Tender shortbread is the base of this rich, decadent chocolate tart. Cardamom, cayenne and cinnamon add nuance to dark chocolate's deep flavor.

This soul-warming chicken-and-rice soup is deeply flavored and easy to make. Just poach the chicken the night before and allow the chicken to stay in the poaching liquid overnight, then use the broth as the base of the soup.

Ever bake with gin? Once you try this crumble, you'll consider adding a dash of botanical-forward gin to a range of recipes, from sweet to savory.

Norton's deep flavor and berry tartness acts as a foil to the beefy short ribs, which are browned and then braised for the ultimate in tender, comfort-food dishes.

Ground pork is the ideal filling for these crispy, crunchy, savory, utterly crave-worthy taquitos.

This easy fondue is made with three cheeses, dry white wine and garlic. Served with a range of accompaniments for dipping, this is perfect for a party or holiday gathering.

Making pulled pork is as simple as rubbing a salt-sugar-spice mixture onto a pork shoulder and patiently waiting for it to be slow-roasted to pull-apart tenderness

In Missouri, sweet heat takes center stage. Memphis-style sauce is the parent of the thick, sugar-tinged sauces favored here.

Heading up to Tennessee, you’ll find nuanced tomato-based sauces. The state is also home to paprika-spiked rubs, which are central to creating Memphis-style dry-rubbed ribs.

Parts of Alabama favor vinegary sauces akin to those from the Carolinas, or the tomato-tinged sauces found in Memphis, but in the northern part of the state, creamy mayonnaise-based sauces reign.

In western Kentucky, mutton is traditionally served. Not to be confused with lamb (or even goat), mutton is the meat of an adult sheep that’s more than a year old.

Thanks to the influence of South Carolina’s German immigrants, the spicy, complex condiment lends its heat and bite to local recipes.

Some traditional recipes include butter (or even lard) in this style of sauce, giving it a rich, silky texture that helps pork retain moisture.

Barbecue sauce, a relatively modern culinary development, is intended to enhance (never overpower) the flavor of meat – traditionally pork, but in some parts of the country, beef or chicken or even mutton – that’s been cooked for a very long time over a low fire.

During our Triple J Farms episode, we picked up a couple pounds of fresh shrimp and took them back to the kitchen to make this very quick and very easy dish. Olive oil, dried chiles, fresh garlic, a splash of Vignoles and shrimp are the main elements of what is sure to become one of your go-to shrimp dishes.

This Hildebrand Farm-inspired lasagna packs in a ton of flavor thanks to the Mornay sauce, which melts into every decadent layer. Roasted red peppers add a fruity note, spinach offers garlicky greens and sausage adds in spice and depth.

Dale Hollow’s Chambourcin, a fruity, dry red wine, is spiced with cloves, black pepper, cinnamon and orange peel as the base of this elegant, easy dessert. Just peel the pears, simmer them in the spiced wine until tender and then reduce the wine to make a sauce. The warmly spiced sauce and sweet fruit marry perfectly with funky blue cheese and sugared walnuts.

This MO Hives-inspired dish is a no-recipe recipe! It doesn't get much easier or more delicious than fried chicken with a sauce made by just mixing together local honey and chile crisp, with a bit of raw garlic for good measure. Topped with chopped green onion, roasted peanuts and cilnatro, this is a dish that delivers complex flavors yet is easy to make and easy to share — it's a great option for a buffet or dinner party.

I picked up a couple of two-inch-thick heritage pork chops from Such & Such at Tower Grove Farmers Market. Brined in local sorghum and pan roasted, these chops are succulent and tender -- and perfect with a sweet-tart cherry sauce. Pair this dish with a bottle of dry Chambourcin, which will elevate the fruity aspect of the sauce and cut through the pork's rich fat.

Inspired by my trip to Bold Spoon Creamery, I layered some of Rachel’s coffee and Irish cream ice cream with a coffee-infused chocolate pound cake and some rich, dark chocolate-wine ganache that I made using Norton. All of the flavors were intense, and they all balanced out beautifully.

Potato donuts are a delightful twist on the classic. Made with potatoes, these doughnuts boast a moist and tender texture that sets them apart from their conventional counterparts.

These icy treats magically combine the best of both worlds: the refreshing coolness of frozen treats and the delightful kick of Norton.

This grain bowl delivers satisfying sweet-spicy flavor alongside complex carbs, lots of protein and fiber. Everything can be cooked ahead of time and reheated before serving, making it an easy weeknight dinner option.

This salad is an ode to the flavors of Vietnam — warm, cool, crisp, spicy, salty and a bit sweet. Complex yet utterly approachable. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Olives and wine star in this Mediterranean take on braised chicken thighs. Cooking olives cuts the bracing acidity of their brine, lending a buttery softness to the dish that marries perfectly with earthy mushrooms and garlic.

Living in Turkey and being exposed to Turkish culture and cuisine at a young age was game changing. I loved the adventure of exploring this new place through its food, its history, its art and its warm and generous people. This dish is a simple way to bring the deep, delicious flavors of the Turkish kitchen to your own.

This shrub pairs beautifully with barrel-aged gin. Time in a barrel rounds out gin’s edges, offering the botanicals that gin lovers love, and the warm, oaky character of a whiskey.

Using miso as the base of the broth offers deep flavor if you don’t have time to make ramen’s traditional pork broth, which requires hours of simmering to pull all of the flavor and collagen from the bones.

The tart frutiness of blackberries cuts through the richness of duck in this dish. If you don’t have wild duck on hand, store-bought duck will be a fine substitute.

This recipe is quick and full of flavor. I always make extra peppers so I can enjoy leftovers for lunch with a couple of warm tortillas.

We are back at it! The tasteMAKERS crew is hitting the road again and working on a brand-new season.

Winemaking in Missouri: A Well-Cultivated History, tasteMAKERS’ special hour-long documentary, will have its broadcast premiere Monday, September 26, at 8 pm, on Nine PBS.

Join us in wine country for screenings of Winemaking in Missouri: A well-cultivated history, Emmy-winning producer Cat Neville's new documentary on the history of Missouri wine.

Les Dames d’Escoffier International recently announced this year’s M.F.K. Fisher Prize winners and tasteMAKERS took top honors. The prize supports women creators and is named in honor of renowned culinary writer M.F.K. Fisher whose trailblazing work encouraged deeper thought about the cultural significance of foodways.

Much of the history of American winemaking is tied up in the story of wine in Missouri and we are going to tell the full tale.

I'm usually the one on the other side of the mic, not the one being interviewed — Sarah made it easy ... you can take a listen here.

Join me on a river cruise through France’s legendary wine capital, Bordeaux, and uncover historic monuments including St. Emilion’s monolithic limestone church and the perfectly preserved, 700-year-old Château de Roquetaillade.

Shocked, elated, humbled — it’s hard to find the right words to describe the feeling of being nominated for a Daytime Emmy …

I don’t know if we will ever find exactly which apples were grown on the farm, but we can source heritage varieties that we know Husmann cultivated, an exciting prospect as we look at ways to honor the groundbreaking work of the people who called Hermann Farm home.

While I was digging around for information on the Rasche family, I found information about this graveyard online, so I knew it was on the farm somewhere. As I was walking the farm with Gregg Lamb, a local agriculture consultant who has offered to help me determine what can be planted where on the farm, there it was, siting on top of a hill overlooking the distillery.

Hermann Farm + Museum is the historic home of many with an impact on Missouri’s wine industry and the Teubner-Husmann House, shown here, is at the center of the Farm’s story and a main stop on our two-hour tours.

I kept thinking about the feeling I would have while on location for a story — I always had this longing I couldn’t place. An ache of some sort that left me feeling like something was missing. I’d want to stay with the farmers, the makers. Rather than just telling the story, I wanted to become part of the story.

On Monday, I begin a new journey as the chief curator of the Hermann Farm + Museum in Hermann, Missouri, working in partnership with the Dierberg Educational Foundation to establish the farm as a center for sustainable agriculture and culinary innovation.

“To see the whole world in front of you and that you can use what you learned to literally help people with their lives was incredible. It was like a fire in the belly, and I remember thinking, ‘OK, now what do I do with this?’”

Sarah Marshall, of Marshall’s Haute Sauce, took a moment to check in with Cat and raise a glass. In this wide-ranging conversation, Sarah and Cat taste some of her infused wine and dive into a wealth of topics, including the value of collaboration, the pandemic’s impact on farmers and makers and, most importantly, what Marshall’s Haute Sauce has on tap for spring.

At times when other things weren't available or manufacturing was down or shipping was down, our local farmers in the Ann Arbor area, and really throughout Michigan, stepped up in ways that were — I actually have goosebumps talking about this — that was so inspiring, so incredible.

“This is the right time for us to launch this because we want to launch it the right way. We want to launch it by focusing upon, if you will, throwing the doors open and making sure that everyone is invited in, and it doesn't become yet another white male bastion of a bunch of guys, comparing their incredible breadth of knowledge instead of remembering what the purpose is. Which is to make customers feel wanted, feel taken care of and therefore, interested in wine and wanting to come back and do it again.”

Local food matters. It’s not a “trend” or a feel-good slogan. Across the nation, our local and regional food systems have real, substantial economic and social value. Listen in as Cat talks with leaders in Western Colorado’s regional food system as they discuss the value of relationships … and what happens when those relationships are tested.

The Wheelers knew they had the best quality product around, but they could not shake their dismay at the fact that, in the end, that didn’t matter. There was no way to differentiate themselves from less quality-minded boats, which meant that the end consumer was not benefitting from their efforts. They knew that, if they wanted to get quality product into people’s hands, they would have to find another way.

“I’m a let’s just do it sort of person … I am willing to take risks to make things happen. To see the fruits of my labor – I know at the end of the day it’s going to work out. I enjoy people experiencing my cookies. It’s my purpose.”

Nutritionist Emily Josenhans and her sommelier husband Jeff founded Domaine Santé to produce grape nectar, which is a natural sweetener made from sustainably-sourced California wine grapes and an alternative to natural products like sugar, honey and agave, as well as artificial sugar substitutes like Stevia and Splenda.

“Neither of us was interested in hanging out and doing the motions and then end up one day having regrets of having not tried something when we were young enough and had the energy to do it.”

Rebecca and I have always had the conversation that when there are things that are not right with the world, what can you do? We generally believe that what you can do is close to home and when you can effect things close to home, you can make the world better. You can impact what’s local. That’s a big part of our philosophy.

I realized we are producing something that is equivalent to fine wine. When you come to our booth, you experience a honey tasting just like you would a wine tasting. We explain the flavor profile to you and the honey pairings. If we took our bees around to different farms, we’d have little to no variation and it would be the same all the time.

A lot of gluten free crackers are rice-based. The whole premise of New Beat Foods is eating different. As far as I know, there’s nobody else doing a gluten-free quinoa cracker in the United States. Just within my kitchen, dancing, listening to music, creating recipes, doing what I love…

The blessing for me and anyone in agriculture is to be able to see your vision come to life and introduce it to people. If you have that vision, that feeling, reach out, work with your community, work with local associations, never be afraid to ask for help and support others as they’re coming up.

A lot of times you’ll have a blackberry or cherry vinegar that’s really just a grape vinegar with flavoring added. But this is literally the fruit. And then the flavor is unique because of that. This vinegar is intense. It stays on the palate for a long time, and then goes up into your ears and your eyes. It’s not for everyone!

We want to raise general awareness of the existence of session mead. Letting folks out there know that there’s an alternative to beer that invests economically at two levels. By purchasing with us, you’re supporting the community and Michigan farmers.

The onset of the pandemic changed the way artisan makers like Sarah do business — farmers markets adapted the way they operate, restaurants pulled back on wholesale orders as they shifted to carryout … the culinary landscape changed seemingly overnight.

Grant LeBeau and his father Rick launched Rickaroons in 2012, combining their expertise and values to create an energy bar company that — for all intents and purposes — embodied a lifestyle.

In order for us to have nutritious pastures to feed the sheep, we need to have good soil to grow on. This is true for all farms, but not all farms recognize it or care for it as much as they should. It’s the thing on which any healthy farm is built: a healthy soil structure.

With synthetic fertilizers, it’s just a dead chemical that is just being poured on the plant. In order to create a healthy plant, you have to feed the soil. Especially with cover crops. We’ll grow a cover crop that could be as tall as a person when it’s reached maturity, then we mow it down and let the soil digest it. It’s just the natural system of life on earth.

Chef and photographer Janette Gomez of The Fig & The Knife creates delicious, healthy dishes inspired by her various cultural influences. She’s traveled around the world, seeking to find people who can teach her about the flavor profiles of their home country. But years before her travels, she inherited her love of cooking from her grandmother. Her grandma filled their home with Cuban flavors, using equal parts love and creativity.