Joe Yonan is the Food and Dining editor of The Washington Post and author of Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook (Ten Speed Press, 2013).
New York Times cocktail writer Robert Simonson's book, A Proper Drink, looks at the origins of the ongoing cocktail renaissance and the bartenders who rescued classic drinks from obscurity.
Culinary historian Michael Twitty is on a journey to discover himself, through the food of his ancestors. Joe Yonan talks to him about history, identity, and what exactly goes into a kosher soul roll.
Smokers are closely associated with meat. But there is a world of meatless uses for them as well, from potatoes and eggs to water and even ice cream. Project Smoke author Steven Raichlen tells Joe Yonan all about them.
"Their flavors can be intense, but the beauty of them is really how they integrate into dishes, how they accentuate and highlight other flavors," says Barton Seaver, author of Superfood Seagreens.
"How can someone change from a fraught relationship with food to a less fraught one, which is where we all want to get?" says Bee Wilson, author of First Bite.
"Loads of herbs, really balanced and complex flavors, like loads of sweet and sour, amazing produce -- these are the flavors of Ukraine," says Olia Hercules, author of Mamushka.
"Globally, 95 percent of our calories now come from 30 species," says journalist and educator Simran Sethi, author of Bread, Wine, Chocolate. "Three-fourths of the food we eat comes from 12 plants and five animal species."
"A lot of people think that a vegan meal is going to be a white, bland, squishy piece of tofu," says chef Tal Ronnen of the Los Angeles restaurant Crossroads.
"Every time I decide how to walk into the kitchen, what to eat, how to feed my family, I'm making a decision about how I want to live my life," says Alana Chernila, author of The Homemade Kitchen.
Though the pawpaw grows wild in 26 states, the fruit remains a mystery to many Americans. Andrew Moore, author of Pawpaw, says that wasn't always the case.
