855: Retro Recipes with Bobby Hicks & On Taste with Davide Risso and Gabriella Morini
From The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters by American Public Media
August 28, 2026 · 51 min
About this episode
The episode features discussions on retro cooking with Bobby Hicks and the science of taste with Davide Risso and Gabriella Morini.
This week, former bartender turned culinary historian Bobby Hicks joins us to talk about his passion for retro cooking. He gives us a history lesson on how recipes evolved thanks to industrial advances, and explains the thinking behind his redos of post-World War II-era recipes, like his carrot croquettes. Bobby Hicks is the author of Retro Recipes: Vintage Dishes with a Modern Twist , and he left us with an amazing recipe for Tomato Aspic . Then, we turn to the science behind human taste with Italian scientists Davide Risso and Gabriella Morini. They talk about distinguishing taste from flavor, how humans use a combination of senses to taste, how preferences change over time, and how understanding the fascinating taste preferences of animals (mosquitoes!) helps us understand taste in humans. Davide Risso is a molecular biologist with a PhD from the University of Bologna, and Gabriella Morini is a professor of taste and food sciences at the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo, Italy. They co-authored On Taste in Humans and Other Animals. Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews! Broadcast dates for this…
People in this episode
Guests: Bobby Hicks, Davide Risso, Gabriella Morini
Topics covered
- retro cooking
- culinary history
- taste science
- post-World War II recipes
- human taste preferences
Keywords
- retro recipes
- culinary historian
- taste
- flavor
- industrial advances
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: American Public Media
Books & works: Retro Recipes: Vintage Dishes with a Modern Twist, On Taste in Humans and Other Animals
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