Excerpt
SUMMARY: Can you imagine life before restaurants? Or brunch? Or convenient roadside dining? In his new book, "Ten Restaurants That Changed America," historian Paul Freedman chronicles the pioneering establishments that changed American food. Economics correspondent Paul Solman takes a tour with Freedman.
JOHN YANG (NewsHour): Now, on this Thanksgiving day, we devote the rest of our broadcast to food, and a little wine. First, economics correspondent Paul Solman explores the histories of some of this country`s most iconic restaurants, and how they reflected the cultural, social and economic development of their times.
PAUL SOLMAN (NewsHour): In the heart of Harlem, Sylvia`s, where for 50-plus years, Presidents and pop stars, tourists and locals, have feasted on down home cooking.
TREN`NESS WOODS-BLACK, Sylvia's: What we serve here at Sylvia`s is authentic, soul-food cuisine, rich in heritage that goes back over five generations.
PAUL SOLMAN: Tren`ness Woods-Black is a granddaughter of the late Sylvia Woods from South Carolina.
TREN`NESS WOODS-BLACK: So, you`re going to get the original farm to table, which is what soul food is.
PAUL FREEDMAN, Yale University: You can`t write a book about American food without giving a big place to African American cuisine, which is arguably what American cuisine is at heart.
PAUL SOLMAN: Medieval historian Paul freedman, who turned an academic fascination with Middle Ages cuisine into a new career in his middle ages, chronicling American food. His new book, “Ten Restaurants That Changed America,” begins at Delmonico`s in New York`s financial district, the new nation`s first real restaurant.
PAUL FREEDMAN: By real, I mean a place that offered a choice. A large menu, and a fairly wide range of times when the place was open instead of saying we serve at 1:00, take it or leave it.
PAUL SOLMAN: What fascinated me, as a money buff, was how our restaurants track our economic growth.
So, when Delmonico`s opens in the 1830s, that`s the beginning of what we now know as the American economy?
PAUL FREEDMAN: It coincides with an America of railroads, of rapid expansion to the West, of industrialization and of increasing contact with the rest of the world. It`s not a place for people who fancy themselves as squires or aristocrats. It`s a place for enterprising people.
PAUL SOLMAN: But they are wealthy.
PAUL FREEDMAN: Definitely.
PAUL SOLMAN: The new money wanted food that was fancy French, with new world twists. Delmonico`s steak, a rib-eye —
PAUL FREEDMAN: They invented Lobster Newburg. They invented Baked Alaska.
PAUL SOLMAN: They even invented brunch.
TV HOST: Delmonico`s is credited with creating this brunch dish — Erin.
CONTESTANT: What is Eggs Benedict?
TV HOST: Good.
PAUL SOLMAN: This was the place to meet and eat, well into the 20th century.
MALE: We`re going to Delmonico`s for supper, won`t you join us?
MALE: What will it be tonight, Delmonico`s or the Plaza?
MALE: Lunch at Delmonico`s!
PAUL FREEDMAN: And men and women would show up together at night, but at lunch, it would be men only.
"In a Long Island kitchen, refugees offer the flavors of their native lands" PBS NewsHour 11/24/2016
Excerpt
SUMMARY: New York City is known for the stunning variety of ethnic cuisines available on its street corners, and one local entrepreneur is looking to expand that breadth even further -- by leveraging the city's most recent arrivals. William Brangham reports from a Long Island kitchen (Eat Offbeat) where refugees prepare meals using the flavors of their native lands and deliver them to Big Apple foodies.
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