses. Yellow chartreuse and white chocolate are one of my favorite pairings.

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it.

My meal at chef Reem Kassis’ mother’s house is one of my favorite food experiences. Reem had written a great article about wanting people to know about Palestinian cooking and not just the conflicts. I loved it and reached out and said I’d love to meet her, and we became friends. She was visiting Jerusalem, where her family is from, and asked if I wanted to come visit because her mother wanted to make lunch for me. I couldn’t put the phone down fast enough to make plans to go. 

We had a beautiful day at Reem’s favorite market and bought bread where she used to get it as a kid and watched tahini milled in front of us. Then we had maqluba, an upside-down rice dish with lamb, and it was magical. When I asked for the recipe, Reem told me it’s her mother’s special spice blend, and something you could never, ever recreate. You don’t need the recipe—you just need to enjoy it. And that remains one of the greatest meals and food memories of my life.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Recipe: Marjolaine

Get the recipe >

The post David Lebovitz’s Party Tricks Include Chartreuse and Disco appeared first on Saveur.

This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series will dive deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for.

Fortune Feimster is “takin’ care of biscuits.” Not only is the phrase the title of the comedian, actress, and writer’s current stand-up tour, but it’s also the perfect way to describe her lifestyle as a Charlotte, North Carolina, native. Though Feimster admits she is not much of a baker herself, the association with the beloved buttery treats has clearly resonated with her audience.

“We named the tour at the last minute; ‘Takin’ Care of Biscuits’ just came to me as something that lets people know they’re in for a good, silly time,” Feimster shared with SAVEUR backstage before headlining a recent show at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles for Drop of Sunshine Wine’s Stand Up & Sunshine event. “Now all these cities that I go to, people are dropping biscuits off. And I am so grateful, but I’m like my god, I’m gonna have to name the next tour ‘Takin’ Care of Salads’ because it’s a lot of biscuits right now!”

One Instagram video showed her green room decked out with a food warmer full of Hardee’s biscuits, biscuit-shaped pillows, and custom merch, but Feimster—whom you’ve seen on shows such as Chelsea Lately and The Mindy Project, and her Netflix stand-up special Crushing It—explains that all of that was a surprise. “My rider is so boring. I literally asked for water. Ice and a cup. I used to have big extravagant green rooms, but then I was never hungry, and I felt like I was being super wasteful because normally I eat either before or after the show.”

However, if you are gonna take care of biscuits for her, two of her favorites are a “loaded, savory, yummy” biscuit with fried chicken, pimento cheese, and a little honey; “or the opposite with just a jelly biscuit. I’m trash, so I love grape jelly!”

In this edition of Amused Bouche, Feimster walks us through her culinary journey, from being schooled about the right way to make grilled cheese by a kid she was babysitting to trekking across Italy for a specific pear pasta.

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

Pad Thai. I went to Thailand and ate pad Thai for a week and a half straight and did not get tired of it. I love it so much that I think I could do it; I could just keep eating it forever. I usually get it with chicken, but if I was going to eat it every day I’d switch it up—try some shrimp or tofu and bounce back and forth.

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

Grilled cheese, but I learned by doing it wrong. I was babysitting, and the kid wanted grilled cheese. So I turned the oven on, and he was like, “Why are you turning the oven on?” I said, “I don’t know, baking it?” And he told me to just throw it in a pan or the toaster oven. It was too much for me. You don’t need to go through all that for a grilled cheese! But he was right. And I was pretty old to learn this…like 16.

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

Grilling is brand new for me. I never had a grill until I got this house, and it came with a grill and I was determined to learn how to use it. Getting beef to the right temperature is the trickiest part. You don’t want it to be too rare and red or too cooked and dry, so I’m learning the happy medium there. [Editor’s note: pun intended]

What’s your treat-yourself splurge?

I’m a dessert gal. I have such a sweet tooth. And if I am near a Cheesecake Factory, I will hit up that Adam’s Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple cheesecake. That’s a real treat. Last week I finished a long day of filming, and there was a Cheesecake Factory right next door. So I walked inside, went to the bar, and got myself a big slice of cheesecake to go. But they didn’t put a fork in there, and since I just moved, I didn’t have any silverware, so I had to eat it with my hands. You gotta do what you gotta do.

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

This isn’t a published cookbook, but my friend Brian gathered recipes from people we grew up with and made a cookbook for us. It’s so cool because it’s the dishes we grew up on and remember a specific person making, and there’s this familiar connection and nostalgia that’s so special. My grandma’s lemon tarts are in there, and I remember she used to have big books where she’d write her own recipes, just from her memory of “oh, this much and this much of that” and jot it down.

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

What happens to me is I’ll make a stir-fry with all this prep, cutting and cooking everything, and then I taste it, and it’s just…bland. I’ll do all this work, and it’s just not satisfying. I could have gone wherever and gotten a bowl or something! I need to figure out my seasoning and spices in everything I make. I haven’t delved into adding things to my cooking. I can do the basics, but I need those little upgrades to make a big difference. 

Which nostalgic foods from childhood bring you the most comfort?

My grandma’s chicken and dumplings. So comforting and classic. I remember all the parchment paper and flour and helping her roll them out. Everything was from scratch and fresh, and I would be her little helper. 

When you’re playing dinner party DJ, what’s spinning?

I’m always on the road, but a goal of mine is to be more social and invite people over for meals more. I want a fun group of friends, not too big, people who you know will get along and just have a good time! Instead of making a playlist, I like to pick an artist on Pandora and let it ride. It all depends on the mood. If I want folksy, it’s a Brandi Carlile situation and then it’s going into Tracy Chapman and Chris Stapleton. If I want upbeat, I pick Taylor Swift and it goes into Sabrina Carpenter and Post Malone. For a cooler vibe, Frank Ocean. 

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests?

I like some good scented candles. They’re inviting, warm, and then all you need is good food. I don’t have a signature scent yet, but I love holiday candles all the time. So when we’re getting closer to holidays, I’m pumped because I love the ones that smell like Christmas trees. 

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it.

Some of my best meals have been the ones I don’t remember anything about other than the food—just walking into a random restaurant and having the best pasta ever. In Italy, you can’t go wrong anywhere, even the hole-in-the-wall places, but one dish that stands out is a pear ravioli in Florence. It was one of the best pastas I’ve ever had in my life, with a creamy, cheesy filling and a butter sauce with puréed pear on top.

Last time I was there, I Googled forever trying to figure out the name of the restaurant and trekked across Florence to find it. When I got there, they were closed between lunch and dinner at the exact time I arrived. It wasn’t open the next day, and then I had to leave. I was so bummed, but I hope to eat it again someday.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The post Comedian Fortune Feimster’s Backstage Rider Will Surprise You appeared first on Saveur.

This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series will dive deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for. 

In comedian Atsuko Okatsuka’s latest stand-up special, Father (now streaming on Hulu), she shares her biggest food fantasy: “I just want to sit on the couch and eat chips, surrounded by ranch.” I immediately sat up, paused, and rewound that bit three times, trying to picture exactly what she meant. Floating in a pool full of ranch? A moat of ranch around her? Or a moving lazy river of ranch for ideal gravitational pull toward dipping? 

“I love that you dream bigger than me,” Okatsuka says with a laugh when I share these scenarios over Zoom. “I don’t dare to dream that big. I was thinking of the little side containers of ranch you get to-go at restaurants, surrounding me in a circle like candles. Not stacked up so they don’t fall and spill.” She likens her viral TikTok “Drop Challenge” to her love of ranch, a condiment that gives her the same feeling as dropping down low and slow to Beyoncé’s “All Night.” Her favorite sides of ranch are from the chains Habit Burger & Grill and Denny’s, the latter of which she had stocked in the fridge at the time of our interview, ready for future dip emergencies. 

Okatsuka is an adventurous eater but likes to keep a relatively simple cooking routine with her husband, Ryan (who directed Father), when they’re home in Los Angeles between tour dates around the world. That includes finding the best gluten-free pasta, making comforting Japanese curry that reminds Okatsuka of her father, and, shockingly…roasting a whole turkey. Not on Thanksgiving—just on a random Tuesday. “I love turkey, especially turkey legs, and I wish I could have them all year,” she explains. “It’s the most American thing I can do!” Read on for Okatsuka’s answers to our Amused Bouche questionnaire.

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

Gluten-free pasta with our version of “bolognese,” which is just browned ground meat and the 365 brand vodka sauce. After my husband got diagnosed with celiac, we realized the big thing taken away from us was pasta. So we tried a lot of different gluten-free pasta and found our favorite is Jovial, which is made of brown rice. It’s so wild that I know that. Never in my life would I have thought I would become such a gluten expert. I always prefer spaghetti as a shape, and I stab it and put it in my mouth and bite it off. I’m Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. I eat like Stitch. I would love to eat with Stitch—sauce everywhere, meatballs on our heads.

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

Mapo tofu. I was devastatingly too old, 26, when my grandma taught me. I needed to bring a dish for a potluck, and I was scared it was a weird thing to bring to a barbecue. And I didn’t bring rice. So I was like, “Here you go! No rice. Figure it out!” and I guilted people into eating it by saying it was my grandma’s recipe.

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

I recently cooked a whole turkey because I really love turkey, especially dark meat and turkey legs. I want to know why they don’t sell turkey all year! Turkey legs shouldn’t only be available at amusement parks. Uh, hello, are we not American? This is the most American thing we can do. There was a lot of fear doing it for the first time, but I was up for the challenge. I turned into a prairie wife, like, “Yes, this is how my ancestors on the Mayflower would have done it!” and I turned into someone else. The recipe was simple with just butter, onion, garlic, and thyme, and I found the rubbing with butter, the massaging, quite soothing and comforting. 

What’s your treat-yourself splurge?

I had a whole fried lobster with lots of garlic, jalapeños, and vegetables at a restaurant in Temple City, and it was so good but gone too fast. There’s barely any meat in a lobster, and it makes me sad because it’s like oh, it’s already gone, and it was $124. I eat everything. The claws are my favorite, but I eat the head, too.

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

Sam Low’s Modern Chinese, which he generously gifted us and cooked from for us at his home while I was on tour in Auckland. The feast included his version of tomato egg, steamed chicken with ginger relish, tuna and pomelo salad with herbs, pickled persimmon with Sichuan pepper, roast pork with crackling skin, bok choy in chicken and scallop broth, spicy tofu with shiitake and pickled mustard greens, and fruits with oolong jasmine jelly and shiso granita. I haven’t made anything from the cookbook yet, but it was one of the best meals of my life.

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

I don’t really cook enough to have too many disasters, but once I tried to cook milkfish, and I didn’t know how. So I undercooked it, it was very fishy-smelling, and we couldn’t eat it. The whole house smelled for a while, and it was hard to clean up.

Which nostalgic foods from childhood bring you the most comfort?

I always love Japanese curry. My dad would make the packaged curry with the big bricks and potatoes and carrots and stuff in it. He told me when I was a kid that it was so hot that I should stir it up to cool it off. I remember thinking that science was mind-blowing, and it also coated the rice with all the curry. It was a very bachelor mindset as a single father, but I thought he was a magician. At five or six, that was so impressive to me.

When you’re playing dinner party DJ, what’s spinning?

Music to dance to like Charli XCX, Lorde, Beyoncé, Orville Peck, Chappell Roan, Utada Hikaru, Ariana Grande, Popcaan, Lady Gaga, Shakira, and Doechii.

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests?

My personality! But also I’m really good at matching the energy of the guests. If they like to sing, we karaoke. If not, we chat. If I had it my way, I would make everyone watch me lip sync, dance, and perform. On Christmas, I actually make my mom and grandma watch me perform “Santa Baby” as a strip tease down to my underwear. Every year they act surprised when the clothes start coming off, and my grandma laughs but pretends she hates it. We’re a different kind of family. We’re not normal. “Broken but good,” to quote Stitch. 

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it.

We had a 10-course meal in Hakone, Japan, at a ryokan we stayed at. They made it all gluten-free, and it was such a fabulous experience—we even got to take a private onsen bath in our room after. We had chawanmushi, sashimi and nigiri, tiny little vegetables, and even roast beef. But the thing that got me was…it was so long. I was like, “Oh my god, it’s been three hours, we gotta get out of here! I need to check on my grandma! The sun is going down!” It was the length of Titanic, the movie, and it gave me anxiety but was also fun for the same reasons.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The post Atsuko Okatsuka Dreams of Being Surrounded by Chips and Ranch appeared first on Saveur.

This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series will dive deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for.

If I could choose a voice for my virtual assistant in the kitchen, it would be Phoebe Robinson. One, because her voice has already been surrounding so many of us for more than a decade through her podcasts “2 Dope Queens,” “Sooo Many White Guys,” and “Black Frasier.” But most importantly, because she doesn’t take cooking too seriously and enjoys the trial and error of it all. In a recent Zoom conversation, she described her cooking ethos as: “I never get too emotionally attached to a dish. So if there’s a cooking disaster, I just say, ‘Oh, well that sucks, but I’m still gonna eat it.’ And if I can’t eat it, I’ll order in. I am very adaptable.”

Robinson describes herself as an “occasional cook,” and has recently dabbled in culinary television as a contestant on “The Great American Baking Show: Celebrity Holiday” and as cohost of “Clash of the Cookbooks.” Her memories of meals, kitchens of all sizes, and adventures around the world are seen in glimpses throughout her trio of nonfiction books—You Can’t Touch My Hair; Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay; and Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes, which was published by her book imprint Tiny Reparations that turns five this year—and the TV adaptation “Everything’s Trash.” 

In recent years, Robinson also started marathon training—“I’m an unpaid athlete because I’m still doing the work,” she says—and it took time to develop a food routine that was easy to follow without being too boring. For long runs on Saturdays, she goes for salad and a big bowl of cacio e pepe the night before, and for pre-morning runs, she’ll prep overnight oats. “I don’t eat anything too heavy when I’m going to run because it’s going to suck to run and suck to live,” she explains. “You know, Gabby Thomas and I are very similar. Yeah—Olympian Gabby Thomas!”

Below, Robinson shares some of her hyperfixation foods, what it feels like to eat your favorite nostalgic snacks after the age of 40, and the surprising pasta shape she thinks is totally “forgotten.”

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

I am above all a carbs girl, so I could probably eat pasta every day. Sometimes I want a little bow tie if I’m feeling fancy, sometimes I want a little penne. I’ve leaned away from spaghetti because I’m like, “What am I, five?” I love bow ties because they’re fun and you don’t automatically think of them as a go-to pasta shape. They’re left out of the conversation a little bit. Me ordering it is saying, “I haven’t forgotten about you.”

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

It was me and my dad baking cookies. I was probably around five? I can see the picture in my head now—me standing with a fork making the marks in peanut butter cookies. I was wearing a cute dress, had little white barrettes at the ends of my little braids that my mom put in, and I was so excited!

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

I’m inconsistent with how often and what I cook. I tried being vegan, I tried being pescatarian. But the truth of the matter is that I really enjoy meat. I will not watch the documentaries that show how meat is procured and brought to us. I don’t need to know—I know it’s bad! I don’t need to look into it. When I eat meat, I want it to be filling, yummy, and simple, like this slow-cooked, keto, creamy Tuscan chicken thing I just made. I do enjoy cozy foods just because the world is hard. We’re working a lot. I’m marathon training. So my default is to eat or make foods that sort of feel like a big hug.

What’s your treat-yourself splurge?

Here’s the thing about getting older: As I’ve turned 40, there’s a clear difference in what I can eat and what I absolutely cannot. In my 20s when I was at the Pratt Institute, I would get a bag of Smartfood white cheddar popcorn, watch “Sex and the City,” and eat the entire party-size bag. I did that during COVID in my late 30s, and it betrayed me. I was up in the bathroom for a long time. I’m lactose intolerant but have always played fast and loose, and now I realize my treats have to be less dairy-based, which is kind of sad. But I found one that’s on my desk right now: Love Corn. It’s just little ultra-crispy kernels of corn dusted in sour cream and onion flavor. I eat them by the handful and like their sea salt, cheddar, and barbecue flavors, too.

If I’m going out, I love the Chinese chicken salad from Restoration Hardware Guesthouse in New York. It truly is to die for. I am the queen of saying I’m gonna minimize and not build it up, but I build that salad up because it is so good. That is my number one favorite salad in New York. It’s a $30 salad, so I won’t splurge on it five times a week, but it’s a sweet and healthy treat that is always well dressed. There’s nothing worse than a salad drowning in dressing.

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

I don’t have any cookbooks, but I do distinctly remember my dad having the giant Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook. And then he has his own little cookbook where he’s just constantly tinkering with his recipes, making notes, and updating it in Microsoft Word before reprinting it. It’s really cute. He made an absolutely fire pineapple upside-down cake when I was younger that I would always look forward to and ask for.

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

I got an Instant Pot during COVID, and I never used it, but my ex did. So when we broke up, I decided to go on Instagram Live and learn as I went with the Instant Pot…and everyone watching was nervous. They told me to step away from it! There was one time I had a can of tomatoes, but I didn’t have a can opener because I guess my ex took it? So I was stabbing a can with a knife and people were like, what is happening? I said that it’s chaos—I’m not Giada [De Laurentiis], honey. I’m so ignorant in the kitchen. So if I chop my thumb off, you guys will see it first.

Which nostalgic foods from childhood bring you the most comfort?

Starbursts! Listen, let me tell you, we used to barter and trade for the flavors, honey. It was pretty fun. If I had to rank my favorites, it’d be red in last place. Like, girl, I guess we’ll have you around. Number one is orange, then pink, yellow, red. 

When you’re playing dinner party DJ, what’s spinning?

I pride myself on my playlists. Sometimes I curate them, and other times Spotify knows what up. But usually I will curate a playlist, and I always get complimented on them. Maybe in another life I could have been a DJ. At a dinner party, I’m always going to put on Luther Vandross’ “Never Too Much.” That’s one of my mom’s favorite singers of all time. There’s never a moment you hear that song and you’re like, “SKIP!” A little Usher moment, a little Mariah Carey with all her iconic eras and styles, and Whitney Houston—classics. A lot of new mainstream stuff is turn-up music, which is fun in some situations, but not when I’m trying to have a conversation. I loved Willow’s last album and will put that on for some more fun.

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests?

I totally fell for an Instagram ad, and I fully, fully stand by it. No one is going to make me feel any kind of way about it. I got this hot chocolate maker that came with a four-pack of flavors: classic, milk chocolate, salted caramel, and mint chocolate. You just put the milk and powder in, press a button, and it whips and heats it up. It takes two minutes and then I pour the hot chocolate into cute little cups with marshmallows on top, and it’s such a fun, relaxing, and unexpected treat. You don’t think about hot chocolate often, but if someone offers it to you, you’re gonna be like, “HELL YEAH!” Then I send them off into the night.

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it.

The best tacos I’ve ever had in my life were at Hija de Sanchez in Copenhagen. I truly think about them several times a year. This was in 2018 when I went to see U2 for my birthday and we only had a few days. The location we went to was very unassuming, and we had incredible veggie and pork tacos in the most beautiful weather. I do absolutely want to go back to Copenhagen just for this taco, which sounds insane. I mean, I would obviously build a trip around it, but the main reason would be so I could go and eat those tacos again.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The post Phoebe Robinson Is Obsessed With Crunchy Snacks and ‘Chaos’ Cooking appeared first on Saveur.

This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series will dive deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for. 

When I asked Jenny Slate how she’d rank herself as a cook on a scale of 1 to 10, she had an immediate answer: 7½. That half is an important distinction for the booked and busy comedian, author, and actress (currently starring in FX’s Dying for Sex), whose latest book, Lifeform, has her ranking herself as a person, partner, and, eventually, a mom via a collection of uniquely hilarious and heartfelt essays.

“If I really pay attention and have the time, I’m a 7½. I can’t rush or choose too many things to do at once or I’m a 6, and I really don’t like that,” Slate explained over a Zoom interview from her home in Los Angeles. “If the recipe is simple, I’m an 8. But there are things that intimidate me. I’m working on my feelings about puff pastry. I made a very simple puff pastry with caramelized onions, Gorgonzola, and pears and was like, ‘I just need to deal with this! I’m so afraid of this!’ So I just try and sometimes fail. I love cooking!”

She tends to step out of her comfort zone when cooking for others, even experimenting with new recipes for the first time—like coq au vin—to thank friends. “In my adulthood and as a giver, I find food to be my love language—or one of them. It’s pretty hard for me to choose and pick one thing. I’ve always been more of a woven textile of favorites and moves and things that I do. But one of my favorite things for sure is cooking for people, bringing baked goods, and giving food as a thank you. It’s an ancient way of making an important offering.”

With Passover just around the corner, Slate is gearing up to make and eat a lot of her mom’s charoset, an apple and walnut condiment that was the first thing she ever learned to cook. Below, she shares the unique flavor combinations she piles atop matzo, her Nana Connie’s secret to a tiered whipped Jell-O mold, the “peppy jazz” she jams at dinner parties, and more.

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

I guess I’m gonna go with chicken congee right now, just because I really love it and it seems like it would be easy to only eat that? I started making congee when I had my daughter because I read about keeping yourself warm in your body during postpartum recovery. I love savory porridges, risottos, things like that. But what I really love about congee is that there are so many different ways to spice it up and add condiments to make it flavorful and rich. I like to top mine with these preserved bamboo shoots in chile oil that come in a jar, Sriracha, Bragg Liquid Aminos, scallions, and sesame seeds.

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

I think the first thing that I really learned how to “cook” was a can of Campbell’s Chicken NoodleO’s Soup! But the first real cooking I remember was making charoset for Passover with my mom. It’s pretty traditional with chopped apples and walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, and a splash of Manischewitz to give it a little edge. I’m pretty free with what I will put charoset on at Passover. I’ll put it on top of chopped liver on matzo or eat it with herring or gefilte fish. I like fruit and fish! I will put horseradish on a weird charoset chopped liver sandwich for a sweet, savory combination with some funk. I’m like Oscar the Grouch, making weird little recipes!

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

Coq au vin, baby! It was my first time making it. My best friend invited me and my daughter over for a movie night and sleepover, and to say thank you, I wanted to make something special. I like making fancy cozy foods that take a long time to show that I was really thinking of them. I like to send a message, and this one was: “I want to spend time making you something decadent. You are so deserving of a fine classic that feels fancy and rather adult. It’s a cozy, stew-y, wine-based, yummy chicken gravy thingy all for you.”

What’s your treat-yourself splurge?

A very, very, very, very spicy and onion-y nam khao tod, the crispy rice salad, from Night + Market Song in L.A. It’s always a special occasion when I eat it, but I’ll eat it any time. It’s a treat because it’s just a biiiit too oniony to have if I want to kiss my daughter or husband. We also love their khao soi!

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

Oh, man. It’s actually a cookbook my mom made for me and my sisters that has all of our family recipes. It’s a three-ring binder from the ’90s with those plastic sheets and many recipes printed out from the computer or that she typed up in a bunch of different fonts. The front of the binder has Xeroxed pictures of all of us, like us all having a milkshake in my grandmother’s bed.

The one I go back to the most is Great-Grandma Rae’s apple cake. I remember it as seeming really complicated and a big deal that it was being made, because it’s a Jewish New Year special that only came once a year. It requires a lot of folding of the batter, which intimidated me, and chopping the apples in a specific way. It was a big deal and couldn’t be messed up! Everyone in my family makes it differently now. I go the extra mile and make a pattern out of the apples on top, and I’ve experimented with sour cream, yogurt, and an extra egg yolk.

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

This is not about me being a bad cook, but more about me being an insane pothead in college. I once hard-boiled an egg for so long that it exploded all over the kitchen of our suite in the dorm. And it reeked. At the time, there was a spread from Playgirl called “The Men of Enron”—after the Enron scandal, which is really weird when I think about it now—and the nude men got splattered with exploded egg. It was a really intense visual, and it smelled so bad. Everyone was so bummed out at me, and it was dangerous, too! I think about it every now and then with great shame, but it’s also funny thinking about naked men covered in eggs.

And I’ll never cross anything off my list forever, but right now, I am somehow just terrible at making omelets? They always come out fat and eggy, and it’s making me feel really bummed out, so I’m taking a break.

Which nostalgic foods from childhood bring you the most comfort? Share a memory, whether it’s a lunch box snack, a family dinner favorite, or a little treat.

I absolutely love a tuna salad sandwich, lots of lemon and mayo in that tuna, on soft bread, with cucumbers. No crusts. This is what my Nana Rochelle would make for us. She used Wonder Bread, but I upgraded to a soft brioche. It warms and breaks my heart a bit.

When you’re playing dinner party DJ, what’s spinning?

I tend to love peppy little jazzy numbers for dinner parties. I really like Blossom Dearie for a dinner party. It’s always what I go to first. I love “If I Were a Bell” and “Moonlight Saving Time.” When I was growing up, we would have parties at our house, and my dad would always put on a jazz record and sit quietly by himself on the couch for a few minutes with a glass of sweet vermouth on the rocks and a lemon, enjoying the moments before the house got busy. I think there’s something in me that likes to continue that setup. It’s just such a good feeling!

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests?

I love making whipped Jell-O molds like my Nana Connie made. Everyone marvels at those! I use three different colors, like she did. She made hers in what we called a giant brandy snifter, which was as big as a punch bowl, but it curved up. She would put the Jell-O in the fridge just until it started to set, about an hour and a half, then whip it in her KitchenAid mixer until it was a solid foam, and pour it in the snifter at an angle so it would climb up the sides and make a shape almost like a tulip. Once that set, she’d make another layer. It took me about two days to make one! She always offered it as a condiment wherever applesauce would be served, like with latkes, and she’d also put half a packet of strawberry Jell-O in regular applesauce so it was always nice and rosy pink—even at Passover!

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it.

Yes, yes, yes! I would get on a plane right now to go back to Norway and eat the breakfast buffet at the little bed-and-breakfast at the Baroniet Rosendal. Yellow bread, sour cherry jam, pickled herring, cheeses, strong coffee. I think about it all the time. Every day. It was everything I had ever wanted. Nothing more, nothing less, and so very specific to what makes me happy. The colors and the salty little fish and the perfect cherries. One day I will go back with my daughter and make her a plate and eat beside her and my husband, and I will be so happy that the amount of that future happiness is already slowly reaching me here in the present.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The post Jenny Slate’s Ideal Dinner Party Includes Jazz and Whipped Jell-O Molds appeared first on Saveur.

This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series will dive deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for.

Christina Tosi doesn’t believe in rules—even when it comes to baking. Precision and measurements are important, but for Tosi, creativity and gusto are the most integral ingredients for baking up a storm. Over the past nearly 17 years since her company, Milk Bar, first opened its doors in New York City and introduced the world to cereal milk ice cream and naked cakes with funfetti “gravel,” she has expanded what dessert can be. But at its core, she has one mission: keep it simple and special.

Tosi’s latest cookbook (her eighth!), Bake Club: 101 Must-Have Moves for Your Kitchen, is all about finding your own groove in the kitchen. Tosi started Bake Club at home during the pandemic, live-streaming at 2 p.m. daily to share recipes from her childhood and wacky creations she came up with on the fly. Thousands of bakers tuned in and joined the club, and she hopes to expand not only the number of people in the group, but also the level of creativity it inspires in home bakers of all skill levels. “The cookbook is a bunch of killer recipes, but it’s also an open invitation to crack open your pantry and your imagination!” says Tosi. “You can and should mess around, tinker, and play in the kitchen.”

Tosi answered our culinary questionnaire, enlightening us about the way she truly likes to eat at home, either alone with a teacup of “dirty dessert” or crowd-sourcing a breakfast of “Will it waffle?” when she entertains. She also shared two recipes from Bake Club: Chewy Oat Bars, which inspired the crust of the iconic Milk Bar Pie, and an endlessly customizable Easy Chocolate Fudge. And a fun fact before you embark on the Amused Bouche journey? Tosi started her career as an intern at SAVEUR, and we’ll welcome her back anytime.

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

Fresh chocolate chip cookie dough. I like to put it in a teacup and microwave it for about 5 to 7 seconds. It’s not a cookie yet, but it’s warmer than a cold piece of dough, the chocolate chips are melted, and most importantly, the butter is a little gooey. I dream of it. I eat it on good days and bad days. If someone had it on a menu, I’d go to that restaurant every day, but for now, it’s my dirty dessert secret. My husband, Will, has only seen me eat it once or twice. It’s a singular, solitary moment for me—the rest of the world gets quiet, and it’s just me and my dirty dessert.

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

My grandma’s oatmeal cookies, which are super hearty, not crazy sweet, and have a good amount of salt. She would pull them out of the oven early so you get a fluffy texture with a fudgy little bullseye, then roll them in confectioners sugar so they’re like a crinkle cookie meets an oatmeal cookie. That recipe is how I first fell in love with dessert—and with eating cookie dough. My mom was a working mom when I was growing up, so I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with my grandma—we were always baking something! My coconut oatmeal cookies were inspired by her cookies, but I added a bit of shredded coconut because my cookies never taste exactly the same as hers. So instead of competing, I made something new, inspired by her.

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

My favorite thing to do at home is to pretend I’m a short order cook. I like to play this game with my family, and it’s probably terrible when raising children because they’ll ask, “Wait, I can just say anything and you’ll figure out how to make it?” And I’m like “…yes!” One night recently, Will suggested a lemony spaghetti with a chicken cutlet. So I made it, it was great, and those meals are the ones that become traditions. I’m not stressed out about getting dinner on the table; I’m just vibing and figuring it out. Like an impromptu craft session, but edible. 

What’s your treat-yourself splurge?

My most indulgent night is a night at home alone, not a multicourse Michelin-starred restaurant. If I’ve been around food all day but haven’t really stopped to eat a meal, I order a whole pizza for myself. I’m a big fan of Papa John’s thin crust with onions and mushrooms, which I dip in garlic butter and ranch dressing. It’s savory and satiating, but not super filling because it’s a thin, cracker-y crust. And I don’t stop there! Because I know it’s going to take some time to get the pizza, I hop on Instacart and order all the cool, new-to-market candies, cookies, and ice creams that I want to try from a shoppy-shop grocery store. I usually throw in some cookie dough for a dirty dessert, too. 

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

When I cook at home, I turn to recipe cards passed down through our families more than cookbooks. I love to make Will’s mom’s bolognese. She passed away when he was in college so I never met her, but her bolognese is legendary. She never wrote down the recipe, so after we got married, I did an interview tour of the matriarchs of his family to get all the details. It’s all about tinkering as you go, and I make giant batches of it to freeze like a real nonna. It’s perfect for a slow Sunday, especially when the smell of the sauce starts wafting through the house. 

As far as a real cookbook, The Joy of Cooking has always been it for me. It feels like a Rolodex of recipes all across America that are the history of why we eat and cook the way we do—and what’s been forgotten along the way. I have a really, really old one that I love to flip through and see what will spark my imagination. The inspiration for Milk Bar Pie came from chess pie, which was hyper-regional 20 years ago. I love recipes that catch in your memory and bring you joy. The roast chicken, the semi-homemade puffs with savory fillings and store-bought crescent dough, and the yeasty Parker House Rolls are some of my favorite forever recipes.

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

I once made a wedding cake at home for friends. I thought I could do it, but it’s not about the skills—it’s about the space, the timing, and the pressure around it being someone’s super-sacred special day. I only had one day off, so I decided to fly to Virginia and bake the chocolate cakes immediately, then make the cream cheese frosting and sugar some marigolds for decoration. I left to go pick the flowers and came back to a giant hole in one of the cakes—my poor stepdad thought it was a recipe test and ate a big chunk! I made another batch, but unfortunately a tiered cake is not meant to be baked the same day it’s constructed, especially not a wedding cake! It was like a leaning tower of cake; I tried to use the sugared marigolds to fill it in, but it was a massacre. It didn’t end up being the centerpiece I imagined, so instead of everyone getting out of their seats to look at the cake up close, it was more of a “stay in your seat, and we’ll bring you a bite” situation. It felt like the most terrible public shaming, but everyone said it was so good, and I love to learn from mistakes and failure.

Which nostalgic foods from childhood bring you the most comfort? Share a memory, whether it’s a lunch box snack, a family dinner favorite, or a little treat.

My mom’s weeknight (or as she would joke, “weak night”) tomato soup. It’s just a quick roux, a can of tomatoes, and a little milk, with buttered toast squares on the side for dipping. On another toast note, I always loved eating cinnamon toast after school and still do. Using a lot of salted butter is key—it’s the glue that keeps the cinnamon sugar on the bread. I let it all sit for five Mississippis, until the sugar starts to melt and the cinnamon gets hydrated and really dark, almost like a cinnamon goo.

When you’re playing dinner party DJ, what’s spinning?

When it’s just me and the fam, we almost always play The Lone Bellow. It’s light, dreamy music that speaks to your soul and has a feel-good beat—a cozy, chill weekday meal soundtrack. I made a playlist for every chapter of the book to match the way I feel when I’m baking: I wanted upbeat sounds that build for Daily Bread and something more anthem-like to pump you up for Tabletop Treats. The one for the Drop-Off-Able Desserts chapter could work for any party—it’s music for all ages and personalities, so everyone knows the words to at least one of the songs. It’s a positive energy but not an “in the club” vibe.

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests?

My preference is to have people come over and spend the night. Will and I like to craft a longer experience that gives people the opportunity to warm up and settle in. Dinner is always fun, but the really cool stuff happens at the breakfast table the next morning, when people are in their pajamas laughing about what happened last night and have their guards down. I love to pull out the waffle maker and play “Will it waffle?” with leftovers from the night before, turning pasta into a mac and cheese-like waffle, or just opening the fridge and letting everyone get creative. I also do a big batch of cinnamon buns while everyone else is having fun. I’m an introvert, and we have an open kitchen, so after dinner and cleanup, I’ll make and proof a batch of cinnamon rolls. There’s nothing more comforting and cozy than waking up to a warm cinnamon bun. It’s also an excellent party favor.

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it.

This is actually a two-part answer. First, my family flew to Seattle recently, and one of our friends picked us up with a cooler full of juice boxes, water, apples, and peanut butter sandwiches. After a six-hour flight, we were all feeling worn out and peckish, so it was the best welcome. Second, we went to Canlis, which is run by one of Will’s best friends, Brian Canlis. I’ve been there so many times, and it always feels like Cheers. Everyone knows your name or makes you feel that way because it’s a third-generation restaurant. We sat in a little hut overlooking a beautiful body of water with boats and a lit-up hilltop community, and it was so enchanting. The one dish I always order is the Canlis salad. It’s herby, bright, lemony, and a little cheesy; sometimes there’s shrimp. If I lived anywhere near there, I’d go every single night and eat a big salad in my pajamas. Makes me want to go back right now.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Recipes

Chewy Oat Bars

Get the recipe >

Easy Chocolate Fudge

Get the recipe >

The post Christina Tosi Isn’t Keeping Her ‘Dirty Dessert’ a Secret Anymore appeared first on Saveur.

This is Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s food questionnaire that explores the culinary curiosities of some of our favorite people. This interview series will dive deep into their food routines, including dinner party strategies, cherished cookbooks, and the memorable bites they’d hop on a flight for. 

Ilana Glazer will change the way you look at flourless chocolate cake forever. In the multi-hyphenate comedian’s new stand-up special Human Magic (streaming now on Hulu), she paints a picture of enjoying a spectacular multi-course meal that has been planned for months: “When the final course arrives, it’s what everyone’s been really waiting for—dessert. The server places a perfect slice of flourless chocolate cake in front of you while maintaining eye contact…then smacks it out of your hand!” she exclaims onstage in Toronto. The punchline is what Glazer tells SAVEUR is “the worst thing I could imagine asking someone else to do.” And in case you were wondering, the cake is just a metaphor. (Let’s just say it relates to anatomy in a way that is too NSFW to print here.) 

The Broad City creator and star appreciates the pleasure food brings and rotated through a few desserts before landing on this classic confection. “I was talking about a dank chocolate cake generally at first, but flourless chocolate cake…there’s something contained about. It’s a well-rounded dessert, not too much, and you really can’t overeat it. It’s tasty and so tasteful!” Ironically, dessert is not really her thing (“I’m much more of a savory person,” she explains); she’s more into sampling tinned fish and the alluring smell of frying latkes than sweets.

For the inaugural edition of Amused Bouche, SAVEUR’s new food questionnaire, I hopped on a Zoom with Glazer to get her culinary origin story. Although she admits she is not the cook in her household, her excitement about food—favorite flavors, preferred pairings, and embarrassing moments alike—was palpable. In fact, at least three minutes were spent debating the best way to sauce a rice bowl, and another few spent waxing poetic about the importance of texture. 

And although it won’t be a regular question in Amused Bouche, Glazer put a spin on her iconic viral Broad City quip, sharing which foods are “all fam.”

If you could only eat one thing 24/7/365, what would it be?

At this point, I would responsibly choose a rice bowl with roasted veggies, tinned fish, and a simple soy and rice vinegar sauce. Genuinely that is my new s*** right now where it feels like I’m caring for myself, and my husband and daughter love it, too. Veggies are usually roasted asparagus, carrots, and broccoli, and for fish, I love Fishwife and Tonnino. But I’m always trying something new, in olive oil and salted water—I stay varying my tinned fish choices! I’ve been getting into sardines these days for their ecological sustainability and high protein because I’m 37 and fresh in the second act. This is middle age for real! I’m happy and grateful to be here, but I need protein and veggies. I try to be a farmers market girlie whenever I can. I’m happiest among fresh produce. I feel more connected to my community and my humanity.

What’s the first thing you learned how to cook?

I matured very young and was available for work very young. So when I was 12—that was the earliest you could work on the books on Long Island—I worked at a restaurant, BLT: Breakfast Lunch, and Takeout Cafe, just outside the Long Island Railroad Station that ran through my backyard in St. James, New York. I worked there as a server all of high school, but in my mind, I was like, “I’m also a cook!” I got obsessed with making Steve, the co-owner and chef, chocolate chip pancakes and kielbasa. So after working a full day shift, I would leave work, walk to the butcher, get a giant kielbasa, and then make chocolate chip pancakes and sausage for us. And it was really good!

How about your latest kitchen adventure?

My husband, David, is a phenomenal cook—he’s got instincts, timing, delicious flavors, and elegant presentation. I’m not; I’m good at grocery shopping, food prep (with guidance), and cleaning, so we make a good team. I have a hard time receiving guidance and teachings, and that’s something I’m working on. Recently we got this beautiful dark, leafy green kale from the farmers market, and he guided me, but I did all the actual tactile cooking. We sautéed purple onions and the kale and it softened and became so gentle and tasty. It was a joy to eat.

What’s your treat-yourself splurge? 

I love red wine, and I love to drink it not just for the taste, but for the way it pairs with food and almost the texture it adds to a steak. Paul W. Downs, co-creator and star of Hacks, who also worked on Broad City, once gave me a shortcut to order Italian “B” wines: barolo, barbaresco, and barbera. In September, my team and I went to the Waverly Inn in New York City to celebrate the new special and I got filet mignon, my favorite steak, and a few glasses of nice, full-bodied barolo to balance it out. The steak was cooked medium with a good sear and almost a buttery burn, just how I like it. It was such a treat!

What’s your most cherished cookbook?

I have one of my mom’s cookbooks that she’s had since her 20s that is a tattered bunch of scraps of paper called The Melting Pot, and it is so special. My husband also loves Indian Cooking by Khalid Aziz.

Is there a cooking disaster that made you swear off a dish forever?

I was once grilling burgers for two of my best, oldest friends from Long Island. I was very excited. I was grilling the burgers, toasting the buns, and feeling good. Usually it’s dudes grilling, but I was doing it and I felt like a f***ing G! They were cooked well and everyone was enjoying them…but I left the paper on the patties. They’re pulling butcher paper out of their mouths. It was so embarrassing! I felt like I came to school with no pants on. I’m mortified to share this right now because cooking is caring, and I was recklessly not caring for these people. It was really bad!

Which nostalgic foods from childhood bring you the most comfort? Share a memory, whether it’s a lunch box snack, a family dinner favorite, or a little treat. 

The first food that comes to mind is my grandma Harriet’s latkes. The smell of them fills the house when they’re being fried! Those holidays at my grandma’s house feel so old compared to the way life feels these days, but to make latkes while everyone is hanging out and talking so they’re fresh for Hanukkah dinner is a tradition I hope to achieve…maybe this year! 

When you’re playing dinner party DJ, what’s spinning? 

I rely on my husband for that. He’s often setting the vibe with jazz that’s filling the space but not interrupting it. He’s been playing Ahmad Jamal, Wynton Kelly, and Oscar Peterson. We always play Miles & Coltrane, and during the holidays, I need to hear Vince Guaraldi. And my daughter loves Paul Simon.

What is your biggest entertaining flex to impress guests? 

Timing. I like to move on transitions right when I feel them and shift into the next vibe.

Tell me about a meal so good you would hop on a flight to relive it. 

David and I traveled to Marseille, and we clicked with this city right away. This was when we were first starting to travel as a couple, so we’d go all out on food and drink. Magically, we had ignorantly booked this trip on Bastille Day, July 14, and we were eating the Frenchiest fanciest foods—oysters and caviar and old-ass Champagne—in the bathtub, windows open to a balcony. We’re eating a cartoon king’s meal when, suddenly, fireworks go off over the harbor for their Independence Day. It was so extra and almost satirical but genuinely spectacular. We were in awe but also straight cracking up. I’ll never forget it!

Bonus question: In the clerb, which foods are all fam? 

Pizza and a side salad!

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The post The Bathtub Meal That Comedian Ilana Glazer Will Never Forget appeared first on Saveur.