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The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters — Arts
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

Copyright: © Copyright 2026 Minnesota Public Radio

Latest Episodes:

Marcella and Victor Hazan Oct 17, 2009

Show notes

This week we're catching up with Italian food authorities Marcella and Victor Hazan. Marcella's latest project is her autobiography, Amarcord, Marcella Remembers. Jane and Michael Stern are eating Czech food at Belgrade Gardens outside of Akron, OH, and Harold McGee, author of the seminal On Food and Cooking explains the remarkable link between extra-virgin olive oil and ibuprofen.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

October 4, 2008 (originally aired)
October 17, 2009 (rebroadcast)

Oregon Pinot Noir Sep 19, 2009

Show notes

This week we are meeting a winemaking legend, David Lett of Oregon's famed Eyrie Vineyard, Jane and Michael Stern are eating ice cream at Ici in Berkeley, CA and New York City food authority Mike Colameco introduces us to Izakayas, Japanese drinking places.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

September 20, 2008 (originally aired)
September 19, 2009 (rebroadcast)

Heirloom Tomatoes Sep 05, 2009

Show notes

This week it's all things tomato with Amy Goldman author of The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table, Jane and Michael Stern are at the Formica Brothers Bakery in Atlantic City, NJ, and writer David Leite, editor of the Web site Leite's Culinaria takes on the Toll House Cookie.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

September 13, 2008 (originally aired)
September 5, 2009 (rebroadcast)

Craig Claiborne Aug 29, 2009

Show notes

Historian John T. Edge take a look back at one of America's great food treasures, Craig Claiborne, the Sterns share their pick of great public markets on both coasts and wine writer Paul Lukacs from Wine Review Online introduces to the wines of Priorat.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

August 29, 2009

Summer Fruits Aug 22, 2009

Show notes

This week it's the domestic goddess of the British Isles, TV star and author Nigella Lawson talking those oh-so-evocative summer fruit dishes of England - from fools to flummeries to an unusual take on raspberry jam. Nigella's latest book is Nigella Express. It's burnt ends sandwiches at LC's Bar-B-Q in Kansas City, Missouri for Jane and Michael Stern. Wine wizard Joshua Wesson says we need to be putting a chill on some of those reds. He'll tell us which ones. Chad Ward, author of An Edge in the Kitchen: The Ultimate Guide to Kitchen Knives, has advice for getting the best knives for your money, and Dave Broom has some surprises from the World Whisky Awards.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

August 23, 2008 (originally aired)
August 22, 2009 (rebroadcast)

The Food Life Aug 08, 2009

Show notes

This week we're meeting one of the pioneers in America's artisan cheese movement, our very own Steve Jenkins author of The Food Life: Inside the World of Food with the Grocer Extraordinaire at Fairway. Jane and Michael Stern are at Halibut in Portland, OR and we look at the Southern way with picnics, with Jean Anderson author of A Love Affair with Southern Cooking: Recipes and Recollections.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

August 16, 2008 (originally aired)
August 8, 2009 (rebroadcast)

The Fruit Hunter Jul 25, 2009

Show notes

This week's guest claims that without fruits we'd still be swinging from trees eating bugs. Fruit-obsessed journalist Adam Leith Gollner joins us for a look at the fruit leggers and their stories as told in his book The Fruit Hunters: The Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession. The Sterns experience a religious moment at the church of heavenly barbecue - Louie Mueller's in Taylor, Texas. Wine maverick Joshua Wesson talks cool wines for steamy days, and food scientist Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, explains what's really going on with those color-enhanced steaks in the meat case.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

July 26, 2008 (originally aired)
July 25, 2009 (rebroadcast)

Smoke Grilling Jul 04, 2009

Show notes

This week we're celebrating the Fourth of July and the start of high summer. Gourmet magazine's John Willoughby talks smoke roasting, a much-ignored technique worthy of revival for its easy and succulent results. John's latest book, Grill It!: Recipes, Techniques, Tools, co-authored with fellow grilling guru Chris Schlesinger, is hot off the press. The Sterns feast on only-in-America fried clams and onion rings at Champlin's Seafood Deck in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Sally Schneider, author of The Improvisational Cook, has ideas for summer coleslaw. Gary Nabhan, co-author of Renewing America's Food Traditions, looks at America's endangered foods, and David Rosengarten, creator of The Rosengarten Report newsletter, talks burger bliss.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

June 28, 2008 (originally aired)
July 4, 2009 (rebroadcast)

Terroir Jun 27, 2009

Show notes

All those people talking about a wine's "terroir", meaning the place the grapes come from. Can we really taste it? We get the scientific last word from Harold McGee author of the seminal On Food and Cooking. Jane and Michael Stern are at Woodyard Bar-B-Que in Kansas City, KS, and novelist Nicole Mones tell us about the time in Chinese culinary history which she used as a framework for her latest novel, The Last Chinese Chef.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

June 2, 2007 (originally aired)
May 24, 2008 (rebroadcast)
June 27, 2009 (rebroadcast)

Spices And The Medieval Imagination Jun 20, 2009

Show notes

This week it's the seeds and bark that changed the planet. We're talking spices, the stuff of wonderment and avarice in the medieval world with Paul Freedman, author of Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination. It's a St. Augustine, Florida special for Jane and Michael Stern at Saltwater Cowboy's. We talk with Peter Shafer, our Gastrosexual for the month of June. Tea purist Bill Waddington, proprietor of St. Paul's TeaSource, has summer in a glass iced teas for the lazy at heart, and culinary improv artist Sally Schneider has a brief on the wallflower of the farm stand the beet.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

July 12, 2008 (originally aired)
June 20, 2009 (rebroadcast)

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