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Playing With Food
Hosted by Fr. Ian Delinger

Fr. Ian Delinger hosts this fun monthly segment of "Issues & Ideas" about unique ways of looking at and preparing everyday foods on the California Central Coast. He travels around our region cooking with and talking with chefs, farmers, distillers, home cooks and more in this entertaining culinary exploration.

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Latest Episodes
  • Growing spirulina in a pond
    Playing With Algae
    Spirulina has been a food source for millennia. It’s been a popular supplement in the US for decades. And it's being produced right here on the Central Coast.
  • The price of cardboard was on everyone's mind in this conversation about tariffs. The Talley Farms Veg boxes were among those affected by the tariffs.
    Playing With Tariffs
    The on-again-off-again tariffs of 2025 have already had a local impact. The food and drinks industries on the Central Coast feel the pain, not just in the pocketbook, but also in operations.
  • The bags at Harvestly ready to be filled with their orders.
    Harvestly: Filling the Delivery Gaps
    A local delivery service fills the gap between the farm boxes, supermarket and restaurants … ordered from one place and delivered to your doorstep.
  • Ernesto uses real hunks of pork and a little beef fat in his sausages.
    The Art of the Sausage
    What's in a sausage? Dare one look? The owner of Lobo Butcher in Gudalupe shows Fr. Ian just how pure, local and fresh sausages can be.
  • Queen Bee Caramels are made with from honey from beekeeper Erin Holden's own bee hives.
    Playing With Caramels in the Kitchen
    Caramels - real caramels - are easy to make and delicious! One Central Coast nurse-wife-mother makes caramels in her kitchen, using honey produced by her bees.
  • The wheat field at Lillian Larsen Elementary School in San Miguel in April.
    Playing With Wheat
    We don't typically associate wheat crops with California, but they are here! And as a part of their Agriculture Enrichment Program, Shandon and San Miguel School Districts are growing wheat to teach kids about where their food comes from, supported by the Wheat-2-School program of the California Wheat Commission. And it's happening right here on the Central Coast!
  • The vibe on the first night of the Garagiste Festival in Atascadero
    Making Wine in the Garage?
    Are you making wine in your garage? Then you may be considered “garagsiste”. But instead of in being a pejorative term, the Garagiste Festival in North San Luis Obispo County celebrates wines from wineries that produce fewer than 1,500 cases annually. (And they aren’t really made in the garage!)
  • Steven Raichlen getting ready for his last day of teaching at Barbecue University
    BBQ University
    Playing With Food is serving up a 3-course episode for you this holiday season! And it’s all about BBQ! BBQ hero Steven Raichlen hosted a PBS show called Barbecue University. And now BBQ U is now a real, live in-person event right here on the Central Coast. The first course is visit to a class of BBQ U. The second course is to find out how BBQ U happen. And our third course is a sit-down with the hero himself, Steven Raichlen. You will be pulling out your grill by the end of this show!
  • Brian Talley of Talley Farms and Talley Vineyards is a lover of food and a dab hand at the BBQ!
    Playing With Food Responsibly
    What does Corporate Social Responsibility have to do with food, and what does food have to do with Corporate Social Responsibility (or CSR)? It has to do with food when a prominent farmer and wine producer in the region operates his businesses on this model…which is having a positive impact on the community.
  • Have you ever seen coffee plants?
    Playing with California Coffee
    Who would have thought that coffee could grow on the California Coast. The Playing With Food Team visited one of the first coffee plantations in California in Morro Bay, and the State's only coffee processing facility in Ventura.