Good Food

Molecular biologist turned cookbook author Nik Sharma joins Evan Kleiman to talk turkey and all the trimmings. Hetty Lui McKinnon has led a life surrounded by vegetables and shares a riff on a potato gratin. Fahara Zamorano promises nobody will be upset if you open a bottle of champagne but she has thoughts on other wines to pair with your Thanksgiving feast. After spatchcocking, butter brining, and breaking down her bird, recipe developer and author Sohla El-Waylly has found the turkey she plans to make for the rest of her life. Chef Mei Lin recalls how her family incorporated their Chinese heritage into holiday meals. At the farmers market, chef Zach Jarrett does anything but loaf around for his ingenious take on stuffing. Nik Sharma puts his science background to use to tackle your pie problems. Finally, let your leftovers become tomorrow's mise en place.

• 91 vegetarian and vegan Thanksgiving recipes
• 75 Thanksgiving side dish recipes
• 45 of our best Thanksgiving pie recipes

Melinda Burns reports on the water wars in Cuyama, where small farmers are boycotting carrot behemoths Grimmway Farms and Bolthouse Farms. At the farmers market, Karen Beverlin explains why carrots taste sweeter in cooler temps. Brothers Mario and Sal Marino look back on 40 years of Marino Ristorante, where John and Yoko brushed elbows with the likes of John Wayne. Ella Quittner settles the debate over the best way to cook pasta. LA Times restaurant critic Bill Addison heads to Artesia for Rajasthani food.

Toni Tipton-Martin spotlights the creativity, hospitality, and excellence of Black drinking culture. Leslie Kirchoff gives boring, square ice cubes a '70s-inspired remodel. Amy Thielen wants dinner parties to be less formal and more frequent — and she'll show you how to make it happen. Natasha Pickowicz draws on her Chinese heritage and Southern California upbringing for desserts that are more than cake. At Joseon, chef Debbie Lee adds kabocha squash juk to the menu and Jimmy Nardello peppers to the Thanksgiving meal.

When detective-fiction devotee Karen Pierce couldn't find a cookbook devoted to Agatha Christie, she decided to write her own. Professor Chris van Tulleken explores the effects of ultra processed food in a world where profit is the goal and purposeful addiction is part of the recipe. Personal injury attorney Bill Marler chases down offenders in our food chain as they make Americans sick. Food writer and musician Bill Esparza travels to LA's El Salvador Corridor for pupusas, antojitos, and more. Finally, local farmers, butchers, and chefs collaborate on flour tortillas.

As he keeps racking up awards while shining a light on Native foodways, chef Sean Sherman hasn't forgotten his roots on the Pine Ridge reservation. Virginia Sole-Smith says the rise in Ozempic use as a weight loss tool exacerbates an anti-fat mentality. Africa meets America as Pierre Thiam brings the flavors of his native Senegal to more kitchens in his new home. Chefs Daniel Patterson and Keith Corbin have reimagined Locol so they can reopen it as a nonprofit in Watts. With a knack for offbeat abstractions on the plate, Bar Chelou isn't playing it safe, says LA Times critic Bill Addison. Nicole Rucker of Fat & Flour is using mutsu apples for goods other than pie.

Through trial and error, KCRW recording engineer PJ Shahamat learns to cook biryani in the new video game, Venba. Designed and developed by Abhi, the goal of Venba was to create an emotional connection to food. Alicia Kennedy unpacks the history of vegan and vegetarian eating in America and considers a diet that's kinder to the planet. From basturma in Burbank to hot links in Lincoln Heights, Memo Torres scans the city for his favorite eats. Carlos Salgado and Taco María make history, winning KCRW's Tortilla Tournament for a second time. Passion fruit and Brussels sprouts are having their moment at the farmer's market.

Food historian Christina Ward documents the practical and spiritual ways that religion shapes what we eat. From toilet to tap, John and Sommer Decker fight off the Arizona heat with beer brewed from treated wastewater. Gustavo Arellano reveals the Fuerte Four in the 2023 Tortilla Tournament. Drawing on her Karuk heritage, Native Californian Sara Calvosa Olson helps people decolonize their diets, one cup of manzanita flour at a time. Harvesting Indigenous ingredients on Navajo Nation land, Zachariah and Mary Ben make and sell non-GMO, heritage-style baby food. Pomologist David Karp puts the squeeze on citron, an ancient fruit often seen in panettone and fruitcake.

Memo Torres hops on Metro's 33 bus line to seek out tacos from Santa Monica to downtown. The field narrows for the 2023 Tortilla Tournament as Gustavo Arellano reveals the Eso Eight, who are still in the running for the Golden Tortilla. Writer and chef Klancy Miller shines a light on the Black women and femmes at the top of their game in food, wine, and hospitality. Recipe developer Susan Simon teams up with Rabbi Zoe Zak to celebrate the Jewish high holidays. Uli Nasibova heads to the farmer's market to buy quince for a chicken dish.

Journalist Laura Tillman phoned Máximo Bistrot, a restaurant riding the wave of Mexico City's popularity as a fine dining destination, in hopes of interviewing its chef, Eduardo "Lalo" García Guzmán.Tillman had covered immigration for the past10years and she was interested in speaking with dishwashers, cooks, waiters, and purveyors working in high-end restaurants, where economic inequalities are pronounced.It was 2016, and as the US presidential election made pawns of Mexican immigrants, the chef was eager to share his story.

Tillman spent the next five years speaking with García, his family, and those who worked with him, following his journey from the fields as a young migrant farm worker to the kitchens of the American South then back to Mexico, where along with his wife, he has built a restaurant group that employs hundreds of people. Tillman tells his story in the book The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo García — but ultimately, this is Lalo's journey. It's a singular epic, complete with a cruel twist that reveals so much about the relationship between Mexico and the United States, the two countries that shaped García.

With temperatures dipping below 80 degrees, it must be pasta weather in Southern California. This week, Good Food heads to Italy. Rachel Roddy combines 50 pasta shapes with sauces, creating iconic dishes of everyone's favorite carb. When Saghar Setareh landed in Rome from Tehran, she uncovered a Venn diagram of overlapping flavors. Silivia Nacamulli looks back at Jewish influences on Italy's culinary history, which stretch back 2,000 years. Clifford Wright hones in on the culinary traditions of Emilia-Romana. At the farmer's market, Melissa Lopez finds eggplant to top one of her must-have pies