Labor Day weekend is here and for many serious eaters that means it's burger time. Most of my favorite burger recipes come from today's guest on Special Sauce is the James Beard Award-winning chef and food writer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. You'll hear really helpful cooking tips for all kinds of burgers; smashed, turkey, black bean, and vegan. So listen up to get the most out of your cookout this weekend! 

As Labor Day approaches my thoughts invariably turn to burgers. In fact, I have embarked on a quest to find the best burger to be had on Martha's Vineyard. And when I think of burgers the first person I think of is burger scholar and Hamburger America owner George Motz. George was such a great guest on Special Sauce a couple of years ago that listeners have been clamoring for us to reheat one of his episodes, so that's what we're posting this week. I just texted George, who told me that the fourth completely revised and expanded edition of his terrific book Hamburger America will be published next year. That's great news for burger lovers!

Farms on Martha's Vineyard have been disappearing for a hundred years now. The land is just too valuable. On today's Special Sauce we hear how one farmstead, Morning Glory Farm, has managed to feed people year-round on the Massachusetts island for 50 years now. 

Phil Rosenthal, the host and creator of Netflix's Somebody Feed Phil, works harder than just about any person I know in food media. What is he working on these days? A concert tour, a diner named after his parents (and co-stars) Max and Helen, a charitable initiative Somebody Feed the People, and so much more. 

There are so many compelling chef origin stories to be told, but I am hard-pressed to think of a more compelling and heart-rending one than today's guest on Special Sauce, Cristina Martínez, the James Beard Award winning chef-owner of two extraordinary world-class Philadelphia restaurants, South Philly Barbacoa and Casa Mexico. As she wrote on her website, "My name is Cristina Martínez, and my story is one of resilience, passion, and courage, full of deep and painful challenges." Listen to her story now. 

You wouldn't think I'd find some of the best fresh pasta I'd ever had on Martha's Vineyard, but I did. The maker of that pasta, Katie Leaird, tells serious eaters about how and why she ended up on an island raising two children under the age of 6 by herself while churning out pounds of fresh pasta every week. It ain't easy! 

It seems like every season of 'The Bear' is subject to more scrutiny and analysis than any play by The Bard himself,  Shakespeare. Every scene and every character's persona is being sifted through like cake flour. So like many serious eaters I know, I got hooked on the Bear. I have binge-watched all four seasons, including the latest, which I watched in two sittings. On a previous episode of Special Sauce I discussed the first season of 'The Bear' with Kenji Lopez-Alt and The New Yorker's Helen Rosner. As food writers, and in Kenji's case as someone who's cooked in restaurants like the one depicted in the series, they offered invaluable perspective. And though I have been devouring all the informed takes on season 4, one struck me as being particularly incisive and just spot on. That one is by James Poniewozik, the chief TV critic of The New York Times which means according to his NYT bio, that he has the largest beat in the world. And that beat now includes joining the conversation on Special Sauce. 

Nina Mae Levin has been making world-class pizza on Martha's Vineyard for five years now. And she sells every pie she makes during the Vineyard summer season! So why is it so hard for Nina to make a sustainable living on this idyllic but complicated island? We find out on today's episode of Special Sauce.

Today's guest on Special Sauce, the New York Times' insanely prolific Melissa Clark has written or co-written a ridiculous, astounding total of 46 cookbooks. She wrote a column for the paper for 5 years between 2007 and 2012 before going on staff there in 2012. And get this! She has published more than a thousand recipes in the Old Gray Lady. How does she do it? We find out how on today's episode of Special Sauce. 

Donald Trump's ICE raids have had a devastating effect on the Los Angeles taco community. On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to the great website LAtaco.com's editor in chief Javier Cabrales about his site's comprehensive coverage of this still unfolding tragedy. 

Serious eaters have watched with horror and dismay as President Trump has tasked ICE agents with carrying out his grand mass deportation scheme. Why are we so upset? Because this cruel scheme has impacted the lives of millions of farm workers all over the country. Here to offer his invaluable perspective on all these genuinely existential issues facing immigrants, both documented and undocumented, is Antonio De Loera-Brust, Communications Director for UFW.

On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to avocado farmer Norm Kachuck and Los Angeles Times reporter Daniel Miller about the crisis facing California avocado growers as they try to compete with Mexican avocados. 

The late, truly great Marcella Hazan taught many of us what real Italian food is and how to cook it. And yet many people, including me, didn't know much about this remarkable woman. But now there's a terrific documentary about her life and work, 'Marcella'. We talk to Pete Wells of The New York Times and the director of 'Marcella', Peter Miller, about the many aspects of her life that have gone unnoticed until now. 

The The New York Times's national food correspondent Kim Severson gives us the 411 on meat's improbable comeback.

It's only 450 Square Feet, but L.A.'s Now Serving Cookbook Store is so much more than a place to buy food books. Its co-founder Ken Concepcion explains how his tiny bookstore became home base for Serious Eaters in LA.

Is being an international pizza consultant the world's best job? Anthony Falco explains all.

On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to Meghan McCarron and Adam Chandler about the surprisingly important role casual sit-down dining chains like Chili's and Olive Garden play in Americans' lives. I know, I know, I was skeptical, too. 

On this episode of Special Sauce, we revisit our extraordinary conversation with the great Mexico City-based chef Lalo Garcia and the journalist Laura Tillman, who chronicled his extraordinary journey from undocumented migrant farm worker to world-famous chef. Given everything that's happening right now in the world of immigration, we thought this episode might resonate anew. 

On this episode of Special Sauce we revisit our provocative conversation with the food activist, farmer, and force of nature Karen Washington, one of the stars of the terrific documentary 'Food and Country'. In times like these, when many of our cherished institutions are coming under attack, we need more voices like hers.

On this episode of Special Sauce we talk to White Oak Pastures' Will Harris about nothing less than the future of farming. Harris has become one of the leading voices of the regenerative farming movement.