Kae Lani Palmisano

Some go to Cowtown for the rodeo. I go for the tacos 🌮

I wanted to take a picture with some bread I made and my mom photobombed me. Happy Thanksgiving 🦃

On this day 10 years ago took this photo of and I at . Little did I know that a decade later, I’d be hosting a TV show featuring Tattooed Mom! Such a joy to share a legendary spot with Philly restaurant lovers!

You can watch last week’s episode of online and be sure to tune in to tonight at 7:30 for a new one!

The secret ingredient to is love.

and I ate at Maria’s twice today, kinda by accident. Most Saturdays we get groceries at the Collingswood Farmers Market and pop over to Maria’s for coffee and breakfast before walking back home.

Today, we did just that, but then remembered that they were serving up pizza and complimentary Negronis for Collingswood’s Second Saturday Sip & Shop. It was worth it to eat pizza on a stoop and sip Negronis while watching a bad play across the street.

This town is rad and it’s because of the people in it.

It’s too late in the year to be getting sunburnt while drinking beer outside… but here we are. is worth it!

Po’ boys, frog legs, sazeracs and beignets. No matter what bar, cafe or restaurant we walked into, every bite in New Orleans was amazing 🤩

Our 4 year anniversary fit.
How adorkable are we?!

happy anniversary to my husband who has to put up with this

love you

Scenes from New Orleans 🎺

📸 and ME!

comes back to tomorrow at 7:30pm and we’re kicking off the new season with a really special episode.

It’s been almost three years since we first came on the air, so it felt necessary to talk about the impact of COVID-19 on the restaurant industry, the lessons we learned, and how we can all move forward together.

Joining me at the table this week are of , of and of ,  and . These titans of the restaurant industry shared their stories and insights with us in what is sure to be a very informative and uplifting episode of Check, Please! Philly.

Be sure to tune in at 7:30pm tomorrow! We’ll be back to exploring locals’ favorite restaurants next week!

Living deliciously with Adult Happy Meal. Indeed I am loving it! 🍟

The face I made when people at the ice cream shop recognized me from “that food show on PBS.”

BTW comes back to in October!

—
I still get surprised when people recognize me in public even though I’ve gotten stopped at least once a week for the past 3 years.

If you catch me in the wild you will become an unofficial Check, Please! Philly guest! I will ask you where your favorite restaurant is and what your go to order is. I will answer all your questions and talk about the show. I will talk your ear off if you let me because I’m honestly just excited about seeing you as you are seeing me! 🤩

What a surreal, whirlwind of a week. We filmed 6 episodes in 3 days featuring 18 guests and their favorite restaurants - an exciting start to Season 2 of for !

I’m a little winded by the sprint, but it’s that kind of tired you feel when you’re satisfied and proud of the work you’ve completed. Can’t wait to see what and her team come up with as they continue with production!!!

I’ll be posting more about it later as we get the show ready for the fall, but for now, enjoy some of these behind the scenes moments captured by the creatively keen eye of .lou_!

📸 .lou_

We are officially back in the studio filming Season 2 of ’s !

Being back at the table and chatting with folks about their favorite restaurants feels surreal. It’s been 3 years since we’ve filmed Season 1. So much has happened and changed since then. Leading up to taping, I honestly didn’t know how I’d feel sitting in my old seat.

But it was wild how quickly I slid right back into my role as host, which was easy to do thanks to , the incredible team and our fabulous guests! Everyone fell right into a rhythm and we didn’t skip a beat.

Not only did I feel way more comfortable this time around (I was so nervous in the 1st season) it weirdly felt like no time passed at all.

It’s great to be back! Keep an eye out for new episodes of coming out later this fall!

📸 .lou_

Tonight on ’s we dig into the culinary traditions of Bastille Day! I stopped by and
and talked to father-daughter co-owners Bernard and Chloe Grigri. Not only did they
teach me about Quatorze juillet (14th of July) as it's called in France, but they also shared a couple of
dishes and a signature cocktail they'Il be offering during their Bastille Day Block Party on Saturday July 16th!

Tune in to tonight at
7:30pm to learn more!

Been spending the last few weeks dining out for Season 2 of ’s ! I can’t share with you where I’ve been going but let me tell you, our guests this season have impeccable taste!

Be sure to follow to see what we’ll be dishing out this season! STAY TUNED 📺

I was supposed to be looking for clothes for my TV wardrobe but ended up buying a bunch of Looney Tunes t-shirts instead.

There was a brief moment in the 90’s when Looney Tunes was all over streetwear, and I am pining for those simpler times. That is why I declare Summer 2022 Bugs Bunny and Blazers!

✨ Living in a Garden State of Mind! ✨
Excited to share that I contributed a story to the New Jersey Fan Club, a book of essays, comics, and other works of art that celebrate the Garden State. It was a huge endeavor compiled by editor , founder of the . It’s such a joy to see the book come together!

I’ll be reading my story, a piece about Jersey’s farm-to-table bounty, this Sunday at 6pm at in Haddonfield. Join me along with writers and for a night that is sure to be Jersey Fresh!

📣 NEWS 📣 Excited to announce that I’m McClatchy’s new City Guides Writer! I’ll be joining newsrooms across the country to build out guides that will help folks enjoy their home towns to the fullest!

At the core of all of my work is the desire to expand people’s worlds, providing them with the information they need to live well. That’s why when I heard about McClatchy’s City Guides project, I knew I wanted in. It’s a project that blends my passions for food and travel writing, and also gets me into new lifestyle topics that I can’t wait to explore.

I’m excited to see where this project takes me and can’t wait to share that adventure with you!

To answer the burning questions I’m sure you’ll have — yes, I am staying in Philadelphia and YES I am still your host with the most on WHYY’s !

📣 Announcement Incoming 📣
Tomorrow, my food and travel worlds collide as I embark on a nationwide project featuring news you can use! I’ve been sitting on this news for about a month now and I can’t wait to share what I’ll be working on! STAY TUNED!

Still beaming with pride over Philadelphia’s representation at the last night!

What I love about the food industry is also what I love about Philly: status doesn’t matter to us as much as your work ethic. My grandparents were street vendors by the Clothespin in front of City Hall. They taught me with hard work and grit you can achieve anything your dream — and that the community in Philadelphia was the fertile soil that would support that growth.

I believed in that wholeheartedly as a kid and I still believe in that today. So it makes me very proud to see others flourish in Philly and share with us their experiences, their culture and their talents.

Congratulations to all of the James Beard Award nominees, semifinalist and winners! Congratulations to and, of course, our Best Chef Mid-Atlantic ! And thank you for being part of the community that makes Philadelphia SHINE 🌟

For the Awards — my dress is pants!

What an overwhelmingly incredible experience to share space with people who I deeply admire and celebrate the passionate makers in the restaurant industry! Everyone at the awards was so welcoming and eager to embrace newcomers like me.

A big congratulations to all of the winners and nominees. It’s an outstanding accomplishment! And thanks to everyone who made the James Beard Awards really special this year and for many years to come!

Feels fitting to start the big Awards day doing what I love - working with the soil from which food comes.

It was a joy and pleasure spending the morning volunteering with the at Grant Park Farm. Food begins with the land which is tended to by hands that we don’t often see in our food systems.

Yesterday, co-founder earned a James Beard Leadership Award! And it’s so we’ll deserved! Through Urban Growers Collective Erika leads a team full of incredible stewards of the land who use this space to educate, empower and encourage the next generation of urban farmers.

Editors when they find my TV work: “Wow! You’re such a natural on camera!”

BTS still frames of me making wild faces during segments:

Do you feel different after your birthday? 🎂

Birthdays come and go and I rarely ever feel different. Other milestones like graduations, my wedding, and new jobs feel more like new frontiers. Like I’m setting off on a new adventure. But usually, birthdays always felt just like any other day. Except for this birthday. Not sure if it’s because of my age or because we’re kind of emerging from a global pandemic or because of some upcoming NEWS I’ve got coming, but yesterday I actually felt a shift in my perspective.

Birthdays are a day where you get to do what you want and be who you want and everyone not only accepts it but celebrates it because “you’re the birthday girl!” Such a novel concept — people accepting you for who you are.

To be real, I protect a lot of who I am because, even though there are tons of people who love and appreciate me, my brain always zeros in on the one critical voice. But not on this birthday! This birthday was all about being unapologetically me because the rule of birthdays dictates that it’s LITERALLY YOUR DAY.

No amount of haterade could douse the flames of my outrageous flamboyance. For 24 hours, I moved through the world really just letting it all hang out. I boldly shared all of my silly thoughts, I sent the brave email pitches I didn’t have the guts to send, and at the end of the day I thought “that felt great! Why don’t I do that more often?”

So get ready, because Kae Lani 33.0 will be doing that more often. Uninhibited, unleashed and slightly unhinged.

Thanks to everyone who shared their birthday advice with me! So much of it echoed yesterday’s vibe. The best gifts are ones straight from the heart and these nuggets of wisdom are proof of that. Thank you all!

📸:

✨ It’s my birthday! ✨ What advice do you have for this 33 year old?

Get that BREAD! Couldn’t leave Tucson without getting a loaf of . The key ingredient in bread is time - time to nurture the sourdough starter, time to let the bread rise, and even the time that goes into growing the grains. In regards to this bread, generations and generations of time went into cultivating the local Arizona heritage grains that uses for Barrio Bread. You could seriously taste the Sonoran desert in this bread — earthy, slightly sour, mildly sweet — every bite was as vibrant as those Arizona sunsets. This bread was so good, I packed it in my suitcase and brought it home to New Jersey! I even left my sourdough starter next to a slice in hopes that a small piece of Arizona’s spirit could be part of every bread I bake. 🍞 ❤️

We all know that the Italian Market is a special place, but it is truly the people that make it the spirited community that it is.

I had an incredible day filming two segments for ’s . First stop: the with the fabulous who made us a delightful Juneteenth drink. (Stay tuned in June!)

Next we went down the street to where Cristina Martinez () prepared two holiday foods for a special segment that will air later this year. And we couldn’t have picked a better day to film because it’s Cristina’s birthday! Feliz Cumpleaños! Thanks for sharing your birthday with us!

Brews and views with 🍺 🌅

If I’m going to eat a Sonoran Hot Dog, I’m going to eat one from a 2018 James Beard American Classic winner. Got my first bacon-wrapped hot dog experience at and it was love at first bite! 🌭 🥓

Have you tried the Sonoran Hot Dog?

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” — John Muir

Convening with cacti 🌵

It’s been a dream of mine to see the mighty saguaro cacti in the Sonoran Desert, the only place in the world where they grow. is definitely the place to see these incredible desert plants. Also, the sunsets here are no joke!

I just found this photo of me and my great-grandmother Almeta Suggs! She was the mother of 15 - my grandfather being the oldest. Another ancestor to celebrate today for Mother’s Day!