Just about every culture has some form of noodles. But when and where did noodles first appear? Food historian Ken Albala joins Linda to untangle the noodle's history.

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What is most commonly known about the food and dining of Ancient Rome comes from vivid—and often fictional—descriptions of exotic foods of lavish banquets of the wealthy. But further study reveals an approachable cuisine of the Mediterranean in ancient times. Farrell Monaco describes how she combines her background in archaeology to study and recreate many of those dishes.

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Good news to David Shields is that the Speckled Whippoorwill Cowpea, Jimmy Red whisky corn, or the Sicilian Timilia strain of durum wheat has been located, identified, and successfully grown and harvested. And further success means that many of these formerly lost seeds are added to the Ark of Taste, Slow Food's global register of the most flavorful, historically resonant, and imperiled foods. David sat down with Linda to discuss some of the recent searches for seeds and why they are important in the final flavors of regional dishes.

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Who were the Acadians? What was their food culture and cuisine? Food writer and journalist Simon Thibault, talks about exploring his Acadian roots and reacquainting himself with the food and recipes from his family’s past which he documented in his new book, Pantry and Palate: Remembering and Rediscovering Acadian Food. It’s a cookbook filled with old food traditions, recipes and anecdotes “seasoned with history.”

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Culinarians are and were intellectually curious, aesthetically experimental, and gastronomically evangelical. In his new book, The Culinarians: Lives and Careers from the First Age of American Fine Dining, Dr. David Shields traces the stories of 175 lives and careers of chefs, caterers, and restaurateurs who raised the profession of cooking and fine dining in America to an art form.

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Unlike many Italian cookbooks, Autentico goes far beyond pasta. In a world where culinary shortcuts, adulteration, misleading labeling, and mass production of seemingly “authentic” food rule, culinary archaeologist, innovator and cooking teacher Rolando Beramendi has kept centuries-old culinary traditions alive.

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The American South is a diverse region with its own vocabulary, peculiarities, and complexities. Even Southerners can't always agree on all things Southern. A new book by the editors of Garden & Gun Magazine is a good source for answers. S is for Southern is an encyclopedia of Southern life, culture, and history, covering age-old traditions and current zeitgeists. Executive managing editor Phillip Rhodes, born and bred in the south, talks about the fun facts.

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Following WWII, France--particularly Paris--became the world's most stylish tourist destination and capital of fine dining. Americans were smitten. Justin Spring follows the lives of six American writers-adventurers who adopted Paris as their home, and tells how they transformed the way Americans talk and think about food and the way they eat.

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Tea has been one of the most popular commodities in the world. Over centuries, profits from its growth and sales funded wars and fueled colonization. Erika Rappaport talks about her new book, A Thirst for Empire, in which she delves into how Europeans adopted, appropriated, and altered Chinese tea culture to build a widespread demand for tea in Britain and other global markets and a plantation-based economy in South Asia and Africa. She shares her in-depth historical look at how men and women—through the tea industry in Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa—transformed global tastes and habits and in the process created our modern consumer society.

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Paris has been associated with fine dining for centuries and the city remains a veritable walking tour of historic gastronomy. David Downie, a travel and food writer living in Paris, takes a deep dive into this history for his new book, A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food. He shares with us stories, events and locations that brim with passion and flavor--a true food lover's paradise.

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