Hi there!

Our Spring 2023 season of the Salt + Spine podcast kicks off right here, right now, with a marvelous returning guest: the delightful Claire Saffitz.

In today’s episode, Claire and I discuss:

* How she’s worked to create dessert recipes that speak to everyone—from sweet to tart, simple to complex.

* The impact of the pandemic on her creative process as she embarked on writing book No. 2, What’s for Dessert.

* Which cookbook authors inspire Claire, and which books she turns to time and again—including community cookbooks!

* Her advice to home bakers, based on years of creating recipes for curious novices looking for a boost.

Plus, as always, we put Claire to the culinary test in our signature game.

The Book!

We 💚 local bookstores. Find your copy of Claire’s What’s for Dessert at Bookshop or a signed copy (!) from Omnivore Books.

P.S. Find Claire’s first book, Dessert Person, on Bookshop and Omnivore.

The Recipes!

This week, paid subscribers will get two featured recipes from Claire’s What’s for Dessert—these vibrant No Bake Grapefruit Bars and an utlra-swirly Flourless Chocolate Meringue Cake.

Get these recipes this week by becoming a paid subscriber! Salt + Spine is a reader-supported publication. Paid subscribers get bonus content like featured recipes and more for just a few dollars per month.

Episode 153: Uliks Fehmiu

Uliks Fehmiu is a co-founder of the beloved bakery Pain D’Avignon, which sprang up on Cape Cod over three decades ago. But the story of the bakery begins back in Uliks’ childhood and his early friendships in war-torn Belgrade.

What Uliks calls an “improbable journey into baking” is shared, for the first time in this format, with his recent cookbook: The Pain d'Avignon Baking Book: A War, An Unlikely Bakery, and a Master Class in Bread. The book offers an in-person account of Uliks’ and his co-founders’ stories—brought to life with striking illustrations. Here’s more:

In a journey that started in Belgrade amid the beginnings of war, and continued in America, four friends tested this philosophy to the extreme: They began a new life and opened a tiny bakery together on Cape Cod. Working hectic, twenty-four-hour days, while living all together in a loft above their business and making it all up as they went along, the founders of Pain D'Avignon quickly became one of the first highly acclaimed purveyors of artisanal bread in the Northeast.

The book also features 60 recipes spanning from Pain d’Avignon’s chef-loved loaves of sourdough and Cranberry Pecan bread to croissants, sandwiches, sweets, and more.

Uliks joined us remotely in our virtual studio for this Baking Month episode. I hope you enjoy our chat!

Featured Recipes from The Pain d’Avignon Baking Book:

This week, paid subscribers can access two featured recipes from Uliks Fehmiu’s The Pain d’Avignon Baking Book: an Apple Tart and the bakery’s Blueberry Lemon Scones.

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. To get full access to our exclusive content and featured recipes, and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Episode 152: Maya-Camille Broussard

Maya-Camille is the creative force behind Justice of the Pies, her Chicago bakery that’s become known for inventive and unmatched flavors (Lemon Espresso Pie … Blue Cheese Praline Pear Pie … and so on).

Much of Maya-Camille’s work traces back to her roots, with a significant influence from her father, the self-dubbed “Pie Master,” who worked as a criminal defense attorney by day. As with many family stories, Maya-Camille’s is complex and dotted with both adoration and strife. A strong sense of social activism and community building runs through her blood, though, and is baked into her work.

Her first cookbook, also titled Justice of the Pies, brings these beloved and revered recipes to home bakers with 85 recipes for both sweet and savory pies—plus quiches, tarts, whoopie pies, and more.

“I've always loved baking,” Maya-Camille says in our chat. “But at my core, I am a creative individual. And also at my core, I love working with my hands. I do have an arts background in terms of dancing, in terms of theater, in terms of visual art. I even played upright bass for five years. But culinary is still an art form—and it's the only art form that we have that's required for us to live. I don't dance as much anymore, but I'm still living, you know? I don't paint anymore, but I'm still living. If I don't eat, I'm not gonna live. So I can take this creative energy that I have and pour it into something that also provides me sustenance.”

Justice of the Pies is also filled with stories of “stewards" who Maya-Camille says are “agents of change who stand for fairness and equality.” Maya-Camille penned short profiles and developed recipes to honor folks like Black Joy Project creator Kleaver Cruz; cookbook author and Equity at the Table founder Julia Turshen and Design*Sponge founder Grace Bonney; and disability rights activist Claudia Gordon. (Or take Big Kika Keith and Kika Jr., who opened LA’s first Black-owned, women-led dispensary. To accompany their story, Maya-Camille developed a “Peaches and Herb Cobbler” that features a weed-infused butter.)

P.S. Maya-Camille starred in Netflix’s “Bake Squad” hosted by Christina Tosi, and she returns to the cast for a second season with it drops later this month.

Featured Recipes from Justice of the Pies

This week, paid subscribers can access two featured recipes from Maya-Camille’s Justice of the Pies: Lavender Whoopie Pies and Chocolate-Peanut Butter + Pretzel Tart.

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. To get full access to our exclusive content and featured recipes, and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Hi there, today we’re excited to release the fifth episode in our 2022 Baking Month. Thanks for your patience, as our team was under the weather! Today’s guest is Brian Noyes, whose latest cookbook is The Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook. For all of December, we’ll be celebrating some of the year’s best baking books with a handful of author interviews, dozens of featured recipes, excerpts, and more. Read on!

* Do you love Salt + Spine? We’d love if you shared this email with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too:

Episode 151: Brian Noyes

Next in our Baking Month series, Brian Noyes joins us to #TalkCookbooks!

Brian is the founder of Red Truck Bakery, the rural Virginia spot that’s become a national attraction and drawn the praise of everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Barack Obama.

During a career in art direction at major media outlets in Washington, DC, Brian began spending his weekends baking pies and other goods. Before long, he’d purchased an old red pickup truck (from Tommy Hilfiger, no less) and was selling out of his sweet treats. Two locations and two cookbooks later, Red Truck Bakery continues—and Brian’s latest cookbook, The Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook is out now and goes beyond sweets to include rustic, savory fare.

Bonus Content + Recipes This Week

This week, paid subscribers have access to two recipes from Brian’s book: Orange Pecan Rolls and Virginia Peanut Pie as well as other bonus Baking Month content:

Find the Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook recipes here:

* Orange Pecan Rolls

* Virginia Peanut Pie

More Salt + Spine Baking Month!

Stay tuned to our Substack through the end of the month for exclusive recipes and more featured conversations with baking authors.

Hi there, today we’re excited to release the fourth episode in our 2022 Baking Month. Today’s guest is Laurel Kratochvila, whose debut cookbook, New European Baking, is out now. For all of December, we’ll be celebrating some of the year’s best baking books with a handful of author interviews, dozens of featured recipes, excerpts, and more. Read on!

* Do you love Salt + Spine? We’d love if you shared this email with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too:

Episode 150: Laurel Kratochvila

Next in our Baking Month series, Laurel Kratochvila joins us to #TalkCookbooks!

Born in Boston, Laurel left her hometown for Katmandu after graduating with a degree in Physics from Tufts. She wound up in Prague, working in a bookstore and café, where she also met her husband.

It wasn’t until the duo decided to open up a bookstore in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg that Laurel started baking professionally—and her delicious bagels and baked goods were a hit. But Germany loves its paperwork, so Laurel decided to head to France to get a formal education in pastry.

The long-standing traditions of baking in Europe inspired her first cookbook: New European Baking: 99 Recipes for Breads, Brioches, and Pastries. The book features not only classic pastry recipes and step-by-step instructions for complicated breads and pastry, but it also profiles a dozen bakers across Europe who represent what Laurel sees as the “new” baking that’s taking off in Europe. Working off a basis of strong tradition, female bakers are leading the way to a thoughtful approach to baking.

Now, Laurel’s café, Fine Bagels, and her husband’s bookstore, Shakespeare & Sons, are both running smoothly, and Laurel reports that Berliners have come to love the English-language bookshop and New York-style bagels.

Bonus Content + Recipes This Week

This week, paid subscribers have access to two recipes from Laurel’s book: Halva Flan and Potato, Thyme, and Gruyère Hand Pies as well as other bonus Baking Month content:

Find the New European Baking recipes here:

* Halva Flan

* Potato, Thyme, and Gruyère Hand Pies

More Salt + Spine Baking Month!

Stay tuned to our Substack over the next two weeks for exclusive recipes and more featured conversations with baking authors.

Hi there, today we’re excited to release the third episode in our 2022 Baking Month. Today’s guest is Erin Jeanne McDowell, whose latest cookbook, Savory Baking, is out now. For all of December, we’ll be celebrating some of the year’s best baking books with a handful of author interviews, dozens of featured recipes, excerpts, and more. Read on!

* Do you love Salt + Spine? We’d love if you shared this email with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too:

Episode 149: Erin Jeanne McDowell

Next in our Baking Month series, Erin Jeanne McDowell joins us to #TalkCookbooks!

A Midwest native, Erin learned to bake like so many of us: alongside her grandmothers. While studying Baking & Pastry Arts at the Culinary Institute of America, Erin was drawn to a career in food media.

After years of working alongside other cookbook authors and for food media outlets, Erin published her first solo cookbook, The Fearless Baker, in 2017, to high praise. Her pie book, aptly titled The Book on Pie, soon followed.

And now we’re treated to her latest cookbook—the one she tells us she’s been mulling on for years: Savory Baking: Recipes for Breakfast, Dinner, and Everything in Between. From breads to hearty tarts and other savory bakes (yes, that includes pizza!), Savory Baking brings the joy of baking to those of us with a “salt tooth” more than a sweet tooth. (Don’t worry — there are some sweet spins, too.)

Bonus Content + Recipes This Week

Paid subscribers have access to two featured recipes from Savory Baking: Enchilada Pie and the Flakiest Cheese Biscuits.

Find the Savory Baking recipes here:

* Enchilada Pie

* Flakiest Cheese Biscuits

More Salt + Spine Baking Month!

Stay tuned to our Substack over the next two weeks for exclusive recipes from Benjamina Ebuehi’s The New Way to Cake and more featured conversations with baking authors.

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. To get full access to our exclusive content and featured recipes, and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Hi there, today we’re excited to release the second episode in our 2022 Baking Month. Today’s guest is Brian Levy, whose sugar-free baking book, Good & Sweet, is out now. For all of December, we’ll be celebrating some of the year’s best baking books with a handful of author interviews, dozens of featured recipes, excerpts, and more. Read on!

* Do you love Salt + Spine? We’d love if you shared this email with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too:

Episode 148: Brian Levy

Next in our Baking Month series, Brian Levy joins us to #TalkCookbooks!

Brian’s interest in cooking and gastronomy began in high school when he went on a month-long trip to France. He discovered Gourmet magazine and started watching Martha Stewart, The Two Fat Ladies, and more food TV.

Before he began his career in pastry, Brian studied journalism and was determined to work for Gourmet. To build up his resume, he thought some experience in the kitchen might help—so he went back to France where he interned in a bistro outside of Paris. Eventually, he made his way to New York where he interned at Michelin-starred Babbo before later studying architecture at Yale.

Brian’s first cookbook, Good and Sweet: A New Way to Bake with Naturally Sweet Ingredients, has been called a “game-changing collection of desserts” by celebrated author and baker Alice Medrich.

In the book, Brian eschews processed sugar and common substitutes like maple syrup, opting instead to let pure fruits and other whole ingredients naturally sweeten and enliven his recipes.

Bonus Content + Recipes This Week

This week, paid subscribers will receive three featured recipes from Good & Sweet: Rosemary-Lemon Shortbread, a Pistachio-Studded Peach Galette, and the Perfect Currant Scone.

Find the recipes here:

* Rosemary-Lemon Shortbread

* Pistachio-Studded Peach Galette

* Perfect Currant Scone

More Salt + Spine Baking Month!

ICYMI, yesterday we featured recipes from Chetna's Easy Baking: Simple Cakes with a Twist of Spice by Chetna Makan:

* Spicy Coriander Chicken Bake

* Banoffee Chocolate Pavlova

And stay tuned to our Substack this week for exclusive recipes from Benjamina Ebuehi’s The New Way to Cake and a featured conversation with Erin Jeanne McDowell.

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. To get full access to our exclusive content and featured recipes, and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

It’s our annual Baking Month, and we’re kicking things off with some return guests! Back on the show today are Rose Levy Beranbaum and her collaborator-turned-hubby Woody Wolston. They’re joining Brian in-studio to talk about their latest work, The Cookie Bible.

Episode 147: Rose Levy Beranbaum

Rose likely needs no introduction to those in the cookbook world. But here’s what you need to know:

* She published the ground-breaking The Cake Bible in 1988, changing how many home and professional bakers approached the craft. (In particular, Rose helped lead the charge to include the more accurate weight measurements in her recipes instead of just volume.)

* The Cake Bible is now in its 60th printing (!!!), and Rose shares some news on what’s next for the classic work.

* In that time, Rose has penned a dozen other cookbooks, from The Baking Bible to The Bread Bible—and other non-bible titles on ice cream, cakes, Christmas cookies, and more.

* Rose’s latest cookbook, The Cookie Bible, completes her “quartet of bibles” on cake, pie, bread, and, now, cookies. The book includes every type of cookie you could imagine—from macarons to rolled-and-cut holiday cookies, to sandwich cookies and cookie bars.

In this first episode of Baking Month, Rose and Woody join us to discuss the book-making process, their newly minted marriage, and play a cookie-themed game.

Two Recipes from The Cookie Bible

To celebrate the launch of Baking Month, today’s first recipe for Lemon Lumpies is available to all Substack subscribers for a limited time!

A second recipe from The Cookie Bible for Chocolate Truffle Cookies is available for paid subscribers.

* Do you love Salt + Spine? We’d love it if you shared this email with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too:

Still to Come in Baking Month

Our Baking Month line-up is packed with all-star authors from this year’s top baking books. Hear new podcast interviews with guests like Claire Saffitz and Maya-Camille Broussard. Become a paid subscriber to Salt + Spine today to get access to dozens of featured Baking Month recipes.

Here’s a peek at our full line-up:

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. To get full access to our exclusive content and featured recipes, and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Stay tuned to our Substack tomorrow for exclusive recipes from Chetna's Easy Baking: Simple Cakes with a Twist of Spice by Chetna Makan.

Hi there, exciting show for you this week. Melissa Clark, one of the most prolific cookbook writers of the modern era, joins us. Read on!

* Do you love Salt + Spine? We’d love if you shared this email with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too:

Episode 146: Melissa Clark

This week, Melissa Clark joins us to #TalkCookbooks!

When we launched Salt + Spine, I wrote a short list of our dream guests — the cookbook authors who, at the time, I felt were pushing the industry in new directions or had a wealth of experience to learn from. We’ve been lucky to sit down with many folks from that list (from Samin Nosrat to Julia Turshen to Vivian Howard…). Today, we’re marking one more off that list as Melissa joins us in-studio to discuss her latest cookbook, Dinner in One.

Dubbed the “gold standard for Internet recipe writing” by Eater, Melissa Clark has been developing recipes for over a decade at The New York Times, where she started with a short sidebar on home cooking questions before joining as a columnist and reporter. (A recent search on NYT Cooking showed her byline attached to some 1,391 results!)

That early NYT series Melissa authored, called “Food Chain,” offered helpful tips and answers to cooking challenges in the era before such information was one keystroke away. Today, her NYT column, “A Good Appetite,” features everything from a reinvented crab dip to her best Instant Pot recipes.

And all the while, Melissa’s written 45 cookbooks! She’s collaborated on books with chefs like Daniel Boulud, David Bouley, and Claudia Fleming. Her 2017 home-cooking tome, Dinner: Changing the Game, features more than 200 recipes for inventive, interesting meals. She’s following it up with her latest work, Dinner in One, which features recipes that use just “one” vessel—one sauté pan, one sheet tray, one pot, etc.

In this week’s show, we’re talking with Melissa about growing up with food-loving parents who immersed her in French food and culture at an early age … how she landed at the NYT, even though she turned down their first job offer … and how dining out is critical to her recipe development process. And, of course, we’re putting her to the test in our signature culinary game.

Bonus Content + Recipes This Week

This week, paid subscribers will receive two featured recipes from Melissa's Dinner in One: the Roasted Cauliflower and Potatoes with Harissa, Yogurt, and Toasted Almonds and her Ricotta Olive Oil Pound Cake.

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. To get full access to our exclusive content and featured recipes, and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Coming Up…

* Attention Bay Area fans: Our fifth-annual Cookie Swap is coming up on Sunday, Dec. 11 featuring oodles of cookies and demos from yours truly, Kristina Cho, and more! The cookie swap is sold out, but you can join the waitlist here!

* This week’s episode with Melissa Clark is the last “regular” episode of the year—but we’ve got something really exciting in store for December. Stay tuned for more details!

Hi there! After a short break last week, we’re back with new episodes and bonus content for subscribers. This week, cookbook author Odette Williams joined us in our studio at The Civic Kitchen in San Francisco to talk pasta.

* Do you love Salt + Spine? We’d love if you shared this email with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too:

Episode 145: Odette Williams

This week, Odette Williams joins us on Salt + Spine to #TalkCookbooks!

Odette was an actor long before she started calling herself a cook (or an author). She called Sydney home until 2006 and credits the unpretentious, adventurous attitude of Australia for her own approach to cooking.

Leaving Sydney for love, Odette joined her now-husband in New York and started a family. As she was spending more time cooking with her children, she was inspired to design high-quality aprons just for kids. (The aprons were a hit and sold by goop, J. Crew, and Anthropologie; Odette jokes that she quickly became the “apron lady.”)

While Odette’s career as a food writer grew (her new Wall Street Journal column, Party Trick, makes entertaining easy), those aprons also ended up in the hands of a couple of editors at the cookbook publishing house Ten Speed Press—and, well, the cookbook cards fell into place.

Heavily influenced by the food writing of prolific cookbook author Donna Hay and the recipes she found in the monthly Australian Women's Weekly magazine, Odette’s recipes are clear, concise, and simply delicious.

Odette’s first cookbook, Simple Cake, featured recipes for basic cakes that could be customized and combined in a number of different ways.

And now, Odette’s back with her second cookbook: Simple Pasta. In a similar vein to Simple Cake, this book provides some building blocks—dough recipes, and a few sauces—that can be customized to your mood. But the book explodes with dozens of creative recipes from cocktails to starters to salads. And of course, lots of pasta.

There are classics—cacio e pepe and carbonara and so on. But the seasonally divided book also offers recipes like Peppery Pappardelle, Pancetta & Mushrooms … Sweet Corn & Jalapeno Ravioli … to a Luxe Mac & Cheese that Odette says is “bordering on hedonistic.” The emphasis here is fresh pasta—which Odette says you can and should make!—though notes indicate where store-bought dried pasta can stand in.

We’ve got a great episode for you today: In today’s show, we’re talking with Odette about how she settled into this career, about the success of her “Simple” books, and why pasta is sometimes better for serving 2 than 20. And of course, we’re putting her to the test in our signature culinary game.

Bonus Content + Recipes This Week

This week, paid subscribers will receive:

* Two recipes from Simple Pasta: the Garganelli with Vodka Sauce and the Winter Chicories with Date and Anchovy Dressing. Yum:

* An exclusive author-read except: Hear Odette read her love letter to pasta from Simple Pasta!

* The next installment of our bookseller Q&A: This week, Bonnie Slotnick joins us. (Fun fact: She started by selling books at Kitchen Arts & Letters!)

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. To get full access to our exclusive content and featured recipes, and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

This Week’s New Cookbook Releases

Here are a few of the new cookbooks on shelves this week:

* Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files by Deb Perelman

* Tasty Total Comfort: Cozy Recipes with a Modern Touch: An Official Tasty Cookbook

* Baking Bread with Kids: Trusty Recipes for Magical Homemade Bread by Jennifer Latham

* Avocadomania: Everything about Avocados from Aztec Delicacy to Superfood: Recipes, Skincare, Lore, & More by Déborah Holtz & Juan Carlos Mena

* The Anchor Brewing Story: America's First Craft Brewery & San Francisco's Original Anchor Steam Beer by David Burkhart

* Cocktail Time!: The Ultimate Guide to Grown-Up Fun by Paul Feig

* The Pastry Chef Handbook: La Patisserie de Reference by Pierre Paul Zeiher and Jean Michel Truchelut

* Steve the Bartender's Cocktail Guide by Steven Roennfeldt

* Eat Plants, B*tch: 91 Vegan Recipes That Will Blow Your Meat-Loving Mind by Pinky Cole

* Seattle Cocktails: An Elegant Collection of Over 100 Recipes Inspired by the Emerald City by Neil Ratliff

🍪 COOKIE SWAP WITH US!

Attention Bay Area fans: Our fifth-annual Cookie Swap is coming up on Sunday, Dec. 11 — and we can’t wait to see you there! Reserve your spot here and find more details below.

Join us for a fun-packed event featuring loads of cookies to admire and sample (some made by you!, if you like), baking and decorating demos, and glasses of sparkling wine or warm apple cider.

You’re invited to wander about our kitchen, tasting cookies made by The Civic Kitchen team and cookbook authors featured on Salt+Spine. Learn baking tips from our live demos, including by Salt+Spine host Brian Hogan Stewart, a surprise Cookbook Author (or 2), and a bevy of Civic Kitchen teachers.

Throughout it all, we’ll swap cookies with new and old friends. Bring one dozen (or more) homemade cookies and trade them for another mixed dozen to take home. No time to bake? You can still take away cookies for $10 per dozen.

We will have some exciting giveaways, including baking books, Salt+Spine t-shirts and more! Proceeds from the event benefit La Cocina, supporting their talented Bay Area food entrepreneurs.

If you love cookies or cookbooks (or both), you do not want to miss this event!