Farm-to-table is a cliché, but its roots among the farmers and chefs of south-central Wisconsin are deep, vibrant and resilient. From brats and burgers to bibimbap, Madison’s food scene looks substantially different than it did just a decade ago.  Cap Times food editor Lindsay Christians reported her new book, "Madison Chefs: Stories of Food, Farms and People" starting in fall 2017. It was published by UW Press on Dec. 21. Lindsay and Corner Table co-host Chris Lay celebrated the release at Leopold's Books Bar Caffé with a short discussion. This week, we have audio from that chat. Relevant links: University of Wisconsin Press: https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5768.htm Cap Times cover story: ‘Madison Chefs’ tells stories of culinary change in Wisconsin's capital" Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madisonchefsbook/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madisonchefsbook The Corner Table is a podcast about food and drink in Madison, produced by the Capital Times.

This is the final episode of Reopening Sardine, a limited series from The Corner Table podcast. This week, hosts Lindsay Christians and Chris Lay expand their scope to restaurants around Madison.  Some, like Bar Corallini on Atwood Avenue (shown here), reopened for dine-in service more than a year ago. Others, like Ha Long Bay, have been seating diners inside for a few weeks. At Mint Mark, staff has noticed new regulars who joined for takeout during the pandemic. Chris spoke with Jennifer DeBolt at The Old Fashioned. Lindsay caught up with the new owners of Marigold Kitchen. And of course we went back to Gates & Brovi, Sardine’s sister restaurant, to hear how things have changed there.

A few things have changed since we last checked in with the folks at Sardine on opening day, May 19. For one, Dane County mask mandates have changed. Staffers are navigating a variety of diner comfort levels with regard to COVID-19 safety, and how many people feels like too many. Brunch is back, and Mondays and Tuesdays are busier than they have ever been.  Now a month in, we're catching up with co-owners Phillip Hurley and John Gadau about what it's been like to be back in the restaurant nearly every single day. We chat with general manager Susan Schueller too, about what she's noticed. Everyone is reading every customer comment, and they're already thinking about what 100% capacity could look like, somewhere down the line.  Reopening Sardine is a five-episode series of The Corner Table, a podcast about food and drink in Madison. The Corner Table is produced and hosted by Cap Times food editor Lindsay Christians and Chris Lay.

Well, friends, we’re finally here. After more than a year of uncertainty, fear and frustration, on May 19, Sardine was ready to open its doors to the public again. We start this episode a few days before that, as the behind the scenes crew gets ready.  We hear from pastry chef Jeff Doyle-Horney, and chefs de cuisine Jason Taylor and Tim Smith. Lindsay talks with maitre’d McKayla Kratowicz and Kelsey Burkett right before the doors opened.  And as the doors reopen, Chris chats up the very first diners through the door -- Sardine superfans, so happy to be back. Welcome to opening day!

Sardine, a French-inspired restaurant in downtown Madison, had 70 employees when it closed in 2020. As staff prepared to reopen in mid-May at half capacity, they were a tight team of 38.  Reopening Sardine is a five-episode series of The Corner Table, a podcast about food and drink in Madison. Produced and hosted by Cap Times food editor Lindsay Christians and Chris Lay, this five-part series goes behind the scenes at the reopening of one of Madison's most beloved restaurants.  This week we're talking with staff as they adjust to changes in tipping processes, new menu items, fresh cocktails and different ways of working with diners. The staff is fully vaccinated, but the ways of service have changed.  We'll hear from general manager Susan Schueller as well as bartenders and servers about their pandemic year, and what it takes to reopen a restaurant as ambitious and beloved as this one.

When quarantine kicked in last spring, we refocused The Corner Table to examine and document effects the pandemic was having across so many facets of food service, cocktails, grocery stores, and local farmers markets. Now as we emerge, we’re getting ready to close the book on that dismal chapter.  We decided to take a deep dive into what it means to reopen a restaurant that’s been closed for over a year, and to illustrate that process we decided to focus on one of our shared favorite places in town: Sardine. For this first episode, we interviewed Sardine's co-owners John Gadau and Phillip Hurley about what it was like to shut down for over a year, their discussions with employees and the factors they weighed during the summer and fall. How were they feeling? What was the financial impact? Where are they now? In future episodes we’ll sit in on staff meetings and check in with kitchen staff and servers to find out what their COVID year was like. We’ll take you to Sardine on opening day, and we’ll be looking forward to what dining could look like as we emerge, slowly and as safely as we can, from this dining drought. We are extremely excited about this, so make sure you’re subscribed for all the future installments that will be coming out over the next several weeks.

This bonus episode is adapted from a live (virtual) conversation and cooking demonstration Lindsay hosted on Tuesday, featuring Cortney Burns — a chef, award-winning cookbook author and UW-Madison grad. As Burns prepared root vegetable fritters, sauerkraut and a sauce made of farmer's cheese, she explained why she's such a fan of fermentation and why she believes home cooks should customize recipes to fit their palates and pantries. The conversation was broadcast live for Cap Times members. For more information about membership including contributions, visit membership.captimes.com. To find the recipes Burns demonstrates in this podcast, click here. If you want to get a copy of Nourish Me Home by Cortney Burns, place an order at Arcadia Books, a wonderful little bookstore in Spring Green, and they will take 15% off when you enter CT15CB at check out. 

As we reach the end of 2020 and COVID-19 continues to stomp on our dreams, it’s pretty clear not all the restaurants we love are gonna make it through the winter. When a restaurant like Manna Cafe, Sunroom, Captain Bill’s or Charlie’s on Main closes, what does it leave behind? What do we remember, and where do those stories live? This week on the podcast, Chris and Lindsay talk with JonMichael Rasmus and Nichole Fromm, founders of the blog Eating in Madison A to Z and authors of the 2015 book Madison Food: A History of Capital Cuisine, about the menus and memories left behind when restaurants go away, and what their research taught them about Madison's changing restaurant scene. Also, a note to our listeners: As podcast editor Natalie Yahr moves to a new role in the Cap Times newsroom, The Corner Table will be going on hiatus. Chris and Lindsay have already begun talking about opportunities for future short-run series and events, and we will let you know when those come about. For now, stay safe and happy new year.  

Chef Molly Maciejewski has made hundreds of gingerbread houses. As the executive chef and general manager at Madison Sourdough on Madison's east side, Maciejewski hosted yearly workshops, all about making a beautiful, (technically) edible gingerbread home. This week on The Corner Table, Lindsay and Chris chat with Maciejewski about how the gingerbread you build with is different than the gingerbread you eat. We talk candy selection, how to make your icing like spackle, and reflect on why people love making edible constructions like this. And, as a bonus at the end of the episode, we also hear from some of Cap Times' very own in-house gingerbread constructors. (Thanks Quincy and Sawyer! You're champs.) 

One of our favorite things about the holiday season is all the snacks. Between the traditional meals, it's more than acceptable to absentmindedly nibble on candy, cheese, fruit and nuts. Nutkrack, candied, lightly salted pecans created by chef Eric Rupert, are made for exactly these moments. Rupert is also the executive chef at Epic Systems and has been making candied pecans for friends for over a decade. Now they're available to anyone, toasted and packaged at his little shop on Atwood Avenue. This week on podcast, Lindsay and Chris talk with Rupert about how the pandemic has affected his business, where those petite pecans come from and why they're so compulsively snackable. Give a listen! 

The pandemic has put an undeniable damper on the Wisconsin way of life, and probably cut down on the number or quality of old fashioneds we're drinking. But while it may be a while any of us are sidling up to the bar at the local watering hole or enjoying ice cream cocktails at our favorite supper club, it's never a bad time to talk about Wisconsin's signature drinks. This week, food editor Lindsay Christians and co-host Chris Lay talk with "Wisconsin Cocktails" author Jeanette Hurt. Jeanette explains why our state loves boozy milkshakes and brandy over whiskey, and she offers us some hope for how we can bounce back once we can return to our neighborhood dives.

If you've spent time around the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in the last year, you've probably spotted the adorable white robots rolling along the sidewalks or waiting to cross a busy street, carrying lunch to a hungry student or professor. Last year, UW-Madison became the fourth and largest university to try out Starship food delivery robots, and they captured the attention of students and faculty, who'd rescue them from snowbanks or stop them mid-delivery for a selfie. Lindsay and Chris had a lot of questions about this fleet of delivery automatons, so they asked Peter Testory, chief robot wrangler and director of dining and culinary services for campus housing, to explain just how they work.

What do you think about going paleo? Did you do a Whole30 January? Ever been served up an ad on Instagram for a DNA diet — whatever that means? This week, as part of the Wisconsin Science Festival, we’re digging into our most pressing diet questions with UW-Madison nutritionist Beth Olson, who spends her time helping families make healthy food choices. On the show, we discuss fad diets, what's new in the soon-to-be-released 2020 USDA nutritional guidelines, and how to take a healthy approach to eating for the long haul.   We are delighted to be among the many cool components of this week's Wisconsin Science Festival, which runs Oct. 15 to 18. Check out the offerings at wisconsinsicencefest.org

One of our favorite things to do lately is check Instagram to see what “Heavy Kevy” is making for dinner. Kevy is not a chef. He’s not a brand ambassador or social media influencer or an ad rep for anything. He’s just a dude who likes to cook and decided to start making videos about it, and they're pretty great. But we wanted to know more of his story: Why does he say to salt meat like an icy sidewalk? How did he get so good at cooking outdoors? Where the heck is his accent from? This week on the podcast, we get the answers.

Thanks to summer vacations, we're repurposing an entertaining and educational episode from the archives that doubles as a kitchen safety public service announcement for you, our dear listeners. On this episode, which first ran in March, Rockhound Brewing Company kitchen manager Adam Haen shares some great stories about how not to handle your knives, and offers some very pointed reasons to keep them sharp. Maybe now’s the time to sharpen your knives and in the process take out that pent-up quarantine-related frustration on the edge of a blade.

Kids are going back to school this week. Well ... sort of. Some of them are going to school in buildings, while others are learning fractions over Zoom. Regardless of where they are, though, all of them need lunch. This week on the Corner Table, food editor Lindsay Christians and co-host Chris Lay talk with Irene Pawlisch, lead cook for Madison Metropolitan School District's food services, who's been figuring out how to get food to kids who need it, even when they're learning virtually at home. Everything about school seems stressful these days, but Irene's been trying to lighten things up with funny costumes and vegetable jokes.

After finding success with their canned mojitos and brandy old fashioneds, Tom Dufek and his Plain Spoke Cocktail Co. business partners set out to give their drinks a brick and mortar home. Today, thirsty locals can find mixed drinks with funny names on tap at their tasting room on King Street, just upstairs from their microbrewery Young Blood Beer Co. This week on the podcast, Tom explains what he learned about pandemic-style hospitality, how their beer accidentally found its way onto liquor store shelves, and why he prefers not to take his drinks too seriously. 

Back in February, Jamie Hoang and Chuckie Brown were cooking for cocktail-sipping crowds at their Robin Room pop-up, doling out mini veggie egg rolls at Femmestival and prepping to roll out a food cart for the summer. The pandemic changed their plans. This past weekend they opened Ahan at The Bur Oak at 2262 Winnebago St., serving takeout noodles, curry and riffs on crab rangoon. Today on the podcast, Hoang and Brown talk about the unexpected advantages to opening at this stage in the pandemic. 

Even for minor sports fans, a typical Madison summer might involve a random Brewers game with friends or a trip or two out to the Duck Blind for a Mallards game. This year, obviously, that's all been benched, with most ballparks and stadiums closed to fans for the foreseeable future. For Cap Times city editor Jason Joyce, it's a major loss. A former sports columnist for Isthmus and the announcer for the Madison Radicals ultimate Frisbee team, he’s really missing baseball. This week on the podcast, as the baseball season opens with no fans in the stands, he joins us to wax nostalgic about steamed hot dogs, neon-orange pump cheese, "the ice cream of the future" and the nectar of the baseball gods Miller Lite. 

The Wisconsin State Fair has joined a long list of events across the country canceled in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but there's one thing Cap Times opinion editor Jessie Opoien won't be missing among the lost festivities: cream puffs. This week on the Corner Table, we take a trip down memory lane to a simpler time, just a few months back, when Jessie found herself in hot water for publicly divulging her less-than-positive opinion of the signature Wisconsin State Fair dessert ﹘ prompting Gov. Tony Evers himself to come to their sweet-and-messy defense.

Will Green started Mentoring Positives almost 16 years ago to help teens in the Darbo-Worthington neighborhood on Madison's east side learn some of the tools they need to be successful and, as he said, “basically be a good person.” Participants in the program get paid to help make and market Off the Block salsa and pizzas, which are sold around town. This week on the podcast, Will talks with Lindsay and Chris about his pizza struggles, the inspiration he draws from his late mom, and his vision for the Darbo neighborhood as an "ethnic oasis" and a campus of opportunity.

With so many activities off limits due to the coronavirus, this summer practically demands that we get outdoors as often as possible in order to maintain our sanity ﹘ just so long as you've got your mask on and you're away from other people, of course. For those looking to step up their outdoor game, Andy Gricevich wants to help you learn to forage your own food. He runs What Got Gathered, where he sells foraged foods and leads walks where he teaches people to recognize the edible plants around them. This week on the Corner Table, Lindsay and Chris talk with the local forager extraordinaire about mushrooms that won’t kill you, a unique dish he calls “lawn-sagna,” and what he’s most excited about finding to eat in the parkways and backyards around his new house.  Also: Why Andy thinks foraging isn't dangerous, as long as you don't eat something just because an app told you to. Ready to learn more about foraging? Here are a few links Andy recommended to get you started. Wild Food Wisconsin Facebook group Midwest Wild & Edible Foragers Society Facebook group Forager's Harvest, the website of foraging authority Samuel Thayer

Before the pandemic hit, bartender Karlin Langley was working at Sardine, mixing Sazeracs and French 75s behind their pewter bar. Lately he’s been turning that energy toward home projects. He’s making mixers and even entirely new drinks, trying stuff out where there aren’t customers to please. Lindsay and Chris wanted to know what he could come up with using only ingredients that they had lying around at home, so they put his skills to the test on this week's show. Find the recipes for the cocktails Karlin devised for each of them at www.captimes.com.

A couple months ago, COVID closed restaurants everywhere. Dane County is now in the first phase of its reopening plan, but with masks and distancing, dining out is going to be weird for a while. To find out what restaurants are thinking as they decide how and when to reopen their dining rooms to the public, food editor Lindsay Christians and co-host Chris Lay called up Caitlin Suemnicht, the chief operating officer at Food Fight restaurant group.  Also on the show: Why you should order your fish fry on a Tuesday, and how Ohio's got Wisconsin beat when it comes to margaritas to-go.

Just before the pandemic hit, Mel Zastrow was preparing to teach her middle school students to cook the old-fashioned way, piled into a kitchen together. But the show, and the pound cake, must go on, so Mel, a teacher at Monona's MG21 charter school, took her cooking lessons online, producing and starring in "Mel Cooks," a Youtube show in which she demonstrates how to make her students' favorite dishes. On this week's podcast, she talks with Lindsay and Chris about learning to edit video and how she picks the perfect accordion tune for each baking session.

What might make your quarantine mornings less painful and more delicious? Breakfast sandwiches. This week on The Corner Table, find some inspiration as we revisit our December 2019 interview with local "breakfast sandwich influencer" Patrick Logterman, who chronicles his breakfast adventures at 52sandwiches.blogspot.com. 

Restaurant people are helpers, the kind you go to when you need to feed volunteers or get a sponsor for your Little League team. So what happens when they need help? This week on the show, we hear from Teresa Pullara-Ouabel of Bunky’s catering and Kelly Hopkins of Kessenich's, whose "SOS" (Save Our Staff) GoFundMe campaign has raised over $40,000 to help furloughed restaurant workers pay their bills.

Just 12 days after the opening of D’Vino, a new wine and ciccheti bar in downtown Madison, the coronavirus pandemic forced it to close its doors. On this week's show, Lindsay and Chris talk with owner and chef Dino Maniaci about how he quickly shifted to selling comfort foods like meatball grinders and take-and-bake pastas, and why he's determined to keep going. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has given all of us a new appreciation for the workers who bag our groceries and keep the shelves stocked. On this week's show, Lindsay and Chris talk with two local grocery workers about how they're faring on these new frontlines and what shoppers can do to keep them safe.

For those pining for March Madness or just a good way to pass yet another evening at home, Kyle Nabilcy has a suggestion: Make your beer, or anything else, into a bracket. A longtime freelancer covering beer and food for the recently darkened Isthmus, Kyle talked with Lindsay and Chris about his epic beer collection and his "Cellar Sixteen" bracket.

During any other year, farmers and vendors would pour onto the Capitol Square this Saturday for the first outdoor market of the Dane County Farmers Market season. But in light of the coronavirus, the state government has revoked permits for all uses of the square, so the market season is indefinitely postponed. On today's show, Lindsay and Chris get an update from market manager Sarah Elliot on the changes they're making and how people can support local farms until the market makes its triumphant return.

This week on the podcast, Lindsay and Chris talk with Brandon Brieske, who started the Madison Area Service Industry Support Facebook group to bring his fellow restaurant and bar workers together as they weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

A dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp knife. Never put knives in the dishwasher. And if the garbage disposal is rattling, definitely turn it off before you stick your face over the drain. Those are just a few of the knife-keeping lessons Lindsay and Chris learned from chef and knife nerd Adam Haen, who joined them in the podcast studio last week to show them how it's done.

On this week’s show, Lindsay and Chris sit down with master cheesemaker Steve Stettler of Decatur Dairy to find out what’s changed since his grandfather’s cheesemaking days, how he became the first master cheesemaker with a certification in cheese curds, and how he picks which chunk of cheese to enter in a world competition.

Serious farm-to-table cooking can be tough: You might be drowning in strawberries one minute and stuck with just rutabaga for an entire month the next. This week on the Corner Table, L'Etoile alums Itaru Nagano and Andrew Kroeger explain why they're taking on that challenge at a restaurant of their own. 

Valentine's Day can be a complicated a holiday, and L'Etoile pastry chef Elizabeth Dahl is on its frontlines, preparing intricate desserts for that special night. On this Corner Table bonus episode, Dahl explains how she puts her art skills to use in the kitchen, how training as a savory chef has enhanced her pastries, and why she herself often doesn’t like sweets.

For chef Lauren Montelbano of Surya Cafe, accommodating dietary restrictions is a welcome challenge — she calls it her "personal Tetris." On this week's show, the chef explains how she started making vegan food, why she thinks healthy food can and should be delicious, and why some people get emotional when they come to Surya.

In this Corner Table bonus episode, Cap Times Opinion Editor Jessie Opoien chats with Lindsay and Chris about how she launched a firestorm by tweeting disparaging comments about cream puffs, why the governor got involved, and which dishes Wisconsin should showcase as visiting candidates and reporters flood the state this election season.

As a food photographer, it's Sunny Frantz’s job to make food look just beautiful enough that you want to make it — or eat it. Lindsay and Chris talk with Sunny about the photography trends she's watching, how anyone can take better food shots and why you might not want to eat the food behind some of the most drool-worthy photos.

Five protein-packed years ago, Patrick Logterman set a goal that would consume his mornings: Eat one breakfast sandwich a week and blog about it. Today he shares his morning eats on Instagram (@bunbreakfast). He came to the Cap Times studio to talk about his top sandwiches of 2019, how to cook a perfectly round egg and why he's just not into breakfast pizza.

On this week's Corner Table, hosts Lindsay Christians and Chris Lay dive into holiday cocktails: the good, the bad and the nose-freezing snowball. Join them as they sample the offerings at Miracle on King, a holiday cocktail pop-up at Lucille and then return to the studio for a lively conversation about the drinks that put them in the holiday spirit and why you should never do shots with your family.

Quivey's Grove is a classic Wisconsin restaurant founded in 1980 by Joe Garton in two historic buildings in Fitchburg. The owners recently announced their decision to put it up for sale. On the podcast this week, Nick Garton, Joe's son, talks about a childhood spent in Quivey's kitchen and underground tunnel, and archivist Chris Lay helps dig into Quivey's lively backstory.

Hosting the Corner Table is now a two-journalist endeavor: Chris Lay, a Madison writer, archivist and lover of food, has signed on as the show's co-host. What better way to introduce him than with a conversation about food of the South -- more specifically, his childhood home of North Carolina.

Gwen Rice is a skilled baker of pies and an accomplished playwright. in "Miss American Pie," she combines these two parts of her life in a one-woman show performed in a local kitchen. Over the course of 75 minutes, she prepares an apple pie from scratch.

At the 2019 Fermentation Fest — A Live Culture Convergence in Reedsburg, five experts gathered on a panel to talk about artisan grains and sourdough. Among them were Kirk Smock from ORIGIN Bread, owner/head baker Andrew Hutchison from Madison Sourdough, horticulture prof Julie Dawson from UW-Madison's Seed to Kitchen program, Gil Williams from Lonesome Stone Milling and Halee Wepking at Meadowlark Organics.

The last straw (featuring the Madsplainers) by The Capital Times

Cap Times food editor Lindsay Christians wrote about the issue of accessibility in restaurants for her latest cover story, "A seat at the table: Disability advocates push for better access when dining out." On today's Corner Table, she talks with Rob Thomas about what she learned from her reporting -- the work disability rights groups are doing on restaurant accessibility, what it takes to get older buildings more in line with modern standards, and what it means for a business to communicate, "You are welcome here" to all its customers.

For this live Corner Table episode, recorded on Saturday at the Play Circle at the Memorial Union, Lindsay sat down with Twin Cities chef Yia Vang, who works out of what he calls his "mud-and-straw location," a food truck he operates outside Sociable Cider Werks. The two had a reflective conversation on growing up as a Hmong refugee in Wisconsin, how Vang gives a nod to family with his food, and his plans for opening a brick and mortar location.

The "farm-to-table" movement that has loomed large in the culinary world for years isn't just changing the way restaurants acquire and market produce: It's also changing how K-12 schools think about cafeteria lunches and classroom snacks. In Madison, the REAP Food Group — a nonprofit dedicated to promoting local, sustainable food systems — has worked closely with farmers, educators and AmeriCorps on its own Farm to School program. As REAP's Farm to School education coordinator, Haley Traun has helped spearhead that effort, which focuses on teaching children about nutrition and connecting them with fresh fruit and vegetables. On this latest Corner Table, host Lindsay Christians talks with Traun about the challenges of introducing new food to children, bringing farmers to the classroom, what it's been like serving school meals out of food carts to high schoolers, and the latest efforts by REAP to make it easier for school's to serve healthy, sustainable meals.

Jen Roth, the co-owner of Cadence Cold Brew Coffee, talks about the importance of nitro in a can of cold brew, new flavors coming down the pike, and the possibility of Cadence popping up on the shelves of Costco.