food

Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi began collecting cookbooks and recipes in her teens. In the new Hulu series, Taste the Nation, she travels the country to learn how foods from different cultures contributed to American cuisine.

Arts

Padma Lakshmi, Model, Actor And TV Host, Says Above All, She's A Writer

1:29pm July 06, 2020

by Terry Gross

The Top Chef host started out as a model/actress, never intending to have a career in food. But she loved to cook and to write down recipes. Her new show, Taste the Nation, explores immigrant cooking.

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Karl Franz Williams, the owner and operator of the cocktail bar 67 Orange Street in Harlem, stands in front of the speakeasy-inspired bar.

National

Inside Seating? A Harlem Bar Owner Navigates COVID-19's Changing Rules

6:16pm July 05, 2020

by Camille Petersen

67 Orange Street makes do with take-out and outdoor service while waiting for a decision on inside dining in NYC.

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Grocery shopping the first few weeks of this crisis was insane (and frankly, it's still pretty nuts now). Shelves were empty. People were trying to buy up tons of stuff because no one knew what was going to happen; so demand was way up, but supply was the

Economy

What's A Cooking Show Without Any Food?

8:00am July 01, 2020

by Jack Corbett

If there are more outbreaks on farms, there might not be enough healthy farmworkers to pick food. What might a cooking show look like without any food?

Five trailers serving fried fair foods, drinks and dessert set up in a parking lot at the Atrium in Pennsylvania's Butler County.

National

Have A Corn Dog: Fair Food Without The Fair

10:13am June 30, 2020

by Kiley Koscinski

In Western Pennsylvania, fair food vendors serve up the funnel cakes outside the fair grounds.

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King Arthur Flour's Helpline Rises To The Challenge Of Increased Bakers' Questions

7:53am June 29, 2020

A lot more Americans seem to have taken up baking since the pandemic began. Maggie Perry, on the team that answers King Arthur Flour's Baker's Hotline, reveals what people ask.

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Author Susan Burton struggled with disordered eating for decades. "Hunger was something that I believed protected me and gave me power," she says.

From 'Empty' To 'Satisfied': Author Traces A Hunger That Food Can't Fix

4:19pm June 23, 2020

by Terry Gross

For Susan Burton, decades of disordered eating was about power. "As long as I was bingeing, I didn't have to think. I didn't have to think about any loss or pain or wanting or yearning."

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German Post Office Evacuated Because Of A Smelly Package

7:48am June 23, 2020

The parcel that caused the evacuation at a Bavarian town's post office contained durians — pungent fruit from Southeast Asia. The smell of the fruit is so bad that it is banned in many places.

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National

'Problems Bigger Than Bon Appétit': How Food World Struggles With Structural Racism

4:05pm June 22, 2020

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Alex Abad-Santos, a senior writer for Vox, about a lack of diversity among chefs, writers and reviewers in the food world.

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Arts

'Taste The Nation' Proves Who's At The Heart Of American Food: Immigrants

7:58am June 21, 2020

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi is on a new journey, from familiar places like San Francisco's Chinatown to the lesser-known Little Lima in New Jersey — all places where immigrants shape America's food.

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National

Aunt Jemima Will Change Name, Image As Brands Confront Racial Stereotypes

3:50pm June 17, 2020

by Alina Selyukh

Quaker Foods is retiring the name and logo of its 130-year-old pancake and syrup brand. Uncle Ben's and Mrs. Butterworth's also plan to change their packaging and marketing.