Food & Cooking

The well-known beer expert Michael Jackson died Aug. 30 after a heart attack; he was 65 years old. Jackson wrote The Pocket Guide to Beer, The Great Beers of Belgium and The World Guide to Beer, and starred in the documentary series The Beer Hunter. He spoke to Terry Gross in 1991.

Food scientist Massimo Marcone travels the world's remotest corners to investigate bizarre food "delicacies" — cheese infested with squirming maggots, coffee brewed from coffee beans extracted from the feces of a cat-like creature, salad oil made from nuts excreted by goats, and so on.

Marcone teaches food science at the University of Guelph, in Ontario. His new book is In Bad Taste? The Adventures and Science Behind Food Delicacies

Food and wine columnist Russ Parsons wrote How to Pick a Peach. He searches for top-quality fruits and vegetables and lists the reasons why supermarket produce is not always the best.

Our film critic has a review of Edmond, a thriller directed by Stuart Gordon, with David Mamet adapting his own stage play.

Journalist Michael Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, follows industrial food, organic food, and food that consumers procure or hunt for themselves, from the source to the dinner plate.

Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson collect stories about America's hidden kitchens in a new book, Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes and More from NPR's Kitchen Sisters.

Martha Stewart turned her lifestyle advice into a billion-dollar business: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. In addition to her magazines, Stewart has a new book, The Martha Rules: 10 Essentials for Achieving Success as You Start, Grow, or Manage a Business. She also has new shows on television and radio this fall.

Pizza, one of the world's most popular foods, comes in many styles — from New York to Chicago to artichokes and free-range chicken. Food writer Ed Levine's new book, Pizza, a Slice of Heaven, gathers fact and opinion on an American staple.

Critic-at-large John Powers has some thoughts on wine, and globalization after watching the documentary Mondovino by Jonathan Nossiter.

We have the second part of an interview with renowned food writer Harold McGee (the first part was broadcast on Dec. 23). McGee's book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, has been revised and updated. The book is an exposition of food and cooking techniques, technology and history.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger, by Nigel Slater, and Lilla's Feat: A Story of Food, Love and War in the Orient, by Frances Osbourne.

Reichl edited The Gourmet Cookbook, which includes more than 1,200 recipes culled from 60 years of the magazine's back issues. Reichl is the author of two best-selling memoirs, Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples. Before becoming editor of Gourmet, she was restaurant critic of The New York Times, and before that food editor of the Los Angeles Times.

World-renowned master chef Julia Child died Thursday at the age of 91. She spent three decades explaining the mysteries of classic French cuisine to modern American audiences. Child hosted several cooking shows on public television, earning Peabody and Emmy Awards in the process, and wrote nine cookbooks.

Throughout his life he struggled with a weight problem. Last year he underwent gastric bypass surgery, an operation that reduces the size of the stomach and helps the patient lose weight. Roker lost 100 pounds. He talks about his operation and his new cookbook Al Roker's Hassle-Free Holiday Cookbook.

Chef Jeremiah Tower. He is considered one of the forces behind modern California cuisine –- which emphasized the use of locally grown ingredients to elevate simple dishes to fine delicacies. That in turn launched a revolution in American regional cookery. Tower began his career as chef and co-owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. He went on to run restaurants in San Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seattle. Recently he hosted the PBS series America's Best Chefs and has written a new memoir, California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution.

He's a longtime correspondent on health and science policy for The New York Times. In his new book, Protecting America's Health: the FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation, he chronicles the history of the Food and Drug Administration from its start during the administration of Teddy Roosevelt. Hilts also broke the now-famous story of the Brown and Williamson tobacco industry papers, and is the author of Smoke Screen: The Truth Behind the Tobacco Industry Cover-Up.

Celebrity chef Mario Batali is the co-proprietor of three Manhattan restaurants — Babbo, Lupa and Esca — and Italian Wine Merchants, devoted to the wines of Italy. Batali is also the host of [two shows on TV's Food Network: Molto Mario and Mario Eats Italy. His books are The Babbo Cookbook, Simple Italian Food and Holiday Food.

Columnist Robert Wolke writes Food 101 for The Washington Post, a syndicated column that won the James Beard Foundation Award for best newspaper column. He's the author of the new book What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained. Wolke is also professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh.

Writer Michael Pollan's new book, The Botany of Desire: A Plants-Eye View of the World (Random House) takes a look at four plants cultivated by humans: the apple, the tulip, potatoes and marijuana. Pollan demonstrates that plants and humans have developed a reciprocal, co-evolutionary relationship: do we plant potatoes, or do potatoes seduce us into planting them? Pollan questions the assumption that we are in charge of our agriculture.

Food Editor for the Los Angeles Times, Russ Parsons. He examines the science of cooking in his new book, How to Read a French Fry: and other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science.