This week it's the mother of all kitchen tours. Thomas Keller is repeatedly named the best chef in the country. When he set out to duplicate his famed California restaurant, The French Laundry, in New York City, he dictated every design element, but for unheard of reasons. The result is Per Se, the hottest restaurant in the country right now. Chef Keller leads the tour and shares his recipe for Mussels with Saffron and Mustard from his fabulous new book Bouchon.
Today we offer our holiday special, a special guide to reveling, relaxing, and reflecting. This is a remarkable time of the year and no matter where you go, you'll find celebrations and feasting.
This week we're talking all things salted, cured and smoked with food writer Michael Ruhlman, co-author of Charcuterie. In Europe, charcuterie is high craft, done by masters. Here, it's the latest thing in the artisan food movement. Michael has tips for making your own home-cured meats and seafood and shares his recipe for the ultimate party food: Pâté de Campagne.
Master Sommelier Andrea Immer Robinson joins us this week to talk Burgundy wine. It's the tricky but luscious older brother of Pinot Noir that the movie "Sideways" crowned the new king. Andrea's Pearl Barley Risotto with Mushrooms and Carrots pairs beautifully with Pinot Noirs from Burgundy's Côte Chalonnaise district.
This week's guest could be New York's next star chef. He's Suvir Saran, author of Indian Home Cooking. His food is all about clear, singing flavors and simple, light dishes. Tomato Rasam is a fine example.
It's our annual Thanksgiving show and we're bringing you a banquet of recipes, stories, a cut of history, and new looks at feasting inside and outside our borders. Food authority Joan Nathan talks real American food today from home kitchens across the country. Her recipe for Braised Butternut Squash with Mustard Seeds, Chili, Curry Leaves, and Ginger is from her new book, The New American Cooking.
This week it's a blast from the past - the macrobiotic diet - with Jessica Porter, author of The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics. Jessica has a fresh take on that 1960's phenomenon.
Tod Murphy is a man who's giving restaurant chains a run for their money. His Farmer's Diner in Barre, Vermont serves up good, cheap food from local farms. The system is a winner that could take "local" national.
This week it's a newspaper that gets it. America is food obsessed as never before, yet newspapers across the country are slashing their food sections down to a few recipe columns off the wire amid a mass of ads. And forget local coverage. An exception is the San Francisco Chronicle food & dining page. Executive food and wine editor Michael Bauer joins us to talk the plight of the food page. The recipe for Pomegranate and Spice-Braised Pork comes from the Chronicle.
We're taking a look at Zinfandel, the mystery grape swathed in controversy, its origins lost in the mists of time. Wine historian Charles Sullivan, author of Zinfandel: A History of a Grape and Its Wine, joins us to unravel its questionable past.
This week we're creating spaces for entertaining. It's not about remodeling, it's about working with what you already have. Our guest is architect Sarah Susanka, whose latest book is Home by Design: Transforming Your House Into a Home.
This week it's a look at Antonin Carême, the world's first celebrity chef. Abandoned by his family at age nine to starve on the streets of Paris, Carême overcame impossible odds to achieve wealth, fame and an unheard of independence. In the process he reshaped French cuisine. His biographer Ian Kelly, author of Cooking for Kings, tells the story. Carême's recipe for Orange Flower and Pink Champagne Jelly takes us back to the 19th century when he cooked for kings.
Indian food expert Madhur Jaffrey joins us this week with the tale of how curry turned global. It's all about India's caste system and Britain's lust for empire. Madhur shares her recipe for Cilantro Chicken from her latest book, From Curries to Kebabs: Recipes from the Indian Spice Trail.
This week, our guest Trevor Corson, author of The Secret Life of Lobsters, takes a new look at endangered sea life. It's story of underwater feminism, renegade scientists, and amorous crustaceans!
We're talking living and eating in the south of France with none other than Patricia Wells, restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune and the most prominent American authority on French food today. Patricia's new book, The Provence Cookbook, is the latest addition to her roster of titles about cooking, traveling and eating in Paris and France. She leaves us her recipe for Fresh White Beans with Garlic and Light Basil Sauce, and recommends a visit to Le Bistrot du Paradou.
Peter Mayle, author of A Year in Provence, joins us this week with a send-up of France's latest wine craze. It's all about the scams and hype that have us sniffing our wines for traces of impertinence and pencil shavings! Peter's new novel is A Good Year.
This week it's the story of a life-altering sweet tooth. Our guest, Steve Almond, author of Candyfreak, has lived his entire life for candy and surely knows more about candy history than Mars and Hershey combined. The Sterns are choosing between democracy and dictatorship at Hallo Berlin, a sausage cart on the streets of New York.
Funny and frank journalist Linda Ellerbee joins us this week to talk travel, eating, and the meaning of life. She shares a recipe for Mama's Rescued Fudge Pie from Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table, her recently published memoirs.
When our guest, Lawrence Osbourne, wondered if he could trust his own palate he went inside the wine world to find out. He'll tell us what he learned. His book is The Accidental Connoisseur: An Irreverent Journey Through the World of Wine.
Paul Dolan, president of Fetzer Vineyards and author of True to Our Roots: Fermenting a Business Revolution, has made some unconventional changes at one of America's most successful wineries. We'll hear how this big producer is practicing what usually works only on a small scale. It could be the new way of wine. The Sterns settle a meat pie debate at Cousin Jenny's Gourmet Cornish Pasties in Traverse City, Michigan, and Lynne weighs in with her take on the meal in a crust: Pizza Rustica.
California Chef Paul Bertolli, author of Cooking by Hand, gives new meaning to "cooking from scratch." He makes his own balsamic vinegar, cures his own salami and hams and grinds his own flours. We'll learn what drives this talented artisan and owner of the award-winning restaurant Oliveto in North Berkley. He leaves us with his recipe for Boiled Chicken with Vinegar Sauce.
British journalist Christy Campbell joins us this week with the story behind the plague that threatened to destroy the world's vineyards. The fascinating account of how scientists working with vintners stopped a near disaster is documented in Mr. Campbell's book, The Botanist and the Vintner: How Wine Was Saved for the World.
"Our guest is BBC journalist Fuchsia Dunlop, the first foreigner invited to study at the professional chef's school in Sichuan, China. She fell in love with the spicy, hot, and unique cuisine the Chinese call "audacious cooking," and went on to pen Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking. She leaves us her recipe for Fish-Fragrant Eggplant from the book.
This week it's heartbreak, glory, and big money. We're talking cooking contests with Amy Sutherland, author of Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America. If you think the Superbowl is competitive, wait until you hear how serious cooks go for the gold!
This week it's the story of two Southern cooks from different generations, different places, and different races. Young chef Scott Peacock talks about his special friendship with Edna Lewis, a cook, writer, and octogenarian who is one of our national culinary treasures. Scott leaves us his recipes for Sugared Raspberries and Scott's Chicken Stock from The Gift of Southern Cooking, the book he co-authored with Miss Lewis.
Brush the snow off the Weber! Steven Raichlen is back and he's talking winter grilling. Never mind that the wind chill is 10 below. Steven's Green Lightning Shrimp, from his book BBQ USA, will warm you to your toes.
This week Miles Cahn, creator of Coach handbags and, ultimately, Coach Farm Goat Cheese, tells the story of trading big-city life for dairy farming in the Hudson Valley. It's a tale of one man's journey from successful businessman to being held hostage by 1,000 goats. His book is The Perils and Pleasures of Domesticating Goat Cheese.
Did you know that one quarter of all vegetables eaten in America are french fries? Our guest, Dr. Kelly Brownell, Director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders and author of Food Fight, thinks huge advertising budgets have more to do with this frightening statistic than our lack of will power. But Dr. Brownell says there's hope on the horizon. He joins us for a look at some of the victories in our battle with obesity.
We're cooking in the raw, vegan style, with renowned Chicago chef Charlie Trotter, co-author of a new book aptly titled Raw. It's stunning food using new techniques like those in his recipe for Cauliflower Soup with Balsamic Red Onions and Wilted Lettuce.