Episode 123: Food, FIlm, and Cooking

Legendary filmmaker Ismail Merchant of Room with a View and Cotton Mary fame has three great passions ­ film, food, and cooking ­ and he's with us this week to share tales of filming and feasting. Ismail is renowned in the motion-picture community for the weekly curry suppers he prepares for cast and crew. Try the recipe for Ismail's Incredibly Instant Chicken, created during the filming of A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries. It's from his new book, Ismail Merchant's Paris.

Ham biscuits can be high art in Kentucky and Jane and Michael Stern have found the best at the West End Café in Owensboro. Cheesemonger Steve Jenkins waxes rhapsodic about the cheeses of Savoie, and we have the story of a Santa Lucia celebration gone awry from commentator Nanci Olesen.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

• December 11, 1999