Olive oil is a thing of beauty—and essential in so much of our cooking. Olive oil sommelier Tassos Kyriakides teaches us how to better appreciate olive oil – both for its flavor and its health and ecological benefits.

And, producer Meg Dalton reports on one Connecticut organization using Palestinian olive oil to educate the community about the region. We’ll also hear from Wafa Shami, a Palestinian food blogger, about the importance of olive trees.

Plus, we talk with James Beard Award-winning chef JJ Johnson about his new book, The Simple Art of Rice.

GUESTS:

• Tassos Kyriakides: Certified Olive Oil Sommelier and Assistant Professor of the Yale School of Public Health

• Ghoufran Allababidi: President of the Tree of Life Educational Fund (@TreeofLifeEducationalFund)

• Rebecca Crosby: Board member of Tree of Life and a retired pastor of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme

• Wafa Shami: Food blogger behind Palestine in a Dish and author of several children’s books, including Olive Harvest in Palestine. (@palistineinadish)

• JJ Johnson: James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and the founder of FieldTrip in New York City, a trio of restaurants focused around rice. His latest book is The Simple Art of Rice: Recipes from Around the World for the Heart of Your Table with Danica Novgorodoff (@chefjj) (@novgorodoff) (@fieldtripusa)

Learn More:
Education in a Bottle
Wafa Shami’s recipe for Chicken Musakhan

Featured Recipes from The Simple Art of Rice:
Seafood Paella
Filipino Adobo
Bibimbap with Pickled Vegetables

This show was produced by Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Meg Dalton, Tagan Engel, Katrice Claudio, Stephanie Stender, Meg Fitzgerald, and Sabrina Herrera.

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