Working With Bourdain And Batali, Laurie Woolever Saw It All
The Sporkful10 Mar 2025

Working With Bourdain And Batali, Laurie Woolever Saw It All

Laurie Woolever is a food writer in New York, but she’s probably best known for two other jobs she’s held: an assistant to Mario Batali, and an assistant to and collaborator with Anthony Bourdain. Laurie was working with Bourdain when he took his own life in 2018. After his death, she published Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography. Now she’s telling her own story in a new memoir called Care and Feeding, in which she details her struggles with addiction, and explores how her desire to emulate her famous bosses fed her destructive behavior. As you’ll hear, in a lot of ways, there was only a thin line between what happened to them, and how Laurie’s life unfolded.

The Sporkful production team includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O’Hara, Kameel Stanley, Jared O'Connell, and Giulia Leo. Publishing by Shantel Holder.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. Get all your favorite podcasts, more than 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, and live sports coverage with the SiriusXM app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episoder(282)

Searching For The Pickle King

Searching For The Pickle King

While the villages to the east and west have charming Main Streets, the small town of Greenlawn, sandwiched in between, has pickles. Dan stops by the annual Pickle Festival before diving into the stor...

14 Aug 202327min

Instant Pot’s Bankruptcy And Thai Cheese “Burgers”

Instant Pot’s Bankruptcy And Thai Cheese “Burgers”

Today we tackle news in the world of food that’s at turns substantive, silly, and surprising in a new series we’re calling Salad Spinner! Take a spin with us as Dan chats with journalists Amanda Mull ...

7 Aug 202334min

Tommy Pico’s Food History Wasn’t Lost. It Was Stolen.

Tommy Pico’s Food History Wasn’t Lost. It Was Stolen.

A few years ago, Tommy Pico, a queer indigenous American poet, and lover of junk food, set out to learn how to cook. He wanted to get healthier, but also, he wanted a food culture to replace the one t...

31 Jul 202337min

Why Barbie’s First Dreamhouse Didn’t Have A Kitchen

Why Barbie’s First Dreamhouse Didn’t Have A Kitchen

When the first Barbie Dreamhouse came out in 1962, it didn’t have a kitchen. Fast forward to today and there are a dozen chef Barbies. What does that say about Barbie, and about American food culture?...

21 Jul 202331min

Why Ice Is This Summer's Hottest Trend

Why Ice Is This Summer's Hottest Trend

Once known for its glacial pace, ice news today is breaking. In the wake of Starbucks’ recent announcement that they’re changing their ice, we’re devoting an entire episode to the drink chiller in all...

17 Jul 202334min

2 Chefs And A Lie: Name That Mustard Edition

2 Chefs And A Lie: Name That Mustard Edition

It’s time for our annual game show, 2 Chefs And A Lie! The game is simple. Dan talks with three “chefs.” Two are real, and one is an actor with a made-up resume. He’s gotten no info on these people in...

10 Jul 202331min

The Enslaved Chefs At Monticello Who Created American Cuisine

The Enslaved Chefs At Monticello Who Created American Cuisine

This week in honor of July 4th, we’re exploring an important part of American history – the contributions of enslaved Black chefs, whose work influences American cuisine to this day. In 1784, Thomas J...

3 Jul 202331min

The Food-Obsessed Subculture Of The Appalachian Trail

The Food-Obsessed Subculture Of The Appalachian Trail

How do you feed yourself on a hike that’s more than 2,200 miles long and takes six months to complete? Every summer, hundreds of people attempting to hike the entire Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to...

26 Jun 202339min

Populært innen Fritid

rss-spartsklubben
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
mil-etter-mil-en-podcast-om-bil
nerdelandslaget
rss-gatebilpodden
interiorradet
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
jakt-og-fiskepodden
jegerpodden
0-100-med-broom-mats-og-remi
rss-avskiltet
rss-jegerpodden
hagespiren-podcast
rss-jeg-fikser-vin
klokkepodden
villmarksliv
level-backup
fjellsportpodden
grontpodden
rss-var-forste-kaffe