Alex Prud’homme ’s new book, Dinner with the President , is a history of American food, politics, and 26 presidents, from George Washington starving at Valley Forge in 1777 to Donald Trump’s burger banquets. It was such a good time having Alex on the show to talk about how food has been used as a diplomatic tool since the founding of the United States, as well as some underrated cooks living in the White House. Finally, Grace Coolidge gets the respect she deserves. We also talk with Alex about h...
Apr 03, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 208
Delia Cai is a journalist, the newsletter savant behind the popular Deez Links send, a Vanity Fair staffer, and the author of a great debut novel, Central Places . On this episode, we cover many excellent topics, including her Midwestern upbringing, her thoughts on the state of the Food Internet, and learning about the customs of dining out the hard way. Also on the show, international food and travel writer Sylvie Bigar was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and is based in New York City, where we ca...
Mar 31, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 207
The name Maya Kaimal may be familiar to many. She runs an amazing packaged foods company that sells delicious premade South Asian sauces and dals in more than 10,000 stores across the United States. She is grocery store royalty. But we wanted to have Maya on the show to talk about her time working at Saveur in the early 2000s and how she transitioned from that job to launching her eponymous food brand. We also talk about her excellent new cookbook, Indian Flavor Every Day. We really hope you enj...
Mar 29, 2023•53 min•Ep. 206
Rich Torrisi is a prolific New York City chef and empire builder behind some of the most buzzed-about restaurants in the United States, including Parm, Sadelle’s, The Pool, Carbone, and his newest and most personal venture, Torrisi . Matt was a fan of Rich’s breakout restaurant, Torrisi Italian Specialties, when it opened at 250 Mulberry St. in 2009. What a restaurant. That mozzarella! In this episode, we talk about those early days but also more modern times—and how the late-night dining scene ...
Mar 27, 2023•52 min•Ep. 205
Grabbing ingredients off a moving platform to cook a dish for Gordon Ramsay to judge truly sounds like a stress dream we’ve had before—but for Mehreen Karim , it’s a good time. Mehreen is a recipe developer and home cook who is competing on the current season of Next Level Chef, a high-stress cooking show designed to conjure up culinary brilliance from serious constraints. She’s also a close friend of Aliza’s, so we invited Mehreen onto the podcast to ask her questions like: “ Why did you want t...
Mar 23, 2023•33 min•Ep. 204
It’s a great day when our friend Alison Roman turns up at our New York City studio. We’ve really enjoyed reading and cooking through her new baking book, Sweet Enough , and we wanted to ask her about what it’s like to write three cookbooks in five and a half years, as well as talk about the TV show she made, her spirited newsletter writing, kosher salt wars, sheet pan shortcake, and where to eat in New York City right now. Alison is one of our all-time favorite guests, and we simply love the way...
Mar 20, 2023•50 min•Ep. 203
There is no food writer we would rather talk to about Italy—and, really, talk to about food in general—than Katie Parla . Her mind, her spirit, and her willingness to drive around the wonderfully off-the-grid cow towns of Puglia for the sake of a book project—it’s all really special. In this episode, we talk about her decades-long obsession with Italian food and culture, and what has gone into her latest book, Food of the Italian Islands . We also discuss her TV work and her tours of Rome that h...
Mar 17, 2023•45 min•Ep. 202
How does a venture capitalist working in and around food actually grocery shop? Elly Truesdell , founder and managing partner of New Fare Partners , joins us on the show to tell us all about it. Elly got her start working in the corporate office of Whole Foods, and we find out about her nearly 10 years there discovering some of our favorite food brands. We also find out what a VC actually does, and how she hunts for the next big thing in CPG—short for consumer packaged goods, i.e., the products ...
Mar 15, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 201
Gail Simmons is a very cool human being—had to say that from the jump! While many know her best from Top Chef , Gail’s career in food expands way beyond a judge’s table. She trained at culinary school and went on to assist legendary food writer and columnist Jeffrey Steingarten. She also worked the line in busy New York City restaurants and is the author of two books, including her latest, Bringing It Home . We wanted to have her on the show to talk about her past in New York City restaurant kit...
Mar 13, 2023•49 min•Ep. 200
Chef and budding TV personality Daniel Harthausen is one of the most exciting voices in food, having just won the first season of HBO’s very good cooking competition show The Big Brunch and running the roving pop-up Young Mother in Richmond, Virginia. Harthausen was raised by a Korean mother and a half-Korean father and “had a baseline of what really good Korean food tasted like, without really knowing it at the time,” he told Matt during a Zoom conversation earlier this year. He was visiting Ne...
Mar 10, 2023•36 min•Ep. 199
Trigg Brown is the chef and co-owner of Win Son and the coauthor of a really great new book, Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook . Trigg and Matt share many mutual friends, and it was really cool for them to meet for the first time on the mic. We talk about Trigg’s early cooking career in Charlottesville, Virgina, and working in New York City with the Colichio crew at Craft and Colichio & Sons (shout-out to Damon Wise) before opening his own restaurant, Win Son, to great acclaim. ...
Mar 08, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 198
How cool to have our old friend and former colleague Talia Baiocchi on the show. Talia has one of the sharpest minds in food media, and we talk about the publication she has run for nearly a decade, PUNCH . We wanted to ask Talia about so many topics related to modern drinking culture, including the explosion of nonalcoholic drinks, the issues with natural wine, and her take on the future of the cocktail. We also talk about her cookbook, Pasta , that she wrote with New York City chef Missy Robbi...
Mar 06, 2023•36 min•Ep. 197
Yay, it’s Smitten Kitchen day, and we’re really, really excited to welcome back our friend Deb Perelman . Deb is the writer, photographer, recipe developer, and driving force behind one of the internet’s most popular home cooking destinations. We talk about what she’s been cooking and how she’s been living her best life with two kids in New York’s East Village, and we discuss her wonderful new book, Smitten Kitchen Keepers . What makes a “keeper” recipe, you might ask. We get into that and a lot...
Mar 02, 2023•49 min•Ep. 196
Indian chef and Unapologetic Foods cofounder Chintan Pandya is a James Beard Award–winning chef and runs some of the best restaurants in NYC, including Adda, Dhamaka, Semma, Rowdy Rooster, and his latest Bengali triumph, Masalawala & Sons. We invited Chintan into the studio because, dude, we wanted to know how he keeps opening hit after hit. We wanted to talk about regional Indian cooking and how most American Indian restaurants focus on such a narrow spectrum of the recipe canon. And we wan...
Feb 28, 2023•59 min•Ep. 195
Yes, Bill Addison is back on TASTE. We’ve long been a fan of Bill’s writing, going back to his well-considered restaurant criticism in Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, Eater as a roving national critic, and for the past three-plus years as the head restaurant critic at the Los Angeles Times . Bill is our favorite critic, writing about our favorite food city in the United States, and we talk about what’s exciting about LA right now. We also get into his writing routine, some of his favorite slept-...
Feb 24, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 194
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 his career and some of the memorable stories he’s worked on. Does Ryan have any reviews that he regrets? How does he stay excited about dining out each and every night? And what is next for Ryan Sutton? He answers most of our questions in this amazing episode. We hope y...
Feb 22, 2023•48 min•Ep. 193
After working as a fact checker for years at the New Yorker and contributing to the magazine’s Tables for Two column, Hannah Goldfield was named the magazine’s first full-time restaurant critic in 2018. We welcome Hannah back to discuss her life as a New York City restaurant critic. We talk about some of her recent reviews and get some of her thoughts on that little film called The Menu —where a big-city restaurant critic is portrayed in the most curious of ways. Does Hannah find it accurate? Ou...
Feb 20, 2023•52 min•Ep. 192
On this very special episode, we catch up with the one and only Cathy Erway . Cathy is a prolific writer and cookbook author behind the great new book Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook , which she wrote with the cofounders of Brooklyn restaurant Win Son. During this wide-ranging conversation, we find out about Cathy’s cookbook writing career and her James Beard Award–winning work on TASTE . We also dive into her column, Shelve It, and find out how grocery store shelves tell us so mu...
Feb 17, 2023•37 min•Ep. 191
Justin Smillie is the chef of Il Buco Alimentari and the author of the now-classic live-fire cooking book Slow Fires: Mastering New Ways to Braise, Roast, and Grill . We wanted to have Justin on the show to talk about his life in and out of the kitchen and what is currently exciting him while running one of New York’s most popular restaurants. We also discuss his previous restaurant, Upland, and what it was like to have the Obama family as frequent diners. What was it like having an official Pre...
Feb 15, 2023•26 min•Ep. 190
We’re thrilled to welcome Sohla El-Waylly to the show for the first time. Sohla is a prodigious recipe developer, a fixture of food YouTube, and a judge on HBO’s cooking competition The Big Brunch —plus a friend of Aliza’s. This week, Aliza and Sohla unpack Sohla’s background before becoming one of the most viral stars in food media today, her thoughts on the ever-controversial brunch, the concept behind her debut cookbook, and much more. MORE FROM SOHLA EL-WAYLLY: Sohla and Ham Turn Hot Pockets...
Feb 13, 2023•33 min•Ep. 189
On this episode, we catch up with Ben Van Leeuwen , the cofounder of a namesake chain of ice cream shops with an accompanying grocery store freezer section line. We invited Ben on the show to talk about what inspires his exacting, hypercreative flavor creation. We also talk about the ups and downs that come with running a growing consumer food brand. Was he freaked out about the Halo Top takeover a few years back? Most certainly. We also talk about flavor booms and busts, and how to sell ice cre...
Feb 10, 2023•52 min•Ep. 188
Stay calm and…just act like Eric Ripert . Young cooks, are you listening? Ripert, a celebrated chef and TV personality, is a balancing force. We talk about how he keeps the exquisite (and massive) Le Bernardin empire running, day after day. We talk about recruiting talent, and he’s also just a really good interview, as we find out in his return to the show. And we also discuss his meals at Noma, and his love of Korean food and culture—from the late-night partying to the vegetarian temple style o...
Feb 08, 2023•52 min•Ep. 187
Yes, it’s James Hoffmann day on TASTE, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. James is one of the coolest dudes on the Coffee internet, and we wanted to have him on the show to talk about all things coffee at home. On this episode, we talk about what actually makes great coffee at home (the topic of a new book ), his big thoughts on espresso, how he rated the best grocery store coffee brands, and what it’s like running his crazy popular YouTube channel —a space that is educating millions of coffee dr...
Feb 06, 2023•46 min•Ep. 186
We wanted to have journalist Anne Helen Petersen on the show not only to talk about modern office lunch culture...we wanted to have journalist Anne Helen Peterson on the show to talk about soup! Peterson is the author of the amazing newsletter Culture Study , and she has much to say about the intersection of food and pop culture. She also name checks some of her favorite cookbooks from Ali Slagle, Alison Roman, and Jenny Rosenstrach to name a few. This is such a rich and textured conversation fr...
Feb 03, 2023•38 min•Ep. 185
Himanshu Suri is best known by his rap name Heems , and he is our guest on this entertaining episode of the show. We wanted to have Heems on not just because we are a fan of his former group Das Racist (you may remember their song “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”) but because we wanted to talk to him about Punjabi food. About growing up in Queens. About his new passion for gardening. We really enjoyed catching up with Heems. More from Heems: Dosa Hunt! [Official] Swet Shop Boys - "T5" [YouT...
Feb 01, 2023•49 min•Ep. 184
If you’ve ever clicked onto the NYT Cooking or Bon Appétit websites looking for something to make for dinner, you’ve probably seen Hetty McKinnon ’s name. The prolific plant-based recipe developer and cookbook author is one of the busiest people in food media, contributing reliable and highly craveable recipes across the internet while releasing cult books like Neighborhood and Family. On this episode, Aliza talks with Hetty about how she keeps up the seemingly endless stream of ideas and stays ...
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 183
You’ve spotted their iconic squeeze bottle on the shelves of Whole Foods and seen it used by your favorite food influencers and chefs on Instagram. But do you know the story behind Spanish olive oil company Graza , one of our favorite upstart food brands around? On this episode, we speak with Graza’s charismatic cofounder Andrew Benin to talk about the ups and downs of running a quickly growing food company. We find out about how the company landed on their logo and look, and Andrew answers the ...
Jan 26, 2023•54 min•Ep. 182
Christina Tosi is a chef and TV personality as well as Milk Bar’s CEO and CCCO (Chief Compost Cookie Officer) and the author of a new cookbook, All About Cookies (among many others). On this lively episode, we talk to her about all things cookies and cake, moving upstate, grocery shopping at dawn, baking David Chang birthday cakes every year, and Milk Bar life (as a mother). We always enjoy having Christina on the show. Also on the show, Aliza and Matt talk about travel. We just launched our fir...
Jan 24, 2023•58 min•Ep. 181
Odette Williams is the author of Simple Cake and Simple Pasta , and she was really fun to have back in the studio. We talk about her journey from novice pasta maker to authoring a cookbook on the subject. We also discuss the art of simplification, and how her Australian upbringing has shaped the way she eats and cooks. Also on the show, Aliza and Matt talk about three things that are on their minds, including Masalawala & Sons , Reyes Deli , the new J Ryan Stradal novel, Saturday Night at th...
Jan 20, 2023•41 min•Ep. 180
The social media meme can be funny, biting, poignant, and oftentimes ubiquitous. Eli Sussman , a talented chef and cookbook author, has mastered the art of the culinary meme, and we talk about it on this very special episode. Eli has been a friend of ours for years, and we had fun catching up about his journey from Michigan short-order cook to LA music marketer to NYC restaurateur, provocateur, and meme maker. Eli is truly one of one in the food world, and we hope you dig this conversation. More...
Jan 18, 2023•49 min•Ep. 179
