Samin Nosrat & Hrishikesh Hirway
29 episodes listed below
Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway answer listener voicemails about pandemic-era pantry cooking.
Home Cooking is a relaxed cooking-advice show built around what people already have in the house. Samin and Rishi answer listener questions with stories, puns, gentle correction, and real technique that never feels like homework.
PRESS PLAY
Home Cooking is an interview-format podcast co-hosted by chef and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat author Samin Nosrat and Song Exploder creator Hrishikesh Hirway. The episodes in this sample come from the show's original 2020 run, a short miniseries recorded and released during the early COVID-19 lockdowns. Each episode follows a listener call-in structure: audience members submit voicemails or emails describing a specific kitchen problem, and the hosts read the question aloud and work through it together before Nosrat gives a detailed answer. Recurring listener problems include substituting for unavailable pantry staples such as white flour, stretching a small grocery budget, cooking without a working oven or refrigerator, and using up surplus or freezer ingredients like beans, sardines, or apples. Nosrat regularly explains the food science behind her advice, covering why dried beans never truly spoil, how brine and oxidation affect olive preservation, and why capsaicin-driven heat can still register when smell is impaired by illness. Each episode brings in one or two additional guests: repeat contributors include baking author Stella Parks, who advises on flour and ingredient substitutions, and Dr. Sumesh Hirway, Hirway's father and a retired food scientist who fields food-safety questions. A second guest slot, usually a media or entertainment figure such as Sam Sanders, W. Kamau Bell, Wesley Morris, Josh Malina, or Yo-Yo Ma, joins later to talk through their own home cooking during quarantine. The tone is conversational and unscripted, with hosts frequently referencing outside recipes and cookbooks by name, including Marcella Hazan, Leanne Brown's 'Good and Cheap,' and Rancho Gordo beans. The core audience is home cooks dealing with real constraints of budget, limited pantry access, or time, rather than listeners seeking restaurant-style technique. Production is intimate and low-polish, structured around real listener voicemails rather than a produced narrative arc.
Made for: Home cooks seeking practical, budget-conscious substitution advice and food-science explanations rather than restaurant-style recipes.
What sets it apart: Unlike typical cooking-technique shows built around host recipes, Home Cooking is structured entirely around real listener voicemail questions, answered by a chef alongside a rotating food-science or media guest.
From Samin Nosrat (chef and author of Good Things and Salt Fat Acid Heat) and Hrishikesh Hirway (creator and host of the podcast Song Exploder), Home Cooking is back with a brand new season. If you need help in the kitchen, or just want some creative inspiration, we’ve got you covered.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Home Cooking pairs precise kitchen guidance with playful conversation, helping home cooks improvise thoughtfully from the ingredients already within reach.
Home Cooking turns everyday kitchen problems into lively conversations between Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway, with listener questions supplying the ingredients and constraints.
Samin Nosrat can rescue your freezer scraps; Hrishikesh Hirway will make you pay in puns.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Warm, flexible cooking talk for making something decent from what is already in the kitchen.
Home Cooking comes back with the comfort of a friend calling from the next room, half laughing, half admitting that time has gone strange. Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway start from that missing feeling of having something to look forward to, then settle into the show's easy…
A warm quarantine cooking episode where chicken thighs, lasagna talk, and easy banter make dinner feel possible.
Home Cooking closes its four-part quarantine run with the same loose, generous charm that made the mini-series feel useful in the first place.
A loose, useful quarantine-cooking chat with sourdough humility, strong fish-stew advice, and host banter that mostly earns its sprawl.
Home Cooking treats quarantine dinner as a pantry puzzle, but the pleasure is how little shame it attaches to getting things wrong. Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway open with sourdough triumph followed by burned, stuck loaves, which sets the tone: useful advice, lightly…
A warm quarantine kitchen call-in for home bakers, pantry improvisers, and anyone tempted by no-knead bread.
Home Cooking's second quarantine episode has the loose, generous feel of a kitchen call-in show made for people suddenly spending a lot more time with their flour, pantry staples, and cravings.
A warm, useful listen about turning toast, eggs, freezer vegetables, and soaked beans into dinner.
Bean There, Done That sits in the useful space between planning dinner and making something decent from what is already around. Samin Nosrat and Rishi K.
Samuel Goldsmith interviews chefs and food writers, closing each chat with Quick Fire Questions.
Kitchen answers, food stories, sharp curiosity.
Plain cooking lessons that make dinner less mysterious.
Food stories from the working kitchen.
Cookbook craft from the kitchen side.
The hosts discuss their favorite Halloween candies, with Samin highlighting Reese's peanut butter cups and sour Haribo candies, while sharing insights from candy reporting.
The hosts discuss a listener's question about adapting recipes for health conditions like metabolic syndrome and pre-diabetes while maintaining cooking enjoyment.
The hosts discuss Thanksgiving preparations, share personal food preferences during illness, and encourage community support through donations to food banks.
Two hosts discuss their indulgent food experiences in Boston, including pastries, desserts, and a unique ginger espresso fizz drink.
The hosts of a home cooking podcast reunite after a year to discuss their lives, including personal challenges and entering a 'chill era'.
The hosts of Home Cooking reflect on their show ending with a mix of humor and sadness, sharing a cookie joke and discussing their friendship during the pandemic.
The hosts discuss their cooking experiences, particularly with fish sauce and congee, before introducing an upcoming interview with Nadiya Hussain.
This bonus episode of Home Cooking introduces the Netflix show Waffles & Mochi, featuring puppets aspiring to be chefs, and includes guest appearances and cooking questions.
The hosts of Home Cooking catch up after a break, celebrating Rishi's Netflix adaptation of his podcast Song Exploder while discussing their cooking series and personal connection.
In this episode of Home Cooking, hosts Samin Nasrat and Rishi K.
This episode honors Rishi's mother Kantha Aunty, who passed away, by sharing her cooking legacy, including her famous mango pie recipe, and reflecting on family traditions during Thanksgiving.
The hosts discuss Thanksgiving, share a listener question from Camila Cabello, and talk about delicious flour tortillas from Kansas.
Samin Nosrat and Rishi K.
The hosts announce the upcoming release of Samin's second cookbook, 'Good Things', including pre-order details and a tour with Rishi moderating some events.
The hosts discuss their irregular podcast publishing schedule while sharing personal stories about eating Costco hot dogs and debating proper hot dog consumption methods.
This episode discusses Thanksgiving traditions and recipes, focusing on topics like cranberry sauce and green bean casserole, with hosts sharing personal experiences and answering listener questions.
The hosts discuss Rishi's successful adaptation of Samin's sardine panini recipe and their conversation about Lindsay's famous sourdough bread.
The hosts discuss their recent experiences with tapioca and sabudana, leading into an upcoming interview with Antoni Porowski about kohlrabi.
This episode features hosts discussing pandemic-era home cooking, focusing on making fresh tortillas with a rediscovered tortilla press and masa, while anticipating an interview with author Rachel Khong.
The hosts discuss making various homemade toppings for an ice cream sundae birthday party, including caramelized rice krispies and cornflakes.
Two hosts discuss their emotional eating habits and comfort foods like PB&J and string cheese while joking about their podcast production.
Samin Nasrat and Rishi K.
The hosts discuss a memorable plant-based burger from a Japanese restaurant that evoked childhood memories of a McDonald's sausage McMuffin.
Home Cooking episode five reunites Samin Nosrat and Rishi Dhingra for a summer-focused installment later in the pandemic series, with NPR's Sam Sanders joining as a guest.
Home Cooking hosts Samin Nosrat and Rishi Hirway close out their four-part quarantine miniseries in an episode that features cellist Yo-Yo Ma and covers practical cooking questions from listeners worldwide.
Home Cooking hosts Samin Nosrat and Rishi Hirway answer listener cooking questions in episode three of a quarantine miniseries, joined by Rishi's retired food scientist father Dr.
Home Cooking episode two features Samin Nosrat and Rishi Dhingra answering pandemic-era quarantine cooking questions alongside guests Stella Parks (author of BraveTart) and comedian W.
Samin Nosrat and Rishi Dhingra co-host a pandemic-era Home Cooking episode focused on pantry cooking, taking listener questions about beans, frozen vegetables, and lentils.