The legacy of Edna Lewis, birria, microplastics
Good Food
KCRW
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A Black chef and cookbook author finally gets her due!
- Deb Freeman traces the life of Edna Lewis, author of "The Taste of Country Cooking," in a new documentary.
- While some people spent the pandemic starting sourdough, Jesse Valenciana got busy perfecting his birria.
- Memo Torres visits an Inglewood backyard, where three generations of the Sandoval family make birria using an abuela's recipe.
- Carolyn Kormann shares alarming facts about how microplastics have made their way into our bodies.
- Chef Caroline Leff of Stir Crazy turns up at the farmers market for a favorite root vegetable.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From KCRW, I'm Evan Klyman, and this is Good Food. |
| 0:12.9 | In 2024, the New York Times declared the taste of country cooking to be the most influential American cookbook of the past 100 years. |
| 0:22.8 | So why don't more people know about it? And why isn't its author Edna Lewis a household name? |
| 0:30.3 | Well, the simple answer is because she was black. Born and raised in rural Virginia, |
| 0:36.2 | Miss Lewis eventually settled in New York City. |
| 0:39.1 | She became the chef of a celebrated cafe known for its southern-inspired dishes. |
| 0:44.3 | Years later, with encouragement from Judith Jones, Juliet Child's editor, Edna Lewis wrote the taste of country cooking. |
| 0:52.8 | The book emphasized how seasonality and vegetable dishes drive southern cooking. |
| 0:58.2 | Beyond the recipes, it contains a trove of valuable information about southern and |
| 1:02.8 | African-American food ways. |
| 1:05.4 | Now she's the subject of a documentary, Finding Edna Lewis. |
| 1:09.9 | For executive producer and host Deb Freeman, |
| 1:12.7 | the goal of the film is to shine a spotlight on Miss Lewis's life |
| 1:16.1 | and share her work with a wider audience. |
| 1:19.2 | Hi, Deb. |
| 1:20.4 | Hi. |
| 1:21.4 | I so enjoyed the documentary. |
| 1:25.0 | Oh, that's so good to hear. |
| 1:26.6 | There was something about the cinematography and the rhythm of it that for me mirrored |
| 1:35.3 | Miss Lewis's way of being. |
| 1:38.8 | It was very elegant. |
| 1:41.1 | Well, no. |
... |
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