I write and talk about food and people. I'm Editor in Chief at Clarkson Potter, the host of @splendidtable, and ex-columnist at @NYTMag. I take statins.
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Articles by Francis Lam
Only in America: The rise of Viet-Cajun cuisine Original
For 250 years, the key ingredient in American culture has been immigration, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the kitchen, which is where you'll find Trong Nguyen most days. Nguyen came from Vietnam as a teenager in the 1980s, and discovered something interesting: The flavors that he grew up with paired perfectly with, of all things, Cajun food.
This week on "Sunday Morning" (June 28): "These United States - America at 250" Original
The Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. "Sunday Morning" also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.) Jane Pauley hosts a special program celebrating our nation's semiquincentennial: "These United States - America at 250." MUSIC: The "Sunday Morning" Essential American Songbook | Watch Video What are the essential American songs?
Heritage, nostalgia and the making of modern Hong Kong
I can’t say that I expected one of the most thought-provoking meals I’d ever had in Hong Kong – really, in my life – to take place in a bordello-red underground restaurant best known as a hangout for people who wake up to party.
Hong Kong Looks Inward to Reinvent Itself
I can't say that I expected one of the most thought-provoking meals I'd ever had in Hong Kong—really, in my life—to take place in a bordello-red underground pleasure palace with mirrored ceilings with a vulgar double entendre of a name. The story on Ho Lee Fook is that it's a restaurant for people who wake up to party.
Hong Kong Looks Inward to Reinvent Itself
Hong Kong national ordered to leave NZ after conviction for injuring cat during toilet training A Hong Kong national has been ordered to leave New Zealand after he injured his pet cat while trying to toilet train and shower it, leaving it with …
The Splendid Table
The Splendid Table is a culinary, culture, and lifestyle one-hour program that celebrates food and its ability to touch the lives and feed the souls of everyone. Each week, host Francis Lam leads listeners on a journey of the senses and hosts discussions with a variety of writers and personalities who share their passion for the culinary delights.
THE GREAT AMERICAN RECIPE: Season 3 (New Season Premiere!)
Premieres Monday, June 17 - Aug. 12, 2024 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV / PBS App / Stream Season 1 and Season 2 now! Season 3 of PBS’s popular cooking competition series THE GREAT AMERICAN RECIPE includes eight new home cooks, two new judges and one new location.
Jail Mental Health
Topline: The L.A. County Board of Supervisors this week directed the Sheriff and Correctional Health to look into ways to provide incentives for incarcerated people who volunteer to care for peers living with a mental illness. The backstory: Since 2018, incarcerated peer caregivers — or mental health assistants, as they’re called — have worked to assist people living with serious mental illness inside L.A. County jails.
Cloudy Morning, Sunny Day
Today’s weather: partial clouds, sun in the afternoon Beaches: mid 50s-lower 70s Mountains: upper 40s-mid 60s Inland: lower 50s-lower 70s What to expect: Temperatures dropped 10 degrees overnight, making today much cooler. Partly cloudy skies will give away to sunny skies in the afternoon, with a slight chance of drizzle in the evening. Here's your Thanksgiving Day forecast! Temperatures dropped 10 degrees overnight, making today much cooler.
Pet Safety Tips
Topline: Think twice before giving any of those delicious table scraps to your furry friend, since many human foods can be toxic to animals. Here are some more tips on how to make sure your pets stay healthy during the howlidays. Prep your pet sitter: Make sure any sitter is prepared to follow your pet's routine. And be sure to share important information like the number for your vet, the nearest emergency pet hospital, and any medications they take.
More Cops
Topline: Law enforcement agencies are stepping up patrols and undercover operations at malls and shopping districts as the holiday shopping season approaches.
Thanksgiving Tips
Topline: Preparing a Thanksgiving feast can be a daunting task, even for the most experienced cooks. We got advice from two chefs. Between taming a turkey into edibility and ensuring a pleasing panoply of side-dishes, those hosting on America’s most famous Thursday can run themselves absolutely ragged.
California Dems Are Divided Over War In Gaza, Handling By Biden Admin
California Dems Are Divided Over War In Gaza, Handling By Biden Admin Demonstrators demanding a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war prompted California Democratic Party officials to cancel evening events during their state convention on Saturday “for the safety and security of our delegates.” California Democrats met in Sacramento over the weekend to consider candidate endorsements ahead of the March primary; the convention gave opportunity for U.S. Senate candidates and other elected...
A poet and novelist excavates her Appalachian roots one recipe at a time | Opinion
Former Kentucky Poet Laureate, Crystal Wilkinson and her new culinary memoir “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts” at Holly Hill in Midway, Ky. Silas Walker swalker@herald-leader.com Don’t call it a cookbook. A meditation, maybe. An elegy of memory, loss, and taste. The spoken word poem of a Black Appalachian woman determined to keep her people at the center of her lyrical work. And, if along the way, you want to try your hand at Praisesong Biscuits, or Chicken and Dumplings, then feel free.
Five Weeknight Dishes: Easy dinners that make good use of ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise Original
By Mia Leimkuhler, The New York Times I always have mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup in my fridge. Multiples of each, more like it: I have plain mayo and Kewpie, Dijon, whole-grain and ballpark yellow mustards, as well as a bottle of ketchup so large it really counts as two. So this week’s selection of easy and fast recipes features meals that lean on these classic condiments for flavor and depth.
Recipes for when the weather turns cool
Cooler weather tends to slow us down, even as school, work and family matters demand more attention. So it’s helpful to be able to have meals that are hearty but easy to make, like the dishes described here. Several of the recipes are quite accommodating, allowing for substitutions, additions or omissions, and a couple invite dabs or gobs of ketchup for a flavorful zing. How easy is that?
Five weeknight dishes: Easy dinners that make good use of ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise
I always have mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup in my fridge. Multiples of each, more like it: I have plain mayo and Kewpie, Dijon, whole-grain and ballpark yellow mustards, as well as a bottle of ketchup so large it really counts as two. So this week’s selection of easy and fast recipes features meals that lean on these classic condiments for flavor and depth.
Janet Fries/Getty Images By Khyati Dand/Feb. 25, 2022 12:44 pm EST When Julie, Amy Adam's character in "Julie & Julia," went about bringing Julia Child's famous French cookbook to life in her tiny NYC kitchen, it was more an attempt to snap out of a passionless drudge than anything else. The challenge?
How Thai food took over America
In the past 15 years the Thai population in America has doubled in size, and it’s a community that opens a lot of restaurants. In fact, if you’re just looking at the ratio to a community’s population, there are ten times more Thai than Mexican restaurants in the United States. We wanted to know how Thai restaurants first became popular in the U.S. and what fueled their spread across the country. You might be surprised to find the Thai government and Hollywood had a lot to do with it.
New York City’s Chinatown Looks Ahead to the Future
At 125 years old or so, the china shop Wing On Wo & Co. has never been younger, thanks to its 30-year-old fifth-generation owner, Mei Lum, who makes memes of her grandmother and educates customers on the craftwork of Chinese porcelain. In the '80s, the legendary chef Shorty Tang was credited with introducing New York to cold sesame noodles, the dish that launched a thousand takeout ships. His son, chef Chen Lien Tang, and grandson, James Tierney Tang, resurrected the long-gone Hwa Yuan in 2017.
Mission: ImPASTAble 5 | A Shape Is Born
(This is part 5 of Mission: ImPASTAble, the final episode in our series. If you haven't listened to the previous episodes yet, start with Part 1!) The shape goes on sale on Friday, March 19. But Sporkful listeners can buy the shape right now! Get it at Sfoglini, and use promo code SPORKFUL for 15% off your whole order. Original theme music by Andrea Kristinsdottir. Interstitial music in this episode by Black Label Music: "Clean" by J.T. Bates Dan Pashman: This episode contains explicit language.
The Andes hold the heart of Peruvian food
Photo: olli0815 | iStock Editorial | Getting Images Plus Photo: Fruit market in the streets of Cusco, a town in the Peruvian Andes. Peru is home to one of the great cuisines of the world, but many people only know its seafood and coastal influences. Chef Martin Morales just wrote a cookbook called Andina, in which he says you have to go a little higher than sea level to get to the soul of Peruvian food. He talked with Francis Lam about the culinary importance of the Andes Mountains.
Maha Sarsour’s Maqluba (Upside-Down Chicken and Rice) Recipe
Ingredients 1 medium eggplant (1 pound) Salt 3 ½ pounds bone-in chicken pieces 1 ½ teaspoons ground black pepper 1 teaspoon ground cumin 6 cloves 6 green cardamom pods 3 bay leaves 2 ½ cups long-grain rice, rinsed well and drained 1 small onion, cut into large wedges Vegetable or olive oil, as needed 3 to 5 medium carrots, 2-or-3-inch pieces 1 medium potato, 1/2-inch slices ½ medium-head cauliflower, in florets ¾ cup broken vermicelli noodles (see note) 1 teaspoon ground turmeric ¾ teaspoon...
Caramelized-Scallion Sauce Recipe
Ingredients 1 cup peanut or vegetable oil, plus more if needed 1 pound scallions (3 to 4 bunches) 2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste Nutritional Information Preparation In a tall-sided saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Trim the roots from 2/3 of the scallions, and cut them into 1-inch pieces. Pulse the scallions in a food processor until finely minced. (You may need to scrape down the sides once or twice.) Add 3/4 to 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and pulse until wet and puréed.
How Thomas Downing became the black Oyster King of New York
Photo: duncan1890 | iStock | Getty Images Plus Oysters are often seen as a luxury food now, but throughout much of early American history they were so abundant that people from all classes regularly ate them. In coastal cities, you could have them on the street or in dingy bars for practically nothing. In late 1800s New York, a man named Thomas Downing built an empire out of an oyster bar. But here's the thing: he was a black man doing this during the era of slavery.
Saliha Mahmood Ahmed finds inspiration in dishes from the Mughal Empire
Saliha Mahmood Ahmed is a doctor in London, who turned her passion for cooking into a winning appearance on the British TV show Masterchef. Then, she turned her other passion, for culinary history, into Khazana, a cookbook of dishes inspired by the long-defunct Mughal empire. Yes, the empire that conquered Central Asia through north India, and built the Taj Mahal. But, what do we know about their food? The multitalented and ever-curious Saliha joined Francis Lam to tell us all about it.
Food safety and the coronavirus with food science writer J. Kenji López-Alt
There are a lot of questions and concerns right now around the coronavirus and the safety of our food. The science behind all of this is an everchanging field of study, but we wanted to learn the current findings and recommendations for keeping safe not only with home-cooked food and delivery, but also when out in public shopping for food and grabbing take-out from restaurants. We learned a lot from food science writer J. Kenji López-Alt.
Kimchi Fried Rice Recipe
Ingredients 3 tablespoons unsalted butter ½ small onion, medium dice 1 cup roughly chopped kimchi (6 ounces) 2 tablespoons kimchi juice, or to taste ½ cup small-dice Spam, ham or leftover cooked meat 2 cups cooked, cooled rice (preferably short-grain) 2 teaspoons soy sauce, or to taste 1 teaspoon sesame oil, or to taste 2 teaspoons vegetable oil 2 eggs Salt to taste Crumbled or slivered nori (roasted seaweed) for garnish Sesame seeds for garnish Nutritional Information Preparation In a...
Food safety and the coronavirus with food science writer J. Kenji López-Alt
There are a lot of questions and concerns right now around the coronavirus and the safety of our food. The science behind all of this is an everchanging field of study, but we wanted to learn the current findings and recommendations for keeping safe not only with home-cooked food and delivery, but also when out in public shopping for food and grabbing take-out from restaurants. We learned a lot from food science writer J. Kenji López-Alt.
The basic pleasures of eating inside Bryant Terry's Vegetable Kingdom
I first heard of Bryant Terry almost 20 years ago, when he started a program in New York City that taught underserved kids how to cook delicious and healthy meals after school, bring that food back home, and become the spark to empower their families to take control of their health and diets. He was brilliant and charismatic, and he’s since gone on to become the chef-in-residence of the Museum of the African Diaspora.
The rhythms of the bayou: Melissa M. Martin's simple, intimate Louisiana cooking
When I say the words "Cajun food," do you think: big, spicy, blackened, with people yelling "Bam!" in the kitchen? Well, Melissa Martin was raised on the bayou in Chauvin, Louisiana and the food she grew up with wasn't very much like what we see on TV. She has a restaurant in New Orleans where she serves the home cooking that takes her back to her mother's kitchen. It's called the Mosquito Supper Club, which is also the name of her debut cookbook.
Saliha Mahmood Ahmed finds inspiration in dishes from the Mughal Empire
Saliha Mahmood Ahmed is a doctor in London, who turned her passion for cooking into a winning appearance on the British TV show Masterchef. Then, she turned her other passion, for culinary history, into Khazana, a cookbook of dishes inspired by the long-defunct Mughal empire. Yes, the empire that conquered Central Asia through north India, and built the Taj Mahal. But, what do we know about their food? The multitalented and ever-curious Saliha joined Francis Lam to tell us all about it.
Fate and dumplings: the Uzbek love story of Damira Inatullaeva and Sahib Aminov
To Damira Inatullaeva and her Uzbek roots, cooking is not simply cooking, it is a way of socializing and sharing knowledge. So, we were excited when we were recently invited into her home to learn to make a very special dish. Damira is a retired cardiologist and her husband Sahib Aminov was a professor of Central Asian history at the University of Samarkand; they came to the U.S. from Uzbekistan seven years ago.
I married a cookbook author: love, recipes, and test eating with Carl Mason and Joe Yonan
Photo: Joe Yonan and Carl Mason at home with their pets. What do you think living with a cookbook author would be like: delicious or difficult? Most likely a bit of both. For our Food and Marriage episode, we talked with contributor and friend Joe Yonan and his husband, Carl Mason. Joe is the editor of the food section of The Washington Post and the author of five cookbooks including his new one, Cool Beans.
Loryn and Edo Nalic's Balkan Treat Box is food made from memories of Bosnia
Last year, our team spent a few days in St. Louis, where we met a lot of wonderful food lovers including Loryn and Edo Nalic, the very gracious couple who own a Bosnian restaurant called Balkan Treat Box. The restaurant started as a food truck serving up unique Bosnian dishes around the city. But before either the restaurant or the truck, there was a relationship, a story of love that crossed many oceans to bring Loryn and Edo together.
Fate and dumplings: the Uzbek love story of Damira Inatullaeva and Sahib Animov
To Damira Inatullaeva and her Uzbek roots, cooking is not simply cooking, it is a way of socializing and sharing knowledge. So, we were excited when we were recently invited into her home to learn to make a very special dish. Damira is a retired cardiologist and her husband Sahib Animov was a professor of Central Asian history at the University of Samarkand; they came to the U.S. from Uzbekistan seven years ago.
A storied barrel: the Canlis brothers share personal tales of a very special whiskey
Mark and Brian Canlis are brothers and the third generation of their family to run Canlis, a nearly 70-year-old restaurant in Seattle and a true landmark. But even beyond the restaurant, what’s extraordinary about the Canlis family is how thoughtful they are at helping people to connect. And for years, in the basement of the restaurant, they had a very special barrel of whiskey. But, you couldn't buy yourself a taste of it - not with money, anyway.
Last call: the rituals, romance, and reality behind the night's final drink
We don’t know if there are any songs written about when a bar opens for the night, but there are plenty of them dedicated to the moment before it closes. "Last call" isn’t just a public service announcement, it isn’t just a call to action - buy another drink or get outta here - it’s a ritual, it’s an intimacy, it’s the moment the night changes.
The rich history and spiritual importance of mezcal in Oaxaca
If you step into a cool cocktail bar today, chances are they have drinks made from mezcal, a Mexican spirit with an intense, roasted, smoky flavor. But just a decade ago, barely anyone in America had heard of it. You could call it the hot new thing in bartending, except that it’s hundreds of years old. And in Oaxaca, it’s much more than that. Bricia Lopez, who’s been called the Mezcal Queen of Los Angeles, is the owner, with her family, of Guelaguetza restaurant in Los Angeles.
What Price Can You Put on a Taco Truck Taco?
Do you remember the first star you ever saw? Your first sunrise? I can’t remember any of those things. But I can tell you exactly when I had my very first taco. I was at a flea market in my hometown of East Brunswick, New Jersey, at a stall with curtains drawn around for walls. We paid in quarters. By today’s food cognoscenti standards, it wasn’t much of a taco: crunchy shell, ground beef, a few feathery strips of lettuce.
Roasted-Mushroom-and-Broccoli Grain Bowls Recipe
Ingredients 1 ½ pounds broccoli Salt Olive oil, as needed 1 pound portobello or other mushrooms, in 3/4-inch pieces 2 eggs 2 cups cooked grains (wheat berries, brown rice, farro, quinoa, couscous, wild rice, etc.), warm Lemon-herb buttermilk dressing, to taste (see recipe) Toasted almonds or peanuts, for garnish (or toasted bread crumbs, or potato sticks, or wasabi peas, just anything you like for crunch) Preparation Preheat the oven to 425.
Going above and beyond for the love of a treasured curry tree
Of all the questions you ask yourself when packing up your life to move across the country, "What are we going to do about the tree?" isn't likely one of them. But, that's exactly the situation food writer Hugh Merwin found himself in when his partner, Tejal Rao, learned that she'd gotten a job as on the other side of the country, in California. The tree in question was a curry tree, whose leaves are often used in South Asian cooking. (Curry leaves are nothing like curry powder.
Photographer Melanie Dunea undercover in search of saffron in Afghanistan
Melanie Dunea during her trip to the Middle East in 2015. For our episode How Far Will You Go? we collected stories about how far people will go in pursuit of their passion for food. Francis Lam talked with Melanie Dunea, a photographer and the person behind the My Last Supper website and books.
Raquel Pelzel's umami-packed holiday ideas will please carnivores, vegans and everyone in-between
Photo: Evan Sung | Kate Sears Raquel Pelzel has long been a terrific recipe developer in her own right. Now, she has a new book called Umami Bomb, a mostly vegetarian cookbook that, I swear, my daughter picked up and asked me to read to her at bed time last night. But for you, Raquel’s got more than bedtime stories; she’s got great ideas for how to set a holiday table that works for carnivores, vegans, and everyone in-between. She joined me in the studio with some very fragrant samples.
Mas and Nikiko Masumoto share the emotional and physical work of the family farm
The Masumoto family farm in Del Ray, California, is run by the second and third generations of that family, the father and daughter team of Mas and Nikiko Masumoto. Nikiko told her family years ago that she would never come back to the farm, but then eventually changed her mind and returned to work on the farm and prepare for eventually taking control of the business. She and her father are poetic and complex.
Will write for food: Ruth Reichl and Soleil Ho discuss the changing role of food writers
Ruth Reichel started her career as a restaurant critic in the 1970s. She went on to revolutionize restaurant criticism in the 1990s while at The New York Times. She wrote reviews as stories, went to restaurants in disguise, and outraged her predecessor by raving about places that didn’t fit the French fine dining mold. Soliel Ho is one of the country’s newest big-deal restaurant critics, taking over the job earlier this year at San Francisco Chronicle.
Bricia Lopez feels a deep sense of responsibility for her family restaurant, Guelaguetza
There are tons of phenomenal Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles, but you might guess that one of the greatest is in Koreatown. It’s called Guelaguetza, and it was opened as a place for the Oaxacan community to find a taste of where they came from.
Ed Levine and J. Kenji López-Alt are serious eaters and dedicated food science nerds
Ed Levine had a pretty cool life as a food writer in the 1990s. He wrote basically whatever he wanted to for The New York Times, things like obsessive searches for the perfect hamburger. Ruth Reichl called him ‘the missionary of the delicious’. Then he risked his and his wife’s life savings to launch and run the website Serious Eats, which was basically at the brink of closing for nearly a decade, a story he wrote about in his new memoir, Serious Eater. Along the way he met a young writer named J.
Chef Miro's eclectic take on the Thanksgiving feast
Everyone thinks of Thanksgiving as Turkey Day, but look, the day is really more about sweetness and starch than anything else, right? I mean half the sides are sweet - sweet potatoes, that weird jiggly cranberry jello we for some reason call sauce, and what really matters is what pies people brought this year. So, imagine having Thanksgiving in the home of Miro Uskokovic; he’s the pastry chef of the timeless New York restaurant, Gramercy Tavern, and his wife, Shilpa is also a pastry chef.
Working on Thanksgiving: chef Maneet Chauhan hosts epic holiday feasts at her restaurants
For years, the Indian-born chef Maneet Chauhan ran the kitchen of an absolutely delicious restaurant in New York called Vermilion. It eventually closed, I missed her food, and for years I watched her as a judge on the show Chopped, and I figured she might have left restaurants for a life in media. And then I learned that she’d actually moved to Nashville, and built a whole collection of restaurants there, marrying flavors from India and inspiration from the South and around the world.
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