Dave is back with a packed studio and longtime friend of the show Nick Coleman — olive oil educator, sensory expert, and musician behind HGH — fresh off a trip to Greece teaching at the International Olive Oil Network. They go deep on how to detect defects in olive oil by smell alone, why fruité noir works when done intentionally, olive fly maggots, pruning for quality fruit, and why every producing country swears theirs is the best.

Noma scientist and author Ariel Johnson joins mid-show, jumping straight into flavor chemistry: why plum frozen yogurt tastes like strawberries, how to reverse-engineer hogo for non-alcoholic tiki drinks, sulfur compounds in durian, chlorophyll behavior in green herb oils, and more. Saffron custard gelato, carotenoids, pressure-cooking aromatics, British potatoes — nothing is safe.

The crew also spirals into glorious tangents:

• DIY Danish pork roast & the perfect crackling sandwich

• Street food logic — what should be eaten on the move

• The underrated beauty (and stink) of ginkgo trees

• Why wrapping potatoes in foil ruins them

• Delivery fries, baguette sandwiches, and sidewalk etiquette rage

• VR garbage, museum exhibits, waiting for Godot w/ Keanu & Alex Winter

Plus olive oil tasting in-studio, Patreon callers, and a preview of upcoming episodes — including Kevin from Noma returning soon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this Thanksgiving “Classics in the Field” episode, Dave is back in studio at Rockefeller Center with Kitchen Arts & Letters’ own Matt Sartwell for a long, nerdy tour through cookbooks, regional food, and holiday obsessions. John’s on mic, Joe’s on the panels, and the show kicks off with cranberry-sauce loyalties, paper-bag chicken nostalgia, and why Dave will never forgive you if he walks into your house on Thanksgiving and it doesn’t smell like turkey.

Matt announces Kitchen Arts & Letters’ new kids’ cookbook club—built around Peter Kim’s Instant Ramen Kitchen and led by Annette Tome and Pam Abrams—then dives into listener questions: the single gin book he’d take to a desert island; what to give a Spanish-cuisine nerd who actually wants context; how to hunt down Japanese parfait inspiration; and which books really capture Cape Cod and New England cooking.

From there, it’s deep cuts: Provincetown seafood and Pops Masch’s Cooking the Catch, John Thorne’s Simple Cookingand his legendary toast essay, William Woys Weaver’s Christmas desserts and class-conscious holiday history, and the under-the-radar Aria regional cookbook series. Along the way Dave rants about lavender in gin, cold fried chicken with shredded cabbage, why you should cut the back out of your turkey, and why smaller birds (and a second turkey for sandwiches) are non-negotiable.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.