The Storied Recipe

Step back into the kitchen of your childhood. Can you remember? What color were the cabinets? Was their linoleum on the floors and laminate on the counters? Or tile and granite? Was it warm or cold? Cluttered or clean? Was it a happy place? A lonely place? Now put yourself back into that kitchen - can you recall the first dish you made? And that feeling you had when you made your first dish — that...

I like to think that Mama Issa had breakfast at her favorite place this morning—right on the edge of the Mediterranean. Imagine the soft clatter of dishes, waves gently splashing against the thick rock wall separating Mama Issa from that turquoise water. She sips that good, strong Lebanese coffee and breathes in the scent of warm manouche bread mingling with the faint salt from the sea.  Mayb...

Typically, I introduce episodes with a nostalgic story, inviting you all on an emotional journey with me - but I’ve opted out of that today as it doesn’t quite fit. Today’s episode isn’t about the past or the bittersweet memories of loved ones lost -  Rather, it celebrates a friendship rooted in mutual respect and action - action to preserve the skills, wisdom, and cuisine of past generations...

What was your first moment of consciousness this morning? The sound of an alarm clock? The feeling of a toddler whose presence you felt before you even opened your eyes? If you’re really lucky, maybe it was the sun in your eyes? For Dom, it was the smell of garlic, gently frying outside. Then sounds - a burner catches, the scrape of an aluminum pan, the soft shuffling of small feet, rain on the ro...

If I had to pick a word for my 2025, it would be bittersweet . This is now the 5th time I’m releasing the Christmas Pudding episode - I love it that much! But this year, it’s hitting a little bit differently.  I’ve always loved this episode because it’s fun and funny and full of laughter. The conversation was a cherished opportunity to connect with a friend from my youth that lives across the...

If you listen closely, you can almost hear the soft rattle of a bicycle coasting over cobblestones, weaving past tractors and farm fields on its way toward a small German village kitchen.  A little girl, Heidrun, is on that bike and, as her hair streams behind her in the wind, she can hardly hear anything herself. Her head is full of questions about what she’ll gather or forage with her Oma t...

For many of us, Athens is inseparable from ancient—towering colonnades blinding white in the Mediterranean sun, rowdy crowds packed into massive amphitheatres, then those same crowds dispersing into balmy evenings washed in golden light, the 195 The Honest Magiría and Its Humble Chickpea Soupsmell of olive oil and roasted chickpeas drifting through the air. But what about the Athens of the last ei...

Today’s guest Lynn describes Maria — just like a glowing fairy come to life: barely five feet tall, vivacious, chatty and outgoing, and as charming as they come. So imagine this tiny Maria 100 years ago, just a teenager tripping over the cobblestone streets of Budapest, chatting with her friends, then opening an heavy, ornate and entering a cafe -  And quickly, let’s replace our images of a “...

The Second World War has started and teenage Dolores stands over a small suitcase laying open on her bed in Columbus, Ohio. She slept in this room through her mother’s three years of illness and the tragic night her mother died, when she was just fifteen.  Some nights, Dolores falls asleep quickly after long days of managing school and a home at that tender age. Other nights, she can't sleep,...

Let me introduce you to little Maureen — a tiny girl with glossy dark hair and big dark eyes — sitting on the counter of a kitchen on Maple Street, USA. She’s sipping a root beer float, watching the house buzz with cousins, aunts, and uncles, their laughter and teasing filling every corner. The smell of nutmeg drifts through the air; rhubarb simmers in a pot. And at the center of it all stands an...

Imagine yourself standing in an English garden, peeking through a small kitchen window into a cozy kitchen. Once you’re close enough, you may even catch the faint strains of Bing Crosby on the radio. A small blonde boy and his sister sit at the table — a blue table, on a blue floor — a surprising color choice, but one that will later make sense when you learn you’re looking into the kitchen of an...

Picture a sun-drenched courtyard between two homes in Punjab where the air is thick with the aroma of cumin and simmering beans. Farmers work the adjacent fields while women move among each other, peeling onions, chopping tomatoes, and stirring a pot over open flames while sipping steaming hot cups of chai, gossiping and laughing. The children run in playful chaos, long, glossy braids bouncing on...

Imagine a Tennessee dairy farm - and then there’s a cellar with a packed dirt floor and shelves made of wood, heavy with jars of home-canned produce—including the blackberry jam Judith and her sisters smothered on their mother’s famous Sally Lunn bread. Listening to Judith describe her mother, Joann, I was challenged as a hostess but especially as a mother. I DO love welcoming people into my home...

Hello, I’m here on my break from my production break with an episode recorded in the heart of France. If you remember the last episode, I invited you into the conversation between myself and 4 others in the kitchen of a thousand-year-old château—a space with soaring beams, stone floors, ochre cabinets, and an open fire that made it feel like home. By the time the 5 of us women gathered for that fi...

About 100 episodes ago, I interviewed Selina Göldi - and I Introduced her episode by saying, “Selina has this special gift - the ability to transport others to a different time and place. After a career in economics, Selina took this genius and turned it into a life. Beside a river in a very old building in France, she invites those wearied with the pace of the outside world to culinary retreats....

Click here to schedule a feedback chat with me in February! Hello and Happy New Year! 2025 is a big year for The Storied Recipe.  For starters, I’m expanding my mission to help families create their own heritage cookbooks through a process that is doable, joyful, and even healing. Throughout a December of traveling, then returning home and jumping back into hosting, I continued to work almost...

Welcome to the second episode in our mini-series on Harvest Festivals Around the World, which I hope to add to in coming years!  Today, we speak with Chase Matthews, from the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, Alabama. Along with Tokyo Bay in Japan, these are the only two places in the world where a natural wonder known as the Jubilee occurs. When conditions are just right, fish, crabs, shrimp, and...

Welcome to the first in a pair mini-episodes on Harvest Festivals Around the World! Today, Susan Barocas teaches me about the ancient Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot, from its origins many thousands of years ago right up to this very autumn in Susan’s own backyard in Washington DC. Sukkot commemorates both the Jewish journey through the wilderness and the harvest season. Each year during this ei...

Our story begins with Nick’s memories of Saturday mornings with his cousins, consuming endless stacks of Palacinke, Balkan-style pancakes eaten with cheese or sugar (or both - and don’t knock it until you try it, because I did, and then I had to eat my words. Literally!).  As we trace the makers of Palacinke back through Nick’s lineage, Nick introduces us to his great-grandmother, Baba Saveta...

I miss you! I haven't shared an episode in 3+ weeks, BUT!! I've been working hard on something..... I'm expanding the mission of The Storied Recipe to not only share the recipes and stories of my guests, but to empower YOU to chronicle your own family storied recipes. And I've made enough progress that now I'm seeking feedback! Have you ever compiled a family cookbook? Would you consider compiling...

I’m joined today by Brian Reisinger, an journalist whose deep roots in farming have shaped his life’s mission. Brian is the first male in four generations not to take over his family’s farm, a role taken up by his willing sister. Instead, Brian has devoted his work to shedding light on the immense challenges modern-day farmers face. In his book, Land Rich Cash Poor: My Family's Hope and the Untold...

I’m thrilled to welcome Dr. Mennat-Allah Al Dorry to The Storied Recipe Podcast today. Menna, as she insisted I call her, is an archaeobotanist with a speciality in food and Egyptologist with a speciality in Coptology and the only person in the world to have this combination of qualifications.  If you’re like me, who had never heard of an archaeobotanist before coming across Menna’s @eatlikea...

Welcome BACK today to Alison Kay, one of the co-hosts of the Ancestral Kitchen Podcast, who’s here so we can announce a collaboration that I’ll get to in just one minute. 🙂 I learned today that before Alison was the leader of a community intentionally choosing to procure and prepare food in ancestral ways, she was a life coach… And nothing has ever made more sense than that discovery. Indeed, in...

In this episode, I’m joined by Neil Hudson, Co-founder of Scotch Boyz, a brand that’s brought authentic Jamaican flavors to the mainstream American market - and far beyond, as well.  I initially liked this story of 4 childhood friends coming together to build an international business, all while pouring back into the communities that raised them and Jamaican farms that produce their ingredients. I...

Today’s guests came to my very favorite way - they were recommended by a listener!  Megan responded to one of my weekly newsletters, writing,  There is a couple at my church, Jah and Frances, from Liberia, who are an inspiration.  They are so hospitable and care well for their family...their house always is full of people. .  Additionally, their house is a revolving door...they...