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

We're taking you on an eating trip to Mexico City this week. Lynne and our managing producer, Sally Swift, recently returned from a week of total culinary immersion. We have it all: the tastes, the sounds and the generosity of local experts, including a lesson in authenticity from Diana Kennedy as she opens her Mexican eco house to us. It's an hour you won't want to miss! Broadcast dates for this...

How do restaurateurs get us to eat what they want us eat? We'll find out with William Poundstone author of Pricesless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of it) . We'll check-in with the Sterns, who are at The Cove in Crisfield, MD; and we look at the lure of ice fishing with Greg Breining author of A Hard Water World: Ice-Fishing and Why We Do It . Broadcast dates for this episode:...

This week we're being introduced to the lush foods of Senegal with Pierre Thiam, author of Yolele: Recipes from the Heart of Senegal . Jane and Michael Stern are at Sahagún in Portland, OR, and we learn the art of cooking on your car engine with Bill Sheller, author of Manifold Destiny . Broadcast dates for this episode: February 14, 2009 (originally aired) February 13, 2010 (rebroadcast)

This week we're looking at how other countries deal with their obesity issues with Barry Popkin author of The World is Fat . Jane and Michael Stern are at B & W Bakery in Hackensack, NJ, and we learn about the link between a Korean soap opera and the rise of Korean court food in Asia with Debra Samuels, author of The Korean Table . Broadcast dates for this episode: February 7, 2009 (originally...

We're looking at the country cooking of Ireland with award-winning writer Colman Andrews. And this week, the Sterns are introducing us to the cousin of the Po'Boy in New Orleans. Broadcast dates for this episode: January 30, 2010

This week we learn the art of cupping with Portland's legendary Stumptown Coffee; Joshua Wesson introduces us to the world's iconic grapes, and we play a round of "Stump the Cook" with Stumpmaster Christopher Kimball of Cook's Illustrated . Broadcast dates for this episode: January 24, 2009 (originally aired) January 23, 2010 (rebroadcast)

This week we meet the woman behind the wine guide considered by most to be the most comprehensive ever published. England's Jancis Robinson, author of The Oxford Companion to Wine . Jane and Michael Stern are visiting Dave's Carry-Out in Charleston, SC, and Gourmet Magazine's John Willoughby introduces us the restaurants of Istanbul. Broadcast dates for this episode: January 10, 2009 (originally a...

What does a world-class chef cook for the family Christmas? This week we meet up with Grant Aschatz of Chicago's famed Alinea, Jane and Michael Stern are at the Silvermine Tavern in Norwalk, CT, Sally Schneider, author of The Improvisational Cook, teaches us the easy way to make homemade chocolates, Martha Holmberg, author of Puff introduces us to simplest of fancy ingredients, puff pastry, and mi...

This week we have British chef Heston Blumenthal author of Further Adventures in Search of Perfection . Jane and Michael Stern are at Singleton Seafood Shack in Mayport, Fl. We talk with Chef Vitaly Paley, author of The Paley's Place Cookbook , and Jenn Garbee, author of Secret Suppers: Rogue Chefs and Underground Restaurants in Warehouses, Townhouses, Open Fields and Everywhere in Between. Broadc...

This week for Thanksgiving we meet up with Chef Marcus Samuelsson for a new take on the turkey. His latest book is New American Table . Historian Andy Smith reminds us of the real origin of Thanksgiving Day, and Lynne takes on the great feast ... vegetarian style. Broadcast dates for this episode: November 21, 2009

We talk to Paul Roberts author of The End of Food , about global food prices. Jane and Michael Stern authors of 500 Things To Eat Before It's Too Late , are at Famous Fourth Street Delicatessen in Philadelphia, PA, and Shirley Corriher, author of BakeWise, The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking , brings us some practical baking advice as we head into high baking season. Broadcast dates for this ep...

This week, we talk about feeding a bunch of guys with Lucinda Scala Quinn, author of Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys ; and we're learning about the relationship between food and gangster movies with Rebecca Epstein. Plus, Lynne talks with Andrea Nguyen, who shares her techniques for mastering Asian Dumplings . The Sterns are eating huge portions at Rocky & Carlo's Restaurant in Chalmette, LA....

This week we go into the kitchen with Andy Ricker, the man behind Portland's legendary Thai restaurant Pok Pok. Jane and Michael Stern are noshing kolaches in West, Texas, and wine authority Josh Wesson suggests some smooth sips for rough times. Broadcast dates for this episode: November 1, 2008 (originally aired) October 24, 2009 (rebroadcast)

This week we're catching up with Italian food authorities Marcella and Victor Hazan. Marcella's latest project is her autobiography, Amarcord, Marcella Remembers . Jane and Michael Stern are eating Czech food at Belgrade Gardens outside of Akron, OH, and Harold McGee, author of the seminal On Food and Cooking explains the remarkable link between extra-virgin olive oil and ibuprofen. Broadcast date...

This week we are meeting a winemaking legend, David Lett of Oregon's famed Eyrie Vineyard, Jane and Michael Stern are eating ice cream at Ici in Berkeley, CA and New York City food authority Mike Colameco introduces us to Izakayas, Japanese drinking places. Broadcast dates for this episode: September 20, 2008 (originally aired) September 19, 2009 (rebroadcast)

This week it's all things tomato with Amy Goldman author of The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table , Jane and Michael Stern are at the Formica Brothers Bakery in Atlantic City, NJ, and writer David Leite, editor of the Web site Leite's Culinaria takes on the Toll House Cookie. Broadcast dates for this episode: September 13, 2008 (originally aired) September 5, 2009 (rebroadcast)

Historian John T. Edge take a look back at one of America's great food treasures, Craig Claiborne, the Sterns share their pick of great public markets on both coasts and wine writer Paul Lukacs from Wine Review Online introduces to the wines of Priorat. Broadcast dates for this episode: August 29, 2009

This week it's the domestic goddess of the British Isles, TV star and author Nigella Lawson talking those oh-so-evocative summer fruit dishes of England - from fools to flummeries to an unusual take on raspberry jam. Nigella's latest book is Nigella Express . It's burnt ends sandwiches at LC's Bar-B-Q in Kansas City, Missouri for Jane and Michael Stern. Wine wizard Joshua Wesson says we need to be...

This week we're meeting one of the pioneers in America's artisan cheese movement, our very own Steve Jenkins author of The Food Life: Inside the World of Food with the Grocer Extraordinaire at Fairway . Jane and Michael Stern are at Halibut in Portland, OR and we look at the Southern way with picnics, with Jean Anderson author of A Love Affair with Southern Cooking: Recipes and Recollections. Broa...

This week's guest claims that without fruits we'd still be swinging from trees eating bugs. Fruit-obsessed journalist Adam Leith Gollner joins us for a look at the fruit leggers and their stories as told in his book  The Fruit Hunters: The Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession . The Sterns experience a religious moment at the church of heavenly barbecue - Louie Mueller's in Taylor, Te...

This week we're celebrating the Fourth of July and the start of high summer. Gourmet magazine's John Willoughby talks smoke roasting, a much-ignored technique worthy of revival for its easy and succulent results. John's latest book, Grill It!: Recipes, Techniques, Tools , co-authored with fellow grilling guru Chris Schlesinger, is hot off the press. The Sterns feast on only-in-America fried clams...

All those people talking about a wine's "terroir", meaning the place the grapes come from. Can we really taste it? We get the scientific last word from Harold McGee author of the seminal On Food and Cooking . Jane and Michael Stern are at Woodyard Bar-B-Que in Kansas City, KS, and novelist Nicole Mones tell us about the time in Chinese culinary history which she used as a framework for her latest...

This week it's the seeds and bark that changed the planet. We're talking spices, the stuff of wonderment and avarice in the medieval world with Paul Freedman, author of Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination . It's a St. Augustine, Florida special for Jane and Michael Stern at Saltwater Cowboy's. We talk with Peter Shafer, our Gastrosexual for the month of June. Tea purist Bill Waddi...

This week it's the making of a wine merchant with Neal Rosenthal, one of the wine world's most respected importers. We'll hear the story of how he learned his craft and much more. His book is Reflections of a Wine Merchant . It's world class chili with the Sterns at Joe Roger's Chili Parlor in Springfield, Illinois; and we're eating on the cheap abroad with Anya Von Bremzen. Dan Buettner, author o...

This week it's a look at the American kitchen—from the sanitized scientific outpost of yesteryear to today's family-oriented center of cherry cabinets, granite countertops and culinary toys galore. Our guest is Steven Gdula, author of The Warmest Room in the House: How the Kitchen Became the Heart of the Twentieth-Century American Home. Who but the Sterns would have found a snack cake worth a jour...