logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2025
43m 17s

Back to Basics: The Cooking Mindset

Bon Appétit
About this episode

Welcome to Back to Basics Week! All week, Chris and his Bon Appétit colleagues are answering listener questions about the fundamentals of cooking, to help level you up as a home cook.

In this final installment, Chris and Shilpa talk about the intangibles of cooking— how to get into the right mindset, manage your time efficiently, and course correct when something goes wrong. They also answer a grab bag of sliiightly more advanced questions to help listeners with everything from salt to the perfect batch of pancakes.

Recipes & Links:
BA's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Lazy Day Pancakes

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Up next
Oct 7
BA Bake Club: Banana Pudding Paris-Brest
Hold onto your piping bags, Bake Club! In September, Jesse set bakers a showstopper-worthy challenge in his Banana Pudding Paris-Brest. In this episode, he and Shilpa break down the many worthwhile steps for making this "drag queen of French desserts." They're also joined by supe ... Show More
41m 36s
Sep 2
BA Bake Club: Peach-Blueberry Crumb Pie
We'll say it: late summer is peak pie season. And August's Bake Club recipe - for Shilpa's cardamom-laced Peach-Blueberry Crumb Pie - provides an excellent reason to turn your oven on and crank up the AC. In this episode, Shilpa and Jesse commiserate about how frustrating pie cru ... Show More
44m 19s
Aug 12
BA Bake Club: Live at the Bell House
In this bonus episode of BA Bake Club, Jesse and Shilpa take the stage live at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY to introduce a new audience to the club. They cover the rules of Bake Club and give a sample of the kinds of questions they answer on the podcast - plus share some baking ... Show More
22m 53s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2024
Take a Break with Home Cooking
Deb and Kenji are taking a break this week. Please enjoy this classic episode from Home Cooking, our fellow Radiotopia show about food.****************************** According to our callers, a big part of Thanksgiving seems to be making food for your loved ones that you only kin ... Show More
55m 5s
Jan 2023
The Science of Stir-Fry with J. Kenji López-Alt
J. Kenji López-Alt gives us a lesson on Wok 101 and reveals the science behind great stir-fry. Plus, Cheryl Day joins Christopher Kimball to tackle your baking questions about everything from powdered milk to cardamom buns; cookbook author Chelsea Monroe-Cassel explores the food ... Show More
50m 44s
Feb 2025
797: Melissa Clark’s Deep Dive into Salt & Crystal Wilkinson on her Kitchen Ghosts
This week, we talk to two award-winning authors about their latest work. First, The New York Times cooking columnist Melissa Clark talks to us about her deep dive into the world of salt. From exploring salt harvesting in France to the history and revival of artisanal salts, she w ... Show More
50m 19s
Apr 2025
Katarina Cermelj: Cookbook Author, Food Writer and Creator of The Loopy Whisk, an Allergy-Free Baking Blog
Katarina Cermelj (Kat for short) is an award-winning cookbook author, food writer, photographer and creator of the popular ‘free-from’ baking blog, The Loopy Whisk. She has a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, having previously completed her undergraduate C ... Show More
33m 26s
Jan 2020
Hell’s French Kitchen: How 7 Days of Cooking Broke Writer Sam Ashworth
When Sam Ashworth apprenticed in a French Michelin-starred restaurant, it broke him after just one week. This week, he talks about his experience—which entailed cleaning squid for four hours a night—and why the French brigade system of training chefs and regimenting the cooking p ... Show More
50m 45s
Sep 2024
Getting Cultural Appropriation in Food right, and how to learn instead of steal from traditional cooking methods with Mallika Basu
Mallika Basu is one of my absolute favourite people in food. Not only is she hilarious, she’s a writer, commentator and board adviser in food, drink and hospitality with two published cookbooks (Miss Masala: Real Indian Cooking for Busy Living and Masala: Indian Cooking for Moder ... Show More
47m 5s
Apr 2025
Welcome to Your Mama’s Kitchen
Sharing another podcast we can’t get enough of: Your Mama’s Kitchen. It’s a show about cuisine and culture, ingredients and identities, and the meals and memories that make us who we are. Host Michele Norris talks to Michelle Obama, Glennon Doyle, José Andrés and so many other gu ... Show More
43m 37s
Sep 25
What's Cooking?
In contemporary cookbooks—and in the burgeoning realm of online cooking content—there’s often a life style on display alongside the recipes. Samin Nosrat is a fixture of this landscape, and her new book, “Good Things,” aims to pick up where her mega-best-seller “Salt, Fat, Acid, ... Show More
48m 24s
Nov 2024
"Taco Bell for Thanksgiving" with Andy Baraghani
Hello and welcome to Solicited Advice: Holiday Edition. For the next few weeks, we’ll be answering all of your most pressing holiday-related questions, dilemmas and queries. This week, Alison is joined by cookbook author Andy Baraghani. From balancing dietary restrictions without ... Show More
52m 6s
Mar 2025
How to ACTUALLY start cooking at home (+ tips for healthy eating) - BTSP #50
Amber’s here to talk all things cooking, eating, and enjoying food!! Learn how to get inspired in the kitchen & turn cooking into your self care :) Watch the video version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@beautifultwinsisterspod Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/beau ... Show More
44m 13s