Podcast

Good Food

From KCRW Arts, Food, Society & Culture

Evan Kleiman is your guide to the best cooking and eating

Episodes
105
Releases
Twice a week
Typical length
28 min
On air since
2025
Latest episode
1 day ago

Episodes

105 episodes, newest first

  1. Bonus Episode: Eggs (Stories In-Store reading series)

    Show notes

    KCRW’s Good Food partnered with Grocery Goblin for the Stories In-Store reading series. The second event in the series centered around the theme of eggs and was held at Fresco Community Market in Highland Park.

    Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Bill Addison and food writer Khushbu Shah share their thoughts on eggs.

    The next reading will happen on Sunday, November 15, 2026 at Golden Poppy Market in Cypress Park. Tickets will be available starting November 6.

    16 min
  2. Eric Schlosser on the Mystery Meat Slipping Into Our Food Chain

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Eric Schlosser talks about the "mystery meat" coming into the US and sounds the alarm on our food safety system.
    • Professor Peter Byck, who made the documentary Carbon Cowboys, checks in to see whether AMP grazing is helping struggling farmers and ranchers.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    29 min
  3. The Pickles That Power Ukrainian Food

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Anna Voloshyna heads to the mountains, the steppes, the Black Sea, and the capital, Kyiv, to explore Ukraine's regional recipes.
    • On "In the Weeds," we highlight The Arepa Stand where siblings Mercedes Rojas and Zeus Ferrini specialize in Venezuela's favorite dish.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    27 min
  4. Nik Sharma Wonders Why Flavor is So Important to Humans

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Molecular biologist Nik Sharma uses science-forward thinking to deepen flavor and better understand cause and effect in the kitchen.
    • Jamie Feldmar reports on the AI-powered robots built to kill fish via the Japanese process of ikejime.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    25 min
  5. David Lebovitz and His Wonderful World of Chocolate

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Chocolate devotee David Lebovitz credits the ingredient with sweetening his ex-pat life in Paris.
    • Robert Simonson enters the spirit world of bourbon and rye cocktails.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    36 min
  6. Pasta Grannies Eat a Little Bit of Everything

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Vicky Bennison, the founder of Pasta Grannies, shares and documents nonna-approved regional recipes.
    • On the Market Report, farmer Alex Frecker talks Honeynut, Delicata and Kabocha squash while chef Marco Gagliardi plans a squash, chickpea, and kale soup that riffs on two classic cuisines.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    21 min
  7. Chinese Restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley after Jonathan Gold

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Frank Shyong reminisces about the San Gabriel Valley's Jonathan Gold era and we check in with David Chan, the LA attorney who has eaten at 6,000 Chinese restaurants and aims to visit every one in Los Angeles.
    • When Joyce Tang took up baking after quitting her job at Facebook, she dreamed of making pastries that mimicked the flavors she came to love as an American-born Chinese kid.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    36 min
  8. Inside The NY Times' 50 Best Restaurants List, From the Critic Who Helped Build It

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Six of America's 50 best restaurants are in California. Restaurant critic Tejal Rao reveals why Jacaranda, Comal, and Yeratmas Bakery & Deli made the cut.
    • Perilla's Jihee Kim makes a corn salad with yuzu and doenjang while Apricot Lane Farms' Nathan McCallie is losing avocados and picking lettuce early.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    23 min
  9. Black Forager Sees a Meal Where You See Weeds

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • In Happy Snacking, Don't Die, Alexis Nikole Nelson, AKA Black Forager, turns overlooked plants into cordials, cookies, and lox.
    • Farmer Megan Strom and chef Juan González talk about turning Mesa Agrícola, their farm-to-taco project, into one of America's best restaurants.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    31 min
  10. Bonus Episode: Vanessa Anderson aka Grocery Goblin brings storytelling to the aisles

    Show notes

    KCRW’s Good Food partnered with Grocery Goblin for “In-Store Stories,” a series of readings this fall. The first in the series centered around the theme of lunchtime, where listeners filled the aisles at Sabzee Market in Encino. Vanessa Anderson shares why she chose the themes for her five storytellers. Chef Angel Dimayuga reveals their father’s uncredited idea for the McDonald’s Extra Value Meal and journalist Lauren Bethke eats nachos with a dominatrix and her gimp at an LA diner.

    Egg is the theme for our next In-Store Stories event at Fresco Community Market on Sunday, October 18. Purchase tickets here.

    31 min
  11. Hummus Is Just the Front Door

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Growing up in wartime Beirut, Jad Youssef's family table was a refuge. In Lebnani, the chef shares the dishes that got his family through.
    • Date farmer Alvaro Bautista explains which of his seven varieties are "juicy juicies" while pastry chef Steph Chen of Sugarbear Bakes adds Medjools to a carrot cake.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    25 min
  12. The Indian Food America Was Missing

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Chef Meherwan Irani sold cars and imported jewelry before finding his true calling — bringing India's street food to the masses.
    • Khushbu Shah surveys LA's vanishing Indian lunch buffets for her new series, Value Meal.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    36 min
  13. The Hunger We've Learned to Live With

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • After decades of covering famine abroad, journalist Roger Thurow asks why we allow hunger to persist in the world's wealthiest nation.
    • Chez Mar chef Wesley Barden poaches Asian pears for a French salad while farmer Phil Rhodes explains why this year's harvest is so small.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    26 min
  14. Around the World in 140 Ferments

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food: Move over, kombucha.

    • Ken Albala travels the world to explore how fermentation transforms cuisines.
    • Paul van RavesteinandMonique Mulder look at the history of New York City through its pickle vendors.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    33 min
  15. Carla Lalli Says Food Is A Feeling, from Expense Account

    Show notes

    Sharing an episode of the new podcast Expense Account. We all know eating out in New York has become an extreme sport. If you treat dining out like a full-time obsession—and care about the scene just as much as what’s on the menu—you need to listen to Expense Account.

    Expense Account uses food as an entry point into bigger conversations about restaurants, culture, taste and how it all relates to life and the world at large.

    Hosted by J Lee, food critic at Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me media empire, J has one million opinions about food.

    But since he wants to hear everyone else’s take, J will talk to chefs, writers, musicians, actors and more. Like writer Molly Baz, chef Carla Lalli, and PBS host Pati Jinich. You’ll hear about their best meals and worst meals. Favorite spots around the world. And you might even get a peek inside their fridges to find out how they’re really eating. The conversations will start with food, but will always wind up somewhere else, because food is culture, and everybody eats.

    I’m going to play the first episode for you now. In it, J Lee talks with chef and author Carla Lalli about her journey from Shake Shack to Bon Appetit, her new cookbook, and why we should eat our feelings.

    Listen to more episodes of Expense Account at https://lnk.to/expenseaccountTR

    54 min
  16. Mother Nature Is the Last Great Luxury House

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Tucked away in the hills above Los Angeles, Richard Christiansen creates an almanac for gardening, cooking, and home projects at Flamingo Estate.
    • Chef Joshua Whigham of Casa Leo visits the farmers market where Christine Brown of Rincon Tropics sells passion fruit from her coastal farm.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    22 min
  17. One Beef Plant, A Century of Immigrant Labor

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Tchelly Moise helped lead the first American slaughterhouse strike in nearly 40 years. He and journalist Ted Genoways explain how JBS, the world's largest meat producer, relies on vulnerable immigrant labor, and what's happened since the US government terminated Temporary Protected Status for many of the workers who keep the plant running.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    33 min
  18. Eating the Entire Vegetable

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Pierce Abernathy makes vegetables the heroes of the plate.
    • Matt Biancaniello turns the farmers market into a cocktail menu while Cirone Farms sees its earliest apple harvest ever.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    22 min
  19. The 'Sugar Coated' Politics of Breakfast Cereal

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • Marion Nestle and Lisa Sutherland argue that if you want to understand the American food industry, start in the cereal aisle.
    • In preparation for the High Holidays, Leah Koenig explores 2,000 years of Jewish baking.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    36 min
  20. Grill, Baby, Grill

    Show notes

    This week on Good Food:

    • From bossam and brats to carne asada and miso black cod, Noah Galuten commands the grill.
    • TikTok darling Claire Dinhut has a thing for condiments and finds creative ways to use them.

    Connect with Good Food host Evan Kleiman on Substack.

    28 min