This Is TASTE

Aaron Lindell is the chef and co-owner of Quarter Sheets, the wildly popular Los Angeles restaurant he runs with his wife, Hannah Ziskin. Now, listen, you’ve probably read about Quarter Sheets. You may have even had Hannah’s iconic princess cake. But this is a conversation about Aaron’s pizza. It’s…amazing. And it has a great backstory. On this episode we hear about Aaron’s wild career as a privat...

Celina Baljeet Basra is the Berlin based author of Happy, a sweet and surreal postmodern novel released last year. It follows a young man named Happy from his family cabbage farm in Punjab to his clandestine journey to Europe, and the service jobs he works along the way. I’ve never read a book quite like Happy and it's so fun to have Celina on the show to talk about unconventional food writing, he...

Rocco DiSpirito is an iconic Italian American New York City chef, television personality, and highly acclaimed author of 14 cookbooks, including three New York Times bestsellers. On this episode we go way back to his star turn on one of the first food reality TV shows on air, and we talk about his time in the kitchen at Union Pacific, his acclaimed New York City restaurant from the early 2000s. We...

Alan Sytsma is a longtime observer of the New York City dining scene who is behind New York magazine’s formidable food coverage. On this episode we dig into Alan’s take on the current NYC restaurant scene and hear about New York mag’s amazing “Who Ate Where” issue, which digs into the cultural history of eating out in New York City. It’s really fun talking restaurants with Alan, and I hope you enj...

Aaron Goldfarb has been a journalist for over a decade, frequently writing on the subjects of cocktails and drinking culture for such publications as the New York Times, Esquire, Playboy, and PUNCH. His latest book, Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits, digs into our ongoing obsession with old spirits and the people who chase them. We talk about the real bourbon grails and the fake ones, and...

MacKenzie Chung Fegan is the new restaurant critic at the San Francisco Chronicle. She’s a former Bon Appétit editor who returned home to the Bay Area to shape food coverage at her hometown paper, and it’s so fun to have her on the show to break down her first few months on the job, the state of modern restaurant criticism, and more.  MORE FROM MACKENZIE CHUNG FEGAN Your New Restaurant Critic Won’...

Erin Patinkin is the cofounder of Ovenly and has advised some of the food world’s most interesting brands (almost exclusively female-founded), including Kismet, White Moustache, Pop Up Grocer, Great Jones, and Seed + Mill. Erin is an old friend of ours, and she has one of the sharpest minds in the consumer packaged goods world. We talk about so many topics, including some of the brands that excite...

Giada De Laurentiis is in the studio for an all-time classic conversation. She is the Emmy-Award-winning television personality of Food Network’s Everyday Italian (among many other shows) and the author of nine New York Times best-selling cookbooks, including her most recent, Eat Better, Feel Better. On this episode we talk about her panettone chops, what running her own media company and e-commer...

Today on the show we have some really cool conversations about European butter from France. First up is David Lebovitz, a cookbook author and baker extraordinaire. Our lively conversation is all about cooking with good European butter and why using the good stuff is essential in baking and other kitchen adventures. David is such a pro, and we loved catching up with him about one of his favorite pr...

Rachel Dratch is an actor, a Broadway star (and has the Tony nomination to prove it), and a comedian, and she was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1999 to 2006. She is also the host of a great podcast, Woo Woo with Rachel Dratch. This is a really fun conversation, and we get a sense that Rachel is quite the fooooooodie! For real, we talk about her favorite places to eat in New York’s East...

Tama Matsuoka Wong is a renowned forager who supplies top New York City restaurants like Atoboy and Daniel with the good stuff: wild delicacies like chickweed, stinging nettles, and American sumac. She’s the author of Foraged Flavor; Scraps, Wilt, & Weeds; and her latest book, Into the Weeds; and it’s a delight to have her on the show to get real about ramps hype, gardening like a forager, and mor...

It’s really fun having two food writers we respect, in different sections of their careers, on the show. First up is Robert Sietsema. Robert is a longtime New York City restaurant critic and neighborhood wanderer who has written for the Village Voice and Eater and who, prior to that, ran the influential underground food zine Down the Hatch. We talk about the early days of food writing and what is...

Does Ruth Reichl really need an introduction? Ruth has been on the show many times, and we just love catching up with her to talk about the day’s food news, where she is dining out, and what is giving her inspiration to write her great newsletter, La Briffe. On this episode we talk about Paris, which is at the center of her new novel, aptly titled The Paris Novel. We talk about her time in France...

Pizza is at the center of this lively episode. First up is Ali Stafford, one of our favorite recipe writers on the internet. Ali is behind Alexandra’s Kitchen and is the author of a great new book, Pizza Night. We talk about Ali’s favorite styles of pizza and what inspired her to write an entire book dedicated to homemade pizza adventures (you need to pick this one up). Also on the show, we have a...

Two Los Angeles food podcasters have entered the studio, and the opinions are flowing. It was so great catching up with the dynamic duo of Jordan Okun and Max Shapiro, the voices behind the Air Jordan podcast and some of the LA food scene’s spiciest takes. On this episode we hear all about what is good and what is extremely bad in the Los Angeles dining scene, before taking the TASTE check. It’s a...

Today on the show we have conversations with two exciting spring cookbook authors. First up is Tiffy Chen, the creator behind the popular Tiffy Cooks platforms and the author of a great new book, Tiffy Cooks: 88 Easy Asian Recipes from My Family to Yours. Also on the show, we catch up with Toriano Gordon, the Bay Area chef and rapper behind the popular food truck, Vegan Mob. We chat about his debu...

Koreaworld is here! It’s a new cookbook from Deuki Hong and TASTE’s Matt Rodbard, and this week we are looking at the modern Korean food movement from all angles. Today on the show we have Simon Kim in the studio. Simon is the guy behind some of the buzziest restaurants in New York, including Cote Korean Steakhouse and the new fried chicken palace Coqodaq. Simon and Matt go way back, and this conv...

Koreaworld is here! It’s a new cookbook from Deuki Hong and TASTE’s Matt Rodbard, and this week we are looking at the modern Korean food movement from all angles. Today we have a great interview that has been years in the making. Matthew Kang is the longtime editor of Eater LA and is plugged into all things in LA’s Koreatown. In this conversation, we get into the big topics of the day in Los Angel...

Koreaworld is here! It’s a new cookbook from Deuki Hong and TASTE’s Matt Rodbard, and this week we are looking at the modern Korean food movement from all angles. Today we have two really great conversations. First is a talk with Katianna and John Hong, the chefs and co-owners of the groundbreaking Los Angeles Korean restaurant Yangban. We speak about the chefs’ paths to the restaurant industry an...

Koreaworld is here! It’s a new cookbook from Deuki Hong and TASTE’s Matt Rodbard, and this week we are looking at the modern Korean food movement from all angles. Today we have Susan Kim in the studio. Susan is a chef, a food stylist, and the proud Korean American business owner behind Doshi. Susan was born in Seoul and raised in California, and she cooked at Chez Panisse before moving to NYC in 2...

Koreaworld is here! It’s a new cookbook from Deuki Hong and TASTE’s Matt Rodbard, and this week we are looking at the modern Korean food movement from all angles. Today we have Alex Lau in the studio. Alex is a food photographer who has shot covers and magazine spreads for some of the most interesting clients in the world—including traveling to Korea multiple times to work on Koreaworld. Alex spen...

Koreaworld is here! It’s a new cookbook from Deuki Hong and TASTE’s Matt Rodbard, and this week we are looking at the modern Korean food movement from all angles. To kick things off, we are catching up with Francis Lam, editor in chief of Clarkson Potter and host of The Splendid Table. Francis is Deuki and Matt’s longtime editor, and he speaks about how they collaborated on the book. We also hear...

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...

It’s a simple promise in a land of broken ones: no booze, no added sugar, no nasties. Ghia, founded by a French former investment banker named Mélanie Masarin, has played the NA spirits game straight, and we find out so much about the brand in our interview. We hear about Mélanie’s journey from banking to working with brands like Dig Inn and Glossier to working in the world of spritz. It’s a fun t...

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 to ask Mic...