Pyet DeSpain’s Meaningful Culinary Pivot, and What Led to It

Food with Mark Bittman

Sweetness and Light

Nutrition, Arts, Food, Culture, Cooking, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture

4.9 • 947 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The chef and host of PBS's Spirit Plate talks to Kate and Mark about the moment she realized she didn't feel connected to the food she was cooking—and what she did to fix that, a dinner party that changed everything, why and how her conversations about food and culture with Native American youth around the country are so important, and one of her favorite Indigenous food traditions—cooking with rocks.

Get Pyet's recipes for Wojape BBQ Sauce: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/wojape-bbq-sauce/

...and Roasted Sage and Maple Sweet Potatoes: https://bittmanproject.com/recipe/roasted-sage-and-maple-sweet-potatoes/

Subscribe to Food with Mark Bittman on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen, and please help us grow by leaving us a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @bittman, and on Facebook and Instagram at @markbittman. Want more food content? Subscribe to The Bittman Project at www.bittmanproject.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to food. I'm Kate Bitman, and we are so glad that you're here with us. If you want more,
0:08.3	remember to check us out online at bitmanproject.com. We've got more than 1,500 recipes with new ones
0:14.7	added daily, plus some really wonderful food writing from some really wonderful food writers,
0:20.5	and recommendations for products
0:22.5	and more. Bitmanproject.com. And as always, email us with any questions or feedback at
0:28.9	food at markbitman.com. If you know me, you know that I'm woefully behind on my knowledge of chefs, maybe even especially chefs who have a big television presence.
0:55.0	I think maybe because I work in food, I'm less inclined to watch food television and instead
1:00.1	watch Twin Peaks or hunting wives, you know. Today's guest, Pietta Spain, won season one of
1:06.7	Gordon Ramsey's next level chef. And if you watch the clip of her winning, it'll be tough to not feel emotional,
1:13.1	or at least it was for me.
1:15.0	There's just something about Piet and her love for her family,
1:18.2	and their love for her,
1:20.0	they were in the audience,
1:21.3	and it was so pure, that just did it for me.
1:24.9	Piet's book, Rooted in Fire,
1:26.7	a celebration of Native American and Mexican
1:29.2	cooking, came out on November 18th a couple weeks ago, but it felt a little too on the nose
1:35.4	to run this episode around Thanksgiving. Why are we less inclined to learn about Native American
1:41.0	cooking and culture around Thanksgiving? I mean, that's a rhetorical question.
1:45.2	I know why, but it definitely doesn't have to and shouldn't be that way.
1:49.1	I realized that Piet was the first Native American that we've had on our podcast, which is really dumb.
1:56.0	And we're going to fix that.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 24 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sweetness and Light, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Sweetness and Light and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.