THE SPLENDID TABLE: CONVERSATIONS & RECIPES FOR CURIOUS COOKS & EATERSHOSTED BYAMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA
The Splendid Table has always connected people through the common language of food and eating. Now with award-winning food journalist Francis Lam at the helm, we’re bringing forward even more fresh voices and surprising conversations at the intersection of food, people and culture – covering everything from the global appeal of sesame to the impact of Instagram on everyday eating. It’s a food show where everyone is welcome. Produced by American Public Media.
Those people skills to use, traveling the world, to dig into the histories of food you love, and that you think, you know, It's a hey, Carla. It's great to see you. It's been a minute. Francis, it is so great to see you. It's been an hour It's been more than a minute. Well, anyway, so congratulations on your new show, chasing flavor, you know, I love how you take in this show. I love how you take, like, one dish and quite literally traveled the world to find its history, its origins, you know, show how cultures have influenced each other over the centuries. But, you know, one thing I kinda took away from some of the episodes is that there's kind of a personal undercurrent too that I thought was really interesting. Yeah. And, like, to me, the shrimp and grits episode, was really, I thought about your relationship to soul food. It wasn't even just about that dish. Tell us about that relationship. I know you wrote a book about it at one point, but it's been sort of a kind of give and take relationship for you over the years. Isn't it? Yeah. You know, well, the show in general was about looking back at history and giving credit to different cultures along the way. So that made it very personal. I have been through this process of owning my culinary cultural ties. Mhmm. But even in particular, this show, going to Ghana and seeing the connection of kankake to grits, even though, you know, some of the people are looking to be like, that is a terrible name for a dish. Grit. It sounds brittle. It doesn't sound good at all. But finding that connection where we didn't even realize there was one, That was really important, and that was a big. Mhmm. Mhmm. Okay. So Kenkei is this, dish in Ghana. It's just like a
Hey, it's Francis. You know, it is always a wonderful day for me when I get to talk to my dear friend, Abra Barron's, Jeff, Farmer and author, last year to celebrate her book on cooking with fruit, we had her on the show and rounded it out with author, She Libri Kache, to talk about fantastic salads. It's an eat your fruits and veggie show that you will be happy to check out again. I'm Francis Lam, and this is the blended table from APM. So my kid's absolute favorite food in the entire world. Is her daddy's roasted broccoli? Sheers Hooray. Has been for years. Amazing. Right? Well, the problem is that her second favorite food is chocolate. Her third is french fries. The 4th is candy. The is ice cream and somewhere down on the line, there are chicken nuggets, nachos, and ramen. It's not that she doesn't like fruits and vegetables. It's just that, you know, the siren songs of sugar, salt, and the fry later are just a little too catchy to get of her head. And I also imagine that's the case for a lot of us, kids and adults. And that's a shame nutritionally, but for enjoyment too, there's nothing like the world of flavors and textures that plants have. And the first thought I have when it comes to eating more vegetables isn't okay. And that's healthy. It's Man, that is gonna be good. So today, we have 2 fantastic guests who will help make sure that's the case for you Coming up later in the show, Sheila Prakash, authored the new book and salad seasons, joins us with terrific ideas on making vegetables, the star of your next meal. And first, it's my dear friend, Abra Berens. Abra is a former farmer and currently chef at Greender Farm in her home state of Michigan, is the author of a trilogy of lauded cookbooks. The first is called Ruffage. It's really one of the best guys to cook vegetables I've ever seen,
Is that islanders are scrappy people, and they will make deliciousness out of whatever is available. So across islands, you see what might seem like kind of peculiar, unexpected ingredients. Like, you know, I've talked about this many times, but in the Caribbean, we love our tinned meat, SPAM, corned beef, Vienna sausages. Right? And and the way we prepare them though is in an island way. We prepare them with our spices. But we make these really unique dishes, I would argue, like chamodel barbecue, that couldn't have come about under any other circumstances. We'll be back with more with Von Diaz, author of Islas, a celebration of tropical cooking. And then it's Jewish food authority Joan Nathan with her new book, My Life and Recipes. I'm Francis Lam, and this is the Splendid Table from APM. I'm Francis Lam, and this is the show for curious cooks and eaters. We're talking right now about the beauty and complexity found in the food of the tropics with Ron Diaz, author of the new cookbook, Peace Less. Let's get back to it with her. So how did you choose the islands? And even more specifically, how did you choose the dishes that you wrote about in this book? This was a, this this is a big book, and it was a big project to take on. It was a it was a big feat, but I was undaunted. I always felt really excited to do the work. And I approached this book, like a like a journalist, which is, you know, that's my that's my main discipline in life, right, is as a documentarian and a journalist. And, you know, the best way to learn about a place is to talk to people. Right? And thanks to the, you know, advances in in social media and Internet technology, increasing access to tech
Airs that sort of can handle, you know, a wash of of, you know, bitter coffee or or kind of like a, you know, a boozy tequila soak or a fatty coconut milk. So if you bake if you over bake something in the oven, like a sheet cake, and it feels brittle or crisp or fragile or dry, I'm, like, don't throw it away. Like, let's soak it with something delicious, and it'll rehydrate in that process, and it'll be delicious. You know? Like, there are so many desserts that kind of riff off of that idea, but I wanted to reassure the reader that if you thought you were making a mistake, there's still a way to kind of go back and save it. Yeah. Actually, I I I worked on an ice cream book many years ago. It was really, really amazing author and chef named Dana Cree. And the very last recipe in the book I have that book. It's it's awesome. Thank you for buying it. Yeah. And it's, like, very nerdy. You know, it's it's it's just, like, a deep, deep dive into, like, how ice creams work. And I love that the last recipe in the book is, okay, if you really did mess up an ice cream base, here's how you turn it into a cake. I don't mean ice cream cake. Like, literally, like, add flour, add eggs, and, like, it it'll actually bake up into an amazing cake. I'm like, oh my god. Like, that's so smart. Incredible. Yeah. It's true. It's true. I think, like, that's exactly the kind of kind of critical thinking that I'm really hoping readers will take to heart. And I think pastries, specifically, is this area where people are, like, must follow recipe step by step. If I don't, I will fail. And I think once you sort of engage that critical thinking part of your brain where you're, like, okay, if I've over beaten this whipped cream and it looks grainy, I know I can stream in a little liquid cream, and it'll become silky and look smooth again. So I think this is the kind of, like, brain rewiring arranging that feels so good to have once you have this
Stars of the culinary world, Sola El Whaley. Let's get back to it with her. You were a pastry chef at first, weren't you? No. I was savory. Oh, okay. I studied savory. Because that's just what happened back then. It it it feels like I was in the kitchen such a long time ago because it has changed so much in the last, like, 15 years. But when I started, there was a lot of times where I was the only girl, so they would just be like, oh, just go make a cake. You can do that. Right? Which, you know, to their surprise, I couldn't at the time. I I remember I I was externing at Del Posto. I was on the It's a French accent. Line, which is like their. Yeah. It's a fancy Italian place that doesn't exist anymore Yeah. Yeah. Because of the controversy. Yeah. You guys can look it up. It's fun. No. I I was working on, like, the Assagie line, which is where you make all these little snacks. Like, we made, like, little, what's arancini situation. Little fried rice balls and stuff. Yeah. And then and some chickpea things. I barely remember, but, they were short on pastry, so they just assumed because I was a girl that I knew how to make shoe, and then they just pat a shoe. And I had never made a before. You're a girl. They make a shoe. Oh my god. I I had didn't even know what it was. They gave me this recipe, and they're like, okay. Go make 4000 patachou in a tilt skillet, which I had not done before. So I just wasted, like, 80 eggs. Oh, god. You know? So you shouldn't assume. You should assume nobody knows how to do anything. But yeah. So that that's really how I got into pastry. I just kept getting thrown at it, and I did like it very much. So I rolled with it. You know? Sometimes you just roll with the punches, and it ended up being really fun. And I think it kinda gave me a leg up because now
