This Is TASTE

Fardad Khayami, the chef-owner of Muse in Santa Monica, has a really great story. Raised in London, and a restaurant fan basically from birth, Fardad attended University of Southern California and started hosting his own pop-up dinners, first for friends and then for ticket holders. The waiting list reached over 6,000 names, and he eventually channeled that love for hospitality into his own restaurant—all before the age of 25. Muse is creative, a little cheffy, and a name to remember. We talk about Fardad’s journey and one crazy first year of operating. At the top of the show, Eric Valdez completes the Resy Questionnaire. Eric is the chef at Naks, a high-energy Filipino restaurant in New York’s East Village. We talk about food movies, dream dinner parties, and the best pizza in NYC. It’s part of a new segment where Resy’s editors, writers, and partner chefs will share compelling stories and discuss the latest in food and dining culture. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not Resy - and do not constitute professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jake Cohen returns to the studio for a really fun conversation. Jake’s a talented cookbook author who is most certainly in the modern social media mix. His new book, Dinner Party Animal, is honestly a joy to read. It offers complete party plans with recipes in the Jake Cohen style—smart, a little sweaty, and with fun and creativity at the center. We talk about what makes a great party and how to think creatively while in the heat of a dinner party kitchen. Also on the show, Aliza catches up with Griffin Owens and Basil Beshkov of YUZUCO, an exciting food brand importing Japanese citrus that has often ended up in some of our favorite bakery pastries and cocktails.   Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today is a really special episode for Matt in that we dive into two of his great loves: food and fiction. In this episode, he catches up with two authors and journalists he has deep respect for: Ed Park and Jason Diamond. Ed is the author of the terrific new short story collection An Oral History of Atlantis and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. We talk about the 1990s and Ed’s past life working at the Village Voice. Food is at the center of Ed’s life (it’s why we love Ed so much), and we talk about his Korean American household in Buffalo and the modern Korean restaurant scene.  On to Jason Diamond. The guy wrote a terrific debut novel, Kaplan’s Plot. It’s a story set in Chicago in both modern times and the 1920s, and yes, there are gangers—but also some amazing food scenes. We get into what drives Jason to write deeply researched scenes that celebrate Chicago’s Jewish diaspora. Yes, liverwurst and the classic Chicago hot dog get some ink. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bettina Makalintal is a senior reporter at Eater and helps lead the publication’s cookbook coverage. Today Eater released a list of its favorites from the busy season, and we talk all about it, as well as some trends Bettina is seeing in book publishing. I always look forward to Eater’s robust and well-considered lists of books each season, and this one is no different. Bettina fills us in, and I hope you enjoy our talk. And, at the top of the show, it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt talk about what is exciting them in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: Some Hudson Valley fall recommendations, including the Hudson Valley Apple Project, Zinnia’s Dinette, and fresh eyes on Tivoli including stops at GioBatta Alimentari and Fortunes Ice Cream, and Club Sandwich looks great. Also, Eyval might be our favorite NYC restaurant meal of the year, the Library 180 image archive is for true magazine lovers, and Ninhao in South Park Slope is worth a visit.  Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show, we have a great conversation with Aaron Crowder. Aaron is the chef-partner at two of New York’s buzziest restaurants, Cervos and Eel Bar. In fact, these restaurants are often mentioned on this show’s TASTE check segments. I had a wonderful talk with Aaron about his Florida upbringing and what he is excited to cook this fall. At the top of the show, Gilberto Cetina, chef at the iconic restaurant Holbox in Los Angeles, completes the Resy Questionnaire. We talk about desert island kitchen appliances, food movies, and the best taco in LA. It’s part of a new segment where Resy’s editors, writers, and partner chefs will share compelling stories and discuss the latest in food and dining culture. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not Resy - and do not constitute professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Melissa King is a chef, entrepreneur, television personality, activist, model, tastemaker, and author of the incredible new cookbook Cook Like a King. She is the winner of Bravo’s Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. and holds more challenge wins than any other competitor in the history of Top Chef. As mentioned previously on the show, I love Cook Like a King. It really speaks to me, and Melissa shares about what inspired the recipes as well as why she is 100% okay with not working in restaurants.  Also on the show, Aliza and Matt go over some of their favorite chef and restaurant cookbooks from this busy fall season. These include: Soju Party, Russ & Daughters: 100 Years of Appetizing,The Pasta Book, Six Seasons of Pasta, House of Nanking: Family Recipes from San Francisco's Favorite Chinese Restaurant, Family Thai, Franco Pepe: Pizza Chef, Le Bistrot Paul Bert: French Comfort Food from the Parisian Restaurant.  Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show, we have a great conversation with Joseph Hernandez. He’s the associate director of drinks & lifestyle at Bon Appétit and Epicurious, and we talk about BA’s best new restaurants of 2025 list that drops today. It’s a terrific list that covers the United States with ambition and great taste, including stops in Pittsburgh, Honolulu, Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Who made the list? We go over all of it. Also on the show, Aliza and Matt go over some of their favorite baking cookbooks from this busy fall season. These include: Pastry Temple, The Art of Gluten-Free Bread, Lebanese Baking, Baking and the Meaning of Life, The Secret Life of Chocolate Chip Cookies, Dorie’s Anytime Cakes, Dobre Dobre, 108 Asian Cookies. This is a really fun episode, and we hope you enjoy it. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evan Funke is a Los Angeles chef and roller of pastas, starring on Netflix and in the dining rooms of Felix Trattoria, Mother Wolf, Funke, and other restaurants in his expanding empire. It was such a pleasure sitting down with Evan in Los Angeles to talk about his wild ride of a career, the good word on the restaurant Funke in Beverly Hills, and how he collaborates closely with his staff to make sure the pasta is always right.  We also get an update on his long-held pasta machine sentiment. Evan is honest here, and he reveals the many complexities of running multiple restaurants.  At the top of the show, it’s the Resy Hit List, where we speak with a Resy editor to hear about what is exciting them in the world of restaurants. It’s part of a new recurring segment where Resy’s editors, writers and partner chefs will share compelling stories and discuss the latest in food and dining culture. On today’s show, we catch up with Deanna Ting. Deanna is the New York editor at Resy, and we talk about new openings, special events, and what’s exciting her on the scene. This includes an Italian restaurant renaissance and wine bars opening in unique spaces. Deanna also answers this simple question: Which steakhouse should I book in New York? A few of the restaurants mentioned on the episode: Borgo ICavallini  Lei Bridges  Odre  Atoboy Dynamo Room The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not Resy – and do not constitute professional business advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may know cookbook author and culinary personality Dan Pelosi as GrossyPelosi, a self-proclaimed “Italian meatball making meatballs.” Dan’s approachable recipes and warm personality, and his debut book, Let’s Eat, have won him lots of fans online and off, and his second cookbook, Let’s Party, delivers more comfort—and lots of smart entertaining tips. It’s so fun to have Dan on the show to talk about building a brand that still feels personal, actually stress-free entertaining, and more. And after the interview, Aliza and Matt share about their recent trips to Los Angeles, with visits to: Kuya Lord, Found Oyster, Holbox, Muse, Rustic Canyon, AWAN, Kettl. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Frommer is the founder and editor in chief of The New Consumer, an influential publication that covers the intersection of technology and consumer brands—and many of these brands live in the food world. We wanted to have Dan back on the show to talk about his new trends report. As Dan writes: “Between tariffs, geopolitics, DOGE, egg prices, measles, fires, floods, and more, the US consumer has had a chaotic start to the year.” What does it all mean for brands like Sweetgreen, Chipotle, and Starbucks? We dig into each, and we have a great conversation about that not-so-great topic on all of our minds: inflation. I loved catching up with Dan, and I hope you enjoy the conversation. Also on the show we have a great conversation with Stella Drivas, author of the new book, Hungry Happens: Mediterranean. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexis deBoschnek is a cookbook author, recipe developer, and writer based in the Catskills in upstate New York. Her latest book, Nights and Weekends, is extremely cool, and we talk about how she brings her deep recipe writing chops to help people cook better and faster. We also discuss her upstate life and some of the memorable recipes from the book. Also on the show, Aliza talks with Miyoko Schinner, the trailblazing plant-based chef, cookbook author, and founder of the vegan cheese brand Miyoko’s Creamery. Her seventh cookbook, The Vegan Creamery, shares everything you need to make milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and more without dairy. We also talk about big shifts in the plant-based eating world. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drew Nieporent is the guy behind legendary New York City restaurants Montrachet, Tribeca Grill, Nobu, and nearly 40 more, and he joins me in the studio today for an amazing conversation. He’s written a memoir, I’m Not Trying to Be Difficult: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches, and it’s one of Matt's favorite restaurant books in recent years. In our conversation, we cover a lot of ground: opening in Tribeca in the early ’80s, collaborating with Robert De Niro on multiple restaurants, and why Keith McNally isn’t the only New York City restaurant man with a good story to tell. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it take to build a buzzy food brand in 2025—a brand gushed about online, used by legit chefs around the country, and found on the shelves of Erewhon? It’s a tough question, but Zab’s Datil Pepper Hot Sauce cofounder Miles Soboroff is pretty qualified to answer it. In this great conversation, Miles shares how he discovered the datil pepper by near accident and how he think about growing his amazing company. Matt is a major fan of Zab’s as well as of Miles, and we hope you enjoy the conversation. Also on the show Matt has a great conversation with Tyler Sharp, editor in chief of Modern Huntsman. The award-winning publication has released a really terrific cookbook and they talk all about it, as well as what it means to hunt and fish today. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sally McKenney is the creator of the wildly popular website Sally’s Baking Addiction. She is known for providing clear, concise instructions, tips, and tutorials to make every recipe approachable for home bakers of all skill levels. In this episode, we talk about her great new cookbook, Sally's Baking 101, and what she is excited to bake this fall. And, at the top of the show, it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt talk about what is exciting them in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: We visited some New York City restaurants! Checking in on I Cavallini, Eel Bar, Cervo’s, Bridges, and Bong. Also: Jason Diamond’s debut novel, Kaplan’s Plot, gives Boardwalk Empire chased with a glass of prune juice, checking out Greensickle green juice popsicles, and a great visit to Traverse City, Michigan including visits to Common Good Bakery and Mode’s Bum Steer. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Khushbu Shah is one of our favorite writers online, and she’s the voice behind the great Substack Tap Is Fine. She’s the former restaurant editor at Food & Wine, and we go over so many topics bubbling over in the world of food, media, recipes, restaurants, and her hometown of Los Angeles, where we recorded this interview. We could speak with Khushbu for hours, and we actually do that when we hang out offline. But here’s our on-the-record conversation, and you shouldn’t miss it. Also on the show we have a great conversation with Julie Wolfson. Julie is an editor and writer covering the exciting California coffee scene. We talk about roasters, cafes, cold coffee, and her new Golden State of Coffee work on Substack. Read: 26 Of My Strongest Opinions About Food Read: Are You a Restaurant Regular? Listen: Los Angeles Coffee Professionals Spill All Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cake Zine is an independent literary food magazine cofounded by pastry chef Tanya Bush and TASTE contributing editor Aliza Abarbanel. The newest issue, Forbidden Fruit, explores how fruit fuels temptation, transgression, and fantasy. Today on the show, Aliza invites Tanya into the studio to talk about the editorial process behind this seventh issue and fruit’s many cultural meanings. Pre-order the new issue of Cake Zine: Forbidden Fruit Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was so fun having Jeff Gordinier in the studio. Jeff is a journalist, an author, and one of the more prolific writers in the food world. He’s currently Esquire’s food and drinks editor, leading their restaurants and bars coverage. Before that he was a reporter at the New York Times and held various roles at Entertainment Weekly. In this episode we have a great conversation about his work, the current dining scene, and his award-winning article in Food & Wine about rice in Charleston that he cowrote with George McCalman. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was truly a blast to have Danny Meyer in the studio. Danny is a great spokesperson for the restaurant industry and a hell of a storyteller. In today’s episode, we focus on his most near and dear restaurant, New York’s Union Square Cafe, which turns 40 this year. We talk about the early years, the legendary customers, and what it was like to pack everything up and move a couple of blocks over in 2016. What a great conversation.  Also on the show, I have a great talk with Lena Ciardullo, the current executive chef of Union Square Cafe. We talk about what it’s like to shepherd this iconic restaurant, and we get into her own personal style and tastes. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yasmin Khan is an author, broadcaster, and human rights campaigner based in London. After releasing The Saffron Tales, Zaitoun, and Ripe Figs, she has a new cookbook: Sabzi, a collection of over 80 vegetarian recipes drawing from her travels and her Iranian and Pakistani heritage. It’s so special to have Yasmin on the show to talk about adapting traditional recipes for a plant-based diet, motherhood and the power of culinary lineage. Shop: Canaan Palestine Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rosie Kellett is a chef, food writer, and supper club host based in London. She’s the author of a terrific debut cookbook, In for Dinner, and we really enjoyed catching up with her about the current London restaurant scene, her deep interest in pain au chocolat, and what cooking in a shared space in East London taught her about her own cooking skills. Read: Rosie Kellett on Substack Watch: London's Best Pain Au Chocolat Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices