Good Food
Breakfast Sandwiches; Scandia's Apple Cake; Oyster Tecture
Could oyster reefs ease flooding during the next hurricane? A landscape architect shares her vision. Plus, the breakfast sandwich gets a makeover.
By Evan Kleiman • • 59m ListenCould oysters help ease surging flood waters during the next hurricane? Landscape architect Kate Orff suggests installing living oyster reefs in the waters surrounding Red Hook to absorb the impact of rising waters. Evan joins chef Casey Lane in the kitchen at The Parish, where she gets a lesson in the art of the breakfast sandwich. It's apple season and Michael Pollan spells out how apple breeding works, artist Jessica Rath creates porcelain apple sculptures and pastry chef Valerie Gordon reinvents a classic apple cake. Biographer Bob Spitz describes the wild side of young Julia Child, and curator Paula Johnson paints a picture of Child's Cambridge kitchen. Plus, Jonathan Gold takes us out for seven courses of beef in Rosemead. At the market Laura Avery talks to pastry instructor Robert Wemischner about pomegranates, and Christophe Happillon reminds us that November is a great month for oysters.
Banner image: Julia Child's kitchen, courtesy of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
In this episode
9 storiesMarket Report
Robert Wemischner is a professor of baking and pastry at Los Angeles Trade Technical College and the author of four cookbooks. His most recent book, The Dessert Architect , is now in its second edition. See a recipe for his Pomegranate Panna Cotta on Gingerbread Cake on the Good Food blog .
Read the story7 minThe Art of the Breakfast Sandwich
Casey Lane is the executive chef at both The Parish and Tasting Kitchen restaurants. At The Parish he has a full slate of breakfast sandwiches on the menu including one stuffed with sauteed escarole, house-made aioli and a sunny side up egg.
Read the story8 minApple Breeding 101
Food writer Michael Pollan explains how apple trees are cloned. His full explanation can be found in his book, The Botany of Desire . This interview first aired in 2003. You can hear the full interview here .
Read the story2 minTake Me to the Apple Breeder
Jessica Rath is an artist who was inspired by food writer Michael Pollan's book, The Botany of Desire. Her latest body of work, Take Me to the Apple Breeder , features both porcelain apple sculptures and photographs of hybrid apple trees. The work is on view now at the Pasadena Museum of California Art .
Read the story6 minReviving Scandia's Apple Cake
Valerie Gordon is the pastry chef, chocolatier and owner of Valerie's Confections . This week she debuts the latest addition to her Classic Cakes collection, the Scandia Apple Cake. Scandia restaurant closed in 1989.
Read the story7 minA Look at the Young Julia Child
Bob Spitz is the author of Dearie : The Remarkable Life of Julia Child. He discusses the beloved chef's early life, before she met her husband, Paul. Hear an outtake about the life of Paul Child on the Good Food blog .
Read the story9 minThe Smithsonian Highlights American Cooking
Paula Johnson is the project director and curator of Food: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000 , which opens at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History on November 20. She says the highlight of the exhibition is a full scale recreation of Julia Child's Cambridge kitchen.
Read the story6 minSeven Courses of Beef in Rosemead
Jonathan Gold visits Thien An, a restaurant in Rosemead that focuses on Southern Vietnamese cooking. The special at Thien An is the Bo bay mon (often described as bo 7 mon) which translates to "seven courses of beef." It is exactly as it says, seven courses of beef, each prepared in a different way.
Read the story6 minOyster Tecture and the Next Hurricane
Kate Orff is an assistant professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She's also the founding principal of SCAPE, a landscape architecture and urban design office based in Manhattan.
Read the story6 min
