Jessica Soffer explores the connections between food, writing, culture in her first novel, Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots. Jessica joins Cathy Erway for this week's Eat Your Words to talk about her Iraqi Jew heritage, and how the food culture of her people is underrepresented in New York City, and the world. Learn more about the novel, and the trend of books that includes evocative plots involving food and heritage. Have you ever had masgouf? Learn about the traditional Iraqi dish that includes butterflying and grilling a white fish vertically. What other novelists does Jessica admire? Find out all of this and more on this week's installment of Eat Your Words! This program has been sponsored by Fairway Market. Thanks to The California Honeydrops for today's music.

"I think there's an explicit connection: getting affirmation from cooking and writing." [6:30]

"Masgouf is the national dish of Iraq, which is interesting because it's so different from what it once was." [17:50]

-- Jessica Soffer on Eat Your Words

What do beat, bean, and leek all have in common with each other? Find out on this week's episode A Taste of The Past where Linda goes into the history of food and culinary etymology with Ina Lipkowitz teacher of English literature and Biblical Studies at MIT and author of Words to Eat By. Discover the semantic shift in the word meat, the influence of the ancient Romans on plant breeds, and how much religious symbolism is based off food. Listen and become aware about how much food words have an impact on us. This episode is sponsored by The Hearst Ranch.

Andrew Carmellini, head chef of Tribeca's Locanda Verde, talks about how he became a chef and his secret life as a Hip Hop producer.