I'm Francis Lamb and this is the splendid table from APF. So, I'm So many years ago I taught a class to college students that I called how being a

better cook can make you a better writer and basically it was about the fact that, you know, as you learn to cook,

you'll learn to see more and more details in what you're doing and what the food's doing

and, you know, one of the things that makes for better writing is that ability to see details and to bring them out.

It gets the whole, you know, you can see the whole world in a grain of sand thing.

And today, we've got a show that's all about taking something that seems

straightforward and learning to look inside it to see much more. And maybe that all

sounds a bit abstract but it'll be tasty I promise. We have flavor

scientist Ariel Johnson talking about her fantastic new book,

Flavor Rama, a guide to unlocking the arts and science of flavor. And first we have one of the most dedicated chroniclers of the chef world that I know of. Andrew Friedman. For more than 20 years he's written with and about chefs and what makes them tick,

but his new book called The Dish shines a light on a wider world.

He takes a single dish from one night in a restaurant

and tells the story of all the people who had to come together

to bring diners just that one plate of food.

Hey Andrew, it's great to see you.

Francis, great to see you. Francis, great to see you.

Thank you for having me.

Now it's a pleasure.

So you know you've written about chefs and the culture of restaurant chefs for a long time.

I think you've written or co-written over a three-year year. on plus a podcast. So how did you get into this subject?

Well, as they say, it happened quite by accident.

The quick version is that,

...