Award-winning chef Susanna Foo shook up the traditionalists at her Philadelphia restaurant by marrying international cooking techniques and American ingredients. The result is delicious food that's fresh, light and approachable while staying true to Chinese culinary traditions. An example is Mandarin Potato Salad with Cellophane Noodles from her new book, Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration: New Approaches to Chinese Cuisine.
Lynne is here when you need her the most, just a phone call or e-mail away. Don't miss one of the liveliest call-ins of the year. It's Thanksgiving triage at its best. Guests include Chris Kimball of Cook's Illustrated magazine and PBS's America's Test Kitchen, our regular wine wit Joshua Wesson, Seattle Chef Tom Douglas and many more.
Thanksgiving opens the season for hospitality. Between now and January we'll carve turkeys, swap cookies, light candles and be terribly social. There's no better guide to the art of hospitality than restaurateur Danny Meyer. Every night for twenty years he's entertained guests at his eleven eateries in New York City. He joins us with tips to get us through the season with style and grace. Danny's new book is Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business.
At 29, our guest Julie Powell was stuck in a mind numbing job and feeling defeated, aimless and depressed. In one eureka (some would say deranged) moment she decided that her salvation may lie in cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She set out on August 25, 2002; a year later she emerged, battered but with her psyche intact and her soul renewed. Her book, Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes and 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, is the chronicle of her journey as well as a tribute to Julia. Julia Child's Leek and Potato Soup is a classic.
This week it's a French moment back in 1976 that turned the tide for California wine. Our guest is former Time magazine correspondent George Taber, author of Judgment of Paris. He reports on that moment when the earth moved in the Napa Valley. The Sterns are eating at Harmon's Lunch, a monomaniacal luncheonette in Falmouth, Maine with a two-item menu; and Lynne reports on her own "Sterns' moment" at Polehna's Meat Market in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
This week it's bliss and total control for coffee lovers. We're talking home coffee roasting with Kenneth Davids, author of Home Coffee Roasting: Romance and Revival. He has tips and sources for home coffee roasters for the truly java obsessed.
Why would a successful New York magazine editor willingly take six months off to become a slave in a restaurant kitchen? Our guest, Bill Buford, editor of The New Yorker, answers that question in Heat: An Amateur's Adventures As Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany.
This week it's an often-overlooked gem that food snobs never take seriously: the great American peanut. Our guest, food writer Wendell Brock, takes us back to his roots in Georgia's peanut country for a look at the caviar of goobers. His fiery Chile Peanuts take bar snacks to a new level.
This week it's the classic summer place: Martha's Vineyard. It always tempts vacationers to stay, and some move in. Our guest, Vineyard native and local chef, Tina Miller, talks what it's like to live there, the people who make the island what it is, how they live off the land and sea, and how a renaissance turn of mind is essential. The recipe for Lobster and Sweet Corn Fritters, the very essence of summer, comes from Tina's book, Vineyard Harvest: A Year of Good Food on Martha's Vineyard.
Have you ever wondered what food pros want to eat when they travel? Gourmet magazine's John Willoughby says it's street food. He joins us this week with his picks of the cities with prime eats, along with safety tips for eating from street food carts. A recipe for Watermelon with Fennel Salt comes from the May 2005 issue of Gourmet.