Your Last Meal with Rachel Belle

Padma Lakshmi: Thai Green Curry

After leaving Top Chef after a 17-year run as Emmy-nominated host and executive producer, Padma Lakshmi vowed to never host another food competition show again. She created and hosted Taste the Nation, an exploration of American food through the lens of immigrant and indigenous communities, continued to write cookbooks (Padma’s All American is her latest) and do activist work for the ACLU and UN.  But last week, her new culinary competition show America’s Culinary Cup premiered on CBS! Why did she break her vow? You’ll have to listen to find out!  Padma and host Rachel Belle talk about the joy of eating in bed; her favorite midnight snacks to eat with her teenage daughter, Krishna; and what valuable lessons her grandmother taught her about life, through the lens of cooking.  Then New York Times food reporter Priya Krishna joins the show to talk about the negative impact ICE detainments and raids are having on American restaurants. The folks she interviewed say it’s harder on restaurants than the pandemic was.  Get the Your Last Meal food crawl Google map that pins every restaurant, pickle shop and pizza joint mentioned on the show over the past 9.5 years! Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!        Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle.      Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings.      Follow along on Instagram.      Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame. 

Jack Johnson: Sauteed Vegetables in 1997 (Re-Air)

This week, we are re-airing one of my favorite episodes with singer-songwriter, surfer and filmmaker Jack Johnson! This interview was extra special, because it was exactly 20 years after the first time I interviewed Jack, when I was a budding, baby reporter, writing for an alt-weekly in my college town, and his music career was just getting started.  Jack is an environmentalist and he tells me the great lengths he takes to reduce waste at venues and how he supports local farms when he's out on tour. Zero Waste Chef, Anne Marie Bonneau, joins the show to share her tips for a zero-waste home kitchen. Have you even dehydrated fruit in your hot car, bro? Jack has been with his wife, Kim, for 33 years and his last meal, and the story behind his song Banana Pancakes, are both inspired by their love story.Jack’s new film, a documentary called Surfilmusic about his evolution from surfer to filmmaker to world renowned musician, premieres March 13th 2026 at SXSW! His SURFILMUSIC 2026 North American Tour has 43 stops from June through October, and he’s being supported by G. Love and Lake Street Dive, both past guests on Your Last Meal! Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!       Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle.     Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings.     Follow along on Instagram.     Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame. 

The Leftovers with Yotam Ottolenghi

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Yotam Ottolenghi, chef and author of 9 bestselling cookbooks, co-owner of 12 restaurants and delis and a longtime columnist for the Guardian and The New York Times. In a lightening round with host Rachel Belle, Ottolenghi reveals his favorite food holiday (hint: he and Rachel bond over a love for sour cream); his opinion of British food as an Israeli transplant; and how people react when they find out he’s coming over for dinner.  Listen to the full episode of Your Last Meal with Yotam Ottolenghi here.  Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!        Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle.      Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings.      Follow along on Instagram.      Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame. 

Yotam Ottolenghi: Spaghetti alle vongole

If you're an adventurous cook, chances are you’ve made on Ottolenghi recipe! The chef and newspaper columnist has written nine bestselling cookbooks, including Jerusalem, Plenty and Comfort, and co-owns 12 restaurants and delis, mostly in London.  Yotam and I talk about how he found his way to a food career (he has advanced degrees in completely different subjects) and tackle philosophical questions like: Is cooking an art form? Do homely, but delicious dishes belong in cookbooks despite their lack of beauty? For the past decade, the brand’s creative hub is the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, where a team of diverse cooks create and test recipes with Yotam at the helm. So I chat with a man who has run many magazine test kitchens, Hunter Lewis, editor-in-chief of Food and Wine Magazine. He takes us behind the scenes of the test kitchen to see how the sausage is literally and figuratively made. Get tickets to see Yotam Ottolenghi on tour!Get the recipe for Ottolenghi's Clementine Almond Syrup Cake! Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!        Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV show The Nosh with Rachel Belle.      Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings.      Follow along on Instagram.      Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame. 

The Leftovers with Lachi

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Lachi, award-winning recording artist, CEO of RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), host of the PBS series Renegades, and author of the new book, I Identify as Blind. In a spirited lightening round, Lachi speaks to her true passion: melting cheese on anything and everything; we debate pulp vs no pulp in orange juice; ketchup vs no ketchup on hot dogs; she shares her favorite food city in America; and what it’s like navigating a buffet as a blind person.  Listen to the full episode of Your Last Meal with Lachi here.  Become a Cascade PBS member and support public media!       Watch Rachel’s Cascade PBS TV showThe Nosh with Rachel Belle.     Sign up for Rachel’s (free!) biweekly Cascade PBS newsletter for more food musings.     Follow along on Instagram.     Order Rachel’s cookbook Open Sesame.