810: Đặc Biệt with Nini Nguyen and The Authentic Ukrainian Kitchen with Yevhen Klopotenko

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

American Public Media

Arts, Food

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we talk with two incredible chefs about their culinary connections to their homes. First, chef Nini Nguyen talks about growing up in New Orleans and her connection to her tight-knit Vietnamese community. She shares the delicious Vietnamese foods she grew up eating and talks about how that upbringing shapes her cooking today, Nini is the author of Đặc Biệt: An Extra-Special Vietnamese Cookbook, and she leaves with her recipe for Grilled Rice Paper. Then, we head to Ukraine with chef Yevhen Klopotenko to talk about his work rediscovering traditional Ukrainian dishes that were once suppressed under Soviet rule. He tells us about his work, providing recipes online that have reached thousands of schools and getting traditional recipes like Borsch, finally recognized as Ukrainian. Yevhen is the author of The Authentic Ukrainian Kitchen, and he left us with his recipe for Syrnyky, delicious Farmer cheese pancakes.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

September 13, 2024 (originally aired)

Donate to The Splendid Table today and we will show our appreciation with a special thank-you gift.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The Splendit table is supported by our friends at The Incredible Egg, who challenge you to break a few eggs to make great things happen.
0:06.0	If you're under a time crunch, and many of us are this time of year, eggs can be a great solution for quick fix meals.
0:12.0	This month's contest is all about egg recipes that are simple and make your life on the go a little easier.
0:17.6	Enter your creative recipe and you may win a made in six-piece stainless professional quality non-stick pan set and three cookbooks to set you
0:26.2	on your way.
0:27.5	Get to it and stick around as Chef Nelson Serrano Barry joins me later with more details. I'm Francis Lamb and this is the Gulf Coast of Mississippi driving over to New Orleans, like every
0:55.8	chance we could get. And, you know, the whole region was devastated and so much of it emptied
1:00.8	out, but so many of the people who came back bonded right away in the community to rebuild their homes and
1:07.3	neighborhoods and I'll never forget when I heard the amazing story that one of the very first
1:12.1	neighborhoods in New Orleans to get its power turned
1:14.6	back on. Wasn't the famous French Quarter or the wealthy garden district, but an immigrant
1:20.2	Vietnamese village miles east of the center city on a stretch of highway that runs
1:25.1	through the swamp. It's called Versailles, and the reason when they were able to
1:28.7	come back online so quickly was because they were such a tight-knit organized community.
1:33.7	They all came right back home to start their rebuild.
1:36.7	They organized and showed the power company they were back and working.
1:40.4	And before too long, the vegetables that they had always grown for themselves became the local produce that chefs who are so proud of the food of their home
1:57.4	places that show extraordinary strength and resilience and beauty and their food tells those stories.
2:04.7	Later in the show we'll talk with Yevin Klopotenko who's leading the movement to
2:09.2	rediscover what Ukrainian cuisine really is after decades of being whitewashed under Soviet rule.
2:16.6	And first, we're going to talk with the daughter of Versailles, that New Orleans Vietnamese community
2:21.6	I was telling you about.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from American Public Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of American Public Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.