The First Episode of Samin Nosrat’s New Quarantine Cooking Podcast Promises “Beans and Laughter”

Celebrities, they’re just like us: stuck at home, trying to figure out whether they should be using their time to pace the room with anxiety, create their magnum opus, or simply devolve into the ultimate couch potato. Thankfully some of them — unlike most of us — didn’t choose the latter, and instead are making the kind of heartwarming, lovely art that we all need to get through this period. And, of course, leading the pack is the gentle voice of kitchen expertise that we need: Samin Nosrat.

Nosrat, the former Chez Panisse cook whose cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking and the host of the Netflix series of the same name, has teamed up with musician and podcaster Hrishikesh Hirway for a podcast that helps people cook better while they’re at home during quarantine called Home Cooking. It has Nosrat’s signature encouraging tone and optimism, as well as her steadfast expertise. (Not to mention delightful art: you can download a dancing version of the tomato can logo to use in your Instagram stories from the show’s website).

The first of four episodes came out this past Friday, and it’s full of beans, latkes, actor Josh Malina, and tons of puns. It’s funny, and heartwarming, and jam-packed with information in just the way that we’ve all come to expect from Nosrat. There’s also advice on warm bean salad, hummus, bean broth, and multiple soups. Tons of time is spent talking lentils, and fittingly for a quarantine cooking show, plenty of advice on what to do with frozen vegetables. 

Once you listen, let Samin and Hrishi help you out with your deepest, darkest, most embarrassing quarantine cooking questions — or the opposite — if you have them. Each episode also features questions from listeners about what foods they could make and how while at home, which anyone can ask by sending a voice memo to alittlehomecooking@gmail.com, or by calling 201-241-COOK.