Food

Jerry Bechard is the pie guy. That's my nickname for him, at least. Bechard is the owner of the Norske Nook restaurants in Wisconsin. The Norske Nook is famous for their pies. This cookbook is filled with recipes for these magnificent desserts. In this interview I asked Jerry how many pies they bake in an average day? You will be amazed by his response. Bear in mind that every pie is made by hand. And after all these years and all those pies Jerry still has a sweet tooth. Don't read this book on an empty stomach.

Kids’ menus: they’re salty, sweet, greasy, and more appropriately portioned than lots of meals served to adults at casual restaurants. So, why the age restrictions? What stops adults from just ordering the small stuff they crave?

This question came in from Rachel Kirby in Nashville, Tennessee for Marketplace's “I’ve Always Wondered” series, a similar project to our local WYSO Curious series.

Reading, writing and root vegetables – that might be the new future for education. Commentator Bob Brecha from the University of Dayton has been noticing a trend among college students when it comes to food security and sustainability.

There’s a lot going on in downtown Dayton: in some ways, it’s growing. Housing is being built or redeveloped, and small retail and restaurant businesses are taking root. In other ways, it’s struggling, with around a 30 percent vacancy rate for office buildings and a high rate of tax delinquency, including in some high-profile empty buildings like the Arcade.

Following the economic downturn of 2008 Samuel Fromartz found that his opportunities to continue to earn his living as a freelance writer were dwindling. Undaunted, he turned his problem into an opportunity. Fromartz had a long standing interest in baking bread. In this interview he describes how he soon found himself in Paris searching for the best loaves, the tastiest baguettes that he could discover. He ate a lot of bread while he was in France. Later on he went there again to observe a baker who was making loaves the way they used to be made many centuries ago. 

Hunger and food insecurity are still major problems in the Miami Valley even as the economic recovery gradually gets more people working. The Foodbank of the Miami Valley says it’s doing better meeting local residents’ needs than it was four years ago. That’s the last time a group called Feeding America did its periodic national survey of food banks and their users.

Michael Ruhlman returns to the program to talk about his latest culinary adventure. This time he takes us along for an exploration of what he believes is our most versatile cooking ingredient, the humble chicken egg. You can do so many different things with eggs. Ruhlman expounds upon the various permutations of this divine food.

Some people are morning people, even on the weekends: They might like, for example, getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturdays to head down to their local farmers’ market. WYSO listener Gabrielle Civil is not one of those people. She lives in Yellow Springs, where the farmers’ market runs from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. And she had a question about that:

This is WYSO Curious and my question is, why so early? Why is the farmers’ market over by noon?

Michael Ruhlman is a food guy. He loves to talk about food, write about it, cook it and eat it! Over the past 20 years Ruhlman has established his reputation as one of the most knowledgeable and discerning foodies in America.

In this interview we talked about schmaltz, the forgotten fat, and charcuterie, the art of salting, smoking and curing meats. As you listen to our conversation I dare you to stay out of the kitchen. I dare you. Bon appetit!