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

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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)

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This week, we talk about comfort food around the world. First, Yotam Ottolenghi tells us about his latest book, which is filled with recipes for his favorite comfort foods. He talks about what it is about specific dishes that evoke emotional reactions, from taste to texture to memory like his recipe for “Thousand” Hole Pancake. Yotam’s latest book is Ottolenghi Comfort written with his collaborators Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller, and Tara Wigley. Then, Luisa Weiss joins us to talk about her deep connection to German food. Growing up between Berlin and the US, she tells us about her favorite hot school lunches, (which are famous in German culture!), “low key dinners” known as abendbrot, and the influences German dishes have gleaned from other countries. Luisa is the author of Classic German Cooking, and she leaves us with her recipe for Käsespätzle, Swabian Noodles with Mountain Cheese and Caramelized Onions.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

• November 8, 2024 (originally aired)
• November 7, 2025 (rebroadcast)

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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?

Cookbook season is back, and we talk to the authors of some of our favorite picks. We're joined by Carolina Gelen, who talks to us about learning how to cook, her favorite Romanian dishes, and how she comes up with her signature recipes like Butter Beans alla Vodka, a fast, one-pot dish inspired by the famous vodka pasta sauce. Carolina is the author of Pass the Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Sharable, Everyday Recipes. Then, Sonoko Sakai tells us how to “wafu” our food! Wafu means Japanese in style, and Sonoko takes familiar dishes and adds a little Japanese flair. Check out her recipe for her Pasta with Miso Bolognese Sauce. Sonoko is the author of Wafu Cooking: Everyday Recipes with Japanese Style. Then, Jody Eddy talks to us about the incredible food she found and cooked in religious communities around the world. She walks us through some of her favorite recipes, from condiments and Chicken soup in Tibet to a recipe she learned from a Minnesotan monastery, Honey Glazed Turkey Tinga. Jody's book is Elysian Kitchens: Recipes Inspired by the Traditions and Tastes of the World's Sacred Space.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

• October 25, 2024 (originally aired)
• October 24, 2025 (rebroadcast)

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 diving into Italian cooking, from the Pacific Northwest to the Bronx. First, chef and author Joshua McFadden joins us to talk about Six Seasons of Pasta, his love letter to everyone’s favorite food. Known for his hit cookbook Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, Joshua brings that same seasonal sensibility to pasta, pairing local produce with traditional Italian technique, and shares his recipe for Nut Ragu. Then, Bronx-born chef Christian Petroni takes us into the heart of Italian American cooking with his debut cookbook, Parm to Table. From chicken cutlets to clams casino, he celebrates the cozy red-sauce dishes that define Sunday dinners across America and leaves us with his Chicken Scarpariello recipe.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

• October 17, 2025 (originally aired)

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 sit down with two chefs at the top of their craft. First, we talk to legendary baker Richard Hart about the inspiration behind his new book, Richard Hart Bread: Intuitive Sourdough Baking. He fills us in on why he thinks that humble bakers are the best bakers, how he really is just a simple “yeast farmer” and he shares his realistic thoughts on how to keep a sourdough starter. Check out his amazing recipe for Rye Wrapped in Fig Leaves. Then, we talk with chef Ashleigh Shanti about her connection to Southern food, from its complex regional histories to the culinary traditions of her beloved Appalachia. She leaves us with her take on a classic green bean recipe, Leather Britches. Ashleigh is the author of Our South: Black Food Through My Lens and owns Asheville’s Good Hot Fish.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

• October 11, 2024 (originally aired)
• October 10, 2025 (rebroadcast)

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.