This Is TASTE

Yara Herrera is the chef-partner at Hellbender, a Mexican-American restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she honed her skills in the city’s fine dining restaurants like Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and Providence before moving to New York in 2018 to work at Momofuku Ko, Xilonen, and Sobre Masa. Today on the show, we talk about Yara’s culinary journey, running Hellbender, and creating her distinctive approach to Mexican-American cuisine. And before that, Rob Rubba, chef-owner of Oyster Oyster in Washington D.C. takes the Resy Questionnaire. In 2023, Rob won the James Beard Award® for Outstanding Chef and continues as a leader in plant-focused, sustainable cooking.  The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not of Resy—and do not constitute professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For over two decades, Andrew Zimmern has starred in some of the most thoughtful and compelling food television being made for TV and online. He’s the longtime host of Bizarre Foods and a number of other food travel shows that defined a generation of programming. He’s also a longtime friend of mine, and it’s crazy that this was his first time appearing on the show. We go in so many great directions with this conversation, including talking about his incredible new seafood cookbook, The Blue Food Cookbook. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was so much fun having Carla Hall in the studio. Carla Hall is a chef and TV host who is currently serving as judge on Fox’s Next Level Baker, a show that tests both professional and home bakers on their baking bona fides. In this episode, Carla shares some great baking ideas for the holidays, and she answers the question that some of us have been asking: What is Gordon Ramsay like in real life? 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. The show’s hosts were on the road and report back about what they ate during their travels, including Aliza making stops for onion rings at Frisko Freeze and a big serving of vibes at Bob’s Java Jive in Tacoma, Washington. Matt visited Cleveland and was blown away by the creative Midwestern cooking at Cordelia, the waffles fries with Ranch and sharp comfort cooking at Heart of Gold, and a little museum called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In Seattle, Aliza has short rib and dry pho at Phở Bắc. And we couldn’t forget about New York, and Aliza enjoys her visit to Zeena Bakery at the Ft. Greene Farmers Market. Watch: Prince, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne - "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (no, really, watch it). Read: It’s About Time You Bought a Digital Scale Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zoë Kanan is the baker-partner of Elbow Bread, a very special Jewish-American bakery in New York’s Lower East Side. She’s produced some of the most important pastries in New York over the past 15 years, from being one of the first-ever interns at Christina Tosi’s Milk Bar to baking bagels at Sadelle’s under Melissa Weller and running the bread and pastry programs for the Freehand Hotel. Today on the show, we talk about what it’s like to have a bakery of her own, developing her own signature pastries, and much more. And also on the show, Aliza chats with TASTE contributor Grayson Samuels about his work as a writer, actor, and baker in New York, including some of his favorite stories for TASTE. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was really great to have Jessica Koslow in for a conversation. Jessica is the chef and founder of Sqirl in Los Angeles, a pioneering breakfast and lunch counter that serves inventive rice bowls and jams on toast and that inspired a whole generation of all-day cafés. In this episode, we talk a bit about Jessica’s early career before going into her exceptional jam business and hearing some big news about changes at the restaurant. And before that, we have a fun conversation with Tigist Reda, chef and owner of the popular Chicago Ethiopian restaurant Demera. Tigist completes the Resy Questionnaire, and we find out about her favorite food book, her ideal last meal on earth, and, most important, her favorite Chicago pizza.  Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What better way to talk about the year in cookbook publishing than by speaking directly with the source: the booksellers. Today on the show we are joined by Matt Sartwell of New York’s Kitchen Arts & Letters and Ken Concepcion of LA’s Now Serving. Matt and Ken tell us about what is selling in their stores and name some of their personal favorite titles from this busy year. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Book editor Michael Szczerban joins us in the studio to talk about The Talisman of Happiness, a book he worked over a decade to have translated from Italian into English. As we find out, it’s an iconic (and quite unwieldy—1,680 recipes!) text that its author, Ada Boni, originally published in 1929. The book’s influence cannot be overstated, and for first-time readers, it gives insight into the foundational Italian cooking that we still see today. Michael shares how he was introduced to the book by Samin Nosrat while editing Salt Fat Acid Heat, which sent him down many dead-end roads toward acquiring it for publication in English. This is a wonderful conversation for Italian food nerds like us. Read: The Book That Taught Nonna to Cook Is Coming to America [NYT] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rich Torrisi is the 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 most personal venture,Torrisi. Matt was a fan of Rich’s breakout restaurant, Torrisi Italian Specialties, when it opened at 250 Mulberry Street in 2009. What a restaurant. That mozzarella! In this episode, Rich takes the Resy Questionnaire, and we find out so much about his unique point of view on restaurants, innovation, and hospitality as a whole. This is such a great conversation. 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

Vaughn Vreeland is a cookbook author, NYT Cooking writer, and longtime video personality—or, as he writes, “that guy from that thing I saw once.” His first book, Cookies: The Best Recipes for the Perfect Anytime Treat, was published in collaboration with NYT Cooking and includes 100 amazing cookie recipes from Vaughn along with a deep bench of recipe developers from the New York Times orbit. We had such a fun time talking with Vaughn about how to win your office holiday cookie competition and some of the creative recipes he’s included in this great book. Also, it's cookie week at the New York Times. Check it out. Also on the show we have more cookie talk. Marissa Rothkopf is the author of a great new book, The Secret Life of Chocolate Chip Cookies. We talk about writing a book dedicated to what might be the favorite (or possibly best) cookie, and go over some really helpful baking tips.    Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the return of Food Writers Talking About Food Writing. Every couple of weeks, Matt invites a journalist to talk about some favorite recent food writing as well as their thoughts on the industry as a whole. In today’s episode, we talk with Chris Crowley. Chris is a senior writer at New York magazine covering food and culture around the five boroughs. We’ve long admired Chris’s work and wanted to have him in the studio to talk about some of his recent reporting.    Featured on the episode: Why the New York Bodega Is Here to Stay⁠ [NYT] "⁠He’s Taking Advantage of Your Dream⁠" [NY Mag] ⁠You Want to Imagine What This Tastes Like? Fuck You, Says AI⁠ [Vittles] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is no food writer we would rather talk to about Italy—and maybe about food in general—than Katie Parla. Katie is the author of several books, and her latest is a return to her hometown of Rome. Rome: A Culinary History, Cookbook, and Field Guide to the Flavors that Built a City captures the history and modern culinary spirit of one of the world’s greatest cities. In this episode, we speak with Katie about her independent book publishing business, the current tourist vibes of Italy, and what makes Rome such a special place. 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: A Korean restaurant and brewery, NY Makgeolli, is serving amazing freshwater eel in the Hudson Valley, Maxi’s Noodle has a new location in Manhattan, Raf’s is a great spot for weekday breakfast in Manhattan. Also: Toasted Pepita Pumpkin Spice from Burlap and Barrel may change your opinion about pumpkin spice, Ken Burns’ The American Revolution has some surprises, and the new Frankenstein by Guillermo del Toro  is beautiful.  Also, we’re doing a mailbag episode to end the year. Send your questions to: hello@tastecooking.com with Mailbag in the subject. We'll answer questions about cooking, favorite restaurants, past guests, cookbooks we may have missed, cities we should visit. If you have a question, Aliza and Matt will answer it.  Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah Taylor is the fast-growing culinary creator known on TikTok and Instagram as LilyLouTay. She is the author of the New York Times Best Seller Measure with Your Heart, and she joins us in the studio with a really fun conversation about her Southern cooking roots and her journey from being a working mother of three to a social media megastar.   Also on the show, Mina Park and Kwang Uh of Baroo in Los Angeles take the Resy Questionnaire. It’s impossible to overstate the devotion fans have to this restaurant, whether the strip-mall original, the pop-up, and even for the two long years Baroo didn’t exist. This latest iteration is a rebirth of Kwang and Mina’s vision of fermentation-driven Korean cuisine. But first, the questions.  The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not of Resy—and do not constitute professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Samin Nosrat is a chef, teacher, and author of the bestselling, James Beard Award–winning cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and the star of the very popular titular documentary series on Netflix. Now, she’s back with a truly excellent new cookbook: Good Things. Today on the show, we go deep on the journey that led her to Good Things, why recipes are like rituals, and the dishes she makes at home on repeat. 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: Aliza visits Wild Cherry and Matt visits the new Babbo. Also, we hung out with Shy Burgers, Bad Food from Vittles looks great, and we are cooking with Uncles Big Green Curry and Cumin Club. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anna Ansari is a former New York international trade and customs attorney and now lives in East London. She's written a fascinating debut cookbook, Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing. It covers Anna's life growing up in an Iranian American family in Michigan and traveling throughout Asia from a young age on what she describes as the many silk roads. 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: Matt visits the great Guamanian restaurant Family Friend in Seattle, and makes stops for Korean coffee at Park at Kims and there’s a new pita shop in town at Shifka in New York. Aliza celebrates her birthday at World Spa, Si n'shpi, and dinner at Strange Delight. And we shout out Zola Gregory’s latest column and a recipe for a Nutella pie worth celebrating. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tom Colicchio is a longtime chef who has operated some of America’s iconic restaurants, including Craft, Gramercy Tavern, and dozens more. He’s also the head judge on the show Top Chef. We welcomed Tom back to the studio to talk about the current restaurant landscape as well as the release of Think Like a Chef, the 25th anniversary edition of his debut cookbook. The book is a classic and so worth reading today. Tom talks about his technique and the mistakes home cooks often make that are easily fixable. And before that, we have a great conversation with Johanna Hellrigl. She is the chef-owner of Ama in Washington, DC. Ama is a special restaurant with exceptional Northern Italian cooking and a mission to further sustainability practices in a living, breathing restaurant. Johanna completes the Resy Questionnaire as part of a memorable conversation. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not of Resy—and do not constitute professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gabrielle Hamilton is the chef/owner of Prune restaurant in New York’s East Village and is the author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef and the cookbook Prune. Her moving new memoir Next of Kin is an unflinching portrait of her dynamic family and its dramatic dissolution through death, betrayal, and time. It is a chef’s memoir with barely any food but plenty of propulsive writing. Today on the show, Gabrielle shares how she wrote this deeply personal book, how Prune is operating as a private restaurant today, and much more. Also on the show, we catch up with Nicola Olivieri, the CEO of Italian bakery Olivieri 1882. The topic is panettone, which is one of our favorite holiday traditions. Nicola runs the bakery with his brother Andrea and has an amazing story about growing their business and making our favorite panettone around. The Wirecutter agrees.    Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  For a limited time, visit AuraFrames.com and get $45 off Aura’s best-selling Carver Mat frames. https://on.auraframes.com/TASTE. Promo Code TASTE at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the return of Food Writers Talking About Food Writing. Every couple of weeks, Matt invites a journalist to talk about some favorite recent food writing as well as their thoughts on the industry as a whole. In today’s episode, we talk with Maggie Hoffman. Maggie is a cookbook author, editor, and founder of the terrific Substack The Dinner Plan (and podcast). We talk about her days working at Serious Eats and Epicurious, and we dig into some recent food writing that got us talking. Featured on the episode: What Does a 6-Foot-8 Pro Wrestler Eat? The Entire Menu [NYT] I Made Hundreds of Fried Chicken Batches as a Line Cook—Here’'s the #1 Way to Keep It Crispy and Juicy [Serious Eats] Peak Private Label [New Fare Partners] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cha McCoy is an entrepreneur, educator, and sommelier from Harlem. She is the founder of the wine event series the Communion and, later, the brick-and-mortar bottle shop the Communion Wine & Spirits. Now she’s sharing her wine knowledge in her first book: Wine Pairing for the People: The Communion of Wine, Food, and Culture from Africa and Beyond. It’s an invaluable guide to pairing wine with food, anchored by Cha’s own experience traveling in wine regions across the globe, and today on the show, we dig into the process of bringing the book to life. 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: Matt shares about his recent trip to Korea, including stops at Bium and Superpan in Seoul, a visit to Sokcho and Sokcho Kappo, and discovering a very special cafe, Cafe Gid. And Aliza shares about a visit to Kiko, her thoughts on Korea's Fritz Coffee, and the very cool Apartamento Cookbook #10: APHRODISIACS. 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 Pablo Rivero, CEO of Resy and Tock. Along with running Resy and Tock, Pablo is a passionate supporter of the restaurant industry and a prolific diner. We hear about the recent Resy Retrospective and what the Resy team is spotting across the United States. We also get into Pablo’s personal history with restaurants as well as some of his favorite places to dine around the country.  The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not of Resy—and do not constitute professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anna Archibald and Kevin Serai are the couple behind Cabagges World, an online platform where they share recipes, travel guides, and more lifestyle inspiration.  Their respective backgrounds in graphic design and marketing helped turn a few viral home cooking videos into a career, and today on the show, we go deep on their backgrounds and perspective on creating cooking content online—plus what’s inspiring them today. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices