Cookbook author and baker extraordinaire Dorie Greenspan joins Michele to discuss the long, winding, and unforeseen journey to Dorie’s great baking career.

Dorie grew up in a household that did not make home-cooked meals; cooking was not on her radar. But when Dorie’s perceptive husband witnessed how much Dorie loved baking, he encouraged her to pursue it, and Dorie did—with enthusiasm. In addition to having been mentored by food world icon Julia Child, Dorie has written 14 cookbooks, won five James Beard awards, and has her very own prized kitchen in Paris. In this episode, find out how Dorie’s story begins with mistakenly burning down her mother’s kitchen and ends with Dorie being one of the best bakers in the business—and stay tuned for a lovely soft-shell crab recipe Dorie loved to share with her mother on the back steps of her childhood Brooklyn home.

Dorie Greenspan was born in Brooklyn and pursued a PhD in gerontology before becoming an internationally recognized cookbook author and baker. Dorie has been a columnist for The New York Times Magazine and The Washington Post and has twice won the Cookbook of the Year award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Dorie was awarded the Mérite d’Agricole—the Order of Agricultural Merit—by the French Consulate for her writings about France’s food. Today, she lives with her husband Michael in New York City, Westbrook, CT, and Paris, France.

Find the episode transcript here: https://www.audible.com/ymk/episode33

Tony Award-winning actor and Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson talks about finding his “tribe” in his local theater program as a kid in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He opens up about coming out to his dad three times and what it’s like for him to be a dad himself now, in real life. Plus, we learn how to make an especially southwestern dish: green (hatch) chili chicken stew.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson is an American actor best known for his role on the multiple Emmy Award-winning sitcom Modern Family, where he played gay lawyer, husband, and father Mitchell Pritchett for the entirety of the show’s 11-season run. He also won a Tony Award for his role in the 2022 revival of Take Me Out.

Find the episode transcript here: https://www.audible.com/ymk/episode32

Eric Kim, staff writer and essayist for The New York Times food section, introduces us to his mother Jean’s exceptional Korean cooking and to the suburban Atlanta kitchen he grew up in. It was there that Eric developed a love for traditional Korean cooking, and it was the same kitchen he would return to as an adult to write his debut cookbook, Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home, an instant New York Times bestseller. His mother Jean was his chief recipe taster and his inspiration for the delicious kimchi jjigae found in its pages.

Eric Kim was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. A former digital manager for the Food Network and contributing editor for Saveur magazine, he now hosts regular videos on NYT Cooking’s YouTube channel and writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine. He lives in New York City with his rescue dog, Q.

Find the episode transcript here: https://www.audible.com/ymk/episode31

Journalist and television news personality Natalie Morales takes us back to her globetrotting childhood as a daughter in a military family. She reminisces on living in Spain during her teenage years and the food she ate in her Puerto Rican and Brazilian household, plus she teaches us how to make the perfect flan.

Natalie Morales co-hosts the Daytime Emmy award-winning show The Talk on CBS. Before that, she served over two decades at NBC News, anchoring the Today show and making appearances on Dateline and NBC Nightly News. She has a cookbook, At Home With Natalie: Simple Recipes for Healthy Living from My Family's Kitchen to Yours, which was published in 2018.

Find the episode transcript here: https://www.audible.com/ymk/episode30

Award-winning food writer and journalist Mark Bittman walks us through the evolution of his relationship with all things culinary, beginning with his upbringing on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Bittman describes how he first started using cookbooks, the impact of global politics on his perspective, and how his mother and grandmother influenced his cooking habits.

Mark Bittman is a food writer and journalist who has authored thirty books on a variety of topics. His work discusses the pleasures of food, how to prepare it, and its impact on our bodies and on the world at large. Bittman is also known for his many appearances on the Today show and for his New York Times column “The Minimalist,” which ran for 13 years. He is the editor in chief of food publication The Bittman Project.

Find the episode transcript here: https://www.audible.com/ymk/episode29

Nationally renowned women’s health advocate Dr. Sharon Malone takes us back to her childhood in Mobile, Alabama, where she lived through a monumental moment in civil rights history led by her sister, Vivian Malone. Dr. Malone talks about how she views cooking together with family as an act of love and says there’s no better way to show love than baking a decadent pound cake.

Dr. Sharon Malone is a ob-gyn and Certified Menopause Practitioner who has been an active advocate for reproductive rights, women’s health, and health education. She authored the book Grown Woman Talk for aging women whose healthcare needs are ignored or just less talked about. She is also the chief medical officer of Alloy Women’s Health.

Find the episode transcript here: https://www.audible.com/ymk/episode28

In this episode, Nicole Avant—daughter of legendary music mogul Clarence Avant—looks back at her bustling childhood kitchen, where prominent Black figures were always stopping by. She’ll tell us about her mother’s snow cookies recipe as well as reflect on the loss of her mother and share tips for consoling someone experiencing deep grief.

Nicole Avant is a film producer, author, and former ambassador for the Bahamas. She wrote the critically acclaimed book Think You’ll be Happy: Moving Through Grief with Grit, Grace, and Gratitude. She also produced the documentary The Black Godfather about her father’s illustrious music career.

Find the episode transcript here: https://www.audible.com/ymk/episode27

Award-winning, bestselling author Kristin Hannah recounts her outdoorsy childhood living in farmhouses and campsites built by her adventurous dad. We get a glimpse into what inspired Hannah to venture into historical fiction and what her mom managed to cook for her and her siblings with a wood fire stove—plus we hear how to make her mama’s buttermilk cornbread.

Kristin Hannah is an American historical fiction author. She’s written over twenty novels, many of them securing spots in the New York Times bestseller list, including The Four Winds and The Nightingale, which sold over 4.5 million copies. Her novel Firefly Lane was made into a Netflix Original Series in 2021.

Find the episode transcript here: https://www.audible.com/ymk/episode26