Salt & Spine Brian Hogan Stewart

Episode 166: James Park
This week, James Park joins us to discuss his first cookbook, Chili Crisp: 50+ Recipes to Satisfy Your Spicy, Crunchy, Garlicky Cravings.
James is a seasoned recipe developer and food writer who has been published in outlets including Eater, Food52, BuzzFeed, and Chowhound. After moving from Korea to the American South when he was 13, James began to navigate two cultural identities and continued to turn to food as a medium.
And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know chili crisp has been having a ~moment~ in the United States. While the condiment has become trendy in the US, its roots are deep in Asia and became a more steady consumer product when Lao Gan Ma began producing containers of chile crisp in China’s Guizhou province in the late 1990s. A slew of American brands have emerged with chili crisps and chili crisp-inspired products, with Cathy Erway chronicling the “cult of spicy chile crisp” for TASTE. Just this month, David Chang’s Momofuku brand drove chili crisp headlines after going after (and then backing off) companies using their trademarked term “chili crunch.”
So when James went to write his first cookbook and narrowed his focus on chili crisp, it was in sync with the zeitgeist. Though he considers himself an “unofficial chili crisp ambassador,” James didn’t discover the condiment until later in life, which allowed him to see how he could incorporate it into recipes in creative and unexpected ways.
“Chili crisp opened the door of connections with other Asian cultures for me,” James writes in Chili Crisp. “The more I tasted chili crisp, the more I appreciated it and was proud to be a part of it. It even became my pickup line when making new friends. Do you know about chili crisp? Do you like chili crisp? What's your favorite way of enjoying it? Do you want to try my chili crisp?”
In Chili Crisp, James presents recipes like:
* Kimchi Quesadilla with Chili Crisp
* Savory Morning Oats with Jammy Eggs and Pork Floss
* Chili Crisp Bucatini Carbonara
* Beef Short Ribs Ragu
* Fiery Spaghetti and Meatballs
* Chili Crisp Biscuits with Honey-Butter Glaze
* Chili Crisp Ice Cream Two Ways
* And more!
We’ve got a great chat with James—and of course, we put him to the test in our signature culinary game! Find this episode anywhere you podcast.
Chili Crisp: 50+ Recipes to Satisfy Your Spicy, Crunchy, Garlicky Cravings by James Park
If you already love chili crisp, this book is for you. If you're new to it, this book is for you. With more than 50 recipes, Chili Crisp is here for you, wherever you are on your spicy life journey.
Packed with chili crisp inspiration to take your love of this spicy ingredient to the next level, Chili Crisp provides dozens of no-recipe recipes (like potato chips and chili crisp, a match made in snack heaven) and a handy build-your-own chili crisp formula to inspire you to create your very own version. Soon all your family and friends will be clamoring for a jar.



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Well, hello there! It’s been a minute. The Salt + Spine team has been busy taking some much-needed rest—and, of course, planning for an inspiring year ahead. What’s in store? Amazing podcast episodes, naturally, and all the typical goods: exclusive recipes, cookbook giveaways, and behind-the-spine content you won’t find anywhere else. But there’s more brewing. Big stuff! I can’t spill all the beans yet—but stay tuned for a cookbook lover’s dream, coming this summer. Woo!
I hope your 2024 is off to an excellent start. Can you believe we’re already six weeks in? I blinked and it’s Valentine’s Day. And now, I’m so thrilled to be back with all of you to launch our 14th season (!!!) of Salt + Spine.
By the way… It’s a new season of Salt + Spine, and if you love what we do, we would be so grateful if you shared the word! Click below to share this episode with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too.
Before we get to this episode…
🎧 What I’m Listening To
* Absolutely loving this new mini-series from and Ham El-Waylly in collaboration with The Sporkful team. Episode 1 starts with murder and ends with tamale-inspired soup. Start at the beginning. (Psst, stay tuned for my chat with Sohla soon, too!)
📖 What I’m Reading
* Lots of (very, very deserved) love for The Zuni Cafe Cookbook lately in Eater and TASTE. If you write about TZCC, I will read it.
* I just finished Less and, whew, adored it. I’m late to the party, and it sat on my shelf for several years. But I picked it up recently and couldn’t put it down. I also just finished the behemoth Wellness by Nathan Hill (who’s both an alum of my university and of my college newspaper!) Loved his first novel, The Nix, and Wellness was just as captivating and satisfying.
Episode 165: The State of California Cuisine with Reem Assil, Tanya Holland & Sara Calvosa Olson
Alright, we’ve got some fun conversations in store this season, and we’re starting by letting you into one of our recent, incredible live events. A hearty crowd joined us in the fall at the stunning Mill Valley Public Library, nestled in a great forest of California redwoods, for a chat we called “The State of California Cuisine.”
A lofty title, I know! But we knew just who could bring the modern, representative views of what’s happening in Cali cuisine today: our friends Sara Calvosa Olson, Tanya Holland, and Reem Assil.
* Sara is a Karuk home cook whose first cookbook, Chími Nu’am: Native California Foodways for the Contemporary Kitchen, “reimagines some of the oldest foods in California for home cooks today.” Think: acorn crepes, blackberry braised smoked salmon, wild boar pozole, peppernut mole chicken. Sara bills the book as an “accessible entry for people beginning their journey toward a decolonized diet.”
* Tanya is the award-winning chef and restauranteur behind Oakland’s beloved Brown Sugar Kitchen (no current brick & mortar location), and a well-known culinary personality. Today, the “Top Chef” alumna chairs the James Beard Foundation’s Awards Committee (and sits on the foundation’s Board of Trustees). Her third cookbook, Tanya Holland's California Soul: Recipes from a Culinary Journey West, showcases 80 seasonal recipes rooted in the “key ingredients, techniques, and traditions that African Americans brought with them as they left the South for California, creating a beloved version of soul food.” Alongside recipes, Tanya shares stories of Black Californian food-makers, from farmers to coffee roasters.
* Reem is a Palestinian-Syrian chef-activist based in Oakland, CA, who spent a decade as a labor and community organizer before turning to restaurants and opening Reem’s California. Reem brings her social justice lens to the restaurant industry, pushing for more just economic and labor practices. The La Cocina alumna’s debut cookbook, Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora, “shares stories of

Hi there, I hope those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving had a relaxing and delicious moment of gratitude. Or maybe you went hard like I did?
By the way: I’m so thankful for all of you, the Salt + Spine community. After six years, it’s incredible to continue to hear from you all—what you’re cooking, something in our interviews that stood out to you, and getting the chance to meet you at our events and live shows.
🍪 COOKIE SWAP!
Speaking of events… our annual Cookie Swap is just around the corner! For those of you in the Bay Area, I look forward to seeing you on December 10 for cookie demos, cookie sampling, glasses of bubbles, and of course swapping your baked goods with others! It’s always a blast. As in prior years, this event supports our friends at La Cocina and tickets are available here.
🎧 What I’m Listening To
* It’s that time of year and I’m thrilled to for the fifth year to join my friends Stacie & Meghan at Didn’t I Just Feed You to share some of my favorite cookbooks of the year. Give it a listen here!
📖 What I’m Reading
* Mayukh Sen’s wonderful profile of Madhur Jaffrey, 50 years after An Invitation to Indian Cooking was published. Knopf reissued the book, one of 20 she’s written, this year. “You’d be mistaken if you were to perceive Jaffrey, now 90, primarily as a cookbook author. ‘I’m an actress,’ she stated matter-of-factly. ‘And I do parts. One of the parts is playing a food writer.’” Read more in The Washington Post.
* I love a Cuban sandwich. The New York Times offers an illustrated history looking at the sandwich’s origins.
🍳 What I’m Cooking
* Nothing to report this week! Finally wrapping up on Thanksgiving leftovers and lots of meals out. A deserved break from cooking after last week.
Hey there, 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 164: Dan Pelosi
In this week’s episode, Dan Pelosi and I discuss:
* His path to “Grossy Pelosi,” from cooking alongside his family as a kid (yuck cakes!) to how his background in design and marketing set the stage for his pivot to working in food full time,
* How his viral recipes—vodka sawce—take off and whether he’s tired of making them,
* Why he declines potluck dinner party invites and what he asks guests to bring when he’s in control of the menu.
Plus, as always, we put Dan to the test in our signature culinary game.
Let's Eat: 101 Recipes to Fill Your Heart & Home by Dan Pelosi
GrossyPelosi is your best friend in the kitchen--actually, he's family.
In his debut cookbook, larger-than-life personality Dan Pelosi offers up a warm hug of home cooking, sharing both comfort food and connection with 101 of his nearest and dearest Italian American recipes. Some have been passed down through his family, and others have been cooked up from scratch--but all are made with love and accompanied by fun, meaningful stories to warm your heart while filling your belly. Read how Bimpy (the 100-year-old grandpa the internet loves to love!) smuggled homemade subs into Yankee Stadium, then craft your ultimate Big Italian Sandwich. Relive the memory of Dan learning how to make his friend's mom's stuffed chicken cutlets in their Jersey Shore house (and getting himself adopted into their family), then level up with Prosciutto & Mozzarella-Stuffed Chicken Parm. Learn how Dan's mom would spring him out of school before the final bell (just to preheat the oven), then make your own Early Dismissal Pot Roast. And rewind to the beginning of Dan's relationship with his boyfriend, Gus, then recreate the Zabaglione (and the romantic Cheesecake Factory ambiance) that inspired their first "I love you."
We 💚 local bookstores. Pick up your copy of Let’s Eat here:
This week, paid subscribers will receive two featured recipes from Dan’s Let’s Eat—the classic Italian Holiday Cookies with “an elusive and unique flavor pr

Hi there. First today: We’re remembering beloved photographer Aubrie Pick, who tragically passed away last week after a battle with cancer. Aubrie’s work was stunning and personal, and she was a visionary creative force in the Bay Area. Elana Kadvany writes in the San Francisco Chronicle:
Pick’s images — vibrant and charismatic, like the photographer herself, collaborators said — have left an indelible mark on the national food scene, and particularly in the Bay Area. Pick photographed numerous high-profile cookbooks, from celebrity chef Chrissy Teigen’s “Cravings” and Bay Area chef Tanya Holland’s “California Soul” to Andrea Nguyen’s “Vietnamese Food Any Day.” Her photos were featured on the covers of Bon Appetit and Food & Wine magazines. She captured Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters in her Berkeley backyard, and caught the light falling just so across a set restaurant table. 
There is an ongoing GoFundMe to support Aubrie’s husband Erik and 2-year-old daughter Romy here.
📖 What I’m Reading
* Julia Moskin spent over a year working to lock in an interview with Half Baked Harvest’s Tieghan Gerard, who has become a polarizing figure in the cookbook industry—so much so that Moskin notes most of the sources she contacted wouldn’t go on the record. Gerard’s early viral success built her a massive online following, and her books sell quite well—but, as Moskin writes, she has “also become an unwilling lightning rod for controversy, entangled in issues that have galvanized the food world in the last decade: cultural appropriation, intellectual property, body shaming, privilege and racism.” A fascinating piece that prompts many discussion questions. Read more in the New York Times here.
🎧 What I’m Listening To
* 🎙 This week, I adored this conversation with and her mother, Clara, who makes her podcast debut on . Have a listen:
🍳 What I’m Cooking
* 🦃 It’s almost T-Day! This year, I’m hosting a small pre-Thanksgiving dinner party that’s “Thanksgiving-inspired” and built around cookbooks. A new twist and I’m excited to share the menu with y’all soon!
Episode 163: John Finger + John Ash
This week’s episode was recorded *live* at Hog Island Oyster Co. on the shores of Tomales Bay in Northern California. I’m joined by Hog Island co-founder John Finger and revered chef John Ash for this conversation, which took place while our audience enjoyed a spread of dishes from the new Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood.
In the show, we discuss:
* The history of Hog Island Oyster Co. and oyster farming in America, and the introduction of Hog Island’s Sweetwater oysters;
* How sustainable aquaculture practices have evolved over time—and what’s on the horizon;
* And the wide-ranging new Hog Island cookbook, in which John Ash pulls in recipes and techniques from around the globe.
Plus, as always, we put our guests to the test in our signature culinary game!
The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood: Culinary Treasures from Our Waters by Chef John Ash, with a Foreword by Stuart Brioza
Featuring favorites from the kitchens of Hog Island Oyster Bars and other talented chefs who have embraced the company's sustainability ethos, this authoritative compendium showcases over 250 dishes from cuisines around the world, including regional favorites like San Francisco cioppino, Southern crayfish étouffée, and New England clam chowder. Presenting a wide variety of cooking methods--such as steaming, roasting, grilling, pan-frying, and curing--along with illustrations for techniques like shucking oysters, opening clams, and filleting fish, this comprehensive cookbook will guide you through the basics of seafood preparation. And the extensive list of sauces, butters, and seasonings will help you turn your choice of seafood into a stellar dish.
The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood is a master class from a chef who shows home and professional cooks how to bring

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Hi, long time! Phew, October is always the wildest cookbook month—it’s even officially dubbed National Cookbook Month—and we’ve been a bit quiet around here. With two little ones running around the house, germs have been rampant, and my voice just hasn’t been cooperating. So we’re catching back after falling a bit behind on our fall release schedule and thrilled to share today’s chat with Hetty Lui McKinnon with all of you.
And now, somehow, it’s Oct. 31 - Halloween! I’m a sucker for anything fall. We’re in a judgment-free zone, of course, so I’ll readily admit that I’m happily ordering pumpkin-spiced lattes. I made chili as soon as the temps dipped a bit after our recent heat wave. I broke out my extra warm sweaters, put them away (see: heat wave), and broke them out again.
Tonight, I’m making a big batch of Eric Kim’s Creamy Baked Macaroni and Cheese, which keeps it simple with cheddar and Velveeta. It feels equal parts crowd-pleasing (we’re talking actual toddlers here) and nostalgic. (Usually, for holidays, Martha Stewart’s baked mac is my trusted go-to.)
Ah, and costumes. How fitting that we’re talking with Australia-born Hetty today as my family prepares to transform into the animated, hilarious Australian sheepdog family of Bluey, Bingo, Chili, and yours truly, Bandit. Wish us luck on the trick-or-treat streets!
📖 What I’m Reading
* writes about the publication of Butter Boy, the new cookbook from Paul Flynn, “the beloved chef at the Tannery in Waterford and the Irish Times food writer,” wondering: Is a cookbook without photos so retro it's radical?
🎧 What I’m Listening To
* Self-promo: I was so honored to share the origin story of Salt + Spine on the Everything Cookbooks podcast with friends of the show Kate Leahy, Molly Stevens, and Kristin Donnelly. This trio (plus fourth co-host Andrea Nguyen) really ask great questions and it made for a fun and engaging chat. Listen here or wherever you podcast!
🍳 What I’m Cooking
* You already know the Halloween menu: Creamy Baked Macaroni and Cheese by Eric Kim [New York Times]
Episode 162: Hetty Lui McKinnon
In this week’s episode, and I discuss:
* The loss of her father when she was a teenager, and the impact his passing had on her relationship with her family and with food. “As a child,” Hetty writes in Tenderheart, “I didn’t see living among cartons of fresh produce as anything but normal. … My memories of my father are suspended in time, a disrupted dream without an ending. Every memory I have of him is through the lens of a child. He was tenderhearted—generous, caring, affectionate, kind, and playful.”
* Her path to writing Tenderheart, her fourth and most personal book to date. Hetty first wrote about her father’s passing in an essay for Peddler, her self-published journal on food and culture.
* How Hetty approaches recipe development and her “deep obsession” with vegetables, which leads to recipes in Tenderheart like Cabbage Carbonara-ish, Chocolate-Eggplant Brownies, Tingly ‘Cacio e Pepe’ Snow Peas with Rice Noodles, Lazy Butternut Squash Tiramisu, and—on of my new favorite lunches—an egg salad in which Hetty swaps out the egg for roasted Brussel sprouts. Genius! (By the way, in addition to Hetty’s cookbooks, she publishes recipes regularly with The New York Times and on her Substack, .)
* Plus, as always, we put Hetty to the test in our signature culinary game!
For more great listening, our 2021 episode with Hetty is here:
Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds by Hetty Lui McKinnon
Heritage and food have always been linked for Hetty Lui McKinnon. Tenderheart is a loving homage to her father, a Chinese immigrant in Australia, told in flavorful, vegetarian recipes. Growing up as part of a Chinese family in Australia, McKinnon formed a deep appreciation for her bicultural identity, and for her father, who moved to Sydney as a teenager and learned