820: Cooking Questions with Lisa Donovan and We The Pizza with Muhammad Abdul-Hadi

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

American Public Media

Food, Arts

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, food columnist for The New York Times Magazine, Lisa Donovan, joins us to talk about what she's been cooking up recently and help answer our listeners' kitchen conundrums, from making the best tomato paste despite out-of-season tomatoes to using unsweetened chocolate in baking recipes. Lisa is the author of the memoir Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger, and she leaves us with a recipe for a lovely Tarte Tatin to add to our repertoire. Then, we head over to Philadelphia, where we meet the founder and owner of Down North Pizza, Muhammad Abdul-Hadi. Muhammad tells us about his mission-driven restaurant dedicated to helping formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives. Muhammad's new cookbook is We The Pizza: Slangin’ Pies, and Savin’ Lives and he leaves us with his signature pizza sauce recipe, Norf Sauce.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

February 7, 2025 (originally aired)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Splendium Table was supported by Vitamix. You know, there are some essential cooking tools that have spanned generations, cross continents, and found their way into kitchens around the world. I'm thinking of the cast iron pam, the rolling pin, the mortar and pestle. But all of those were innovations at one point, and the high-powered Vitamix blender takes its place in that pantheon.
0:23.2	Vitamix blenders are incredible for whatever you like to cook. From soups to maranades,
0:28.0	the sorbets, Vitamix blenders are built for versatility and endurance. Only the essential at Vitamix.com.
0:37.4	Support for this show comes from OnePassword.
0:40.6	If you're an IT or security pro, managing devices, identities, and applications can feel
0:46.6	overwhelming and risky. Trellica by OnePassword helps conquer SaaS sprawl and shadow
0:52.6	IT by discovering every app your team uses, managed or not.
0:57.3	Take the first step to better security for your team.
1:00.7	Learn more at onepassword.com slash podcast offer.
1:05.3	That's onepassword.com slash podcast offer, all lowercase.
1:14.6	Music word.com slash podcast offer. All lowercase. I'm Francis Lamb, and this is the splendid table from APL.
1:26.8	Sometimes food means more than just the food.
1:31.0	In North Philadelphia, there's a pizzeria that is maybe the most innovative and I might say the most important pizza shop I've ever come across.
1:39.0	It's called Down North Pizza and its founder, Mohamed Abdul-Hadi, says the point of the place is to sling pies and save
1:46.4	lives. He means it literally. In his community, two-thirds of people who come home from prison
1:52.3	end up back in prison, largely because they come home to situations with no money, no resources,
1:58.6	and no jobs. He started the restaurant specifically to hire only
2:03.3	formerly incarcerated people. He's the author of a new cookbook, too, because the pies are really
2:08.4	just that good. It's called Weed the Pizza, and we'll catch up with him later on in the show.
2:15.6	But first, we're going to talk with my good friend Lisa Donovan.
2:19.5	Lisa is a terrific pastry chef who's worked in some of the most respected restaurants in the
2:24.6	South.
	...

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