This Week on Good Food: A Vegetarian Poet, Eating Wild Foods, The Best Fries in L.A.

Courtesy of Ava Chin

Highlights from this week’s show:

1. The World Is Awesome–Jobim Zeichner is a twelve-year-old who authored the poem The World is Awesome. He developed his poetry skills at Downbeat 720, an open-mic organization for high schoolers.

He decided to become a vegetarian at the age of three, and talks about how he reached his decision at such an early age.

2. Why do Some Kids Stop Eating Meat?–Karen Hussar, a psychology professor at Cape Cod Community College, tells us about her research into children’s moral reasoning. She specifically did a study on why some children decide to stop eating meat.

3. Eating on the Wild Side–Journalist Jo Robinson is author of the book Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health. She argues that as agriculture developed, we prioritized flavor, specifically sweetness, over nutrition.

4. Urban Foraging in Laurel Canyon

We’re familiar with chefs who seek out wild edibles in the hillsides of Los Angeles, but Ava Chin, former Urban Forager columnist at the New York Times, tells us about her experience hunting for mushrooms and wild greens in the parks of New York City. Chin is the author of Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love and the Perfect Meal.

5. How Did Farm-to-Table Get it Wrong?

Dan Barberis the executive chef of Blue Hill in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York’s Hudson Valley. He’s the man for whom the words farm-to-table were invented. Yet in his new book The Third Plate, Field Notes on the Future of Foodhe critiques how the farm to table movement is playing out. He recently wrote an op ed for the New York Times on the same topic.

6. Jonathan Gold Reviews Republique–Jonathan Gold is the Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer for the Los Angeles Times. This week he reviews Republique, chef Walter Manzke’s bistro in the former Campanile space. Jonathan says the french fries will “knock you backwards.”

Jonathan recommends tempura green beans, “chips and dip,” Alsatian tart with bacon, bread with pan drippings, English pea agnolotti, steak and fries, Harry’s Berries with mascarpone sabayon and sorbet.

Republique

624 S La Brea Ave

Los Angeles

(310) 362-6115

Find all of Jonathan Gold’s suggestions on the Good Food restaurant map.

7. Market Report with David Karp and Amelia Saltsman

David Karp has been writing about farmers markets and produce for 25 years, and now he’s putting his journalism career on hold to grow stone fruit with Andy Mariani, whom David calls the “patron saint of apricots.”

Laura Avery interviews Amelia Saltsman, author of The Santa Monica Farmers’ Market Cookbook about what she’s making with apricots. Find her recipe for apricot and greek yogurt tart here.