The Dave Chang Show

With summer over and school in session, it’s officially a new year for restaurants—and Dave has a few soon-to-open places on his must-visit list, and a few predictions to make about where things might go next. Plus: Hugo escape tactics, pre-K John Bonham, fake Momofuku menus, the no-PR approach, making bad situations happen, befriending your nemesis, the return of Superiority Burger and Torrisi Italian Specialties, Kwame Onwuachi, Mariscos Jalisco, the rise of hwe, grocery-store kimbap, crossing the soondae threshold, the stew restaurant Dave dreams of, a kung pao pastrami pipeline, the CIA, Josh Giddey, the other CIA, and the beauty of restaurants that own their own real estate. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a passel of hungry, up-and-coming eaters to please, Dave and Chris face a big question every day: Can their cooking help their kids embrace new tastes and new combinations? (And: Is it too late to expand their own deeply seasoned palates, too?) They call up “disgust studies” expert Dr. Paul Rozin to learn more, and offer up an array of their own takes on flying with kids, the A-Team, condensed Hanukkah, the milkshake cow, Dave’s older brother, sea cucumber fried rice, imagining the next uni, getting rejected from the intergalactic senate, ikura as forbidden fruit, Gus going against eggs, and the exalted, trip-off-the-tongue omega-3 that is docosahexaenoic acid. With the help of our friends at buybuy BABY, this is Round 3 of ‘Clean Plate Club.’ Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Dr. Paul Rozin Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass, Noelle Cornelio, and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A week by the seaside has Dave finding inspiration at both Wetzel’s Pretzels and Nobu Malibu, and thinking about all the shapes the second half of a creative career can take. He catches Chris up on his misadventures, and contemplates Robuchon potatoes, the Santa Monica promenade, hot dogs on tasting menus, spirulina boosts, stroller dogs, vampire rules, knockoff mercenaries, fried rock shrimp, what some restaurants can get away with, the Nobu Goodbye, Peruvian sushi, storing your knife rolls, LCD Soundsystem, and attempting the impossible. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a couple more 'Bear' episodes under his belt, Dave dives into a breakneck elucidation of one of the show’s dramatic engines—the classical Escoffier kitchen brigade system, and the huge role it still plays in top-tier restaurants today. Analyzed along the way: Frank Ceruti, the two types of CDC, piano ranges, coal runners, sabotaging Chris at the poissonnier station, fish fumet, meat-roast squires, simplifying your playbook, telepathic collaboration, kitchen design remorse, cooking with a miracle maker, food dying at the pass, Jürgen Klopp, gambling with ducks, the first-turn bomb, and making food so good that no one’s talking in the dining room. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Culture moves in cycles, and so too do the ways we eat—which has Dave looking for early warning signs of what’s around the corner. He fills us in on what he’s hearing from peers, what the arc of modern plating presages about the turns to come, and a whole lot more, including: pizza-shop paninis, top-tier bodegas, trompe-l’oeil grill marks, New York in the mid-'90s, analog cooking, the Nirvana–Nickelback cycle, what Fergus Henderson likes to drink, Russian service, sorrel salmon, vertical food, spoon drags, Ernesto’s ham and chips, a quenelle chronology, square duck breast, Joey Fatone, and the impact of the vanishing middle. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fresh off finally watching the first episode of 'The Bear,' Dave breaks down what the show reveals about the surreal ways time can move inside an ambitious kitchen. Plus: a nail-biting moment at Fresh Brothers Pizza, the Golden Idol, Julian Jaynes, Delta-lounge buffet medleys, steak-for-two-for-one, seven-minute family meal, night porters, Hainanese chicken rice, the beauty of Greek pizza, the eureka-moment dish-creating golden hour, and an inspiring night at L.A.’s boundary-breaking Yangban Society. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Cometeer-fueled trip to the Codfish State has Dave buzzing with new discoveries about how to make familiar things just a little bit better—and how to make the modern-day airport experience a good bit worse. Also covered: what to eat near Gloucester, Joe Versus the Volcano, Spider-Tracers, a shout-out to Claud, Tristar strawberries, Jimmy Nardellos, gourmet Cold Stone, Dave becoming a coffee taster, making miso in Kyoto, three-buck Chardonnay, Wrigley’s gum, haddock bites, sublime Rhode Island chowder, and Dave Chang’s seafood shack commandments. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Altered-state Dave and Chris embark on another late-night Q&A, covering the sublime, the agonizing, and everything in between—including Aaron Rodgers’s offseason activities. Also, Dave’s thoughts on the Road House remake, Conor McGregor taking up acting, the boba flavor Blade Runner test (and Dave’s current order), extra dense oat milk, near-future gorgonzola, irrational food aversions, imperial deer tendon, Dave’s senior thesis, a Momofuku Christmas dinner, five-hour tea ceremonies, drinking Guinness in Kyoto, Shake 'N Bake chicken, culinary chimeras, table crumbers, and being present for each tortilla chip. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every parent dreams of giving their kids a perfect mix of the delicious and the nutritious—but once those kids begin to get other ideas about what they’d like to eat, the most important ingredient might be a little misdirection. With the help of our friends at buybuy BABY, Dave and Chris present our second Clean Plate Club summit on the highs and lows of surreptitious nutrition. Plus: parent theory vs. parent reality, bento box success rates, Dave’s case for chocolate milk, pre-K peer pressure, emergency SPAM, dolsot bibimbap, taking Hugo to McDonald’s, tantric parenting, and Chris’s highly effective sneaky meatball method. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass, Noelle Cornelio, and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There’s no better way to celebrate Dave Chang’s forty-fifth trip around the sun than an end-of-summer MOIF, featuring such hot-button topics as: Mike Birbiglia, a flawless visit to Providence, mid-meal malingering, touching the stew, Dion Waiters, dish traffic control, the In-N-Out-order phantom zone, shrimp heads, seasonal restaurants, Midwest supper clubs, fear of teenagers, and the farmers’ market hummus guy Hydra. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before Neo learned to read the green rain of code that made up the Matrix, before even Sherlock Holmes devised a way to describe a man based on a glance at a forgotten walking stick, restaurant kitchen staff were doing pretty much the same thing every time a new order ticket came into their kitchens. Dave, Chris, and Noelle dig into what can be gleaned from those black-and-white lines listing entrées and appetizers and share a few stories about how it's gone right and wrong for them, before Dave lays out a guide for diners who want to do better, and pulls back the curtain on the rare jewel that is the Money Piece.Host: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Chelsea Stark-Jones Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Food may be a universal language, but how much gets lost in translation when you're eating in a place where you're not a native speaker? Dave shares a few of his recent linguistic travails, and compares notes with Noelle and Chris, before revisiting the rural Osaka ramen-shop moment that very likely changed his life. Also: Dave as the Park's BBQ shepherd, locals-only restaurants, a return to Duck House, Chris in Las Vegas, inauspicious fork drops, velveting the shrimp, doing whatever it takes to win over the waiter, OG smørrebrød, Golden Century, Hop Woo's trilingual menu, and Dave's tips for avoiding the tourist tax. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Mike Wargon Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On a bounteous, bento box-style multi-segment episode, Dave delves into a few recent home-cooking successes before turning to a whirlwind assessment of the fast-food french fry landscape (23:00) and finishing off with a few ways forward for restaurants in our image-saturated age (41:45). Also discussed: cultural chewiness preferences, Dave's favorite protein, family-friendly jangjorim, mapo tofu, 'Top Gun', 'The Birth of Tragedy', Jean-Georges's steakhouse, the next dining hotbeds, and making food that people will wait in the rain for. Host: Dave Chang Producers: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On an episode for the ages, Dave Chang takes us through a full deck of unforgettable dishes—the ones he never stops thinking about. He covers 50-plus brushes with culinary perfection, from childhood up through trips to Tokyo and Texas and Sao Paulo and Mumbai. It's a core-memory highlight reel like no other, the benchmarks Dave uses to measure everything else, never assembled in one place beyond his brain—until now. Host: Dave Chang Producers: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did one ramen chef’s last-minute decision to photograph the very first service at Noma Tokyo's pop-up … irreversibly change the course the restaurant world has been on ever since? To investigate, Dave sends roving correspondent Chris Ying to talk to Ivan Orkin himself about the day in question—and then hunts for parallels in the far reaches of high fashion. Also: the state of Dave’s fridge, solo eating at home, Shakey’s PIzza, pickled jalapeños, pork chop prep, Margaret Zhang, Art Culinaire, setting up a tripod in the dining room, Moleskine sketches, the Ko black hole, and the diner-photographer Uncertainty Principle. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Ivan Orkin Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How the heck are we supposed to figure out where to eat in 2022 anyway? On the heels of an unforeseen but absurdly good Peking duck dinner, Dave and Chris consider the ever-expanding restaurant-recommendation complex, and the risks and rewards of going off the grid. Plus: mummy innards, not watching the trailer, crispy shrimp, the penicillin principle, Ben Wallace, eating turbot at Elkano, an L.A. restaurant trinity, Dave in Japan, Kappabashi yakitori, Oriental Garden, on-set lunch, overlooking the good-to-great, and the culinary version of Jimi Hendrix. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After spending the first half of the show grappling with the existential questions, from the prehistory of the known universe to the future of going out to eat, Dave and Chris collect some on-the-ground intel from two longtime experts on life in the ATL: Stephen Satterfield and, of course, Steven Satterfield. Also covered: Gaten Matarazzo, Ina Garten, physicist sellouts, infinite Big Bangs, Fishman Lobster Clubhouse, good meals at bad restaurants, Noma Tokyo, Copenhagen Chinese food, fried mozzarella and caviar, fast-forwarding through the scary parts, and Chris moving to LA. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guests: Stephen Satterfield and Steven Satterfield Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In-N-Out Burger has had an almost unparalleled run as one of the most beloved operations in the western U.S., but there’s still one holdout rolling doubtfully past the drive-thru. His name is Dave Chang. Dave, Chris, and Noelle break down what In-N-Out does so well, and why he can’t just let love in. Also discussed: all-out waffles, North Korean noodles, Dave’s Park’s BBQ order, Southern California mumbo-jumbo, small-town athleticism, jalapeño poppers, the perfect iceberg lettuce, eating a hamburger at 10:30 a.m., Noelle’s In-N-Out instructions, data-driven drive-thrus, faith-based French fry preferences, the world’s tiniest toaster oven, orbital ordering systems, the In-N-Out Art of War, and the best thing to eat in your car. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a brief respite between his travels, Dave Chang teaches you everything you need to know about making dashi at home, then decodes his interview with Chris Bianco. He explains the classic-to-modern chef spectrum, the significance of legendary chefs Roberto Donna, Jean-Louis Palladin, and David Tanis, Bianco's gumption in the face of titans of industry, the lifecycle of perfecting a new dish, and how failure is a crucial part of the creative process. Host: Dave Chang Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Chris Ying, Jordan Bass, and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a new restaurant open in L.A. and 30 years of gorgeous pizzas bearing his name in Phoenix, AZ, Chris Bianco has a lot of stories to tell. He returns to the pod to talk with Dave about building the most beautiful tower you’ve ever seen, bringing the sequel without the prequel, getting paid a barrel of beer on the Lower East Side, arming yourself with science, salads telling you what they want to be, Jean-Louis Palladin, a huge box of loquats, cutting bread toward your heart, what he imports from Italy vs. what he finds just beyond his doorstep, Deborah Madison, desperation melons, and a pizza inspired by Ligurian focaccia, New York bialys, and Southern Arizona pistachios. Host: David Chang Guest: Chris Bianco Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With his trip to Italy in the rearview, Dave takes to the mic to break down the surprising highs and occasional luggage-related lows of a week or so overseas, as well as: hotel-room tipping, Italian airport food, looking at the countryside from a train, bringing salumi on the flight back, Friulian wine, simple trattorias in the middle of nowhere, Negroni spritzes, not taking photos, Vecchia Roma, carciofi fritti, Gambero Rosso, eating oxtail and antipasti at Cesare al Casaletto, wedding vongole, Safi Bahcall, sizing up the Sistine Chapel, gelato vs. ice cream, and a pizza-pocket meal at a Roman mall McDonald’s. Host: Dave Chang Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Six months in, Evan Funke’s Mother Wolf is one of the hottest tables in Hollywood—but getting there took 15 years of obsession with the practice of pasta, where lessons are learned one tortelloni at a time. Evan and Dave discuss the long climb to the mountaintop, plus: George Carlin, Thomas Bernhard, staying true to your vision, Hosteria Giusti, L.A. glamour, eating pasta for analytical purposes, what a Caprese salad tastes like on Capri, a priori deliciousness, Jimi Hendrix, tagliatelle mouthfeel, using failure as your North Star, the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, and where Evan wants Dave to eat in Rome. Host: Dave Chang Guest: Evan Funke Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Chris Ying, Jordan Bass, and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What do you do when your kid only wants plain rice—or worse, rice with American cheese? With the help of our friends at buybuy BABY, Dave and Chris kick off 'Clean Plate Club,' our new series on cooking for kids, with a conversation about the toughest diner out there: the picky eater. Also: going from dad of one to dad of two, unreliable advice, first-year fears, steel-wool slinkies, chicken nuggets and pesto macaroni, naturally occurring dinosaurs, the pain points of parenting, the pure joy of Gus, and what happens when a grain of rice touches the sauce. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After spending 20 years crafting campaigns for the likes of Nike, John Jay jumped into a new role as President of Global Creative for Uniqlo—and there’s a lot more he wants to do yet. Dave calls up John to talk about finding inspiration in unexpected places, DJing at Space Lab Yellow, learning from Juan Mari Arzak, the glory years of Bloomingdale’s, an invitation from Ralph Lauren, invisible improvements, Mark Parker, skaters as food scouts, Ja Morant, Tadashi Yanai, omotenashi, pairing instant ramen with fresh abalone, and the problem with being obsessed with success. Host: Dave Chang Guest: John Jay Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a trip to Italy on the horizon, Dave’s wondering what it is we’re looking for when we fly halfway around the world—and Noelle and Chris are here to help him find some answers. Also on the itinerary: Clark Griswold, the lunacy of restaurant week, meeting at the painting next to the clock under the bridge, Noelle à Bordeaux, dodging the guided-tour junket, the Balthazar equation, traveling vs. sightseeing, the power of not knowing anything, backfilling the minibar, and Dave’s baggage strategy. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wylie Dufresne blazed a relentlessly creative trail for a generation of adventurous restaurants—and more recently, he’s been making pizza. It was only a matter of time before he returned to the show to tell Dave and Chris what he’s learned, and why there might be hope for the homemade-pizza practitioner after all. Also: taking salads off the menu, post-grunge food, Wylie’s slice order, holding pizza like a teacup, folding a hamburger in half, reverse-engineering TJ’s cacio e pepe, Chris’s pizza-shop pitch, and a glimpse of Wylie’s red-sauce formula. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Wylie Dufresne Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Marshall Goldsmith works as an executive coach with some of the most successful people alive—and finds they’ve often mastered everything except how to be happy. He returns to the show to talk with Dave and Chris about his new book, 'The Earned Life,' and what it tells us about how to be grateful, achieving everything and being miserable, fulfillment vs. regret, an infinite set of previous Daves, not stereotyping yourself, learning to be happy for one second, American pragmatism, and what to order when the fish is bad and the steak is worse. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Marshall Goldsmith Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a vintage ‘Dave Chang Show’ solo intro and a bicoastal dining update, Dave ushers in Chris and Noelle for a rapid-fire run through the rest of the Required Eating checklist—featuring thoughts on Chinese herbal digestifs, premium nighttime cereal, restaurant economics, scallion hyperinflation, Noelle’s calamari marketwatch, ordering three-quarters of a sandwich, 108-hour beet preparations, Noelle’s mom’s kare kare, inadequate vampire camouflage, and the ever-spreading scourge of Potemkin Biscoff. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris and Dave call up the pair behind the best-selling 'Notes from a Young Black Chef' to discuss their brand new cookbook 'My America,' and what it reveals about how we’ll all be eating in the years to come. Also: Playing to your strengths, giving birth to a word baby, cross-country recipe testing, re-upping on jambalaya at the dog park, Kwame’s Harry Potter House, a yin-yang of dolphins, Maggi seasoning, Miami oxtail prices, high-resolution recipes, the guy who created curry goat, what Kwame wants to eat on a book tour, North Korean noodles, and surfing the seafood stock danger zone. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guests: Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After last week’s Dave-induced derailment, it’s time at last for the gang to relay their Required Eating reports—and suddenly, everyone’s putting up numbers. Also encountered along the way: misleading fish marketing, a diner deep dive, Bobby Van’s, Noelle the Fanpire, 10 a.m. mozzarella sticks, a delightful eggplant parm, Hawaiian-style rib eye, a belated lemon-pepper defense, Elite Yelper Chris Ying, a rookie visit to Hillstone, the magic of Pierre Gagnaire, and Dave’s application for 'Iron Chef.' Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris call up Acre Venture Partners co-founder Lucas Mann to talk about how a future-focused VC firm engages with the tough-to-change worlds of food and agriculture—and about why Dave and Acre decided to work together. Plus: Patagonia vests, alternative protein, brilliant and world-changing people doing totally off-the-wall shit, getting a degree in Tibetan Buddhism, pork cocoons, 3D-printed fish grown in a car trunk, Slow Food, the sugar-industrial complex, the Island of Dr. Moreau, and a last-minute shark-tank pitch from Dave Chang. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Lucas Mann Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The MOIF team reconvenes to review the Required Eating challenges handed down last week—and what was meant to be a finale turns into more of a cliffhanger. But then, Dave, Chris, and Noelle dust themselves off and dive into: celebrity hotel-room cooking, Dave’s Batman rankings, a disappointing shrimp cocktail, bacon-to-lettuce ratios, when to wake up, dreams of hyper-efficiency, the Michael Pollan effect, feeling like a Quaker, taking a rocket ship to Hell for 20 minutes, Dave’s grade in Friendship 102, and the old bait-and-switch. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Great Pizza Debate continues with Recipe Club veteran and New World Sourdough author Bryan Ford stepping up to contend with unrepentant homemade pizza skeptic Dave Chang—but when the doppio-zero dust clears, whose pizza path will the world choose to follow? Plus: haircut narcolepsy, pan de coco, Dave making Jamaican food, heirloom Hot Pockets, putting bread on a pedestal, pulling up to the retirement community with the wood-fired pizza oven, open-crumb shots, Brian Scalabrine, and an honest assessment of Chris’s pasta salad. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Bryan Ford Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave, Chris, and Noelle are shaking up the show with a newly kinetic, activity-driven MOIF format—and if you're reading this, we're roping you into it, too. Also discussed: Diet Dr. Pepper, ordering London broil at a diner, Iron Chef, Dave's spinach-artichoke dip, encountering Biscoff cookies beneath 35,000 feet, asking for a second meal on a flight, restaurants making their own charcoal, fried-rice windfalls, and a farewell to Dave's mom. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producers: Sasha Ashall and Mike Wargon Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Walker was earning accolades for his work as a brewer in Santa Fe when he heard about a different kind of challenge—starting up a first-class nonalcoholic brewery. He tells Dave and Chris about what drew him to Athletic Brewing, amid a conversation covering temperance pairings, shift drinks, the Am-I-Stupid test, mowing the lawn in a shirt and tie, the great taste of cheap beer, Mosaic hops, capturing aromatic compounds, Joe Biden's favorite Gatorade, standing in line for Pliny the Younger, the sparkling water glut, beer regionality, and Dave's ongoing crusade against IPA. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: John Walker Producers: Sasha Ashall and Mike Wargon Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The gang returns for another late-night Q&A—but first, as a little warm-up, we recap Dave’s visit to Pizzeria Bianco, Chris’s Newport Seafood birthday experience, dinner-course deluges, and what happens when the kitchen writes Hufflepuff on the ticket. Then the questions begin. Confronted on this episode: potato antimatter, figs on a plate, gas station Jojos, curly fry engineering, the beauty of a properly poured Guinness, wedding registry advice, Kewpie mayo, booze that comes in a pleather case, Deanna Troi, and really, really good fruit. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Jordan Bass Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eighteen months after opening the doors at West Oakland’s Horn BBQ, Matt Horn has lines down the block, a second restaurant, and a new cookbook out this week—but finding that success was far from easy. Matt talks to Dave and Chris about the many long nights and moments of truth along the way, as well as the meal in Japan that Dave can’t stop thinking about, hangover salvation, bloomin’ onions, the 3 a.m. internal BBQ monologue, repo man Heston Blumenthal, burning the boats behind you, BBQ omakase, cooking hot links until they burst, Coke vs. Pepsi, where Matt’s eating in Oakland, and having faith in the fire vs. just wanting to eat the brisket already. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Matt Horn Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On their latest fact-finding expedition, Dave, Chris, and Noelle criss-cross the Western U.S. to consider becoming a carrot-cake household, 'Harry Potter' geography, fish maw soup, Peking-style pork chop, Chris and Noelle’s recent visit to Vegas, Bang Bar walking snacks, bathtub eating, wasabi-pea rice krispies, Dave taking another swing at Soylent, Chris’s Popeyes order, John Cougar Mellencamp, and the ominous, apparently unstoppable advance of the Seattle Dog. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What was life like for a young New York chef chasing a dream in the early 2000s? Milk Bar founder and Dave Chang chosen-family member Christina Tosi was there to see it, and her latest book, 'Dessert Can Save the World,' relays a lot of what she learned then and since. Christina calls up Dave and Chris to consider what she and Dave were like in their 20s, the smile vs. the grimace, the power of not having a plan, barbecue soft serve, the everything-bagel influence of Wylie Dufresne, proving Dave wrong, rainbow sprinkles, work-life ratios, eating multiple bowls of Honey Bunches of Oats, Dave discovering chocolate milk, and what might happen if Christina Tosi faced off against the Wheel of Constraint. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Christina Tosi Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a crab-or-prime-rib-driven 80th birthday party to plan, Dave, Chris, and Noelle set out to survey the Southern California seafood-banquet landscape, and attempt to chart the ideal parameters of a celebratory family meal. Also explored: Dave’s body falling apart, a real-life candy draft, whether Veggie Straws are vegetables, Brodard Chateau, Dave’s thoughts on Renaissance architecture, Noelle’s dinner at HaiDiLao, table-side cooking, and Recipe Club returning tomorrow! Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The eminent author of 'The Food Lab' and the just-released 'The Wok' joins Dave and Chris to talk about life as a lodestar to a generation of cooks, being a dad, and how he feels about making food at home. Plus: debunking the restaurant-burner requirement, our collective no-recipe moment, encountering your mom’s YouTube history, Googling jambalaya, perfection vs. discovery, Harold McGee, canon vs. fan fiction, and Kenji’s take on the Seattle Dog. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: J. Kenji López-Alt Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After comparing notes on their latest LA exploits, Dave, Chris, and Noelle step into the My Opinion is Fact arena once again—before deciding that the time is right for an impromptu assessment of the national chain-restaurant landscape. Discussed along the way: frozen langoustines, Dave eating clean, double-fried kakiage, another visit to Disneyland, the mainstreaming of birria, mustard martinis, gambling on diner paella, and the Dave Chang Show Third Eye Blind cover band. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

'Big Mouth' and 'Human Resources' creator (and Dave’s old friend!) Nick Kroll is back on the show to talk about new projects, new parenthood, and all the internal juggling and existential turmoil these achievements entail. Also: Staten Island pub crawls, working with Mel Brooks on 'History of the World, Part II,' making babies use Waze, appeasing your inner demons, terrible kitchen analogies, the person you are at work vs. the person you are at home, watching 'The Exorcist' at age 5, and constructing the ultimate new-dad cooler. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Nick Kroll Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Powered by half a glass of Hibiki, it’s time for Dave to go toe to toe with the latest listener questions plucked from the Majordomo Media Discord—and tonight, he’s determined to take down the Picnic Industrial Complex once and for all. Also swept up in the battle: sleeping in the goal at soccer practice, admitting to being a lurker on your own Discord server, eating in bed vs. eating outside, catching Dave glamping, mayonnaise-based salads, picking the locks at vacation homes, making Caesar dressing with fish sauce, dipping French fries in your Frosty, shopping-cart shot put, and the outlandish action-movie understanding of how people eat Chinese food. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris call up Sean Evans, the hot-sauce-hardened host of 17 seasons of 'Hot Ones,' to find out exactly how he puts together one of the best interview shows out there. Discussed: disarming your guests with pain, believing in the show before it caught on, rappelling down a waterfall with Bear Grylls, the preternatural serenity of Lorde, the Dave Grohl approach, Japanese game show levels of sadism, the 'Quiz Show' ripple effect, Sean’s post-wing ritual, the ranch-dressing gambit, and pondering the next frontiers of hot sauce. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Sean Evans Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the end of a revelatory month on the Wheel of Constraint, and our hosts have convened to assess their achievements, consider some potentially transcendental spins on the challenge, and celebrate very nearly making it through—but not before wrestling with a potentially life-threatening Discord debate. Also: Milk Bar ice cream, Dave’s duplicate-shirt strategy, going all in on dinner, recipes that require a fire extinguisher, the Arrakis approach to rice making, bringing your own mini-burritos to a restaurant, the beauty of Jamaican food, and a three-way takeout banquet featuring the very best their downtown L.A. delivery radius has to offer. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a debrief on the ups and downs of Dave’s first tour of dad duty at the Happiest Place on Earth, Dave and Chris call up Domee Shi, the director of Pixar’s latest release, to hear about how her new film came together. Discussed: Dole Whip, Toronto Chinatowns, the emotions inspired by boy bands, early 2000s nostalgia, getting kicked out of boarding school, eel fried rice, art-directing pork slices, the Pixar development method, drawing vs. cooking, art review stank face, how to pronounce “Ghibli,” Chris resisting getting into anime, Grace’s take on the movie, and betting on the next ride to debut at Disneyland. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Domee Shi Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On a rare four-mic episode, longtime friend of the show Anoop Pillarisetti lays out his Crescent City essentials before recounting his own recent ride on the Wheel of Inspirational Constraint: a chewable-food-free week of Soylent. Also covered: Andre Agassi’s stylistic legacy, hazardous pistachios, Soylent Stockholm syndrome, the Vegas blip, Dave’s new favorite ice cream, considering being a keto bro, becoming desensitized to the delicious, Chris’s Chinese restaurant dream, the happiest person Dave knows, deli provolone, and the coldest beer in the world. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guests: Noelle Cornelio and Anoop Pillarisetti Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave and Chris call up Stanley Cheng, CEO since 1972 of the cookware-revolutionizing Meyer Corporation, for an insider’s guide to the industry and a few sure-fire picks for home cooks. Discussed: a positive version of Hydra, cooking with Targaryen dragon fire, abandoning the cast-iron skillet, the right pans to buy, flat-bottom woks, the slipperiest material in the world, the silicone-coating racket, nonstick’s high-heat Achilles’ heel, Dave’s golf game, and a paternal assessment of the Anyday. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Stanley Cheng Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s Day 7 of Noelle’s Trader Joe’s–only diet, so at the tail end of that experiment within an experiment, Dave and Chris check in on Noelle’s highs and lows. Also: quantifying grocery store quality, tantrums on a plane, shrimp scampi pizza, a dearth of snow crab, and another poor soul entering the Wheel of Constraint’s dreadful grasp. Hosts: Dave Chang and Chris Ying Guest: Noelle Cornelio Producer: Sasha Ashall Additional Production: Jordan Bass and Lala Rasor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices