As we approach our 500th episode, we are bringing back two memorable episodes from 2018, our first year of the podcast. Samin Nosrat is a chef and the author of the legendary cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat. This episode was our very first, and it was recorded at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn on July 12, 2018. We talked to Samin about “too-mami” (cooking with too much umami), angry letters, and the differences between brands of kosher salt—that is, not all kosher salt is the same. 

Also on the show is a great conversation with Flynn McGarry. He’s the chef-owner of Gem Wine and Gem Home in New York City. In this episode, we discuss his time working at Los Angeles restaurant Alma at age 13, while being homeschooled, and his famous pop-ups even earlier in his career. The journey is all documented in the great film Chef Flynn, and we get into Flynn’s many travels and eventual business opening in NYC—the most competitive and cutthroat restaurant city in America.

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Nicola Lamb is a pastry chef and recipe developer based in London. After training in some of London and New York’s top bakeries, like Dominique Ansel, Ottolenghi, and Happy Endings, she launched the pop-up bakery lark! and the popular newsletter Kitchen Projects—and now she’s written a wonderful debut cookbook, Sift, that’s truly the most comprehensive baking book I’ve read in years. It’s so fun to have Nicola on the show to nerd out about pastry process and much more.

Also on the show, Matt has a great conversation with Hetal Vasavada discussing her great new cookbook, Desi Bakes: 85 Recipes Bringing the Best of Indian Flavors to Western-Style Desserts.

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MORE FROM NICOLA LAMB & HETAL VASAVADA:

• Kitchen Projects [Substack]
• A crash course in better baking: Ella Risbridger meets Nicola Lamb [Financial Times]
• Badam Burfi Bark [NYT]

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Lisa Kyung Gross is the founder and CEO of the League of Kitchens, an immigrant-led, home-based cooking school that launched in New York City in 2014. Its instructors are 14 mothers and grandmothers from Indonesia, Mexico, Lebanon, Burkina Faso, and beyond, and now their culinary wisdom is being preserved in a new book: The League of Kitchens Cookbook. It’s truly so special having Lisa on the show to talk about how she finds these instructors and how the book came to life. 

Also on the show we hear from Rogelio Garcia talking about his new book Convivir: Modern Mexican Cuisine in California's Wine Country.

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Tom Colicchio joined us in the studio for a really amazing conversation. Tom is a longtime chef and behind the restaurants Craft, Gramercy Tavern, and dozens more. He’s also the longtime head judge on the show Top Chef. Tom just released his memoir (with recipes), Why I Cook, and we get into how he’s long been at the heart of culinary innovation and policy. We talk about his early days cooking in New York City and how he came together with Danny Meyer and many others to invent a new style of restaurant cooking that is still influential today. We also discussed the recent election—and his thoughts on possibly running for US Congress. 

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MORE FROM TOM COLICCHIO:

• Caviar and Cocaine [Town and Country]
• Tom Colicchio on how cooking saved his life [MSNBC]

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Angelo Sosa is one of the most talented chefs we’ve gotten to know, and he’s currently the chef at the new restaurants Tía Carmen and Carmocha at the Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort & Villas near Palm Springs, California. Angelo was also the runner up on Top Chef and has worked with some of the biggest names in the game, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Alain Ducasse, Stephen Starr, and Masaharu Morimoto. In this episode, we talk about his move to the Greater Palm Springs area and the exciting high desert cuisine he’s serving. 

Also on the show, Matt talks about his recent visit to Palm Springs and digs into the region's restaurants, both established and brand-new. Palm Springs is such an underrated food town, and we have some great recommendations including Bar Cecil, Tia Carmen, Lola Rose at the new Thompson Hotel Palm Springs, The Modern Tour, Maleza, and Billy Reeds forever.  

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MORE FROM ANGELO SOSA:

• Angelo Sosa, Richard Blais Open New Restaurants in the Coachella Valley [Palm Springs Life]
• This Is TASTE 350: Angelo Sosa [TASTE]

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James Beard Award–winning pastry chef Dominique Ansel has shaken up the pastry world with innovation and creativity at the heart of his work. As chef-owner of eponymous bakeries around the world, Ansel has been responsible for creating some of today’s most popular pastries, including the Cronut, the Cookie Shot, the Frozen S’more, and the Blossoming Hot Chocolate. But where did Dominique Ansel come from, and how did his time working with Daniel Boulud and throughout France help him create the most iconic foods of a generation? It’s a great talk with the great Cronut Daddy about his new book, Life’s Sweetest Moments.

Also on the show, Matt has a great conversation with Emma Impavido, Director of Educational Travel Programs at Academic Travel Abroad. Emma and Matt work together on TASTE Travels, and they discuss why organized travel is as popular as ever. They also dig into the countries people are visiting specifically for the food, as well as talk about the upcoming TASTE Travels in 2025, including a spring trip to Mexico City.

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MORE FROM DOMINIQUE ANSEL:

• The Cronut Flavor Dominique Ansel Is Dying To Make [Chowhound]
• The Mind Behind the Cronut Just Launched a Dessert Soup Dumpling [F&W]
• TASTE Travels Mexico City [TASTE]

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Amadou Ly is the baker-owner of ALF Bakery, a destination for delights like mushroom danishes and laminated baguettes in New York City’s Chelsea Market. After 18 years of jobs in restaurants, from dishwasher to pastry chef to chocolatier, he apprenticed under Roger Gural at the iconic Arcade Bakery. Arcade closed, and now he’s making some of the most exciting bread and pastries in the city at ALF. In this episode, we talk about the craftsmanship, technique, and passion that guides his work.

Also on the show, Aliza and Matt talk about their home bread baking journeys. Does one co-host (hint: Matt) aspire to bake more bread in the coming months, and start a bread practice? Does Aliza have a “bread person” past? They also talk about some great recent bread baking books that can help kick-start this journey.  

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MORE FROM AMADOU LY:

• Meet the West African Baker Reshaping French Pastry [Atlas Obscura]
• ​​Inside the Menu at the New Spot From an Alum of the Legendary Arcade Bakery [Eater]
• This Is TASTE 488: There's a Bread Baker Inside All of Us with David Tamarkin [TASTE]

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Julia Turshen is the author of four cookbooks, including the new release What Goes With What: 100 Recipes, 20 Charts, Endless Possibilities. It’s a comprehensive guide to building cooking intuition and transforming odds and ends into a meal, and we had a great conversation live at Rizzoli bookstore all about making the book come to life, plus things like body acceptance and what constitutes queer food. We hope you’ll enjoy it. 

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MORE FROM JULIA TURSHEN:

• Keep Calm and Cook On [Substack]
• My Mom Was a Magazine Editor in the ’90s. We’re Finally Talking About What It Did to Our Body Image [SELF]
• This Is TASTE 22: Julia Turshen [TASTE]

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Wow, we love David Tamarkin so much, and this is such a great interview. We’re old friends and have been reading David since he worked at Time Out Chicago and Epicurious—and he’s now the editorial director at King Arthur Baking Company. He returns to our studio to discuss the company’s terrific new book, a real doorstop called The Big Book of Bread. As the title suggests, this is the cooperative flour company’s bread magnum opus, and we talk about all of it with David.

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: Le Veau d'Or scene report, Bawi has an amazing new flavor, Z&Z za'atar & manoushe company did a great pop-up in NYC, and has a very cool story. Also, a reminder that Dayglow sells an amazing selection of coffee and is making the most-exciting cold coffee drinks on the planet.

Also! The Fort Greene dog parade had some food-themed costumes, and an Erewhon scene report including some new discoveries from Kelsi's Kitchen, Mid-Day Squares, Lexington Bakes, Cove Soda, and Zab's pepper sauce.

Take our listener survey! We'd love to to hear who we should invite into our studio for an interview and TASTE Check.

MORE FROM DAVID TAMARKIN:

• No-Knead Crusty White Bread [King Arthur]
• We Don’t Need to Be Saved From Making Smoothies [NYT]
• This Is TASTE 162: David Tamarkin [TASTE]
• We Hit Peak Beverage [TASTE]

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Nicolas Jammet is a cofounder of the megapopular salad and protein plate seller Sweetgreen and the company’s chief concept officer. We’ve been reporting on Sweetgreen since its early days, witnessing its evolution from a humble Washington, DC, storefront to a publicly traded company. How has Nic negotiated this incredible trajectory? We find out about his journey, his deep connection to the restaurant industry, and what gets him excited to show up to work each day. We also learn about some of the company’s big plans for the future, and how he thinks about culinary development for a restaurant chain with over 250 locations across the United States. This is such a great talk with somebody I deeply admire in food. I hope you enjoy it.

Also on the show, Aliza takes a trip to Seattle and Portland, with stops at: Sophon, Familyfriend, Hatyai, and some crabbing! 

Take our listener survey! We'd love to to hear who we should invite into our studio for an interview and TASTE Check.

MORE FROM NIC JAMMET:

• Is Steak a Health Food Now? [GQ]
• How Old-School French Food Inspired Sweetgreen [Bon Appetit]
• For America’s Best Teriyaki, Head West (and Bring Napkins) [TASTE]

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We really, really love what Rob Martinez is doing on YouTube and TikTok. Rob is behind the voice and visuals of Eating With Robert, a delightful series of dispatches from restaurants around the world. As we find out in this interview, Rob has a film background and started his own feed as a way of highlighting his favorite New York City pizzerias, diners, Egyptian fish grills, and Turkish kebab sellers. Rob is doing the work, scouting and shooting the types of places journalists like Jonathan Gold, Ligaya Mishan, and Robert Sietsema became famous for writing about. Rob is as much of a “food writer” as any of us in the industry, and it was cool to learn about his approach, and some of his favorite places around the world.

Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: The re-opening of Brooklyn’s Kellogg’s Diner in Brooklyn, Lola’s is one of our favorite new NYC restaurants, Famille du Vin canned wines are so good (and shoutout to Leitz Eins Zwei Zero Non-Alcoholic Sparkling Riesling too), Eater LA published a terrific package of stories about the new restaurant influencers, and how TikTok is transforming Los Angeles’s dining scene one swipe at a time. Also, some thoughts on the new New York Chinatown restaurant Bridges, and we finally made it to Yang’s Kitchen in the San Gabriel Valley and it totally delivers.

Take our listener survey! We'd love to to hear who we should invite into our studio for an interview and TASTE Check.

MORE FROM ROB MARTINEZ:

• Lodi’s Pizza [TikTok]
• Kebab Cafe [TikTok]
• The Original Influencers [Eater LA]

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