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

We're off to Italy this week with Italian food and culture authority Fred Plotkin. He takes us to the luscious and evocative region of Marche, an area little known to Americans where the charm rivals Tuscany but you aren't likely to run into your neighbor. The recipe for Scampi al Prosciutto is from Fred's book, Italy for the Gourmet Traveler. It's Chicago but no hot dogs for the Sterns. This time...

Broadcast dates for this episode: August 11, 2007

Broadcast dates for this episode: August 4, 2007

Broadcast dates for this episode: July 28, 2007

This week it's the wonder and biology of honey and the bees that make it. Journalist and beekeeper Holley Bishop, a woman who fell for bees the way one might fall for a puppy, tells the story. Holley is the author of Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey, the Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World. Her Berry Striped Pops are the perfect icy snack for these dog days of summer. The Sterns are in...

This week it's contemporary food's most friendly wine: Riesling. We're in Germany on the fruity, classy little gem's home turf with our guest, award-winning Riesling master Dr. Ernst Loosen. The Sterns are multi-tasking in El Paso, eating Huevos Rancheros and Menudos while watching their car go through the cycle at H & H Car Wash. Smart cook Sally Schneider turns dross into gold with her smart...

This week we journey to Monterey, California for an in-depth look at one of the culinary world's biggest issues: healthy and sustainable seafood. It's politics at the grass roots level as we examine how the fishing industry is influenced by what chefs choose to serve in their restaurants. The show was recorded live at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Cooking for Solutions weekend. Be sure to check out...

Can you remember the last time you ate a peach so perfectly sweet, juicy and delicious it knocked your socks off? Probably not. In fact, why does most of our produce have so little flavor? For answers we turn to Russ Parsons, award-winning food and wine journalist for the Los Angeles Times . Russ has been tracking American agriculture for 20 years and explains what it means to farm for flavor. He...

This week it's a scholarly look at junk food and fast food through the eyes of American food historian Andrew Smith. He tells how it all started and claims that between the Erie Canal and Ben Franklin our destiny had nowhere else to go. Mr. Smith is the author of The Junk Food Encyclopedia . The Sterns report from beautiful Manchester, Vermont where they're feasting on a curious mix of goodness ca...

"Hunger is a country we enter every day, like a commuter across a friendly border," says nature writer Sharman Apt Russell. She joins us this week with a look at the subject through a new prism—hunger as art, hunger as power, and hunger as revelation. Ms. Russell's book is Hunger: An Unnatural History. The Sterns dine on succulent Italian roast pork sandwiches at Tony Luke's in Philadelphia. Darry...

This week it's vegetable gardening for the horticulturally challenged. Gardening expert Katherine Whiteside, author of The Way We Garden Now, stops by with short cuts to instant gratification (hard labor is not for her) and a recipe for Rhubarbaritas. Mike Colameco, host of Colameco's Food Show on New York's PBS Channel 13, is back with tips for picnics in New York City. Keeping to the theme, Lynn...

She's sensual, iconoclastic, and hungry. In the late 1960's she blew the lid off stuffy food writing with her restaurant reviews for New York, the smartest magazine in town. She's Gael Green, a critic like no other and the woman who led the pack in a dining revolution. Gael joins us this week to share memories from her new autobiography, Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess. The recip...

Fred Kirschenmann of The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture joins us this week to talk why America lost touch with her food source—the farm—and looks at the resurrection taking place, right now, on farms across the land. The Sterns are at the final stretch of the famed Route 66 in Stroud, Oklahoma. Our wine wizard Josh Wesson is back and this time he's debunking all those wine myths, start...

This week we're going inside the process of how exceptional cookbooks are brought to life. Our guide is Judith Jones, often called the cookbook editor's editor. Forty-some years ago she discovered Julia Child. In the ensuing decades Judith's influence changed the American cookbook forever and her authors became a "who's who of food." It's camp for the Sterns—roadfood style—at Mike Linnig's Fish Ca...

This week it's a look at how the pros decide what to drink with nearly every food you can imagine. Our guest, Karen Page, author of What to Drink With What You Eat , talked with expert chefs and sommeliers to find out what goes with everything from apples to veggie burgers. She takes us beyond wines and waters to coffee, soda and even vinegar! The Sterns are in Tampa, Florida where they swooned ov...

This week Mary Ewing-Mulligan puts wine where she thinks it belongs: it's all about taste. Mary claims quality is second to flavor, geography is more important than the grape, and a number on the bottle can help us match a wine to a menu. Mary's new book is Wine Style: Earthy Whites to Powerful Reds: Using Your Senses to Explore and Enjoy Wine. The Sterns have found the ultimate babka and bagels o...

Imagine Mexico without tacos or tamales. Imagine Mexican intellectuals trying to eliminate corn from the country where it was born. History professor Jeffrey Pilcher, author of Que Vivan Los Tamales: Food and the Making of Mexican Identity, joins us this week for a look at a national identity crisis. The Sterns tuck into a weird-but-delicious chow mein sandwich at Evelyn's Drive-In in Tiverton, Rh...

Natural scent expert Mandy Aftel, co-author with Chef Daniel Patterson of Aroma, The Magic of Essential Oils in Food and Fragrance , joins us this week to talk about perfuming our food. With scent accounting for most of what we taste, the idea seems logical. A delicious example of scent meets taste is Rose and Ginger Soufflé. Jane and Michael Stern experience the outrageous sandwiches at Blue Ash...

Japanese culinary scholar Elizabeth Andoh talks washoku, the philosophical and spiritual heart of traditional Japanese home cooking. It's a concept of possibilities and transformations and a side of Japanese food few outsiders know. Elizabeth leaves us her recipe for Fried Eggplant with Crushed Green Soybeans from her book Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen. The Sterns report from Cat...

Check out the grocery meat case these days and there's rarely a bone in sight. We're talking flavor-enhancing bones that give cuts of meat ambrosial succulence. Food writer Jennifer McLagan wants to change this trend of boneless everything so she wrote Bones: Recipes, History & Lore. Her recipe for Beer-Glazed Beef Ribs is serious and delicious finger food. Jane and Michael Stern report on a c...

Paula Wolfert, the culinary scholar and author who brought cassoulet, roast garlic and confit to America, joins us to talk about the updating of her groundbreaking classic, The Cooking of Southwest France. Her recipe for Chicken Breasts in Garlic Wine comes from the area around Agen, located halfway between Bordeaux and Toulouse. The Sterns are visiting the Museum of Taxidermy and eating a stellar...

Britain's beloved columnist Nigel Slater joins us this week to reflect on cooking at home. He talks a kinder, gentler English Christmas and shares his Christmas Day Roast Goose, Juniper Sauce and Apple and Lemon Purée from his latest book, The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater . The Sterns report from Las Cruces, New Mexico, where they're digging into warm tortilla chips wit...

This week our guest, Andrea Nguyen, takes us to Vietnam for a look at the culture and lore behind a cuisine that began 4,000 years ago with a prince from the sea. Andrea leaves us her recipe for Chicken and Cellophane Noodle Soup from her gorgeous book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors . The Sterns' penchant for prison gift shops led them to some great hush puppies a...

This week novelist and wine critic Jay McInerney joins us to talk "wine characters" he loves. From the brilliant to the beguiling to the outrageous, it's a look at those folks who are making wine fascinating right now. Jay's latest book is A Hedonist in the Wine Cellar: Adventures in Wine. Jane and Michael Stern are dining at Hamburger King in Shawnee, Oklahoma, where great burgers with a theme so...

Award-winning chef Susanna Foo shook up the traditionalists at her Philadelphia restaurant by marrying international cooking techniques and American ingredients. The result is delicious food that's fresh, light and approachable while staying true to Chinese culinary traditions. An example is Mandarin Potato Salad with Cellophane Noodles from her new book, Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration: New Approac...