We chat with Ted Allen about the soaring success of Queer Eye and Chopped, his life behind the scenes and embarrassing encounters with Martha Stewart. Plus, we explore the new German cooking with Meike Peters; Adam Gopnik discusses the role of turkey in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”; and we whip up an apple cake. (Originally aired on December 20, 2019.)

Questions in this episode:

"My husband and I host family for Christmas Eve dinner every year and we always serve white Bolognese. This year we are near doubling the guest count from previous years and we are expecting 20 people. What’s the best way to execute this?"

"What do I do with a winter melon? We were given one and have no idea how to use it."

"I am trying to make a challah bread that will form strands of bread when pulled apart as opposed to a bread that has a fine cake-like crumb. All the recipes I've tried result in a fine textured bread, but not the long strands that I remember from the challah we bought from the bakery when I was a child. Any ideas on what I should do?"

"Last year, I bought a copy of Luisa Weiss' Classic German Baking. She doesn't have a recipe for Christmas Stollen because, as she explains in her book, she tried numerous recipes for traditional Stollen and just couldn't get it right—primarily because of the amount of butter required for the bread, making it difficult to get a good rise. I'd love to try making it for myself instead of buying it prepackaged from the import store but is it really that impossible?"