© 2024 WYPR
WYPR 88.1 FM Baltimore WYPF 88.1 FM Frederick WYPO 106.9 FM Ocean City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Al Spoler

Host, Cellar Notes and Radio Kitchen

Al Spoler, well known to WYPR listeners as the wine-loving co-host of "Cellar Notes" has had a long-standing parallel interest in cooking as well. Al has said, the moment he started getting serious about Sunday night dinners was the same moment he started getting serious about wine. Over the years, he has benefited greatly from being a member of the Cork and Fork Society of Baltimore, a gentlemen's dining club that serves black tie meals cooked by the members themselves who are some of Baltimore's most accomplished amateur cooks.

His most rewarding immersion in cooking came through his work as a television director at MPT.  Spoler served as off-line editor and assistant director on two series featuring the legendary French chef Pierre Franey.  He also worked with Mexican chef Patricia Quintana, and with Bed and Breakfast expert Gail Greco on her series "Country Inn Cooking". Al says traveling all over the US visiting country inns and taping recipes that they prepared in little makeshift television kitchens was an incredible education.

Spoler's tastes in cooking are influenced by regional tradition and contemporary casual French fare. Never slavish to recipes, he is never happier than improvising a Sunday dinner with whatever ingredients come to hand.

  • Hugh continues with his exploration of South Africa’s wines, which offer planet of pleasant surprises.
  • Nearly every day my wife and I ask each other, “got any ideas for dinner?” As all grown-ups know, you gotta’ eat, and you’re probably gonna fix it yourself. So here’s a suggestion. Open the fridge and pull out all the veggies you can find, and voila: you have the makings for a healthy vegetarian soup. And Chef Jerry Pellegrino, that collection of vegetables will vary from season to season.
  • Although South Africa has been around for centuries, their wines are not particularly well known here in the States. Hugh sets out to remedy that.
  • There was a time when everybody seemed to be afraid of cooking eggplant. Rumors were rampant about bitterness and annoying seeds and the difficulty of cooking it well. As it turns out, that’s all a lot of nonsense. Our colleague Chef Jerry Pellegrino is eager to set us straight on eggplants.
  • Hugh and Al agree, the Margaret River region of Australia is their favorite down under. The wines offer refinement, precision, and pleasure.
  • Here in the bleak mid-winter, we Baltimoreans are lucky to have so many traditional dishes to keep us warm and happy. One dish is so closely associated with our hometown as to be known nation-wide as Baltimore-Style Sour Beef and Dumplings. As Chef Jerry Pellegrino will confirm, this is one of the tastiest and most comforting regional comfort foods that we know of.
  • Many big wineries not only offer a premium line of wines, they also offer a line of reduced-price wines under a “second label”. Hugh explains.
  • Of all the most popular cuts of beef, one stands above the others as the most desirable, and that would be the loin. The cut is expensive and is revered by many. But it is a much more complicated piece of beef than you might think. Chef Jerry Pellegrino explains all you need to know about this intriguing bit of meat.
  • Occasionally the time of year, one’s list of favorite foods and the traditions of one’s city all coincide to conjure up the perfect meal. In this case, in mid-winter, here in sauerkraut loving Baltimore, lovers of Alsatian cuisine can cook their way to heaven. And to Chef Jerry Pellegrino, we could only be talking about one thing: choucroute garnie.
  • Once the darling of the bargain hunters, Fetzer has returned to the market in a big way and is offering remarkable bargains.