This Week's Episode

Hosted by Lynne Rossetto Kasper

Play
Andrea's Turnip Soup - Andrea Reusing's Key 3, Claudia Kolker on monthly rice, Elaine Sciolino on peas, Sandor Katz on kombucha.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper

Lynne Rossetto Kasper has won numerous awards as host of "The Splendid Table," including two James Beard Foundation Awards (1998, 2008) for Best National Radio Show on Food, three Clarion Awards (2007, 2008, 2009) from Women in Communication and a Gracie Allen Award in 2000 for Best Syndicated Talk Show. Lynne is a respected authority on food, having published three bestselling books: The Splendid Table, The Italian Country Table and The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper, which was co-authored with producer Sally Swift in 2008. Lynne's syndicated column, "How To Eat Supper," appears in 700 newspapers. "The Splendid Table" can be heard on more than 200 public radio stations nationwide.

Content By This Author

South of France Tomato Soup with Young Chevre

How should the butcher prepare my cow?

Dear Lynne, My wife and I are in the process of buying half of a cow, and it's some great beef. The people who process it are quite flexible, but I don't know the language to advise them with.

How to make homemade mustard

If you’re not into mustards, you’ve missed the memo. Noelle Carter, of the LA Times’ Daily Dish column, shares how to make mustard at home.

The struggle to make farming cool among Iraqi youth

Emma Piper-Burket is a young American food activist who in 2009 found herself in Iraq in the midst of the war trying to help a broken farm system.

An obsessed chef's quest to acquire the world's rare knives

British chef Allegra McEvedy has written the scrapbook of a restless, curious cook who’s roamed every continent collecting dishes, stories and knives.

Knickers down, elbows out: It's time to prep for spring herbs

Twenty years ago, when the only green herb in a British supermarket was parsley, Jekka McVicar started selling herbs from her back yard. Now she has the largest herb collection in the U.K., and she and her nursery are institutions.

Footnotes: Eating hooves and claws from China to South Africa

The foot: This part of a beast’s anatomy has been snubbed far, far too long. British food writer Hazelann Williams is working on its comeback. She blogged about this sole food recently on the Guardian’s website.

Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook is a throwback to simpler times

Complete with flowered tablecloths and old-time aprons, Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Ga., is a throwback to the imagined comfort zone of 1940s and '50s, when baking from scratch was a badge of honor. Owners Cheryl and Griffith Day are the authors of The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook.

Seed saving: An alternative to industrial agriculture in India

The Perennial Plate is a weekly, online documentary series that follows two people who travel the world learning -- and filming -- how people really eat in their home countries.

No more black-market veal: Polish fare rebounds after Communism

Anne Applebaum has a special place in her life for Poland. As a journalist and historian, Anne covered the end of communist rule and revived a ruined manor house with her husband to create a new home in the country for her family.

Three ways to get the most from your roast: salt, heat and time

The practice of salting meat before roasting it is a great way to season a piece of poultry or pork from the inside out. Molly Stevens has written All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art, and she swears by this technique.

The dieter's Catch-22: To have willpower, you need to eat

In the book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, psychologist Roy F. Baumeister explores the links between self-control and success. His co-author, New York Times science columnist John Tierney tells Lynne Rossetto Kasper how we can structure our lives for both.

A cheesemonger champ shares how to keep cheese fresh

Cheesemongering is a relatively new profession in the United States but a time-honored one in Europe. Steve Jones is the 2011 Cheesemonger Invitational champion. He has worked in cheese for some 15 years and owns the Cheese Bar in Portland, Ore.

The craft and culture of beer-making across America

Beer culture is alive and well in the U.S., according to beer journalist Christian DeBenedetti. The author of The Great American Ale Trail shares his brewery picks from coast to coast.

What extra virgin means, and who in the olive oil industry abides

Olive oil is a global business. There's lots of money to be made, and there are also many questions left unanswered. Journalist Tom Mueller has written about them in his book Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil.

Nonprofit D.C. Central Kitchen delivers healthy meals and opportunities for the needy

Feeding public school children using locally sourced food and professionally-trained cooks is only a small portion of the work being done at D.C. Central Kitchen.

Will eating bugs solve the world's food problems?

British gastronaut Stefan Gates spent 10 days eating insects for every meal on a tour of Thailand and Cambodia. Part of it was to make great TV. Part of it was to understand why people in the West are disgusted by it.

Dumpster-diving freegans are a response to food waste

There's a saying: The rest of the world feasts on what America throws away. And then there's a statistic that could stop you in your tracks: 30 to 50 percent of our food production ends up in the trash. Journalist Scarlett Lindeman took months to dig into the freegan lifestyle.

Early Southern food memories live on with The Alabama Project

Some memories just stick with us, like the nervousness a husband feels watching his wife clean their butcher knives. For chef and writer Scott Peacock, these memories are at the heart of The Alabama Project, a film that explores some of the food memories of Alabama's oldest residents.

Bao is the quintessential Taiwanese sandwich

Eddie Huang is one of the masters of bao. These little pockets of roast pork belly wrapped in sweet Asian dough are the focus of his New York restaurant, BaoHaus, and a staple of the working class of East and Southeast Asia.

The secret to real pho is the stock

Great food doesn’t come solely from the recipes. It comes from the techniques within those recipes. For instance, learn to make a good stock and you can do dozens of soups. This is how Vietnamese chef and restaurateur Charles Phan thinks about cooking.

How to make flavored sodas at home

If you want to do a party where people really pay attention to what they're drinking, try making your own craft sodas. These are the sodas that you can describe like wine; you can talk about the remarkable body, the delicious aftertaste.

Warm White Bean Salad with Fragrant Garlic and Rosemary

The Art of Eating: A publication rooted in tradition

After a long day at the office, wouldn't it be nice to unwind with some bread and cheese in the comfort of your kitchen? Ed Behr writes about life away from the monitor and shares simple yet delightful food discoveries in his magazine, The Art of Eating.

The call of port: Private collection numbers more than 1,100 bottles

A sweet wine like port isn't for everyone. But for Bob Antia, it's a worthy collectible. The bottles in his Massachusetts collection number over 1,000 and get better with age. Though some of them are better served sooner rather than later, and shared with groups of friends.

New is but a theory. Nigel Slater wants nostalgic holidays

What does a man who lives and breathes food practically 24 hours a day have on his table during the holidays? We went to renowned British food writer Nigel Slater for some ideas. The latest of his 11 books is Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch.

Sure, you can try to haggle with your local wine merchant

Ray Isle, executive wine editor of Food & Wine magazine, says "If a wine isn't on sale and it's not a really well known, popular wine, you can ask and see if they'll give you a deal. Especially if you're going to buy a case.

A Winter Holiday Dinner Menu

In spite of a shared Mediterranean heritage, Scandinavian tastes lure us in as winter descends. Celebrate anything with this menu. It could be Christmas, the New Year or just an excuse to get everyone around a table.

Midnight snacking idea: 'Throw an egg on it'

You know where you have to eat when you go to New York City? Go across the river to Brooklyn, where the cooks are young and trying all kinds of things. Two of them are the Sussman brothers, Eli and Max. Max is a chef at Roberta's in Bushwick and Eli is at Mile End Deli.

Christmas in Paris sounds nice. But wait, no cookies?

Talk about having all the fun. David Lebovitz is a pastry chef living in pastry chef heaven. He's based in Paris. His blog, Living the Sweet Life in Paris, can drive you either to the kitchen or to buy a plane ticket. His latest book is Ready for Dessert.