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MUNCHIES: The Podcast

We’re going to be talking to famous chefs, celebrities, the food-obsessed, food-averse, and everyone in between, asking them questions about current food culture and the culinary world that no one else is.
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MUNCHIES: The Podcast
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Now displaying: 2016
Dec 23, 2016

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.

Dec 6, 2016

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.

Nov 22, 2016

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.

Nov 8, 2016

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.

Oct 31, 2016

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.

Oct 25, 2016

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.

Oct 11, 2016
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.  
Sep 27, 2016

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.

Sep 13, 2016

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. 

Aug 30, 2016

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.

Aug 16, 2016

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.

Aug 2, 2016

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.

Jul 19, 2016

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.

Jul 5, 2016

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.

Jun 21, 2016

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. 

Jun 8, 2016

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.

May 24, 2016

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.

May 10, 2016

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.

Apr 26, 2016

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.

Apr 12, 2016

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.  

Mar 31, 2016

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 make you crave nigiri, so pace yourself.

Mar 29, 2016

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.

Mar 14, 2016

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.

Mar 3, 2016

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.

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