Hrishikesh Hirway: Pav Bhaji & Mom's Mango Pie
Your Last Meal with Rachel Belle
Rachel Belle
4.8 • 730 Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Your ears are in for a treat -- this week they'll be graced by the velveteen voice of Hrishikesh Hirway! Hrishikesh is a prolific podcaster & he hosts and produces many, including my favorite food podcast of all time, Home Cooking, co-hosted by past Your Last Meal guest, Samin Nosrat, and the excellent music podcast, Song Exploder, that was turned into a Netflix show. He's also a musician and his new album is out now!
Hrishikesh tells host Rachel Belle:
- How his lifelong cookie obsession began
- About his mom's mango pie, which has been featured in the New York Times and turned into a Salt & Straw ice cream flavor
- Why he started drinking coffee, for the first time, in his mid-40s
Then we're joined by Jim Henson Company "puppet wrangler" Lara MacLean, who took it upon herself to start baking the cookies that Cookie Monster demolishes on Sesame Street, because she wasn't happy with the last iteration!
- 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.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rachel Bell, and this is your last meal. |
| 0:12.3 | The show where celebrities share stories about the foods they love most, |
| 0:15.3 | and we dig into the history, culture, or science of those meals with experts from around the world. |
| 0:21.6 | Today on the program, Rishi Kesh, Hearway. |
| 0:24.6 | Try to understand this is the only chance I've got. |
| 0:32.6 | The life we could have had, I can still hold it in my thoughts. |
| 0:43.0 | Rishi hosts and produces many podcasts, including my favorite food podcast of all time, |
| 0:50.0 | Home Cooking, co-hosted with cookbook author and Past Your Last Meal guest, Samin Nosrat. |
| 0:56.0 | He also created the excellent music podcast Song Exploder that was made into a Netflix show. |
| 1:02.0 | And Rishi's a musician. His new album is called In The Last Hour of Light. You can catch him on tour starting next week. |
| 1:10.0 | Rishi Keish is a cookie man. |
| 1:11.6 | To say that Rishi loves cookies is like saying Garfield likes lasagna, |
| 1:16.6 | like saying that Alf likes eating cats. |
| 1:19.6 | Can you tell what decade I grew up in? |
| 1:21.6 | So I couldn't be more excited to tell you who I talked to later in the episode. |
| 1:25.6 | Lara McLean, the puppeteer who |
| 1:29.1 | bakes Cookie Monster's cookies for Sesame Street. But before we get to that, let's hop into |
| 1:35.2 | my conversation with Rishi Kesh Hereway. I hate to start. This is the only chance I've got. |
| 1:47.1 | I hate to start this out on a negative note and call you names, but you are a cookie monster. |
| 1:53.8 | That's fair. I can take that. |
| 1:55.7 | We know about cookie monsters here at PBS. I am curious where your love of cookies began. What did you love when |
| 2:03.1 | you were a kid and how is your love of cookies evolved into your taste today? I definitely have a |
... |
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