Daphne Oz: Good Timing and Great Ingredients Make ‘The Good Dish’ Cook

Something new is cooking in daytime. The Good Dish, which began as spun-off segments on The Dr. Oz Show, will serve up daily helpings in a syndicated one-hour format hosted by noted foodies Daphne Oz, Gail Simmons, and Jamika Pessoa. The program fills in the Dr. Oz slot starting January 17 as Dr. Mehmet Oz makes a run for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. 

“This is a show hosted by three women who intimately understand the drama of what’s for dinner tonight,” Daphne Oz explained. “We all have little kids, are experts in our field, and come to the world of food as eaters by choice, by calling, and for fun. This show is meant to be about your girlfriends in the kitchen. It is meant to feel like to a wonderful place where you come to learn something, but also laugh and feel uplifted in the process.” 

Overall the show looks to be that comfort food you have already come to expect from the ladies involved. Daphne Oz took some time to tell us what’s on the menu for The Good Dish.  

How did your first day go?

Daphne Oz: It was awesome. I’m grinning ear to ear. It’s just so exciting to see it come to fruition and see these ladies in action. We have a great team. 

I can go back to 2019 before COVID when I first started hearing about The Good Dish. You even had Vanessa Williams involved at one point. Take me through the journey of this show from then to now.

That is the beauty of where we are now. We had the benefit of really having a chance to incubate and work out the kinks and be together as hosts and friends. Also, to be working with this incredible production team that knows each other so well and has worked together for the better part of 15 years. We’ve had lots of really great interest for the show from the outset as you recalled. We were in the process of having it be a standalone show before the pandemic, which put a hold on many new launches. 

Do you feel the delay was a blessing in disguise?

Honestly, the last few years with all of us being at home for as long as we have been, we had more time in our spaces and our kitchens. It has done nothing but skyrocket interest in great recipes, easy improvements you can make to your home, lifestyle hacks. We’ve seen the way social media has exploded with food content. It’s so interesting when a door closes, it has felt like an even more exciting one has opened. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to bring it to our audiences across the nation now, which is amazing. 

You are no stranger to this world as an original host of The Chew, which premiered now more than a decade ago. What is it like to be back in daytime full-time?

My experience at The Chew is invaluable and so much what I hope we are able to provide. That comfort and fun. That energy that I still hear about from people who were big fans of that show and hopefully will be big fans of this show. We launched The Chew in 2011. We’re in 2022 now. What has transpired in those 11 years is an absolute explosion in food content. No other food program has been able to keep pace with that appetite. 

How do you feel the series is different from the segments you’ve done in the past?

Now we have breathing room. We were so lucky to be able to incubate this show on The Dr. Oz Show for the last couple of years. Our Wednesday segments were really well-received. That was a huge part of why we wanted to bring this show out. What I like to think is having this amount of airtime coming up every day with a new topic and material and recipes, celebrity guests, hilarious guests taste-testing. Everything from fashion to beauty and everything in between. I believe our mandate is, everything delicious in daytime. To me, being able to do that in a full format show just means you can dive deeper into the personalities. We’re really three women who live real lives, have real families, are speaking from real experience. It’s meant to be really relatable and accessible information we are sharing. 

What can you tell us about the first episodes?

We have some really exciting guests coming up. Today we shot with Foodgod, which was a hilarious segment. I can’t wait for people to see it. It really took the cake for me. We’ve had Brooke Shields, Tia Mowry, Gordon Ramsay. Andy Cohen is joining us. It’s really people who come and have a great time and dish it up and share their favorite meals and recipes, childhood things they want us to create. The level of creativity that can happen is pretty spectacular. Being able to have that peek behind the curtain in people’s lives in the rawest and relatable way. What are you eating is something that I think is genuinely interesting to find out. 

What words of encouragement did dad give you? Was there a text or pep talk?

He is a surgeon so for him, it’s all about timing. I’ve had the benefit of having been through the talk show experience before, but his advice is always invaluable to me. His advice to me before I started at The Chew was to remember you are talking to one person. Remember there is one person you’re having this conversation with, and if you can make that one person’s life better, that’s the most incredible thing imaginable. For this time around, it was timing is everything [and] that I’ve got to make sure the show runs perfectly and that we’re ready to go. To cherish this opportunity because it’s an incredible one.  

The Good Dish, Series Premiere, Monday, January 17, Check Local Listings