This Is TASTE

Today on the show we return to the world of New York City restaurants with two great conversations.

Just because Michael Stillman’s father is Alan Stillman, founder of the Smith & Wollensky and TGI Fridays chains, doesn’t mean he grew up wanting to go into the family business. Indeed, Michael grew up in the business, but it took some time for him to get to where he is today: operating Quality Branded, the restaurant group behind Quality Italian, Quality Meats, Don Angie, Bad Roman, and many more. We talk about the current restaurant climate and what inspires Michael to dive headfirst into a restaurant concept. It’s a really cool talk.

And before that, we speak with the incredible chef Emma Bengtsson. Emma is the chef and partner of Aquavit, which is one of my favorite restaurants in New York. Emma joined us in the studio to talk about her cooking career, which started in Sweden and landed in New York City. We discuss Emma’s expert baking, what she enjoys about running a busy kitchen, and much more with one of New York’s top chefs.

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What a terrific episode dedicated to the world of bread. First up is a conversation with Richard Hart, an icon in the clubby world of sourdough. Richard has an amazing story to tell, and we get into his London upbringing and how he ended up in California working at Tartine—but that’s where the story just starts to get good. He then teams up with René Redzepi to open a humble bakery, Hart Bageri, in Copenhagen, and the rest is history. Richard Hart, my friends, is a wonderful guest, and we also talk about his first cookbook, the terrific Richard Hart Bread.

But the bread fun doesn’t stop there. I also have the talented writer and recipe developer Lukas Volger on the show to talk about his book, The Bread Machine Book. Yes, the iconic bread machine now has its own cookbook, with recipes that cover so many different styles. Lukas and I dig into his process for writing recipes for the machine and so much more.

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Tavel Bristol-Joseph is pastry chef and partner at Emmer & Rye, Hestia, Canje, and many other acclaimed restaurants in Austin, Texas, and beyond. He’s also just opened a really cool dessert bar, Nicosi, in San Antonio. In this episode, we talk about Tavel’s early cooking life in New York and how he grew a cheesecake mini empire out of his Brooklyn apartment—well, there were many apartments involved. It’s a great story. We also discuss his move down to Texas and how his unique skills with pastry and restaurant hospitality have made him one of our country’s most important chefs. I really enjoyed getting to hear Tavel’s story.

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt preview some really exciting cookbooks being released this spring. And stay tuned, as we will be back with many more exciting titles hitting bookstores in the next couple of months. Books mentioned on the episode: In the Kusina: My Seasonal Filipino Cooking by Woldy Reyes, Pakistan by Maryam Jillani, Fat + Flour by Nicole Rucker, Salsa Daddy by Rick Martínez, By Heart by Hailee Catalano, Sesame by Rachel Simons, Setting a Place for Us by Hawa Hassan, Every Day with Babs by Barbara Costello, Lugma: Abundant Dishes And Stories From My Middle East by Noor Murad, The Choi of Cooking by Roy Choi.  

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READ MORE:

• TASTE Live at Rizzoli with Barbara Costello
• One of America’s Top Pastry Chefs Just Opened a New Dessert Bar [Robb Report]
• Food & Wine Best New Chefs 2020: Tavel Bristol-Joseph [Food & Wine]

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Cake Zine is an independent literary food magazine cofounded by pastry chef Tanya Bush and TASTE contributing editor Aliza Abarbanel. The newest issue, Daily Bread, explores how bread impacts our lives through ritual, religion, and routine. Today on the show, Aliza invites Tanya into the studio to talk about the editorial process behind this sixth issue and the many cultural meanings baked into bread. 

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: Adam Robert's debut novel, Food Person, is a riot, Odd One Out is our new favorite boba shop, Craig Mod's memoir Things Become Other Things takes a long walk in Japan. Also: Kiki's has long been a favorite restaurant of ours, and you should visit the American Treasure Tour Museum outside Philadelphia.

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MORE FROM CAKE ZINE:

• Daily Bread
• The Temple and the Tradwife [Cake Zine, excerpted in Literary Hub]
• This Is TASTE 437: Cake Zine’s Candy Land

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Jason Stewart is a DJ (playing as Them Jeans) and cohost of How Long Gone, a podcast that dips in and out of the food world with surprising and entertaining frequency. It was so great to have Jason back on the show to talk about where he’s been dining out in Los Angeles and New York, his home cooking stylings, and some of his recent writing for TASTE. 

Also on the show we have a great conversation with Tejal Rao, a critic at large for the Food section of The New York Times. Tejal is based in Los Angeles and wrote a terrific story about Pasadena’s Panda Inn, the parent restaurant of Panda Express. We talk about the restaurant’s legacy while digging into some of Tejal’s recent favorite Los Angeles restaurants.

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MORE FROM JASON STEWART:

• A Year of Los Angeles Dining [TASTE]
• Horses Wakes Up From a Very Bad Dream [TASTE]
• Craig’s Isn’t Fun or Fancy. It’s Forgettable. [TASTE]
• Los Angeles Restaurants Right Now with The Angel’s Emily Wilson [This Is TASTE]

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The weather is cold and the produce selection in the grocery store is smaller, but that's no reason to despair! Chris, Jesse, and Shilpa have the recipe for winter cooking optimism—and the answers to listener questions about homemade broth, frozen veggies, and more. Listen to and follow Bon Appétit's Dinner SOS here.

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It was incredible to sit down with Dana Cowin, a creative force and an important figure in the history of food media. Dana served as the editor in chief of Food & Wine for over two decades, and she’s the founder of Progressive Hedonist, an organization that looks to find joy in purposeful action. In this episode, we go back to hear about the early days of Food & Wine and how Dana had a vision for placing chefs at the center of a magazine’s coverage. Great idea, Dana. We talk about the magazine’s transition from print to digital and what she finds interesting in the world of cooking and restaurants today.

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: Mariscos el Submarino is opening in Clinton Hill, a visit to Hani's bakery in the East Village, Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley is the 2000s indie rock novel you always wanted, Funny Bar is a new downtown bar, and steak frites spot, from the Baby's Alright folks. Also: Ed Zwick's new Hollywood memoir names the names, Strange Delight is doing a great fish-and-three lunch, and L.A. Burdick Chocolates is a new favorite box of chocolates.

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Kristina Cho is an award-winning cookbook author, recipe developer, home cook, baker, food stylist, and photographer. Her terrific debut cookbook, Mooncakes and Milk Bread, won her two James Beard awards, and her follow-up, Chinese Enough, is a big favorite of all of us at TASTE. We were so happy to have Kristina in the studio, where we found out about how she pivoted from a career in architecture to work on food full time. It was a bet that paid off, and we dig into Kristina’s family history and how she writes her incredibly inspired recipes. Kristina and Matt are appearing together at the Tucson Festival of Books on March 15.

Also on the show we have a really fun conversation with Eleanor Wilkinson. She is the author of a very cool new book, One Pot, One Portion.

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Tyler Zielinski is a London-based drinks professional. He’s best known for his work in drinks journalism, writing about bars, cocktails, and other subjects for an array of publications including Punch, Eater, and Food & Wine. In this episode, we talk about his very cool debut book, Tiny Cocktails. What makes a tiny cocktail exactly? Tyler will explain. We also dig into where Tyler likes to drink in his hometown of London and what makes an extraordinary cocktail experience.

Also on the show, we have a great conversation with Bonny Reichert. Bonny is a journalist and author of an incredible memoir, How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love, and Plenty.

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Jeremy Robinson-Leon is the founder of Moonburger, an ambitious chain of restaurants whose core focus is bringing high-quality fast food to the masses. We personally love Moonburger and have visited locations in Kingston and New Paltz, and it’s now operating in Poughkeepsie and Brooklyn. In this episode, we hear about Jeremy’s journey to opening these restaurants and how he enlisted the help of some big-name talent to assist him in developing a signature plant-based patty. We also hear about the company’s pivot to serving beef and what this all means for future expansion plans. We're rooting for Moonburger, and had a great time catching up with its very cool founder. 

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: Cake Zine's Raffle for LA Fire Relief, Care and Feeding by Laurie Woolever is a book you need to read (read twice if you work in food media), you can freeze pancake batter, Janevca in Victoria, British Columbia is a favorite meal of the year. Also: Peaches HotHouse is a staple for fried chicken in Brooklyn, and staying in Canada, Minami in Vancouver opened our eyes to aburi-style sushi.

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Today on the show, we’re doing something a little different: a special travel episode, featuring Aliza and her girlfriend, Shirley Chan. Shirley's a talented cinematographer and also a favorite travel partner. They just came back from a month in Asia visiting Thailand and Shirley's family in Taiwan. In this episode, they dive deep into recs for Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Tainan, with a stopover in Chiang Mai and Bangkok too. It’s a must listen if you’re planning a trip to either country, and even if you’re not, it’s still a lot of fun. 

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MORE FROM ALIZA AND SHIRLEY’S AVENTURE:

• Here’s a Google Map for all the places mentioned on the episode.
• Buy: Made In Taiwan

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Kiera Wright-Ruiz is a food writer and recipe developer based in Tokyo. She’s the author of the very cute children’s book I Want to Be Spaghetti! and now a debut cookbook, My (Half) Latinx Kitchen. It’s a culinary journey of discovery, blending memoir and lots of recipes connecting Kiera’s Ecuadorian and Korean heritage and the extended family of caregivers from across Latin America who helped raise her. Today, in Aliza’s interview, they dig into what it’s like developing Latin American recipes on the other side of the world, Kiera’s favorite restaurants in Tokyo, and more.

Also on the show, Matt has a fun conversation with Anna Hezel. She’s a writer and the former cohost of this very show, and she has launched (with some friends) a cool new project: Best Food Blog. They talk about some of the memorable stories in Best Food Blog’s young life, and some of Anna’s favorite stories from the early days of TASTE.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

MORE FROM KIERA AND ANNA:

• Ceviche de Camarón [TASTE]
• The Aughts-Era "Foodie" Is Dead [Best Food Blog]
• The New Party Food Aesthetic Is Scarcity [Best Food Blog]
• Let’s Call It Assimilation Food [TASTE]

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Caroline Eden is a writer and literary critic. She’s also the author of many terrific food and travel books, including Samarkand, Black Sea, and Red Sands. She has been awarded both the Art of Eating Prize and an André Simon Award, and Red Sands was a book of the year for the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, and the New Yorker. In this episode, we talk about Caroline’s terrific new book, a memoir titled Cold Kitchen. The book is a real journey through parts of Eastern Europe, the Baltic region, and beyond, and it dives into Caroline’s travels through Russia, Bulgaria, Georgia, and many other locations that perhaps don’t get the time they deserve. Caroline is a brilliant reporter and we had such a great time catching up with her.

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Eric Kim has a signature style with his writing, which has appeared frequently in the New York Times, where he is a columnist for the magazine. Eric blends a truly lyrical style of prose with deep reporting chops and a knack for simple and highly focused recipe development—a rare triple threat! He’s also the author of the best-selling cookbook Korean American. This is a return visit to the show for Eric, and we talk about his reporting process, how he unpacks big topics in food and culture in his columns, and some of his recent work, including dumplings, Chicago pizza, the origins of Philadelphia cream cheese, and many other memorable stories.

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt share what’s interesting in the world of restaurants, books, television, food products, and much more. On this episode: Birria La Flor is doing Tijuana-style birria in Brooklyn, Caroline Eden’s great memoir Cold Kitchen, Flour + Water dry pasta is terrific. Also, a Kingston, New York, scene check. Matt visits Pinkerton’s Bakery, Fantzye Bagels, and Sorry, Charlie. Also, also: Severance is a good show, and not Westworld (we hope), and Matt tries Frost Buttercream.

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MORE FROM ERIC KIM:

• It’s Dumpling Week! [NYT]
• What Puts the ‘New York’ in New York Cheesecake? [NYT]
• The Most Surprising Thing About Deep Dish Pizza? It’s Not That Deep. [NYT]

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Emily Wilson is a writer based in Los Angeles and runs the terrific publication The Angel, covering the city’s legendary restaurant scene. On this episode, recorded before the devastating wildfires, we hear about how Emily views her city’s technicolor restaurant scene. What are her favorite places to visit for all occasions? She has quite a list. And check out The Angel’s guide on how to support wildfire recovery efforts.

Also on the show, Matt walks the floor of the Winter Fancy Food Show, an annual trade show featuring the best in grocery and CPG. He spotted a number of exciting discoveries, including:

• Joyus Non-Alcoholic Cabernet Sauvignon
• Spritz King Chipotle Smokey and Spice
• Tanglewood Ginger Spiced Chai
• Mauka Meats Veal Stock
• Island Sausage
• Belle Chevre Spreadable Goat Cheese
• Chalet Cheese 
• Eddy's Homemade Kitchen
• Maazah Magic Sauce
• Eataly CPG
• Vermont Creamery
• Marieke Gouda
• Uncle Waithley's 
• Frost Buttercream
• Tamarind Heads 

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MORE ABOUT LOS ANGELES:

• L.A.'s Most Interesting New Restaurant is a Mile Away from LAX [The Angel]
• Is It a Bar? Or Is It a Restaurant? Who Cares? It’s Sam’s Place [The Angel]
• Southern California Road Trip: Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley [Apple]

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Abi Balingit is the author of Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed, a delightful cookbook full of maximalist personality and transfixing sweets, like the adobo chocolate chip cookie. She’s a singular force in the NYC baking scene, and it’s so fun to have her on the show today to talk about what she’s been up to since publishing her first book, her love of kitsch, and more.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

MORE FROM ABI BALINGIT:

• Adobo Chocolate Chip Cookie [NYT]
• Ube Macapuno Molten Lava Cake and More Maximalist Filipino Desserts from 'Mayumu' [KCRW Good Food]
• Telling Delicious Filipino Food Stories With Chef Abi Balingit [Forbes]

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Today’s episode is all about Dijon mustard, and it brings a couple of mustard lovers into the studio. First up is Jeremy Salamon. He’s the chef-owner of two singular and sensational restaurants in Brooklyn: Agi’s Counter and the newly opened Pitt’s. We talk about what he’s been cooking and all of the creative ways he thinks about using Dijon mustard, even with dessert.

Next up is a real treat—we get to talk with a mustard sommelier. His name is Brandon Collins, and he helps develop recipes for Maille mustard, which is our personal favorite brand. Brandon takes us through some of the company’s history before giving us a taste of some rare Dijons.

This special episode was made in partnership with our friends at Maille.

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Chef Edward Lee is a good friend of ours and one of the most respected voices in American cooking. He’s also one of the stars of the breakout Netflix cooking show Culinary Class Wars, which has earned millions of fans for its unique approach to cooking competition on television. In this episode, we hear all about the production and about how Edward prepared for the competition. We also talk about his new Washington, DC, restaurant, Shia, and his time cooking in New York City in the ’90s at the pioneering restaurant Clay. It’s always so much fun catching up with Edward.

Also on the show, Aliza is back from Asia! Her and Matt catch up about what they've been up to at the start of the year, and discuss how much boba you can drink in a month's time.

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Michael McCarty is the owner of two restaurants, Michael’s in Santa Monica, which opened in 1979, and Michael’s on West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan, which followed a decade later. McCarty is truly the father of California cuisine, at the center of a culinary movement that produced top Los Angeles chefs like Jonathan Waxman, Mark Peel, Nancy Silverton, and many others. I had so much fun having Michael back into the studio, and he was happy to go over his deep history in the American restaurant scene. He also talked about his early days cooking in Paris, and how he ended up in Santa Monica and helped establish the legendary farmers’ market there. It’s Michael, the early years, in this amazing episode.

Also on the show we catch up with Eater Chicago editor Ashok Selvam. He recently wrote about the revival of Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, and how Dylan Trotter is taking a big role in the rebirth.

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MORE FROM MICHAEL MCCARTY:

• This Is TASTE 383: The Father of California Cuisine with Michael McCarty [TASTE]
• A Pioneer of California Cuisine Turns 35 [NYT]

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Today on the show, we welcome one of our favorite writers in the game, Jason Diamond. Jason writes the wonderful newsletter The Melt and has written two books, Searching for John Hughes and The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs. He’s also worked on the truly amazing New York Nico’s Guide to NYC, which we talk about in this great episode. We get into what Jason has been eating and reading, and the Jason Diamond way of life. I always enjoy catching up with Jason, and I hope you enjoy this episode.

Also on the show, we catch up with Vivian Song. Vivian wrote a terrific piece in the New York Times, “It’s Zinc Bar vs. Barista in a Paris Battle of the Buzz,” and we hear all about the shifting coffee scene in Paris.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

MORE FROM JASON DIAMOND:

• The Many Garlics of My Childhood [TASTE]
• Shattering the Jarred Pasta Sauce Stigma [TASTE]
• Luncheon with a Zabar [TASTE]

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Today we have a very special episode. Visit California invited us out of our New York City studio and over to the West Coast for a food-focused road trip around Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley. We start our journey at Mercado González at Northgate Market in Costa Mesa, where Aliza and Matt share an incredible afternoon walking around the mercado looking for pozole, churros, and many more surprises along the way.

We hit the road for our next stop, a visit with Sara Lezama, the owner of Rye Goods, an acclaimed sourdough bakery and deli with three locations throughout Orange County in Newport Beach, Tustin, and Laguna Beach. 

Next on our road trip, we head to the San Gabriel Valley, where journalist Kristie Hang gives us a tour of some of her favorite new and under-the-radar restaurants, including Banh Mi Hoa Phat, Good Alley, and Bistro Na’s.

We stay in the SGV for a conversation with chef Chris Yang of Yang’s Kitchen, which has firmly become one of our favorite restaurants in all of California. To close, Aliza and Matt share many more discoveries from their road trip around Southern California.

More places we visited: Folks Pizzeria, A&J Seafood Shack, Burritos La Palma. 

And a great hotel for your future home base in the SGV is the Hilton San Gabriel.

To donate to California wildfire relief, visit Restaurants Care.      

This very special episode of This Is TASTE is supported by Visit California. While this episode was recorded before the LA wildfires in January, all of the restaurants featured are open for business, and we can’t think of a better time to pay California a visit for your own food-obsessed road trip. Dining out in LA is one way to help support the city, and these truly were some amazing places. Questions about visiting LA now?

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Today we have a very special episode. Visit California invited us out of our New York City studio and over to the West Coast for a food-focused road trip around San Diego and North County, including stops in Carlsbad and Oceanside. We start our journey at the source at the legendary Chino Farm, where three generations of Japanese American Chinos have been growing incredible produce used by chefs throughout California. 

Our next stop is a visit with Jeff Lozano, a brand ambassador at San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing, one of the foundational craft beer makers in a city famous for its great beer. 

The journey then heads up Interstate 5 to Carlsbad, where we catch up with Eric Bost, a prolific chef behind the newly opened Wildland and the soon-to-open tasting menu restaurant Lilo. To close, Aliza and Matt share many more discoveries from their road trip around Southern California.

More places we visited: Rare Society, City Tacos, Tribute Pizza, Wayfarer Bread, Aisu Creamery, Little Fox Cups and Cones, Wrench & Rodent. 

You can visit the Salk Institute for Biological Studies by reserving a spot on a weekly docent-led tour. 

And some great hotels to keep in mind: Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa and the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.

To donate to California wildfire relief, visit Restaurants Care.            

This very special episode of This Is TASTE is supported by Visit California. While this episode was recorded before the LA wildfires in January, all of the restaurants featured are open for business, and we can’t think of a better time to pay California a visit for your own food-obsessed road trip. Dining out in LA is one way to help support the city, and these truly were some amazing places. Questions about visiting LA now?

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In her latest cookbook, Romy Gill’s India, chef and British TV personality Romy Gill shares more than 70 of her beloved family recipes, each a testament to the flavors that define her childhood. From the iconic butter chicken, a beloved staple in every Indian home, to the delicious simplicity of her masala omelette, Romy taps into her personal connection to India. In this episode, we talk about what drives her to write a perfect recipe and how her London home base informs so much of her work.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

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Over the last nine years, journalist Shane Mitchell has braved snakes, fire ants, floods, rallies, marches, protests, pageants, and near heat stroke to write the essays contained in her new collection of work published in The Bitter Southerner. The Crop Cycle: Stories with Deep Roots has Shane traveling throughout the South, uncovering history both past and modern and reporting on major topics such as farm labor, race, gender, and the history of the Georgia peach. Shane has incredible writing chops, and she has contributed memorable stories for TASTE as well. We go over all of it in this terrific episode.

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MORE FROM Shane Mitchell:

• Odd Birds [The Bitter Southerner]
• Kiss My Grits [The Bitter Southerner]
• This Is TASTE 261: Cherry Bombe & The Bitter Southerner [TASTE]
• Buy: Far Afield.

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David Joonwoo Yun has a great story to tell. As one of the partners of New York City Korean restaurants C as in Charlie and Kisa, he’s been at the center of Korean cooking in NYC for a minute. But how did he get here? And how did he and his partners eventually redefine Korean cooking one banchan at a time? We dig into his great story in this terrific episode.

Also on the show we have a great conversation with journalist Mehr Singh, who speaks about her recent TASTE reporting digging into Gen Z cheesemakers. We also talk about her career, and some memorable stories.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

MORE KOREAN FOOD EPISODES:

• This Is TASTE 391: Koreaword with Koreaworld with Cote and Coqodaq’s Simon Kim [Apple]
• This Is TASTE 390: Koreaworld with Eater LA Editor Matthew Kang [Apple]
• This Is TASTE 388: Koreaworld with Doshi's Susan Kim [Apple]

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In Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III, Tom Parker Bowles, award-winning food writer, restaurant critic, and son of Queen Camilla, blends history, monarchy, and gastronomy to provide a fascinating window into the world of royal tastes and traditions as far back as Victorian times. In this episode, we hear about Tom’s reporting on how the Royal Family really eats, and we dig into his long restaurant reviewing career. Finally, we get his take on the food scene in London, and we talk about some unexpected places to find amazing food around the United Kingdom.

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It was a lot of fun having J Lee into the studio. Lee writes for the terrific business and culture (and the culture of business) publication Feed Me and files unflinching restaurant reviews and observations about the state of the food world, from NYC, and points beyond. We wanted to have him in to find out a little bit more about his background, and what got him interested in writing about restaurant culture. We also go over some of his memorable writing, including a very funny takedown of a Midtown newcomer, some Buy/Sell grades, and lots of love for the places doing it right. You can read J in Feed Me, and follow along on IG: carry_bradshaw_

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MORE FROM J. LEE:

• Meet Feed Me's Semi-anonymous Restaurant Critic [Feed Me]
• This Is a Review of a Restaurant with Personality Disorder [Feed Me]
• This Is TASTE 330: Emily Sundberg [Apple]
• This Is TASTE 479: Ryan Sutton [Apple]

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Lisa Cheng Smith is the founder of Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry, an importer, online shop, and brick-and-mortar general store in Brooklyn offering premium ingredients for Taiwanese and Chinese cooking. Yun Hai has quickly established itself as a beating heart of the Taiwanese diaspora here in New York, and in this episode, we talk with Lisa about growing the business into making their own products, where to get great Taiwanese food in NYC, and more.

Also on the show, Clayton and Matt go over their favorite books of 2024, both new and less new!

Clayton's picks: The Stronghold - Dino Buzzati, Three Summers - Margarita Liberaki, In Love - Alfred Hayes, Speedboat, Renata Adler Mating - Norman Rush,The End of Vandalism - Tom Drury, Playboy - Constance Debre, Love Me Tender - Constance Debre, Permafrost - Eva Baltasar, Boulder - Eva Baltasar, Mammoth - Eva Baltasar, The Third Realm - Karl Ove Knausgaard, Long Island Compromise - Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Matt's picks: Great Expectations - Vinson Cunningham, Reboot - Justin Taylor, The Friday Afternoon Club - Griffin Dunne, Real Americans - Rachel Khong, Ghosts - Dolly Alderton, Hard Rain Falling - Don Carpenter, The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead, Chang-Gang All-Stars - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Long Island Compromise - Taffy Brodesser-Akner

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MORE FROM LISA CHENG SMITH

• 9 Recipes for a Vibrant Lunar New Year Celebration [Bon Appétit]
• Yun Hai Taiwan Stories [Substack]

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Nicolas Heller, better known as New York Nico, calls himself the “unofficial talent scout of New York City” with over 1.5 million fans tuning into his Instagram for colorful profiles of a city in flux. He recently published the book New York Nico’s Guide to NYC which is a true insider’s guide to beloved community businesses across the five boroughs, from 200-year-old bars to new-school pizza spots. Nico says it’s not really a guidebook, but a documentation of a city in transition. It’s great having him into the studio to discuss some of his favorite places. 

All of us at TASTE are thinking about our friends in Southern California. If you would like to support wildfire relief efforts, some great places to start are the Displaced Black Families of Altadena GoFund Me Directory and the Los Angeles Food Bank.

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What an absolutely amazing conversation we have here. Malcolm Livingston II is a chef with some serious chops, having spent time in the kitchens at Per Se and Le Cirque and running the pastry program at wd~50 before being named head pastry chef at Noma—all by the age of 28. In this episode, we hear all about Malcolm’s time working at some of the world’s top restaurants, and why he decided to enter the plant-based ice cream game with August. We also find out that Malcolm’s life story is the inspiration for the character Marcus, played superbly by Lionel Boyce, on the TV series The Bear. If you didn’t already know about Malcolm’s incredible career and deep creativity, check out this episode.

MORE wd~50 ALUMNI ON THIS IS TASTE:

• This Is TASTE 500: Christina Tosi
• This Is TASTE 240: Alex Stupak
• This Is TASTE 233: Wylie Dufresne

All of us at TASTE are thinking about our friends in Southern California. If you would like to support wildfire relief efforts, some great places to start are the Displaced Black Families of Altadena GoFund Me Directory and the Los Angeles Food Bank.

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To many, German food is humble comfort food, the kind of food that may not win a beauty award, but more than makes up for it with its power to soothe, nourish and cheer. In her latest book Classic German Cooking, author Luisa Weiss has collected and mastered the essential everyday recipes of Germany and Austria. In this terrific conversation, Luisa shares her personal connection to German cooking while shattering some myths about one of the world’s great cuisines.

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LinYee Yuan is the founder and editor of MOLD, a critically acclaimed online and print publication about design and the future of food, and the founder of Field Meridians, an artist collective committed to strengthening local food ecologies in Brooklyn. It’s so special to have her in the studio for an expansive conversation about using a design framework to reimagine our food systems and the power of examining nature in urban settings. 

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MORE FROM LINYEE YUAN:

• Planting a Food Forest  [MOLD]
• A ‘Nature School’ Meets in Brooklyn [NYTimes]

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Today on the show we have conversations with two terrific chefs in New York City. First up is Suzanne Cupps. She’s the chef-owner of Lola’s in the Flatiron District. The cooking there made Matt’s top meals list of 2024, and in this conversation she opens up about her cooking career, and her unique place in the NYC restaurant scene.

Also on the show is a great conversation with Harold Dieterle. He is the winner of Top Chef Season 1, and we talk all about his long career in New York City and the ups and downs of chef life. We are such big Harold fans at TASTE. Note: Il Totano closed on January 6, 2025. We await an exciting reboot.

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MORE FROM SUZANNE CUPPS & HAROLD DIETERLE:

• Home Cooking So Good, Only a Restaurant Could Do It [NYT]
• Ryan Sutton on Harold Dieterle [Eater]

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London chef and author Yotam Ottolenghi puts out cookbooks that meet at the intersection of practical and cool—with a recipe development process that is part Warhol’s Factory, part Bon Appétit Test Kitchen, and pure Ottolenghi. After tackling baking with his terrific book Sweet, and before that putting Israeli cooking on the international stage with Jerusalem, he most recently tackled the concept of comfort with his incredible new book Comfort. In this conversation, we consider the many ways comfort food is served around the world, and how personal preference plays a major part in the quest for ultimate comfort. The result is a conversation that circles the globe and brings one of my all-time favorite recipe writers into focus. 

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We loved catching up with legendary Seattle chef Renee Erickson. She is the chef-owner of The Walrus and the Carpenter, The Whale Wins, Barnacle, and several other restaurants in that great American restaurant city. She is also the author of a unique new book, Sunlight and Breadcrumbs, that explores creativity in and out of the kitchen and how the process of making everyday food can result in much more than dinner. It’s a really smart way to think about home cooking, and I enjoyed catching up with Renee to talk about her collection of recipes.

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Today’s episode is really special. It’s a conversation with Innis Lawrence, who runs restaurants in one of our favorite towns in New York: Kingston! Innis operates the restaurants Ollie’s, Eliza, and the market and charcuterie shop Fletcher & Lu, three anchors in the upstate New York scene. On this episode we talk all about Kingston, a wonderful place just outside New York City that is home to some incredible restaurants and people. We talk about why there are so many chefs moving to this town upstate, and go over several must-visit spots.

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Harry Tannenbaum is the cofounder and president of Mill, a tech company aiming to reduce food waste with a “food recycler” that turns kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich grounds. Prior to Mill, he led analytics and e-commerce at Nest and worked on Google’s hardware team. It’s so fascinating having Harry on the show to nerd out on sustainability, food waste, and more.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

READ MORE ABOUT HARRY TANNENBAUM:

• I’m a Private Chef, and I Saved 622 Pounds of Food Waste From the Landfill [Saveur]
• One Year Later Mill Has An Even Better Next-Gen Food Recycler [Forbes]

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Steve Hoffman is a Minnesota tax preparer and food writer. And according to Steve, “When he dies, the tax-preparer-food-writer industry will die with him.” He is a French speaker and a shameless Francophile, and his love of France shines through in his terrific memoir, A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France. Steve writes with great detail and care about uprooting his family to live in rural France and the many twists and turns—and disappointments and revelations—that came with this big life change. If you ever dream of moving abroad to live a different life, this is the episode for you. A cautionary tale? Perhaps. But Steve is such a delight in telling his story that it may have you considering moving anyway.

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The Four Horsemen is a restaurant in Brooklyn. Have you been there? Have you drank some wine there? Had some of the restaurant’s bread and cultured butter? It’s an amazing place up on Grand Street in Williamsburg, and it has marked ten years in the game with an incredible new cookbook. In this episode, we speak with the restaurant’s longtime chef, Nick Curtola. Nick is one of New York’s most consistent and skilled chefs and a real culinary force. We talk about the restaurant’s legacy and how its humble beginnings have led to greatness, and we dig into his own personal journey in the restaurant business.

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt pay tribute to the iconic Williamsburg wine bar and share some favorite memories from dining there over the years.

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READ MORE ABOUT THE FOUR HORSEMEN:

• Remembering Justin Chearno, Natural Wine Advocate [F&W]
• This Is TASTE 48: James Murphy & Nick Curtola [Apple]

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Today is Christmas, and chances are that in the next week you will enjoy seafood of some kind—freshly shucked oysters, line-caught halibut, or perhaps some smoked salmon stacked atop a bagel. We love seafood to cook at home or to order at restaurants, but do we recognize the people who bring this incredible product to our fish markets and to Whole Foods? Enter Hannah Heimbuch, an Alaskan salmon fisherman with quite the story to tell. In this conversation, we find out about how she works tirelessly during the summer salmon run, and how wild-caught Alaskan seafood has a long journey to our ovens and grills. 

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We really enjoyed having our friend the chef Danny Lee into the studio. Danny is one of the most influential chefs and restaurant operators in Washington, DC, running some of our all-time favorite Korean restaurants in America, including Mandu and Anju, the award-winning restaurant he operates with chef Angel Barreto. In this episode, we talk about Danny’s journey and what it’s like to run a restaurant with his mom. We also discuss the rise of Korean American food and culture in the United States. It’s such a great conversation with one of the brightest stars in all of food. I hope you enjoy it.

Also on the show we have a terrific interview with Simon Kim. Simon is the guy behind some of the buzziest restaurants in New York, including Cote Korean Steakhouse and the new fried chicken palace Coqodaq. Simon and Matt go way back, and this conversation covers Simon’s rise through the restaurant ranks, having worked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Thomas Keller before debuting with the stellar Piora in 2013. We talk about how he grew up on Long Island and helped his mom open the pioneer Tribeca Korean restaurant Kori, while finding out what the rise of Korean food in America has meant to him. 

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Dan Keeling is the cofounder and editor of Noble Rot magazine, a restaurateur behind the Noble Rot restaurant group in London, and the cofounder of Keeling Andrew wine importer. He’s also the author of a great new book about wine: Who’s Afraid of Romanée-Conti?: A Shortcut to Drinking Great Wines. We spoke with Dan about his singular point of view on wine, his past life as head of artists and repertoire at Parlophone Records, and how to go about finding a great glass at the bar. 

Also on the show, Alana Yazzi tells us about her terrific new book, The Modern Navajo Kitchen: Homestyle Recipes that Celebrate the Flavors and Traditions of the Diné.

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MORE FROM DAN KEELING:

• How I Learned That Serious Wine Doesn’t Have to Be Stuffy [Slate]
• All the Natural Wine That’s Fit To Print [TASTE]

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It’s been a very busy year for our two guests, Chris Hansell of Chrissy’s Pizza and Brooks Headley of Superiority Burger. Brooks finally came back on the show! I really, really enjoyed this conversation with two big thinkers and, dare I say, dreamers. As former musicians, each is rooted in the punk-rock ethic and aesthetic, and we talk about how visual identity and dedication to craft dovetail with music and food in a unique way. Chris shares the story of his journey to pizza, from apartment pop-up to one of the buzziest openings in New York this year. And Brooks reflects on two years of Superiority Burger on Avenue A and his continued obsession for finding the highest-quality produce for his cooking in the East Village. What a fun talk!

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Kamal Kamal is a food collaborator and art director based in New York. He’s a co-owner of Baba’s Pantry, his family’s beloved Palestinian restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, which is a flourishing community space that has won fans and acclaim since opening in 2022. It’s so special to have Kamal on the show to talk about his family’s food traditions and plans for expansion. 

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt go over some of their favorite meals from 2024, featuring both new and established restaurants. These include: Strange Delight, Lola's, Familyfriend, Yang's Kitchen, Quarter Sheets, Ruen Pair, Shang Artisan Noodle, Win Kee HK BBQ and Noodle, Pantera Pizza Garbatella, Taqueria Ramirez, Mariscos El Submarino, Agi's Counter, Shree Thaker Bhojanalay, Jeju, Flavourtown, and Cafe Yen.

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MORE FROM KAMAL KAMAL:

• It's 'Not Just a Middle Eastern Restaurant.' It's Palestinian [Bon Appétit]
• How One Family Dropped Everything to Help Their Father Open a Palestinian Cafe [Bon Appétit]

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We’ve long been fans of the Big Green Egg, the kamado-style ceramic charcoal grill and smoker that has a legitimate cult following. The fans are called Eggheads (for real), and leading the company is CEO Dan Gertsacov, who joins us for a really great conversation. Dan is the rare corporate executive who is truly a home cooking and food geek, in the best way. We talk to Dan about how we became fans of the Atlanta-based company, and its unique approach to generating loyalty. We also get into Dan’s world travels and his previous time leading strategy at McDonald’s.

Also on the show, cookbook author Bryan Ford tells us about his terrific new book, Pan y Dulce: The Latin American Baking Book (Pastries, Desserts, Rustic Breads, Savory Baking, and More)

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Mahira Rivers is a freelance writer and restaurant critic based in New York City. Formerly an anonymous inspector for the Michelin Guide, she’s now writing the desserts-focused newsletter Sweet City and contributing to many publications, including TASTE. We had Mahira on the show to talk about her distinct point of view on food culture today, from her childhood in Hong Kong to challenging Eurocentricity in restaurant writing. It’s a great episode for anyone curious about food. 

Also on the show, Jordan Michelman stops by for an entertaining chat about how mineral water is bubbling up in the zeitgeist (though not fast enough), as well as thoughts on his recent profile of a tea influencer, the Chateau Marmont, modern coffee, and many other topics.  

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MORE FROM MAHIRA RIVERS & JORDAN MICHELMAN:

• Turns Out Now Is the Golden Era for Fusion Cuisine [Resy]
• We Need More Shrimp Burgers In Our Lives [TASTE]
• The Extremely Online Tea Guy [TASTE]
• Mineral Water Gets the Silent Treatment [TASTE]

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Emily Schildt wants food shopping to be a more fun and mind-expanding experience, and with her company, Pop Up Grocer, she’s getting customers closer to that destination. Emily is back in our studio to talk about some of her favorite products that she’s selling at her amazing New York City store, and how she sorts through the thousands of new brands to land on her always-rotating shelves.

Also on the show is the founder of one of Emily’s favorite brands. PJ Monte is behind Monte’s Fine Foods, a historically rich (and legitimately incredible) New York City pasta sauce company. PJ has an amazing story to tell, and we get into how he took his family’s sauce recipe, made famous at their restaurant on Long Island, and hustled it onto the shelves of major retailers.

And finally, we hear from Tuệ Nguyễn, a.k.a. TwayDaBae, about her terrific new book: Đi Ăn: The Salty, Sour, Sweet and Spicy Flavors of Vietnamese Cooking With TwayDaBae.

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READ MORE ABOUT POP-UP GROCER AND MONTE'S FINE FOODS:

• The 2024 Guide to Holiday Gifting [Pop Up Grocer]
• How Monte’s Fine Foods is Embracing ‘Tomato Girl Summer’ [Marketing Brew]
• This Is TASTE 127: Pop Up Grocer [TASTE]  

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Snaxshot, the curatorial and slightly mercurial grocery newsletter and community, has grown into an industry force, read by CPG executives and members of food media on a near-religious level. (We are among these readers.) Andrea Hernández returns to the show to go over the big headlines from the year at the grocery store and in the CPG trenches. We cover so many buzzy brands and established warhorses in this conversation, and we tap into some generational divides when it comes to the quick-moving world of grocery. If you have any interest in the future of packaged foods as well as restaurant chains, this is the episode for you.

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: Culinary Class Wars hell yes, Vinson Cunningham's amazing debut novel, Great Expectations, is full of surprises, B&H Dairy in the East Village is a living legend, The Odeon kind of rules right now, Mezcla energy bars is plant-protein at its best, Tony's Chocolonely milk chocolate gingerbread bars leads to a conversation about Harry Potter!

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READ MORE FROM SNAXSHOT:

• The New Grocer [Snaxshot]
• Kardashian Snack Brand [Snaxshot]
• This Is TASTE 217: Snaxshot [TASTE]

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We had to break in on a Saturday with this very cool conversation with Melissa Clark. Melissa is a prolific cookbook author who wears several hats at the New York Times, where she’s currently a food reporter, recipe columnist, and the interim restaurant critic, serving alongside Priya Krishna. We’ve really enjoyed Melissa’s recent string of reviews, most of all her latest report from New York City and Napa, where she gave Thomas Keller’s pioneering restaurants, Per Se and the French Laundry, a fresh set of eyes. The review is a wild ride, and the internet was all over it. How did Melissa find her meals, and what does the current state of the Keller empire say about the modern age of fine dining? We go over it all in this great talk.

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MORE FROM MELISSA CLARK:

• Are the French Laundry and Per Se Still Worth a Splurge? [NYT]
• Iced Peppermint Cookies [NYT]
• This Is TASTE 454: Dining in Disguise with Priya Kirshna, Interim New York Times Restaurant Critic [Apple]
• This Is TASTE 216: Pete Wells [Apple]

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Yemi Amu is the founder and director of Oko Farms, a beloved community-based aquaponics farm cultivating fish alongside produce in New York City. After a decade of growing food in several locations across Brooklyn, including three years in Williamsburg, Oko Farms unexpectedly had their lease terminated this November. They’re forced to pack up the farm and find a new location, and today on the show, Yemi is sharing more about their search and the power of aquaponics.

Also on the show Matt has a great conversation with writer Joshua David Stein about Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America package, which was released this week. We go over some of his favorite restaurants around the country. Cincinnati represent! We also talk about his recent cookbook work, and what it’s like to collaborate with Tom Colicchio.  

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MORE FROM YEMI AMU:

• A New Way of Raising Fish—and Vegetables—in New York [The Guardian]
• A Farm Grows in Bushwick Thanks to One Woman’s Vision [Vogue]

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Jon Bonné is an erudite observer of food and culture trends and the author of many books, including the monumental, two-volume The New French Wine. In this episode, we talk about what Jon’s been eating, drinking, and writing about in the world of restaurants, wine, and food culture. We discuss the many perceptions of the “wine bar,” and we dive into some of Jon’s restaurant reporting at Resy, where he serves as managing editor. 

Also on the show we hear from Leila Heller talking about her new book, Persian Feasts: Recipes & Stories from a Family Table.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

More From Jon Bonné:

• This Is TASTE 213: Jon Bonné [TASTE]
• 10 Changes That Defined the Last Decade of Dining in America [Resy]
• Is Oregon Wine’s True Soulmate the Loire Valley? [PUNCH]
• A Good NA Martini Is Possible [TASTE]

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Vaughn Vreeland is a supervising video producer overseeing the test kitchen studio team for NYT Cooking. He’s also a passionate baker and home cook, and he develops recipes for the Times. Today we had Vaughn in the studio to talk about what happens behind the scenes and about bringing the annual cookie package to life.

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt talk through their go-to holiday baking recipes, as well as mention a couple they each will be trying out. Lastly, they strategize their entries for the 2nd annual Crown Publishing Group office cookie contest, which they will be entering in.

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MORE FROM VAUGHN: 

• Meet Your New Thanksgiving Pie [NYT Cooking]
• How to Make the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie ... Even Better? [YouTube]

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All fall, Aliza and Matt have been talking about many of the season’s new cookbooks, from the biggest “influencer” books to baking, memoir, biography, and the return of restaurant books to the mix. Here is a recap of some of their favorites from the busy fall—and a solid reminder that cookbooks make amazing gifts! If you like one of the titles mentioned, pick up a copy at one of our favorites stores, including Now Serving (Los Angeles), Omnivore Books (San Francisco), Kitchen Arts & Letters (New York City), Book Larder (Seattle), Golden Hour Books (Newburgh, NY), Bookbug (Kalamazoo, MI), or your preferred independent bookstore.

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David Gelb is the the creator of Chef’s Table, the long-running Netflix documentary series that takes viewers inside the world of restaurants and chefs. David is also the director of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the acclaimed documentary capturing the idiosyncratic world of master sushi chef Jiro Ono. In this episode, we talk about the creation of Chef’s Table and how the show invented a new vocabulary for food documentary filmmaking. We discuss the latest season as well as special seasons dedicated to barbecue, noodles, pizza, and French chefs. David is one of my favorite creators in the food world, and I loved catching up with him.

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: The horchata latte at Ursula in Brooklyn, Mundos Roasters in Traverse City, Michigan is doing great work. Also, Lucas Sin's Street Eats series on YouTube is such a great resource, a Chrissy's Pizza scene report, and there's a new NA Negroni in town: Lapo's. Lastly, an Oscars race update with Clayton jumping on the mic.

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Gary He wrote the coolest book! Gary is an accomplished journalist and photographer who has contributed memorable stories to Eater for years. But his book about McDonald’s, McAtlas: A Global Guide to the Golden Arches, is truly groundbreaking in its scope, telling the story of the multinational chain from Mexico and Denmark to India and Japan. In this episode, we talk about Gary’s travels to McDonald’s in over 50 countries on six continents, and we get to hear more about how specialty menu items change with the culture and terroir. It’s a fascinating deep dive into one of the world’s most iconic brands.

Also on the show we hear from Alexander Smalls talking about his new book, The Contemporary African Kitchen: Home Cooking Recipes from the Leading Chefs of Africa. 

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It’s our 500th episode! Thank you to everyone who has been following along since 2018 and to those who are brand-new to our universe. We had to mark this big episode with one of our absolute favorites in the world of baking, business, and cookbook writing. Christina Tosi is the founder of the singular Milk Bar bakery and the author of many must-own cookbooks. Her latest is her best one yet: Bake Club: 101 Must-Have Moves for Your Kitchen tackles all the baking questions (and perhaps struggles) home bakers might have. We talk about what makes a great weekend baking project and how some recipes are ideal for the time-strapped. Tosi talks about the good-old Momofuku days and how a big life change is making her rethink her own cooking habits. Also, the holiday Reese's ranked! Thank you again for all the wonderful messages over the years! We love hearing from you and bringing you our show a couple times each week.

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: Aliza's birthday, including trips to Pastis and the Alvin Ailey retrospective at The Whitney, the Baldor x The Sussmans collab is really fun, as is The Shirtosphere. Also, a box grater PSA, Malcolm Livingston II's August Novelties is incredible, JJ Johnson is previewing a cool new restaurant concept, Aquavit's bar room menu is the perfect way to try high-caliber Swedish cooking in NYC.

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Every year we await the release of The Best American Food Writing. It’s a sharp collection of works from around the world of food media, and it always brings surprises. This year was no different, and the collection’s new editor, Jaya Saxena, tells us about her selection process. We also dig into her own journalism career. She’s one of our favorite writers at Eater, and we talk about some memorable stories she’s written there as well as for TASTE.  

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Clayton and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: the B.O. Boys, Saturday Night is actually good, the Seoul Meets Bagel at Between the Bagel, Bruce Eric Kaplan's look inside Hollywood screenwriting in They Went Another Way. Two more books: Mammoth by Eva Baltasar and William by Mason Coile. Also, a reminder that Zingerman's has the best holiday gifts, Little Flower Cafe in Astoria is a lovely place, Daniela Galarza's broccolini parmesan soup rules, and Mombard has invented quite the sandwich.

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What a fun conversation with the one and only Bobby Flay. Bobby joins us in the studio to talk about his New York City restaurant career, including highly memorable restaurants Mesa Grill, Bolo, Gato, and Bar Americain. We dig into why Mesa Grill was such a groundbreaking idea in the early 1990s and how his cooking there brought Southwest flavors into the mainstream. We also discuss how beating Bobby actually means beating Bobby, and we talk about some classic Iron Chef episodes as well as his great new cookbook, Bobby Flay: Chapter One.

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: It's persimmon season (we have thoughts), Atlanta's Breaker Breaker is extremely chill, New York's 99 Favor Taste is the best birthday spot, Camilla Marcus wrote a really cool book, My Regenerative Kitchen. Also, some thoughts on cooking beans, when are beans really a "meal", and a reminder about how much we love the book Cool Beans. Lastly, the chicken Big Mac is very bad, and the new episodes of Chef's Table are very, very good. Stay tuned for an episode with Chef's Table creator David Gelb very soon.

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MORE FROM BOBBY FLAY:

• Bobby Flay Taught Ina Garten His Go-To Easy Pasta [F&W]
• Bobby Flay owes his career to an Easy-Bake Oven [Today]
• Don't Sleep on Pinto Beans [TASTE]

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We’ve long been fans of cookbook author and creative thinker Molly Baz, and many of you have too. With a signature voice and absolutely wild recipe development skills (as well as years of professional cooking under her belt), Molly has won over millions of fans worldwide. Her cookbooks Cook This Book and More Is More are both New York Times Best Sellers, and she returns to the show to give us some big updates, including what restaurants she has been enjoying in Los Angeles. We also talk about her jump into the CPG game with the launch of a new line of flavored mayonnaise: Ayoh!

Also on the show, Clayton and Matt taste their way through Ayoh! to see if the dill pickle flavor is really hitting.

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MORE FROM MOLLY BAZ

• A Cacio e Pepe Gets Drunk and Breaks the Rules [TASTE]
• Molly Baz Shares the Must-Have Recipe of the Season [Glamour]
• Baz to Basics [TASTE]

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As we approach our 500th episode, we are bringing back two memorable episodes from 2018, our first year of the podcast. Samin Nosrat is a chef and the author of the legendary cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat. This episode was our very first, and it was recorded at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn on July 12, 2018. We talked to Samin about “too-mami” (cooking with too much umami), angry letters, and the differences between brands of kosher salt—that is, not all kosher salt is the same. 

Also on the show is a great conversation with Flynn McGarry. He’s the chef-owner of Gem Wine and Gem Home in New York City. In this episode, we discuss his time working at Los Angeles restaurant Alma at age 13, while being homeschooled, and his famous pop-ups even earlier in his career. The journey is all documented in the great film Chef Flynn, and we get into Flynn’s many travels and eventual business opening in NYC—the most competitive and cutthroat restaurant city in America.

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Nicola Lamb is a pastry chef and recipe developer based in London. After training in some of London and New York’s top bakeries, like Dominique Ansel, Ottolenghi, and Happy Endings, she launched the pop-up bakery lark! and the popular newsletter Kitchen Projects—and now she’s written a wonderful debut cookbook, Sift, that’s truly the most comprehensive baking book I’ve read in years. It’s so fun to have Nicola on the show to nerd out about pastry process and much more.

Also on the show, Matt has a great conversation with Hetal Vasavada discussing her great new cookbook, Desi Bakes: 85 Recipes Bringing the Best of Indian Flavors to Western-Style Desserts.

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MORE FROM NICOLA LAMB & HETAL VASAVADA:

• Kitchen Projects [Substack]
• A crash course in better baking: Ella Risbridger meets Nicola Lamb [Financial Times]
• Badam Burfi Bark [NYT]

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Lisa Kyung Gross is the founder and CEO of the League of Kitchens, an immigrant-led, home-based cooking school that launched in New York City in 2014. Its instructors are 14 mothers and grandmothers from Indonesia, Mexico, Lebanon, Burkina Faso, and beyond, and now their culinary wisdom is being preserved in a new book: The League of Kitchens Cookbook. It’s truly so special having Lisa on the show to talk about how she finds these instructors and how the book came to life. 

Also on the show we hear from Rogelio Garcia talking about his new book Convivir: Modern Mexican Cuisine in California's Wine Country.

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Tom Colicchio joined us in the studio for a really amazing conversation. Tom is a longtime chef and behind the restaurants Craft, Gramercy Tavern, and dozens more. He’s also the longtime head judge on the show Top Chef. Tom just released his memoir (with recipes), Why I Cook, and we get into how he’s long been at the heart of culinary innovation and policy. We talk about his early days cooking in New York City and how he came together with Danny Meyer and many others to invent a new style of restaurant cooking that is still influential today. We also discussed the recent election—and his thoughts on possibly running for US Congress. 

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MORE FROM TOM COLICCHIO:

• Caviar and Cocaine [Town and Country]
• Tom Colicchio on how cooking saved his life [MSNBC]

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Angelo Sosa is one of the most talented chefs we’ve gotten to know, and he’s currently the chef at the new restaurants Tía Carmen and Carmocha at the Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort & Villas near Palm Springs, California. Angelo was also the runner up on Top Chef and has worked with some of the biggest names in the game, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Alain Ducasse, Stephen Starr, and Masaharu Morimoto. In this episode, we talk about his move to the Greater Palm Springs area and the exciting high desert cuisine he’s serving. 

Also on the show, Matt talks about his recent visit to Palm Springs and digs into the region's restaurants, both established and brand-new. Palm Springs is such an underrated food town, and we have some great recommendations including Bar Cecil, Tia Carmen, Lola Rose at the new Thompson Hotel Palm Springs, The Modern Tour, Maleza, and Billy Reeds forever.  

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MORE FROM ANGELO SOSA:

• Angelo Sosa, Richard Blais Open New Restaurants in the Coachella Valley [Palm Springs Life]
• This Is TASTE 350: Angelo Sosa [TASTE]

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James Beard Award–winning pastry chef Dominique Ansel has shaken up the pastry world with innovation and creativity at the heart of his work. As chef-owner of eponymous bakeries around the world, Ansel has been responsible for creating some of today’s most popular pastries, including the Cronut, the Cookie Shot, the Frozen S’more, and the Blossoming Hot Chocolate. But where did Dominique Ansel come from, and how did his time working with Daniel Boulud and throughout France help him create the most iconic foods of a generation? It’s a great talk with the great Cronut Daddy about his new book, Life’s Sweetest Moments.

Also on the show, Matt has a great conversation with Emma Impavido, Director of Educational Travel Programs at Academic Travel Abroad. Emma and Matt work together on TASTE Travels, and they discuss why organized travel is as popular as ever. They also dig into the countries people are visiting specifically for the food, as well as talk about the upcoming TASTE Travels in 2025, including a spring trip to Mexico City.

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MORE FROM DOMINIQUE ANSEL:

• The Cronut Flavor Dominique Ansel Is Dying To Make [Chowhound]
• The Mind Behind the Cronut Just Launched a Dessert Soup Dumpling [F&W]
• TASTE Travels Mexico City [TASTE]

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Amadou Ly is the baker-owner of ALF Bakery, a destination for delights like mushroom danishes and laminated baguettes in New York City’s Chelsea Market. After 18 years of jobs in restaurants, from dishwasher to pastry chef to chocolatier, he apprenticed under Roger Gural at the iconic Arcade Bakery. Arcade closed, and now he’s making some of the most exciting bread and pastries in the city at ALF. In this episode, we talk about the craftsmanship, technique, and passion that guides his work.

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt talk about their home bread baking journeys. Does one co-host (hint: Matt) aspire to bake more bread in the coming months, and start a bread practice? Does Aliza have a “bread person” past? They also talk about some great recent bread baking books that can help kick-start this journey.  

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MORE FROM AMADOU LY:

• Meet the West African Baker Reshaping French Pastry [Atlas Obscura]
• ​​Inside the Menu at the New Spot From an Alum of the Legendary Arcade Bakery [Eater]
• This Is TASTE 488: There's a Bread Baker Inside All of Us with David Tamarkin [TASTE]

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Julia Turshen is the author of four cookbooks, including the new release What Goes With What: 100 Recipes, 20 Charts, Endless Possibilities. It’s a comprehensive guide to building cooking intuition and transforming odds and ends into a meal, and we had a great conversation live at Rizzoli bookstore all about making the book come to life, plus things like body acceptance and what constitutes queer food. We hope you’ll enjoy it. 

Take our listener survey! We'd love to to hear who we should invite into our studio for an interview and TASTE Check.

MORE FROM JULIA TURSHEN:

• Keep Calm and Cook On [Substack]
• My Mom Was a Magazine Editor in the ’90s. We’re Finally Talking About What It Did to Our Body Image [SELF]
• This Is TASTE 22: Julia Turshen [TASTE]

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Wow, we love David Tamarkin so much, and this is such a great interview. We’re old friends and have been reading David since he worked at Time Out Chicago and Epicurious—and he’s now the editorial director at King Arthur Baking Company. He returns to our studio to discuss the company’s terrific new book, a real doorstop called The Big Book of Bread. As the title suggests, this is the cooperative flour company’s bread magnum opus, and we talk about all of it with David.

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: Le Veau d'Or scene report, Bawi has an amazing new flavor, Z&Z za'atar & manoushe company did a great pop-up in NYC, and has a very cool story. Also, a reminder that Dayglow sells an amazing selection of coffee and is making the most-exciting cold coffee drinks on the planet.

Also! The Fort Greene dog parade had some food-themed costumes, and an Erewhon scene report including some new discoveries from Kelsi's Kitchen, Mid-Day Squares, Lexington Bakes, Cove Soda, and Zab's pepper sauce.

Take our listener survey! We'd love to to hear who we should invite into our studio for an interview and TASTE Check.

MORE FROM DAVID TAMARKIN:

• No-Knead Crusty White Bread [King Arthur]
• We Don’t Need to Be Saved From Making Smoothies [NYT]
• This Is TASTE 162: David Tamarkin [TASTE]
• We Hit Peak Beverage [TASTE]

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Nicolas Jammet is a cofounder of the megapopular salad and protein plate seller Sweetgreen and the company’s chief concept officer. We’ve been reporting on Sweetgreen since its early days, witnessing its evolution from a humble Washington, DC, storefront to a publicly traded company. How has Nic negotiated this incredible trajectory? We find out about his journey, his deep connection to the restaurant industry, and what gets him excited to show up to work each day. We also learn about some of the company’s big plans for the future, and how he thinks about culinary development for a restaurant chain with over 250 locations across the United States. This is such a great talk with somebody I deeply admire in food. I hope you enjoy it.

Also on the show, Aliza takes a trip to Seattle and Portland, with stops at: Sophon, Familyfriend, Hatyai, and some crabbing! 

Take our listener survey! We'd love to to hear who we should invite into our studio for an interview and TASTE Check.

MORE FROM NIC JAMMET:

• Is Steak a Health Food Now? [GQ]
• How Old-School French Food Inspired Sweetgreen [Bon Appetit]
• For America’s Best Teriyaki, Head West (and Bring Napkins) [TASTE]

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We really, really love what Rob Martinez is doing on YouTube and TikTok. Rob is behind the voice and visuals of Eating With Robert, a delightful series of dispatches from restaurants around the world. As we find out in this interview, Rob has a film background and started his own feed as a way of highlighting his favorite New York City pizzerias, diners, Egyptian fish grills, and Turkish kebab sellers. Rob is doing the work, scouting and shooting the types of places journalists like Jonathan Gold, Ligaya Mishan, and Robert Sietsema became famous for writing about. Rob is as much of a “food writer” as any of us in the industry, and it was cool to learn about his approach, and some of his favorite places around the world.

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: The re-opening of Brooklyn’s Kellogg’s Diner in Brooklyn, Lola’s is one of our favorite new NYC restaurants, Famille du Vin canned wines are so good (and shoutout to Leitz Eins Zwei Zero Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Riesling too), Eater LA published a terrific package of stories about the new restaurant influencers, and how TikTok is transforming Los Angeles’s dining scene one swipe at a time. Also, some thoughts on the new New York Chinatown restaurant Bridges, and we finally made it to Yang’s Kitchen in the San Gabriel Valley and it totally delivers.

Take our listener survey! We'd love to to hear who we should invite into our studio for an interview and TASTE Check.

MORE FROM ROB MARTINEZ:

• Lodi’s Pizza [TikTok]
• Kebab Cafe [TikTok]
• The Original Influencers [Eater LA]

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Ben Mims is a cookbook author, food writer, and recipe developer based in Los Angeles. He’s worked at major media outlets like the Los Angeles Times, Food & Wine, Saveur, and Lucky Peach, and he’s the author of the great new baking book Crumbs: Cookies and Sweets from Around the World. Crumbs is something of a cookie encyclopedia, sharing the old-world history and contemporary adaptations of global cookie traditions like Italian Waffle Cookies and Okinawan Brown Sugar Shortbread. In this episode, Ben goes deep on his lengthy research and recipe development process.

Also on the show Aliza and Matt talk about a recent trip Philadelphia, a great food town. Mentioned on the episode: Cookbooks and Convos, Palizzi Social Club, Ray's Cafe & Tea House, South Philly Barbacoa, Meeting House, High Street, Zahav, Kalaya.

Take our listener survey! We'd love to to hear who we should invite into our studio for an interview and TASTE Check.

MORE FROM BEN MIMS

• Crumbs [official]
• It’s Comfort Cooking Season: Recipes for the Start of Fall [LA Times]
• This Is TASTE 481: Fall Cookbooks with Nok Suntaranon of Kalaya's Southern Thai Kitchen

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Betül Tunç is one of the true breakout food stars of the past couple of years. But do you really know Betül Tunç? We’re thrilled to have Betül on the show for her first podcast interview to talk about how she brought her iconic recipes to life via social videos that transport viewers to destinations both near and far. We talk about her life growing up in Turkey and her move to the United States, first to Wisconsin and later Virginia. Finally, we cover her terrific debut cookbook, Turkuaz Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Dough Recipes for Sweet and Savory Bakes. It’s a book based around cooking (and baking) with dough, a unique approach that unlocks a new world of home kitchen adventures. 

Take our listener survey! We'd love to to hear who we should invite into our studio for an interview and TASTE Check.

MORE FROM Betül Tunç:

• Turkish Chicken Döner [IG]
• Meet Culinary Virtuoso Betül Tunç of Turkuaz Kitchen [Anthropologie]

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Justine Doiron is on the show today, and we have a great conversation about all areas of her very cool career. Justine is the founder, recipe developer, and food stylist behind the viral social media accounts @Justine_Snacks. In this episode, we of course talk about her terrific new book, Justine Cooks, as well as what gets her up and cooking each day. 

Also on the show Aliza and Matt talk about fall cookbooks they are enjoying, all from restaurants! These include: Mangal II, Café Cecilia, The Four Horsemen, Kalaya's Southern Thai Kitchen.

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MORE FROM JUSTINE DOIRON:

• Butternut Squash Pizza with Crispy Sage & Hot Honey [Justine Snacks]
• My Most-Used Items! [Justine Snacks]
• Everyone Likes a Different Chocolate Chip Cookie [YouTube]
• The Balthazar Cookbook: My Personal Cooking School [TASTE]

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Sue S. Chan is an expert marketer, brand builder, and all-around busy bee on the global food scene. She was Momofuku’s first brand director, and in this episode we go back to her time helping to build the David Chang empire (and figuring out how to tell DC what to do). She later founded her own agency, Care of Chan, which has become a go-to for major fashion and retail brands looking to engage with the food world.

Also on the show is PJ Vogt, a recognizable figure in the world of public radio and podcast. He’s currently the host of one of our favorite shows today, Search Engine, and we talk about his recent food-related episodes, digging into sushi fraud and airplane coffee. We also chop it up about so many topics in food, including his ongoing coffee journey and some of his favorite NYC restaurants.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

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Today on the show, we speak with two authors of terrific new cookbooks. First up is Nok Suntaranon, the chef and owner of Kalaya, a celebrated Thai restaurant in Philadelphia. A former flight attendant, Nok reinvented herself at age fifty to become a James Beard Award–winning chef, and we talk about her journey as well as her excellent new cookbook, Kalaya's Southern Thai Kitchen.

Also in this episode, we have a great talk with Caroline Choe. She is a recipe developer and the author of Banchan: 60 Korean American Recipes for Delicious, Shareable Sides. We love this book, and we get into how the Korean small plate staple can open up so many Korean cooking adventures in the home kitchen.

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MORE FROM NOK SUNTARANON & CAROLINE CHOE:

• Esquire gives Philly's Kalaya Top Spot [Philly Voice]
• It Takes a Village to Teach Someone to Cook With Love [Simply Recipes]

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In a terrific new book, Taste in Music, musician Alex Bleeker (of Real Estate) and food and travel journalist Luke Pyenson (former drummer of Frankie Cosmos) cover the world of music through the foods bands eat while touring the world. In this episode, we speak with Alex and Luke about a book that brings a lot of heart and empathy to a subject that has been covered since the advent of food blogging. Any working band worth its salt cod enjoys food as much of the rest of us, filling their touring riders with subtle culinary flexes. Sure, food is the new rock and roll—and rockers love their food—but as we find out, this collection of essays from legends like Mark Ibold of Pavement, Chris Frantz of Talking Heads, and Natalie Laura Mering of Weyes Blood is more than a collection of “where bands eat”; it’s an essential addition to the music writing canon and one of our favorite books of the year. 

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

MORE FROM ALEX BLEEKER AND LUKE PYENSON:

• Robin Pecknold: My Savior, My Destroyer, the Subway Veggie Patty [Rolling Stone]
• Our Pop-Up Could Be Your Life [TASTE]

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For years, Ryan Sutton was the chief restaurant critic at Eater New York, before his position was recently eliminated. Ryan is one of the most respected critics in the game, and we wanted to invite him to the studio to talk about the LO Times, his Substack covering the New York City restaurant scene. We talk about modern pizza by the slice, the economics of sushi, and some of his favorite restaurants in this great restaurant city. We also dig into the state of restaurant criticism, and how social video accounts and changing the way we get our restaurant intel.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

MORE FROM RYAN SUTTON:

• NYC’s Best Slice Pizza: The New Wave [The LO Times]
• This is TASTE 193: Ryan Sutton [TASTE]
• The Best Sushi Spots to Splurge on This Fall [The LO Times]

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Many of us subscribe to NYT Cooking, the decade-old recipe emporium and offshoot of the venerable New York Times Food desk. This week marks the release of a new cookbook from the New York Times, Easy Weeknight Dinners, and we were thrilled to speak with Ali Slagle and Emily Weinstein, two core members of the NYT Cooking crew. Emily is the editor in chief of New York Times Cooking and Food and the author of the New York Times recipe newsletter Five Weeknight Dishes, which reaches millions of readers every week. Ali Slagle is a cookbook author and a key contributor to NYT Cooking. We spoke with them at a recent live event we hosted at Talea Beer Co. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

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Franco Fubini is the founder and CEO of Natoora, a high-end greengrocer connecting chefs and home cooks with some of the world’s best heritage produce through direct grower relationships. He’s also a professor of sustainability management at Columbia University and the author of the book In Search of the Perfect Peach, detailing Natoora’s quest to find flavor-first food and impact food systems in the process. 

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

MORE FROM FRANCO FUBINI

• This Chef-Favorite App Is Now Delivering Fresh Produce to New York City Doorsteps [Vogue]
• A Passionate Rallying Call for a Change of Mindset [Daily Mail]

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Sarah Fennel is the self-taught baker and photographer behind the widely popular Broma Bakery, a “mostly” baking blog that she launched in 2010. In this episode, we are introduced to Sarah’s incredible exuberance for baking, sharing, and baking more. We talk about the early days of her writing and how Broma has grown to become one of the most popular food publications online. We also get into her debut cookbook, Sweet Tooth, which was more than a decade in the making and has been one of our favorites of this busy season.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

MORE FROM SARAH FENNEL:

• Irresistible Dutch Caramel Apple Pie [YouTube] 
• The Best Cheesecake Brownies [Broma Bakery]

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Today’s interview is so great. Dan Barber is the chef and co-owner of Family Meal at Blue Hill in Manhattan and of the legendary Blue Hill at Stone Barns. He’s also the founder of Row 7 Seed Company, a seed company built by chefs, farmers, and breeders that is pushing the boundaries of modern agriculture. We talk about his Row 7 vegetables, including red Badger Flame beets and the semi-viral produce of the season, Sweet Garleek. We also discuss his day-to-day cooking at Stone Barns and how his aversion to tweezers has led to a philosophy that is both fresh and timeless. I so enjoyed catching up with Dan, and I hope you enjoy this conversation.

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MORE FROM DAN BARBER:

• Dan Barber Feeds the Farm to His Customers [Restaurant Hospitality]
• A New Nutrient-Dense Lettuce [Food & Wine]
• Katz’s Deli Debuts a Vegan Pastrami Sandwich [NY Jewish Week]

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Samantha Irby is a humorist, a TV writer, and the author of an incredible new essay collection, Quietly Hostile. In this episode, we talk about so many things: Chicago pizza, living in Michigan, Bosnian food in Grand Rapids, car wash dudes in Kalamazoo, and what it’s like to write lines for Carrie Bradshaw (as well as give her diarrhea). 

Clare de Boer is the chef-owner of Stissing House, a restaurant located in New York’s Hudson Valley that we like very, very much. Clare is also the chef-owner of two New York City restaurants, King and Jupiter. In this episode, we speak with Clare about her time cooking at the River Café in London and her journey to the United States to open some of the country’s best restaurants. We also talk about her great Subtack, The Best Bit.

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Ina Garten joins us in the studio for a really fun conversation that dips into her excellent new memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, which is out this week. While the story covers Ina’s whole technicolor life—from a difficult childhood through her time working at the White House, to opening her specialty food store, Barefoot Contessa, to her cookbook and television work—we wanted to focus on Ina as entrepreneur, splitting time between 1970s New York City and the Hamptons. It was a different era, and she even tells a story about being held up at gunpoint. This is a wide-ranging conversation, and I think you will learn a lot about the Ina that came before the Ina we all know. I hope you enjoy it.  

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MORE FROM INA GARTEN:

• Ina Garten, Fig Cake, and One Fun Phone Call [TASTE]
• Ina Garten and the Age of Abundance [The New Yorker]

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Casey Lewis is an expert on Gen Z and writes the colorful Substack After School, which covers youth culture and trends. We wanted to have Casey on the show not just to talk about “how the kids are eating and drinking and shopping for food” but to dig into her reporting on today’s rapidly shifting culture. It’s a fascinating talk about CPG, restaurant trends, and how social media is changing the way we all eat and drink.

Also on the show, Matt catches up with the B.O. Boys to talk about their excellent movie box office podcast, how food movies have performed (and not performed) at the box office, some overrated/underrated food movies, and we talk about a series of live events they are doing this fall.  

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MORE FROM CASEY LEWIS:

• Don't Get Your Financial Advice on TikTok
• Camo Hoodies and Crocs Clompers
• Gatorwine and dELiA*s Zines

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Joe Yonan is the food and dining editor of the Washington Post. It’s a big job, covering an outstanding food city, so it’s pretty remarkable that Yonan finds time in the margins to write cookbooks every couple years. Much respect, Joe. In this episode, we talk about his latest cookbook, the ambitious Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking, among other topics. It’s a really great talk, and we dig into the Washington, DC, dining scene, this impossible-to-figure-out Beyond Meat world we live in, and many recipes from his terrific new book. I hope you enjoy our conversation.   

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt talk about three things they are into right now! These include: Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shopsin, Il Totano is Harold Dieterle's big NYC return and it rules, 886 in NYC has a great new menu, Romy Gill's India is a great new cookbook, check out Rodeo, an exciting new wine bar in Brooklyn, Channels with Peter Kafka is the return of one of the best podcasters in the game.

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MORE FROM JOE YONAN:

• Beans, Beans, Let’s Talk About Beans [TASTE]
• Keith Lee (Politely) Dunks on D.C.’s Food Scene [WP]
• Big Crisp Energy [TASTE]
• Chef’s Night Out with Lucas Sin & Eric Sze [Vice]

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Jessie Sheehan is all about baking. She’s host of the baking podcast She’s My Cherry Pie on Radio Cherry Bombe and the author of four baking cookbooks, including her newest: Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes. This book ventures into all-savory territory, from biscuits and scones to what she calls “toasty handhelds,” kinda like fancy hot pockets, and this episode will have you craving them all. 

Also on the show, it’s time to talk about cool new fall cookbooks. All season Aliza and Matt are previewing some of their favorites, category by category. Next up is books by people we follow and love. These include Good Lookin' Cookin' by Dolly Parton, Soups, Salads, Sandwiches by Matty Matheson, What Goes with What: 100 Recipes, 20 Charts, Endless Possibilities by Julia Turshen, Life's Sweetest Moments by Dominique Ansel, Pass the Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Shareable, Everyday Recipes by Carolina Gelen, Justine Cooks: A Cookbook: Recipes (Mostly Plants) for Finding Your Way in the Kitchen by Justine Doiron, Sweet Tooth by Sarah Fennel.

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MORE FROM JESSIE SHEEHAN:

• Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes
• She’s My Cherry Pie [Radio Cherry Bombe]
• How to Make Snackable Bakes [WNYC]
• TASTE Live at Rizzoli: What Goes with What by Julia Turshen

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Paola Velez is an award-winning chef, activist, and author based in Washington, DC. She’s the cofounder of the viral grassroots bake sale Bakers Against Racism and the author of a great debut cookbook, Bodega Bakes. We brought Paola into the studio to talk about her impressive career, including acting as a culinary diplomat for the State Department, and the unforgettable recipes in her book, like pecan-plantain sticky buns.

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt talk about some of the things they have been cooking in the peak produce period of late summer, as well as other kitchen adventures. These include the egg yolk saga continues, Zoë François key lime pie has a twist, the sardine deserves the tuna melt treatment, more sardines but this time as a stove-top pasta sauce, a kitchen floor renovation tip, a fun recipe from Koreaworld.

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MORE FROM PAOLA VELEZ:

• Pecan-Plantain Sticky Buns [Food and Wine]
• Selena + Chef: Paola Velez [HBO]

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Cookbook author and online personality Carolina Gelen is on a mission to share her love of food, which comes into focus in a great new cookbook, Pass the Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Shareable, Everyday Recipes. Carolina’s journey began in Transylvania, Romania, where she was born and raised. In 2021, she immigrated to the United States to pursue her passion for food full time. She is a recipe developer and food content creator with work featured in the New York Times and on the Food Network and Food52. In this episode we hear about Carolina’s journey to her debut cookbook and what makes her recipes unique and cookbook-able. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Also on the show, Matt covers four great books being released this fall that are about food, but not quite cookbooks. These include: Why I Cook by Tom Colicchio, Taste in Music: Eating on Tour with Indie Musicians by Alex Bleeker and Luke Pyenson, A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater, Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten.

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MORE FROM CAROLINA GELEN:

• Scraps [Substack]
• Seared Chicken Thighs With Cherry Tomatoes and Olives [NYT]
• Lemon Olive Oil Cake [official]
• This Is TASTE 396: Robert Sietsema & Luke Pyenson [TASTE]

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Zoë François is a professional pastry chef, recipe consultant, cookbook author, food photographer, and baking instructor and the host of Zoë Bakes on Magnolia Network. We recently spoke with her live at Rizzoli Bookstore in New York City to talk about the subject of her latest book: cookies. Her new book is Zoë Bakes Cookies, and it’s one of our favorite cookie books of all time. We get into so many great tips for baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie, snickerdoodle, peanut butter cookie, and other Midwestern favorites. We hope you enjoy our conversation.

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Today we have two great conversations with two of our favorite recent cookbook authors. Have you found your way into the world of Suzy Karadsheh and the megapopular YouTube channel and website The Mediterranean Dish? We sure have, and it’s changing the way we cook. Born and raised in the cosmopolitan Mediterranean city of Port Said, Egypt, Suzy grew up just a boat ride away from countries like Italy, Turkey, Lebanon, Greece, and Israel. In this episode, we hear about Suzy’s terrific new cookbook, The Mediterranean Dish: Simply Dinner. 

Also on the show, we have a great talk with Jeremy Salamon. He’s the James Beard Award–nominated chef behind Agi’s Counter, one of our favorite restaurants in all the land. We talk about his life as a young chef, the near-universal praise for Agi’s Counter’s unique approach to modern Hungarian cooking, and his debut cookbook, Second Generation: Hungarian and Jewish Classics Reimagined for the Modern Table. I hope you enjoy these conversations.

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MORE FROM SUZY KARADSHEH & JEREMY SALAMON:

• White Bean Shakshuka [The Mediterranean Dish]
• A Crown Heights Lunch Counter Stirs New Life Into the Nostalgic Egg Cream [Eater]
• This Is TASTE 139: Suzy Karadsheh [TASTE]

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Today on the show we are talking all about restaurants in America with two talented editors. First up is Kate Kassin who along with the staff at Bon Appétit just released their list of the best new restaurants in America. Kate talks about the rigorous process that goes into selecting the restaurants, shares stories from the road, and offers some great restaurants we should be visiting, from New York City to Columbus to Seattle.

Also on the show is Raphael Brion. He’s the Restaurant Editor at Food & Wine and a longtime reporter covering food around the globe. It was great catching up with Raphael about the magazine’s latest Best New Chefs class, and about how he personally traveled the country, tasting and tasting more, to bring this incredible group of talents to the surface.

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Elyse Inamine is a writer and editor based in New York. A former restaurant editor at Bon Appétit and Food & Wine, she’s now writing some of our favorite food stories across the internet, including here at TASTE. It’s so fun to have Elyse on the show to talk about her TASTE story on the rise of cute food, her view on restaurant reporting, and more.

Also on the show it’s the return of three things where Aliza and Matt discuss exciting food and drink on their radars. These include: A visit to Funke in Los Angeles, Untitled Art is maybe the best NA beer on the market today, Fluffy McCloud’s is the ice cream of our dreams, thoughts on the new memoir from Griffin Dunne, The Friday Afternoon Club, tacos at Lincoln and Rose, Industry season 3 is the best things on TV.

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MORE FROM ELYSE INAMINE

• Food Is Identity. For Korean Chefs Who Were Adopted, It’s Complicated. [New York Times]
• Everything You Need to Make Hot Pot at Home [Bon Appetit]
• It’s Cool to Care About NA Beer [TASTE]

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As the cofounder of online restaurant watchdog and chronicler Eater, as well as reservations booker Resy, Ben Leventhal has been at the center of all things dining out for nearly 20 years. On this episode we catch up with Ben about his latest company, Blackbird, a restaurant loyalty program that is rethinking the way hospitality and online culture converge. We talk about the company’s big expansion, what makes a good restaurant diner, burger nights in NYC, and thoughts on the city’s most controversial new restaurant: the good, the bad, the froggy. It’s always so great having Ben in the studio.

Also on the show, it’s time to talk about cool new fall cookbooks. All season Aliza and Matt are previewing some of their favorites, category by category. Next up is cuisines and cultures, featuring: The Contemporary African Kitchen by Alexander Smalls, Banchan by Caroline Choe, Wafu Cooking by Sonoko Sakai, My Egypt by Michael Mina, The Chinese Way by Betty Liu, Moroseta Kitchen by Giorgia Goggi, Classic German Cooking by Luisa Weiss.

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Ellen Marie Bennett is the founder and chief brand officer of Hedley & Bennett, a beloved apron and kitchen gear company that’s found in top restaurants around the world. She’s also a chef and the host of Kitchen Glow Up, a new kitchen renovation show from Tastemade. It’s so fun to have Ellen on the show to talk about Hedley & Bennett’s evolution, the CPG cookware boom, her proudest kitchen renovations, and more.

Also on the show it’s the return of three things where Aliza and Matt discuss exciting food and drink on their radars. These include: Paola Velez’s plantain sticky buns are at all Nordstrom Cafes, Hebel & Co. is doing great halva, rejoice because Mariscos El Submarino is now open in Greenpoint, Just Salad wraps are actually good, Jake’s Gouda is now doing a new cheddar called Moo Echo, YAO in FiDi is a hidden Cantonese gem, and some thoughts on the passing of Justin Chearno.

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Fall cookbook season has arrived, and there’s nobody better to talk about the busy time than Rebecca Flint Marx, editor of Eater at Home. Rebecca just dropped Eater’s thoughtful fall cookbook preview, and we go over a number of her selections in this episode. We also talk about Rebecca’s journalism career and what she has been excited about in the world of restaurants, home cooking, and product trends as well as the changing face of food media.

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MORE FROM REBECCA MARX:

• Cooking’s New Minimalism [TASTE]
• The Untold Story of the Lady From Louisville and the Bubbe Who Wasn’t There [TASTE]
• SF Chron Critic and His Partner Become the Subject of a Major Takedown [Eater SF]

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Giada De Laurentiis is in the studio for an all-time classic conversation. She is the Emmy-Award-winning television personality of Food Network’s Everyday Italian (among many other shows) and the author of nine New York Times best-selling cookbooks, including her most recent, Eat Better, Feel Better. And check out our online retail store, Giadzy. It's really cool.

Also on the show is Julius Roberts. Julius is a chef and farmer living in the idyllic English countryside off the Dorset coast. He’s also the author of The Farm Table, a new cookbook chronicling his life cultivating crops and animals and cooking with this bounty.

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We are always so happy to hang out with Jenny Rosenstrach, the talented writer and editor behind a highly enjoyable newsletter and a series of cookbooks. On this episode, we talk with Jenny about her terrific new book, The Weekday Vegetarians Get Simple. We get into some of the recipes that drive this creative cooking plan, and how the challenge to eat less meat is hardly that—it’s a fun adventure using spices and crafty plant-forward techniques. We also talk about the upcoming TASTE Travels trip to Mexico. For info on the trip write us: [email protected].

Also on the show it’s the return of three things where Aliza and Matt discuss exciting food and drink on their radars. These include: We wanted to not like the Honey Deuce at the US Open, Carlotto is a hidden gem for pasta in NYC, a Flushing food crawl, Trust Me, I'm a Doctor: A Visual Catalog of Generic Dr Pepper-Style Soft Drink Logos, 1995-2020, John's of 12th Street is a great choice for NYC group dining, a reminder that late-summer is the best time for apples.

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Melissa Urban is the cofounder and CEO of Whole30, a megapopular 30-day elimination diet program. She’s a six-time New York Times best-selling author and just released a new book: The New Whole30. We had Melissa on the show to reflect on the Whole30 universe and how it’s evolved alongside food culture over the past 15 years.

Also on the show, it’s time to talk about cool new cookbooks. All fall Aliza and Matt are previewing some of their favorites, category by category. First up is baking and desserts, featuring: Desi Bakes by Hetal Vasavada, Crumbs by Ben Mims, Richard Hart Bread by Richard Hart and Laurie Woolever, Breaking Bao by Clarice Lam, and The King Arthur Big Book of Bread. Tune in for more great new cookbooks.

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Matt Goulding is in the studio, and we have a great chat about his new series on Apple TV+, Omnivore. Matt has known Matt for years and really love his writing, which came to life in a series of memorable travel books as well as in the online magazine he cofounded, Roads & Kingdoms. We talk about Spain, Italy, Japan, and how he covered each country with memorable prose. And we discuss his extremely cool collaboration with René Redzepi. Omnivore is food TV at its most visually stunning, and we talk about the process of getting the show made. It’s a fun conversation with Matt, and I hope you enjoy it.

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MORE FROM MATT GOULDING:

• This Is TASTE 435: René Redzepi
• Rice Noodle Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture [KAL]

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Pearl Jones is a food stylist based in New York City. She’s spent over a decade making food look delicious in commercials, magazine editorials, cookbooks, and more, and she’s also one of Aliza’s close friends. I’ve obsessed over the contents of Pearl’s food stylist kit and kitchen for years, and it’s so fun to have her on the show to pull back the curtain on food styling as a career. 

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MORE FROM PEARL JONES:

• A Cookbook Shoot Recap! It Takes a Village. [Colu Cooks]
• Pearl Jones [Instagram]

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Oddball is an exciting new product that aims to reinvent jelly snacking, taking away market share from the dominant Jell-O with a vegan superfood snack. On this episode, we catch up with Oddball's amazing founder, Sophia Cheng. We met Sophia earlier this year on the floor of the Natural Products Expo West trade show, where she was hustling the pouches of berry, mango, and grape jelly out of her backpack. I was impressed and invited her into the studio to talk about her journey to bringing this traditional Asian dessert to the masses. I love the product as well as catching up with the company’s founder. I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.

MORE FROM ODDBALL:

• BTS: Behind the Snax with Oddball [Snaxshot]
• Meet Sophia Cheng [Canvas Rebel]
• Oddball breaking the Jell-O mold [Food Business News]

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Priya Krishna is a reporter and video host for New York Times, where she’s currently acting as the co–interim restaurant critic. She’s the author of the best-selling cookbooks Indian-ish and Priya’s Kitchen Adventures: A Cookbook for Kids and the host of the YouTube series “On the Job.” We’ve all been admirers of Priya’s work for years, and it’s so special to have her back on the show to talk about stepping into the role of restaurant critic, and much more, the char siu

Also on the show it’s the return of three things where Aliza and Matt discuss exciting food and drink on their radars. These include: Long Island Compromise is the top of Taffy Brodesser-Akner Mountain, Osakana in the East Village is great for a picnic, Kato in Los Angeles is serving the country's best NA cocktails, the Frozmopolitan is the Cosmo in its best form, congratulations to Yes Plz on your 300th coffee, Brooklyn's Montague Diner is our new favorite diner in Brooklyn, the char siu pineapple bao at Mei Lai Wah is a perfect food.

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MORE FROM PRIYA KRISHNA:

• No More Butter Chicken: Where Indian Food Finally Gets to Be Itself [NYT]
• Why Do American Grocery Stores Still Have an Ethnic Aisle? [NYT]
• Was Cast Iron Almost Canceled? [TASTE]

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Today on the show we’re sharing two singular conversations, one with chef and cooking personality Ham El-Waylly and one with novelist C Pam Zhang. Ham is a staple on the NYT Cooking YouTube channel, with an all-star restaurant résumé from Momofuku’s Ando to the new Fort Greene seafood destination Strange Delight. C Pam Zhang is the author of the transportive novels How Much of These Hills Is Gold and Land of Milk and Honey, and she writes about food like no one else.

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MORE FROM HAM EL-WAYLLY & C PAM ZHANG:

• Chicken Stroganoff [New York Times Cooking]
• The World’s Smelliest Fruit? Sohla and Ham Try Cooking With Durian [Mystery Menu]
• See It Slant [The Cut]

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Robert Maleski opened Milly’s Pizza in the Pan in 2020 as a way to show Chicago pizza fans that there was more going on in their city than deep-dish. Now, of course, any true Chicago local knows this, but nonetheless, when Matt first tasted Robert’s pie at his Uptown location, he was blown away by its understated excellence. In this episode, Robert shares his story and discusses how the legendary pies of Burt Katz as well as his grandmother’s cooking inspired what many consider the city’s top pie. 

Also on the show it’s the return of three things where Aliza and Matt discuss exciting food and drink on their radars. These include: Stone fruit in the summer of 2024 is working, Dog Day Afternoon is doing Chicago-style hotdogs in Brooklyn in the best way, Real Americans by Rachel Khong is a great summer read, brown sugar boba at Xing Fu Tang in the East Village, Langer's in Los Angeles might be the pastrami GOAT, double yolks are amazing, Daisy Alioto of the great publication Dirt gave an incredible talk about the Taste Economy. Watch it!

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It’s so much fun when Alison Roman drops by the studio. We recently had her in to talk about her excellent newsletter writing—you should be subscribing—and her newly relaunched YouTube show, Home Movies. We also talk about where she’s been dining out in New York City, her life upstate in rural New York, who she is reading on Substack (Jason Stewart, Clare De Boer, Christina Chaey), and all the things you wanted to ask Alison about what is good in and out of the kitchen. Also, cookbooks! It’s a really fun catch-up, and we hope you enjoy it.

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MORE FROM ALISON ROMAN:

• Alison Wants You to Eat the Shells on Your Shrimp [YouTube]
• Spanish Tortilla with Aioli and Friends [official]
• Alison Makes The Best (and Easiest) Tomato Tart You’ll Eat This Year [YouTube]

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Nicholas Morgenstern is the owner and operator of Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream, a beloved small-batch ice cream parlor in New York City with nationwide delivery. After a decade of operations in the city, he stopped by the show to talk about how the cult-followed ice cream gets made, and how ice cream tastes have shifted over the past few years.

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MORE FROM NICHOLAS MORGENSTERN:

• Nick Morgenstern Explains Each of His Shop’s 40 New Flavors [Grub Street]
• Nick Morgenstern Goes ‘Bananas’ for Dairy-Free Soft Serve [New York Times]

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Jon Fine is here! He’s a longtime journalist, cultural critic, and touring musician, and now he’s the editor in chief of The New Wine Review, an exciting publication that digs into the world of low-intervention wine. In this conversation we talk about what’s exciting in wine today and how The New Wine Review is changing the way wine is written about—the voice, the language, the attitude. I hope you enjoy this talk.

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MORE FROM JON FINE:

• If The Bear Was a Real Restaurant, It Would Be a Wine Bar [NWR]
• What’s Wine Really Worth? [NWR]
• How Good Wine Rewards Your Attention [NWR]

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Priyanka Mattoo is the author of Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones, a wonderful memoir about food and place and how moving around the world inspired volumes and volumes of stories. We so loved having Priyanka into the studio, and we covered some serious ground. We discuss her upbringing in the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and her journey to Hollywood, where she worked as a talent agent and studio executive. We talk about food on TV, The Bear (naturally), but also what excites her on television today.

Also on the show, Matt talks about his recent trip to India with chef Meherwan Irani of restaurants Chai Pani and Botiwalla. They visited Mumbai, Pune, and Ahmednagar and experienced so much including stops at Shree Thaker Bhojanalay, Cafe Yezdan, and Parsi Dairy Farm.

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MORE FROM PRIYANKA MATTOO:

• The Best Restaurant in Town [TASTE]
• ‘We Never Moved Back to Kashmir, Because We Couldn’t’ [NYT]
• The Monday Media Diet with Priyanka Mattoo [WITI]

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Sahra Nguyen is the founder of Nguyen Coffee Supply, a progressive coffee company that is bringing Vietnamese coffee into focus in the coolest way. On this episode we talk with Sahra about why she decided to focus on robusta, a species of coffee that is grown widely in southeast Asia but lesser known in the United States. This is rapidly changing thanks to Sahra and we get into why her work at Nguyen is bringing this delicious coffee to the mainstream.

Also on the show it’s the return of three things where Aliza and Matt discuss exciting food and drink on their radars. On this episode: The Formosa Cafe in Los Angeles got a reboot, Hark is our new favorite podcast app, Eel Bar is one of the NYC restaurants of the year, Bar Contra is very intriguing, we really like Haven’s Kitchen aioli, Phoebe Tran is making moves with Bé Bếp, Martha: The Cookbook is Martha Stewart’s 100th cookbook!     

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MORE FROM SAHRA NGUYEN:

• You’ve Probably Drunk Vietnamese Coffee Without Ever Knowing It [TASTE]
• A Bond Built Over Coffee Leads to Success in Love and Business [NYT]
• This Is TASTE 338: Haven’s Kitchen [TASTE]
• This Is TASTE 25: Jeremiah Stone & Fabian Von Hauske [TASTE]

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Today on the show we have two conversations from two of our favorites from the cookbook and online world, Claire Saffitz and Andy Baraghani. Claire is the author of a great recent cookbook, What’s For Dessert, and she’s truly one of our favorite cooking instructors and personalities on the internet. Andy’s rich story and sharp recipe writing chops come together so beautifully in his book, The Cook You Want to Be, published two years ago. So what has Andy been up to this year? It turns out, plenty—both online and offline.

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MORE FROM CLAIRE SAFFITZ & ANDY BARAGHANI:

• I Tried Making Homemade Strawberry Shortcake Bars [YouTube]
• Challah Bread [NYT Cooking]
• Warm Chickpea Bowl with Lemony Yogurt [official]

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Cree Myles is the curator of the Black literature community All Ways Black and the host of The Baldwin 100, a new podcast from Vintage Books examining James Baldwin’s life and words to commemorate one hundred years since his birth. She’s also one of our favorite sources of book recommendations, and it’s so fun to have her on the show to go deep on the intersection of food and literature. 

Also on the show it’s the return of three things where Aliza and Matt discuss exciting food and drink on their radars. On this episode: Indian snack attack from Doosra and Confusion Snacks, Island Creek Oyster Farm’s tinned clams are our home cooking go-to, Hey Champ hand-dipped snacks, a visit to Brooklyn’s Montague Diner, Lexington Bakes has a new brownie format and it rules, Strange Delight might be the NYC restaurant of the summer, and long live the Seashore Flats.      

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MORE FROM CREE MYLES

• How One Book Influencer Championing Black Authors Is Changing Publishing [NPR]
• The Baldwin 100 [Apple Podcasts]
• Strange Delight Channels New Orleans in All the Best Ways [The New Yorker]

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We welcome back our good friend Akira Akuto to the show. Akira is the Los Angeles–based chef who was behind the acclaimed LA sandwich and pastry counter (and so much more) Konbi, which closed up shop in early 2023. In this episode we speak with one of the more clairvoyant voices in the restaurant world. Akira is brutally honest about why a seemingly successful restaurant was anything but. We talk about the difficulties chefs and operators face on a daily basis and why California in particular is a challenging landscape for small-business owners. We also chat about what he’s been up to recently and the Japanese citrus he’s backing in a major way. 

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MORE FROM AKIRA AKUTO:

• Konbi, Home to the Best Egg Salad Sandwich in L.A., to Close Both Locations [LA Times]
• America's Best New Restaurants 2019 [Bon Appetit]
• This Is TASTE 164: Akira Akuto [TASTE]

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Olive Odyssey is a Palestinian olive oil collective working to build demand, supply chains, and economic power for Palestinian farmers since 2022. Today cofounder Aya Faour, a professional olive oil taster, is on the show to share how Olive Odyssey is working to build collective power and partnering with groups like Rose Los Angeles to create special collaboration products that are funding aid in Gaza.

Los Angeles listeners! Reserve a ticket for Koreaworld x Caldo Verde on August 15. Matt will be joined by chefs Deuki Hong and Suzanne Goin for a really fun collaboration dinner.

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MORE FROM OLIVE ODYSSEY:

• Olive Odyssey [official]
• Foragers [official]
• High-Minded Edibles for the Farm-to-Table Era  [TASTE]

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The title of this episode is “the last original food blogger,” and this is no exaggeration. Titus Ruscitti has been writing his influential blog Chi BBQ King for more than a decade, publishing dispatches from the Chicago food scene on the no-frills Blogspot platform. It’s a throwback publication, tipping to Chowhound and the original Serious Eats, and it’s so fun catching up with Titus about all the exciting restaurants he’s visited around the Midwest. We talk about Chicago beef, tavern pizza, tacos, barbecue, The Bear (naturally), and his intense interest in Midwestern foodways that has had him visiting Wisconsin, Indiana, and West Michigan regularly. This is a great conversation about one of the world’s greatest food cities, and I hope you enjoy it.  

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MORE FROM TITUS RUSCITTI OF CHI BBQ KING:

• Empanadas in Chicago
• Big Eating in Southwest Michigan
• Indienne

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Jim Meehan is here for a wide-ranging and highly entertaining conversation. Jim is the legendary barman and pioneer in the modern cocktail movement. He's also a journalist and the author of three excellent books, including The PDT Cocktail Book, Meehan’s Bartender Manual, and the brand-new The Bartender’s Pantry. In this episode, we go back in time to the dawn of the modern cocktail movement and relive some of the big openings and stories of the age. Jim also reflects on his book writing career, and how there’s much more to a cocktail pantry than you think. It’s fun catching up with Jim, and we hope you enjoy this conversation. 

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MORE FROM JIM MEEHAN:

• Celebrity Booze Tasting with Danny Brown and Jim Meehan [YouTube]
• Jim Meehan’s Deep Dive into the Cocktail Kitchen [Portland Monthly]

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This one is a long time coming, and we're thrilled to welcome Sam Sifton into our studio. Sam has held various key roles at the New York Times including food editor, culture editor, national editor, and restaurant critic. He’s also the founding editor of New York Times Cooking, which has become one of the paper’s biggest financial successes in decades. In this episode, Sam talks about the world of food media, his appetite for news and culture, his prolific newsletter output, and some of his most memorable reviews when he was working as a critic. Sam is a true one of one, and it was such fun to have him in for a conversation.

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MORE FROM SAM SIFTON:

• Cherries for Black Forest Cake, Tomatoes for Gazpacho [NYT]
• The Reviewing Life [NYT]
• Nello [NYT]
• Torrisi Italian Specialties [NYT]

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Today we’re revisiting two of my favorite conversations with food folks who make their own rules. DeVonn Francis is a chef, recipe developer, and events producer based in Brooklyn. His culinary events studio, Yardy World, has developed a cult following around vibrant, lush experiences rooted in Caribbean cuisine with some of the best vibes and playlists around, and now they’re joining the CPG boom. 

Arielle Johnson is a flavor scientist who advises some of the top restaurants and chefs in the world on how to turbocharge their cooking with chemistry. She’s currently the science director of Noma Projects, and she’s sharing all her wisdom in a new book: Flavorama. It’s a delight having her on the show to answer all our questions about the science behind what we eat—truly a must-listen episode for anyone interested in food.

MORE FROM DEVONN FRANCIS AND ARIELLE JOHNSON

• Welcome to the DeVonn Francis Dinner Party Multiverse [TASTE]
• How This Jamaican American Chef is Redefining Hospitality [LA Times]
• Do You Know How Flavor Works? [NY Times]

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Today on the show we have a great double episode. First up is the Los Angeles–based chef, recipe developer, and writer Chloe Walsh, author of Anchovies and Soup, a terrific Substack that muses about food life in LA, in the writer’s native England, and at points in between. 

Also on the show, we catch up with our old friend, the amazing photographer and director Eyal Yassky-Weiss. We talk about some of Eyal’s recent travels, our collaboration while on assignment in Ethiopia, and his new travel recommendation project, Unnamed Traveler. I hope you enjoy these two great conversations.  

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MORE FROM CHLOE WASH & EYAL YASSKY-WEISS:

• Honey Poached Strawberries [Substack]
• Me, Myself & Milan [Substack]
• The Musakhan Queens of Ramallah [TASTE]
• From the Mouth of the Gods [TASTE]

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Cake Zine is an independent print magazine exploring society through sweets, cofounded by Tanya Bush and TASTE contributing editor and the show's co-host Aliza Abarbanel. Their fifth issue, Candy Land, explores candy’s connections to the natural and unnatural world. On the show, Aliza and Tanya unpack how they made the issue and the many cultural connotations of candy. Also on the show, Amy Rose Spiegel reads a piece from the latest issue.

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MORE FROM CAKE ZINE

• Candy Land [official]
• This Is TASTE 329: Cake Zine’s Tough Cookie [TASTE]

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Kareem Rahma is a comedian and media host based in New York City. He’s the mind behind several popular online series, like Subway Takes and Keep the Meter Running, where he provides an insider look into the hot takes and taxi driver dining destinations that power the city. It’s so fun to have him on the show to talk about his new show The Last Stop, his media POV, and his past as a teenage delinquent McDonald’s employee. 

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt discuss what they are loving in the world of produce. What's great at the farmer's market, Row 7's exciting garleek, and how it all works into recent cooking projects.

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MORE FROM KAREEM RAHMA

• How a Subway Talk Show Won Over the Internet (and Olivia Wilde) [GQ]
• The Empath: How Kareem Rahma Took Over Your Feed [Brooklyn Magazine]
• Baby Boomers have ruined the world..it's time for REVENGE! [YouTube]

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It was fun having chef René Redzepi in the studio to talk about his great new (and first) television show, a sweeping food documentary series called Omnivore, streaming now on Apple TV+ and perfect for a weekend binge. In this episode we hear about the future of Noma, Jeremy Allen White and René’s workout routine while filming The Bear in Copenhagen, and why coffee is truly one of the food world’s greatest miracles. We also dig into some of the big topics covered on Omnivore, including how tuna went from trash fish to Japanese treasure, and why bananas are one of the most misunderstood foods.

Also on the show Aliza and Matt cover three things they each are into right now. These include: Edith's and Cait's Key Lime Pies collaborating on the best slushy of the summer in Brooklyn, Matt finally visits new NYC Korean restaurant Kisa and is blown away, support restaurants in the summer! Also: Nico Villasenor popping up at Little Egg, Philadelphia's Mighty Bread Company might make the best cherry pie, scene report from Mag Culture, and Gary He's McAtlas is a book about McDonald's that says so much more. It's very cool and you can pre-order it now.

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MORE FROM RENE REDZEPI:

• Omnivore Takes a ‘Planet Earth’ Approach to Food [FDL]
• Apple TV+ Food Series Has the Right Ingredients [Observer]
• Noma, Rated the World’s Best Restaurant, Is Closing Its Doors [NYT]

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Khushbu Shah is a journalist and the author of a terrific new book, Amrikan: 125 Recipes from the Indian American Diaspora. She was most recently the restaurant editor at Food & Wine magazine, where she crisscrossed the United States several times over on the hunt for the country’s best new chefs. In this very impressive debut book, Khushbu covers Indian-American home cooking through a very personal lens, offering recipes that blend South Asia with suburban Michigan sensibilities. In this episode we talk about what inspired her to take this journey, and about her deft recipe development chops. And, of course, we talked a little bit about restaurants, something we both share a great deal of love for. It’s so great having Khushbu on the show.

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt talk about three things they are into right now. These include Agi’s Counter in Brooklyn hitting new gears, the Gjelina pop-ups in New York City, and an early look at the terrific upcoming Ina Garten memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens. And more: it’s cold noodle season at Noodlecraft in Queens, Sufjan Stevens’s Illinoise on Broadway is incredible, the final issue of MOLD magazine has arrived, and Cake Zine’s new issue is here!   

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MORE FROM KHUSHBU SHAH:  

• Khushbu Shah Wants Her Seltzer Bubbles to Hurt [Grub Street]
• Cheesy Masala Corn Pizza [Food & Wine]
• Get to Know Masa, the Bedrock of Mexican Cuisine [Food & Wine]
• Fudgetown, USA [TASTE]

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What a fun conversation we have with Caroline Chambers, the author of the popular Substack What To Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking, as well as an upcoming cookbook of the same name. Caroline has had such an interesting career in food media, and we dig into how she went from relative obscurity to running the number one ranked Substack in the competitive food category. We talk about what makes a great Internet recipe, and how she worked social media hard during the pandemic to speak with an audience that was looking for just what she was cooking - when many didn’t feel like cooking. We also talk about her life in California, her time living in New York City, and sneak a little sports talk into the mix as well. Caroline is a new favorite of ours and we hope you enjoy this talk.

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MORE FROM CAROLINE CHAMBERS:

• The WTC vacation house meal plan [Substack]
• Tuna cottage cheese avocado salad [IG]

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Today on the show we have two great conversations. First up is Molly Baz. With a signature voice and absolutely wild recipe development skills, Molly has won over millions of fans worldwide and she talks about her latest book, More Is More, which taps into the food world’s more maximalist urges. Also on the show is Dwight Garner. Dwight has been a book critic at the New York Times since 2008, and he has now written one of our favorite food books in years (not an exaggeration). The Upstairs Delicatessen is a book about “eating, reading, reading about eating, and eating while reading.” This is completely, 100% Matt’s bag, and Dwight’s style and rhythm had us reading until we were full (and then some). In this extremely fun episode, Dwight shares the book’s origins and digs into some of his most memorable meals and books, and books about meals, and meals…you get the point. 

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The Chicago Hospitality Accountability and Advocacy Database, or the CHAAD Project, is an organization created by and for hospitality workers in Chicago to advance accountability and end labor abuses within the industry. On this episode Aliza speaks with cofounder and director of communications Raeghn Draper on the show to talk about CHAAD’s work and about building a more equitable hospitality industry. It’s essential listening for anyone who loves food and restaurants.

Also on the show we talk about these booming NA beer times we are living in. TASTE columnist Jordan Michelman returns to the show to talk about the NA beer story he dropped this week. Jordan tasted over 60 alcohol-free beers from around the world. Which came out on top? Listen to find out.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.

READ MORE ABOUT CHAAD AND NA BEER:

• The CHAAD Project [official]
• Chicago Hospitality Workers Have New Digital Tool [BCC]
• It’s Cool to Care About NA Beer [TASTE]

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Today on the show we feature conversations with two extremely cool authors. First up is Jess Damuck, author of the new cookbook Health Nut. We catch up with Jess about a pivot away from salads, what she’s cooking at home in Los Angeles, and how she brought a lot of color to the book’s recipe development and striking photography. Also on the show we have a great talk with Sara B. Franklin. We discuss her new book on legendary cookbook editor Judith Jones, and how Jones’ great influence is still felt in cookbook publishing today. 

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.

MORE FROM JESS DAMUCK & SARA B. FRANKLIN

• Coconut Tahini Toast Is the Only Thing We Want To See Before 8 a.m. [Well + Good]
• How to Make an Excellent Salad Dressing [FT]
• My Lunches with Judith Jones, the Queen of Cookbooks [TASTE]
• She Was More Than the Woman Who Made Julia Child Famous [NYT]

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Katherine Lewin is the founder of Big Night, an entertaining-focused home goods store with two locations here in New York City. She’s also the author of Big Night, the cookbook, which is a truly excellent new back-pocket hosting companion, with recipes and menu ideas. It’s so fun to have her on the show to talk about summer cooking, entertaining as an introvert, and more.

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt discuss three things they each are interested in right now. These include: The vibes at Greenpoint’s Million Goods, Korean drinking food at Bushwick’s Orion Bar, The Old Town Bar, a legend in Manhattan, Achilles Heel has a great new chef, Carolina Gellen’s debut cookbook Pass the Plate, The Bean Book by Rancho Gordo’s Steve Sando.       

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MORE FROM KATHERINE LEWIN:

• Big Night, the Cult-Favorite Party Store, Now Has Its Own Cookbook [Vogue]
• I Own a Store Dedicated to Dinner Parties—Here’s Hos I Fight Pre-Company Stress [Domino]
• Welcome to the Shoppy Shop [NY Mag]

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today on the show we welcome Steven Rinella. He’s an American outdoorsman, conversationalist, writer, and TV personality responsible for introducing the outdoor lifestyle to millions of fans. It was great talking with Steven about his latest work, the MeatEater Outdoor Cookbook, and how he likes to think about summer outdoor cooking. It’s not what you expect.  

Also on the show we have a great talk with Darin Bresnitz. He’s the co-host of the long-running podcast Snacky Tunes, and a great guy to know in Los Angeles. We talk about his career working in early food television, and how he’s been at the center of food and drink for nearly two decades. 

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.  

MORE FROM STEVEN RINELLA & DARIN BRESNITZ:  

• A Texas Hog Hunt [MeatEater]
• Quarter Sheets & Wilderado [Snack Tunes]
• Matt Rodbard & False Prpht [Snacky Tunes]
• Los Angeles Plugs: Matt Rodbard [The Angel]
• This Is TASTE 48: James Murphy & Nick Curtola [TASTE]

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Valeria Socorro Velazquez Lindsten is the owner and head baker of Loba Pastry + Coffee, a beloved Chicago café. Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Valeria worked in pastry at several lauded spots across Chicago before creating her very own bakery with delights like green mole croissants and pineapple sourdough muffins. It’s so fun to have her on the show to talk about her pastry perspective, the struggles and successes of opening a small business, and more.

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt chop it up about three things they are excited about in food and drink, including: The new Cake Zine issue is dropping, Minhwa Spirits is opening a tasting room in Atlanta, the gelato carts are out in NYC, Peskesi Farm in Crete, Queer Aperitivo pop-ups, Mathimata Mageirikis cooking school in Athens.     

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MORE FROM VALERIA SOCORRO VELAZQUEZ LINDSTEN:

• What Happens When Crowdfunding Isn’t Enough? [Eater]
• Customers Help Loba, a Beloved Chicago Bakery [WGN]

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On this very special episode, it’s all about beef, and we have a number of experts talking about the subject. First up is George Motz, the chef-owner of Hamburger America, the wildly successful burger counter in New York City. George knows a thing or two about beef, but we didn’t only focus on the hamburger. We talked about all sorts of beef cuts and how George likes to shop for rib eyes and shoulders all summer long. We even got some expert advice for preparing beef before it hits the grill. 

Also on the show, we have a really great conversation with Dr. Phil Bass, a meat science professor at the University of Idaho. Dr. Bass has worked as a meat cutter and, later, in higher education, researching and teaching about the science of beef. We speak about innovations happening in the world of beef, as well as some brand-new cuts(!) that you will be finding in the grocery store in future. Finally, Matt and Clayton talk about how they like to cook with beef, including Korean stews, tacos, and slow-braising adventures. It’s a really fun episode that will certainly raise your beef IQ.

This special episode is supported by Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner on behalf of the Beef Checkoff. Beef should be cooked to a minimum of 145°F as registered by a meat thermometer. For help determining doneness, visit beefitswhatsfordinner.com.  

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Tony “Tonx” Konecny is on the show today and we talk about the coffee company he founded with Sumi Ali. It’s called Yes Plz Coffee, and if you’ve listened to this show, you know how much love we have for what Tony and Sumi have built—the bag is part of our show’s logo too, which tells you something. On this episode we talk about how Yes Plz is bringing exceptional blends and single-origin coffees to subscribers each week. It’s a really smart business model, and we get into how it all works, and how, in the end, it’s the coffee fans who win. 

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.  

MORE FROM TONY KONECNY:

• The Coffee Issue [TASTE] 
• 20 Best Coffee Subscriptions [Bon Appetit]
• This Is TASTE 54: YesPlz [TASTE]

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Alice Jun is the founder and brewer at Hana Makgeolli, an artisanal Korean rice wine producer based in Brooklyn, New York. She’s dedicated her life to uplifting sool as an artisanal drink here in the US by using only organic rice, nuruk (fermentation starter), and traditional brewing methods to achieve complex flavors, and it’s so fun to have her on the show to go deep on this special, rising beverage category. 

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

MORE FROM HANA MAKGEOLLI

• American Makgeolli [Grub Street]
• Fruity, Sweet, and a Little Sour, Makgeolli Is Perfect for Springtime Sipping [Food and Wine]
• Makgeolli Magnate Alice Jun Is Spreading Korean Culture, One Bottle at a Time [Saveur]

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Dennis Lee is the iconoclastic Chicago-based food writer and newsletter daddy behind two great sends: Food Is Stupid and the Party Cut. On this episode, we have a great talk about the Chicago restaurant scene, Dennis’s unique place in food media, and how his Korean-American heritage informs so much of his work. We also dig into the Chicago hot dog and how it might just be one of the world’s most perfect foods. Also on the show, Matt, Aliza, and Clayton pay a visit to the legendary Chicago hot dog stand Superdawg for a This Is TASTE field report. What a fun, tube-steak-centric episode with a true original.

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MORE FROM DENNIS LEE:

• The Olive Garden Hot Dog [Food Is Stupid]
• Trot to Niles for a Deeper Cut of Korean [The Party Cut]
• The Cult Recipe Newsletter About Inedible Foods [Bon Appetit]

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How cool was it to have Joan Nathan into our studio? Joan is a longtime chronicler of Jewish food culture around the world and the author of many cookbooks on the topic, including her latest (and final) book, My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Memories, which she put out this spring. In this episode we talk about Joan’s long journalism career, including working at the Washington Post and the New York Times, and writing across the world of food. We also get into some of her favorite lasting recipes from Jewish households discovered through her world travels.

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MORE FROM JOAN NATHAN:

• What Joan Nathan Taught Me About the Power of Showing Up [NYT] 
• Joan Nathan is more than a Jewish cookbook writer. [LA Times]
• A Warsaw Bakery Seeks to Preserve Jewish Food Where It Was Nearly Lost [NYT]

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Mike Lata is chef and co-owner of the restaurants FIG and The Ordinary in Charleston, South Carolina, and one of the most respected voices in Southern cooking. It was really exciting to have Mike into our studio to talk about his journey to opening FIG more than 20 years ago and how he defines Southern cuisine in 2024. It’s so great catching up with Mike, and we hope you enjoy this conversation.

Also on the show it's the return of three things, where Aliza and Matt talk about three things that gets them excited. On this episode: Jim Meehan's new book, The Bartender's Pantry, the new modern Korean diner Kisa in NYC, the amazing pizza at Chicago's Milly's Pizza in the Pan, the summer of granita, hop water is getting even better with St. Elmo and others, and horseshoe crab festival was incredible. 

Got a question, comment, future guest idea, fact to share, fun fact to share, less-fun fact to share? Send us a voice memo and we will listen to it, and may feature your message on the show!

MORE FROM MIKE LATA:

• Eating and Drinking Around Charleston [This Is TASTE; starts at 51:20]
• If You Want to Eat Local Seafood, You Can’t Do Better Than Charleston [FW]
• For Chef Mike Lata, Food Is Good. Really Good [Garden & Gun]

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Our great Wisconsin Cheese road trip continues! We caught up with iconic Wisconsin chefs Tory Miller of L’Etoile and Graze in Madison and Luke Zahm of Driftless Cafe in Viroqua about how they harness the power of Wisconsin Cheese to make distinctly local cuisine. We also talked with Ken Monteleone of the beloved Madison cheese shop Fromagination about selling craft cheese on the Capitol Square for over 17 years. And, we put our cheese-tasting skills to the test with American Cheese Society–certified cheese professional Shannon Berry. Finally, it’s three things, Wisconsin cheese edition.  

This very special episode is supported by Wisconsin Cheese

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On this very special episode of This Is TASTE, it’s a TASTE road trip! Aliza, Matt, and producer Clayton traveled all across the great state of Wisconsin to dig deep into the wide world of Wisconsin Cheese, from fresh to aged to blended with Indian spices. We visited Mark Crave and the farmstead creamery of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese in Waterloo, and we peeked inside the cheese caves at Roelli Cheese Haus in Shullsburg, where award-winning cheddars and alpine cheeses are aged by Master Cheesemaker Chris Roelli. Tandoori gouda? It’s as good as it sounds, and we spoke with Huma Siddiqui-Seitz of White Jasmine about creating her unforgettable cheese.