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-movi...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 508
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...
Dec 07, 2024•29 min•Ep. 507
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 ...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 506
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 bo...
Dec 04, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 505
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...
Dec 02, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 504
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 ...
Nov 30, 2024•51 min•Ep. 503
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 ...
Nov 29, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 502
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 item...
Nov 27, 2024•59 min•Ep. 501
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) h...
Nov 25, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 500
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 Thi...
Nov 22, 2024•59 min•Ep. 499
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 ...
Nov 20, 2024•46 min•Ep. 498
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 h...
Nov 18, 2024•58 min•Ep. 497
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...
Nov 16, 2024•54 min•Ep. 496
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 ha...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 495
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 h...
Nov 13, 2024•51 min•Ep. 494
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 r...
Nov 11, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 493
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 ex...
Nov 08, 2024•44 min•Ep. 492
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 mo...
Nov 06, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 491
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. Als...
Nov 04, 2024•43 min•Ep. 490
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 invit...
Nov 02, 2024•59 min•Ep. 489
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 t...
Nov 01, 2024•58 min•Ep. 488
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 th...
Oct 30, 2024•54 min•Ep. 487
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 Go...
Oct 28, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 486
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 thi...
Oct 25, 2024•46 min•Ep. 485
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...
Oct 23, 2024•43 min•Ep. 484
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 , T...
Oct 21, 2024•45 min•Ep. 483
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 ...
Oct 19, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 482
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 Banch...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 481
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...
Oct 16, 2024•55 min•Ep. 480
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 soci...
Oct 14, 2024•48 min•Ep. 479
