Special Sauce with Ed Levine
Serious Eats' podcast Special Sauce enables food lovers everywhere to eavesdrop on an intimate conversation about food and life between host and Serious Eats founder Ed Levine and his well-known/famous friends and acquai...
Insights from recent episode analysis
On the show
- Heather Haddon1 ep
- Adam Chandler1 ep
- Amy McCarthy1 ep
Also: Tommy Tomlinson, Chuck Mansfield, Adam Jay Moskowitz, Courtney Johnson, Sho Spaeth, Mokhtar Alkhanshali, Dr. Dana Small, Pete Wells, Niki Russ Federman, James Poniewozik
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
Most discussed topics
Brands & references
Total monthly reach
Based on 1 signal.
Built from
By chart position
- 🇺🇸United States · FoodHOME#24169K to 893K
- 🇨🇦Canada · Food#1318K to 94K
- 🇮🇳India · Food#229.5K to 50K
- 🇰🇷South Korea · Food#292.6K to 14K
- 🇵🇭PH · Food#172.0K to 11K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
216K to 1.1M🎙 ~2x weekly·472 episodes·Last published 5d ago - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
431K to 2.3M🇺🇸78%🇨🇦8%🇮🇳4%+5 more - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
237K to 1.3M
Market Insights
Platform Distribution
Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
Total Followers
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Total Plays
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Total Reviews
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* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/23/26 |  Top of the World: A Great New Documentary | On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to the fine documentarian Betsy West and chef Michael Lomanoco about West's superb new film "Top of the World". The film tells the heartbreaking story of Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center that was destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 39m 49s | ||||||
| 10/16/26 | Jacques Pepin Part 2: Jacques on Julia & Much More | For Jacques Pépin, cooking has always been about bringing people together and sharing the basic skills to make something delicious. This week we return to my conversation with the legendary chef which we recorded at Jacques' home in Connecticut. We were joined by his daughter Claudine and his son-in-law Roland "Rollie" Wesen. We talked about Jacques' journey from France to America, the essential role of immigrants in American food culture, and the family's foundation which helps people build new lives through cooking. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 28m 55s | ||||||
| 10/9/26 | Jacques Pépin Part 1: The Legend at 90+ | What a treat it was to go up to Jacques Pépin's home in Connecticut and interview Jacques, his daughter Claudine Pépin, and her husband Rollie Wesen on the occasion of the publication of the 50th Anniversary edition of Pépin's seminal work La Technique. Pépin was even more charming in person. Thank you, Jacques, for taking the time to talk. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 28m 28s | ||||||
| 10/2/26 | Susie Essman Reheat: An Oldie but a Goodie | This week on Special Sauce we go way back into the Internet time machine (2015!) with the brilliant Susie Essman regaling us with hilarious stories about her years of dues paying in comedy clubs, renouncing vegetarianism when the smell of bacon just became too much for her; and coming up with comedy legends Larry David, Jon Stewart and Chris Rock. It's one of my favorite Special Sauce interviews ever! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 35m 15s | ||||||
| 9/25/26 | Meherwan Irani: Indian Street Food Evangelist | James Beard Award-Winning chef and restaurateur Meherwan Irani has written 'Number 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World', a book that celebrates the Indian street food he serves at his restaurants Chai Pani and Botiwalla. On Special Sauce Irani insisted that Indian street food is the best street food in the world. Bold claim! Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 40m 07s | ||||||
| 9/18/26 | ICE in Chicago: Still Destroying Food People's Lives | After reading about ICE's ongoing appalling treatment of an Argentine-born Chicago chef Carlos Cantatore in the new online food publication Ravenous, I invited Ravenous' Ashok Selvam and Marcos Carbajal, Chicago-born restaurateur-chef and owner of the esteemed Carnitas Uruapan, on Special Sauce to bring us up to date. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 32m 13s | ||||||
| 9/11/26 | restaurant reservationsfood industry+3 | Heather HaddonAdam Chandler | The Wall Street Journal | — | restaurant reservationsdining+3 | — | 35m 54s | ||
| 9/4/26 | Dolly Partonfood culture+3 | Amy McCarthy | EaterRavenous | — | Dolly Partonfood culture+3 | — | 36m 38s | ||
| 8/28/26 | weight losshealth+4 | Tommy Tomlinson | GLP-1 drugs | — | weight lossGLP-1+5 | — | 41m 40s | ||
| 8/21/26 | peachesfarming+3 | Chuck Mansfield | Goldbud Farm | — | Goldbud peachesChuck Mansfield+3 | — | 42m 58s | ||
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| 8/14/26 | cheesemongeringdocumentary+3 | Adam Jay MoskowitzCourtney Johnson | The Big Cheese | — | cheesemongeringdocumentary+3 | — | 41m 40s | ||
| 8/7/26 | ramencooking+3 | Sho Spaeth | Serious EatsChefSteps+1 | — | ramencooking+3 | — | 45m 11s | ||
| 7/31/26 | Yemeni coffeecoffee shops+3 | Mokhtar Alkhanshali | Port of Mokha | Yemen | Yemeni coffeecoffee shops+5 | — | 44m 49s | ||
| 7/24/26 | neuroscience of foodhealthy diet+3 | Dr. Dana SmallPete Wells | McGill UniversityThe New York Times | — | food neurosciencediet+3 | — | 42m 04s | ||
| 7/17/26 | family businesssmoked fish+4 | Niki Russ Federman | Russ and Daughters | — | Russ and Daughterssmoked fish+4 | — | 43m 21s | ||
| 7/10/26 | TV criticismThe Bear+3 | James Poniewozik | The New York TimesThe Bear | — | The BearJames Poniewozik+5 | — | 45m 35s | ||
| 7/3/26 | A Pie Reheat for the 4th of July | Here at Special Sauce we love pie in all its forms: we love shepherd's pie, apple pie, key lime pie, lemon meringue pie, and our absolute favorite, peach pie. And given that we're coming up on America's 250th birthday and Americans love pie we thought we'd reheat one of our favorite pie episodes to get in the spirit of things. Stacey Mei Yan Fong catalogued her love of pie when she published 50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant's Love Letter. Even if you don't love pie her story is well worth listening to. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 27m 16s | ||||||
| 6/26/26 | Summer Burgers Part 2: Kenji and George Motz | This week on Special Sauce serious eaters get to eavesdrop on part 2 of my hilarious and informative conversation with burger mavens Kenji and Hamburger America's George Motz. Nobody knows more about cooking and eating burgers than these two burger mavens. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 37m 17s | ||||||
| 6/19/26 | The Collective Joy of Knicks Fans | As one of the millions of long-suffering Knicks fans I am still basking in the afterglow of the team's historical and magical run. I decided I had to devote another episode of Special Sauce to the team's amazing playoff run to the NBA championship. And who better to join me on mic than the The New York Times' terrific writer Matt Flegenheimer, who to my way of thinking has become the poet laureate of Knicks fandom. He explains that he too can't believe what we have all just witnessed. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 35m 10s | ||||||
| 6/12/26 | Burger Madness Part 1 with Kenji and George Motz | With grilling season underway I felt the time was right to talk burgers with Kenji and Hamburger America's George Motz. We talk burger history, burger cooking methods, and all things burger. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 29m 17s | ||||||
| 6/5/26 | The Knicks: Orange and Blue Skies, Baby! | As one of the millions of long-suffering New York Knicks fans, I decided I had to devote an episode of Special Sauce to the the team's amazing playoff run. Joining me on the pod is the The New York Times's Matt Flegenheimer, who wrote a great piece about NYC coming together to celebrate this magical run the team is on so far, and food writer Chris Crowley, a former Serious Eater who is now one of the founding editors of the new food newsletter Caper. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 45m 36s | ||||||
| 5/29/26 | Mateo Kehler: The Cheese Visionary Behind Jasper Hill Farm | This week on Special Sauce we talk to Mateo Kehler, the cheese visionary behind Jasper Hill Farm. Mateo and his brother Andy, carpenters by trade, pooled together their life savings and bought a 200 acre dilapidated dairy farm in Greensboro, Vermont, in 1998. They were cheesemakers on a mission to save a disappearing way of life in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, where dairy farming had been in precipitous decline. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 40m 11s | ||||||
| 5/22/26 | A Hot Dog Reheat for Memorial Day | I have written thousands of words about the joys of eating hot dogs, so when Memorial Day rolls around, this serious eater's thoughts immediately turn to the humble frankfurter. A couple of years ago we had my friend and fellow food writer J.J. Goode on Special Sauce to talk about our love for the hot dog in all its forms, including the many regional styles we both have encountered along the way. We talked about hot dog styles both ubiquitous and obscure, from the famous Chicago hot dogs with french fries on top at Gene and Jude's near O'Hare Airport to the deep-fried hot dogs poetically known as rippers at Rutt's Hut in Clifton, N.J. So to honor this most humble of foods from around the country and the world as we head into Memorial Day weekend we decided to reheat one of J.J.'s terrifically entertaining and informative episodes about our mutual love of hot dogs. And just for the record I still have two Gray's Papaya hot dogs for lunch a couple of times a week. Please don't tell my cardiologist...or my wife. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 46m 16s | ||||||
| 5/15/26 | The Big Bagel Taste Test | This week on the pod we are back with Part 2 of our deep dive into bageldom with bagel baker and celebrated chef Mark Strausman of Mark’s Off Madison in NYC. He and I taste-tested bagels from Wall Street darling PopUp Bagels, which was just valued at 300 million dollars, a classic traditional NY bagel concern Utopia Bagels, next-gen sourdough bagel bakery Apollo, and of course, Mark’s own bagels. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 32m 46s | ||||||
| 5/8/26 | Bagels Are Having A Moment | Like slice pizza and smash burgers bagels are having a moment. One concept Pop Up Bagels was just valued at $300 million in its most recent round of financing. Pop Up's rip and dip bagels are a viral sensation but have left some traditional bagel purists unimpressed. One of those purists is the great chef turned master bagel baker Mark Strausman, so we traveled to Mark's restaurant Mark's Off Madison to talk and taste bagels. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices | 26m 42s | ||||||
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Chart history for Special Sauce with Ed Levine
Peaked at #7 in IS, top 10 in 1 of 41 tracked markets, currently #7 in IS.
| Market | Genre | Peak | Current | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IS | — | #7 | #7 | — |
| Canada | — | #13 | #13 | — |
| PH | — | #17 | #17 | — |
| TH | — | #18 | #18 | — |
| India | — | #22 | #22 | — |
| United States | — | #24 | #24 | — |
| PL | — | #24 | #24 | — |
| HK | — | #25 | #25 | — |
| TR | — | #26 | #26 | — |
| South Korea | — | #29 | #29 | — |
| SG | — | #30 | #30 | — |
| Ireland | — | #31 | #31 | — |
| PT | — | #35 | #35 | — |
| South Africa | — | #35 | #35 | — |
| CH | — | #37 | #37 | — |
| SA | — | #38 | #38 | — |
| NG | — | #50 | #50 | — |
| KE | — | #53 | #53 | — |
| CZ | — | #60 | #60 | — |
| AT | — | #69 | #69 | — |
Chart Positions
41 placements across 37 markets.
Chart Positions
41 placements across 37 markets.