801: Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking with Von Diaz and My Life in Recipes, Food, Family and Memories with Joan Nathan

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

American Public Media

Arts, Food

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We are looking at food stories from different cultures this week. First, documentarian and journalist Von Diaz joins us to talk about her latest book, Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking. She writes about island cuisine from all over the world and talks about her academic field research, the connections she feels when she is on an island, and the unique dishes she cooked and tasted for her book research. She found commonality among the islands in their cooking techniques, from grilling to smoking and marinating, and shares a delicious, iconic island recipe for CHamoru Barbecue Chicken with Juanita’s Fina’denne’. Then, best-selling author and Jewish food authority Joan Nathan joins us to talk about her latest book, a memoir My Life in Recipes, Food, Family and Memories. Joan chronicles her start in food, the people she met along the way, her passion for elevating the home cook and her devotion to the regular ritual of sitting down together for a meal.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

April 5, 2024 (originally aired)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Frances Lamb and this is the splendid table from 8 p.m.
0:07.0	Here we have on the show today two guests who are at very different stages of
0:17.8	their careers and lives have focused on different subjects and views different media, but they have something deep in common.
0:27.0	Joan Nathan is a living legend in the culinary world.
0:30.3	Her 11 previous books, going back to 1975 have almost all focused on the intricacies and global influence and reach of Jewish cuisine.
0:40.5	And her latest is a culinary memoir. It's about herself, called My Life and
0:46.0	recipes, where she narrates her own story.
0:49.2	Nervyn Diaz is a documentarian, a radio editor, a teacher, and a journalist, and she started her book writing career
0:56.5	with a memoir cookbook called Coconuts and Collards about her upbringing as a Puerto Rican woman in Georgia.
1:03.4	But what they both share absolutely in common
1:06.6	is that they both find the most important stories in food,
1:10.1	not on the tables of grand restaurants,
1:12.0	but in the homes and lives of regular people.
1:15.9	They interview, they cook with, they connect, and they document the cooking and kitchen lives
1:21.1	of anyone from an activist in Guam to the mayor of Jerusalem.
1:26.0	I feel like the kindred spirits in the way that they work and I'm so glad to bring these
1:30.4	guests to you today. We're going to start with Von and her new book East Los, a
1:37.0	celebration of tropical cooking. You know first I have to tell you that this is one of
1:41.6	the most gorgeous cookbooks I have laid my hands on in a while and you just have to see it and take off the jacket and flip through it.
1:48.0	And you know, certainly when you think of the places it covers, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Seychelles, and more,
1:55.5	you think of beautiful scenery and island vibes. And the book gets you there for sure in mood and look.
2:03.4	But of course, Vaughn goes deeper on the stories and the history.
	...

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