The Dinner Plan

Nik Sharma wants home cooks to better understand food science; in this episode of The Dinner Plan, he shares some of the best cooking tips from his new book, Fundamentals of Flavor: 100 Recipes for the Science of Better Cooking, and why they work. If you’ve ever struggled with dry pork tenderloin, you’ll want to listen in before you try to make that quick dinner staple again. Hear about Nik’s favorite flavor-boosting pantry essentials, his favorite fall dinners, and the one ingredient he could have named this book after, too.

RECIPES OF THE WEEK:
Get Nik’s recipes for Caramelized Shallot Dip and Seared Gnocchi with Chili Garlic Shrimp
at TheDinnerPlan.Substack.com

SEPTEMBER GIVEAWAY:
To win Earlywood kitchen utensils, a Cuisinart countertop oven, a Hestan roasting pan, and so many cookbooks,
enter by Wednesday, September 23, 2026

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Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
Find Kishwar Chowdhury’s Smoke, Rice, Water: Recipes and Stories from a Bengali Home at Amazon, Bookshop, or wherever you buy books.
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Cortney LaCorte—also known as Cheese Gal—joins The Dinner Plan this week to share her best advice on how to make a cheese plate and all the ways she makes entertaining more relaxed. That includes tips on what to cook for a dinner party, the most important thing you can do for a dinner party guest, and the cleaning detail you really can skip. What to make with Boursin? Cortney's all over that. On this episode, she also shares snack ideas for TV nights on the couch, memories of her mother's dinner parties, and her favorite recipe for a quick dinner you can make with grocery store fried chicken.

🍽️ Get Cortney's cookbook recs and recipe on our newsletter at TheDinnerPlan.Substack.com 🍽️

LAST CHANCE to enter our September giveaway ➡️
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Massican Wines: Use code DINNERPLAN for 10% off at Massican.com. Must be 21+
McEvoy Ranch: Use code DINNERPLAN for 10% off at McEvoyranch.com
Cheesy by Farideh Sadeghin is available wherever you buy books.
Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
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Olivia Tiedemann will be the first to tell you that working as a private chef isn't easy. You've gotta know what each guest likes and doesn't like, all the dietary restrictions, "who doesn't eat anchovies, who doesn't eat onions, who doesn't eat dairy. And there's 12 of them, and they're all there at one time," Olivia says. "How am I going to contort this same entree seven different ways?" But ultimately, she loves cooking for her clients, and shares everything she's learned in her new cookbook, Eat (Like) The Rich. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, Olivia talks with host Maggie Hoffman about what really matters in a great meal. Expensive lobster and steak is nice, but the difference all comes down to cooking technique. She walks us through a few favorite dinner recipes from the cookbook, the right way to sear a piece of fish, the way she thinks about creating a new dish for a dinner party, and reveals the popular ingredient she actually hates.

🍳 ENTER THE GIVEAWAY and get Olivia Tiedemann's Parsnip Gnocchi recipe on TheDinnerPlan.Substack.com 🍳

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Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
Une Femme Wines: Use code DINNERPLAN at unefemmewines.com for 20% off. Must be 21+

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You may know Pati Jinich from her long-running series, Pati’s Mexican Table, or her previous cookbooks, but this fall you’ll be seeing a lot more of her, including her new docuseries, Panamericana, and her new cookbook, Foods of La Frontera. In this episode of The Dinner Plan, Pati chats with host Maggie Hoffman about the surprising dishes she tried while traveling along the Mexican-American border, and the way her time on the road has changed how she cooks at home. Pati shares favorite Mexican recipes from a wide range of border regions: lobster burritos, vegetarian pozole, surprising salsas, and easy tacos recipes you’ll want to cook this week.
🌶️ ENTER THE GIVEAWAY and Get Pati Jinich's chipotle chicken taco recipe on TheDinnerPlan.Substack.com 🌶️
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Check out this week's sponsors:

Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
Listen to Food Friends on Apple podcasts or any podcast listening app.

More Mexican cooking episodes you might like:

Rick Martinez’s new salsa book will transform your weeknight cooking
Claudette Zepeda’s Secret Ingredients for Bigger, Bolder Flavor
Crispy Zucchini Tacos With Andrea Aliseda
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When Carla Lalli separated from her ex and moved part-time into a sublet after decades of marriage, the first thing she did was make dinner. “I cooked because it gives me a sense of comfort,” Carla says in this week’s episode of The Dinner Plan. “It makes me feel like I’m in power, and it’s soothing, and it is a way to shut off other noise.” Carla shares the meals she made as she got in touch with her own cravings again and what freedom and flexibility she found cooking for one or cooking for two instead of four, and also gets into what she thinks a cookbook written by a human can offer in the age of AI. Carla’s new cookbook, Food Is a Feeling, is the rare cookbook that doesn’t start from the assumption that “every day is happy and perfect.” Instead, she says, “actually sometimes it's a really bad day, and that the best thing in your day might be this great thing that you make for dinner.”

📚📚📚
Get Carla's cookbook recommendations
+ the recipe for Carla's Chovy-Forward Fazool on our newsletter: TheDinnerPlan.Substack.com

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Straus Family Creamery: Find Straus organic ice cream at Whole Foods nationwide or at strausfamilycreamery.com.
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Row 7: Get 10% off Row 7’s chef-prepared tinned vegetables using code DINNERPLAN10 at Row7Seeds.com
Made In Cookware: Visit madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
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