Food: The Ultimate Personality Test

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

American Public Media

Food, Arts

4.3 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2001

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Remember that adage "tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are?" According to neurologist Alan Hirsch, M.D., Director of the Smell & Taste Treatment Research Foundation in Chicago and author of Dr. Hirsch's Guide to Scentsational Weight Loss, the notion might not be so far fetched. In his research on snack food, Dr. Hirsch discovered there are physiological reasons why our food preferences reveal our personality, so be discreet the next time you reach for a potato chip instead of a cheese curl. Someone could be watching.

We'll visit California's wine country where Jane and Michael Stern are having breakfast at the Diner in Yountville. On down the road, we stop in at the French Laundry Restaurant, which has been called the most exciting place to eat in America, to meet legendary chef Thomas Keller. This week's recipe, "Clam Chowder" Sautéed Cod with Cod Cakes and Parsley Oil, comes from Chef Keller's French Laundry Cookbook, which recently won the IACP Cookbook of the Year award.

We'll take a cheese discovery vacation to France with Steve Jenkins, and Master of Wine Mary Ewing Mullingan drops by to talk Chilean wines. Lynne's found a good mail-order source for organic peaches and nectarines so we suspect she's whipping up Bellinis these days. It's the season, after all.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

July 22, 2000 (originally aired)
April 7, 2001 (rebroadcast)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Our common nature is a musical journey with Yo-Yo Ma and me, Ana Gonzalez, through this complicated country.
0:08.1	We go into caves, onto boats, and up mountain trails to meet people, hear their stories, their poetry, and of course, play some music, all to reconnect to nature and get closer to the things we're missing.
0:24.4	Listen to Our Common Nature from WNYC, wherever you get podcasts.
0:30.4	It's Lynn Rosetta, Casper, with the splendid table. If your significant other craves pretzels and you go for tortilla chips, you may be heading for trouble.
0:49.0	Sounds like funk, right?
0:50.7	Well, evidently, it's real science.
0:53.1	According to our guest today, neurologist Dr.
0:55.7	Alan Hirsch, our choice of snack foods does reveal our personalities. He's neurologic director
1:02.0	of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. Jane and Michael Stern
1:07.4	are gnawing in the Napa Valley, down the road at the French laundry restaurant we meet renowned chef Thomas Keller.
1:14.6	Cheese Maven Steve Jenkins wants us to take a cheese vacation, and Master of Wine, Mary Ewing Mulligan, talks the wines of Chile.
1:23.4	All this and your calls coming up on this splendid table.
1:26.9	But first, this.
1:34.5	It's Lynn Rosetta-Casper with Kitchen Chronicles,
1:37.5	where knowledge is power and cooking is pleasure,
1:40.8	a practical guide to nourishing ourselves and the people we care about.
1:45.4	I was thinking the other day about how at this time of year you don't need to do much to foods.
1:51.6	So many things taste great raw or barely cooked.
1:55.5	If you use too much heat or too many ingredients, you hide the incredible goodness of things like prime tomatoes
2:02.6	or melons or nectarine or corn.
2:05.6	But there are flavoring tricks, ways to accent what is already good and some ways to
2:12.6	liven up and brighten the tastes of things that just might be a little dull.
	...

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