The Splendid Table

Melissa Clark (The New York Times) and Pati Jinich (Pati's Mexican Table) join Francis Lam to consider your quarantine cooking questions.

Samin Nosrat (Salt Fat Acid Heat) joins Francis Lam to answer some of your self-isolation cooking questions.

Slow cookers aren't just for large cuts of meat and chili. Faith Durand uses hers to cook all sorts of vegetarian dishes, from breakfast to dessert.

Food science writer J. Kenji López-Alt on safe grocery shopping and how to handle take-out in the time of the coronavirus.

In this podcast extra we revisit making a sourdough starter with a couple of ingredients and the power of fermentation.

In this podcast extra it’s inspired salad thinking with vegetable genius Eileen Rosen, author of Saladish.

Truly caramelized onions take patience, and are a great thing to get lost in right now. Especially since they can make mealtime faster later.

During this difficult and confusing time, we want you to know that all of us are right there with you. We're social distancing, juggling kids and jobs, doing a lot of hand-washing, and worrying about friends and family all across the world. Just like you, we’re also doing a lot more cooking. With that in mind, we are hard at work getting you interviews, recipes, and ideas that you will find useful...

We are examining the truth around the idea that everyone essentially eats the same. Chris Ying, co-founder of Lucky Peach and editor of the aptly named You and I Eat the Same, talks about the real truth behind that statement. San Francisco Chronicle food critic Soleil Ho take us to a mountain village in Japan for an annual wasp eating festival (they are delicious, by the way). Food historian Bee W...

This episode is all bread. Erika Council, of Bomb Biscuits in Atlanta, tells us her secrets to making world-class biscuits and we look at the rich tradition of bread baking in cold climates with Magnus Nilsson, author of The Nordic Baking Book. If you have ever wondered why New York bagels are great or not so, we get the answer from Dianna Daoheung of Black Seed Bagels and Francis learns to make E...

Listen on:  Apple Podcasts | Stitcher |  Google Podcasts  | Spotify |  Pandora Why is Thai food so popular in the United States? We turn to Professor Mark Padoongpatt, author of Flavors of Empire: Food and the Making of Thai America for some surprising insights. We revel in regional Thai flavors with Austin Bush, author of The Food of Northern Thailand, and Leela Punyaratabandhu, author of Bangkok...

In this episode, it’s all about how far some of us will go for the food we love. Celebrity photographer Melanie Dunea tells us the story of an epic trip to Afghanistan to document a saffron harvest in Taliban territory. Chef Dan Felder talks about the creative efforts he goes through to dream up new versions of classic dishes. Food writer Hugh Merwin and his partner, New York Times California dini...

This week we're getting ready for the holidays. Pastry superstar Christina Tosi brings us her singular and exuberant take on DIY holiday baked gifts. Chef Victor Albisu of Taco Bamba in Washington, DC teaches Francis how to make a delicious Peruvian pepper potato soup called ajiaco. Matty Matheson, host of Viceland’s It’s Suppertime and Dead Set on Life, fills us in on the Canadian way with the ho...

This week, Francis learns how to make stuffed potato pancakes called draniki from Chef David Nayfeld of San Francisco’s Che Fico, and talks with Nayfeld about the Jewish roots of Roman food. Russ Parsons talks to author-of-the-moment Nik Sharma about the similarities between his upbringing in India and his husband’s upbringing in the American South, and it’s not just okra. Melissa Clark talks to c...

Listen on:  Apple Podcasts | Stitcher |  Google Podcasts  | Spotify |  Pandora This episode features an in-depth conversation with one of the food world’s most beloved and compelling personalities, Nigella Lawson. Nigella has hosted cooking shows and written 11 books including her breakout best-seller How to Eat. While our host Francis Lam has been reading her work for his entire career, he just r...

Francis Lam hosts the 2019 edition of our popular Thanksgiving call-in show. He fields two hours of calls from listeners and is joined by guests Melissa Clark, Kwame Onwuachi, Samin Nosrat and Shauna Sever. Looking for something specific you heard on the show? See this page for a full rundown of questions and topics from this year's phone calls. Broadcast dates for this episode: November 28, 2019

This week, we’re looking ahead to the big Thanksgiving holiday and family feasts. Carla Hall joins us with a soul food-inspired take on the big day; her latest book is Carla Hall’s Soul Food. Lan Lam from America’s Test Kitchen has a gravy technique that is going to make you a major player in the gravy game. We get a lesson in fixing last-minute dessert disasters from Kristen Miglore, author of Fo...

Listen and Subscribe to Weeknight Kitchen with Melissa Clark Podcast:  Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS | iHeartRadio | TuneIn Melissa makes her simple and slightly sinful Lemon Vanilla Rice Pudding with Whipped Cream for her mom – in the Instant Pot. Also, she weighs in on how to best separate eggs, plus what to do with those extra egg whites and vanilla beans. And finally, someone answe...

This episode is all about the oyster. We meet two cousins -- Ryan and Travis Croxton -- who have reimagined their family oyster business, The Rappahannock Oyster Company on the Chesapeake Bay, and reinvigorated the industry through their innovative oyster farming techniques. Thomas "Uptown T" Stewart is an oyster-shucking fixture in New Orleans; he teaches us how to shuck with swagger. We talk to...

Francis Lam spends a fascinating hour with René Redzepi, the groundbreaking chef of Copenhagen’s Noma. His book, The Noma Guide to Fermentation , is a master tome on the technique that he believes is the future of the way we cook.  Francis and René talk about Noma’s influence on the global palate, where Redzepi finds inspiration, and how he achieves an enjoyable work/life balance. America’s Test K...

As we move into fall, our pull to the oven grows stronger. Cooking in the oven is not only soul-warming, but it happens to be a real time-saver. Food writer Diana Henry has spent nearly two decades traveling across the globe for culinary inspiration. However, inspiration for the recipes for her latest book,  From the Oven to the Table , began much closer to home -- with her oven. Diana spoke with...

When you think about Whoopi Goldberg, you likely think of her as an actor, entertainer and television host. But what you probably don’t know about Whoopi is that she is a passionate hostess who takes the art of setting the table and entertaining very serious. Her new book, Whoopi Goldberg: The Unqualified Hostess , is full of creative tablescapes and suggestions for making people feel welcome in y...

Francis inherited a chunk of pu'er tea from his grandfather years ago and has never tasted it. This week he learns the story of that inheritance and tastes it for the first time with tea master, Tim Hsu. Cecile Richards is a national leader for women’s rights and economic justice, and she finds that cooking with her family is exactly what she needs to take care of herself in these turbulent pre-el...

Melissa comes home to an empty refrigerator save for eggs, scallions and some sad sage and ends up showing us an amazing recipe and technique for  Olive Oil Fried Eggs with Scallions, Sage and Turkish Red Pepper . She also has a surefire way to tell if your eggs are fresh, explains how to make the creamiest of scrambled eggs, and how to get those addictive hard-cooked eggs with the perfect jammy c...

Adeena Sussman is one of those food writers who immerses themselves into a subject. To say she is enamored of Middle Eastern food, flavors and culture may be an understatement. An American who visited Israel regularly throughout her life, Adeena decided to make Tel Aviv her home in 2015. She has a great gift for teaching others how to embrace the flavors of Israeli cuisine by using border-crossing...