New World Culinary Wonders: Tomatoes and Chiles

Guest: Jenny Linford, author of “The Seven Culinary Wonders of the World: A History of Honey, Salt, Chile, Pork, Rice, Cacao, and Tomato”

When the New World was discovered, it completely changed the culinary world forever. Take tomatoes and chiles. Anything but commonplace, these extremely diverse fruits are so intrinsic to much of the world’s cuisine that we often forget that they arrived on the world culinary scene only recently.

History of Chocolate

Guest: Carla D. Martin, Founder and Executive Director, Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute, and Lecturer, Harvard University

From pedestrian Hershey's to luxurious Belgian, chocolate has a history spanning centuries. Martin asks us to think about the "value chain" involved in the global distribution of chocolate: workers and producers receive the smallest profit from the industry. Looking back centuries to the history of cacao production also reveals another type of value, one that was even sacred.