The Splendid Table
In the past few years, Americans have become more interested in the origins of food – both ethnically and regionally – and now all prejudices about American cuisine can be forgotten. As much pleasure in cooking and eating as well as ideas and practical wisdom as in The Splendid Table is nowhere to be found in the European gourmet routine. In 2017, Francis Lam, with his ringing laugh, took over the American Public Media podcast from Lynne Rossetto Kasper, both now legends of food writing. Lam comes from a Chinese family and interviews female chefs and cookbook authors from different backgrounds about the food they grew up with. You’ll learn how to handle okra, or nixtamalized flour, along with different stories of migration: that of the people and that of the food in America. It turns out that there are also struggles for recognition in the food scene for the traditions of Afro-American and other marginalized cuisines. But above all, Lam answers questions from the audience with professionals from all kitchens. It then becomes so concrete that if you listen while you cook, you will sometimes change your plans. Marie Schmidt
Toast Hawaii
“You are what you eat” – and one can add: “even what you don’t eat”. Eating habits are part of identity, both are more differentiated today than ever before. But Bettina Rust declines in Toast Hawaii not about nutritional trends from vegan to paleo. Her conversations with celebrities in the cultural world venture deeper. Although only questions about the food are asked, Rust manages to lure her guests into intimate introspection and funny confessions. Because quail bean stew, bizarre table rituals and the obsession with kitchen gadgets are about more: childhood and friendship, longing and attempts at differentiation. There is, for example, Ronja von Rönne, for whom hotness is a means of wresting herself from depressive agony. Or Johann König, whose puristic character is reflected in his preference for water. But there is also Heinz Strunk, who reveals that he does not like to talk about food, but prefers to talk about his red four-slot toaster. The podcast psychologizes social issues here and there in a kitchen-psychological way. But every story leaves a subtle taste that points to the big picture of our time. Without spoiling the listening experience with hasty diagnoses. Julia Wertman
Spilled Milk
Actually, this is a historical podcast. The comedians and authors Molly Wizenberg and Matthew Amster-Burton have been producing since 2010 Spilled Milk, long before the big hype that spawned so many podcasts that in some Berlin and New York media circles it is now impossible to find anyone without their own podcast. The fact that this early podcast is just that – two people talking, Stream of Consciousness, about the primal human passion for food – shows once again the simple magic of the medium. In more than 550 episodes to date, the very Francophile Molly and Matthew, son of a cookbook collector, take on less dishes than ingredients, specific products and food situations. Why are honey hazelnuts the perfect snack when traveling by plane? How did curry become an immensely popular dish in Japan? How much salinity has demi sel Butter in France? There aren’t always direct answers here, but you can google that, and you’ll get them served as little bites between hours of entertaining conversation. Aurelie von Blazekovic
Teller Stories
Episode 28: the 80s. Tina Hüttl from the Berlin newspaper and Johannes Paetzold from Radioeins have been telling the story for quite some time and up until this summer Teller Stories, surf casually through the foam of their topics without diving deep, and like to get tangled up in the babble flow, backed by cool music. The practical value is manageable, but that’s not the point (apart from a Berlin gastronomic review), it’s about – quite good – stories, the own of the two moderators and those of guests. With regard to the 80s, you learn funny things like that of Eckart Witzigmann, who smuggled in crème fraîche from France in the trunk because it didn’t exist in Germany yet. In France, meanwhile, Paul Bocuse invented nouvelle cuisine, in the GDR there was seasoned meat with Worcestershire sauce or “schnitzel with gypsy mass”. The West also loved meat, as Gabriele Heins from the editor-in-chief of remembers foodies and Gourmet, a guest from the gastro writing bubble that fits in well here. The sponsor of the show, a mineral water supplier, has his say in detail, but despite the length, some other things are missing. And so one asks oneself, when the talk is about food as identity-forming for the GDR, whether it might not be better to say “Good bye, Lenin!” looks at Egbert Tholl