Podcast Summary: The Joy of Cooking Podcast

Episode: Jyoti Mukherji & Auyon Mukherji: A Casual Culinary Chat About Meal Planning
Date: November 5, 2025
Production: The Joy of Creation Production House

Overview

This week’s episode features a lively conversation on meal planning, home cooking, and the creative process behind cookbooks with guests Jyoti Mukherjee—chef, teacher, and retired physician—and her son, Oyen Mukherjee, a musician and culinary historian. Hosts Megan Scott, John Becker, and Shannon Larson lead the discussion, which ranges from soup obsessions and Southern collards to the challenges of family cookbook authorship. The second half focuses on practical and philosophical strategies for meal planning, featuring methods, frustrations, and guest advice.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Soup Season and Home Kitchen Joys

• The hosts kick off with what they’ve been cooking, diving into their “soup phase.”
  • John’s favorite: Shiro miso-butter-Dijon toast with Swiss cheese, broiled (00:50).
  • Megan lists recent soups: Korean kimchi jjigae, Samin Nosrat’s chicken soup, and Helen Rosner’s “Roberto” sausage, white bean, and escarole soup (02:13).
  • Shannon laments the lack of the perfect soup bowl: “Why is it so hard to find a good soup bowl? … There’s just something about them that makes it.” (03:09)

Food Travels – Savannah, Collard Greens, and Inspiration

• Shannon shares a recent trip to Savannah:
  • Highlights: Cemetery and ghost tours, dolphin tour, excellent fried chicken (“the best fried chicken I’ve ever had in my life”), and authentic southern collards (04:43).
  • Aspiration: “This winter, I really want to learn how to make good collards… I think I need to learn how to make them.” (05:12)
  • Discussion about the challenge of finding proper collard greens in the Pacific Northwest (05:30).

Mushroom Confit & Recipe Sharing

• Megan spotlights the recipe of the week: mushroom confit (06:31)
  • Shannon: “It’s one of my favorite recipes out of this Joy… they’re great on toast, with scrambled eggs, or just a spoon.” (07:24–07:43)

Heartland Masala: Mother-Son Cookbook Collaboration

Origins of Heartland Masala (09:44)

• Jyoti recounts her teaching journey—over 6,500 students—before writing a cookbook at the urging of her students (12:18).
  • “I have never been to culinary school… my teaching started as a fluke, really…” (12:18)
  • “When I did it, I realized… my passion to cook as a mother and my passion to teach as a little girl suddenly all came alive…” (13:11)
  • Oyen admits: “I said yes, but I wasn’t serious. It was very much bluffing… it was just my fear of saying no to her.” (15:20)

Process and Friction

• Oyen describes the evolution from a basic family recipe compilation to a book with deep historical essays and multiple authorial voices:
  • “I realized that writing yet another collection of family recipes… was of zero interest to me… The result is our strange but I think enjoyable book wherein the backbone is my mom’s recipes, but the headnotes and essays are focused on history and context.” (15:20)
• The mother-son dynamic:
  • Jyoti: “Now that I look back it just seems what a beautiful ride it was… mothers know how to forgive, forget, and move on.” (25:16)
  • Oyen responds: “Sons, on the other hand, are extremely fragile and delicate, trauma very deeply… we said some wild, very mean things to one another… a lot of crying, a lot of screaming.” (26:05)

Notable Exchange

Oyen Mukherjee:
"We're doing this, it's happening, we're going to make it happen. And there was not really a choice to get out at that point, I think." (27:52)

Megan Scott:
"You have a very good relationship. But… there were moments I will tell you… I'm sure you also had some moments where you weren't sure you liked the other person very much…" (24:44)

Authorial Voice & Navigating Disagreement

• The book uniquely features passages labeled by author, reflecting both distinct and shared perspectives.
  • Oyen: “There are two authorial voices going on… someone instructing confidently and someone who doesn't know entirely what's going on but is really trying.” (19:19)
• Addressing potentially controversial content on “curry” and beef in Indian cuisine:
  • Oyen: “In India, curry means a dish with some gravy… the word is used in India.” (21:03)
  • “Millions upon millions of Indian people… eat beef… the idea that Indians don’t eat beef is a political export of the right wing Hindu government.” (22:52)

Home Cooking, Recipe Testing & Teaching Philosophy

Translating Teaching into Recipe Writing

• Jyoti on the importance of using whole spices:
  • “Do not invest in powders… Buy the seeds and grind it yourself. And it takes literally two seconds to do it. The flavors in the dish are just heightened.” (33:42)
  • Tips for spice storage (buy seeds, keep extra in the fridge or share with friends) (37:34)
• Testing and revision centered around visual cues, timing, and clear instructions learned from decades of teaching:
  • “A lot of credit goes to Oyen for really expanding on the instruction part of [the recipes]… so you cannot go wrong…” (39:13)
  • Oyen: “Having my mom as a resource to just be like, ‘oh well this is clearly the thing you do,’ was very helpful in recipe testing and troubleshooting.” (43:49)

Advice for the Whole Spice Newbie

• “Get a spice grinder (or a coffee grinder you’ll never use for coffee),” buy small amounts, store extras in the fridge, share with friends as a ‘CSA’ (33:42–38:01).

Meal Planning Deep Dive

[45:28–55:35]

Listener Question: “I always struggle with meal planning. Any tips?”

• Megan’s method:

  • “Use what you have” system—inventory the fridge, pantry, and freezer, mark priority ingredients, brainstorm meal ideas built around those items.
  • Use tools like cookbooks, indexes, ‘Eat Your Books’ website to cross-reference ingredients (47:33).
  • Value of a well-stocked pantry (expand by picking up extras as you shop).
  • Build in easy days, leftovers, or takeout to make meal planning sustainable.

• Jon:

  • Reference to Joy’s “Streamlined Cooking” chapter (2019 edition)—decision trees for using leftovers, reinvention strategies, and practical suggestions.
  • “Highly encourage you to check out that chapter—where you make one dish, like roast chicken or a pot of beans, and we give examples of how that might get utilized throughout the week.” (49:22)

• Shannon:

  • Whiteboard or visible list for ingredients and meal ideas is key for food waste and planning (51:03).
  • “Make meal planning fun—a cup of coffee, a cocktail, and your favorite cookbooks.” (52:02)

• Jyoti & Oyen’s advice:

  • Lean on “flexible” meals—e.g., lentil stew with whatever vegetables are around, served with rice (52:20).
  • Oyen: “Having a rhythm is really grounding… whether it’s takeout once a week or making a pot of beans or lentils every Sunday.”
  • Build small, repeatable traditions (53:08–53:49)

Notable Quotes

• “Meal planning is a tyranny of choice… or the tendency to make a lot of one dish and then reheat it over and over. Just things like that.” — Jon Becker (54:41)
• “Lentils are much easier to cook than beans because you don’t have to soak them.” — Jyoti Mukherjee (55:23)

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On confession and conflict:

  • Oyen: “It was not my idea to write the book… which was probably not a great idea for me to remind my mother about in those moments, but I did.” (28:35)
  • Jyoti: “It was all said out of love.” (30:49)

• On practical kitchen wisdom:

  • Jyoti: “You will see the flavors in the dish are just heightened [with freshly ground spices]. What you eat at the table is so superior to using those old powders.” (33:42)

• On cookbook lineage:

  • Oyen: “That’s a tough thing, too, given the lineage, the family lineage, part of this… there are a lot of people who are deeply invested in it, ancestral too.” (33:02)

What Everyone is Cooking This Week (57:31–61:30)

• Shannon: “Back from vacation, so I’m cooking… last tomatoes from the garden, tomato-centric and soup season.”
• Megan: “First delicata squash in the CSA—going to roast it with miso butter. Also, baking cookies for striking nurses using Nicole Rucker’s cold butter cookie method.”
• Jyoti: Cooking demo for a local restaurant: murgh kali mirch (chicken with black pepper), dal palak, pakoras, rice, and mango kulfi (60:01).
• Oyen: Looking forward to home cooking after book tour, “facing the tyranny of choice in a good way.”

Where to Find the Guests

• Heartland Masala HQ Newsletter on Substack
  • Oyen’s behind-the-scenes stories and insights into mother-son cookbook authorship, illustration, and more.
• The Joy of Cooking Podcast
  • joyofcooking.substack.com
  • Instagram: @thejoyofcooking

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:50–03:37: Soup talk, toast recipes, and the elusive perfect soup bowl
• 04:13–06:13: Savannah food tour, Southern collards
• 06:31–07:44: Mushroom confit discussion
• 08:53–21:03: Heartland Masala—How the book came to be, mother-son creative partnership
• 22:52–24:35: Cookbook’s approach to politics, the “curry” debate, beef in Indian cuisine
• 25:16–32:38: Family cookbook writing conflict, kitchen hierarchies, recipe testing battles
• 33:42–38:03: All about whole spices—buying, storing, and using
• 39:13–43:49: Teaching influences on recipe writing, recipe troubleshooting
• 45:28–55:35: Deep dive on meal planning techniques and philosophy
• 57:31–61:30: Weekly cooking plans, returning home after book tour

Episode Tone & Atmosphere

The conversation throughout is both convivial and gently irreverent, with plenty of candor about culinary mishaps and family dynamics. The hosts and guests openly share strategies, frustrations, and insider knowledge, all with generous humor and warmth.

Final Recommendation

For anyone interested in the “how” and “why” of home cooking, family traditions, and meal planning, this episode delivers depth, practical tips, and memorable stories in equal measure.

Notable Quote to Close:
"Do not invest in powders… buy the seeds and grind it yourself. … You will see the flavors in the dish are just heightened."
— Jyoti Mukherjee (33:42)