A Taste of the Past

This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is joined in the studio by Chef Alex Raij. Alex Raij and her husband Eder Montero are chefs and owners of Txikito, a love letter to the Basque country in Spain – a region whose cuisine is distinguished by excellence and simplicity in both ingredients and techniques. She is also the co-author, along with Montero, of The Basque Book: A Love Lett...

This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is joined in the studio by Andrew F. Smith, author of the book Fast Food: The Good, The Bad and The Hungry . He is also the editor of the Edible Series , a revolutionary new series of books on food and drink which explores the rich history of man’s consumption. Each book provides an outline for one type of food or drink, revealing its history...

This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is joined by Roger Horowitz, an historian of American business, technology, and labor, and an expert on the nation’s food. He is the author of the book Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History) . Horowitz traces the history and dramatic rise of kosher...

Chef Gabriel Kreuther joins us in the studio to talk about the cuisine of his native Alsace-Lorraine. A Michelin-starred chef, Kreuther was born on a family farm in Alsace and raised on his mother's traditional Alsatian cooking. After attending culinary school and working in Michelin-starred kitchens throughout Germany, France and Switzerland, Kreuther arrived in New York City in 1997 to work as a...

Appalachian food has been sustainable and organic for generations. They have been offering “farm to table” fare forever, without needing to call it that. And the iconic dish of soup beans and cornbread is "culinary harmony," a perfect blend of the native beans with the rendered fat of the pig, an animal brought to the lower South by the Spanish in the 16th century and to the upper South by the Eng...

On this week's A Taste of the Past , the tropical elegance and vibrant energy of Cuba's rich history and culture are recaptured in the stories of cocktails by two owners of the well known NYC rum bar, Cienfuegos – Jane Danger and Alla Lapushchik. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

On this week's episode of A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is joined in the studio by Krishnendu Ray, Department Chair of the Food Studies program at NYU. A food studies scholar, he is the author of The Migrant’s Table: Meals and Memories in Bengali-American Households (Temple University, 2004). He co-edited Curried Cultures: Globalization, Food and South Asia (University of California Pr...

On this week's episode of A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio speaks with chef and cookbook author Joyce Goldstein. For twelve years she was Chef and Owner of the ground-breaking Mediterranean Restaurant, SQUARE ONE, in San Francisco. A consultant to the restaurant and food industries, Joyce’s areas of expertise are recipe development, menu design, and staff training. She is the author of In...

On this week's episode of A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio speaks with "Pope of Peppers" Dave DeWitt, a food historian, award-winning author, and founder of the National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show, which is now in its 25th year. DeWitt has written or coauthored more than thirty books on peppers and has edited two magazines on the subject. He is one of the foremost authorities in the...

On this week's episode of A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is joined by Dr. Tim Ryan, president of the Culinary Institute of America. Dr. Ryan has served as president of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) since 2001. He himself graduated from the CIA in 1977, and received bachelor's and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of New Haven. He earned his doctorat...

On this week's episode of A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is joined in the studio by author, food blogger, and design writer Elizabeth Minchilli, and Rolando Baramendi, founder of Manicaretti, an importer and seller of Italian specialty items. Tune in to hear them discuss the changing food culture in Italy, from cocktails and coffee to the price of a dish of pasta. See Privacy Policy at...

On this week's episode of A Taste of the Past, host Linda Pelaccio is joined by Clifford Wright and Tim McGreevy. In recognition of the UN's International Year of Pulses, they discuss the history of pulses, from 10,000 years ago to their importance in today's farming and diets."Pulse” is a derivation from the Latin words puls or pultis meaning “thick soup.” Pulse crops are small but important memb...

Adrian Miller is a 'recovering' lawyer, soul food scholar, and former special assistant to President Clinton and today joins Linda Pelaccio on A Taste of the Past. Explaining that after President Clinton's second term, he found himself with extra time on his hands and ended up spending the next decade or so researching soul food. Specifically commenting on macaroni and cheese, Adrian shares how it...

Ever wondered how plate size affects waist size? This week on A Taste of the Past, Linda Pelaccio is on the line with Brian Wansink, Professor and Director of the famed Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, where he is a leading expert in changing eating behavior – both on individual level and on a mass scale -- using principles of behavioral science. The author of Mindless Eating and Slim by Des...

Americans eat more processed foods than anyone else in the world. We also spend more on military research. These two seemingly unrelated facts are inextricably linked. If you ever wondered how ready-to-eat foods infiltrated your kitchen, you’ll love this week's episode of A Taste of the Past. Tune in as Linda Pelaccio is on the line with Anastacia Marx De Salcedo, author of the book, "Combat-Ready...

Folklore has long explored food as a core component of life, linked to identity, aesthetics, and community and connecting individuals to larger contexts of history, culture and power. It recognizes that we gather together to eat, define class, gender, and race by food production, preparation, and consumption, celebrate holidays and religious beliefs with food, attach meaning to the most mundane of...

You don't need anybody to tell you Chicago is a food city or to extol the virtues of chicken Vesuvio, deep dish pizza, a jibarito, South Side rid tips or a Vienna Beef hot dog (on a poppy seed bun, of course). Perhaps less well known is how Chicago's cuisine developed, or how the city became the first modern industrial food center, both of which are explored in Chicago: A Food Biography by Daniel...

"While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads..." But, what exactly is a sugarplum? On the season finale of A Taste of the Past, Linda Pelaccio is in studio with Michael Krondl and Cathy Kaufman discussing the history behind the sweets enjoyed throughout the holidays. Embarking on a great fruitcake debate, explaining the plethora of sweeteners used throughout the ages, as well as the origins...

This week on A Taste of the Past, host Linda Pelaccio welcomes Lidia Bastianich to the studio discussing her newest book, "Lidia's Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Great Italian Cook." Teaching has always been Lidia’s passion, and in this magnificent book she shares the full benefit of that passion and of her deep, comprehensive understanding of what it tak...

On a special episode A Taste of the Past, Linda Pelaccio is joined by Cathy Kaufman, the managing editor of Savoring Gotham: Celebrating the Making of the Definitive Companion to New York City’s Food. New York City boasts the world’s most diverse, fascinating, and ground-breaking food scene. Whether dining in iconic or trend-setting restaurants, noshing on vibrant street food prepared by new immig...

In 1967, four-thousand Jews fled from Libya, each with one suitcase and the equivalent of $50; half of them settled in Rome. This week on A Taste of the Past, Linda Pelaccio welcomes guest Katie Parla who describes the bonds these settlers formed with their Roman ancestors’ who arrived in the 15th century and the cuisine that has survived and flourished in the restaurants of the Roman Jewish Ghett...

Using restaurants as a lens to observe the city’s cuisine, Lolis Elie talks about food, culture and customs of New Orleans on this week’s edition of _ A Taste of the Past _. “There are at least two traditions in Louisiana gumbo. The New Orleans tradition, and that gumbo tends to be thinner, tends not to have as thick or dark of roux, and also, when I think of Creole gumbo I think of a mix of sausa...

From smoked arctic char, meatball stew and savory puffed pancakes to Swedish almond wreaths, cardamom braids and whipped berry pudding, tune in as _ A Taste of the Past _ goes Nordic with Darra Goldstein. Illustrating the glorious and diverse flavors of classic Nordic cooking, Darra’s recipes in the new book “Fire + Ice” have been tailored for home cooks of all abilities. As the foremost American...

Zora Neale Hurston is one of the most notable authors of the Harlem Renaissance. Her extensive ethnographic research on African American foodways throughout the state of Florida remains a critical historic resource to this day. Her work provides insight into meals such as pickled pig’s feet and their rise in the southern African American community as a staple, as well as many home remedies like pa...

In an effort to preserve a period of America’s culinary history the National Endowment for the Humanities has funded the What America Ate Project to create an innovative website and online archive of culinary sources from the Great Depression. Materials include the far-flung papers of the WPA America Eats program, a collection of rare community cookbooks, and hundreds of food marketing and adverti...