Hey, it's Francis. With the holiday season upon us, I am reminded of how grateful I am for

the fans of the splendid table. You share your time with us and in return, you know, we try to

provide you with a friendly, curious, and helpful voice in the kitchen. We're a community, you know?

And I can't wait to share this year's Turkey Confidential with you. It's our annual event.

The tradition we're super proud of. And you can help us keep this tradition going strong for

years to come. Donate today in support of this public media podcast. Go to SplendidTable.org,

slash donate now. Give a little bit, give what you can, and thank you so much.

I'm Francis Lamb and you're listening to the Splendid Table from APM.

Okay, so you might not expect a little restaurant in Oxford, Mississippi,

but be completely unassuming name of snack bar to have one of the most interesting menus in all

of America. I mean, the place is in a strip mall next to a seers and a YMCA. It started out

serving great French-Bestro classics and Louisiana Creole food and now has things like Punjabi style,

fried catfish, and okra chat next to the French onion soup. And that's because the owner,

John Perens turned the kitchen over to the Vishwesh Bhatt. Vish grew up in Gagrat, India before moving

to Texas and then Mississippi for school. He fell in love with the food and everything changed after

that. Vish won a James Beard Award for Best Chef South of years ago and has a new cookbook written

with Sarah Kent Milen called I Am From Here. So hey Vish, great to see you. Hey Francis, thanks for

having me on. Man, this is a dream come true. You got dream bigger than this, but thank you.

Well congratulations on the book. It looks super terrific. I'm really excited about it. And I actually

want to start, let's start from the very beginning. You know, like I know you grew up in Gujarat,

India, spending a lot of time in the markets with your dad and in the kitchen with your mom.

But tell us how you got your start cooking professionally.

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