816: Crumbs with Ben Mims and Wild Chocolate with Rowan Jacobsen

It’s the holiday season, and we’re kicking it off this week with some sweet treats. First, food editor and recipe developer Ben Mims joins us with his latest project, covering over 300 cookie recipes from Asia to the Levant to Scandinavia to the Caribbean. The varieties are astonishing. We get into cookie styles, the fascinating ingredients in regional cookies, and the hundreds of flavor combinations. Ben is the author of Crumbs: Cookies and Sweets from Around the World. And he left us with a recipe for Guava-Filled Butter Cookies from Brazil. Then, we step into the world of wild chocolate with Rowan Jacobsen. We hear about the new breed of cacao farmers and the amazing flavor profiles found in wild chocolate and meet some of the farmers who are making it. Rowan is the author of Wild Chocolate: Across the Americas in Search of Cacao’s Soul. Broadcast dates for this episode: December 6, 2024 (originally aired) December 12, 2025 (rebroadcast) Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews! Your support is a special ingredient in helping to make The Splendid Table. Donate today.