Special Sauce with Ed Levine - Podcast Rankings and reviews

Wonderful podcast featuring guests from a range of careers in the food industry. Ed is the best interviewer. He asks great questions while just seeming to have a conversation with his guests. He does all his research too.

I had to unsubscribe to this eventually, even though I love the guests, because of how much I dislike Ed’s interview style. He cannot get through a conversation without somehow spotlighting himself. It’s tone deaf, disrespectful and annoying when guests have much more interesting stories that I haven’t already heard 100 times.

I’ve been following SeriousEats for a long time. The podcast is a great way to get insights on cooking, but also hear from chefs and cookbook authors.

To those complaining and wanting the host to shut up about politics and just talk about food, here’s a newsflash. Food is politics. And if you don’t know that you are not paying attention and/or you have never experienced food insecurity. Our entire food system is based on politics - how it’s marketed, what we have access to, how farmers are allowed to operated (ya, know, the little thing called the Farm Bill everyone has been talking about), etc. Water is wet, people. Get over yourselves or perhaps tune in to Guy Fieri instead if what you are looking for is all flash and no substance.

I’d hope the new 2.0 version would improve things, but it’s only gotten worse.
•Ed still interrupts his guests and drones on about “when I started Serious Eats...”
•The volume is still too low
•It’s very NYC-centric
•The ask Kenji segment isn’t organized: it’s just Kenji rattling off way too much info way too fast without staying on point
•Recycled video content doesn’t translate well for radio, plus I’d rather have new content
•Ed’s new voiceovers are done in the most high pitched condescending voice
•Sasha Marx’s voice isn’t radio friendly
•More Stella Parks and Daniel Gritzer are what’s needed
•Most of the guests are great

I have been a listener for years because of the quality and diversity of the guests. However, Ed’s need to always turn the conversation to himself..”when I started Serious Eats...” has become just too boring. Many other food podcasts to enjoy.