Free Library Podcast

In conversation with Sam Sifton

Acclaimed for ''cooking that bursts with freshly ground spices and complex flavors'' (New York Times), Michael Solomonov brought Middle Eastern, North African, Mediterranean, and Eastern European influences to bear in his Philadelphia flagship restaurant, Zahav, named an ''essential'' restaurant by Eater magazine. Together with partner Steven Cook, his other restaurants include Federal Donuts, Abe Fisher, Dizengoff, The Rooster, and Goldie. Solomonov's honors include 2011 and 2017 James Beard Awards, as well as recognition by Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Travel + Leisure. Solomonov and Cook's new cookbook is a zesty blend of history, photos, and recipes gleaned from their Israeli travels to bustling seaside cities, sleepy mountain villages, and everywhere in between.

Sam Sifton is the food editor of The New York Times and the founding editor of NYT Cooking, the Times's digital cookbook. Formerly the newspaper's national news editor, restaurant critic, and culture editor, he is the author of the cookbooks Thanksgiving: How to Cook It Well and the forthcoming See You on Sunday: Recipes for Family and Friends. 

Watch the video here.

Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture

(recorded 10/23/2018)

René Redzepi is chef and co-owner of Copenhagen's Michelin two-star restaurant Noma, recognized an astounding four times as the best in the world. He is one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World and the subject of two full-length documentaries. His book Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine-''an international sensation'' (New York Times)-won International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) and James Beard awards. Former sous-chef at Vancouver's Hawksworth Restaurant, David Zilber has worked at Noma since 2014 and has overseen its famous fermentation lab since 2016. In their new how-to guide, Redzepi and Zilber reveal the techniques used at Noma to bring fermented ingredients to every dish served.

Watch the video here.

Julie Dannenbaum Culinary Arts Lecture

 

(recorded 10/24/2018)

René Redzepi is chef and co-owner of Copenhagen's Michelin two-star restaurant Noma, recognized an astounding four times as the best in the world. He is one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World and the subject of two full-length documentaries. His book Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine-''an international sensation'' (New York Times)-won International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) and James Beard awards. Former sous-chef at Vancouver's Hawksworth Restaurant, David Zilber has worked at Noma since 2014 and has overseen its famous fermentation lab since 2016. In their new how-to guide, Redzepi and Zilber reveal the techniques used at Noma to bring fermented ingredients to every dish served.

Watch the video here.

Julie Dannenbaum Culinary Arts Lecture

 

(recorded 10/24/2018)

''One of America's foremost practitioners of narrative nonfiction'' (The Wall Street Journal), Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of the National Book Award-winning In The Heart of the Sea, an account of the nearly mythic 19th-century maritime disaster that inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. His many other books include Mayflower, a Pulitzer Prize finalist; The Last Stand, a chronicle of the clash at Little Bighorn; Bunker Hill, a fresh take on the first major battle of the Revolutionary War; and Valiant Ambition, an account of the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. In his latest book, Philbrick narrates the epic year leading to Washington's decisive land and naval victory over Lord Cornwallis's forces in Yorktown.

Watch the video here.

Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture

(recorded 10/25/2018)

''One of America's foremost practitioners of narrative nonfiction'' (The Wall Street Journal), Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of the National Book Award-winning In The Heart of the Sea, an account of the nearly mythic 19th-century maritime disaster that inspired Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. His many other books include Mayflower, a Pulitzer Prize finalist; The Last Stand, a chronicle of the clash at Little Bighorn; Bunker Hill, a fresh take on the first major battle of the Revolutionary War; and Valiant Ambition, an account of the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. In his latest book, Philbrick narrates the epic year leading to Washington's decisive land and naval victory over Lord Cornwallis's forces in Yorktown.

Watch the video here.

Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture

(recorded 10/25/2018)

Often focusing on armed conflict, human rights issues, and women's roles in traditional societies, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario's work regularly appears in The New York Times, National Geographic, and Time. She is also the author of It's What I Do, ''an unflinching memoir'' (The Washington Post) illustrated with her photography about the uncompromising pursuit of truth and her fight to be taken as seriously as her male colleagues amid every major theater of war of the early 21st century, including Afghanistan, the Congo, and Libya. Of Love & War is a collection of more than 200 photos from far-flung and under-publicized corners of the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.

Watch the video here.

(recorded 10/30/2018)

Often focusing on armed conflict, human rights issues, and women's roles in traditional societies, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario's work regularly appears in The New York Times, National Geographic, and Time. She is also the author of It's What I Do, ''an unflinching memoir'' (The Washington Post) illustrated with her photography about the uncompromising pursuit of truth and her fight to be taken as seriously as her male colleagues amid every major theater of war of the early 21st century, including Afghanistan, the Congo, and Libya. Of Love & War is a collection of more than 200 photos from far-flung and under-publicized corners of the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.

Watch the video here.

(recorded 10/30/2018)

Covering orchestras, opera, major international festivals, and a wide variety of contemporary music, Anthony Tommasini is the chief classical music critic for The New York Times. His books include a biography of the composer and critic Virgil Thomson and The New York Times Essential Library: Opera: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Works and the Best Recordings. He also has covered musical theater, done Times Talks with musical celebrities, earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts at Boston University, and recorded two albums of music by Thomson. In The Indispensable Composers, Tommasini offers a very personal perspective on the canon of classical composers.

Watch the video here.

(recorded 11/8/2018)

Covering orchestras, opera, major international festivals, and a wide variety of contemporary music, Anthony Tommasini is the chief classical music critic for The New York Times. His books include a biography of the composer and critic Virgil Thomson and The New York Times Essential Library: Opera: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Works and the Best Recordings. He also has covered musical theater, done Times Talks with musical celebrities, earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts at Boston University, and recorded two albums of music by Thomson. In The Indispensable Composers, Tommasini offers a very personal perspective on the canon of classical composers.

Watch the video here.

(recorded 11/8/2018)

''Master storyteller'' (Christian Science Monitor) H. W. Brands was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his bestselling biographies of Benjamin Franklin (The First American) and Franklin Roosevelt (Traitor to His Class). Exploring such diverse subjects as Aaron Burr, Ronald Reagan, the California gold rush, Andrew Jackson, the Vietnam War, and Bill Gates, his more than two dozen books ''weave together keen political history with anecdote and marvelous sense of place'' (The Boston Globe). Brands returns with the story of the early 19th--century political giants who took up the daunting challenge of completing the constitutional work begun by the Founding Fathers.

Watch the video here.

(recorded 11/13/2018)