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...
Feb 05, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 538
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 restaura...
Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 537
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 e...
Jan 31, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 536
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 ...
Jan 29, 2025•59 min•Ep. 535
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...
Jan 27, 2025•52 min•Ep. 534
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. D...
Jan 25, 2025•39 min•Ep. 533
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 c...
Jan 24, 2025•50 min•Ep. 532
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...
Jan 22, 2025•58 min•Ep. 531
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 ...
Jan 20, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 530
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 Mid...
Jan 18, 2025•56 min•Ep. 529
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 ...
Jan 17, 2025•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 528
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 h...
Jan 15, 2025•47 min•Ep. 527
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 insp...
Jan 13, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 526
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. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Dr...
Jan 11, 2025•49 min•Ep. 525
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. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple , or...
Jan 10, 2025•45 min•Ep. 524
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 th...
Jan 08, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 523
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 ...
Jan 06, 2025•53 min•Ep. 522
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 ...
Jan 03, 2025•41 min•Ep. 521
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 thi...
Jan 01, 2025•45 min•Ep. 520
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 T...
Dec 30, 2024•39 min•Ep. 519
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 cam...
Dec 28, 2024•39 min•Ep. 518
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 i...
Dec 27, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 517
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 tireles...
Dec 25, 2024•29 min•Ep. 516
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 Stat...
Dec 23, 2024•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 515
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 sho...
Dec 20, 2024•37 min•Ep. 514
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 po...
Dec 18, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 513
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 restau...
Dec 16, 2024•58 min•Ep. 512
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...
Dec 14, 2024•57 min•Ep. 511
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, ...
Dec 13, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 510
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 , ...
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 509
