Restaurant Reservation Insanity

With the holidays coming up we figured it was the perfect time to reheat the pie and cookie wisdom dispensed by the baking wizard, Erin McDowell. Erin's new book is called 'Bake Anything: Essential Recipes and Techniques to Build On for Endless Possibilities'.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

I have always known my friend, Top Chef's Gail Simmons, to be extraordinarily gracious, no matter the circumstances. So when I read that Gail had written a book on "guesting" I knew I had to have her back on Special Sauce.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In this episode of Special Sauce we explore the vital roles immigrants play in restaurant kitchens all over America with chef and restaurateur Marc Meyer, the editor of the important book "Voices from the Kitchen: Personal Narratives from New York's Immigrant Restaurant Workers", and restaurant manager and Irish immigrant Anna Marie McCullagh. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to the fine documentarian Betsy West and chef Michael Lomonaco about West's superb new film "Top of the World". The film tells the heartbreaking story of Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 106th and 107th floor of the World Trade Center that was destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For Jacques Pépin, cooking has always been about bringing people together and sharing the basic skills to make something delicious. This week we return to my conversation with the legendary chef which we recorded at Jacques' home in Connecticut. We were joined by his daughter Claudine and his son-in-law Roland "Rollie" Wesen. We talked about Jacques' journey from France to America, the essential role of immigrants in American food culture, and the family's foundation which helps people build new lives through cooking.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

What a treat it was to go up to Jacques Pépin's home in Connecticut and interview Jacques, his daughter Claudine Pépin, and her husband Rollie Wesen on the occasion of the publication of the 50th Anniversary  edition of Pépin's seminal work La Technique. Pépin was even more charming in person. Thank you, Jacques, for taking the time to talk.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week on Special Sauce we go way back into the Internet time machine (2015!) with the brilliant Susie Essman regaling us with hilarious stories about her years of dues paying in comedy clubs, renouncing vegetarianism when the smell of bacon just became too much for her; and coming up with comedy legends Larry David, Jon Stewart and Chris Rock. It's one of my favorite Special Sauce interviews ever!  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

James Beard Award-Winning chef and restaurateur Meherwan Irani has written 'Number 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World', a book that celebrates the Indian street food he serves at his restaurants Chai Pani and Botiwalla. On Special Sauce Irani insisted that Indian street food is the best street food in the world. Bold claim!  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

After reading about ICE's ongoing appalling treatment of an Argentine-born Chicago chef Carlos Cantatore  in the new online food publication Ravenous, I invited Ravenous' Ashok Selvam and Marcos Carbajal, Chicago-born restaurateur-chef and owner of the esteemed Carnitas Uruapan, on Special Sauce to bring us up to date.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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