Cooking Issues with Dave Arnold

It's a No Tangent Tuesday, which means everything is on topic — including Dave getting lost in Rockefeller Center for the hundredth time. Quinn is back from his antibiotic recovery, Jean just survived catering the Roots Picnic VIP section with a rented reefer truck (and a branch that won), and the California crew is dialing in from LA. Dave opens by explaining why his new miniature Ro-Tap machine — a 1917-standardized particle analysis sieve shaker running at exactly 150 BPM and 85 decibels — cannot, in good conscience, be operated in a Manhattan apartment. A caller brings the real problem of the week: his partner can't eat onions, and chili without onions is a crisis. Dave prescribes asafetida (AKA hing) and hints at fermented West African dawadawa as sulfur-forward workarounds. Quinn, recovering from his own dietary restrictions courtesy of a GERD diagnosis, has been running low-sodium experiments with glutamic acid powder — which leads to a full detour on salt, Tuscan bread, sweating bakers, and why the Civil War soldier's salt ration proves nothing. Bar food rankings break out organically: potato skins, mozzarella bricks, fried cheese curds, and the great belly clam vs. strip debate, with Dave confessing he failed his son by not making him eat belly clams in Connecticut. Quinn rounds things out with a pina colada gelato stabilizer deep-dive and a vanilla oleoresin gelato report, Dave gives out the full Razzmatazzarak recipe from the old Booker and Dax days, and God's mojito is teased for next time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chef Nick Wong joins Dave in studio to talk Agnes & Sherman, his Houston restaurant named for his parents and built around personal, deeply considered food. They revisit Nick’s FCI days with Dave, from throwing hatchets and pushing kitchen equipment through the city to hot dog contests, meat glue demos, and the value of doing what you said you’d do. Plus, Angela Garbacz calls in, Dave answers a Spinzall question, and Nick breaks down scallion waffles, cheeseburger fried rice, crispy shell-on shrimp, salt-and-pepper fries, and Eng Soo’s Chicken. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave is joined by Sother Teague and Tim McKirdy of Sauced to talk cooking with booze, drinking with food, and what separates a good carbonnade from Belgian slander. Before that: John returns to fine dining, Nastassia survives Spirit Airlines, Jack hits the Austin wedding shot wheel, Quinn breaks in a new wok, and Dave recreates 1870s kaiser rolls from a Vienna Exhibition report.Plus: polished cast iron, mushy peas, Irn-Bru, Buckfast, fish and chips, Guinness on a Lukr faucet, forbidden Jarts, Shrinky Dinks, fry oil management, and why carbonnade should be thickened with mustard-slathered bread. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave and the gang warm up with a packed week-in-review before George Motz drops by to talk burgers, burger history, and the newly revised Hamburger America. George talks about opening Hamburger America, preserving regional burger traditions, the challenge of recreating historic burgers accurately, and what it means to document 220 of the country’s most essential hamburger spots. A wide-ranging burger conversation with one of the form’s great evangelists. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The OG Cooking Issues crew are all in studio for the first time in ages ! Find out whether the BDX cocktail cube can handle shaken drinks, and why Dave’s new hood is somehow both excellent and maddening. There’s also an extended detour into apocalypse escape plans, emergency Zodiac boats, and why New York remains a terrible place to survive the end times.Plus: Quinn reports back from yet another emu egg experiment—this time in the form of Spanish tortilla—prompting discussions of balut, giant deviled eggs, bird brains, and the general menace of cassowaries. Rounding things out are questions on pre-gelatinized starches, whether anyone should still be eating brains, what on earth to do with butter-flavored popcorn oil, how to break into bar prep work, and whether popcorn can be popped directly onto a decorative wire tree. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Cooking Issues, Dave and the crew are joined in-studio by chef India Doris for a wide-ranging conversation on cooking across London, France, Spain, Scotland, and New York, learning to break down whole animals in a butcher shop, the realities of restaurant labor in the UK versus the U.S., and what it actually takes to open your first place. Along the way: haggis, black pudding, game birds, owner mentality, kitchen culture, staffing philosophy, and the financial tightrope of building a restaurant from scratch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

C-Y Chia and Shane Stanbridge of Lion Dance Cafe join Dave to break down the philosophy behind their self-published cookbook—and why they closed the restaurant after four years. They discuss designing a cuisine around systems (shallot oil, chili oils, dredges, staple sauces), building menus from repeatable flavor frameworks, and writing recipes that actually teach how they think.Highlights include: vegan banana cake and Southeast Asian dessert structure; almond-sesame-shallot “ASS” cookies and sweet-savory crossover; soy-milk mayo science and high-acid balance; frying tofu nuggets with freeze-thaw texture engineering; gluten-free dredges for better crunch; Spanish peanuts vs. Virginia; brining corn before grilling; and the one vegan fish sauce that actually works. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave Arnold is joined in-studio by chef Alex Stupak to talk tacos (including the evolution of his “cheeseburger taco”), Substack-era dessert thinking, and why some techniques (and tastes) don’t hit the same a decade later. The crew detours into gumbo viscosity and the eternal question of whether s’mores should be toasted or fully incinerated. Along the way: freezing clams to open them, Manhattan clam chowder ethics, American cheese brand loyalty, film-forming gels, and what the modernist cooking wave looks like in hindsight—plus why “simple” food is dominating menus right now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week is a rapid-fire run of Cooking Issues staples: why most store carrots are trash (and why frozen veg is usually the correct move for pot pie), biscuit technique tweaks (including grating frozen butter), and a pie-crust method that splits the fat for a “medium” flake. From there it’s gear-and-systems nerdery: a Seattle Ultrasonics knife test, pro home-kitchen “hacks” (deli containers, tape/Sharpie, restaurant-supply pans, freezing bases), and a long, detailed breakdown of home carbonation—carbonators, cold plates vs. chillers, line materials, compensator taps, and why soda guns lose CO₂. The back half hits listener questions on Soxhlet extraction, nitro vs. nitrous, red-hot poker construction, oat-milk eggnog separation, and a precise carbonated French 75 base spec to close. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cooking Issues opens the new year with Dave and Joe in-studio, plus Nastassia and Jack in LA and Quinn on Vancouver Island. Dave recaps a rough holiday detour: adopting a young cat that immediately got seriously sick, turning New Year’s into emergency vet care and force-feeding. Jack reports from a cross-country drive to clear out storage, including a stop at Richmond’s Gwar Bar, inspiring instant talk of a future show takeover. Dave also offers Patreon listeners first dibs on hauling away a free six-burner Wolf commercial gas range from the Lower East Side.The crew swaps holiday cooking notes (Quinn’s turkey biryani, a red wine pork stew), then veers into gear and technique: Dave experiments with Ray-Ban Meta glasses for POV kitchen content, discusses his new Bosch oven and stone/pizza setup logic, and takes a caller question on keeping orange oil in syrup—recommending gum arabic plus xanthan while explaining why “clear” emulsions are hard. Quick hits include a shout-out to Alba in LA, a party etiquette rant about grabbing a legend’s guitar, and Dave’s non-alcoholic bitterness hacks for diet soda (wormwood/gentian infusions). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kevin Jeung (Noma / Noma Projects) calls in from LA to talk about Noma’s upcoming Los Angeles pop-up and what it changes when you suddenly have citrus, avocados, and California seasonality on the table. Kevin walks through how the team is doing early-stage R&D—ingredient exploration, fermentation setup, and testing techniques for hard problems like cactus slime and variable produce.Dave detours into Denmark: Christmas market roast pork sandwiches, crackling technique, and what cut the Danes actually use (loin vs belly vs skin-on neck). They also get into Noma Projects curiosities like peach tree sap (rehydrated for a tendon-like chew), plus a few practical bar/kitchen notes: a clarified spec for the Brandy Savage cranberry cordial build, and a quick take on stabilizing acidic whipped cream (gel/fluid-gel approach vs citric acid straight into dairy). Closing beat: Kevin’s Turkey method for the Noma team—compound butter under the skin, and mayo outside for browning/crisping. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave is back with a packed studio and longtime friend of the show Nick Coleman — olive oil educator, sensory expert, and musician behind HGH — fresh off a trip to Greece teaching at the International Olive Oil Network. They go deep on how to detect defects in olive oil by smell alone, why fruité noir works when done intentionally, olive fly maggots, pruning for quality fruit, and why every producing country swears theirs is the best.Noma scientist and author Ariel Johnson joins mid-show, jumping straight into flavor chemistry: why plum frozen yogurt tastes like strawberries, how to reverse-engineer hogo for non-alcoholic tiki drinks, sulfur compounds in durian, chlorophyll behavior in green herb oils, and more. Saffron custard gelato, carotenoids, pressure-cooking aromatics, British potatoes — nothing is safe.The crew also spirals into glorious tangents:• DIY Danish pork roast & the perfect crackling sandwich• Street food logic — what should be eaten on the move• The underrated beauty (and stink) of ginkgo trees• Why wrapping potatoes in foil ruins them• Delivery fries, baguette sandwiches, and sidewalk etiquette rage• VR garbage, museum exhibits, waiting for Godot w/ Keanu & Alex WinterPlus olive oil tasting in-studio, Patreon callers, and a preview of upcoming episodes — including Kevin from Noma returning soon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this Thanksgiving “Classics in the Field” episode, Dave is back in studio at Rockefeller Center with Kitchen Arts & Letters’ own Matt Sartwell for a long, nerdy tour through cookbooks, regional food, and holiday obsessions. John’s on mic, Joe’s on the panels, and the show kicks off with cranberry-sauce loyalties, paper-bag chicken nostalgia, and why Dave will never forgive you if he walks into your house on Thanksgiving and it doesn’t smell like turkey.Matt announces Kitchen Arts & Letters’ new kids’ cookbook club—built around Peter Kim’s Instant Ramen Kitchen and led by Annette Tome and Pam Abrams—then dives into listener questions: the single gin book he’d take to a desert island; what to give a Spanish-cuisine nerd who actually wants context; how to hunt down Japanese parfait inspiration; and which books really capture Cape Cod and New England cooking.From there, it’s deep cuts: Provincetown seafood and Pops Masch’s Cooking the Catch, John Thorne’s Simple Cookingand his legendary toast essay, William Woys Weaver’s Christmas desserts and class-conscious holiday history, and the under-the-radar Aria regional cookbook series. Along the way Dave rants about lavender in gin, cold fried chicken with shredded cabbage, why you should cut the back out of your turkey, and why smaller birds (and a second turkey for sandwiches) are non-negotiable. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.