This week, we’re celebrating the holidays by looking beyond, into global stories that shape the season. First, we talk with Hetty Lui McKinnon about her new book, Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor, and what the holidays look like in Australia, where Christmas is hot and the seafood markets buzz at midnight. Hetty reflects on the vegetable forward meals that defined her Chinese Australian upbringing and leaves us with her recipe for Coronation Cauliflower and Chickpeas. Then, we turn to writer Yasmin Khan for a deeper look at Yalda Night, the Persian winter solstice celebration that reminds us of the return of the sun, after the longest night of the year. Her latest cookbook, Sabzi: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes, explores vibrant vegetarian cooking rooted in Persian culture. Yasmin shares how Yalda brings people together through poetry, pomegranates, and seasonal comforts, and leaves us with her recipe for Eggplant Fesenjan.

Broadcast dates for this episode: 

• December 19, 2025 (originally aired)

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It’s the holiday season, and we’re kicking it off this week with some sweet treats. First, food editor and recipe developer Ben Mims joins us with his latest project, covering over 300 cookie recipes from Asia to the Levant to Scandinavia to the Caribbean. The varieties are astonishing.  We get into cookie styles, the fascinating ingredients in regional cookies, and the hundreds of flavor combinations. Ben is the author of Crumbs: Cookies and Sweets from Around the World. And he left us with a recipe for Guava-Filled Butter Cookies from Brazil. Then, we step into the world of wild chocolate with Rowan Jacobsen. We hear about the new breed of cacao farmers and the amazing flavor profiles found in wild chocolate and meet some of the farmers who are making it. Rowan is the author of Wild Chocolate: Across the Americas in Search of Cacao’s Soul.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

• December 6, 2024 (originally aired)
• December 12, 2025 (rebroadcast)

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This week, we’re taking a trip through the South and its food – how it tells the story of a region shaped by migration, memory, and culture. First, we talk with scholar and writer Michael W. Twitty about his new book, Recipes from the American South, a sweeping look at the many communities – Black, white, Indigenous, immigrant – whose traditions built Southern cooking as we know it. Michael reflects on the histories that define the region and leaves us with his recipe for Maque Choux, the Louisiana classic made of corn and peppers. Then, we turn to writer and filmmaker Deb Freeman for a deeper look at one of the South’s most influential voices: Edna Lewis. Her new PBS documentary, Finding Edna Lewis, traces how Miss Lewis’s rural Virginia roots shaped her cooking and her revolutionary impact on American food. Deb shares why Lewis remains essential today and what we can still learn from her.

Our annual cookbook giveaway is live!  To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbook

Broadcast dates for this episode: 

• December 5, 2025 (originally aired)

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Donate to The Splendid Table today and we will show our appreciation with a special thank-you gift.

Today we have a bonus episode for you from Happier with Gretchen Rubin, featuring our very own Francis Lam. 

Gretchen Rubin is HAPPIER, and she wants you to be happier too. The #1 bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before gets more personal than ever as she brings her practical, manageable advice about happiness and good habits to this lively, thought-provoking podcast. Gretchen’s cohost and guinea pig is her younger sister, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer living in Los Angeles, who (lovingly) refers to Gretchen as her happiness bully.

On this episode of More Happier:

It’s easy to get swept up in a cycle of holidays that feels more like a relentless to-do list than a source of joy. In this Celebration Roundtable, we talk about how to embrace the holidays as opportunities for intentional connection and meaning.

This week, we welcome the cold with delicious soup! Food Stylist Mariana Velásquez Villegas, author of Colombiana: A Rediscovery of Recipes and Rituals from the Soul of Colombia talks us through Colombia's biodiversity and regional identity and the unique foods it inspires like Sancocho. This hearty stew brings people together in a communal dining experience. Be sure to listen to her playlist while preparing it! Then, we talk about Haitian cuisine with award-winning chef Gregory Gourdet as he shares his childhood memories of growing up, commemorating Haitian Independence Day with Soup Joumou, a hearty squash-based soup typically served on New Year's Day. Gregory Gourdet is the chef-owner of Kann in Portland, Oregon, and the author of Everyone's Table. Then, chili sauce entrepreneur Jing Gao, author of The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp, talks about Hot Pot, a zingy broth served in a large metal pot that gets tastier as you feast.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

• January 26, 2024 (originally aired)
• January 17, 2025 (rebroadcast)
• November 28, 2025 (rebroadcast)

Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews!

Our annual cookbook giveaway is live!  To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbook

Celebrate kitchen companionship with a gift to The Splendid Table today.

Join us for Turkey Confidential, our must-listen-to annual Thanksgiving Day broadcast! This year’s guests are Samin Nosrat, author of bestseller Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and Good Things; Brooklyn-based recipe developer Yossy Arefi, author of Snacking Bakes and Snacking Cakes; Vivian Howard, author, TV personality, and chef, known for This Will Make It Taste Good and Deep Run Roots; Evan Kleiman, chef, cookbook author, and host of KCRW’s Good Food. And, of course, Francis!

Broadcast dates for this episode:

• November 27, 2025

Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews!

Generous listeners like you make The Splendid Table possible. Donate today to support the show.

We are a week away from Thanksgiving, and this week, Award-winning authors J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Deb Perelman give us the best advice on making the perfect Thanksgiving spread. From gravy hot takes to best brining practices and the ideal way to cook a perfect turkey we have you covered. J. Kenji López-Alt and Deb Perelman are co-hosts of "The Recipe with Kenji and Deb" podcast. Deb left us her recipe for delicious dinner rolls, Sour Cream & Chive Fantails. Then, we move on to delicious Indian-inspired desserts with cookbook author Hetal Vasavada. Her flavor combinations will transform your typical bars, cookies, and pies into deliciously nutty and sometimes spicy desserts. Hetal is the author of Desi Bakes, and she left us her recipe for Pistachio & Cardamom Muddy Buddies.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

• November 22, 2024 (originally aired)
• November 21, 2025 (rebroadcast)

Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews!

Our annual cookbook giveaway is live!  To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbook

Donate to The Splendid Table today and we will show our appreciation with a special thank-you gift.

This week, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving and looking at the way this American holiday and its food tell our stories. First, we talk with Padma Lakshmi about her new cookbook, Padma’s All American, a celebration of the immigrant dishes and regional traditions that make up our country’s culinary landscape. Padma talks about what she’s learned from years of traveling for Taste the Nation and leaves us with a delicious Thanksgiving alternative for mashed potatoes: Podimas (Potatoes with Turmeric and Fried Lentils). Then, we turn to baker extraordinaire Dorie Greenspan for a sweet addition to the holiday dessert table. Her new book, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes, is filled with unfussy, comforting cakes meant to live on your counter — the kind you slice into whenever the craving strikes. Dorie talks about why simple cakes feel right for the season and leaves us with her Cocoa-Swirled Pumpkin Bundt.

Head to our YouTube channel and watch our interview with Padma Lakshmi. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything!

Our annual cookbook giveaway is live!  To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbook

Broadcast dates for this episode: 

• November 14, 2025 (originally aired)

Celebrate kitchen companionship with a gift to The Splendid Table today.

This week, we’re breaking bread in every sense of the phrase. First, beloved actor Tony Shalhoub joins us to talk about his new CNN series, Breaking Bread, where he travels the world to explore the meaning of bread and how it connects us across cultures and tables. Growing up in a large Lebanese American family in Wisconsin, Tony shares memories of food as a bridge between worlds, from kibbeh and hummus to bratwurst and grilled cheese. Then, we meet Maureen Abood, author of Lebanese Baking, who brings us into the heart of the Lebanese kitchen with recipes and stories that honor tradition and community. She leaves us with her recipe for Za’atar Manakeesh, a beloved flatbread that captures the heart of Lebanese baking: simple, fragrant, and made to share.

Head to our YouTube channel and watch this extended cut of our interview with Tony Shalhoub. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything!

Broadcast dates for this episode: 

• October 31, 2025 (originally aired)

Our annual cookbook giveaway is live!  To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbook

Generous listeners like you make The Splendid Table possible. Donate today to support the show.

Today we have a bonus episode for you, featuring our very own Francis Lam. 

How We Survive is an award-winning podcast from Marketplace about the messy business of climate solutions. From the glitz and glam of Miami, to the punishing Arizona desert, to a sinking island that our national security depends on, every season takes listeners on an adventure. We’re finding the innovative, surprising and occasionally disturbing ways that people are navigating solutions to a changing climate.

In this episode of “How We Survive,” host Amy Scott is joined by “The Splendid Table” host Francis Lam for a cultivated meat taste test. Plus, Francis shares his go-to recipes for climate-friendly proteins.

Deep in the halls of the engineering school at Columbia University, professor Hod Lipson and his former student Jonathan Blutinger are reimagining how meat is made. In 2022, they developed a device that maps the texture of meat.

“It's a machine that can poke steak at a bunch of different points and create these high-fidelity texture maps and see more clearly, you know, the toughness of different parts,” explains Blutinger. Lipson adds, “we tried to capture quantitatively, how hard is it to cut it with a knife? How hard is it to poke it with a fork? How hard is it to chew?” They sold that device to a fake meat company, ReDefine Meat, which 3D prints steak.

It was during this time that Blutinger came up with a framework for thinking about meat: The uncanny valley of meat. “The uncanny valley is, a thought that a Japanese researcher came up with years ago, where the closer we get to mimicking human likeness with robots, the more we tend to be irked by them,” explained Blutinger. He said the same phenomenon happens when we eat fake meat that’s trying to look, taste and feel like the real thing.

“People who are meat eaters are used to the texture, the feeling, the flavor, all the sensory aspects of any meat they've had from the hundreds of thousands of times they've tried it. So as soon as they try something that's trying to mimic that, they're extra cautious,” said Blutinger.

We hear all the time that one of the best things we can do for the climate as individuals is eat less meat. But 3D printed meat alternatives are not on the market in the U.S. yet. So the “How We Survive” team got our hands on another new food tech that some argue could allow people to have their steak and eat it too: Cell cultivated meat (which is real meat grown from cells instead of living, breathing animals).

Does cell cultivated meat pass the uncanny valley?