Tinfoil Swans Podcast

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On this episode

Cassandra Peterson — better known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark — grew up as a misfit kid with a bad perm, burn scars, and a mother who told her she’d never make it. Despite it all, she became a Las Vegas showgirl, a Groundling, a horror icon, and a beacon for weirdos everywhere. The “Martha Stewart of the Macabre” talks about her new cookbook, the cooking tip Vincent Price gave her, the advice she didn’t take from Elvis, and the power of entertaining to build community — even if it all goes hilariously wrong.

Meet our guest

Cassandra Peterson — better known as her alter ego Elvira, Mistress of the Dark — started working as a Las Vegas showgirl as a teenager. After working in European film and theater, she joined the Los Angeles improv troupe The Groundlings, where alongside performers like Paul Reubens, Phil Hartman, she sharpened the vampy, campy persona that became Elvira. In 1981, she debuted as host of the late-night TV showcase Elvira’s Movie Macabreturning a local horror-host gig into a national pop-culture phenomenon through deadpan humor, goth-glam styling, and savvy merchandising.

She co-wrote and starred in the features Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and Elvira’s Haunted Hillsplus various specials, appearances, and the licensed projects that dubbed her “The Queen of Halloween.” Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvirawas published in 2021, and her new cookbook, Elvira’s Cookbook from Hell: Sexy, Spooky Soirées and Celebrations for Every Occasionwas published in September 2025.

Meet our host

Kat Kinsman is the executive features editor at Food & Wine, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerveshost of Food & Wine’s Gold Signal Award-winning and Folio Award-nominated podcast Tinfoil Swansand founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she was the senior food & drinks editor at Extra Crispy, editor in chief and editor at large at Tasting Table, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She won a 2024 IACP Award for Narrative Food Writing With Recipes and a 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoirand has had work included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Best American Food Writing.

She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won a 2011 EPPY Award for Best Food Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and moderator on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is the former vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.

Highlights from the episode

On being a misfit

“I was the creepy nerd outcast kid. I wore cat-eye glasses that were pink and had little diamonds. I had a Toni home perm — which my mom insisted on — so I had this red frizzy little ball of hair. I was very nervous because I had scars from a burn and was afraid everybody was looking at that all the time. I was 100% into horror and when my sisters were playing with Barbies, I was off building little Aurora model kits of Dracula.

My gateway horror was like a bolt of lightning. My cousin took me to the local theater in Colorado Springs (where I grew up), to see House on Haunted Hill with Vincent Price. I had nightmares for two weeks. My parents kicked my cousin’s butt for taking me there.”

On her Vincent Price cooking lesson

“Vincent taught me to cook fish in the dishwasher. I’m not kidding. It’s fantastic. We were out dining together one night with him and his wife, Coral Browne, and he said, ‘You know, you can cook fish in your dishwasher.’ And I’m like, ‘Are you joking?’ You put it in parchment paper, then a lot of aluminum foil. You don’t want water leaking into it. Put herbs on it, lemon slices, put it in the dishwasher when you wash your dishes, and voilà, it comes out perfect. Super moist and done — he was right.”

On becoming a Las Vegas showgirl at 17

“I held all these scars, which I was afraid ruled me out. I thought that meant I could never be seen as beautiful. But there I was — pancake makeup, head to toe — onstage as a showgirl. That was the first time in my life that I said, ‘You can have dreams and you can accomplish them.’ It’s doable. It can happen — the wildest freaking thing that you can imagine.

My mother had convinced me that I wasn’t tall enough, pretty enough, or talented enough and to just forget about even thinking about that. And suddenly, I was that. This was the moment I realized that the things people tell you about yourself don’t have to be true forever.”

On falling in love with food

“Meals in my family were just to keep you alive. Maintenance food. When I went to Italy as a teenager and got a chance later to live there, they were so much about community and family and sitting down and having long lunches and long dinners. The food is important, but getting together with people is just as important. Dining should be an experience, not just sticking food in your mouth and staying alive.

I’d saved up a lot of money — I was making darn good money as a go-go dancer — and all I wanted to do was get to England where the Beatles were. I faked this whole interest in art history so I could get in a class where the art teacher was taking kids to seven countries in Europe. The first day, we were at some pensione and had dinner. Nothing fancy, but the spaghetti… Up until that time, I think I’d only had Chef Boyardee out of the can. This was just spaghetti marinarabut I was like, ‘This is spaghetti.’ It blew me away.”

On Martha Stewart and double standards

“Martha Stewart is a feminist icon to me. I think she was the first self-made female billionaire. She came from a very modest upbringing. Nobody gave her $10 million to start her company. She really pulled herself up, did all the hard work, and got to where she’s going.

People say, ‘Oh, she’s kind of tough, she’s kind of this or that.’ And I go, ‘Hello, you have to be.’ Guys can be that way and everybody thinks it’s awesome. Women are that way, and people say, ‘No, she’s a bitch.’ But that’s how you’ve got to do it, unfortunately. That’s not a turnoff to me.”

On her love of entertaining

“The first big party that I was going to have at my house was with the other showgirls. We were going to do Thanksgiving because none of us could get home. My younger sister came out and stayed with me and she was going to get things ready while we were at work doing the show. When we came home, I found my sister sitting on top of the refrigerator, cradling the turkey in her lap. I think she had smoked something and nothing was ready. We had all these people from the Strip — Siegfried & Roy were coming over. We all had a party anyway. It didn’t really matter. We were all together and we had a good time.

When I was married, I did a lot of entertaining. That’s when I decided I was Martha Stewart of the Macabre. I would have dinner parties with my friends like Paul Reubens, who played Pee-wee, and Phil Hartman and whoever was his girlfriend at that time. I made every Christmas dinner, every Thanksgiving dinner, for all of my Groundlings comedian group because none of them cooked. I’d make it a big deal — the flowers, the décor — a week-long thing to get a really awesome dinner going. And I did all the cooking myself.”

About the podcast

Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a new series of intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting interviews with the biggest names in the culinary industry and beyond, sharing never-before-heard stories about the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made these personalities who they are today.

This season, you’ll hear from icons and innovators like Roy Choi, Byron Gomez, Vikas Khanna, Romy Gill, Matthew Lillard, Ana and Lydia Castro, Laurie Woolever, Karen Akunowicz, Hawa Hassan, Dr. Jessica B. Harris, Wylie Dufresne, Samin Nosrat, Curtis Stone, Tristen EppsPadma Lakshmi, Ayesha Curry, Regina King, Antoni Porowski, Run the Jewels, Chris Shepherd, Tavel Bristol-Joseph, Paola Velez, Bryan Caswell, Harry HamlinAngela Kinsey and Josh Snyder, Hunter Lewis, Dana Cowin, Edward Lee, Cassandra Peterson (a.k.a. Elvira), Ruby Tandoh, Phil Rosenthal, and other special guests going deep with host Kat Kinsman on their formative experiences; the dishes and meals that made them; their joys, doubts and dreams; and what’s on the menu in the future. Tune in for a feast that’ll feed your brain and soul — and plenty of wisdom and quotable morsels to savor.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen and follow on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, TuneIn or wherever you get your podcasts.

These interview excerpts have been edited for clarity.

Editor’s Note: The transcript for download does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.