Tom Harte
Host - A Harte Appetite; Former Host - Caffé ConcertoTom Harte is a retired faculty member from Southeast Missouri State University where he was an award-winning teacher, a nationally recognized debate coach, and chair of the department of Speech Communication and Theatre.
A founder of “My Daddy’s Cheesecake,” a bakery/café in Cape Girardeau, a food columnist for The Southeast Missourian, and a cookbook author, he combined his passion for food with his passion for classical music as former host of the daily program, The Caffe Concerto.
An inveterate traveler, as well as a connoisseur of food and classical music, Tom has been to the five major continents and sailed the seven seas in search of great music and great cuisine, delicacies which he enjoys most when consumed simultaneously.
Tom is host of A Harte Appetite.
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Whipped cream, after all, is one of the most decadent preparations of all time. For that matter, even when not whipped, cream, as an ingredient, cannot be beat. -
Though it was not part of the last Olympics, olive oil wrestling is the national sport of Turkey, where an annual tournament has been held since 1346, making it the oldest continuously running, sanctioned sporting competition in the world. -
Though candy corn is available year round, 75% of its annual sales occur around Halloween. Thus each Halloween Americans buy some 35 million pounds of candy corn which works out to about 9 billion kernals. -
The Ritz cracker was a considerable improvement over previous crackers. Not pale or square but golden and round the Ritz was the result of leaving out the leavening and adding more shortening to make a crisper, more buttery product. -
Beethoven was not especially interested in food, sometimes skipping meals altogether when working on a piece. He didn’t know much about cooking, though there is one recorded instance of him donning an apron and preparing a meal for some friends. One of his biographers reports that it was a complete disaster. -
Pancakes are one of the oldest forms of bread known to human kind. And consequently, as food writer Dorian Leigh Parker reminds us, "they are steeped in tradition." As she notes, ancient cultures often celebrated the harvest with religious ceremonies associated with pancakes. -
The origin of hummus is something of a mystery. Some antique cookbooks suggest it was invented in the 12h century for the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria. The name itself derives from the Arabic word for chickpeas. -
Cake mixes have some real advantages over home made. For instance, they’re much more forgiving. Over-beat the batter and they still bake up fine. Under-beat it and the result is nonetheless perfectly acceptable. Take a box cake out of the oven sooner than you should and all will be well. -
You don't have to be from Africa to appreciate couscous. The late Craig Claiborne, for example, called it one of the dozen greatest dishes in the world. -
Most observers say Boston's Parker House Hotel -- where they still bake nearly 200 of them each week invented the version of Boston Cream Pie we know today.
