This Is TASTE

Julia Moskin has been a food reporter at the New York Times since 2004, and her beat has taken her everywhere from the best Jamaican patties in New York to a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, earned for reporting on sexual harassment in the restaurant industry. Today she joins Matt to talk about her latest investigation: a bombshell report revealing years of alleged physical and psychological abuse inside Noma's Copenhagen kitchen. It’s the story that set off protests at the restaurant’s Los Angeles pop-up and led to founder René Redzepi stepping down, all in the same week. How do you get 35 former employees to go on the record? And what does this moment mean for the future of fine dining as a form? Julia tells us all.

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Trinity Mouzon Wofford is the cofounder and CEO of the wellness brand Golde and the author of Eating at Home: The Nourishing Practice of Everyday Cooking. The book is a charming, practical guide to reimagining home cooking in a way that’s more grounded, joyful, and doable. Today on the show, we talk about how Trinity approaches cooking at home amid parenting and running a business, the vintage cookbooks that inspire her timeless point of view, and much more. 

Also on the show, Matt has a fascinating conversation with Teddy Kim. Teddy is the cofounder of Last Call, a hangover remedy with roots in Korea. We talk about founding a company in 2026 and all that bootstrapping as well as Teddy’s previous career working in Hollywood at Netflix, and the writer's room of Beef. You can buy Last Call on Amazon. Read⁠ Teddy on Substack.

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Jessica Koslow has been thinking about dinner for a long time. Since Sqirl opened in LA’s Virgil Village neighborhood in 2012, she has built one of the most influential restaurants in California—and watched as an entire generation of all-day cafés took note. Dinner has long been anticipated. In February, “Sqirl After Dark” finally launched. I sat down with Jessica to talk through the first weeks of service, the new menu, and what it feels like to cook the food you’ve been planning for decades.

And before that it’s the return on Three Things. Aliza and Matt discuss some of their recent restaurant visits in Mexico City and Los Angeles, including: El Cardenal, Orbita, El Tibur, and Contramar in CDMX and in LA: Max & Helen’s, LaSorted, and Sora Craft Kitchen.

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Ari Weinzweig came to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to study Russian history. He stayed to open a deli, and 43 years later, Zingerman’s is one of America’s greatest food institutions. In this very special episode, we talk about the company’s obsessive ingredient sourcing, anarchist philosophy as management theory, the mail-order Reuben kit beloved by New Yorkers, and why dignity might be the most radical business idea of the moment. Later on the show, we speak with Brad Hedeman, one of Zingerman’s longtime food buyers. We find out what he tastes in a day and how he’s always on the hunt for the next greatest thing.

You can purchase Matt’s curated Zingerman’s mail order box, featuring a loaf of sourdough bread, Cabot x Jasper Hill Clothbound Cheddar, Zingerman's Pimento Cheese spread, Great Lakes Smoked Whitefish spread, Finocchiona Salami, a Black Magic Brownie, and a Magic Brownie.

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Lucie Franc de Ferriere is the owner and head baker at From Lucie, a small bakery in the East Village known for its whimsical baked goods adorned with fresh flowers. Born and raised in Southern France, Lucie grew up baking cakes with her mother at the family’s farm and bed-and-breakfast in their 165-year-old chateau. After moving to New York, she began to bake at café pop-ups and eventually opened her own bakery—and now she’s sharing her recipes in a beautiful debut cookbook, Cake From Lucie. Today on the show, we talk about the French techniques and ingredients that shape her food, and  what it’s like running a bakery in NYC.

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It was great catching up with Dan Frommer. Dan is the founder and editor in chief of The New Consumer, a sharp and essential publication covering the intersection of technology and consumer culture — and one of the smartest people thinking and writing about what Americans are actually buying, eating, and obsessing over. Every year, Dan publishes a major consumer trends report timed to Expo West, the natural and organic products trade show in Anaheim, and this year's edition — a 68-slide deep dive produced with Coefficient Capital — is full of big findings. Matt catches up with Dan to talk about some of their new product discoveries while attending the show, as well as Dan’s recent writing about Sweetgreen and how Americans actually want to consume protein.

Brands discussed on the episode: Smith Tea Maker, Coyotas, Waterloo, Flow Hydration, Van Leeuwen, Moozy Milk, Little Latke, Brause, Wasted, Oatly, Rambler, Wholesome Bakery, Lasso, Zahav Foods, Lexington Bakes, Yuzu Co., Row 7, Sourmilk. 

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Rosio Sanchéz grew up on Chicago’s South Side, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, and went on to become head pastry chef at Noma before making one of the more unexpected moves in modern food: opening a taquería in Copenhagen. Today she runs Hija de Sanchez and restaurant Sanchez, where she’s spent more than a decade making the case for Mexican food in Scandinavia—using heirloom corn, indigenous ingredients, and a fine-dining sensibility that’s entirely her own. We talk about her highly personal work and what it means to cook Mexican food so far from home.

Also on the show, we sit down with Dhriti Arora, the Indian-born Noma-alum chef behind Bar Vitrine, one of the most exciting openings in Copenhagen in recent years. The intimate 16-seat wine bar and eatery is where Dhriti brings her Indian roots into conversation with local, seasonal produce—cooking that feels like it couldn’t exist anywhere else in the world.

Check out our recent episode, TASTE Travels: Copenhagen

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Today’s episode is really special: an eating, drinking, and coffee survey of the wonderful city of Copenhagen, the Danish capital that has for years been at the center of fine dining. While we're major fans of Noma and its influence on global dining is unparalleled, we are here to report that there is so much more going on in Copenhagen, and we find out why it’s a northern European capital that punches well above its weight.

First up, we have a really special conversation with Nick Curtin. Nick is the chef and cofounder of the Michelin-starred restaurant Alouette. Nick, an American, is not just an incredible chef but one who thinks well beyond the four walls of his restaurant.

Next we go on a Copenhagen coffee tour with Klaus Thomsen, cofounder of pioneering coffee roaster Coffee Collective. We visit many of the city’s most interesting cafés and find out why Copenhagen has long been an established leader in specialty coffee.

After that, we speak with Søren Stig Stissing of architecture and spatial design firm BRIQ. We wanted to hear about one of the city’s newly developed neighborhoods, Nordhavn, and how the iconic Danish design and urban planning sensibility plays out in real time.

Finally we meet pastry chef and TV presenter Christel Hielscher for a conversation about fastelavnsboller, a traditional winter bun that Christel has dedicated her life to studying. She traveled the country to taste the country’s best, and we hear about her journey.

Throughout the episode, Clayton and Matt tell Aliza about all of their memorable eating and drinking experiences during the trip.

Check out the Google Map to see all of the places we visit, and save for your own visit.

Thank you Visit Denmark for supporting this episode.

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Flynn McGarry is only 27, but he’s been cooking seriously since he was nine years old, turning his family’s living room in California into a pop-up supper club and landing on the cover of the New York Times Magazine before he was old enough to drive. He came up through some of the world’s best kitchens, moved to New York City, and built a passionate following with Gem and Gem Wine before opening Cove, which has quickly become one of the more exciting tasting menu restaurants in the city. There's also a documentary that captured his unconventional adolescence and put his story in front of millions of people—something we dig into, along with what it’s like to grow up entirely in public, and how all of it shapes the way he cooks today.

Also on the show, I speak with Chloé Grigri, who is behind some of Philadelphia’s most creative restaurants and wine bars, including The Good King Tavern, Le Caveau, Superfolie, and Supérette. Chloé joins us to talk through her Resy Top Five, where she shares the top five dining experiences that have shaped her career working in restaurants.

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Wolfgang Puck arrived in Los Angeles in 1975 with French technique and Austrian instincts, and he became the chef at Ma Maison in West Hollywood—a restaurant so exclusive the phone number wasn’t listed—where Orson Welles ate lunch every day and a generation of Hollywood royalty witnessed the birth of California cuisine. Then in 1982, after a falling out with the owner, he opened Spago on the Sunset Strip with a wood-burning oven, a funky dining room, and a smoked salmon pizza that changed everything. What followed was two James Beard Awards for Outstanding Chef and 32 years of feeding the most famous people on the planet at the Academy Awards Governors Ball. We talk about all of it—the early years, the big swings, and what it feels like to be America’s first celebrity chef.

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