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American Public Media

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

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

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | YouTube. 

This week, we explore flavors and techniques with two incredible guests. First, James Beard award-winning author Henrietta Lovell, aka the Tea Lady, takes us on her tea journey. From discovering the art of tea in China and countries beyond, to teaching us how to taste the nuanced flavor profiles and appreciate the craftsmanship. She left us with a recipe for Cold Brew Iced Teas that can be enjoyed like a fine wine. Henrietta is the author of Infused – Adventures in Tea and founder of the Rare Tea Company. Then, we talk to our favorite food scientist, Nik Sharma, about his latest video series, Flavor Forward with America’s Test Kitchen. He shares tips and tricks for the home cook on elevating your dinners. Like the Tandoori Salmon, Braised Lemon Chicken with Couscous, and Calabrian Chile White Beans with Almond Romesco. Nik Sharma is the author of Veg Table, The Flavor Equation, and the forthcoming Fundamentals of Flavor (Sept. 2026)

Broadcast dates for this episode:

January 30, 2026 (originally aired)

Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews!

Generous listeners like you make The Splendid Table possible. Donate today to support the show.

When you shop using our links, we earn a small commission. It’s a great way to support public media at no extra cost to you.

842: Adventures in Tea with Henrietta Lovell and Flavor Forward with Nik Sharma

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | YouTube

This week, it's the final show of our 30th anniversary celebration, recorded from the stage of The Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, MN, where it all began. Francis is joined onstage by some of the best chefs in Minnesota, including American Oglala Lakota Sioux chef, Sean Sherman, Somali-American chef, Jamal Hashi, Karyn Tomlinson of Myriel the winner of the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest and 6-time James Beard Nominee, Diana Moua of Diane's Place to talk about their culinary journeys and the importance of community and culture in food. We’re then joined on stage by a very special guest, Lynne Rossetto Kasper. 

Head to our YouTube channel and watch this extended cut of our Live Show. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything!

Broadcast dates for this episode:

January 16, 2026 (originally aired)

Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews!

Generous listeners like you make The Splendid Table possible. Donate today to support the show.

When you shop using our links, we earn a small commission. It’s a great way to support public media at no extra cost to you.

841: Celebrating 30 Years: Live from St. Paul!

This week, we’re celebrating the holidays by looking beyond, into global stories that shape the season. First, we talk with Hetty Lui McKinnon about her new book, Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor, and what the holidays look like in Australia, where Christmas is hot and the seafood markets buzz at midnight. Hetty reflects on the vegetable forward meals that defined her Chinese Australian upbringing and leaves us with her recipe for Coronation Cauliflower and Chickpeas. Then, we turn to writer Yasmin Khan for a deeper look at Yalda Night, the Persian winter solstice celebration that reminds us of the return of the sun, after the longest night of the year. Her latest cookbook, Sabzi: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes, explores vibrant vegetarian cooking rooted in Persian culture. Yasmin shares how Yalda brings people together through poetry, pomegranates, and seasonal comforts, and leaves us with her recipe for Eggplant Fesenjan.

Broadcast dates for this episode: 

 • December 19, 2025 (originally aired)

Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews!

Generous listeners like you make The Splendid Table possible. Donate today to support the show.

840: Holiday Traditions Around the World with Hetty Lui McKinnon and Yasmin Khan

This week, we’re taking a trip through the South and its food – how it tells the story of a region shaped by migration, memory, and culture. First, we talk with scholar and writer Michael W. Twitty about his new book, Recipes from the American South, a sweeping look at the many communities – Black, white, Indigenous, immigrant – whose traditions built Southern cooking as we know it. Michael reflects on the histories that define the region and leaves us with his recipe for Maque Choux, the Louisiana classic made of corn and peppers. Then, we turn to writer and filmmaker Deb Freeman for a deeper look at one of the South’s most influential voices: Edna Lewis. Her new PBS documentary, Finding Edna Lewis, traces how Miss Lewis’s rural Virginia roots shaped her cooking and her revolutionary impact on American food. Deb shares why Lewis remains essential today and what we can still learn from her.

Our annual cookbook giveaway is live! To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbook

Broadcast dates for this episode: 

 • December 5, 2025 (originally aired)

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.

839: A Journey Through Southern Food with Michael W. Twitty and Deb Freeman

Today we have a bonus episode for you from Happier with Gretchen Rubin, featuring our very own Francis Lam. 

Gretchen Rubin is HAPPIER, and she wants you to be happier too. The #1 bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before gets more personal than ever as she brings her practical, manageable advice about happiness and good habits to this lively, thought-provoking podcast. Gretchen’s cohost and guinea pig is her younger sister, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer living in Los Angeles, who (lovingly) refers to Gretchen as her happiness bully.

On this episode of More Happier:

It’s easy to get swept up in a cycle of holidays that feels more like a relentless to-do list than a source of joy. In this Celebration Roundtable, we talk about how to embrace the holidays as opportunities for intentional connection and meaning.

Bonus Episode: Do Holidays Leave You Exhausted, Not Restored? Priya Parker, Francis Lam & Kate Bowler on Celebration

Join us for Turkey Confidential, our must-listen-to annual Thanksgiving Day broadcast! This year’s guests are Samin Nosrat, author of bestseller Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and Good Things; Brooklyn-based recipe developer Yossy Arefi, author of Snacking Bakes and Snacking Cakes; Vivian Howard, author, TV personality, and chef, known for This Will Make It Taste Good and Deep Run Roots; Evan Kleiman, chef, cookbook author, and host of KCRW’s Good Food. And, of course, Francis!

Broadcast dates for this episode:

 • November 27, 2025

Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews!

Generous listeners like you make The Splendid Table possible. Donate today to support the show.

Turkey Confidential 2025

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/cookbook

Broadcast dates for this episode: 

 • November 14, 2025 (originally aired)

Celebrate kitchen companionship with a gift to The Splendid Table today.

838: Our All-American Thanksgiving with Padma Lakshmi and Dorie Greenspan

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/cookbook

Generous listeners like you make The Splendid Table possible. Donate today to support the show.

837: The Universal Language of Bread with Tony Shalhoub and Maureen Abood

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?

Bonus Episode: How We Survive's The Uncanny Valley of Meat

This week, we’re diving into Italian cooking, from the Pacific Northwest to the Bronx. First, chef and author Joshua McFadden joins us to talk about Six Seasons of Pasta, his love letter to everyone’s favorite food. Known for his hit cookbook Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, Joshua brings that same seasonal sensibility to pasta, pairing local produce with traditional Italian technique, and shares his recipe for Nut Ragu. Then, Bronx-born chef Christian Petroni takes us into the heart of Italian American cooking with his debut cookbook, Parm to Table. From chicken cutlets to clams casino, he celebrates the cozy red-sauce dishes that define Sunday dinners across America and leaves us with his Chicken Scarpariello recipe.

Broadcast dates for this episode: 

 • October 17, 2025 (originally aired)

Our annual cookbook giveaway is live! To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbook

Donate to The Splendid Table today and we will show our appreciation with a special thank-you gift.

836: Italian Two Ways with Chefs Joshua McFadden and Christian Petroni

This week it’s a look at saliva with America’s funniest science writer, Mary Roach, author of Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Trail. The Sterns are at the Blue Scorcher Bakery Café in Astoria, Ore., and we learn which salts are really worth the money with salt merchant Mark Bitterman, author of Salted: A Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

 • April 6, 2013 (originally aired)
 • March 28, 2014 (rebroadcast)

Saliva the Superhero

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