Meatball Shop’s Co-Founder Promotes Cookbook on Rogan Show

Chef Daniel Holzman in 2017. Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for NYCWFF Erika Adams is the editor of Eater Boston.

Podcast host Joe Rogan and streaming service Spotify have been under intense scrutiny for months due to Rogan’s extremist viewpoints and offensive remarks aired on his massively popular show, the Joe Rogan Experience. Nevertheless, chef and co-founder of the Meatball Shop, Daniel Holzman, decided to make an appearance on the program earlier this week to promote his new cookbook Food IQ.

The restaurateur journeyed down to Austin, Texas, to record the interview with Rogan, as indicated in a post on Holzman’s Instagram feed. On February 22, the episode was broadcast even as numerous Spotify artists have recently been vehemently speaking out against Rogan in the wake of offensive and inflammatory commentary that he has disseminated on his show.

The controversy has even incited hundreds of health officials to sign an open letter to Spotify, demanding that the company enhance its policies against the dissemination of misinformation. This followed Rogan’s publication of an interview in December with vaccine skeptic Dr. Robert Malone, which propagated groundless COVID-19 conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination perspectives. In February, Grammy-award winning artist India Arie posted footage of Rogan using the n-word multiple times in past shows and describing a neighborhood with Black residents as “Planet of the Apes.” (Rogan has subsequently apologized for the remarks, as reported by the New York Times, and as many as 70 episodes have been removed from the show’s catalogue.) A large number of artists and podcast hosts, including Arie, have declared that they are withdrawing their content from Spotify in protest against the company’s continuous support of Rogan.

Still, Holzman made his way to Rogan’s studio and recorded a nearly three-hour-long podcast interview that encompasses his life in Los Angeles running his new sandwich and slice shop Danny Boy’s Famous Original, cooking at home, and the origins of Food IQ. Eater did not listen to all the 150-plus minutes of the podcast, but industry newsletter Family Meal points out questionable segments of the interview where Holzman and Rogan discuss Donald Trump Jr.-endorsed coffee company Black Rifle – a Rogan advertiser that confirmed its support of the podcast and doubled its ad budget for Rogan amid escalating criticism – and where Rogan ponders aloud whether hot sauce was invented to eliminate bad bacteria in food in tropical countries. (Holzman stated multiple times that the claim was “a fallacy.”) Eater has reached out to Holzman and Food IQ‘s publisher Harper Collins for comments on the decision to promote the cookbook on Joe Rogan’s show.

Holzman and food writer Matt Rodbard launched Food IQ on February 22. The cookbook is structured as a guide presented in a question-and-answer format, addressing 100 questions such as “When is it acceptable to cook with frozen vegetables?” and “What is chicken adobo?” Prominent figures in the food world, including Ina Garten, Le Bernardin chef Eric Ripert, and New York Times writers Ligaya Mishan and Priya Krishna, make guest appearances throughout the book.