It's our Season Finale, Listeners! And it's also the holidays! So we're celebrating the end of 2022 with one of our favorite festive foods: GINGERBREAD! Our Chef-Creator Lia Ballentine kicks things off with a brief history of gingerbread, the medieval monk that helped make it popular in Europe, and how food hero Amelia Simmons introduced the first American gingerbread recipes in her pioneering cookbook, “American Cookery.” Plus, Lia tells us about the best days to celebrate the sweet and spicy treat, and the unbelievable gingerbread houses you can see at the National Gingerbread House Competition in Asheville, North Carolina. In the Deep Dish, our Foodlosopher Anna Van Valin asks the question: why are we so obsessed with gingerbread houses? She explores how the Brothers Grimm baked gingerbread house imagery into popular culture with the story of Hansel and Gretel. She also tells us about how gingerbread houses inspired an actual architectural movement, the many fantasy gingerbread-house-insipred attractions that range from whimsical to creepy, and the connection between gingerbread houses and...Mar-a-Lago?? Ready to snap into this episode? Then join us as we indulge in all things gingerbread!

Explore more from the show:

Watch the special “Craft in America” episode about the National Gingerbread House Competition.
Sing along to “I Love a Fat Man” with Chita Rivera as the Gingerbread Witch.
Explore this abandoned gingerbread castle amusement park in NJ with some ghost hunters.

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