The Storied Recipe

I’m thrilled to welcome Dr. Mennat-Allah Al Dorry to The Storied Recipe Podcast today. Menna, as she insisted I call her, is an archaeobotanist with a speciality in food and Egyptologist with a speciality in Coptology and the only person in the world to have this combination of qualifications. 

If you’re like me, who had never heard of an archaeobotanist before coming across Menna’s @eatlikeanegyptian account on Instagram, I’ve got good news. Menna is also a professor, so she answers all of my basic questions with clarity and good humor.  

Dr. Al Dorry begins by sharing a cherished family recipe – a layered dish of potatoes, tomatoes, and meat, slow-cooked to perfection in a clay pot, just as her father used to prepare it with Menna’s help on weekend mornings at their farm in the north of Egypt. 

From there, we delve into her fascinating work with “ecofacts”, exploring how - and which - ancient foods have been preserved for thousands of years. Dr. Al Dorry discusses the role of food in daily life for ancient Egyptians and the complex identity of Egyptian cuisine today, why their food traditions are disappearing, and Dr. Al Dorry’s deep commitment to both unearthing Egypt’s ancient food heritage and preserving today’s.

Instagram: @eatlikeanegyptian

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Welcome BACK today to Alison Kay, one of the co-hosts of the Ancestral Kitchen Podcast, who’s here so we can announce a collaboration that I’ll get to in just one minute. 🙂

I learned today that before Alison was the leader of a community intentionally choosing to procure and prepare food in ancestral ways, she was a life coach…

And nothing has ever made more sense than that discovery.

Indeed, in our last episode together, we heard how Alison has gently but resolutely smashed one goal after another in her life, beginning with completely altering her health and body through her relationship with food. We wrapped up our last episode with Alison as she lived her happily ever after as an ex-pat in Italy, cooking spelt sourdough pizza for her husband and child while looking through an enormous picture window at the rolling sunlit hills as far as the eye can see.

But we pick up this episode with Alison, back in the UK, living at her mother-in-law’s house. And here is where Alison proves her fitness for her former career as a life coach. She describes for us today how she lovingly, gently, and still ever so resolutely opened her hands to let go of her own dreams, welcome the dreams of others, and found she had all new dreams of her own, even bigger and better than before. 

We talk today about so many of the big things of life - change, love, dreams, and lovingly and supporting our partners through deep conflicting life philosophies.

Finally, Alison will invite you to share your own ancestral food stories through a new portal on her website. As you’ll hear, Alison feels an urgency to gather, curate, and protect the agricultural and culinary wisdom of our foremothers and forefathers. 

I feel a similar urgency, as I know that, beyond the practical wisdom for our kitchens, every story she collects will contain lessons of love and resilience. So, while Alison curates this repository of practical knowledge, she will also pass along the information of willing participants (and only willing participants, there are strict privacy laws in the UK) to me, so I might explore and share these legacies with you as well. 

With that in mind, I invite you to visit the link to the Ancestral Kitchen website, listed in the show notes - or just go to Ancestral Eatingpodcast.com and you’ll find your way around - see what she’s looking for, and perhaps submit a little (or a long) snippet for her community.

www.AncestralKitchenPodcast.com

Share YOUR Ancestral Stories with Alison here!

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In this episode, I’m joined by Neil Hudson, Co-founder of Scotch Boyz, a brand that’s brought authentic Jamaican flavors to the mainstream American market - and far beyond, as well. 

I initially liked this story of 4 childhood friends coming together to build an international business, all while pouring back into the communities that raised them and Jamaican farms that produce their ingredients. I mean, what’s not to love about that story!?

But just a little ways into our conversation, I grew to like and respect Neil for his own thoughtful insights into business and working with friends, his obvious interest in others, and his understated sense of humor.

We begin by discussing, Curry Goat, a dish not only ubiquitous across Jamaica but also the signature dish made at The Hummingbird, a restaurant owned and operated by Neil’s father. I’m very grateful to Neil and his father for sharing this famous recipe with us, as well as to Neil for the many tips and history lessons he provided about other famous Jamaican dishes, like Jerk and White Rum. 

As the interview goes on, Neil opens up about their branding strategy, the innovative and thoughtful business strategies they’ve used to create strong partnerships with Jamaican farms and buy-in from employees, and finally he shares the fun and exciting story of the HUGE win that allowed their small business to “escape gravity” and skyrocket into the global brand they are now.

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Where every print tells a story.

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The Storied Recipe is a community that believes food is a universal love language. Join for episode & recipe updates every Friday mornings. (And occasional free gifts!)

Today’s guests came to my very favorite way - they were recommended by a listener! 

Megan responded to one of my weekly newsletters, writing, 

There is a couple at my church, Jah and Frances, from Liberia, who are an inspiration.  They are so hospitable and care well for their family...their house always is full of people..  Additionally, their house is a revolving door...they care for elderly relatives, young relatives and basically anyone who needs help.  Once a year they sell food to raise money for a school in Liberia. When they cook for the fundraiser, Jah mans his smoker through the night. Frances has a "famous" potato salad.  

In today’s episode, Frances and Jah shared their love story with us, a great deal about the history of Liberia, including a civil war 30 years ago, that decimated the country, and they hope they find in supporting the Betty Memorial Institute, a boarding school in one of the poorest regions of the country. Here’s what they have to say about the school: 

Currently BMI has more than 200 students and is served by 17 staff members who work tirelessly to provide an education, food and housing in one of the poorest counties in Liberia.

The Betty Memorial Institute (BMI) is the only grade school in Western Liberia that provides both Academic and Vocational Education between the ninth and 12th grades. 

You’ll hear the inspiring story of how this school was started and what it’s accomplished, as well as details about the 3 day cook-a-thon Frances and Jah commit to every December to raise money for the school. And, of course, you’ll hear details about Frances’s famous potato salad. And while many claim to the best, and I’ve tried a LOT of potato salad recipes, this one was unanimously voted by all 6 members of my family to be the best they’ve ever had. 

Welcome again to Frances and Jah. Thank you to Megan for recommending them! If YOU’D like to recommend anyone for the podcast, I’d love to hear from you at becky @ thestoriedrecipe.com. And finally, thank you for being here to hear Frances and Jah’s wholesome, uplifting story!!!!

More about The Betty Memorial Institute

Place an order from The Betty Memorial Institute Annual BBQ!

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Where every print tells a story.

High end prints for your kitchen walls: Download and print immediately.

The Storied Recipe is a community that believes food is a universal love language. Join for episode & recipe updates every Friday mornings. (And occasional free gifts!)

"The waves will keep coming, but you learn to play with them."

Today's guests, Anna and Marco, learned adaptability through their mutual passion: surfing.

This adaptability has allowed them to transition from a carefree surfing lifestyle, marked by ease and minimalism, to a bustling life of parenting two small children and running a thriving surf camp.

Mellowmove Surf Camp is a haven where people can learn to surf and relax. Thanks to Anna and Marco’s hard work and meticulous attention to detail, their guests get to experience a lifestyle of freedom and the rhythm of the tides.

Guests also come, of course, to EAT. Anna's delicious, home-cooked, seasonal, locally-sourced, plant-forward dishes are a highlight. Today, Anna shares a recipe for Kaiserschmarrn with us, an ultra-rich and fluffy torn pancake covered with powdered sugar and served with the homemade applesauce and stewed plums she remembers from her grandmother's pantry. 

Anna has inherited her grandmother’s culinary talent, organizational skills, and values of never wasting food, creating delicious dishes for her guests. As if running a kitchen for 40 isn’t enough, Anna also shares her best dishes, beautifully photographed, on her cooking blog, The Mellow Kitchen. After today’s episode, you’ll want to learn more, so find links to The Mellow Kitchen and Mellowmove Surf Camp in the show notes.

The Mellow Kitchen

Mellowmove Surf Camp

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Where every print tells a story.

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Today’s guest, Geraldine DeRuitter won the James Beard Award for Journalism in 2019 for a post she typed out in about 45 minutes. Before that, her blog The Everywhereist, had already topped Time magazine’s choice of best blogs in America. 

Geraldine’s latest book is titled, If You Can’t Take the Heat: Tales of Feminism, Food, and Fury and having read it in just a few sittings, I’ll add that they are also tales of deep vulnerability which provoked strong responses from me, in the form of scribbled notes in the margins and a list of questions about 4x longer than we were able to discuss. 

Geraldine is on par with the funniest writers I’ve ever read. However, rather than just saying that Geraldine is funny, I really want to say she’s a humorist (if that's a word). While many people are born funny, I'm hoping that calling Geraldine a humorist will give you a sense of just how finely Geraldine has tuned her talent, how sharply she's honed her craft. Not only did I laugh out loud throughout the book, but the angrier parts were sharper, the sad parts were sadder, and the (rare) sentimental parts touched me even more deeply because of Geraldine’s wit and humor. 

In addition to all of this, Geraldine gave me, hands down, the hardest recipe I’ve ever made (and if you’ve been following this podcast for a while, you know I’m not afraid of a challenge)! Although we had to discuss the recipe in a later call, I’m beginning the interview with our discussion of Nesselrode Pie, which I’m happy to share was a total success, technically and taste-wise. Friends arrived for dinner just as I finished photographing the pie. They all enjoyed a piece before dinner (since, obviously, dinner was running late, and there were plates full of pie in front of them.) The fact that they also gratefully accepted another piece after dinner tells you all you need to know about this creamy, boozy, vintage cherry pie!

The Everywhereist Blog

If You Can't Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury

Sally's Baking Addiction Guide to Blind Baking Pie Crusts

Pastrys by Ava Video on Making Italian Meringue

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Where every print tells a story.

High end prints for your kitchen walls: Download and print immediately.

The Storied Recipe is a community that believes food is a universal love language. Join for episode & recipe updates every Friday mornings. (And occasional free gifts!)

If you are reading these show notes in a podcast player, click here to visit The Storied Recipe website and see the photo gallery of my private tour of Auerbachs Keller.

I have never had as much fun putting together an episode as I did with this onsite tour and interview of the famous Auerbachs Keller in Leipzig, Germany.

Auerbachs Keller will celebrate 500 years of continuously serving guests next year, in 2025.

What began as a small wine celler in the basement of Dr. Heinrich Stromer's home in 1525, became the inspiration to one of the greatest works of literature in the world (Goethe's The Tragedy of Faust), host to one of the most significant religious figures since Christ (Martin Luther), and has maintained close ties to one of the oldest and most influential universities in Europe, the University of Leipzig.

Join me on the tour (below) and listen in to my conversation with Mr. Bakhtari, a representative of the restaurant, who grew up in Morocco, speaks 6 languages, and had so much to teach me about the legends and history of the restaurant!!

Live music wafts through the open seating in the middle of the square. The tables are surrounded by stalls selling beer and sausages. The tower of this town hall has great significance to one of Auerbach Keller's most famous guests, Martin Luther.

In fact, it was on this exact spot in 1519 that Luther and fellow reformers debated in the Leipzig Disputation. Although far less famous than the dispute of Heidelberg in 1518, historians say it was after the Leipzig dispute that a split between the Roman Catholic Church and a new Protestant church was inevitable. This old town hall was built on the foundation of the Pleissenburg Castle where the great debate took place - and this very tower was preserved from the original castle.

It wasn't until the 1800s that owners at Auerbachs Keller realized that the waiters in their wine cellar were constantly running out to the nearby square to buy food for patrons - and all that money could stay in their establishment if they started a restaurant!

You'll see Faust's left show (to your right, in the photo) is shiny from being continually rubbed for good luck.

Painterly photograph of iconic pines in Saxon Switzerland National Park. Download for print immediately.

Photographed during a 2024 May trip to Germany.

Prints are downloadable to allow you maximum flexibility in size and product. I always recommend Mpix.com for printing. Mpix uses ...

While the men may never have met, every evening Auerbach Keller's dining area is filled with those who have a fascination with the devil seated side by side with those who revere the devout reformer, Martin Luther.

The painter recreated the Fasskeller room, which was my favorite room in the restaurant, and most similar to how the first wine celler looked.

This painting deepened the legends around Faust and his relationship with the German demon, Mephisto.

Almost 150 years later, as a student at University of Leipzig, Goethe generally accepted as Germany's greatest contributor to world literature, frequented the already famous wine cellar. This very painting inspired his play Faust, A Tragedy.

The work is written almost entirely in rhyme, and cemented the legends of Faust and the fame of Auerbachs Keller.

This witch greets one on the cramped staircase on the way down and its impossible to descend without brushing up against her.

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Where every print tells a story.

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The Storied Recipe is a community that believes food is a universal love language. Join for episode & recipe updates every Friday mornings. (And occasional free gifts!)

This is the story of a Holocaust survivor. It is a complicated story, with layers of historical and political realities I had no idea of before this interview, reminding us story is different than a simple narrative - and that we can never assume someone’s story without actually listening to them. 

And Regina’s story is actually two stories of two families - both Greek, one Jewish and one not. It is a story of survival, yes, and it is also a story about of sacrifice, love, and gratitude. 

After you listen - tell me - do not these things not leave a legacy that is greater and more enduring than acts of hate and destruction? 

And as for Regina’s recipe - Greek Koulourakia are an orange cookie right on the crumbly line between a cookie and a pastry. Regina’s family never had a home without a jar of these cookies - even when her uncle was in the hospital long-term. You’ll definitely want to hear all of Regina’s tips and tricks for making these and look in the show notes for a link to the recipe on The Storied Recipe website.

Thank you, so very much, Regina, for sharing your story today - and thank you, listeners, for being here. 

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Where every print tells a story.

High end prints for your kitchen walls: Download and print immediately.

The Storied Recipe is a community that believes food is a universal love language. Join for episode & recipe updates every Friday mornings. (And occasional free gifts!)

Did you know coffee blossoms smell sweet and heady, like a citrus or Jasmine blossom? I certainly did not know that - or dozens of facts shared by today’s guest, Accamma Nanjappa, owner of Bean Song Coffee, which ships internationally from India. 

If you recognize this guests’s name - yes! She was last week’s guest, also. In that episode she shared more about Puthari, the harvest festival all Kodavites celebrate in the high, rolling, forested hills of Kodava. Our conversation was so long, we cut it into two!

Today, we are talking ALL things coffee, particularly the coffee she sells under the label Bean Song Coffee. Her delicious beans and blends are sourced from her hometown and also from the birthplace of coffee in India.

Thank you Accamma for another incredibly informative interview - and thank you all for being here! Make sure you check below for all the links to follow Bean Song Coffee!!

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Where every print tells a story.

High end prints for your kitchen walls: Download and print immediately.

The Storied Recipe is a community that believes food is a universal love language. Join for episode & recipe updates every Friday mornings. (And occasional free gifts!)

Soft, subtle, elegant, and so...

I think the best way to introduce to you today’s guest, Accamma Nanjappa, is to read an excerpt of her recipe submission. 

She says, “It must be noted that the Kodavas or the people of Coorg are not just warriors, but are also children of nature. Hence all our major festivals are celebrations of nature. And what is a celebration without food?”

Today Accamma takes us far, far away into the high hills and deep forests of Kodagu, where the Kodava people still observe ancient traditions around the cycle of sowing, planting, and harvesting. In addition to educating me on the language and history of the Kodavas, Accamma shares very personal memories of celebratory nights spent on her family’s plantation marking the harvest of first rice, then coffee, mandarins, and black pepper. 

As for Accamma’s Storied Recipe, this is the first time a guest ever gave me a recipe that began with the instructions, “Make the flour”! However, as Accamma walked me through the process of making Thambuttu, which, in her words is like gluten-free, unbaked thick banana (covered with ghee, nutty unhulled sesame seeds, and fresh coconut shavings), I grew much more confident - and, of course, learned a lot too. I mean, did you know you could turn rice into a flour in just 20 minutes? I didn’t!

Two more quick notes:

But more on that later - for now, Welcome Accamma and thank you all for being here!

Visit the BeanSong Website

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Where every print tells a story.

High end prints for your kitchen walls: Download and print immediately.

The Storied Recipe is a community that believes food is a universal love language. Join for episode & recipe updates every Friday mornings. (And occasional free gifts!)

Soft, subtle, elegant, and so...