Today on the show, we’re catching up with Gary Shteyngart , a New York Times best-selling novelist and food writer who has written memorable books including The Russian Debutante’s Handbook , Super Sad True Love Story , and his most recent work, the rollicking pandemic satire Our Country Friends . In this episode, we talk about some of Shteyngart’s world travels, both as a hired gun and for fun, as well as what he’s eating and drinking in his Upstate New York home. We also remember New York City...
Jan 27, 2022•34 min•Ep. 88
On today’s episode of the podcast, we’re talking to Fany Gerson , the pastry chef mastermind behind La Newyorkina , Dough , and, most recently, Fan-Fan Doughnuts in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. In addition to making some of New York’s most legendary doughnuts, Fany has written extensively about the paletas, ice creams, and other sweets of Mexico, where she grew up. We talked about the secret ingredient that makes her yeasted doughnuts special, how the fan-fan (her signature eclair-like doughnut baton) ca...
Jan 20, 2022•35 min•Ep. 87
Today on the show, we’re talking to Hrishikesh Hirway , the musician behind The One AM Radio, the podcaster behind The West Wing Weekly and Song Exploder , and the host of Netflix’s adaptation of Song Exploder . In addition to collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma and interviewing musicians like Michael Stipe and Alicia Keys, Hrishikesh is also the cohost, with Samin Nosrat, of Home Cooking , which has quickly become one of our favorite food podcasts during the pandemic. We talked about the joys of savory...
Jan 14, 2022•24 min•Ep. 86
Today on the show, we have a colorful conversation with Cara Nicoletti , a fourth-generation butcher, writer, and cofounder of the vegetable-centric sausage company Seemore Meats & Veggies . We’ve fallen hard for these sausages, which are made with 35 percent vegetables, and we wanted to have Cara on the podcast to talk about how she went from working at the legendary Meat Hook butcher shop in Brooklyn to disrupting the sausage game. We also talk about the many problems with the massive inve...
Jan 06, 2022•37 min•Ep. 85
On today’s episode, Anna sits down with longtime chef and sustainable seafood advocate Bart van Olphen . The Dutch chef has written many cookbooks for an international audience (including several on the topic of tinned fish), and he’s the founder of Sea Tales , a company that sells sustainable canned tuna, anchovies, and sardines. They talked about why tinned fish is having a moment, how to shop responsibly for seafood, and Bart’s newest book, Veggies & Fish . Later on the show, Anna talks t...
Dec 29, 2021•33 min•Ep. 84
One morning this fall, Matt found himself in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, seated in the front yard of Edy’s Grocer, the remarkable deli and specialty food shop run by the amazing young entrepreneur Edy Massih , who joins him on the show today. Massih formerly worked as a caterer, and during the pandemic, he took over a storefront and began selling all sorts of delicious foods—all with a modern and exciting point of view. There’s a long list of mezze—Lebanese small plates like baba ganoush, rosy ricotta...
Dec 22, 2021•25 min•Ep. 83
Matt met author and television writer Jean Kyoung Frazier through Instagram during last year’s NBA playoffs. She is a Los Angeles Clippers fan, he’s a Brooklyn Nets fan, and they had a lot to talk about. But what most inspired the exchange, and eventually this episode, is Jean’s novel Pizza Girl , which is based partially in a suburban Los Angeles pizzeria. We speak with Jean about how she writes about food in her fiction, as well as not writing about food on Law & Order: Organized Crime . W...
Dec 17, 2021•34 min•Ep. 82
If you’ve caught some of the exciting new writing coming from the relaunch of Gawker , you may have read some food writing by Tammie Teclemariam , who’s been taking down moka pots, making the case for buying a whole ham, and lauding the Black Russian as a far superior alternative to the espresso martini craze. Tammie’s also written for TASTE about the virtues of fried chicken livers, how Caraflex is the ultimate cabbage flex, and why mozzarella in carrozza is the fanciest iteration of a grilled ...
Dec 14, 2021•45 min•Ep. 81
Samah Dada is the brainpower behind Dada Eats , a recipe blog that has blossomed into a plant-based lifestyle brand. We got to know Samah a few years back at a TASTE Podcast taping at Books Are Magic, and we have been following her career as she’s grown from Today Show production assistant to author of Dada Eats: Love to Cook It . In this interview, we talk about her recipes for chocolate chip cookie pie and the “best dal ever” (controversial!) while diving into her understated and, we'd say, hi...
Dec 09, 2021•28 min•Ep. 80
Our guest today needs little introduction—but if you didn’t grow up watching cooking on television over the past 20 years, here’s the deal. Jamie Oliver pioneered a form of food television that brought cameras into the home in a way not previously seen. When the Naked Chef debuted on BBC Two in the UK and the Food Network in the United States in 1999, home cooking on TV was a stand-and-stir affair. Here, a young and floppy Oliver was cooking real food from a cool East London flat, talking viewer...
Dec 03, 2021•30 min•Ep. 79
The truly unique food worldview of chef and entrepreneur Lucas Sin is shaped by a Hong Kong upbringing, a US education, and a deep love for culinary history, which we talk about in this entertaining interview with one of the food world’s rising stars. We also discuss his love of the Midwest—Michigan in particular—and how his work at his restaurants, Junzi and Nice Day, is partially based on a drive to “reeducate” Americans about Chinese American food, which represents over 45,000 independent mom...
Nov 30, 2021•51 min•Ep. 78
Archestratus is Paige Lipari ’s Greenpoint, Brooklyn, café and cookbook store. For over six years, the store—stacked neatly with copies of new and used titles, as well as dusty magazines and long-forgotten reference materials, with a stellar Sicilian restaurant attached—has become one of New York City’s go-to spots for exceptionally curated book browsing paired with molten arancini. In this episode, we speak with Lipari about how one of the country’s finest cookbook stores survived the pandemic—...
Nov 26, 2021•44 min•Ep. 77
Vallery Lomas is a former Washington, DC, lawyer, a current New York City food writer and restaurant chronicler, and the author of a wonderful new cookbook, Life Is What You Bake It . Vallery also competed on—and won— season 3 of The Great American Baking Show . In this interview, we talk a little bit about her season of the show, which unfortunately never aired because of many allegations made against one of the judges. We also tackle some of the baking world’s biggest questions—we’re talking c...
Nov 19, 2021•41 min•Ep. 76
There are plenty of things we take for granted about walking into a grocery store: the fluorescent lights, the astoundingly inexpensive milk, the neatly stacked boxes of Nabisco cookies. But as Benjamin Lorr uncovers in his book The Secret Life of Groceries , there’s more than meets the eye. Lorr went undercover as a Whole Foods fishmonger, boarded a shrimp-fishing boat in Thailand, and rode along with a truck driver in a quest to understand some of the unseen economics and labor that fuel our e...
Nov 16, 2021•37 min•Ep. 75
Our old friend and former TASTE columnist Priya Krishna has had a meteoric rise in food media, starting in the marketing department at Lucky Peach and going on to roles at Bon Appétit and, most recently, the New York Times , where she is a star reporter on the Food desk. In this interview, we talk about the new book she wrote with David Chang, Cooking at Home , and how they both set out to write a book that was original, opinionated, and clearly not the Momofuku Cookbook 2.0. We also talk about ...
Nov 11, 2021•41 min•Ep. 74
Jesse Szewczyk is a talented food stylist, recipe developer, and author of a new cookbook, Cookies: The New Classics . Were you hoping for some inspiration for your planned holiday cookie swap? He has some really creative takes on classic cookies, including Smoked Butter Chocolate Chunks and Cacio e Pepe Slice and Bakes. In this episode, we talk about his unique creative process, in which he comes up with the cookie name first and then backs into the actual recipe development—a bold move indeed....
Nov 05, 2021•45 min•Ep. 73
You may know him as the friendly face who joins Julia Child on-screen to cook crêpes Suzette with precision and to improvise with big hunks of pork in Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home . Or you may know him from one of the most viral omelet instructional videos of all time. But lately, the celebrated 85-year-old chef, TV personality, and author has been focusing on cooking what’s growing in his garden, painting chickens, and showing the internet how to prepare a meal on a tight budget. In this...
Nov 02, 2021•37 min•Ep. 72
We are BACK, and have some incredible interviews lined up on the freshly relaunched TASTE Podcast. One of those interviews is with Eric Kim . Eric has a signature style with his food writing and journalism, which has appeared frequently in the New York Times , Food52, and other publications. He 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! In this conversation, Eric talks about some of his hit re...
Oct 28, 2021•32 min•Ep. 71
The TASTE Podcast has brought some incredible friends and heroes into the studio, and we wanted to relive some of our favorite conversations, including candid and sometimes hilarious talks with Ruth Reichl , Pete Wells , Helen Rosner , Dorie Greenspan , Julia Moskin , and Francis Lam . We also talk about all the exciting things in the works for TASTE, including our upcoming cookbook, Lasagna , and a bunch of other projects. This is not goodbye. This is see you on the Internet, or in person, very...
Aug 06, 2019•32 min•Ep. 70
Friend of TASTE Daniel Holzman joins for a hilarious and truly meaningful conversation about the life of a traveling chef. Holzman, cofounder of the Meatball Shop and veteran of high-end kitchens in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City, is also a TASTE columnist and a gifted photographer. We talk about his journey from working at Le Bernardin in high school, to his time as a young cook with Jean-Louis Palladin, to opening a restaurant with his best friend. Also on the show, journalists ...
Jul 30, 2019•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 69
What a lineup on today’s episode! First up, Tartine’s Chad Robertson sits down for an interview at his brand-new Manufactory in downtown Los Angeles. We talk a bit about the grand expansion of Tartine but also go back to his early days of baking in his backyard in Northern California—and how he might just crave that simpler time. We also talk about his company’s move to Korea, and what it’s like to operate there. What a cool interview. Next up, I had the great pleasure of sitting down with Serio...
Jul 23, 2019•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 68
David Kinch is the chef-owner of acclaimed Northern California restaurant Manresa and a legend in American fine-dining circles. On this episode, we head back to New York City in the 1980s and talk about his time working at the influential restaurant Quilted Giraffe—and how his post-shift meals at Midtown izakayas back then reflected the city’s changing culinary landscape. We also discuss his upcoming opening, Menton, and how he’s been traveling around America researching pasta. Also on the episo...
Jul 16, 2019•45 min•Ep. 67
Odette Williams is the author of Simple Cake and delivers on the book’s lofty promise: that baking cake can be simple! The book is organized into 10 base cakes and 15 toppings, and readers are encouraged to mix and match at their baking leisure. In this episode, we dive into what inspired the Australian bakeware designer to make the leap to publishing—and what is so rad about baking cakes for everyday snacking. Indeed, she’s a very big proponent of the snacking cake. What an idea. Also on this e...
Jul 09, 2019•44 min•Ep. 66
Big ideas, strong opinions, and a deadpan Instagram. These are a few of my favorite things. Former pastry chef and current Empellon boss man Alex Stupak is a complicated—and incredibly sincere—dude, and in this episode we have a really spirited conversation about chicken sandwiches, aquafaba, his time at WD-50, Maggi seasoning, his cookbook, Tacos , and making Mexican food at home. Phew! It’s a really cool talk. Also on the show, we ask Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman a reader question. Hint: The...
Jul 02, 2019•32 min•Ep. 65
As the cofounder of online restaurant watchdog/chronicler Eater, and reservations booker Resy, Ben Leventhal has been at the center of all things dining out for over a decade. On this episode, we go back to the early days of Eater and talk about the rapid shift toward food as pop culture—which is not to be confused with pop culture’s crossover with food. That is, society’s deep interest in New York City’s Taiwanese restaurant boom, and not what that Foodgod guy is guiding this week. We clarify t...
Jun 25, 2019•28 min•Ep. 64
Hello summer, and hello vegetables! Michigan chef and cookbook author Abra Berens loves vegetables and has an inspiring new cookbook that presents them in the coolest way: braised, blistered, roasted, and raw. On this episode we talk about Ruffage , and Berens's journey from working the counter at Zingerman’s Deli to culinary school in Ireland to her current post cooking and farming in an exceptional way that recalls Dan Barber’s Blue Hill. Also on the show, TASTE’s Tatiana Bautista has a great ...
Jun 18, 2019•55 min•Ep. 63
“Rice is culture”—the spiritual spine of a new restaurant in Harlem—is one of the many big ideas chef and award-winning cookbook author JJ Johnson tackles in this spirited episode. We also go over how the media covers African-American food and the economics of running restaurants in New York City, and he relives a recent trip he took to Puerto Rico. Also on the show, writer Maggie Hoffman talks about her new book, Batch Cocktails . Just in time for all of those backyard parties. See Privacy Poli...
Jun 11, 2019•46 min•Ep. 62
Holy smokes, Priya Krishna and her new book, Indian-ish , have had quite a spring. She appeared on Today , toured America, sold a few copies along the way, and maybe pissed off a few people along the way, too (never a bad thing). I catch up with Krishna, a journalist and frequent TASTE contributor, about a month after the book’s release, and we went over it all. We talk about her great saag feta recipe and why the technique known as chhonk (tempering) is key in Indian home cooking. Also, why you...
Jun 04, 2019•29 min•Ep. 61
So that thing about needing to rest your cooked petite filet for 20 minutes before slicing? The quest for cartoonish grill marks on your rib eye? Sous vide as the means to tenderloin glory? It’s all sorta false. Aaron Franklin has some strong opinions about all things steak (which he writes about in his new book, Franklin Steak ), and we unpack many in this entertaining episode. Franklin, of waiting in a long line for barbecue in Austin, Texas, fame, also talks about the status of cutting that l...
May 28, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 60
What exactly does it mean for food to be “modern”? Who better to ask than Anna Jones, the author of A Modern Way to Eat , A Modern Way to Cook , and most recently, The Modern Cook’s Year . In this conversation, we talk about what the word means to her, and she explains why she decided not to label any of her three books “vegetarian” even though none of them contain any meat. We also talked about why lettuces and salad greens are better when they’re charred, wilted, and a little bit warm . Also o...
May 24, 2019•41 min•Ep. 59
