This Is TASTE

Pierce Abernathy is a really interesting and multitalented dude, and we were really happy to have him join us in the studio. Pierce is a trained cook, a big-time TikTok and Instagram creator, and a former Buzzfeeder, and he’s been known to model and work with fashion brands in interesting ways. We love the way Pierce thinks and talks about food, and we tap into his background living in Kentucky, c...

Osayi Endolyn is a journalist, cookbook author, and cultural commentator of the highest degree. In this action-packed episode, we talk about her latest cookbook project, Ghetto Gastro Presents Black Power Kitchen. We find out about what goes into writing a cookbook that isn’t structured like a typical cookbook, and we go back to hear about Osayi’s life growing up around California, her early work...

Today on the show, we have Claire Saffitz stopping by for a really entertaining conversation. Claire is the author of a new cookbook, What’s For Dessert, and she’s truly one of our favorite cooking instructors and personalities on the internet. We talk about how to visualize a recipe before baking it, as well as some of the common bakeware mistakes we are all making. Dark bakeware is a big no-no!...

Kaitlin and Sarah Leung join us in the studio to talk about their long-running online food blog The Woks of Life. For anybody who has ever held a wok over high heat, The Woks of Life has been a steady hand helping you along the way. In this fun episode, we talk about how the pair went professional with their blog and how they wrote their new cookbook, The Woks of Life, with their parents. That’s f...

It was really fun having Molly Yeh join us in the studio for an absolute riot of a conversation. Molly is legitimately one of the funniest writers (and guests) that we’ve encountered in a long time, and we get into all sorts of topics on the show. We talk about what makes a great Hallmark Channel movie, and we theorize about how she will possibly star in one one day. We also talk about Little Hous...

If you’ve checked out Instagram lately, chances are you’ve spotted one of Hannah Ziskin’s slab cakes, princess cakes, and fruit custard tarts making the algorithm rounds. Hannah is the co-owner and pastry chef at Echo Park’s Quarter Sheets Pizza in Los Angeles. She runs Quarter Sheets with her partner, Aaron Lindell, and on this episode, we talk about the unlikely marriage of pan pizza and sheet c...

What a joy it is to have Claudia Fleming live in the studio. Claudia is the executive pastry director of Union Square Hospitality Group and the author of the new cookbook Delectable: Sweet and Savory Baking. But many listeners may know Claudia best from her iconic (and once out of print) first cookbook, The Last Course. In this episode, we dive into Claudia’s long career working in New York City r...

Helen Rosner returns to the TASTE Podcast, and we couldn’t be happier. Helen is a journalist, Twitter commentator, and staff writer covering food at the New Yorker. We wanted to have Helen into the studio to talk about some of her recent stories, including writing about roasting duck at home, the Chicago-style hot dog, and the busy fall cookbook season. We also discuss the epic Twitter thread, bur...

It was with great anticipation, and some unknowns, that we spoke with George Saunders, the author of many works, including the Booker Prize–winning Lincoln in the Bardo. This is a really great conversation that switches gears often. We talk about pizza and Italian delis on the South Side of Chicago, as well as lunch in the Texas oil fields. We talk about success in the kitchen and how intuition cr...

Yes, Gideon Glick joined us in the studio for one of our favorite conversations in recent memory. Gideon is a prolific actor, having starred in memorable roles on Broadway (including in Little Shop of Horrors, in To Kill a Mockingbird, and in the original Broadway cast of Spring Awakening) and on television, including the mysterious magician Alfie on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, currently filming it...

Genevieve Ko is a deputy editor of New York Times Cooking and the Food section, as well as a prolific cookbook author and collaborator. Here we have such a great time catching up about all things cookbooks, food media, and what it’s like to help run one of the best, and most popular, sections at the New York Times. We talk about Genevieve’s collaborations with chefs like George Mendes, Pichet Ong,...

Tokyo-based journalist Craig Mod is part journalist, part ethnographer, and part performance artist, and we’re really happy that he stopped by the studio for a lively chat. While he may not be a household name (yet), those in the know about such topics as digital book publishing, Japan, and multiday walks around Japan respect Craig’s incredible body of work. This is a wide and deep conversation ab...

Reem Assil’s cookbook, Arabiyya, shows that great hospitality is easy to pull off—as long as you have enough pomegranate molasses to go around. In this lively episode, we talk to the Bay Area chef and activist about her inspiring career, which has taken her between the kitchen and the community—and sometimes to the poker table. Yes, Reem is a hell of a poker player, and we dive into that. We also...

It’s not often that we get to speak with an NBA legend on the show, but Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler is no average NBA legend. He’s a coffee geek, just like us, and we talk about his exciting new company, BIGFACE, and what inspires Jimmy’s love for all aspects of coffee, including the farming, cupping, and barista work. We also talk about food in the NBA and hear about the coffee orders of some...

We’ve long been fans of cookbook author and creative thinker Molly Baz, and many of you have, too. With a signature voice and absolutely wild recipe development skills (as well as years of professional cooking under her belt), Molly has won over millions of fans worldwide. Her book Cook This Book was a New York Times Best Seller, and we talk about some of the many things she’s been up to since its...

Stefano Secchi is a modern pasta master and the chef behind New York City’s hit restaurant Rezdôra. In this entertaining episode, we dive into the ins and outs of making hundreds (sometimes thousands) of fresh tortellini, ravioli, and gnocchi a day. We also talk about what it’s like running the restaurant attached to one of New York’s most difficult reservations, and how screening an episode of th...

Bettina Makalintal is a reporter at Eater who previously served as associate print editor at Bon Appétit and a staff writer at VICE’s Munchies. We’re big fans of Bettina’s erudite and internet-first journalism, and we wanted to have her on the show to discuss it all. We talk about her home cooking feeds on Instagram and TikTok, and we dive into how her natural curiosity drives her to find answers...

The Bear. We all love The Bear, the hit restaurant drama from FX. And we love The Bear for good reason. The show was the talk of TV this summer, and it’s still gaining popularity. Courtney Storer is a Los Angeles–based chef and the show’s culinary producer. That means she’s behind the show’s hyperrealistic cooking scenes that are now legendary. On the show today, we find out how Courtney translate...

Have you found your way into the world of Suzy Karadsheh and the megapopular YouTube channel and website The Mediterranean Dish? We sure have, and it’s changing the way we cook. Born and raised in the cosmopolitan Mediterranean city of Port Said, Egypt, Suzy was just a boat ride away from countries like Italy, Turkey, Lebanon, Greece, and Israel. In this episode, we hear Suzy’s unique story that h...

Alice Feiring is our guest today, and we have a great conversation that goes to some unfamiliar places. Alice is a journalist and celebrated wine writer, and she’s also the author of many great wine books, including 2019’s Natural Wine for the People, a prophetic look at the natural wine movement that has swept the drinking world away. She also wrote The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved th...

We welcome one of our favorite chefs in the game, JJ Johnson, back to the program. JJ is the James Beard Award–winning chef behind the fast-casual restaurant Field Trip and a coauthor of the cookbook Between Harlem and Heaven. In this episode, we catch up about JJ’s time attending the Culinary Institute of America and what it was like being one of the few Black chefs in the program. Then we fast-f...

How fun to have Paula Forbes on the show! Paula is a longtime journalist covering the cookbook publishing industry, among many other topics, and is the founder of Stained Page News. On this episode, we find out what draws Paula to review, critique, and obsess over cookbooks—as well as what she enjoys cooking at home. We also dive into the busy fall season and find out what Paula is most looking fo...

How do you introduce Melissa Clark, a prolific cookbook author, longtime New York Times columnist, and one of the most respected food writers around? Well, first you must know that one of our absolute favorite cookbooks of all time is her 2017 tome Dinner: Changing the Game. In this episode, we talk about what inspires her weekly recipe column in the paper of record and how her latest book, Dinner...

What does a cookbook editor actually do day-to-day in the year 2022? It turns out, more than you could ever imagine. On this episode of the show, we catch up with our old friend Raquel Pelzel. She’s the editorial director at Clarkson Potter and has authored more than a dozen cookbooks of her own. It’s clear that Raquel has tremendous respect for her authors, including Eric Kim, Rick Martinez, and...

When Mission Chinese opened in New York in a crowded, slightly dank subterranean space on Orchard Street a decade ago, the food world collectively paused to praise the inventive and fully out-there cooking of a young chef named Danny Bowien. On this episode we catch up with Danny to hear about the up-and-down decade that followed and what it was like to recently close his last Mission location in...