Burnt Toast

Today we’re answering your questions about dinner parties. We talk tips and tricks, and then we’ll get to the good stuff: What to do if the food doesn’t come out, how to gracefully ask lingering guests to leave for the night, and why doing the dishes passive aggressively is never a good move.

We talk to New York Times writer and prolific cookbook author Melissa Clark about co-authoring. We find out what it’s like to get inside someone else’s voice, why the process is a little like dating, and all about the infamous Tuna Casserole Bread from the first cookbook she ever wrote. Panoply’s conducting a survey. Click here to fill it out: Panoply.fm/survey By filling it out you'll help Panoply make great podcasts about the thing you love, and things you didn't even know you loved. Panoply.fm/survey

Today we dedicate our whole episode to a roundtable on meal planning: Amanda, Merrill, and Kenzi answer questions from our staff and community about how to cook smarter every week. Highlights include refrigerator graveyards, condiment guilt, and why avocado toast is a little like comfortable underwear. This episode of Burnt Toast is sponsored by Casper. Get $50 toward any mattress purchase by visiting www.casper.com/TOAST, and using promo code TOAST.

We invite Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff of Big Gay Ice Cream into the studio to talk about summer’s favorite frozen dessert. There are no boundaries: We discuss bedazzled unicorns, magnums, beet soft serve, and—for a little light hazing—we have Doug taste test some classic Good Humor ice cream treats. Burnt Toast is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the new service that delivers all the ingredients you need to make incredible meals at home. Discover a better way to cook. Visit BlueApron.com/TOAST to get your first two meals free today.

Even when it's leftover pizza or takeout from down the block. We talk to book seller and author of Lunch at the Shop Peter Miller about the midday meal: Why we should always break for it, the simple ways to make it better, and how to make our new favorite of his recipes, Pizza Soup. (You're going to want to hear this.)

This week, we talk to NY Mag food critic Adam Platt about criticism in an age that makes it easy for everyone with an internet connection to be a reviewer. Listen in for some salty conversation, his live evaluation of some food in the studio, and—because we couldn’t help it—a dramatic Yelp reading or two. Burnt Toast is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the new service that delivers all the ingredients you need to make incredible meals at home. Discover a better way to cook. Visit BlueApron.com/TOAST to get your first two meals free. BlueApron.com/TOAST

We invite food writer and coffee expert Oliver Strand—and our very own Michael Hoffman—into the studio to talk coffee. After we make sure we’re caffeinated, we discuss specialty coffee, coffee snobbery, and cup some McCafe, just for fun.

For this episode all about food on early dates, we talk to Saveur Editor in Chief Adam Sachs about confessions, rules, and everything in between. And we do it all completely sober, in a brightly lit room—just as no early date should ever be.

Today’s episode covers the topic of first food jobs—we chat with Lucky Peach co-founder Peter Meehan about how he got his start, how aspiring food writers might get theirs, and just how scrappy Amanda was before The New York Times.

This episode is a party: We pack the studio with Charlotte Druckman, Kenzi Wilbur, and Marian Bull to talk about something near and dear to our hearts -- cookbooks. We chat about what makes a good one, what makes a bad one, and some of the craziest books ever published.

We invite chef, bakery owner, and cookbook author Allison Robicelli on our show to talk about all manner of strange food: What constitutes strange, the craziest things we’ve ever eaten, and how we feel about all of it. Things get weird.

Here at Burnt Toast, we talk about the things that don’t make it onto Food52.com. Join hosts and founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, plus a rotating cast of smart, salty guests, for controversial cooking topics, food culture, and occasional good-spirited debate.