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

This week we're taking a look at farmers' markets with award-winning author Deborah Madison, whose latest book is Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets . Deborah traveled America to determine if local markets can save the vanishing family farm and whether farmers can even make a living selling their harvest at these markets. She leaves us with a menu and recipes for a L...

It's a real variety show this week with controversies over apes with Dr. Frans de Waal, one of the world's leading primatologists and author of The Ape and the Sushi Master . Dr. de Waal theorizes that apes are more like us than we think, and it's demonstrated in how they deal with food. Jane and Michael Stern are eating breakfast old-California style at the Ramona Café. The outrageous Joe Queenan...

This week we're coming to you from the Food and Wine Magazine Classic at Aspen, Colorado—the annual extravaganza where food and wine lovers mingle with the culinary world's superstars and sample everything from outrageous champagnes to duck-liver lollipops. Lynne is joined on the stage of the historic Wheeler Opera House by a lineup of luminaries: Dana Cowin, editor of Food and Wine magazine; star...

The next time you open your refrigerator door, consider that, centuries ago, cold was a mystery—something seemingly without a source, often associated with danger and death, and altogether too fearsome to explore. Tom Shachtman, author of Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold , examines the subject that baffled ancient mankind before it brought conveniences like refrigeration and air conditioning...

Just a generation ago American wines were dismissed by Europeans as pedestrian and of little consequence. Thirty years later things changed, and the best French wines began falling behind American varietals in international competitions. Our guest Paul Lukacs, author of American Vintage , traces the rise of American wine and tells the story of the famous blind tasting that started the revolution....

Polar explorer Ann Bancroft, who recently skied 1,700 miles across Antarctica with her partner Liv Arnesen, joins us this week with tales from her third expedition. She also tells of a lavishly outfitted Arctic expedition from 150 years ago and the food that doomed the members to starvation and insanity. Our road food duo, Jane and Michael Stern, went searching for chocolate turtles and found anat...

"This week British writer Elizabeth Luard, author of Sacred Food: Cooking for Spiritual Nourishment, takes a look at the traditional foods different cultures serve at significant life events. We'll focus on food for a wedding celebration as Elizabeth explains why the French favor cream puffs hit with a hammer over cake cut with a knife, why the British avoid greens at a nuptial feast, and why high...

This week it's an unusual take on botany and the issue of control—plants vs. humans—with our guest, journalist and gardener Michael Pollan. In his new book, The Botany of Desire, Michael claims that plants manipulate us by taking advantage of our basic desires. (Starts at 20:41.) Jane and Michael Stern have found old-world Czech food in Omaha. Travel writer Anya Von Bremzen reports on exotica from...

This week it's a look at Thai food traditions with Su-Mei Yu, chef/owner of Saffron Restaurant in San Diego and author of Cracking the Coconut: Classic Thai Home Cooking . Su Mei tells of the rather curious way she researched her heritage, and leaves us with etiquette tips for dining in Thai restaurants and a recipe for sticky rice. Jane and Michael Stern report from Nick's Nest in Holyoke, Massac...

This week it's a private tour of Seattle's Pike Place Market, the gold standard among farmers markets. Our guide is none other than award-winning chef and restaurateur Tom Douglas, who was just named Best Chef in the Northwest by the James Beard Foundation. Tom reveals some of his favorite market vendors and shares his recipe for Sake-Steamed Sockeye Salmon with Sake Butter. His new book, Tom Doug...

Donna Hay, Australia's diva of divine dining, is credited with rescuing a generation of young people from the clutches of take-out and fast-food. Her latest book, Off the Shelf: Cooking From the Pantry, offers tips and recipes for fresh, quick, stylish, and flavorful meals using what you have on hand. Her recipe for Chili Fish with Sweet Lemon Salad is a fine example. For Jane and Michael Stern, i...

When Americans first mixed spirits and poured them over ice, they took a path with alcohol that set them apart from the rest of the world. William Grimes, restaurant critic for The New York Times and author of Straight Up Or On the Rocks , joins us with the story of how the cocktail came to be and why it has a place alongside other Americana like animated cartoons, comic strips, and jazz. He share...

Journalist Eric Schlosser, author of the New York Times best-seller Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal , says the fast-food industry should be exposed to the same scrutiny given tobacco and drug companies. We'll take a look at what's become the All-American Meal — a take-out burger, fries and soda — and find out what's really in those "goodies" that will have us shelling out...

If you've ever wondered who comes up with the messages printed on those little heart-shaped candies that appear every year at this time, tune in for the story behind a Valentine's Day classic from the New England Confectionary Company. The always original Jane and Michael Stern are dining inside a longhorn skull in Amado, Arizona. Wine wizard Joshua Wesson has the scoop on Argentina's Malbec. Is t...

It's a look at the unusual, the unexpected, and the extraordinary aspects of food and food culture this week with Alan Ridenour, author of Offbeat Food: Adventures in an Omnivorous World . From how Betty Crocker has changed through the years to the dangers of Pez dispensers and a history of pie throwing, we promise an entertaining look at popular culture that we hope sparks a dinner table conversa...

Asian-food authority Nina Simonds joins us this week with remedies and relief for those of us suffering the miseries of a cold or flu. Nina, author of A Spoonful of Ginger and star of the public television special by the same name, tells us how the Chinese use food as medicine. Her recipe for Ginger-Scallion Root Tea is the elixir you'll want when sniffles and chills set in. Jane and Michael Stern...

This week we're off to the Spice Coast of southern India where the air is fragrant with cinnamon and pepper, the people are gracious, and the food is grand. It's the family home of our guest, Maya Kaimal, author of Savoring the Spice Coast of India , and hospitality is a way of life. Maya's recipe for Steamed Mussels in Coconut Milk is an example of the exotic fare you'll encounter here. Jane and...

Journalist Michael Ruhlman, author of The Soul of a Chef , takes us behind the scenes of the Culinary Institute of America's grueling Certified Master Chef exam. It's the Iron Man challenge of the food world and not for the faint of heart. Jane and Michael Stern are eating artisan breads at the Red Hen Bakery in Chicago, and we'll hear from a scientist who has the lowdown on white salmon, the twen...

Jay McInerney, the acerbically witty author of that blockbuster novel of sin and debauchery, Bright Lights, Big City , has turned his considerable talents to the subject of wine. An unabashed oenophile who calls himself a "grape nut," Jay's irreverent wine columns for House & Garden magazine have been culled for his latest book, Bacchus & Me . Fasten your seat belts and tune in for a seren...

It's our annual holiday show, and we've assembled a team of experts on cooking, entertaining, and gift giving. Sally Schneider, author of A New Way to Cook, has entertaining wrapped up with three easy menus and recipes guaranteed to wow your guests. Sally's food tastes great, it's stylish, it's healthy—it's how we want to eat now. The Sterns are eating pancakes and enjoying the spectacular holiday...

Diana Kennedy, the British woman who introduced America to authentic Mexican cooking and started our love affair with the chile pepper, joins us this week to share the Mexico she knows so well. Diana's latest book,The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, is a treasure. So is her recipe for tortillas filled with mushrooms Empanadas De Hongos. The always original Jane and Michael Stern are in Charleston, S...

It's our annual Thanksgiving show and we're celebrating with one of America's most beloved authors: poet, novelist, and screenwriter Jim Harrison. You may remember him from Legends of the Fall. We'll be talking with Jim about food and its role in our lives, a subject he covers with passion and wit in his book, The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand. Jane and Michael Stern are eati...

This week we'll meet the family responsible for the modern-day espresso machine. Dr. Ernesto Illy, head of the family's coffee dynasty in Italy, explains Italy's coffee culture and tells us what a really fine cup of espresso should taste like. Jane and Michael Stern are in Milwaukee eating soul food at Mr. Perkin's Family Restaurant where the turnip bottoms are "better than any vegetable should be...

We're traveling and eating in Spain this week with journalist Anya Von Bremzen. Anya says Spain is the most exciting place in Europe to eat these days. The chefs there are rethinking the very foundations of food and a culinary revolution is happening. Along the way we'll stop off in Bilbao to visit the new Guggenheim Museum, the site of an architectural revolution. Jane and Michael Stern are in th...

This week we meet Bob Giraldi, producer and director of the new film Dinner Rush . This movie, about a night in a happening New York City restaurant of the moment, captures the frantic trendiness and atrocious pressure that drives so many places these days. It's no warm and fuzzy Babette's Feast. Bob leaves us with his mother Minnie's recipe for Baked Ziti with Ricotta, perfect for Sunday dinner....