Samin Nosrat (‘Salt Fat Acid Heat’) Cooks These ‘Good Things’ at Home

August 2, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Samin Nosrat’s new cookbook, Good Things, is not a follow-up to her blockbuster Salt Fat Acid Heat. It is, she says, a “picture of me in this moment of time”—a collection of 125 recipes that reads less like a manual and more like an invitation to come over and eat. But the book emerged from a period of profound disorientation. After the runaway success of her first book and its Emmy-nominated Netflix series, Nosrat found herself unmoored. “All of the attention and success knocked me really far off kilter,” she says. The achievement she had spent her life chasing did not make her feel less lonely or more settled. It made her feel empty. Good Things is the result of her attempt to figure out what she was doing and why.

The Weight of Being “Two Kids’ Worth of Good”

Nosrat’s drive to achieve was not simply ambition. It was a response to a childhood shaped by unspoken trauma. Her parents emigrated from Iran in the mid-1970s, fleeing religious persecution. When Nosrat was born, her older sister was dying of a terminal brain tumor. “I was born into a state of extreme grief and trauma,” she says. The loss was never discussed. “It was very much like not my loss to grieve,” she explains. “It was my parents’ loss to grieve.” She internalized the idea that she had to be “two kids’ worth of good” to fill an impossible hole.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Opening & The Weight of Success** - Samin Nosrat reflects on the impossibility of replicating *Salt Fat Acid Heat* and the loneliness that followed its success.
2 (03:35) **The Shift from Philosophy to Personal** - Nosrat explains the emotional and philosophical pivot from *Salt Fat Acid Heat* to her new book, *Good Things*.
3 (13:59) **Finding Meaning in Time: The Sabbath** - Nosrat discusses how Abraham Joshua Heschel’s book *The Sabbath* helped her re-evaluate her purpose and the value of time.
4 (18:47) **Re-examining Childhood & Family Trauma** - Nosrat confronts the painful re-evaluation of her childhood after her father’s death, including the trauma of her sister’s death and her parents’ religious conflict.
5 (26:48) **A Pressure Cooker Home & Early Racism** - Nosrat describes the constant pressure at home and the early experiences of racism that shaped her worldview.
6 (35:21) **Estrangement and Financial Independence** - Nosrat explains the long, painful estrangement from her abusive father and how financial stability finally allowed her to set a boundary.
7 (40:01) **The Joy of the First Real Cook** - Nosrat recounts the exhilarating moment she was finally put on the line as a cook, making hundreds of ravioli.

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Show Notes

Nine years ago, cook and writer Samin Nosrat created a kitchen staple with Salt Fat Acid Heat: a New York Times bestseller that later became a hit Netflix series. Last fall, Nosrat returned with Good Things, a collection of personal recipes straight from her dining table.

Today, we revisit that candid conversation, where we discussed the influences that shaped the book (8:30), the ephemerality (and pleasure) of produce (9:30), her complicated San Diego childhood growing up with Iranian parents (17:30), the high expectations placed before her (22:40), and how she eventually found her way to Chez Panisse in Berkeley (32:00).

On the back-half, Samin talked about her salad days working in restaurants (46:00), grand openings and closings (42:30), the origins of Salt Fat Acid Heat (47:00), what The Bear gets right about cooking (1:00:25), and how she thinks about time (1:03:00) and ritual (1:07:40).

Original air date: September 7, 2025

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