Ruby Tandoh, the World's Best Lasagna,and how the internet is collectively changing what we all want to eat

Endless Thread

WBUR

Reddit, Technology

4.1 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The internet decides what's for dinner.

Ruby Tandoh is the author of the new book, All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now. A stint on the Great British Bake Off when she was in college launched her into the world of cookbooks — increasingly irrelevant in a world where we're more likely to turn to Google for a recipe than turn to our bookshelves — and provided her an education in how pop culture stokes our cravings. She takes Ben and Amory on a journey from the surprising history of AllRecipes and the "world's best lasagna," to the TikTok food trends of today. (Spoiler: they don't always taste particularly good.)

Show notes:

All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now

Credits: This episode was produced by Grace Tatter and hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson. It was edited by Meg Cramer. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Think about cheese.
0:02.0	Make your thoughts cheesier.
0:04.2	Now add 100% chicken breast fillet, Chipopla sauce and Ameta cheese melt.
0:08.3	And it's giving the new cheesy chicken stack at McDonald's.
0:12.0	Did we mention it's cheesy?
0:13.9	Cheese.
0:15.8	Availments at the 4th of Jan, 2026 from 11am.
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0:19.2	Subjects availability.
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0:23.8	A podcast from the Marotra Institute at Boston University that explores questions like,
0:29.4	why is innovation in healthcare so hard?
0:32.1	Is ESG just greenwashing?
0:34.4	And, of course, is business broken?
0:37.0	Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:40.6	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:50.8	Pandemics, political unrest in America, the onset of winter.
0:56.3	Whatever you are trying to escape completely, for a certain set of people, there's really only one go-to show.
1:04.0	With its own culture, its own delightful contestants and judges, and its own catchphrases.
1:10.2	No soggy bottom. No soggy bottom. A soggy bottom.
1:13.4	For the uninitiated, that is not necessarily what it sounds like. It is food television icon
1:19.4	Mary Berry, former judge of the show The Great British Bake Off. Or for us Americans,
	...

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