MUNCHIES: The Podcast

The conclusion of our two-part special with the legend himself, Jacques Pépin. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jacques Pépin is France's greatest gift to the United States. As we celebrate 50 episodes of the podcast, the culinary legend joins us to reflect on his incredible 70-year career in food. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The MUNCHIES cookbook is finally out and we're back in Los Angeles on a book tour. We've said it before: LA has evolved into one of the greatest food destinations anywhere. And to celebrate that, we're meeting up with two native Angelenos who love this city more than anyone: Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno of Best Coast. Also returning is a very special surprise guest, Lili Hayes. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Black Lips live shows are the stuff of legend and their music is one of Atlanta's greatest exports. They also know their food. We're talking Southern cuisine, the secrets of eating well on the road, and how to cure your worst hangover before performing on stage. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We sit down with Chris Grosso, executive producer of MUNCHIES and VICELAND, for a behind-the-scenes look at our hit program Chef's Night Out and how it inspired the new cookbook of the same name. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Action Bronson takes questions from listeners and provides the answers you didn't know you needed. Tune in while Mr. Wonderful waxes poetic on natural wine, bathroom reading, and his personal spirit animal, the zodiac bear. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this very special episode, Mr. Wonderful himself joins us in the VICE studios to celebrate the release of his magnum opus, Fuck, That's Delicious. We talk truffles, super smellers, and how he's living his best life possible. And be sure to check back in two weeks, when we'll return with Action to answer all the listener questions you've been waiting for. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lili Hayes is the world's #1 ice cream enthusiast and our best internet friend. You probably know her from Instagram: @Lili_Hayes. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ina's most despised food? Why she learned to fly an airplane? How to become an awesomely famous television chef and live happily ever after? We find out in part two. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

No summer is complete without a road trip to a beautiful beach town. So we asked ourselves what our dream destination would be. The answer? Ina Garten's house. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean Evans is host of the hit YouTube show Hot Ones where he interviews celebs while torturing them with hot sauce. Today, we're flipping the script and serving him some fire straight from our forthcoming MUNCHIES cookbook. We'll talk chili addiction, the cult of spice, and weigh our own tolerance against the Scoville scale. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Find out exactly what you should be eating and drinking this summer. Munchies Editor-in-chief Helen Hollyman sits down with Broadly astrologer Annabel Gat to get the scoop on your food future. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s summer, which means it’s time for day drinking, sunburns, and epic grilling parties. To kick things off, we're digging into one of the season's essentials: the hamburger. And to do that, we're heading to one of the world’s most traveled burger destinations: Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. Joining us is Mark Rosati, Shake Shack culinary director and genius behind the menu. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When in serious trouble, most people would call a lawyer. But when restaurant people are in over their heads, they call John Bil.  And for today’s episode, we did exactly that. John is the owner of a fish counter and restaurant called Honest Weight. He’s a champion oyster shucker and the most legendary fishmonger in Canada. And when you need him, he'll be there. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We've left NYC and just touched down in Canada. Today, in our first of two episodes from Toronto, we're meeting Nick Chen-Yin, chef and owner of Smoke Signals.  Nick's parents are ethnic Chinese, known as Hakka, who came to Toronto via Jamaica. He's combining his unique outlook with the best of the American South to create a distinctly Canadian style of BBQ. Tune in as we explore Toronto's incredible cultural diversity and learn some secrets from the pitmaster of the Great White North. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our dear friend Matty Matheson is here at VICE Headquarters and hungry for a heart-to-heart convo.  We learn about the fast life before fame, how to win at Instagram, and why he doesn't care if no one ever calls him chef again.  Tune in as we hand him the mic for the longest, and most intimate, MUNCHIES episode ever. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Karaoke is your friend. Today, we're taking you to Manhattan's Chinatown and meeting up with the incredible Gerardo Gonzalez, chef and owner of Lalito. He's going to help us celebrate the legend of Winnie's, the greatest karaoke dive bar that ever was. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today, we're meeting the chef who brought craft beer to the White House. Sam Kass served essential roles in the Obama Administration, from Assistant White House Chef, to Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition, to Executive Director of First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" campaign. We're catching up with Sam at Other Half Brewing Company in Brooklyn – it's the perfect place to grab a drink and try to extract some state secrets. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Before she was editor-in-chief of MUNCHIES, Helen Hollyman paid the bills by selling truffles. Today, we're meeting up with her old boss, Ian Purkayastha, one of NYC's most renown truffle dealers. Ian built his reputation on quality products, but he's famous among chefs for another reason. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Anthony Bourdain takes time out of his insane travel schedule to meet us in New York's legendary Bemelmans Bar for a piano-side holiday chat.  We down enough gin to get heart-to-heart and talk about everything that matters in 2016 and beyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Anh Lê came to Denmark as a child refugee following the Vietnam War. A remarkable cultural exchange ensued. She introduced authentic Vietnamese cuisine to Scandinavia and remains on a mission to spread the wonder of fish sauce within her adopted homeland and beyond. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mikkel Borg Bjergsø is the man behind cult brewery Mikkeller. On this third installment from our Copenhagen series, we catch up with Mikkel for a few pints and learn about his start as a brewer, his love-hate relationship with beer nerds, and the plans he's hatched to infiltrate North Korea. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this second episode from our Copenhagen series, we're heading to the Danish countryside with the inimitable chef Christian Puglisi to scope out his Farm of Ideas, milk some cows, and learn about the school for gastronomy and sustainable agriculture he has in the works. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin Spoelman is master distiller at Kings County Distillery and an expert on the history of spirits - liquid and spectral.  This Halloween, Colin takes us to Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery to meet some permanent residents and explore the myths and legends of famous distillers buried just a few feet below our own. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We landed in Copenhagen and headed straight to the notorious Christiania neighborhood to meet Matt Orlando, owner and head chef of Copenhagen's Amass. At a small cafe along Pusher Street, he briefs us on the history of this anarchist micro-state, lays out his framework of eco-conscious deliciousness, and explains why this age-old city continues to captivate chefs around the globe. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today, we dive into one of the most incredible experiences fine dining has to offer: kaiseki cuisine. Combining hyper-local, foraged ingredients with refined Japanese technique, trailblazing Chef Niki Nakayama is redefining the traditional, multi-course Japanese meal at her acclaimed Los Angeles restaurant n/naka.    Helen Hollyman joins Chef Nakayama, her life-partner and sous-chef Carole Iida-Nakayama and renowned forager Pascal Baudar to explore the past, present and future of this mythic culinary tradition.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I’m speaking to Courtney McBroom, owner and creator of the retro-inspired catering company, Large Marge and Leslie Discher to discuss why they are picking up where Betty Crocker left off. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Los Angeles is a city that has some of America’s greatest culinary diversity; the place where many use the term “ethnic food” to describe the city's sprawling food landscape. I reached out to Andrew Ti, a comedian and the creator of the blog and podcast, Yo, Is This Racist? to get his impressions on the issues that the culinary world faces when describing, writing, and reinterpreting food from other cultures.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the fourth episode from our LA series, we’re falling straight into the center of a demented wino k-hole with chef Kris Yenbamroong of award-winning Thai restaurants Night Market and Night Market Song to discuss how a new generation of young winemakers is changing the cultural b.s. that comes with wine drinking. We’ll also get into why Kris wants people to come to his restaurant, order wine, and leave. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the third episode from our LA series, we’re heading to Koreatown to drink up downtown LA on a michelada bus with the powerhouse siblings behind the James Beard-award winning Oaxacan restaurant, La Guelaguetza, to discuss how this restaurant has become the unofficial LA Oaxacan consulate, or the heartbeat of what many people refer to as “Oaxacalifornia. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On today’s episode, we’re eating veggie burgers at BurgerLords, a burger-walk up in LA’s Chinatown with the band YACHT. Besides making music together, Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans are writers, artists, and the developers behind the popular app “5 Every Day,” a curated list of rad things to do in Los Angeles. Over burgers, I wanted to get YACHT’S impressions on why this town is one of the fastest growing cities for creative types, discuss some of the strange histories behind some of the city’s best restaurant spaces, how they go about curating the app, and why LA rewards curiosity. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the first episode from our LA series, we eat fried shrimp tacos with Pulitzer Prize winning food writer, Jonathan Gold, and discuss LA’s changing food scene, how technology has changed food culture, and why he knows Dr. Dre so well. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On today’s episode, we’re taking you into the legendary Austin bar, Dry Creek Cafe, where the likes of Willie Nelson have been kicked out. The spot’s late owner, Crazy Sarah, used to run things around here with an iron fist. It’s the place where you can learn how to be Texan, even if you ain’t one. So crack a Lonestar and tune in to hear some Texan bar stories—like how a sea turtle drinks a beer—with Dry Creek’s bartender, Angel Olson. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I head over to East Austin—a.k.a. the city's hipster den— to check out an unusual urban farm with chef Michael Fojtasek of Olamaie, one of the best contemporary Southern restaurants in the country. I sat down with Michael to discuss why he decided to open Olamaie, the difference between Southern and Texan cuisine, and find out who the real Olamaie is.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the latest episode, I sit down with culinary historian Michael Twitty to discuss his new book, The Cooking Gene, and his open letter to chef Sean Brock, which addresses current racial inequalities in the Charleston food scene. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today, we’re experiencing a Texan pastime: waiting in a long BBQ line at Micklethwait Craft Meats on Austin’s east side with some very special guests: none other than the band, the Deftones.   The band has been touring and making music together for almost twenty years. In that time they’ve gone from living off a couple bucks a day and eating whatever they could to becoming one of the biggest bands to travel around the world, enjoy amazing meals, and discover great food and good beer. We sat down over smoked meats to hear about their road food horror and glory stories, riders, and their latest album, Gore. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Austin’s restaurant scene has been making waves over the past few years in the national restaurant scene with spots like Franklin BBQ, but on today’s episode we are exploring the longstanding titan of the city’s culinary scene: food trucks. We’ll talk to old school and new school food truck vendors and an unexpected newcomer: Whole Foods, who recently announced that it would open its very first food truck test kitchen. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Every Sunday in Austin for over 18 years Texans have gone to the Little Longhorn Saloon to drink ice cold beers and bet on where a chicken will drop a deuce. I recently went to the bar to experience one of the last strongholds of the old “Keep Austin Weird” culture that’s slowly disappearing from the city. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On today’s episode, we’re talking to Louis Black, the Austinite who co-founded the Austin Chronicle and SXSW, and most recently directed a documentary about filmmaker, Richard Linklater, called Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny. Linklater is one of the most important Texan filmmakers of our time, and one of the first people to capture the slacker vibe of old Austin with his film, Dazed and Confused. Black is a tour du force who has watched SXSW—and this town—experience massive changes since the festival began 29 years ago. Helen spoke with him about pre-SXSW Austin, his friendship with Linklater, the new doc, and how that iconic drive-in scene in Dazed and Confused with Matthew Mcconaughey came to be.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today, we are bringing you a special bonus episode: Two back-to-back live interviews we recorded at Southbytes, SXSW’s food programming which features panels, talks, and events with some of the most influential people in the food world. First, I sat down with Andrew Zimmern, food writer and host of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel; the guy who’s consumed more innards, creepy crawlies, and odiferous foods than most of us will in our lifetimes. He’s also experienced some of the most profound meals in the most remote communities around the world. But rather than chatting about what it’s like to eat skewered tarantula, I wanted to get his impressions on what it means when a community experiences the death of a dish and the traditions behind it. Then, I sat down with Austin chef Tyson Cole of Uchi to discuss the past and future of sushi—it’s traditional rules, who’s breaking them, and how American sushi chefs are taking the medium to the next level. A slight warning: this tape will... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You might think you know the EVOO queen, Rachael Ray, but today, we’re spending some time with the SXSW veteran—she’s been attending the festival for the past 20 years—to dive into one of her biggest passions: music. Her love for it is so epic that she’s been throwing one of the biggest SXSW music parties with her husband, John Cusimano, for the past nine years. The event, “Feedback,” combines food and music in one space. So how exactly does a famous food personality become one of the biggest music presenters at SXSW? I sat down with Ray in Austin to discuss her thoughts on musicians’ riders, why she’s hanging out with the likes of Naughty By Nature, and what it takes to make a great musical experience. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We speak to some of New York’s new wave pizza makers who are reimagining what’s in a slice about what makes New York pizza so great, and try to get to the source of what might be the unexpected answer: water. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On our first episode of the second season of MUNCHIES: The Podcast, we’re pulling you out of the glut of sleepy winter, and there’s only way to do that: energy drinks. In 2005, fewer than 2,000 trips to the emergency room involved energy drinks. By 2011, that number was over 20,000. Brooklyn-based band Prince Rama’s just released their energy drink-inspired album, “XTREME NOW,” so we figured they’d be the perfect guides into this underworld. We wanted to uncover how energy drinks are inspiring pop culture and their music alike, and learn about the history of these caffeine-high beverages from expert bartender, Don Lee, to get to the bottom of what’s in your can.attacks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the final episode of the first season of the MUNCHIES podcast, we speak to legendary actress and culinary icon, Madhur Jaffrey, who brought Indian cuisine to the west, about her cultural impact and why she believes cooking and acting are very similar. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Award-winning TV show Top Chef helped to define a new era in food by taking the reality TV contest format and placing chefs front and center. We spoke to permanent Top Chef judge Gail Simmons about the world that the show helped to create. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We went to a coffee psychic to see if coffee can predict your future. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the latest episode of MUNCHIES: The Podcast, MUNCHIES' Editor-in-Chief Helen Hollyman goes on an adventure through Central Park with smell artist, Sissel Tolaas, who is trying to capture the smell of the park. Helen Hollyman and Tolaas discuss why humans have become disconnected from our senses, how we can become better eaters through scent, and why she likes to serve the stench of dirty sneakers with grapes at her famous dinner parties. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Being a cab driver in NYC isn’t easy. You're drinking coffee to stay awake, then you’ve gotta piss and find some time eat, but there’s nowhere to park. But Punjabi Deli has been an oasis where you could park out front and grab some food. In 2010, the city started construction that made that impossible. Today, I’m talking to the the unexpected person who helped solve the problem: Punjabi-American rapper, HEEMS, a.k.a. Himanshu Suri.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We get to the bottom of what may be endangering your tequila and talk to the unexpected man who is helping to protect it… with bats.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Legendary chef Wylie Dufresne of WD~50 is one of the American pioneers of molecular gastronomy. We spoke to him about how he approaches creativity, sports, Applebee's, and why lacking curiosity as a human being is a complete waste of time.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We speak to world-renowned chef, Danny Bowien, about the rise, fall, and comeback of his beloved Mission Chinese, and explore the Danny Bowien that you don’t know, which includes life lessons from tornadoes, kitchen disasters, failure, and more info about Billy Corgan than anyone cares to know about. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.