The Warmest Room in the House

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

American Public Media

Arts, Food

4.3 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2009

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week it's a look at the American kitchen—from the sanitized scientific outpost of yesteryear to today's family-oriented center of cherry cabinets, granite countertops and culinary toys galore. Our guest is Steven Gdula, author of The Warmest Room in the House: How the Kitchen Became the Heart of the Twentieth-Century American Home. Who but the Sterns would have found a snack cake worth a journey? It's the Twinkie of Michael's dreams at Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, California.

Wine expert Joshua Wesson is back and he's talking Grüner Veltliner, the centerpiece of Austria's wine industry. Greg Patent tells how he tracked the great recipes of America's immigrant families while researching his latest book A Baker's Odyssey. He shares a recipe for Fatayar, a Lebanese lamb and onion pie.

Professor of German Chris Wickham fills us in on Food in the Arts, a symposium of academics from around the world at the University of Texas at San Antonio. We'll hear the story of New Orleans jazz man Kermit Ruffins and his band called the BBQ Swingers, and Lynne shares the seafood websites that keep her in the loop about environmental and health concerns and fish that's okay to eat.

Broadcast dates for this episode:

February 23, 2008 (originally aired)
May 30, 2009 (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.
0:29.7	This public radio podcast is supported by the Fetzer Institute as part of its campaign for love and forgiveness.
0:36.3	Online at love and forgive.org.
0:43.3	Hi, it's Lynne Rosetta, Casper, and you're listening to The Splendid Table,
0:47.1	the show for People Who Love to Eat.
0:49.8	Our program is produced by American Public Media and supported by room and board,
0:54.6	handcrafted furniture for your home at room and board.com.
0:58.7	Well, today it's the American Kitchen, from the old dream of a sanitized scientific outpost
1:04.1	to today's fantasy of a family center of cherry cabinets and granite countertops.
1:09.6	Our guest is Stephen Godula.
1:11.3	His book is The Warmest Room in the House,
1:14.2	how the Kitchen became the heart of the 20th century American home.
1:18.7	Well, Wine Maverick Joshua Wesson explains Austria's newly rediscovered white,
1:24.2	it's called Grunna Weltliner,
1:26.3	baking authority Greg Patent tracks immigrant
1:29.1	baking in America. And then food studies get their credentials. It's a conference on food
1:34.6	in the arts at the University of Texas. And as always in the second half of the show, we're going
1:39.4	to be opening the lines for your calls. Now, you can get to us at 800, 537-52-52. So let's roll with Jane and Michael
1:48.0	Stern. They write the road food column in Gourmet Magazine. Lynn, we want to talk about snack cakes.
2:03.0	Twinkies, for example.
	...

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