Listening To The Flip Side Of History

To tell a truly engaging story, you have to dig deep beneath the surface. When it comes to radio storytelling, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, also known as the Kitchen Sisters, are masters. Through projects like Lost and Found Sound and Hidden World of Girls, the independent producers tell stories for NPR and online "from the flip side of history."

Host Poppy Tooker with NPR's Kitchen Sisters Davia Nelson, left, and Nikki Silva, right.

JOE SHRINER / LOUISIANA EATS

On this week's show, we take a journey in sound with these two radio luminaries, discuss their amazing trajectory on NPR, and learn how they came to uncover Hidden Kitchens, their duPont-Columbia and James Beard Award-winning radio series.

As we hear the Kitchen Sisters' stories, we also delve into a sampling of their soundscape, from their early days at KUSP, Santa Cruz's community radio station, to some of their favorite Hidden Kitchen visions.

With their help, we'll even hear from heavyweight champion George Foreman about his famous grill — a tool used in many marginalized communities.

Then, we speak with an emerging kitchen sister in her own right, historic gastronomist Sarah Lohman. Her new book Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine offers an in-depth look at influential
ingredients Americans use every day. Hunting through historical documents, Sarah uncovered the unique individuals behind each flavor, and shares tales of how these unsung heroes forever changed the American culinary landscape.

And finally, we'll meet one of New Orleans' most distinctive TV commercial personalities, Al Scramuzza of Seafood City. Al's comical and campy TV ads dominated the airwaves for decades. But even before he was a household name, Al was combining his acumen for business and marketing to turn a profit and to help catalyze the crawfish craze in the second half of the twentieth century.

We're meeting fascinating characters and those who tell their stories on this week's Louisiana Eats! For