The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters

Broadcast dates for this episode:December 1, 2007

When our guest, Saveur magazine executive editor James Oseland, was 19, he spent a summer in Indonesia. He returned home but his heart and appetite stayed behind. After 23 years of exploring the region, James has written Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. He joins us for a look at an enchanting cuisine and a world of new flavors and traditions. The recipe for Beef Rendang is from his new book.Extra crispy fried chicken has Jane and Michael Stern clucking at Price's Chicken Coop in Charlotte, North Carolina. Wine maverick Josh Wesson claims boxed wines rock and so do ones in cans! He shares his picks. Dorie Greenspan brings us a baking pro's prime secret: goodies you never knew you could make ahead and freeze. Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake comes from Dorie's latest must-have book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. Joanna Pruess, author of Seduced by Bacon: Recipes & Lore About America's Favorite Indulgence, reviews the lush new bacons showing up in the market and shares an intriguing recipe for Pecan-Brown Sugar and Bacon Ice Cream.Seth Kugel reports on the New York City Pushcart Awards. He writes the "Weekend in New York" column for The New York Times and is co-author of Nueve York: The Complete Guide to Latino Life in the Five Boroughs.Broadcast dates for this episode:November 11, 2006 (originally aired)November 24, 2007 (rebroadcast)

This week it's our annual Thanksgiving show. We're bringing you a line up of experts for a look at why we eat what we eat on this day. Chef Jonathan Waxman, author of A Great American Cook, tells how he and his little daughter lay out the feast. His recipe for Apple and Chicken Liver Mousse is to die for and guaranteed to keep hungry relatives at bay while the turkey cooks.It's an early morning carbo-loaders dream breakfast for Jane and Michael Stern at the Kozy Korner Café and Bar in Winnett, Montana.Deborah Madison, author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, is back with a Vegetarian Thanksgiving Feast that will knock anyone's socks off. For turkey eaters, Lynne's Fast and Crisp Roast Turkey Scented with Apple and Basil fills the bill.Those sweet potatoes with marshmallows that appear on many holiday tables may trace their beginnings back to an ancient Arab medical handbook according to Yale history professor Paul Freedman, author of Food: The History of Taste. He joins us for a look at what shaped our tastes for this holiday.We have a post-punk Thanksgiving for vegans; and Mary Murray Bosrock, author of Asian Business Customs & Manners: A Country-by-Country Guide gives a lesson in etiquette from across the sea.Broadcast dates for this episode:November 17, 2007

This week it's the story of an illegal fish and two ships stalking each other in the waters off Antarctica. Our guest, Bruce Knecht, author of Hooked: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish, shares the saga of one of the longest and most dangerous sea chases in history.Jane and Michael Stern tuck into corned beef sandwiches of iconic proportions at Jake's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Food & Wine magazine's senior editor Ray Isle wants us to stash the Margarita mix and rinse out the good glasses because he's bringing us the latest status tequilas—the ones you drink straight up.Scholarly hedonist Fred Plotkin has us eating and sipping our way through Santiago, Chile, and then it's another round of Stump the Cook with Stumpmaster Christopher Kimball. Are we ready for wines with names like Fat Bastard, Hair of the Dingo, White Trash White and The Laughing Magpie? Peter May, author of Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape, celebrates unusual wines from around the globe.Broadcast dates for this episode:November 4, 2006 (originally aired)October 27, 2007 (rebroadcast)

This week we're off to Santa Fe for a visit at a destination restaurant that never lost its heart. After 20 years Café Pasqual still shines, the food is still dynamite, and the service is still a hoot. Our guide is the woman who makes it all happen: restaurateur Katharine Kagel. She shares a seasonal recipe—Sugar Pumpkins Filled with Vegetable Stew in Chipotle Cream Sauce—from her book, Cooking with Café Pasqual's: Recipes from Santa Fe's Renowned Corner Café.It's Code 10 Chili at Noon Break in Cody, Wyoming for our road food duo, Jane and Michael Stern. Anya Von Bremzen, author of The New Spanish Table, has the scoop on the mother of all paprikas: Spain's smoky-rich pimenton. Anya's recipe for Smokey Mashed Potatoes from Extremadura highlights this luxurious spice.Commentator Julie Hauserman tells how Florida has finally put her tax dollars to work—in the kitchen. Beer historian Alan Eames, author of The Secret Life of Beer, claims the Halloween witch was a beauty, a healer, and she made beer. What a gal! Alan tells all.  We have the story of pasta, Holy Communion and the eye of artist Lisa Venditelli, and Lynne brings us her Short Apple Cooking Guide.Broadcast dates for this episode:October 28, 2006 (originally aired)October 20, 2007 (rebroadcast)

This week it's everything sushi—the things you didn't know you need to know, like what should not be in your soy sauce, and the big clue to whether the sushi maker is a master or not. Our guide is Dave Lowry, author of The Connoisseur's Guide to Sushi: Everything You Need to Know About Sushi Varieties and Accompaniments, Etiquette and Dining Tips and More. It's burgoo and mutton barbecue for Jane and Michael Stern. They're dining at George's in Owensboro, Kentucky.Paris food critic Daniel Young takes us to the City of Lights for a look at where the locals go every night: the bistros, brasseries, and wine bars. Choucroute Garnie with Salmon is from his latest book, The Bistros, Brasseries, and Wine Bars of Paris. Sylvan Brown, co-author of The Slow Food Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area: Restaurants, Markets, Bars, has advice about where to eat in the City by the Bay.Our refrigerator game, Stump the Cook, is back with Lynne and Christopher Kimball, our celebrity stump master. Lynne has some new Italian wines to try—winners of the Gambero Rosso® Three Glasses Award for 2006, and we'll hear about Marshmallow Peeps and Peep Research currently underway.Broadcast dates for this episode:April 15, 2006 (originally aired)September 29, 2007 (rebroadcast)

Food historian John T. Edge joins us this week with a dissertation on the little ring of dough that became a patriot, a movie star, and stirred up some good old American ingenuity. The recipe for Zingerman's Roadhouse Donuts is from John's new book, Donuts: An American Passion.It's dynamite food in the midst of New Mexico's chile fields for Jane and Michael Stern. They're eating the incredible chile rellenos at Chope's in La Mesa. Food & Wine magazine's Lettie Teague talks true Chablis, the French gem nobody knows.We'll hear from Dr. David Bedford, one of the creators of the award-winning Honeycrisp apple about what makes this luscious variety so sought after. Keeping to the theme, Lynne shares her recipe for an Apple Citron Turnover that makes the most of these gems called one of the 25 innovations that changed the world.Russ Parsons, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, tells all about the fresh fig. This fruit can make you blush! His article, "Seduction By Fig," appeared in the September 6, 2006 issue of the newspaper. To find it, go to latimes.com and search for "Seduction By Fig." We'll hear from Will Sillin, an artist who brought Julia Child to a cornfield and, as always, the phone lines will be open for your calls.Broadcast dates for this episode:September 23, 2006 (originally aired)September 22, 2007 (rebroadcast)

It's back-to-school time and the question facing every parent in America: the lunch box issue. How do you pack healthy food that the kids will actually eat? Consumer rights warrior and mom Marion Nestle has answers. Marion's new book is What to Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating.The Sterns report from Barberton, Ohio, where they're eating a Hungarian feast at Al's Corner Restaurant. And all for six dollars! Wine wizard Josh Wesson has us "thinking pink" with his recommendations for lush rosés.Chef Mai Pham talks grilling Vietnamese style. It's all about bright, zingy flavors and fast cooking. She leaves us her recipes for Green Papaya Salad with Shrimp and Vietnamese Rice Noodles with Grilled Pork.Tom Beller, author of How to Be a Man: Scenes from a Protracted Boyhood, tells of an adolescent epiphany on the streets of New York, and we have the scoop on the very clever and very cool new dinnerware from Orikaso.Broadcast dates for this episode:August 26, 2006 (originally aired)September 1, 2007 (rebroadcast)

This week we're grilling with all-American ingenuity, or what our guest, Dan Huntley, calls "contraption cooking." It's all about a special league of cooks who have cobbled together brilliant and often wacky cooking rigs. Dan leaves us his recipe forPyro's Burnt Endsfrom his bookExtreme Barbecue: Smokin'Rigs and Real Good Recipes.The Sterns are eating soul food with local preachers at Niecie's in Kansas City, Missouri. Karan Feder takes us back to the 1950s when Liberace, that era's king of bling, was playing outrageous excess to the hilt and cooking the same way. The recipe for In Italian, Zucchini Means Italian is from Karan's book Joy of Liberace: Retro Recipes from America's Kitchiest Kitchen.Journalist Scott Huler lampoons the always prolific zucchini and Lynne offers her recipe for Crisp Fried Zucchini Flowers as an antidote to that summer garden excess. It's street food paradise in Penang, Malaysia with reporter Maria Bakkalapulo and Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill in New York, talks new technology for farmers.Broadcast dates for this episode:August 25, 2007

We're off to Italy this week with Italian food and culture authority Fred Plotkin. He takes us to the luscious and evocative region of Marche, an area little known to Americans where the charm rivals Tuscany but you aren't likely to run into your neighbor. The recipe for Scampi al Prosciutto is from Fred's book, Italy for the Gourmet Traveler.It's Chicago but no hot dogs for the Sterns. This time they're tucking into chicken with 18 soulful vegetables at Feed. That master chef of the herb garden, Jerry Traunfeld, is back and he's talking herbal cocktails. His refreshing Sage Rush is from his latest book, The Herbal Kitchen: Cooking with Fragrance and Flavor.Cynthia Zarin shares a vacation memoir of trying to blend a family over the broken fantasy of an island in Maine. Stump Master Christopher Kimball presides over a new round of "Stump the Cook," we have the scoop on a new perfume that will have you smelling like a cheese tray, and Lynne takes your calls.Broadcast dates for this episode:August 5, 2006 (originally aired)August 18, 2007 (rebroadcast)