The Storied Recipe

Hello!!! Happy June 1st! Today's episode is very unusual. Although it contains a story, and it is most definitely a story about food, this is a solo episode and is quite personal. I'm going to share a fairy tale with you today that has long been a favorite fairy tale. It also connects me to both of my grandmothers, my great-grandmother, my cousin Terri, my own children, and my niece Hannah. And no...

I reached out to Yone because she shares such interesting stories about the flavors and ingredients she finds in the markets of Taipei… and because she’s willing to speak openly about the current pressures and threats on the Taiwanese, which is something I wanted to learn more about. It wasn’t until after I started to research for this interview that I learned she also identifies as a Latin Americ...

Today's episode is a real treat for all of us. I’m welcoming Zuza Zak to the podcast for the second time today. The first time was several months ago when Zuza came on to share details about the  Cook for Ukraine initiative .  Zuza is the author of 3 cookbooks, Polska, which she calls “a love letter to her country” of Poland, and what we focus on most in this episode. She has also writte...

Around the world, Muslims have been observing Ramadan for most of the month of April. From morning prayers before dawn to sundown, they abstain from both food and drink, including water. But today, Syrian-American Omayah Atassi (who now lives in Dubai) is here to teach us about not only the fasting but also the feasting associated with Ramadan. I’m a close follower of Omayah’s work through Instagr...

Aimee's grandfather was perpetually hungry, subsisting sometimes on as little as a sweet potato a day. So when he was given the opportunity at 12 years old to leave China and join his uncle in Indonesia, he took it. He didn’t see his parents or siblings for 30 years. Two generations later, M. Aimee left the comfortable life that her grandfather had built for her and arrived in Canada to study. She...

So happy today to have Alicia Akins, author of Invitations to Abundance, on the podcast today. Invitations to Abundance is a book examining the imagery of feasts in the Bible. Alicia says she wrote this book for anyone who has ever been disillusioned. For those people (which, of course, is all of us), Alicia makes the case from the imagery of feasts in the Bible that God is inviting us to experien...

I wish I was here today to share with you a lovely, thoughtful conversation about Anna’s remarkable cookbook,  The Soviet Diet Cookbook , which serves as a fascinating anthropological, historical analysis of the Soviet regime. Unfortunately, we can’t have that conversation. Rather than looking back at the Soviet regime in retrospect, Anna reports that almost overnight, beginning with the invasion...

I have been eagerly anticipating this episode for well over a year now!!! I’m here with Dikla Frances, whom many of you already know as Dee of One Sarcastic Baker, and her first book  Baking Science: Foolproof Formulas to Create the Best Cakes, Pies, Cookies, Breads and More  is coming out very, very soon - April 5th, in fact!!! I’ve already pre-ordered 3 myself!!  Here’s why I...

Happy Holi 2023, everyone! Do you know what Holi is? I've wanted to know more about this colorful (literally!) celebration for years now. And this year, I finally learned!! For all of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re approaching spring and what a welcome spring it will be. To kick off the springtime celebrations, we have Rai, a resident of West Bengal in India, to tell us all about the North I...

Welcome listeners to a special, unanticipated episode of The Storied Recipe podcast. I had an episode planned for release yesterday, but in light of the horrific current events in Ukraine, my guest preferred to postpone the release. I do thank  M. Aimee  of  Milk of Thy Kindness  for her sensitivity during this time. In the meantime, several months ago, I scheduled an interview with Zuza Zak for t...

Welcoming Anisa to the podcast today, who works as a food photographer under the delightful moniker @thewonkystove - a title just as quirky, unique, and delightful as Anisa herself. Anisa arrived in the US as a very refugee from the former Soviet Union. Anisa’s Jewish Ukrainian family suffered especially cruelly under their communist rule. Her mother’s great courage in fleeing to the United States...

Have you heard the episode with Liz Zunon, Author and Illustrator of the stunningly beautiful autobiographical children's book Grandpa Cacao? If not, you'll want to either pause this right now and go back and listen to it !!!!   Grandpa Cacao's Granddaughter was one of my favorite episodes ever. We discuss Liz's years in the Ivory Coast and her Ivorian family who worked the cacao farms t...

Introduction Quiara grew up in a Mennonite community in Southern Louisiana, but now lives in Port au Prince, Haiti, with her Haitian husband. Together, they are questioning how they can live out their Mennonite values in a city ruled by gangs that terrorize citizens, merchants, and police. We also discuss a really genius fun party recipe!! Quiara is telling us how to make bowls from plantains - li...

I am so, so excited to introduce you today to Sara Sullivan and to the absolutely perfect new artwork she designed for The Storied Recipe podcast. As we start this conversation, I need you to understand how incredibly uncomfortable I felt going into this process. You see, I’m a white woman who, for one thing, regularly shares the stories of people and cultures outside my own. On top of that, I hav...

Quick question: Could you name 5 facts about Tunisia or Tunisian cuisine? I sure couldn’t, before this episode, and to be 100% honest, as embarrassing as this is, I’m not sure i would have accurately located it on a map! A few weeks ago, I shared a recipe from a guest that was named after Tunisia. I felt uncomfortable sharing this recipe, because the guest wasn’t Tunisian, and I couldn’t verify if...

Happy New Year, my friends! What’s the key to doing hard things in 2022 (because you know, even in the best of years, hard things are coming, right)? Today’s guest, Theresa Korte, one of the chocolate-making sisters from last month’s episode, talks openly today about the hard things that a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis has thrust upon her. She also shares how she has met these hard things with g...

Welcome, listeners, to a very special episode that is coming from a vulnerable and treasured place in my heart! There's nothing typical about this episode - First, I’m releasing this episode as both audio and video. Second, this is a solo episode, and while I have a couple more solo episodes planned for 2022, there won’t be too many. The heart of this podcast is - and will remain - my guests and *...

I said it last year and I’ll say it again - this episode deserves to be an annual tradition. This is the story about a family of immigrants making an old British classic - a steamed Christmas pudding. They made it year after year, with laughter (so much laughter), joy, and plenty of booze, and they always made sure everyone got at least one turn with the spoon.  Not only is this a great story, but...

 I am certain that everyone listening to this podcast about food and heritage associates the holidays with two things: one - family time and two - treats. This is an episode about both! Today, I’m welcoming three sisters - Aimee, Theresa, and Amanda and their mother, whose name is also Theresa, to talk about their holiday chocolate-making EXTRAVAGANZA!!!!! And when I say “extravaganza”, I am...

28 Vignettes from The Storied Recipe Community Hi Listeners! So excited to release my FAVORITE episode EVER again this year! The Storied Recipe is a community and it means the world to me that you came together to share your Thanksgiving stories with all of us.  Welcome and Happy Thanksgiving!!! This is a very special episode of The Storied Recipe podcast. Rather than diving deep into one sto...

Hi listeners! Before the show summary, I'll cut to the chase and ask you to fill out this survey right here: https://thestoriedrecipe.com/the-storied-recipe-2022-survey/ Now, as for an update on The Storied Recipe, you can listen right here: Or read a slightly abbreviated version: Two weeks ago, at my guest's request, I had to pull an episode 24 hours after releasing it. Her circumstances changed...

Kelly Bronze turkeys have been the centerpiece of the Royal Family’s Christmas dinner and have been specially requested by dignitaries as far as Dubai. Their turkeys are featured on the menus of Michelin-starred restaurants and the Bronze family has been celebrated across the UK.... But it wasn’t always this way. In fact, there was a time when the Kelly family was in dire straits financially. The...

As Covid crashed into our collective experience in March of 2020, Liam Elkind was just 20 years old. Home from Yale University, he watched in bewilderment as New York City, for the second time in his life, became Ground Zero for our nation’s calamity. A life-long New Yorker, Liam had been taught to run toward crisis. Liam and two of his friends saw that there was a population of vulnerable people...

Welcome today to Kathiana LeJeune. Kathiana, a Haitian-American who currently works for National Geographic, has recently written a book titled The Power of the Palate all about cultural diplomacy through food. In this episode, Kathiana shares how her mother, grandparents, and uncles naturally engaged in cultural diplomacy all the time, changing the lives of everyone around them - and how our loca...

From the time Marybeth Wells was a child, everyone used the same words to describe her: "intense", "energetic", "strong", "successful". However, at this point in her life, people use different words - words like "calm" and "grounded" - and yes, still successful, as Marybeth owns two successful businesses - one specializing in brand photography business and the other specializing in life & busi...