815: Your Thanksgiving meal with Deb Perelman and J. Kenji Lopez-Alt & Desi Bakes with Hetal Vasavada
We are a week away from Thanksgiving, and this week, Award-winning authors J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Deb Perelman give us the best advice on making the perfect Thanksgiving spread. From gravy hot takes to best brining practices and the ideal way to cook a perfect turkey we have you covered. J. Kenji López-Alt and Deb Perelman are co-hosts of "The Recipe with Kenji and Deb" podcast. Deb left us her recipe for delicious dinner rolls, Sour Cream & Chive Fantails. Then, we move on to delicious Indian-inspired desserts with cookbook author Hetal Vasavada. Her flavor combinations will transform your typical bars, cookies, and pies into deliciously nutty and sometimes spicy desserts. Hetal is the author of Desi Bakes, and she left us her recipe for Pistachio & Cardamom Muddy Buddies.Broadcast dates for this episode:November 22, 2024 (originally aired)November 21, 2025 (rebroadcast)Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews!Our annual cookbook giveaway is live! To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbookDonate to The Splendid Table today and we will show our appreciation with a special thank-you gift.
--------
49:09
--------
49:09
838: Our All-American Thanksgiving with Padma Lakshmi and Dorie Greenspan
This week, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving and looking at the way this American holiday and its food tell our stories. First, we talk with Padma Lakshmi about her new cookbook, Padma’s All American, a celebration of the immigrant dishes and regional traditions that make up our country’s culinary landscape. Padma talks about what she’s learned from years of traveling for Taste the Nation and leaves us with a delicious Thanksgiving alternative for mashed potatoes: Podimas (Potatoes with Turmeric and Fried Lentils). Then, we turn to baker extraordinaire Dorie Greenspan for a sweet addition to the holiday dessert table. Her new book, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes, is filled with unfussy, comforting cakes meant to live on your counter — the kind you slice into whenever the craving strikes. Dorie talks about why simple cakes feel right for the season and leaves us with her Cocoa-Swirled Pumpkin Bundt.Head to our YouTube channel and watch our interview with Padma Lakshmi. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything!Our annual cookbook giveaway is live! To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbookBroadcast dates for this episode: November 14, 2025 (originally aired)Celebrate kitchen companionship with a gift to The Splendid Table today.
--------
49:23
--------
49:23
814: Ottolenghi Comfort with Yotam Ottolenghi and Classic German Cooking with Luisa Weiss
Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | YouTubeThis week, we talk about comfort food around the world. First, Yotam Ottolenghi tells us about his latest book, which is filled with recipes for his favorite comfort foods. He talks about what it is about specific dishes that evoke emotional reactions, from taste to texture to memory like his recipe for “Thousand” Hole Pancake. Yotam’s latest book is Ottolenghi Comfort written with his collaborators Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller, and Tara Wigley. Then, Luisa Weiss joins us to talk about her deep connection to German food. Growing up between Berlin and the US, she tells us about her favorite hot school lunches, (which are famous in German culture!), “low key dinners” known as abendbrot, and the influences German dishes have gleaned from other countries. Luisa is the author of Classic German Cooking, and she leaves us with her recipe for Käsespätzle, Swabian Noodles with Mountain Cheese and Caramelized Onions.Broadcast dates for this episode:November 8, 2024 (originally aired)November 7, 2025 (rebroadcast)Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews!Donate to The Splendid Table today and we will show our appreciation with a special thank-you gift.
--------
49:48
--------
49:48
837: The Universal Language of Bread with Tony Shalhoub and Maureen Abood
This week, we’re breaking bread in every sense of the phrase. First, beloved actor Tony Shalhoub joins us to talk about his new CNN series, Breaking Bread, where he travels the world to explore the meaning of bread and how it connects us across cultures and tables. Growing up in a large Lebanese American family in Wisconsin, Tony shares memories of food as a bridge between worlds, from kibbeh and hummus to bratwurst and grilled cheese. Then, we meet Maureen Abood, author of Lebanese Baking, who brings us into the heart of the Lebanese kitchen with recipes and stories that honor tradition and community. She leaves us with her recipe for Za’atar Manakeesh, a beloved flatbread that captures the heart of Lebanese baking: simple, fragrant, and made to share.Head to our YouTube channel and watch this extended cut of our interview with Tony Shalhoub. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything!Broadcast dates for this episode: October 31, 2025 (originally aired)Our annual cookbook giveaway is live! To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbookGenerous listeners like you make The Splendid Table possible. Donate today to support the show.
--------
49:51
--------
49:51
Bonus Episode: How We Survive's The Uncanny Valley of Meat
Today we have a bonus episode for you, featuring our very own Francis Lam. How We Survive is an award-winning podcast from Marketplace about the messy business of climate solutions. From the glitz and glam of Miami, to the punishing Arizona desert, to a sinking island that our national security depends on, every season takes listeners on an adventure. We’re finding the innovative, surprising and occasionally disturbing ways that people are navigating solutions to a changing climate.In this episode of “How We Survive,” host Amy Scott is joined by “The Splendid Table” host Francis Lam for a cultivated meat taste test. Plus, Francis shares his go-to recipes for climate-friendly proteins.Deep in the halls of the engineering school at Columbia University, professor Hod Lipson and his former student Jonathan Blutinger are reimagining how meat is made. In 2022, they developed a device that maps the texture of meat.“It's a machine that can poke steak at a bunch of different points and create these high-fidelity texture maps and see more clearly, you know, the toughness of different parts,” explains Blutinger. Lipson adds, “we tried to capture quantitatively, how hard is it to cut it with a knife? How hard is it to poke it with a fork? How hard is it to chew?” They sold that device to a fake meat company, ReDefine Meat, which 3D prints steak.It was during this time that Blutinger came up with a framework for thinking about meat: The uncanny valley of meat. “The uncanny valley is, a thought that a Japanese researcher came up with years ago, where the closer we get to mimicking human likeness with robots, the more we tend to be irked by them,” explained Blutinger. He said the same phenomenon happens when we eat fake meat that’s trying to look, taste and feel like the real thing.“People who are meat eaters are used to the texture, the feeling, the flavor, all the sensory aspects of any meat they've had from the hundreds of thousands of times they've tried it. So as soon as they try something that's trying to mimic that, they're extra cautious,” said Blutinger.We hear all the time that one of the best things we can do for the climate as individuals is eat less meat. But 3D printed meat alternatives are not on the market in the U.S. yet. So the “How We Survive” team got our hands on another new food tech that some argue could allow people to have their steak and eat it too: Cell cultivated meat (which is real meat grown from cells instead of living, breathing animals).Does cell cultivated meat pass the uncanny valley?
About The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters
If you love to eat, cook and travel, The Splendid Table is your weekly go-to source. Our public radio program has been connecting people through the common language of food for over three decades. Hosted by award-winning food journalist Francis Lam, each week we bring you fresh voices and surprising conversations at the intersection of cooking, people and culture. We cover all things food – from recipes and restaurants to history and science, farmer’s markets and of course, the Thanksgiving feast. Our wide-ranging, freewheeling guest list includes both world-class and rookie chefs, bestselling authors, scientists, poets, musicians, and even an astronaut in orbit!
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Weeknight Kitchen, to receive practical, delicious weeknight-ready recipes. Once a month, we also share a sweet treat or baking recipe. Sign up at Splendidtable.org/newsletter
Produced by American Public Media. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network
Listen to The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters, The Munk Debates Podcast and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
Canada - english