In 1994, acclaimed food writer and cooking teacher Lynne Rossetto Kasper was receiving accolades for her debut book, The Splendid Table, which at that time was the only book to have won both the James Beard and Julia Child Cookbook of the Year awards. Producer and foodie Sally Swift was enchanted by the book and thought the time could be right for a radio program on food.

Kasper and Swift didn’t want to create a show based on “talking about recipes.” They wanted to explore everything they loved about food: the culture, the science, the history, the back stories and the deeper meanings that come together every time people sit down to enjoy a meal. The Splendid Table — “the radio program for people who love to eat” — airs Sundays at 11am on witf 93.3 and is streamed on witf.org.

The Splendid Table has been at the forefront of food issues and policies since its inception. Long before eating local became a catchphrase and farmers’ markets became ubiquitous, The Splendid Table was talking about the changes needed in the food system and what was happening on the grassroots level. In fact, when The Splendid Table first went on the air, Kasper had to make sure to define such terms as “organic” and “sustainable” for listeners. Today those terms have become part of the everyday lexicon, and people’s hunger for wholesome food and the rituals surrounding it has only increased.