The Splendid Table

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...

This week it's a look at the noodle foursome that's the heart of Japan's beloved noodle cuisine: udon, somen, soba and ramen. Our guide is Chef Takashi Yagihashi, author of Takashi's Noodles . He talks noodle cooking, noodle etiquette, and the Japanese way with noodles that may even outflank Italy. Jane and Michael Stern are forking into some of the most sublime banana cream pie anywhere at Betty'...

This week, it's a fashionista in the kitchen. We'll talk with designer Isaac Mizrahi, who has some strong opinions about cookbooks and some "issues" with entertaining. For the Sterns it's the cream of the cremas (and pastries) at Crema in Portland, Oregon. Produce maven Russ Parsons talks how to find the ever-elusive great strawberry, Lettie Teague is back with new trends in house wines, we'll pla...

This week we're looking at the wine cork controversy with journalist George Tabor, author of To Cork or Not to Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science and the Bottle for the Wine Bottle. Jane and Michael Stern are taking us to upstate NY to raise our "hot dog consciousness" at Ted's in Tonawanda, NY, and the Wine Spectator's Matt Kramer introduces us to his favorite white wine, reisling.   Broadcast dat...

Today we are learning how to build a curry with award-winning teacher Raghavan Iyer, author of 660 Curries . Jane and Michael Stern have found pecan pie worth the trip at the Texas Pie Company in Kyle, TX. Joshua Wesson brings us wines for the picnic basket and we look the misunderstandings behind MSG with The New York Time's Julia Moskin. Broadcast dates for this episode: May 18, 2008 (originally...

This week it's a look at the golden age of Islamic food and conquest with guest Charles Perry, historian of Arab cuisine. Mr. Perry authored the foreword to Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World: A Concise History with 174 Recipes. It's clam chowder Rhode Island style for Jane and Michael Stern at Kitchen Little, just over the border in Mystic, Connecticut. Baking authority Dorie Greenspan talks t...

This week it's a look at the fat we hear so much about—Omega-3—and why it's gone missing from our diet. Science writer Susan Allport joins us with ideas for replacing this endangered "good" fat. She is the author of Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3s Were Removed from the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them. The Sterns claim the folks at Skylight Inn Bar-B-Q in Ayden, North Caroline make the...

This week it's a look at why we buy. What drives us to purchase nonsense, even when we're watching every penny? Branding consultant Martin Lindstrom examined this behavior with neuroscientists at Oxford University. The findings convinced him that mysterious forces we aren't even aware of propel us to open our wallets for things we don't need or want. His book is Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why...

This week it's a different look at the seemingly simple and innocent banana. It's played a role in building regimes, toppling governments, partnering with the CIA and even gave Elvis his legendary grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich. Our guest is Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World. The Sterns have found five-star Mexican food at Rosita's in the small...

This week it's a peek into the life of a waiter at one of the world's most demanding restaurants. It's a profession and high craft, and not for the faint of heart. Our guest is Phoebe Damrosch, former waiter at Chef Thomas Keller's acclaimed Per Se in New York City. Phoebe tells all in her book Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter. The Sterns are at Grove Café in Ames, Io...

This week it's the one recipe that can make all the difference: stock. Author Michael Ruhlman guides us through the steps to creating that essential elixir that, when well made, can turn a new cook into a good cook, or a good cook into a great one. His recipe for Basic Brown Veal Stock gets us started. Michael's new book is  The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen ....

We are taking a look at our Locavore Nation project. 15 adventurous souls took on the challenge to eat a sustainable, local diet for a year. We will weigh in with the results. Locavore novelist Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable. Miracle: A Year of Food Life joins us for a commentary on the results. Broadcast dates for this episode: January 17, 2009

Our guest this week is Padma Lakshmi, host of TV's reality show, "Top Chef." Her famous line is "please pack your knives and go." Padma packed her knives, cooked her way around the world, then came home to write her new book  Tangy Tart Hot Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day . Her food, including Two Hens Laughing, is some of the most alluring to come along in some time. Great smoked fish lur...

Broadcast dates for this episode: December 13, 2008

This week it's the story behind the wine world's most revered and feared critic. One bad review from him can take a wine down. He's Robert Parker, Jr. and his power is both rare and absolute. We'll find out what shapes and informs his legendary palate. Look for the 7th and latest edition of his classic  Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide  in bookstores now. Who but the Sterns would go for apple pancakes...

This week it's a cooking lesson with a virtuoso. Violinist Joshua Bell has received every accolade imaginable in his career, including a Grammy for his stunning performance in the soundtrack of the Academy Award-winning film The Red Violin. Now he's creating his first home and he wants to learn to cook. He and Lynne met up at the stove in his New York City kitchen where Tagliatelle with Caramelize...

This week it's Jeff Henderson, "Chef Jeff" of the Chef Jeff project on The Food Network, Jane and Michael Stern are at Enstrom's Toffee in Grand Junction, CO. And we visit with Dorie Greenspan author of Baking, From My Home to Yours, and Gourmet magazine's John Willoughby. Broadcast dates for this episode: November 22, 2008

This week we have a homage to all things porcine, and the story of family life in a rural French village from French chef Stéphane Reynaud, author of Pork & Sons, Jane and Michael Stern have found the "krunkest" fish in Nashville at Eastside Fish, and Kim Marcus of The Wine Spectator brings us up to date on the wines of Portugal. Broadcast dates for this episode: November 3, 2007 (originally a...

This weeks it's the intersection of food and international relations with Chris Fair, author of Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations. Jane and Michael Stern are eating cream puffs at Butler's Donuts in Somerset, MA and Gourmet Magazine's John Willoughby brings us their picks of America's legendary restaurants. Broadcast dates...