Our New Cooking Series for Novices Is Here

Food52’s CEO Erika Ayers Badan is skilled at many things—and we’re not just saying that because she’s our boss!—but she doesn’t pretend to be a whiz in the kitchen. So in our brand-new video series, Erika Learns, she calls upon her favorite food-focused friends for some helpful guidance.

In the very first episode, Erika invites Emmy-winning talk show host Tamron Hall and Emmy- and James Beard-winning chef and culinary producer Lish Steiling to walk her through a dish from their new cookbook, A Confident Cook: Recipes for Joyous, No-Pressure, Fun in the Kitchen.

“It’s a cookbook, and it’s one we’re proud of, but it’s also a story of friendship,” Tamron says in the video. “It’s a story [about how] as confident as we appear in our everyday lives, we all struggle with confidence.”

Watch along as the trio prepares the book’s Chicken Thighs with Dates and Olives recipe, while Erika asks the important questions, like, “What’s a mirepoix?” and coins the term “party-girl oil.”

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Who should Erika invite next into the Test Kitchen? Tell us in the comments!