Grill Time and Letting Go of the Perfect Family Dinner with Noah Galuten

What if the best thing you could bring to family dinner wasn’t a perfectly cooked meal, but a better mood?

Chef, cookbook author, and TV host Noah Galuten joins Catherine to talk about his new cookbook, Grill Time!, and why the grill deserves a place in your weeknight cooking routine. They discuss shopping according to what’s on sale, salting chicken or steak now and figuring out dinner later, and setting up groceries so they’re easier to use when your busy brain needs them.

Noah also gets honest about cooking through creative ruts, feeding young children, and the impossible pressure to make a nutritious family dinner without making everyone miserable in the process. Plus, he shares how he balances books, television, and his Substack—and how a YouTube project that didn’t take off ultimately helped lead to Barbecue: Smoke Out on Netflix.

It’s a funny, candid conversation about grilling, parenting, creative work, and letting go of perfection in the kitchen.

Find Noah on Instagram at @galuten and subscribe to his Substack, I’m Legally Required to Feed You. You can watch Barbecue: Smoke Out on Netflix.

Not From Concentrate is distributed by PRX and produced by Catherine Smart, with audio and video editing by Kevin O’Connell and Asia Garcia. Our associate producer is Allie Miller, and our theme music is by Kylie Daley.