This Is TASTE

Jason Stewart is a DJ (playing as Them Jeans) and cohost of How Long Gone, a podcast that dips in and out of the food world with surprising and entertaining frequency. It was so great to have Jason back on the show to talk about where he’s been dining out in Los Angeles and New York, his home cooking stylings, and some of his recent writing for TASTE.  Also on the show we have a great conversation...

The weather is cold and the produce selection in the grocery store is smaller, but that's no reason to despair! Chris, Jesse, and Shilpa have the recipe for winter cooking optimism—and the answers to listener questions about homemade broth, frozen veggies, and more. Listen to and follow Bon Appétit's Dinner SOS here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was incredible to sit down with Dana Cowin, a creative force and an important figure in the history of food media. Dana served as the editor in chief of Food & Wine for over two decades, and she’s the founder of Progressive Hedonist, an organization that looks to find joy in purposeful action. In this episode, we go back to hear about the early days of Food & Wine and how Dana had a vision for...

Kristina Cho is an award-winning cookbook author, recipe developer, home cook, baker, food stylist, and photographer. Her terrific debut cookbook, Mooncakes and Milk Bread, won her two James Beard awards, and her follow-up, Chinese Enough, is a big favorite of all of us at TASTE. We were so happy to have Kristina in the studio, where we found out about how she pivoted from a career in architecture...

Tyler Zielinski is a London-based drinks professional. He’s best known for his work in drinks journalism, writing about bars, cocktails, and other subjects for an array of publications including Punch, Eater, and Food & Wine. In this episode, we talk about his very cool debut book, Tiny Cocktails. What makes a tiny cocktail exactly? Tyler will explain. We also dig into where Tyler likes to drink i...

Jeremy Robinson-Leon is the founder of Moonburger, an ambitious chain of restaurants whose core focus is bringing high-quality fast food to the masses. We personally love Moonburger and have visited locations in Kingston and New Paltz, and it’s now operating in Poughkeepsie and Brooklyn. In this episode, we hear about Jeremy’s journey to opening these restaurants and how he enlisted the help of so...

Today on the show, we’re doing something a little different: a special travel episode, featuring Aliza and her girlfriend, Shirley Chan. Shirley's a talented cinematographer and also a favorite travel partner. They just came back from a month in Asia visiting Thailand and Shirley's family in Taiwan. In this episode, they dive deep into recs for Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Tainan, with a stopo...

Kiera Wright-Ruiz is a food writer and recipe developer based in Tokyo. She’s the author of the very cute children’s book I Want to Be Spaghetti! and now a debut cookbook, My (Half) Latinx Kitchen. It’s a culinary journey of discovery, blending memoir and lots of recipes connecting Kiera’s Ecuadorian and Korean heritage and the extended family of caregivers from across Latin America who helped rai...

Caroline Eden is a writer and literary critic. She’s also the author of many terrific food and travel books, including Samarkand, Black Sea, and Red Sands. She has been awarded both the Art of Eating Prize and an André Simon Award, and Red Sands was a book of the year for the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, and the New Yorker. In this episode, we talk about Caroline’s terrific new book, a memoi...

Eric Kim has a signature style with his writing, which has appeared frequently in the New York Times, where he is a columnist for the magazine. Eric blends a truly lyrical style of prose with deep reporting chops and a knack for simple and highly focused recipe development—a rare triple threat! He’s also the author of the best-selling cookbook Korean American. This is a return visit to the show fo...

Emily Wilson is a writer based in Los Angeles and runs the terrific publication The Angel, covering the city’s legendary restaurant scene. On this episode, recorded before the devastating wildfires, we hear about how Emily views her city’s technicolor restaurant scene. What are her favorite places to visit for all occasions? She has quite a list. And check out The Angel’s guide on how to support w...

Abi Balingit is the author of Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed, a delightful cookbook full of maximalist personality and transfixing sweets, like the adobo chocolate chip cookie. She’s a singular force in the NYC baking scene, and it’s so fun to have her on the show today to talk about what she’s been up to since publishing her first book, her love of kitsch, and more. Do you enjoy This...

Today’s episode is all about Dijon mustard, and it brings a couple of mustard lovers into the studio. First up is Jeremy Salamon. He’s the chef-owner of two singular and sensational restaurants in Brooklyn: Agi’s Counter and the newly opened Pitt’s. We talk about what he’s been cooking and all of the creative ways he thinks about using Dijon mustard, even with dessert. Next up is a real treat—we g...

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...

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...

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 re...

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...

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 t...

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 wh...

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 suc...

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 conve...

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...

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 restaur...

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, wh...

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...