Cooking Issues with Dave Arnold

This week, Dave is joined by writer and chef Ham El-Waylly to talk about his new book, Hello, Home Cooking, out March 24. The conversation bounces from book-tour fatigue and the strange rituals of cookbook promotion to Ham’s childhood in Qatar, censored video game magazines, and the eternal question of how much pronunciation flexing is too much.
From there: Brazilian hot dog parties, frozen pearl onions, pickled quail eggs, tostones technique, mashed potatoes cooked directly in milk, breakfast sausage without sage, tea as broth, and why sweet potato fries are still on thin ice. Ham also gets into the real mission of the book—helping people cook food that is actually achievable on a weeknight, without pretending every meal needs to be the greatest thing ever made.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Cooking Issues, Dave and the crew are joined in-studio by chef India Doris for a wide-ranging conversation on cooking across London, France, Spain, Scotland, and New York, learning to break down whole animals in a butcher shop, the realities of restaurant labor in the UK versus the U.S., and what it actually takes to open your first place. Along the way: haggis, black pudding, game birds, owner mentality, kitchen culture, staffing philosophy, and the financial tightrope of building a restaurant from scratch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave is back with a full crew (John, Nastassia, Quinn, and Jack) plus two guests with deep Momofuku roots: chef Paul Carmichael of Kabawa and Dennis Ngo of Di An Di. The conversation ranges from New York ingredient sourcing and Caribbean flavors to the mechanics of great bread and better sandwiches—banh mi rolls vs. po’boy loaves, what makes a steak sandwich fail, and why mayo choices matter more than people admit.

Quinn reports on cooking with emu eggs (carbonara, omelets, and what their texture suggests for custards and pasta), while Dave goes deep on soursop, why purées don’t compare to fresh fruit, and the necessity of having “a guy” for the good stuff. Dennis talks pho fundamentals—older stewing hens, keeping stock clean, holding aromatics late, and the unglamorous truth of moisture management (“squeeze that meat”). Paul breaks down laminated patties as a Haitian/Jamaican hybrid (dough technique vs. filling focus), plus WD-50-era lessons on why recipes are only guides without reps. Also: LA danger dogs, a surprisingly serious Disney-adjacent meal at Napa Rose, and a parting hot dog tip for NYC.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

C-Y Chia and Shane Stanbridge of Lion Dance Cafe join Dave to break down the philosophy behind their self-published cookbook—and why they closed the restaurant after four years. They discuss designing a cuisine around systems (shallot oil, chili oils, dredges, staple sauces), building menus from repeatable flavor frameworks, and writing recipes that actually teach how they think.

Highlights include: vegan banana cake and Southeast Asian dessert structure; almond-sesame-shallot “ASS” cookies and sweet-savory crossover; soy-milk mayo science and high-acid balance; frying tofu nuggets with freeze-thaw texture engineering; gluten-free dredges for better crunch; Spanish peanuts vs. Virginia; brining corn before grilling; and the one vegan fish sauce that actually works.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The crew dives into practical cooking technique: why some induction burners struggle to push a roux dark (and how throttling, pan material, and heat management affect the result), followed by a broader discussion of “high instantaneous heat, low average heat” cooking—rotisserie logic, off-and-on grilling, and moisture control strategies that build crust without overcooking. Dave also revisits shrimp quality—why wild Gulf shrimp taste dramatically better than commodity farmed blocks—and shares recent kitchen experiments, including Austrian scarlet runner beans with pumpkin seed oil and beta-carotene “Golden Fluff-O” biscuit trials. Along the way: New Orleans food notes, po’boy bread realities, and the usual rapid-fire equipment and technique tangents.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.