Serious XM Podcasts.

To go through the work of opening up a pistachio, and some of them don't want to open.

Oh, like half of them don't want to open.

They're really stubborn and annoying.

I mean, you open it up, and what do you get for all your effort? One pistachio. This is the Sporkful. It's not for foodies. It's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. Today, instead of our usual we're bringing you something extra special it's an episode of in the test kitchen which is the new podcast from our friends over at america's test kitchen and i'm the guest in this episode now this show's hosted by my good friend dan suza a long time friend of mine he's been on the sporkful many times talking about food science. He even hosted my Boston book event for Anything's Possible.

He's joined by co-host Lisa McManus, who's the kitchen cooking gear expert at America's Test Kitchen.

Now, Dan and Lisa, they invited me to the ATK studio in Boston for a chat about all things pasta,

including a new development with Casketelli.

Plus, we get into some of my most closely held food opinions. And anytime Dan and I are hanging out, there will be strong food opinions. All exchanged in good fun. So let's get into it. Dan and Lisa kick off the episode talking about kitchen gear, which they are truly the authorities on, so you want to pay close attention here. Enjoy. I'm Dan Sousa, and I'm joined by my lovely co-host, Lisa McManus, and we are in the test kitchen. Hi, Lisa. Hi, Dan. What's going on? What's going on? It's so fun to have you here. We have not done a podcast like this together yet. We're in a different space today for the show. Normally we're in our set kitchen for America's Test Kitchen. This is the set for Cook's Country. And I'm hope this podcast just roves around all of the test kitchen and you get to see it all. So if you, it sounds a little bit different today or looks a little bit different different. We're still in the same building, just a different home. So Lisa, you are executive editor for our reviews team here at ATK. So you are responsible for like all of the

amazing stuff we do with testing products and ingredients. You put everything through like crazy

paces to figure out sort of what is the best product on the market. You have protocols for your

testing that sometimes go just like to the extreme. One of my favorites is when you're testing

like clad skillets, like stainless steel skillets in the kitchen.

One of the concerns is if there's like a lot of temperature shock with those that they can sort of

break at the handle, right? They can pop off or they can warp all these things that we don't want.

So you devise this process that is really incredible where you will superheat one of these skillets on the stovetop,

dunk it into ice water, and then you bang it on a hard surface.

And I always say the story introducing you because I think it shows your level of dedication just like getting to the bottom of an answer.

Yeah, it probably also shows my level of craziness.

I don't know if that's the right word.

Like purposeful craziness.

Yeah, that's right.

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