Proof

Food & Cooking Podcasts

A disappearing food franchise. The story behind how a Vietnamese spring roll ended up on the menu of Senegalese restaurants. We take America's Test Kitchen's inquisitive and relentless approach to telling unexpected, funny, and thought-provoking narratives about food and drink. This is not a recipe show. And this is not a show about celebrity chefs or what they like to eat. Proof plunges into history, culture, science, and the psyche to uncover the hidden backstories that feed your food-obsessed brain. Hosted by Kevin Pang. A production of America's Test Kitchen.

A disappearing food franchise. The story behind how a Vietnamese spring roll ended up on the menu of Senegalese restaurants. We take America's Test Kitchen's inquisitive and relentless approach to telling unexpected, funny, and thought-provoking narratives about food and drink. This is not a recipe show. And this is not a show about celebrity chefs or what they like to eat. Proof plunges into history, culture, science, and the psyche to uncover the hidden backstories that feed your food-obsessed brain. Hosted by Kevin Pang. A production of America's Test Kitchen.

Location:

United States

Genres:

Food & Cooking Podcasts

Description:

Language:

English

Contact:

6172321000

Website:

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/

Email:

proof@americastestkitchen.com

Episodes

The Vanishing Ants

8/4/2022

Leafcutter ants have been a traditional Colombian food for millennia, long predating Spanish colonization. But the ants, eaten by Colombians since the indigenous Guane peoples inhabited the area of Santander, are now in peril. What does the future hold for this ancient food source? Reporter Camilo Garzón reports. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Duration:00:38:37

Strawberry Fields, Forever?

7/28/2022

As one of the most commonly consumed berries in the world, strawberries are a beloved household snack. But this soft, sweet fruit has a rocky history. From immigration to incarceration, Japanese Americans are integral to the California Strawberry origin story. Through three generations of Japanese strawberry farmers, reporter Hannah Kirshner brings us a story of ingenuity and resilience. To learn more about Japanese Americans and Strawberry farming, read: A Taste for StrawberriesStrawberry...

Duration:00:49:56

Season 11 Starts on July 28th!

7/14/2022

This season, we’re bringing you food stories from all over--from South America to the South Side of Chicago. We travel to Colombia to find out why leaf cutter ants–a common snack in the country–are disappearing. We drive around Chicago in search for one of the city's most famous culinary exports (and no, it's not deep-dish pizza or hot dogs). And we ask: Why does a Dungeons and Dragons recipe book have almost as many positive reviews as America’s Test Kitchen’s best-selling title? All that,...

Duration:00:01:24

[Bonus] Best of Proof Harklist

6/23/2022

This week, we're bringing you a collection of some of our favorite Proof episodes. Our friends at Hark Audio curated this list so you can relive or be introduced to some of the best moments from our feed. Hark editors pick and choose these compelling podcast moments and transform them into one-of-a-kind playlists--kind of like creating a special mixtape of all of your interests in podcast form. Download the Hark app and check out our host Kevin Pang's Harklist on the origins of fast food...

Duration:00:42:54

[Bonus] New Orleans: Anybody’s Gumbo from the Not Lost podcast

6/16/2022

Here’s a special preview of Not Lost, a new podcast about finding yourself in places you’ve never been from our friends at Pushkin Industries! Host Brendan Francis Newnam takes us around the world, learning about new places by getting invited to a stranger’s house for dinner. From Montréal to Mexico City, Brendan and his guests drink, dance, and eat, learning as much about themselves as the places they visit. In this preview, Brendan and his friend Danielle Hendersen head to the Big Easy and...

Duration:00:50:01

Your Trash? My Treasure

6/9/2022

For the season finale, we're bringing you three short stories on the theme: One person's trash is another person's treasure. Reporter Stephen Calabria digs into the story of a famous half-eaten piece of toast, ATK assistant editor Eden Faithful goes dumpster diving, and reporter Eliza Rothstein traces the life cycle of a pastry that turns into a spirit. Proof will be back for Season 11 late July, and in the meantime, we'll post other exciting content in our feed! You can view what items...

Duration:01:16:23

The Seeds Worth Saving

6/2/2022

Baskets of bok choy, galangal, collard greens, epazote. We often take these United Nations of produce for granted, but it’s the deliberate work of farmers cultivating heritage seeds that ignites the growing diversity of fruits, grains, and vegetables. In this episode, reporter Jean Trinh chronicles the lives of three farmers who have made it their mission to plant seeds that sow a sense of home, cultural preservation, and belonging. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

Duration:00:49:10

They Know What You'll Eat Next Summer

5/26/2022

The McDonald’s vegan cheese slice. Botanical flavors for your next latte. A patent to cure meats with...celery juice. Many of the next it-food innovations are engineered by a company you’ve probably never heard of but touches almost food product you know: The Kerry Group. Reporter John Ringer goes behind the scenes at this food factory and lab, as he traces the history of Kerry’s humble roots as an Irish dairy cooperative to a worldwide ingredients company. See Privacy Policy at...

Duration:00:35:18

How to Water a Food Desert

5/19/2022

Black Americans have deep historical connections and ownership over vegan and plant-based cuisines. But after the Great Migration, many left farms and the Jim Crow South to cities where urbanization and the advent of fast food changed the landscape of accessibility to fresh foods. In this episode of Proof, writer Gabrielle Lawrence-Cormier reconnects with their family's pre-Great Migration gardening traditions and reclaims their plant-based culinary roots. See Privacy Policy at...

Duration:00:43:49

The Pho Must Go On

5/12/2022

Many of us have family recipes that have been passed down for generations. For reporter Anh Gray, it's her late mother's piping hot bowl of beef pho. But what do we do when we need to amend these recipes? Is something lost when we make substitutions, or can we iterate and build upon that which is sacred? Anh dives in. Thanks to our sponsor, Naked Lunch. It's a new podcast hosted by Phil Rosenthal of Netflix's Somebody Feed Phil, and music journalist David Wild. Listen and subscribe to Naked...

Duration:00:45:48

You're Invited: A Wine Tasting in Ancient Japan

5/5/2022

Who were some of the first people ever to make wine? Images of ancient people of the Caucasus or France might come to mind. But what if we told you that wine was being made in ancient Japan, around the same time--or even earlier--than it was in the Caucuses? And even before sake was being made in Japan? Reporter Hannah Kirshner investigates. You can read Hannah's article on the history of winemaking in Japan for Food & Wine, and her latest book is Water, Wood, and Wild Things: Learning...

Duration:00:47:17

The Stew that Stirred Things Up

4/28/2022

Welcome to Bear Grass, North Carolina, where moonshine, tobacco, and bootlegging were once king. Today, a storied dish called chicken mull is a staple of the town's identity and for years, Bear Grass held an annual chicken mull-making contest to see who made the best mull. What happens though, when this humble dish almost tears the small, close-knit community apart? Reporter Allison Salerno reports. Interested in making chicken mull? Find our Cook's Country recipe here. See Privacy Policy...

Duration:00:35:40

Get Rich or Die Cracking

4/21/2022

Black walnuts are probably nature's toughest nut to crack. But one man--television producer and newbie farmer Mike Trinklein--is determined to prove that it's a crop worth farming for. In this episode of Proof, Mike walks us through the history and benefits of these nuts, and shares his own scheme to get rich...slow off the land. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Duration:00:45:18

Season 10 Starts on April 21st!

4/7/2022

Proof from America's Test Kitchen returns Thursday, April 21st! We kick off Season 10 by traveling to the midwest in search of a tough-to-crack crop. We ask: Who has the right to tweak a national dish? We also try to solve the mystery of The Beatles' George Harrison's piece of toast. All that, and much more on the new season of Proof! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Duration:00:01:18

The Somali Farmer Rises

1/6/2022

Muhidin Libah was living in Syracuse, New York when he received a call from a Somali Bantu community in Maine. They wanted his help setting up a non-profit organization that would run a farm aimed to serve the growing Somali Bantu émigré community in the Pine Tree State. As Muhidin answered the call, he wondered whether they should stick to setting the organization up with a strictly for-us-by-us mentality, or whether they needed allies in a place that had shown hostility to his people. What...

Duration:00:34:17

Dumplings in Iowa

12/16/2021

What does it look like when you uproot yourself from a familiar culinary place to an unknown city? The Moth performer and writer Aaron Pang dives in with this audio diary that chronicles his move from San Francisco to Iowa City. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Duration:00:47:27

My Father, The YouTube Star

12/9/2021

One day in 2012, Proof host Kevin Pang received an email from his father, urging Kevin to watch a video on YouTube that he'd just sent. Reluctantly, Kevin opened it to discover that somehow, his retired father had created a YouTube cooking channel that had nearly a million views. This would kick off a series of events that would forever change Kevin's relationship with his father. This week's episode is a story about family, what happens when immigrants move to a new country, and how Kevin's...

Duration:00:38:13

So What Do You Feed the Dead?

12/2/2021

Around the world and throughout history, we’ve celebrated the departed with rituals that involve food. Pharaohs were buried with feasts. We pour out drinks in honor of fallen friends and family. But the precision and thought that Zoroastrian priest Marziban Hathiram puts into preparing meals for the departed is in a league of its own. Author Varud Gupta takes us through the intricacies of the stum death ritual in Gujarat, India, and walks us through what foods are--and aren’t--appropriate...

Duration:00:33:15

Should I get my Lobster High?

11/18/2021

Charlotte Gill was anguished by the way the lobsters at her lobster pound died a slow death in vats of boiling water. ‘There must be another way,’ she thought. ‘How about getting them high?’ In this episode of Proof, science reporter Sarah Vitak tracks Gill’s quest, invokes David Foster Wallace, and considers the lobster. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Duration:00:39:08

Will Jewish Delis Survive?

11/11/2021

Jewish delis are a staple of many American cities and neighborhoods. But even before the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the restaurant industry, Jewish delis were already on the decline. In 1931, there were an estimated 2,000 delis in the Big Apple. Today--almost a century later--there’s fewer than a few dozen. So what accounts of this deli decline? Reporter Rebecca Rosman samples delis across the United States in search for answers. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

Duration:00:42:55