Al Roker: Turkey Dreams and 30 Rock Lunches

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio

Milk Street Radio

Food, Arts

4.4 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Al Roker is back on Milk Street with family recipes and television stories to share. He recalls celebrity-filled lunches at the NBC commissary and the holiday meal he dreamt of while recovering from surgery. Plus, Ben Mims reveals the secret history of cookies; Grant Barrett and Martha Barnette of “A Way With Words” express holiday gratitude with food-themed compliments; and we prepare Cantonese Sweet-and-Sour Pork.

Get our recipe for Cantonese Sweet-and-Sour Pork here.

Listen to Milk Street Radio on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Christopher Kimball. In our new special episode, we get the true taste of Wisconsin
0:08.9	cheese. Master Cheesemaker Marika Penderman tells the story of the cheese that changed her life.
0:15.0	Our mature Gouda actually won the U.S. Championship in 2013, so we were the grand master of the grand champion.
0:22.6	Plus we meet a kitchen witch. She reads my fortune with a piece of cheddar.
0:27.6	So hold your cheese in your hand so I can look at it.
0:29.6	No one has ever said to me, hold your cheese in your hands so I can look at it.
0:33.6	I don't know that I believe that.
0:34.6	And I take audience questions with James Beard Award winning chef, Tori Miller.
0:38.9	Best grilled cheese, dukes mayonnaise and butter.
0:41.4	Manease on one side, toast it.
0:43.2	Butter on the other side, toast that.
0:45.0	Use American cheese and don't be bougie.
0:47.7	But then put bougie cheese with American cheese.
0:51.9	That's all in our new special episode made in collaboration with Wisconsin cheese.
0:57.1	Listen to Milk Street Radio wherever you get your podcasts.
1:04.0	Which brand of chocolate should I buy for my kitchen?
1:06.8	Well, I've been asked that a million times over the years, and here's my answer, Gattard.
1:11.2	It's been around since 1868 and its family owned.
1:14.8	They have over 150 years experience in making chocolate for pastry chefs, artisan bakers,
1:20.3	chocolatiers, and, of course, home bakers.
1:22.6	Gattard prioritizes flavor and quality.
1:25.5	Now, what does that look like?
	...

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