South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa
$35-$45
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LAist Design
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Join us for a special live taping of The Splendid Table, your weekly audio companion celebrating the intersection of food and life. For this live experience, presented in partnership with APM Studios, hostFrancis Lam (he/him) will dig into Orange County’s rich culinary scene, offering delicious bites of wisdom from some of the area’s most beloved culinary artisans. He’ll be joined onstage by Daniel and Brenda Castillo of Heritage Barbecue, Kenneth Nguyen, host of The Vietnamese podcast, Patricia Huang, general manager of the wildly popular 626 Night Market, and Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times columnist and author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. And of course we’ll have something delicious for everyone to taste!
The Splendid Table can be heard on LAist 89.3 Sundays at 11 p.m.
This event is part of Culinary Connections, a live event series focused on all the ways food connects us.
ABOUT FRANCIS LAM In 2018 Francis took over the program from founding host Lynne Rossetto Kasper. The Splendid Table explores different cultures, cuisines and ideas, as well as the small personal stories that come out of the expansive world of the table. As a former restaurant cook and culinary school graduate, Francis can handle virtually any food query and loves taking listener’s calls. He is keenly interested in people and their stories and believes that one of the keys to understanding people better is to learn what they cook and how they eat.
Francis is Editor-in -Chief at Clarkson Potter, a division within Penguin Random House that is a leader in cookbook publishing. For two seasons, Lam was a regular judge on Bravo’s hit show, Top Chef Masters. An award-winning writer, Lam has written for numerous publications, including Gourmet, Bon Appetít, Food & Wine, Lucky Peach, Saveur, Salon,Men’s Journal, and the Financial Times. He graduated first in his class at the Culinary Institute of America and holds a bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan.
ABOUT GUSTAVO ARELLANO Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, and is the creator and namesake of KCRW and Gustavo's Great Tortilla Tournament. He has covered food in Orange County since 2001, and knows that In-N-Out is overrated.
ABOUT DANIEL CASTILLO Pitmaster and co-owner of Heritage Barbecue. Daniel Castillo spent 7 years as a corporate chef for Whole Foods Market before discovering his all-consuming love for craft barbecue, which led to an apprenticeship at the acclaimed Brett’s Backyard BBQ in Texas – which then led to quitting his day job to pursue BBQ 24/7. With his wife Brenda’s support, the two began launching BBQ pop-ups in their family backyards and then pop-ups with local breweries in and around Orange County before opening their first brick & mortar location, Heritage Barbecue, in August of 2020 in the historic town of San Juan Capistrano, Calif. They were a success from Day 1 -- drawing long lines of eager fans around the block, an occurrence that repeats itself every weekend still -- with accolades pouring in from Food & Wine Magazine (“America’s Best New BBQ Spots”), LA Times 101 Best Restaurants, OC Register’s Restaurant of the Year, in addition to earning a coveted Michelin Bib Gourmand designation. In early 2023, Danny opened his second location, this time, a sprawling 10,000-square-foot brewpub in San Diego’s Oceanside, where he and his team are churning out their own craft beers to complement their award-winning smoked meat specialties. When Daniel is not at the restaurant, he’s at home in Oceanside chasing after his toddler son. Daniel and his wife have two other children, Benjamin and daughter Karina, who also works at the San Juan Capistrano restaurant.
ABOUT PATRICIA HUANG Patricia Huang, a distinguished figure in the world of night markets, was the driving force behind the remarkable growth of the 626 Night Market, transforming it from a modest 60-vendor gathering into a spectacular event featuring 350 vendors and drawing millions of attendees across multiple cities over 11 years. Her accomplishments have garnered widespread recognition, with appearances on major news platforms such as The Today Show, Fox News and more. Committed to sharing her wisdom, Patricia authored a comprehensive guidebook for vendors and extends her expertise to a global audience through an online training course at SixFigureBooth.com. Her entrepreneurial spirit extended to the establishment of an innovative grab-and-go store in South Pasadena. As a playful and inspiring touch, Patricia also broke the world record of the Largest Cup of Boba Tea, symbolizing her dedication to celebrating Asian Americans in America and having a little fun along the way.
ABOUT KENNETH NGUYEN Kenneth Nguyen is a Los Angeles based podcaster and film producer with over two decades in the Vietnamese media space. Kenneth hosts and produces The Vietnamese podcast with over 300 episodes recorded. Kenneth Nguyen was a founding partner of Wave Releasing, the first U.S. based Vietnamese language film distribution company.
Kenneth managed marketing, theatrical and ancillary distribution on Vietnamese language films such as OWL AND THE SPARROW, DE MAI TINH, SIX INCH HEELS and MAIKA. He currently is a founding partner at EAST Films with several film projects in development. He has served honorably as a former U.S. Marine and holds a B.A degree from USC in Visual Anthropology with an emphasis in Cinema Studies.
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This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org.
ACCOMMODATIONS LAist is committed to providing access and accommodation for individuals with disabilities at our events. To request accommodations, please email events@laist.com or call us at (626) 585-5222 at least 7 days in advance of the event.
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