We are all aware of fair trade coffee. But Non-Fiction Coffee Coffee Company has taken this idea beyond the basics of fair trade. The company wants to have real relationships with the growers and producers. You can learn their stories as you sip your coffee and be a part of appreciating the effort that goes into growing those beans each year.

We speak with Jeff Daniels. He is the Director of Sales and Business Development for Non-Fiction Coffee in Birmingham, Alabama. The beans are available in Birmingham and online.

Award-winning writer, John Birdsall, the author of cookbooks and the biography of James Beard, The Man Who Ate Too Much, has written a new book. What Is Queer Food? How We Served a Revolution. We talk about that very question, about the book and what Birdsall was trying to achieve, and much more. It certainly made me think about food as a way to communicate with the world in the 20th century. Listen. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Read more about the concept of queer food. And more about John Birdsall. John publishes a newsletter, Shifting the Food Narrative on Substack, and is on Instagram @john_birdsall.

Beth Le Manach, beloved blogger and YouTuber, publishes under the name Entertaining with Beth. Her new book, Entertaining 101: Recipes Every Host Should Know How to Make, is a delightful roadmap of entertaining without hiccoughs whether you are a beginner or a seasoned entertainer. Listen as we

chat about writing recipes, entertaining, the differences between the US and France, and lots of other things.

If you are already a fan of Beth’s this book is a must-have. If you are unfamiliar with her, you will enjoy the book for what it is, a great beginning entertainment book, and you will be introduced to the charming Beth LeManach.

Kelly Jacques and Samantha Weiss established Ayu Bakehouse in 2022 in New Orleans. They already have a reputation for king cake, competing with bakeries that have been baking king cakes the entire lives of their owners. And this is in a town that takes its king cake seriously.

They have built a business with sustainability of all types at its core. They care about the environment, their customers, their employees, and their own holistic health, while operating a sustainable business.

Listen, it’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Read about their king cake here.

King Cake at Ayu Bakhouse

Fava beans in the Ayu Bakehouse king cake

Ayu Bakehouse801 Frenchmen St., New Orleans, LA (504) 302-7985

In 2001 Paula Johnson, Director of the American Food History Project at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and colleagues traveled to Cambridge, MA to visit Julia Child as she was planning to relocate to California. She oversaw the installation of the Julia Child kitchen at the Smithsonian. And what began as a temporary exhibit has survived a move within the museum and continues to be a popular exhibit.

The exhibit is so popular that it has its own Fact Sheet on the Smithsonian website.

Paula has written a book about the entire experience with wonderful anecdotes about the journey to where the exhibit/kitchen is today.

Listen to our conversation. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Sarah Ahn has presented us with a wonderful insight into her mother’s kitchen. It happens to be a Korean kitchen with exciting dishes and techniques that can be duplicated in your home kitchen. I learned all about new flavors and techniques. I am going back to recipes a second and third time with excitement. And I am exploring websites where I can find appropriate products. What a wonderful way to learn about a culture. And I am inspired to add new flavors to my own table.

You probably know Sarah from America’s Test Kitchen. She shares a lot with us in this book, so we need to honor that work. Listen. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Do you cook for yourself or your family every day? Do you love food and cooking blogs, and tips to make your food prep more efficient and more fun? We talk to the down-to-earth, Jessica Merchant, about her blog, her books, her methods and her practical approach to good cooking. She is a popcorn machine of ideas. Listen. It’s on Tip of the Tongue.

Ellen Kanner has written a terrific book full of wonderful, flavorful recipes that are all vegan. She writes for the person who is using some prepared or canned food. This makes the book perfect for those putting a toe in the vegan waters. And for those who have eaten a vegan diet for some time, it offers new recipes with available ingredients that can pull you out of the dinner doldrums.

Ellen Kanner

Vegan Pimento Cheese (from Miami Vegan, with permission)

8 ounces raw cashews soaked overnight*

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

2 pimentos—canned or jarred workfine—plus a little of their juice

a squeeze of fresh lemon juice (about a teaspoon)

sea salt and fresh ground pepper totaste

optional adds:◊splash of hot sauce or pinch cayenne

1/2 teaspoon white miso◊

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

•Drain and rinse cashews. Pour into a food processor and whiz or pulse until you’ve got a thick paste.

•Add remaining ingredients: nutritional yeast for cheesiness, apple cider vinegar for the littlest bit of acidic edge, paprika to deepen flavor, turmeric for a little bit of earthy funk and to nail that adorable pale orange shade, pimento—you cannot make pimento cheese without pimento

•Blitz it all together for 3–5 minutes or until it’s luscious, totally smooth with no graininess from the nuts, and you’ve achieved that particular pimento cheese shade

.•Squeeze in fresh lemon juice and taste. Add any optional ingredients—the miso, hot sauce, and/or garlic powder. Season with sea salt and fresh pepper, and taste again for balance

.•Serves 4 to 6

* Got nut allergies? Substitute 1/2 cup sunflower seeds and 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds for the cashews