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

This week our guest is Barbara Kafka, one of the masterful cooks in the food profession. When Barbara digs into a subject she takes no prisoners. She's created her own short list of cookbook classics with titles like Roasting, Soup, and Microwave Gourmet, and each one is a complete education. Now, she has ideas for bringing more veggies into our lives with her new book, Vegetable Love. She leaves...

San Francisco wine merchant and importer Kermit Lynch joins us this week with the story of how he entered the wine world through the back door and ended up a leader in the exquisite and the little known. His new book is Inspiring Thirst: Vintage Selections from the Kermit Lynch Wine Brochure. It’s meat-and-three for the Sterns at Zarzour’s, a Chattanooga favorite so elusive it’s only listing in th...

This week it's the mother of all kitchen tours. Thomas Keller is repeatedly named the best chef in the country. When he set out to duplicate his famed California restaurant, The French Laundry, in New York City, he dictated every design element, but for unheard of reasons. The result is Per Se, the hottest restaurant in the country right now. Chef Keller leads the tour and shares his recipe for Mu...

Today we offer our holiday special, a special guide to reveling, relaxing, and reflecting. This is a remarkable time of the year and no matter where you go, you'll find celebrations and feasting. Chef and Mexican food expert Rick Bayless spends every Christmas in Oaxaca and he takes us inside the holiday south-of-the-border. Wine maverick Joshua Wesson advises us on whether to drink or store those...

This week we're talking all things salted, cured and smoked with food writer Michael Ruhlman, co-author of Charcuterie. In Europe, charcuterie is high craft, done by masters. Here, it's the latest thing in the artisan food movement. Michael has tips for making your own home-cured meats and seafood and shares his recipe for the ultimate party food: Pâté de Campagne. The Sterns are at Becky's Diner,...

Master Sommelier Andrea Immer Robinson joins us this week to talk Burgundy wine. It's the tricky but luscious older brother of Pinot Noir that the movie "Sideways" crowned the new king. Andrea's Pearl Barley Risotto with Mushrooms and Carrots pairs beautifully with Pinot Noirs from Burgundy's Côte Chalonnaise district. The Sterns are dining with night owls and truckers at Jo Jo's Restaurant in Pit...

This week's guest could be New York's next star chef. He's Suvir Saran, author of Indian Home Cooking . His food is all about clear, singing flavors and simple, light dishes. Tomato Rasam is a fine example. The Sterns are munching sopaipillas dipped in liquid sunshine at the Plaza Café, Santa Fe's oldest restaurant. Steve Jenkins introduces us to lush gooey cheeses, the ones he calls the "cheeses...

It's our annual Thanksgiving show and we're bringing you a banquet of recipes, stories, a cut of history, and new looks at feasting inside and outside our borders. Food authority Joan Nathan talks real American food today from home kitchens across the country. Her recipe for Braised Butternut Squash with Mustard Seeds, Chili, Curry Leaves, and Ginger is from her new book, The New American Cooking....

This week it's a blast from the past - the macrobiotic diet - with Jessica Porter, author of The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics . Jessica has a fresh take on that 1960's phenomenon. The Sterns visit the Beacon Light Tea Room in Lyles, Tennessee. Wine wit Joshua Wesson wants us to discover the mysterious Primitivo, and Mike Colamecco, our New York food expert, tells us where to breakfast in Manh...

Tod Murphy is a man who's giving restaurant chains a run for their money. His Farmer's Diner in Barre, Vermont serves up good, cheap food from local farms. The system is a winner that could take "local" national. The Sterns set out for breakfast in Nashville and ended up at Vandyland for ice cream sodas. Sally Schneider shares her recipe for Real "Jell-O", and David Leite talks the hazards of bein...

This week it's a newspaper that gets it. America is food obsessed as never before, yet newspapers across the country are slashing their food sections down to a few recipe columns off the wire amid a mass of ads. And forget local coverage. An exception is the San Francisco Chronicle food & dining page. Executive food and wine editor Michael Bauer joins us to talk the plight of the food page. Th...

We're taking a look at Zinfandel, the mystery grape swathed in controversy, its origins lost in the mists of time. Wine historian Charles Sullivan, author of Zinfandel: A History of a Grape and Its Wine, joins us to unravel its questionable past. The Sterns have found great barbecue behind bulletproof glass at Leon's Bar-B-Que in Chicago. Dorie Greenspan gets us ready for the return of cool weathe...

This week we're creating spaces for entertaining. It's not about remodeling, it's about working with what you already have. Our guest is architect Sarah Susanka, whose latest book is Home by Design: Transforming Your House Into a Home . The Sterns are eating Cuban sandwiches and mango milkshakes at Margon in Times Square. Cheese monger Steve Jenkins is back and wants us to try fresh summer cheeses...

This week it's a look at Antonin Carême, the world's first celebrity chef. Abandoned by his family at age nine to starve on the streets of Paris, Carême overcame impossible odds to achieve wealth, fame and an unheard of independence. In the process he reshaped French cuisine. His biographer Ian Kelly, author of Cooking for Kings , tells the story. Carême's recipe for Orange Flower and Pink Champag...

Indian food expert Madhur Jaffrey joins us this week with the tale of how curry turned global. It's all about India's caste system and Britain's lust for empire. Madhur shares her recipe for Cilantro Chicken from her latest book, From Curries to Kebabs: Recipes from the Indian Spice Trail. Michael Stern takes on the politics of the waffle at the Blue Plate Café in Memphis, and Josh Wesson wants us...

This week, our guest Trevor Corson, author of The Secret Life of Lobster s, takes a new look at endangered sea life. It's story of underwater feminism, renegade scientists, and amorous crustaceans! The Sterns are road tripping into fried pie country where they've found a gem called Family Pie Shop. Rick Bayless picks wines to drink with Mexican food, and shares a recipe for Garlicky Grilled Portob...

We're talking living and eating in the south of France with none other than Patricia Wells, restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune and the most prominent American authority on French food today. Patricia's new book, The Provence Cookbook , is the latest addition to her roster of titles about cooking, traveling and eating in Paris and France. She leaves us her recipe for Fresh White...

Peter Mayle, author of A Year in Provence, joins us this week with a send-up of France's latest wine craze. It's all about the scams and hype that have us sniffing our wines for traces of impertinence and pencil shavings! Peter's new novel is A Good Year. The Sterns indulge in the fabulous frozen custard at Leon's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Josh Wesson suggests wines to pair with summer's bounty, th...

This week it's the story of a life-altering sweet tooth. Our guest, Steve Almond, author of Candyfreak, has lived his entire life for candy and surely knows more about candy history than Mars and Hershey combined. The Sterns are choosing between democracy and dictatorship at Hallo Berlin, a sausage cart on the streets of New York.  Travel writer Anya Von Bremzen reports on world food markets worth...

Funny and frank journalist Linda Ellerbee joins us this week to talk travel, eating, and the meaning of life. She shares a recipe for Mama's Rescued Fudge Pie from Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table, her recently published memoirs. The Sterns celebrate Grilled Cheese Month at Clementine in Los Angeles where the banana cream pie is to die for! Deborah Madison stops by...

When our guest, Lawrence Osbourne, wondered if he could trust his own palate he went inside the wine world to find out. He'll tell us what he learned. His book is The Accidental Connoisseur: An Irreverent Journey Through the World of Wine. The Sterns are getting their licks at one of America's last great ice cream factories—the Big Dipper in Prospect, Connecticut. Sally Schneider talks duck and cl...

Paul Dolan, president of Fetzer Vineyards and author of True to Our Roots: Fermenting a Business Revolution, has made some unconventional changes at one of America's most successful wineries. We'll hear how this big producer is practicing what usually works only on a small scale. It could be the new way of wine. The Sterns settle a meat pie debate at Cousin Jenny's Gourmet Cornish Pasties in Trave...

California Chef Paul Bertolli, author of Cooking by Hand , gives new meaning to "cooking from scratch." He makes his own balsamic vinegar, cures his own salami and hams and grinds his own flours. We'll learn what drives this talented artisan and owner of the award-winning restaurant Oliveto in North Berkley. He leaves us with his recipe for Boiled Chicken with Vinegar Sauce. The Sterns are surroun...

British journalist Christy Campbell joins us this week with the story behind the plague that threatened to destroy the world's vineyards. The fascinating account of how scientists working with vintners stopped a near disaster is documented in Mr. Campbell's book, The Botanist and the Vintner: How Wine Was Saved for the World. The Sterns are half way between Miami and Havana, eating Cuban home-styl...

"Our guest is BBC journalist Fuchsia Dunlop, the first foreigner invited to study at the professional chef's school in Sichuan, China. She fell in love with the spicy, hot, and unique cuisine the Chinese call "audacious cooking," and went on to pen Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking. She leaves us her recipe for Fish-Fragrant Eggplant from the book. For the Sterns, it's French...