"Food history is as important as a baroque church. Governments should recognize this cultural heritage and protect traditional foods. A cheese is as worthy of preserving as a 16th-century building." — Carlo Petrini, founder, Slow Food Movement
July 31, 2008 · The birth of Rice-A-Roni began with a friendship between a Canadian immigrant and a survivor of the Armenian genocide. Soon after, an Italian family made "the San Francisco treat" into a popular side dish.Web Extra: Recipes and Photos
June 26, 2008 · London's "allotment" gardens are an unusual and vibrant system of community gardens across the entire city. Tended by immigrants, retirees, chefs and fans of fresh food, the allotments make up a kitchen community like no other.
May 29, 2008 · In the last century, Basque people fleeing Francisco Franco's dictatorship flocked to America, herding sheep across the West. "Hidden Kitchens" explores the world of Basque sheepherders and their outdoor, below-the-ground, Dutch oven cooking traditions.
April 17, 2008 · Hidden Kitchens travels to the Louisiana State Penitentiary and the world of unexpected, below-the-radar, down-home convict cooking at the Angola Prison Rodeo. The event, which draws thousands of spectators, features traditional dishes prepared and sold by inmates at the prison farm.Web Extra: Video, Photo Gallery
March 20, 2008 · Niloufer Ichaporia King lives in a house with three kitchens. She is known for her ritual celebrations of Parsi New Year on the first day of spring, when she creates an elaborate ceremonial meal based on the auspicious foods and traditions of her vanishing culture.Web Extra: Parsi Recipes and Lore
February 19, 2008 · Hercules, a slave of George Washington, and James Hemings, owned by Thomas Jefferson, began a long connection of presidents and their African-American cooks. And President Lyndon Johnson's black cook may have influenced his work on civil rights reform.Web Extra: White House Recipes
January 31, 2008 · In the late 1870s, Lebanese immigrants began arriving in the Mississippi Delta, working first as peddlers, then grocers and restaurateurs. Kibbe, a meatloaf of sorts, is part of the glue that continues to hold the Lebanese family culture together in the Delta and beyond.
December 20, 2007 · After Pearl Harbor, about 120,000 Japanese Americans were uprooted and forced to live for years in remote federal camps around the country. The upheaval of internment changed the traditional Japanese diet and erased the family table.Web Extra: Recipes, Remembrances of the Camps
November 22, 2007 · Every year, Palestinians from towns and villages across the West Bank bring their ladders and tarps to local olive groves. Olive oil season is the center of local history and culture — and at the heart of the economy.Web Extra: Recipes, Music
October 18, 2007 · The Kitchen Sisters explore the saga of a Texas corn chip and C.E. Doolin, the can-do visionary behind it. Doolin, who envisioned Fritos as a side dish, never imagined anyone would consume an entire king size bag. The story of the Frito is the latest in the "Hidden Kitchens" series.
June 7, 2007 · NASA's Johnson Space Center invited The Kitchen Sisters to visit its "hidden kitchen." On the eve of NASA's scheduled launch of space shuttle Atlantis, The Kitchen Sisters present a brief history of space food.
January 26, 2007 · On the eve of Mozart's 251st birthday, The Kitchen Sisters take us to Vienna, to Mozart's Hidden Kitchen: "The Tables of New Crowned Hope." The festival honored the composer's free-thinking philosophy, innovation and radical music.Web Extra: Interviews, Recipes and More
November 23, 2006 · The Kitchen Sisters visit the 21st annual Farm Aid benefit concert in Camden, N.J., for some turkey-stuffin', potato-mashin' music and some deep stories of an endangered tradition — the American family farm.Web Extra: Recipes from the Farm
August 24, 2006 · At a truck stop between Dallas and Waco, Texas, a little energy revolution has begun. Truckers at Carl's Corner fill up on BioWillie, biodiesel named after singer Willie Nelson. The fuel is made from farm crops and recycled restaurant grease.Web Extra: Interviews, Songs and Biodiesel Resources
June 30, 2006 · Texas Icehouses — part town hall, part tavern, icehouses have been a South Texas tradition since the 1920s. Once a vital part of everyday local culture, a cornerstone of every neighborhood in San Antonio and Houston, they are a rapidly diminishing, endangered species. A journey into this Mexican, German, Tejano, Anglo tradition.Web Extra: Recipes, More in the Series
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