Stay ConnectedIf you’re a fan of smart and lively conversations about food, home cooking, and culture, this is the place. We interview the most interesting characters in the world of food, media, and cookbooks and release episodes several times a month. The program is hosted by TASTE editors Aliza Abarbanel and Matt Rodbard, and is sometimes recorded live at Rizzoli Bookstore in New York City. Visit TASTE online: tastecooking.com
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What is queer food? Today we’re having a special roundtable discussion with the authors of two great new books unpacking the topic in exciting and unexpected ways: John Birdsall is the author of The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard and the wonderful new book What Is Queer Food?: How We Served a Revolution.Erik Piepenburg is a reporter and the author of Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America’s Gay Restaurants. I loved both of these books, and I’m so grateful for this lively conversation that looks to the past, present, and future of queer community.
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It’s the return of a special video podcast series: Food Writers Talking About Food Writing. It’s available on the TASTE YouTube channel, so make sure to subscribe and check out the video version of this podcast. Every couple of weeks, Matt Rodbard invites a journalist to talk about some favorite recent food writing as well as their thoughts on the industry as a whole.
On today’s episode, we have an amazing conversation with Jaya Saxena. Jaya is a correspondent at Eater, covering many topics including labor, queer food culture, and “why American potato chips are so boring.” She also serves as the series editor for the Best American Food and Travel Writing anthology, which has a new edition edited by Bryant Terry dropping in the fall.
In this great episode, we talk about Jaya’s career writing about the world of food, including her memorable piece for Eater, “The Food That Makes You Gay.” We also go over some recent stories and play the game “What would you pitch 1997 Graydon Carter?” That is, Jaya considers her dream no-budget reporting assignment.
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Ali Domrongchai is a writer, recipe developer, and baker in Brooklyn. She’s passionate about researching and uplifting Thai culinary traditions, from teaching luk chup workshops to popping up with pandan lemongrass mochi cake and other treats at restaurants around the city. It’s so fun having Ali on the show to talk about the exciting state of Thai food in NYC, including her upcoming Thai Takeover at New York’s Museum of Food and Drink on May 29.
Also on the show we have a great conversation with Geraldine DeRuiter, author of a terrific essay collection, If You Can't Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury. We talk about Mario Batali’s cinnamon rolls, writing food into video games, and her truly unique way of writing about food and culture.
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Tasteland is a very cool podcast that offers creative takes on media, marketing, and technology from Daisy Alioto and Francis Zierer. Daisy is the CEO of Dirt Media, a next-generation entertainment brand using emerging technology to tell the coolest stories about culture and collecting. Francis is the editor of Creator Spotlight, a weekly newsletter about creators across the world of newsletters. Matt joins Daisy and Francis to talk all about media, the power of the podcast, and some of the work we do at TASTE.
On this episode we hit many topics, including: Robert Sietsema on Substack, our fondness for Eater’s editorial, the fast death of “text on the page”, the podcast is blogging/newsletters, Rob Martinez on YouTube, MacKenzie Chung Fegan’s work at the San Francisco Chronicle, caring about “text on the page”, TASTE’s Horses story, Big Art, MONEY, How Long Gone is a great food podcast, Camilla Marcus on payroll tax, cool NYC restaurants, visiting a restaurant week three. Also: Restaurant pop-up culture, old (good) evergreen stories, The Most by Jessica Anthony, Bad Waitress by Becca Schuh, Stissing House, Jordan Michelman’s novel.
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Betsy Andrews is a James Beard Award–winning journalist who edited at Saveur magazine during some of its most fruitful years. She’s been traveling the Central California coast and staying there with family since childhood, and these travels are the topic of the terrific book she coauthored with the chef Scott Clark. Coastal: 130 Recipes from a California Road Trip is a wonderful read, and we talk about how Betsy turned road-tripping into such a colorful book. We also dig into Betsy’s journalism career, reviewing restaurants for the New York Times, and her work at Saveur.
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 very special salad, Primis Imports is selling incredible Greek products, Momofuku Soy & Scallion Noodles leads to many possibilities. Also: Non-alcoholic sparkling cider from Rose Hill Farm, The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse playing off-Broadway is a riot, and Nice Cans is a new tinned fish of the moment.
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We had a great time catching up with Leah Cohen. She’s the chef-owner of the terrific Pig & Khao restaurants in New York City, with locations on the Upper West Side and Lower East Side. On this episode, we talk about her career and appearing on an early season of Top Chef. We also get into her struggles with identity as a kid, and how her Filipino and Jewish upbringing made her the chef she is today.
Also on the show we have a great conversation with Barbara Costello. She of the popular @BrunchwithBabs social accounts and the new cookbook: Every Day with Babs: 101 Family-Friendly Dinners for Every Day of the Week: A Cookbook.
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Casey Elsass is a food writer, recipe developer, and cookbook author living in Brooklyn, New York. Known among his collaborators as the cookbook doula, Casey has helped birth over twenty titles, as co-author, ghostwriter, friend, and unlicensed therapist. He is the author of a terrific new cookbook, What Can I Bring?: Recipes to Help You Live Your Guest Life.
Also on the show is chef and TV fixture Michael Symon. He’s the author of Symon's Dinners Cooking Out: 100 Recipes That Redefine Outdoor Cooking. Yes, my guy has some really smart ideas on how to cook outside when hosting, or just cooking solo. We talk about about getting into a grilling practice at home. Smart stuff.
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Meera Sodha is a cook and food writer based in London. Meera’s best-selling cookbooks and weekly Guardian column, The New Vegan, are some of my favorite sources of cooking inspiration, but like many people, she experienced burnout that led her to fall out of love with food. Today on the show, Meera talks about finding her way back into the kitchen and how that experience inspired her new book, Dinner, an honest and helpful guide to getting the most important meal of the day on the table.
Also on the show we have a conversation with Susan Dominus. Susan is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine the author of a terrific new book, The Family Dynamic. We talk about how parents—and siblings—shape and fuel individual success, and focus on family a story with a Chinese restaurant at the center. We also talk about some of Susan's food-related work at the Times.
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Meredith Hayden is the author of the new bestselling The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbookand she has quite the story to tell, which we get into in this great conversation. While working at Conde Nast, Meredith attended night culinary school and lived a double life of sorts—publishing worker during the day, line cook at night. We get into how she walked the tightrope and eventually landed as a private chef before launching a memorable, and might I say incredibly popular, TikTok account. The rest is history and it was a delight hearing Meredith talk about her story on the show.
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: An i’m donut ? report, the Hudson Valley’s Stissing House is as good as it's ever been, Jakarta Munch is a must-visit Urban Hawker stall in Midtown. Also: We book-clubbed The Most by Jessica Anthony in a weekend, it’s lychee season, The Condiment Book is super smart, and some Portland, Oregon restaurant recs.
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Nina Compton is the chef and owner of three highly regarded restaurants in New Orleans: Compère Lapin, BABs, and Nina’s Creole Cottage. Born in Saint Lucia, she honed her chops at many notable restaurants before appearing as the fan favorite on season 11 of Top Chef. Nina’s new cookbook, Kwéyòl / Creole, written with Osayi Endolyn, is a true standout, tracing her culinary journey from growing up in Saint Lucia to Jamaica, Miami, and her adopted home of New Orleans. It’s so special to have Nina in the studio to talk about making this book and her culinary career.
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: Pig & Khao, from Leah Cohen, is doing really interesting things on the Upper West Side, get to AbuQir in the Little Egypt section of Astoria, Menus By Brian is the coolest cookbook series. Also: A development in Aliza’s kitchen and it’s steaming, the great Yuzu Co. has a new line of drinks, NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani wants to open city-owned grocery stores. And as a P.S.: I Leave It Up to You by Jinwoo Chong is one of the most-representative restaurant culture novels in recent times.
Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.
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