The Storied Recipe

When Yessica left her home country of Venezuela forever and arrived in Holland (the same country, funny enough, that her mother always dreamed of living), there was one thing she had to do first - find the correct cornflour to make Arepas. As Yessica’s candid speaking style made me laugh out loud over and over, she also taught me about the recent history and struggles in Venezuela and how she has...

There’s a surprise to every interview, and what I didn’t expect from this one was to be so smitten by the beautiful love story of Helen and Billie's (the sisters who blog at Mia Kouppa) parents. Today we meet a courageous, trailblazing woman who made a path in Canada, then returned to Greece to marry a man who knits, gardens, shops, and loved his wife so much, every day for 10 years, he left his j...

What can a wildly successful strength and fitness coach, who has helped tens of thousands of people lose fat, bring to a podcast all about a love and reverence for food? A lot of common ground, it turns out. Starting with a story about eating Shakshouka during a hike in the Negev Desert, Jordan Syatt shares about the approach to food, life, and family in the home of his heart, Israel, as well as h...

One minute I was in my garage, recording a behind-the-scenes video on Instagram stories, and the next minute, IG had kicked me out. I was irritated when I couldn't get back in. But when I went upstairs and saw all my passwords had been changed (bypassing two factor authentication), I was terrified. In this very short podcast episode, I share my story of being hacked, the stories of 3 other victims...

Here's a brief message about why I'm not releasing an episode this week and a setback I'm experiencing. Thanks for your support! Follow-Up Episode It took a few weeks, but eventually, I found out what had happened - I was a victim of the ISIS Flag Hack. You can read more about that (and Meta's response) here: https://thestoriedrecipe.com/the-isis-flag-hack-on-fb-what-ive-learned-my-plan/

Stefani is a Bay Area lawyer focusing on how trauma affects communities - and especially youth - of color. Today, she’s telling us all about her Granny Octavia’s refined and elegant teacakes. Granny Octavia migrated from Louisiana to Richmond, California in the middle of the 20th century. She settled down with her husband, contributed to the war effort (even while the war effort discriminated agai...

Earlier this week, we met Nermine, an Egyptian-born women who at the age of 22 received the distinctive honor of being named a diplomat. After she fell in love and married, Nermine left that post, but not the diplomatic corps, as she now travels the world practicing the “art of forging bonds” in every new country she calls home. TODAY, in this powerful bonus episode, Nermine shares how she leverag...

Today’s guests’s name is Nermine, but by the time you finish this episode, you may just think of her as Wonder Woman. At the age of 22, Nermine , born, raised, and educated first in Alexandria, Egypt, then in Cairo, achieved the rare honor of being appointed a female Egyptian diplomat. 10 years into her service, she fell in love with an American diplomat. When she chose to marry him, she gave up h...

Welcome to a bonus episode all about making the switch to gluten-free. We met Moy on Wednesday’s episode as she spoke about the traumatic experience leading up to her diagnosis. She was ill, hospitalized, and ignored until tests finally proved her research and instinct correct: Moy has Celiac’s disease. Moy also spoke in Wednesday’s episode about the science behind the conjecture that gluten intol...

We are all in for a treat today, as we hear from Moy Lovell about Doubles, the street food she says “profoundly connects” everyone in her country, the republic of Trinidad and Tobago, regardless of race, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. Doubles sounds simple enough - just fried bread called “bara” topped with a flavourful Channa (or chickpea) Gravy - but it’s so good that, after making it befo...

John and Rebekah are both Emmy-award winning screenwriters. They are parents to 4 children, doting grandparents, and absolutely passionate home cooks. In fact, I think they’re the most passionate home cooks I’ve ever met. John and Rebekah believe feasting together is the path to “creating family”. While Rebekah uses inspiration and solid know-how to use up leftovers in exciting, delicious ways, Jo...

I’m so grateful to welcome Nazli, an Iranian-born Australian today. She shared with me a recipe for Lamb and Lentil Kofte (also spelled Kofta or Kafta) , a combination of ground meat, seasonings, herbs, rice, and lentils molded into a ball gently cooked in a lovely tomato, turmeric, and onion sauce.  Some of us may be tempted to refer to this dish as a variation on meatballs… except for the K...

When Cheryl, an engineer by profession and also the blogger behind Bakes by Brown Sugar, and contestant on Great American Bakeoff Season 4, contacted me, it was the words she wrote about her mother that made me set up an interview as quickly as possible.  Several years after moving to Portland, OR in the 1940’s, Cheryl’s mother was a single parent of 7 kids, a self-employed seamstress, raisin...

Born and raised in the diverse city of Bombay (Mumbai), India, Karthika later moved to the US. At the time Karthika’s beloved mother fell ill several years ago, Karthika was experiencing a personal renaissance as she transitioned from a career in computer science to photography.  When Karthika traveled back to India to care for her mother, she entered a period of self-reflection and out...

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. She bought a very old place on a river in a remote corner of France (not unlike the place in Switzerland where she grew up.) There, she invites those wearied with the pace of the outside world to culinary retreats. Selina teac...

When Anela Malik posted an honest, fair, nuanced review of a local restaurant that departed a little bit from the narrative repeated in most outlets, I thought: “I want to hear more from this woman.” Anela makes that easy by sharing freely about her sourdough baking, her workout regimen, bright red wedding dress, cats, AND her takes on how to support marginalized populations when we go out to eat....

Roti Canai was a revelation to me - a simple bread dough is formed into balls, stretched very thinly, scrunched, spiraled, and re-flattened. After being coated in ghee every step of the way, the flat bread is then fried in more ghee. Finally, the hot, crispy, buttery layers are pulled apart and eaten. While new to me, this bread represents stability and family and love and home to my guest Shakila...

Introduction Last Wednesday, I hopped on the phone with Turner and Ariane, co-owners of Vegetable and Butcher, a prepared meal delivery service with a focus on plant forward foods for intentional eaters. At every turn of our conversation, I was surprised and delighted by how deeply personal these business owners were willing to be with me - so quick to show their human sides and vulnerabilities ab...

Introduction I reached out to Fresh Farm for this series because, as the host to 30 farmer’s markets in the DC Metro area featuring the work of 240 producers, I knew Fresh Farm would have a unique perspective on the struggles of both vendors and consumers during this crisis. What I did NOT know, but was absolutely THRILLED to learn about, is the number of meaningful programs Fresh Farm has in plac...

As I listened back to my interview with Josh, it slowly dawned on me why I enjoyed it so much. He’s kind of like that "movie Dad". Everyone in the neighborhood goes to him for advice because he’ll tell it to you straight, but he also gives a lot of hope, and you walk away knowing just what to do next. After 20 years running operations for high end restaurants, celebrity-chef driven ventures, and n...

Introduction Between Thursday of one week and Tuesday of the following week, Emma Jagoz, owner and farmer at Moon Valley Farms, completely pivoted her business. One week 100% of her produce was serving the best restaurants in the Baltimore, DC, and Frederick areas. By the next week, she had opened her CSA early to provide fresh, safe food to her local community AND, by partnering with local organi...

Introduction "Eating is complicated right now." What does it say about our current state of affairs that I felt dangerously close to tears at this simple, validating statement from today's guest, Howie Kahn? For 20 years, the hospitality community gave journalist, author, and podcaster Howie Kahn delicious food, career success (you know, just a podcast that hit #1 on the food charts in iTunes), fr...

Introduction Today, I want to introduce you to Brandon, who exudes hospitality, and his DC restaurant FishScale, which has 95 reviews and 5 stars on google. It’s not only Brandon, whose hard work is threatened by this crisis, but that of his entire family, who have sacrificed collectively to turn a concept and a conviction into a brick-and-mortar reality. If you're feeling a little - or more than...

Introduction Pradeep, my guest for Episode 022 "Every 100 Kilometers in India", is a trained medical doctor who teaches pharmacology in Mangalore, India by day and photographs for restaurants in his spare time. When I listened back to my interview with him, all I could think was how ignorant I sounded regarding the food, geography, and culture in India - and how patient he was with my many questio...

Introduction Tina Zaccardi, winner of The Great American Bakeoff Season 4 inspires me in two ways. First, she reminds us that everything takes time. On the other hand, as an amateur baker who never attended culinary or pastry school, she also reminds us that time IS sufficient to master any craft. Second, what I love most about Tina and her Nana’s child-friendly sprinkle cookies, is that Tina’s su...