After leaving Top Chef after a 17-year run as Emmy-nominated host and executive producer, Padma Lakshmi vowed to never host another food competition show again. She created and hosted Taste the Nation, an exploration of American food through the lens of immigrant and indigenous communities, continued to write cookbooks (Padma’s All American is her latest) and do activist work for the ACLU and UN.

But last week, her new culinary competition show America’s Culinary Cup premiered on CBS! Why did she break her vow? You’ll have to listen to find out!

Padma and host Rachel Belle talk about the joy of eating in bed; her favorite midnight snacks to eat with her teenage daughter, Krishna; and what valuable lessons her grandmother taught her about life, through the lens of cooking.

Then New York Times food reporter Priya Krishna joins the show to talk about the negative impact ICE detainments and raids are having on American restaurants. The folks she interviewed say it’s harder on restaurants than the pandemic was.

Get the Your Last Meal food crawl Google map that pins every restaurant, pickle shop and pizza joint mentioned on the show over the past 9.5 years!

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.

This week, we are re-airing one of my favorite episodes with singer-songwriter, surfer and filmmaker Jack Johnson! This interview was extra special, because it was exactly 20 years after the first time I interviewed Jack, when I was a budding, baby reporter, writing for an alt-weekly in my college town, and his music career was just getting started.

Jack is an environmentalist and he tells me the great lengths he takes to reduce waste at venues and how he supports local farms when he's out on tour.

Zero Waste Chef, Anne Marie Bonneau, joins the show to share her tips for a zero-waste home kitchen. Have you even dehydrated fruit in your hot car, bro?

Jack has been with his wife, Kim, for 33 years and his last meal, and the story behind his song Banana Pancakes, are both inspired by their love story.

Jack’s new film, a documentary called Surfilmusic about his evolution from surfer to filmmaker to world renowned musician, premieres March 13th 2026 at SXSW! His SURFILMUSIC 2026 North American Tour has 43 stops from June through October, and he’s being supported by G. Love and Lake Street Dive, both past guests on Your Last Meal!

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.

This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Yotam Ottolenghi, chef and author of 9 bestselling cookbooks, co-owner of 12 restaurants and delis and a longtime columnist for the Guardian and The New York Times.

In a lightening round with host Rachel Belle, Ottolenghi reveals his favorite food holiday (hint: he and Rachel bond over a love for sour cream); his opinion of British food as an Israeli transplant; and how people react when they find out he’s coming over for dinner.

Listen to the full episode of Your Last Meal with Yotam Ottolenghi here.

• 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.