Burnt Toast

In part one of a two-part series, we talk to Judith Jones, legendary editor of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Hear about her work with cookbooks and their authors (think: Marcella Hazan, Marion Cunningham), and learn why, even still, she wouldn’t call herself a cookbook editor. And: There’s a Julia Child impression or two in here, just for fun.

This was the subject of our most popular post on Food52 last year, so we asked more of you for your back-pocket, too-tired-to-cook meals. We all have them—here's what you said, plus our tips for riffing and making them even faster.

We sit down with David Gelb—director of Netflix's popular Chef's Table and the 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi—to talk about what's just off camera: How he selects chefs to feature, what goes into each episode, and what's in store for the new season, launching May 27th.

How do the James Beards really work, anyway? We go behind the scenes of the Oscars of the food world to trace a cookbook from submission to judging to—fingers crossed—winning an award.

Kristen Miglore—our mighty Creative Director and colleague—has been surfacing recipes from food luminaries that promise to change the way we cook for the past 5 years. She collects them in her James Beard Award-nominated column, Genius Recipes, and also in a _New York Times_ best-selling book by the same name. This episode goes behind the scenes on how she chooses them, those that have taken on a life of their own, and what it is, really, that makes a recipe _genius_.

It's Italy Week at Food52, so we sat down—and drank spritzes—with the authors of two of our favorite new books: Talia Baiocchi and Leslie Pariseau, authors of "Spritz," and Katie Parla of "Tasting Rome." We talk cocktail legends and carbonara origin stories, and, spoiler: We do some of it in Italian.

Getting 30 minutes in a room with L.A. restaurant critic and Pulitzer-winning food writer Jonathan Gold is a little like feeding the man himself a single taco. We do it anyway. Listen as we discuss City of Gold—the new documentary featuring him—plus the role of a critic, the insignificance of anonymity, and the great mosaic that is L.A. food.

How it works, all of the behind-the-scenes that happens _before_ you see the tournament play out on the site, and more than a handful of disasters that have happened in the 7 years it's been running. Hear it all—and more—in this week's episode.

Today's the first day of our annual NCAA-style cookbook tournament, so we asked for your predictions. Hear who our judges and readers think is going to win—and hear from a bookstore owner who's running her own competition—in today's episode.

Or so says food writer Michael Ruhlman, who wants to know if _you know_ what’s in your food. He wants to restart the conversation around this—and change the way we talk about what we eat. Today, we hear why he thinks kale isn’t healthy, and what we can do to be better cooks, eaters, and shoppers.