Francis Lam is the host of The Splendid Table, American Public Media’s program that celebrates the intersection of food and life. The program airs Saturdays and Sundays on our sister station, MPR News. And on Thanksgiving Day — Thursday, Nov. 28 — Francis hosts The Splendid Table’s annual holiday special, Turkey Confidential, which airs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Central on MPR News and on public radio stations around the country. With that in mind, Francis Lam checks in with The Current’s Jill Riley ahead of one of the biggest cooking days of the year. Listen to the interview above, and find a transcript — as well as Francis’ cooking playlist — below the graphic.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: You're listening to The Current. Francis Lam is the host of The Splendid Table, a weekly show and podcast that celebrates the intersection of food and life. And each year for Thanksgiving, The Splendid Table has a special call-in show called Turkey Confidential. It's a tradition just like Thanksgiving, and Francis is here to talk about it. Francis, welcome to The Current's Morning Show.

Francis Lam: Hey, thanks for having me, Jill.

Jill Riley: Hey, for anyone who is not familiar with Turkey Confidential, I mean, it's a longtime, tried-and-true tradition for The Splendid Table. But can you start by telling folks a little bit about the show? What is Turkey Confidential?

Francis Lam: Turkey Confidential is like, I think this is our 20th year doing it, so it has been around for a good long minute. When the previous host of The Splendid Table, Lynn Rossetto Kasper, the founding host, she was so always amazing at taking listener calls, and they had this segment of the show called Stump the Cook, where you'd call and be like, "I have fire ants and ice cream in my fridge — make something with it!" and she'd be amazing. And I think it just like, that kind of grew and evolved, And they're like, "Hey, let's do this show on Thanksgiving Day for folks that call us if they need help for their Thanksgiving cooking." And she started that tradition, and you know, 20 years later, I'm humbly trying to carry it forward for her.

But, yeah, it's been a blast. We have people calling us sometimes with, like, true emergencies! And more and more, it's less and less of that, and now it's more like, "Hey, like, you know, have you ever thought about doing this? Or, like, "I want to do something that's kind of cool on the sides. You know, I haven't tried that before." And, you know, we just get into these conversations. Sometimes they're very technical, and sometimes they're like, very lovely, and you just want to hear about people's day and hear about, you know, that uncle, they're really not looking forward to seeing, and we help hold their hand through it, whatever the case may be. 

Jill Riley: Well, if there's anything that can bring people together, this tradition of sharing a meal and a meal that has, you know, traditional elements to it, but also as you know, families grow and change, and how the meal evolves. I mean, I imagine that there are a lot of stories just about the food that people are cooking, and you kind of mentioned, like people have questions, but then also sharing their own stories. I think that's a really special thing about it.

Francis Lam: Yeah, I've really loved that part of it. Because, look, I think we all sort of understand the kind of Norman Rockwell image of what Thanksgiving is supposed to be. And, you know, so I grew up the child of Chinese immigrants, and my parents weren't indoctrinated with that idea, but I was, right? So I would, I remember so many of our Thanksgivings when I was growing up, just being kind of fraught, you know, like me wanting this kind of Americana vibe and being frustrated that my parents didn't get it. My parents turning around, being like, "I don't know — why do you want to eat turkey? Chicken is tastier. What's your problem?" So there would be this kind of like clash, and the reality is, most people have their family's version of that story, whether it's totally different than mine or just like mine, you know? But getting into people's homes and their lives and having them share with us has always been my favorite part. It's funny you say, like, what brings people together more than food? And I want to believe that. It's also like, famously, like, the conversation you don't want to have at Thanksgiving, or, you know, like, "Why did you bring your stuffing? I was going to bring my dressing!"

Jill Riley: Oh, sure, sure. Yes!

Francis Lam: Families are complicated. Life is complicated. 

Jill Riley: They are, and that's why it's a good idea to have plenty of food out so that people can occupy their mouth with chewing, maybe at times more chewing and less talking. Hey, I'm talking with Francis Lam, the host of The Splendid Table. The upcoming Turkey Confidential show is a tradition of The Splendid Table. You know, people call in, they have questions, they're looking for some advice, they're sharing stories. But as a part of Turkey Confidential, you have special guests that are lined up for the show. So who are some of the special guests that are helping you this year?

Francis Lam: So this year we have an amazing chef from Dallas, Tiffany Derry. She was a Top Chef star as well as you know, she's on many cooking competition shows, often as a judge and as a competitor, and this year she'll be helping us take on questions; amazing, amazing expert in Southern food. We have Joe Yonan, who's the food editor at the Washington Post, and also an amazing cookbook writer in his own right, with a specialty on vegetables and vegetarian cooking. We have Andrea Nguyen, who's a longtime friend of the show, amazing cookbook author in California with a specialty in many Asian cuisines, but particularly in Vietnamese cuisine. And we have Paola Velez, who is a pastry chef in the Washington, D.C., area. She's from New York, and she's just a blast. She just also wrote a cookbook, and her book is about convenience-store inspiration for her, like amazing pastries and desserts. So we want to make sure we have all our bases covered. We have a great pastry chef, someone who can really talk about vegetables, and chefs who just know the world of food. And we all just get in there and get our hands dirty with our listeners.

Jill Riley: Francis Lam is the host of The Splendid Table. We're talking about The Splendid Table tradition, which would be Turkey Confidential. You know, we talk about the food and the folks who listen to Turkey Confidential or even have those questions or want to share their stories. But I wonder, Francis, if we could kind of bring it to music? You know, when people are cooking — and I'm not talking about the last-minute preparations, when people are starting to arrive to the house — I mean, it's the stuff that's happening the night before or early in the morning. It's nice to have some music on. And so I wonder if you could talk about some songs that you like listening to when you're making a holiday meal.

Francis Lam: I'm a fan of so many different genres and so many different like moods and vibes. I was thinking about this, I was kind of putting together a little playlist for myself, like, "Oh, theoretically, what would I be listening to cooking next week?" And it did occur to me that when you start cooking, like, the very first five to 10 to 20 minutes or whatever, you're kind of getting yourself organized, you're getting your ingredients out of the fridge, you're putting stuff in front of you. There's not a lot of, like, exciting, intellectual stimulation that happens in that moment.

Jill Riley: Yep. It's the prep work!

Francis Lam: So I think, starting with something that's kind of like driving. I just kept thinking, like, I want to hear loud drums and a four-four beat. And there's a song that I don't even know how I found it, I'm not really super familiar with the artist. His name is Jason Anderson. I think he's a Canadian musician, but he had a song called "July 4, 2004" that I found a few years ago, I just love. I actually found it, weirdly, in the COVID lockdown era; we kind of combined families, us and our neighbors, and I took it upon myself to cook the dinner for us every night. And I just remember putting on that song to get my apron tied and to get the onions chopped or whatever. And then from there, you just kind of go. I like a lot of high energy in the beginning. And then you kind of get into a groove, maybe it's some old soul, classic soul, or, you know, contemporary hip-hop, or R&B. I like to bridge the genres back and forth; like, I just love the Afghan Whigs, like the early- to late-'90s version of the Afghan Whigs, I loved how they like bridged what is now like middle-aged-man indie rock, but back then it was like really young and cool with like influence from classic old soul. And so I like to sort of bridge those, some of those genres, back and forth. And I love Sleater-Kinney, so when I need energy, Sleater-Kinney comes back for me. I think variation in rhythm and like groove versus like hard-charging-ness — sorry, I'm not a musician, so I can't—

Jill Riley: That's OK, neither am I!

Francis Lam: ...use actual musical language. Makes sense to me, because sometimes you just want to be like, "OK, cool. I'm chilling." Like, "I've got food on the stove now, I want to listen to the food as it cooks. I don't want it too loud. So I want something that's more like about the rhythm and the beat," right? Like, where you feel it more in your body than you're hearing in your ears, kind of thing. And then sometimes you want it to be a little more like guitar, bass and drums, and just like, "You got to get this on the table now, dude. Go for it!"

Jill Riley: I love that. You know, Francis has made a special playlist for you to enjoy as you cook your holiday meal.

You can catch The Splendid Table on our sister station, MPR News. The Splendid Table is on 6 a.m. Saturday mornings, 6 p.m. on Sundays. And then Turkey Confidential will air from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, and you can find both shows wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Francis, thank you so much for giving us a preview of the upcoming Splendid Table. Thank you so much for the work you do, and I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving.

Francis Lam: Yeah, happy Thanksgiving to you too. This was a blast. Thank you. 

Jill Riley: Francis Lam, host of The Splendid Table. You are listening to The Current, and you know what? We'll go out with one of the songs on Francis's Thanksgiving playlist. It's on The Current.

Credits

Guest – Francis Lam, host of The Splendid Table
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Nilufer Arsala
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Link

The Splendid Table from American Public Media – official site