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Food with Mark Bittman
#1-bestselling food writer Mark Bittman explores all aspects of what we put in our mouths - from cooking tips and recipes to food policy and interviews.
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224. Kevin Boehm on Living in his Car to Running 35 Restaurants
36:15||Season 3, Ep. 224Kevin Boehm co-founded the Boka Restaurant Group nearly 25 years ago and now runs 35 restaurants across Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. He and his partner Rob Katz won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur in America. He also lived in his car, wrote a fake resume to get his first restaurant job, and spent two decades drinking heavily to manage bipolar disorder before getting sober. His memoir, The Bottomless Cup, covers all of it. Mark and Kate talk with Kevin about what hospitality actually means, how trauma shapes restaurant people, and the note slipped into his menu that changed the way he thought about his career.Here's what was mentioned in today's podcast:The Bottomless Cup: A Memoir of Secrets, Restaurants, and Forgiveness, by Kevin Boehm: https://bookshop.org/a/18956/9781419775246Pizza Spinello, Wellfleet, MA: https://www.pizzaspinello.com/Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill: https://www.castlehill.org/Salty Market, Truro, MA: https://thesaltymarket.com/Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.
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223. Dan Jacobs: Almost Winning Top Chef — and Why Milwaukee Is America’s Best Kept Secret
35:47||Season 3, Ep. 223Dan Jacobs is the chef and co-owner of DanDan and EsterEv in Milwaukee, a runner-up on Season 21 of Top Chef, and one of the most quietly remarkable people to come on this show. In 2016, four months before opening his first restaurant, he was diagnosed with Kennedy's Disease, a rare neuromuscular condition often mistaken for ALS. He went on to compete on Top Chef eight years later anyway. Mark and Kate talk with Dan about navigating a progressive illness in a physical profession, why Milwaukee's restaurant scene might be the best kept secret in American food, the advocacy work that came out of the pandemic, and what it means to build a team that actually takes care of each other. Also: sourdough pizza, cranberry bogs, and a brother who should never work a host stand.Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.222. Shirley Chung: What Tongue Cancer Taught a Chef About Taste
01:06:24||Season 3, Ep. 222Shirley Chung is a Top Chef finalist, French Laundry veteran and José Andrés darling. In 2024, she was diagnosed with stage four tongue cancer, and it changed her life. Shirley talks about the diagnosis she almost missed, the treatment that saved her tongue, and what it felt like to slowly, painstakingly relearn how to taste. Along the way: an unlikely connection with Grant Achatz, who went through the same thing 19 years earlier and became her north star through the worst of it. She would go on to helm Night Rooster, her modern Chinese restaurant in Dallas, which she opened during recovery. Join Shirley and Kate for this incredibly inspiring story.Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.221. Toya Boudy Starts from Scratch
38:29||Season 3, Ep. 221Toya Boudy is back. Since her debut cookbook came out in 2023, life has thrown a lot at her: divorce, her mother's health struggles, sobriety, and raising three kids. Her new book, Cooking from Scratch, is the result of all of it. Kate and Toya talk about rebuilding after everything falls apart, and about Malinda Russell, a free woman of color who published a cookbook in 1866 and packed it with everything her community might need to survive. Toya believes Russell came to her for a reason. Check out all these incredible recipes from Toya's new book, Cooking from Scratch:Crispy Potato Salad: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/crispy-potato-salad/African Spinach Stew: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/african-spinach-stew/Plain Cake: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/plain-cake/Homestyle White Beans: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/homestyle-white-beans/Oyster Dip: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/oyster-dip/Mini Crawfish Pies: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/mini-crawfish-pies/220. Father-Daughter Time with Al Roker and Courtney Roker Laga
35:45||Season 3, Ep. 220The father-daughter duo talks to our father-daughter duo about their new cookbook and why it's special – and what it was like working on it together. Plus, Courtney's "recipe detective" journey and Al's take on The Morning Show – and Mark's on The Bear. Get the recipe for Everything-Bagel and Lox Strata on The Bittman Project: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/everything-bagel-and-lox-strata/Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.219. Laurie Woolever: Care and Feeding — and Everything in Between
29:57||Season 3, Ep. 219We revisit Kate's conversation with the writer (and ex-Mario Batali employee and former assistant to Anthony Bourdain) Laurie Woolever, who talks about how (and if) kitchen culture has changed since the early-aughts heydey; why she never felt like a victim; her memoir, Care and Feeding; and how Anthony Bourdain put people at ease—and why people loved him so much.Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.218. Hannah Goldfield: Drinking, Not Drinking, and the In Between
24:47||Season 3, Ep. 218New Yorker writer Hannah Goldfield talks to Kate and Mark about "intentional drinking"; how, right now, it feels like everyone is taking a stance on where we land on the drinking spectrum; how bars and restaurants are making drinking (and not drinking) easier to navigate; and mini cocktails. Read Hannah's recent piece, "The Age of 'Intentional' Drinking": https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/05/25/the-age-of-intentional-drinkingSubscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.