The Taste Podcast

On today’s episode, we have a really fun conversation with the one and only J. Kenji López-Alt. As the author of The Food Lab, Kenji has been a guiding force in home cooking for over a decade. He’s back with a new book, The Wok: Recipes and Techniques, and we discuss creative ways to cook with one of the best tools around. We go all the way back to the heady days of early Serious Eats, a time when food blogging was starting to find its footing, and Kenji reflects on his time working at the scrappy start-up. We also talk about some of his favorite condiments and spices and what foods he enjoys most in the kitchen. Additional Reading:  A Lamb Stew With a French Onion Twist [New York Times] The Scientific Methods of J. Kenji López-Alt [Seattle Met] J. Kenji López-Alt says Seattle’s bagels are as good as New York’s [Seattle Times]

On today’s episode, we’re sitting down with longtime food writer and cookbook author Cathy Barrow. Cathy’s the author of Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical Pantry, Pie Squared, and When Pies Fly. Her most recent book, Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish, makes the case for bagels at home. As she points out, if you throw together the dough before bed and proof it in the refrigerator overnight, boiling and baking in the morning is a complete breeze. We discussed some of the biggest bagel myths and truths out there. It turns out that using New York City tap water isn’t really a necessity, but getting the right flour is. Check out Cathy’s book: Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish  Pick up Some Ingredients for Bagels at Home: High-Gluten Flour Non-Diastatic Malt Powder Pumpernickel Flour

Today on the show we are speaking with one of the clearest and most singular voices in Italian cooking in New York City, Missy Robbins. In the episode, we turn back the clock to the heady days of Missy running two major NYC restaurants in the late aughts, as well as discuss her current hit Brooklyn restaurants Lilia and Misi. We also talk about her new cookbook, Pasta: The Spirit and Craft of Italy’s Greatest Food, with Recipes, which she wrote with our former TASTE colleague and friend Talia Baiocchi. We find out about the duo’s extensive research and reporting, and how the book has taken off online since it was released last fall. Have you spotted folks stamping out pasta coins on the internet? We have. Additional Reading: 45 Pasta Shapes and Counting [TASTE] Recipe: Spaghetti alla Puttanesca [Pasta] Recipe: Spaghetti with Colatura and Bread Crumbs [Pasta] Buy the book: Pasta: The Spirit and Craft of Italy’s Greatest Food, with Recipes

In this episode, we’re sitting down with Mark Canha, the biggest food personality in Major League Baseball. Mark is an itinerant diner who documents his eating and cooking on Instagram as @bigleaguefoodie. We asked him about his pregame eating rituals, as well as some of the restaurants in New York that he’s most excited to check out as a new player for the New York Mets. We also talked about some untapped markets for Italian stadium food served in plastic souvenir helmet bowls. Later in this episode, hosts Matt Rodbard and Anna Hezel catch up about the most exciting things they’ve cooked and eaten in the last few weeks. Additional Reading: In Singapore, Lunar New Year is a Multicultural Feast [New York Times] Skillet Greens with Runny Eggs, Peas, and Pancetta [New York Times] NY Indonesian Food Bazaar [Facebook] Smorgasburg LA Danny Boy’s Famous Original 

For the past year and a half, Daniela Galarza has written one of our favorite things on the internet: a four-day-a-week cooking column for the Washington Post food section, Eat Voraciously. In this episode, we hear about Daniela’s journey from pastry cook and private chef to holding down editorial jobs at LA Weekly, Eater, and the Post. We also talk about some of the great work she’s done as a writer for TASTE, particularly focusing on pastry and desserts. And she answers the burning questions of the day: What makes a great recipe, and what makes a great food newsletter?  Additional reading: The Tart That Launched a Thousand Tarts [TASTE] Spain’s Burnt Cheesecake Breaks All the Rules [TASTE] Big Crisp Energy [TASTE] How do you like to cook your least favorite veggies? We’ve got ideas, too. [WaPo]

Today on the show, we’re catching up with Gary Shteyngart, a New York Times best-selling novelist and food writer who has written memorable books including The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Super Sad True Love Story, and his most recent work, the rollicking pandemic satire Our Country Friends. In this episode, we talk about some of Shteyngart’s world travels, both as a hired gun and for fun, as well as what he’s eating and drinking in his Upstate New York home. We also remember New York City restaurants from the 1990s and early 2000s, including fond memories of the long-lost Meatpacking District bistro Florent, which plays a role in his most recent novel. Check out Gary Shteyngart’s recent book Our Country Friends. 

On today’s episode of the podcast, we’re talking to Fany Gerson, the pastry chef mastermind behind La Newyorkina, Dough, and, most recently, Fan-Fan Doughnuts in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. In addition to making some of New York’s most legendary doughnuts, Fany has written extensively about the paletas, ice creams, and other sweets of Mexico, where she grew up. We talked about the secret ingredient that makes her yeasted doughnuts special, how the fan-fan (her signature eclair-like doughnut baton) came about, and some of the best, often-overlooked Mexican food in New York. Later on the show, hosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard discuss the ever-present, ever-evolving world of fad diets. Additional Reading: Mexican Desserts and the Magical Can [TASTE] Inside Fany Gerson’s Brand-new Doughnut Shop [Grub Street] The Best Advice After Trying Every Fad Diet? Just Eat. [TASTE] When SnackWell’s Was the Flavor of Permissible Indulgence [TASTE] The Summer of Halo Top [TASTE] Buy Fany’s cookbooks: My Sweet Mexico, Pale

Today on the show, we’re talking to Hrishikesh Hirway, the musician behind The One AM Radio, the podcaster behind The West Wing Weekly and Song Exploder, and the host of Netflix’s adaptation of Song Exploder. In addition to collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma and interviewing musicians like Michael Stipe and Alicia Keys, Hrishikesh is also the cohost, with Samin Nosrat, of Home Cooking, which has quickly become one of our favorite food podcasts during the pandemic.  We talked about the joys of savory oatmeal, lessons learned from hosting a call-in show about cooking, and a very special mango pie. We also got to hear about an exciting new EP that’s hot off the presses. Additional reading and listening: Accept Cookies [Substack] A Very American Mango Pie, Inspired by Indian Aunties [The New York Times] Song Exploder, The West Wing Weekly, Home Cooking

Today on the show, we have a colorful conversation with Cara Nicoletti, a fourth-generation butcher, writer, and cofounder of the vegetable-centric sausage company Seemore Meats & Veggies. We’ve fallen hard for these sausages, which are made with 35 percent vegetables, and we wanted to have Cara on the podcast to talk about how she went from working at the legendary Meat Hook butcher shop in Brooklyn to disrupting the sausage game. We also talk about the many problems with the massive investment and growth of the plant-based meat megacompanies, and how TASTE readers can buy better at their local butcher shops. Also on the program, hosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard discuss all things chicken soup: the many versions made around the world, and how the recipe is interpreted in some of our favorite recent cookbooks. Matt also remembers many a fine bowl of Detroit Lions’ loss chicken soup.  Additional reading: Can Chicken Soup Save Us? [TASTE] Samgyetang: Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup [TASTE] Cooking At Home by

On today’s episode, Anna sits down with longtime chef and sustainable seafood advocate Bart van Olphen. The Dutch chef has written many cookbooks for an international audience (including several on the topic of tinned fish), and he’s the founder of Sea Tales, a company that sells sustainable canned tuna, anchovies, and sardines. They talked about why tinned fish is having a moment, how to shop responsibly for seafood, and Bart’s newest book, Veggies & Fish. Later on the show, Anna talks to author and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra about mindful holiday eating and why the self-care industrial complex might not be such a bad thing. Deepak has some thoughts about how to eat well (and thoughtfully), even in the midst of a hectic travel schedule or a deluge of holiday celebrations. Buy the books:  Veggies & Fish, by Bart van Olphen Total Meditation, by Deepak Chopra

One morning this fall, Matt found himself in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, seated in the front yard of Edy’s Grocer, the remarkable deli and specialty food shop run by the amazing young entrepreneur Edy Massih, who joins him on the show today. Massih formerly worked as a caterer, and during the pandemic, he took over a storefront and began selling all sorts of delicious foods—all with a modern and exciting point of view. There’s a long list of mezze—Lebanese small plates like baba ganoush, rosy ricotta, and za’atar goat cheese—as well as harissa paste, jams, oils, and packaged spice rubs. It’s a delightful shop, cared for with the greatest eye for detail and deliciousness. We find out how the store began and how its ambitious owner is making things work during this challenging time to be running a food business.  Additional reading: Edy Massih Wants to Be 'the Middle Eastern Martha Stewart' [Grub Street] The Dish: Chef Edy Massih on Lebanese roots, new shop [CBS This Morning] He Rescued an NYC Deli So He Could

Matt met author and television writer Jean Kyoung Frazier through Instagram during last year’s NBA playoffs. She is a Los Angeles Clippers fan, he’s a Brooklyn Nets fan, and they had a lot to talk about. But what most inspired the exchange, and eventually this episode, is Jean’s novel Pizza Girl, which is based partially in a suburban Los Angeles pizzeria. We speak with Jean about how she writes about food in her fiction, as well as not writing about food on Law & Order: Organized Crime. We also talk about her upbringing in Southern California—the food, the hoops, and how pizza topped with pickles plays as a critical plot point in her work.   Also on the show, hosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard talk about some of the winter cooking projects and goals they will be undertaking during the colder months ahead. We go through a year of buying cookbooks and clipping recipes on the internet, but sometimes we run out of time to actually make them. Winter is a time to make things happen, and your cohosts have some thoug

If you’ve caught some of the exciting new writing coming from the relaunch of Gawker, you may have read some food writing by Tammie Teclemariam, who’s been taking down moka pots, making the case for buying a whole ham, and lauding the Black Russian as a far superior alternative to the espresso martini craze. Tammie’s also written for TASTE about the virtues of fried chicken livers, how Caraflex is the ultimate cabbage flex, and why mozzarella in carrozza is the fanciest iteration of a grilled cheese. We talked about some of the joys (and terrors) of whole-ham ownership, as well as a few unexpectedly cool ideas for holiday drinking. After recording the episode, it was announced that Tammie will be New York Magazine’s first ever Diner-at-Large. You can follow along with her eating and writing in 2022 here. Also on this episode, hosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard dive into the topic of nonalcoholic drinks for celebratory occasions—all of the sodas, seltzers, and beers that are worth pulling out for a toast, inclu

Samah Dada is the brainpower behind Dada Eats, a recipe blog that has blossomed into a plant-based lifestyle brand. We got to know Samah a few years back at a TASTE Podcast taping at Books Are Magic, and we have been following her career as she’s grown from Today Show production assistant to author of Dada Eats: Love to Cook It. In this interview, we talk about her recipes for chocolate chip cookie pie and the “best dal ever” (controversial!) while diving into her understated and, we'd say, highly seasoned take on plant-based cooking. Samah’s vibe is fun and approachable, and the lack of meat and dairy in her recipes is sorta less emphasized. We also talk about the challenge of baking with avocado and her time working food TV. Additional reading: How Samah Dada Got The Confidence To Share More Personal Recipes [Cherry Bombe] Chocolate chip cookie pie [Dada Eats] 2 Easy Plant-Based Dinner Recipes For When You're Cooking Solo [Today] Buy the book: Dada Eats: Love to Cook It

Our guest today needs little introduction—but if you didn’t grow up watching cooking on television over the past 20 years, here’s the deal. Jamie Oliver pioneered a form of food television that brought cameras into the home in a way not previously seen. When the Naked Chef debuted on BBC Two in the UK and the Food Network in the United States in 1999, home cooking on TV was a stand-and-stir affair. Here, a young and floppy Oliver was cooking real food from a cool East London flat, talking viewers through the relative simplicity of making dinner. Oliver has gone on to write numerous cookbooks (selling 50 million in the UK alone) and create food TV that expanded beyond cooking, producing documentaries about the sugar industry and school lunches that transitioned his work from dude food evangelist to heartier activism.  Oliver was a joy to have on the program, and we talk about the early days of his television career, working at the River Café with the legends Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray, and a pressing question:

The truly unique food worldview of chef and entrepreneur Lucas Sin is shaped by a Hong Kong upbringing, a US education, and a deep love for culinary history, which we talk about in this entertaining interview with one of the food world’s rising stars. We also discuss his love of the Midwest—Michigan in particular—and how his work at his restaurants, Junzi and Nice Day, is partially based on a drive to “reeducate” Americans about Chinese American food, which represents over 45,000 independent mom-and-pop restaurants around the country. And if you haven’t followed Lucas on Instagram, you are missing out. Also on this episode, cohosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard talk about cooking the whole fish! There are many techniques being presented in the recent crop of cookbooks released this fall. They debunk some of the myths about the difficulty of cooking the whole fish (it needn’t be hard), and they each share some of their fondest memories of cooking whole fish at home and enjoying it around the world. Additional re

Archestratus is Paige Lipari’s Greenpoint, Brooklyn, café and cookbook store. For over six years, the store—stacked neatly with copies of new and used titles, as well as dusty magazines and long-forgotten reference materials, with a stellar Sicilian restaurant attached—has become one of New York City’s go-to spots for exceptionally curated book browsing paired with molten arancini. In this episode, we speak with Lipari about how one of the country’s finest cookbook stores survived the pandemic—and eventually grew, with a recent expansion. We also talk about many of her favorite fall cookbooks, just in time for the holiday book buying season. Have you picked up a title today? Archestratus will have what you are looking for. Also on the show, we speak with Cathy Erway. She’s a journalist, podcast hosting legend, and TASTE columnist. We talk about some of her recent work, including stories about sugar, sesame oil, and chile powder. We also discuss her recent cookbook collaboration, and the process of collaborati

Vallery Lomas is a former Washington, DC, lawyer, a current New York City food writer and restaurant chronicler, and the author of a wonderful new cookbook, Life Is What You Bake It. Vallery also competed on—and won— season 3 of The Great American Baking Show. In this interview, we talk a little bit about her season of the show, which unfortunately never aired because of many allegations made against one of the judges. We also tackle some of the baking world’s biggest questions—we’re talking cookie vs. brownie and mint vs. white chocolate. Also on the show, cohosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard talk about one of the greatest culinary achievements in the history of food (at least to one of the hosts): ranch dressing. They discuss what defines ranch, the beauty of ranch on pizza, and how ranch may need a little PR. Well, here is some PR! Additional reading: Vallery Lomas and Ruby Tandoh on New Cookbooks and Old Food Media [TASTE] Leah Chase Expanded Horizons for Black Women in Food [TASTE] Ranch Isn’t a Dre

There are plenty of things we take for granted about walking into a grocery store: the fluorescent lights, the astoundingly inexpensive milk, the neatly stacked boxes of Nabisco cookies. But as Benjamin Lorr uncovers in his book The Secret Life of Groceries, there’s more than meets the eye. Lorr went undercover as a Whole Foods fishmonger, boarded a shrimp-fishing boat in Thailand, and rode along with a truck driver in a quest to understand some of the unseen economics and labor that fuel our everyday commodities. In this episode, we talk about supply chain disruptions, neighborhood grocery tastemakers, and the origins of Trader Joe’s. Also on the show, Anna sits down with author and journalist Leah Koenig to discuss the burgeoning world of TikTok and Instagram foraging. Additional reading: It Was a Big Year for TikTok Foraging [TASTE] Benjamin Lorr’s ‘The Secret Life of Groceries’ Book Being Adapted As TV Docuseries [Deadline] Buy the book: The Secret Life of Groceries

Our old friend and former TASTE columnist Priya Krishna has had a meteoric rise in food media, starting in the marketing department at Lucky Peach and going on to roles at Bon Appétit and, most recently, the New York Times, where she is a star reporter on the Food desk. In this interview, we talk about the new book she wrote with David Chang, Cooking at Home, and how they both set out to write a book that was original, opinionated, and clearly not the Momofuku Cookbook 2.0. We also talk about some of her recent stories at the New York Times, as well as in the pages of TASTE. Also on the show, Anna Hezel speaks with Adam Erace, author of a recent hit story about the godfather sandwich, a mainstay in delis on the East Coast. We found out how the sandwich takes on many personalities—and was not necessarily inspired by the film that shares its name. Additional reading: Was Cast Iron Almost Canceled? [TASTE] The Vegan Jerky Industrial Complex [TASTE] Why Do American Grocery Stores Still Have an Ethnic Aisle