The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters

This week we’re joined by some unusual thinkers on the art of the cookout. First, we get a lesson on barbecue etiquette (who knew) with our favorite duo, Nick Leighton and Leah Bonnema, Hosts of the podcast Were You Raised by Wolves? We get all kinds of tips, from the right way to ask for a family recipe to taking a house tour only if offered by your host. Then, Chefs Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich share their techniques and ideas for cooking over live fire. Their latest book is Chasing Smoke, Cooking Over Fire Around the Levant, and they left us with their recipe for Grilled Peaches with Almond Tahini and Charred Endive. Then, it’s pitmaster Pat Martin talking about the whole hog barbecue culture in West Tennessee and how that whole hog style and tradition of BBQ may be on the path to extinction. His latest book is Life of Fire: Mastering the Arts of Pit Cooked Barbecue, the Grill, and the Smokehouse. You can find his recipe for Grilled Green Beans with Memphis Dry Rub.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

July 29, 2022 (originally aired)
July 28, 2023 (rebroadcast)
August 7, 2026 (rebroadcast)

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You’re listening to The Splendid Table's special podcast series, Road Tripping. This week, we are off to Korea with Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard on how Korean cuisine has taken the world by storm.

This week, we turn up the ovens and test our baking skills with two incredible bakers. First, we talk to LA-based cookbook author and star baker, Nicole Rucker, on why summer is peak pie season, the fruit and flavor combinations that elevate her pies (imagine toasted fig leaves!) and making the best out of her leftover cookies for pie crusts. Nicole's latest book is Fat and Flour: The Art of the Simple Bake, and she left us with her Strawberry White Chocolate Cream Pie recipe. Then, Iowa's champion baker Eileen Gannon, talks to us about her surprising baking techniques for cakes, from making moister cakes, fillings vs frostings, and her buttercream preferences. Eileen is the winner of over 600 state and national baking awards and the founder of Sunday Night Foods Sauces.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

August 8, 2025 (originally aired)
July 31, 2026 (rebroadcast)

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This summer we’re bringing you a road trip series, exploring food destinations and cuisines with the writers and storytellers who know them best.

This week, we revisit a conversation from one of our Live shows in Orange County, CA, where we talked with the good people behind some of the best barbecue and purveyors of Vietnamese tacos in California, to find out why you really, really want to eat in Orange County. For this road-tripping series, we wanted to highlight our conversation with award-winning journalist Gustavo Arellano.

This week, it’s vacation daydreaming. First, award-winning food writer Georgina Hayden talks to us about her Greek Cypriot upbringing, growing up above her family’s taverna, and how the family business shaped her love of food. She describes her favorite Mediterranean dishes from Tomatoey Greek Greens to Mbakbaka, slow-cooked spiced beef with pasta cooked in the stew. Georgina Hayden is the award-winning author of many books, including Greekish, and her latest is Medesque: Everyday Recipes with Mediterranean Roots. She left us with the recipe for a summer tomato celebration, Trampo. Then, we head to the bright cities of Scandinavia with author and chef Nichole Accettola. Nichole takes us through the beauty of seasonal cooking and local harvests, and how simple it is to make stellar Scandinavian dishes at home. Nichole is the author of Scandinavian Everyday: Vibrant, Simple Meals from Northern Europe, and she leaves us with an unusual recipe to use on the season's fresh berries, Red Fruit Soup.

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Broadcast dates for this episode:

July 24, 2026 (originally aired)

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