Ed returns to his roots in East Brooklyn, where as a Korean kid in New York, he was surrounded by an eclectic mix of cultures and cuisines that inspired how he cooks today. Spending time with other chefs that have roots in one cuisine but have veered away from their assumed culinary paths, Ed exp...

American cuisine has come to be known as much more than just burgers and hot dogs. Ed and Pok Pok’s Andy Ricker head to Sunset Park – Brooklyn’s Chinatown – for some exotic ingredients, then head to the kitchen to make Jop Chai, a Thai stew. Ed plays with some local by-catch in that most American...

Fire is the most elemental part of a kitchen – without it, food would simply be eaten, never “cooked.” And yet in the post-Nouvelle-Cuisine age, food and fire have become distant from one another. Ed travels to Argentina to visit Francis Mallmann, the country’s most esteemed chef and the godfathe...

Ed got his start in NYC but now calls Louisville home, and home is where the heart is. Ed discusses how living and working in Louisville has inspired, influenced, and changed him over the past decade – Louisville is where he gently placed aside his classic French technique and decided to do somet...

The Bluegrass State offers so much more than just mint juleps and the Kentucky Derby, with a rich culinary history that rivals that of America’s more well-known food destinations. A few ingredients come to Ed’s mind when he thinks about his adopted state: country ham, sorghum and smoke. Ed visits...

Ed has always fought with the idea of fusion, instead viewing it as combining the food of different cultures and letting the borders disappear. In many ways, cooking with southern ingredients feels like second nature to Ed, and for good reason – South Korea and Kentucky both lay along the same la...

The more things change…the more they continue to change. So much of cooking, writing, art and music is based on what came before. First there was meat. Then there was fire. Then came sous-vide. Ed dissects the evolution of a dish and the public’s changing tastes. The ephemeral is explored in mult...

What is bourbon? A whiskey, sure, but what makes bourbon the classic American spirit, and why is it so closely associated with Kentucky? Ed and his band of merry men and women, including whiskey patriarch Julian Van Winkle, Matt Jamie from Bourbon and Barrel Foods, chef Paul Qui, and special gues...

Over generations, preservation techniques developed to help humans cope with the scarcity of the season. The adherence to seasonality at Fäviken means that these techniques are maintained and the restaurant can continue serving food throughout the barren months. This episode explores the ways tha...

After a long winter, the arrival of spring awakens the delicate flavors of young herbs. The sun remains perched in the sky until midnight, the temperature climbs, and life returns to the once snow-covered landscape. This episode takes advantage of this brief window of time to explore the ingredie...

When Chef Nilsson develops a dish at Fäviken, he pays careful attention to the unique properties of an ingredient. Through research and recipe testing, the components of a dish are combined with the aim of preserving their natural quintessence. “The Creation of a Dish” follows the life cycle of a...

As a young cook, Magnus Nilsson found himself living in France and looking for a job. Undeterred by a lack of job offers, he eventually convinced Paris chef Pascal Barbot of l’Astrance to give him a shot. Once there, Magnus saw the possibilities of cooking open up in front of him. He was introduc...

Before moving to France to learn about cooking professionally, Chef Magnus Nilsson’s main culinary influences were his mother, aunt, and grandparents. They cooked traditional dishes for family dinners while Magnus observed. When he returned from France to begin working at Fäviken, the influence o...

Chef Nilsson depends on his network of local purveyors to keep the restaurant supplied. Because everything is sourced in a 100-mile radius, the seasons play a big part in availability. As a result, the needs and supply constantly shift between the restaurant and purveyor, but their close relatio...

Outside of running the kitchen at Fäviken, Chef Magnus Nilsson researches Nordic traditions that are rarely documented. He travels throughout the region, meeting people whose lives are tied to the past. This episode examines Chef Nilsson’s motivation to document and preserve cultural heritage thr...

This episode explores a day in the life of chef Magnus Nilsson as he and the staff at Fäviken prepare for a night of service. We follow Magnus from the early morning when he forages for spruce branches for his scallop dish, through the heat of service when every detail is timed-out. At the end of...