We're taking a look at the politics of wine in America with our guest Bruce Cass, author of The Oxford Companion to the Wines of North America. Bruce says it's easier for a 13 year-old to buy a gun on the Internet than it is for an adult to purchase a bottle of wine.
This week it's the history of popcorn with Andrew Smith, author of Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America. It's been around for thousands of years and it's America's favorite snack food. Andrew debunks some popcorn myths and explains why it has such staying power. His recipe for Popcorn Canapés is one of the more unusual ones we've featured here at The Splendid Table.
Like everyone, we know it's diet-resolution time again. But we like to avoid the expected and the ordinary here at the Splendid Table. Besides, everyone is too serious these days with Y2K worries and all. So cheer up and tune in—we're bringing you a show on the delights of excess! Our guest is Nan Lyons, author of Gluttony: More Is More, one of a series of books on the seven deadly sins. There's little that Nan takes seriously and only regrets that she wasn't asked to write about lust. Whip up her chocolate peanut-butter soul pie for a final blast of bliss if you simply must start counting carbohydrate and fat grams on January 1.
For this year's holiday show, we'll hear how a chef celebrates at home with his family. Our guest is Alfred Portale, chef and co-owner of New York City's Gotham Bar and Brill. Chef Portale loves Christmas but, like all of us, his life is crammed with work, family, and travel. He tells us how he's rethought the Christmas feast he prepares for his wife and daughters, and shares his recipe for Roast Cod with Savoy Cabbage, White Beans, and Black Trufflefrom his new book, Alfred Portale's 12 Seasons Cookbook.
It's our annual entertaining show and we've got tips from the experts for when you have little time and energy but want to entertain with style, simplicity and fun. Caterer Ina Garten, proprietor of the Barefoot Contessa specialty food store in the ultra chic Hamptons, creates take-out and party food for the likes of Steven Spielberg and Martha Stewart. And she has plenty of down-to-earth advice for catering your own parties with maximum style and minimum cooking. Her recipe for Virginia baked ham makes an easy, delicious and spectacular presentation.
We're off for a look at New Orleans bars this week with resident historian and photographer Kerri McCaffety, author of Obituary Cocktail: The Great Saloons of New Orleans. The Big Easy has more bars per capita than anywhere else in the country and each of these architectural and cultural treasures harbors true stories more fascinating than folklore. Try the recipes for a Sazerac, the brandy concoction that was the Exchange Alley rage in 1853 or an Obituary Cocktail, a version of the martini with a splash of absinthe.
According to history professor Rebecca Spang, author of The Invention of the Restaurant, it used to be that going out to eat was not something anyone did by choice, and in 18th Century Paris restaurants weren't about eating at all. It's an intriguing bit of history that Ms. Spang will share.
This week Faith Popcorn, consumer trends forecaster to the Fortune 500 and co-author of EVEolution: The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women, gives us a look at how food will be marketed in the future. Ms. Popcorn has always been ahead of the curve with trends like "cocooning" and "the pleasure revenge." Now she brings us EVEolution, and it's all about a new power base in consumerism. She claims the food companies are clueless.
We're off on an adventure this week to places you may not get to on your own. John Willoughby sweeps us away to Istanbul for Turkish food and a stay at the charming Empress Zoe Hotel, then world traveler and tea purveyor Sebastian Beckwith takes us trekking into the backcountry of Laos in search of the birthplace of tea.
We're taking you from the cosmos right down to your coffee cup this week with Sidney Perkowitz, professor of physics at Emory University and author of Universal Foam. Professor Perkowitz will explain how foam is the link between your cappuccino and the cup you drink it from to the chair you sit in and the stars in the night sky. It's quite a trip.