What if you could eavesdrop on an intimate conversation between two friends who share a passion for food and life...and those friends just happened to be me and Top Chef's Gail Simmons, or Curb Your Enthusiasm's Susie Essman, or Serious Eats' own Food Lab guru, J. Kenji López-Alt? You'd be joining us for a damn good time, that's what.

Today I invite you to a preview of Special Sauce, the Serious Eats podcast I've been dreaming of for a long while now. The episodes will feature well-known serious eaters revealing some of the secrets of their success—and what they love in the world of food.

The first installment features my good friend Phil Rosenthal, who's a successful restaurant investor and the creator of Emmy Award-winning TV show Everybody Loves Raymond. PBS is now airing his latest creative endeavor, I'll Have What Phil's Having, a funny, big-hearted, intelligent food and travel show that gives me hope for the medium. (You can watch online, or catch the final episode—set in Barcelona—this coming Monday night, November 2nd.) Phil is smart, hilarious, and as generously spirited a human being as I know.

On our podcast, you'll learn about Phil's adventures as an out-of-work actor, a successful sitcom creator, and yes, you'll have to listen to find out Phil's secret sauce: the advice that he got from legendary sitcom writer-director-creator Ed Weinberger (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi) that I often use as a guidepost in my own creative endeavors. He'll also share some travel discoveries, restaurant pet peeves, and what we'd find in his desert island fridge.

Special Sauce will be available on iTunes, as well as in the The Podcast Source app on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon and Windows Phone. You'll also be able to find the archive of episodes here on Serious Eats and on this RSS feed.

Special thanks to my podcasting co-pilot Chrissie Lamond; our advisor, Zach Brooks of Food is the New Rock; and audio storytelling maven (and Special Sauce's Supervising Producer) Marty Goldensohn.

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