The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters

This week, we’re joined in the studio by food superstar and philanthropist Jamie Oliver. We talk about his start in food, growing up above a small-town pub, and finding himself at the iconic River Café with Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray, and later becoming the TV persona behind  The Naked Chef.  He talks about his travels, his admiration for women cooks, and the use of his platform to champion nutriti...

We're taking the show on the road this year to celebrate our 30th Anniversary! This week, we bring you to our first stop, Indianapolis, in partnership with WFYI. We dig into the local food scene with restaurateur Martha Hoover, founder of Cafe Patachou and the Patachou Foundation. We talk to her about her start as a prosecutor turned restaurateur and how the restaurant scene has changed over her 3...

This week, we’re all about mindfulness in our kitchens. First, we explore a whole new meaning of fancy with author and recipe developer Jerrelle Guy. She shares her unusual thinking and creative recipes that can transform your everyday eating. The little extras that can make a dish a bit more celebratory. Jerrelle Guy’s latest book is We Fancy: Simple Recipes to Make the Everyday Special , and she...

This week, food columnist for The New York Times Magazine, Lisa Donovan, joins us to talk about what she's been cooking up recently and help answer our listeners' kitchen conundrums, from making the best tomato paste despite out-of-season tomatoes to using unsweetened chocolate in baking recipes. Lisa is the author of the memoir  Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger , and she leaves us with a recipe for a...

Listen on:  Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  |  Pandora  |  Amazon Music  |  YouTube .  This week, we explore flavors and techniques with two incredible guests. First, James Beard award-winning author Henrietta Lovell, aka the Tea Lady, takes us on her tea journey. From discovering the art of tea in China and countries beyond, to teaching us how to taste the nuanced flavor profiles and appreciate the c...

We took the show on the road for a live event at the Hawaii Theatre Center in Honolulu. First, we spoke to Hawaii Public Radio’s Culture and Arts reporter Jayna Omaye and Chef Sheldon Simeon of Tin Roof Maui about Hawaiian cuisine’s unique mix of cultures. Then, James Beard award-winning chef Robynne Maii of Fête in Chinatown, Honolulu, and chef-owner of Mud Hen Water, Ed Kenney, explained how nat...

Listen on:  Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  |  Pandora  |  Amazon Music  |  YouTube This week, it's the final show of our 30th anniversary celebration, recorded from the stage of  The Fitzgerald Theater  in St. Paul, MN, where it all began. Francis is joined onstage by some of the best chefs in Minnesota, including American Oglala Lakota Sioux chef, Sean Sherman, Somali-American chef, Jamal Hashi, Kar...

This week, we’re spending the hour with the charming and beloved Irish cooking teacher and writer Darina Allen.  It’s a spirited conversation about growing up in a country kitchen, her love of eating, and the single moment she decided to pursue her career in cooking. She tells us about her organic farm at   the  Ballymaloe Cookery School  in Ireland,  shares her unusual and brilliant teaching styl...

We’ve got the most exciting cookbooks to gift this holiday season. Chef Chris Scott talks to us about his latest, Amish Soul Food and pays homage to the food of his Pennsylvanian German ancestors, and talks us through traditional recipes like chow chow, biscuits, and scrapple. He leaves us with his recipe for Okra Chow-Chow . Cynthia Shanmugalingam takes us on a deep dive into the seductive, cuisi...

This week, we’re all about community and coming together for the holidays. First, we talk to Lisa Kyung Gross, founder of The League of Kitchens , a unique cooking school where women from all over the world,  welcome you into their homes and teach you how to make one of their family recipes. She talks about the delicious recipes she has collected in her new book, The League of Kitchens Cookbook: B...

This week, we’re celebrating the holidays by looking beyond, into global stories that shape the season. First, we talk with Hetty Lui McKinnon about her new book, Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor , and what the holidays look like in Australia, where Christmas is hot and the seafood markets buzz at midnight. Hetty reflects on the vegetable forward meals that defined her Chinese Australia...

It’s the holiday season, and we’re kicking it off this week with some sweet treats. First, food editor and recipe developer Ben Mims joins us with his latest project, covering over 300 cookie recipes from Asia to the Levant to Scandinavia to the Caribbean. The varieties are astonishing.  We get into cookie styles, the fascinating ingredients in regional cookies, and the hundreds of flavor combinat...

This week, we’re taking a trip through the South and its food – how it tells the story of a region shaped by migration, memory, and culture. First, we talk with scholar and writer Michael W. Twitty about his new book, Recipes from the American South , a sweeping look at the many communities – Black, white, Indigenous, immigrant – whose traditions built Southern cooking as we know it. Michael refle...

Today we have a bonus episode for you from Happier with Gretchen Rubin , featuring our very own Francis Lam.  Gretchen Rubin is HAPPIER, and she wants you to be happier too. The #1 bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before gets more personal than ever as she brings her practical, manageable advice about happiness and good habits to this lively, thought-provoking podcast. G...

This week, we welcome the cold with delicious soup! Food Stylist Mariana Velásquez Villegas, author of Colombiana: A Rediscovery of Recipes and Rituals from the Soul of Colombia  talks us through Colombia's biodiversity and regional identity and the unique foods it inspires like Sancocho . This hearty stew brings people together in a communal dining experience. Be sure to listen to her playlist wh...

Join us for Turkey Confidential, our must-listen-to annual Thanksgiving Day broadcast! This year’s guests are Samin Nosrat, author of bestseller Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and Good Things ; Brooklyn-based recipe developer Yossy Arefi, author of Snacking Bakes and Snacking Cakes ; Vivian Howard, author, TV personality, and chef, known for This Will Make It Taste Good and Deep Run Roots ; Evan Kleiman, c...

We are a week away from Thanksgiving, and this week, Award-winning authors J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Deb Perelman give us the best advice on making the perfect Thanksgiving spread. From gravy hot takes to best brining practices and the ideal way to cook a perfect turkey we have you covered. J. Kenji López-Alt and Deb Perelman are co-hosts of "The Recipe with Kenji and Deb" podcast. Deb left us her re...

This week, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving and looking at the way this American holiday and its food tell our stories. First, we talk with Padma Lakshmi about her new cookbook, Padma’s All American , a celebration of the immigrant dishes and regional traditions that make up our country’s culinary landscape. Padma talks about what she’s learned from years of traveling for Taste the Nation and leaves...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | YouTube This week, we talk about comfort food around the world. First, Yotam Ottolenghi tells us about his latest book, which is filled with recipes for his favorite comfort foods. He talks about what it  is  about specific dishes that evoke emotional reactions, from taste to texture to memory like his recipe for “Thousand” Hole Pancak...

This week, we’re breaking bread in every sense of the phrase. First, beloved actor Tony Shalhoub joins us to talk about his new CNN series, Breaking Bread , where he travels the world to explore the meaning of bread and how it connects us across cultures and tables. Growing up in a large Lebanese American family in Wisconsin, Tony shares memories of food as a bridge between worlds, from kibbeh and...

Today we have a bonus episode for you, featuring our very own Francis Lam.  How We Survive is an award-winning podcast from Marketplace about the messy business of climate solutions. From the glitz and glam of Miami, to the punishing Arizona desert, to a sinking island that our national security depends on, every season takes listeners on an adventure. We’re finding the innovative, surprising and...

Cookbook season is back, and we talk to the authors of some of our favorite picks. We're joined by Carolina Gelen, who talks to us about learning how to cook, her favorite Romanian dishes, and how she comes up with her signature recipes like Butter Beans alla Vodka , a fast, one-pot dish inspired by the famous vodka pasta sauce. Carolina is the author of  Pass the Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Shar...

This week, we’re diving into Italian cooking, from the Pacific Northwest to the Bronx. First, chef and author Joshua McFadden joins us to talk about Six Seasons of Pasta , his love letter to everyone’s favorite food. Known for his hit cookbook Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables , Joshua brings that same seasonal sensibility to pasta, pairing local produce with traditional Italian technique, an...

This week, we sit down with two chefs at the top of their craft. First, we talk to legendary baker Richard Hart about the inspiration behind his new book, Richard Hart Bread: Intuitive Sourdough Baking.  He fills us in on why he thinks that humble bakers are the best bakers, how he really is just a simple “yeast farmer” and he shares his r ealistic  thoughts on how to keep a sourdough starter. Che...

This week, we’re celebrating new fall cookbooks that belong on your kitchen counter. First, Aleksandra Crapanzano, author of Chocolat: Parisian Desserts and Other Delights , takes us from Marie Antoinette’s early “truffle” to the French art of baking at home. She leaves us with her Chocolate Ganache Tart with Raspberries . Then, Anna Ansari explores the delicious connections across cuisines in Sil...