Nicolas Heller, better known as New York Nico, calls himself the “unofficial talent scout of New York City” with over 1.5 million fans tuning into his Instagram for colorful profiles of a city in flux. He recently published the book New York Nico’s Guide to NYC which is a true insider’s guide to beloved community businesses across the five boroughs, from 200-year-old bars to new-school pizza spots. Nico says it’s not really a guidebook, but a documentation of a city in transition. It’s great having him into the studio to discuss some of his favorite places. 

All of us at TASTE are thinking about our friends in Southern California. If you would like to support wildfire relief efforts, some great places to start are the Displaced Black Families of Altadena GoFund Me Directory and the Los Angeles Food Bank.

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What an absolutely amazing conversation we have here. Malcolm Livingston II is a chef with some serious chops, having spent time in the kitchens at Per Se and Le Cirque and running the pastry program at wd~50 before being named head pastry chef at Noma—all by the age of 28. In this episode, we hear all about Malcolm’s time working at some of the world’s top restaurants, and why he decided to enter the plant-based ice cream game with August. We also find out that Malcolm’s life story is the inspiration for the character Marcus, played superbly by Lionel Boyce, on the TV series The Bear. If you didn’t already know about Malcolm’s incredible career and deep creativity, check out this episode.

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All of us at TASTE are thinking about our friends in Southern California. If you would like to support wildfire relief efforts, some great places to start are the Displaced Black Families of Altadena GoFund Me Directory and the Los Angeles Food Bank.

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To many, German food is humble comfort food, the kind of food that may not win a beauty award, but more than makes up for it with its power to soothe, nourish and cheer. In her latest book Classic German Cooking, author Luisa Weiss has collected and mastered the essential everyday recipes of Germany and Austria. In this terrific conversation, Luisa shares her personal connection to German cooking while shattering some myths about one of the world’s great cuisines.

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LinYee Yuan is the founder and editor of MOLD, a critically acclaimed online and print publication about design and the future of food, and the founder of Field Meridians, an artist collective committed to strengthening local food ecologies in Brooklyn. It’s so special to have her in the studio for an expansive conversation about using a design framework to reimagine our food systems and the power of examining nature in urban settings. 

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Today on the show we have conversations with two terrific chefs in New York City. First up is Suzanne Cupps. She’s the chef-owner of Lola’s in the Flatiron District. The cooking there made Matt’s top meals list of 2024, and in this conversation she opens up about her cooking career, and her unique place in the NYC restaurant scene.

Also on the show is a great conversation with Harold Dieterle. He is the winner of Top Chef Season 1, and we talk all about his long career in New York City and the ups and downs of chef life. We are such big Harold fans at TASTE. Note: Il Totano closed on January 6, 2025. We await an exciting reboot.

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London chef and author Yotam Ottolenghi puts out cookbooks that meet at the intersection of practical and cool—with a recipe development process that is part Warhol’s Factory, part Bon Appétit Test Kitchen, and pure Ottolenghi. After tackling baking with his terrific book Sweet, and before that putting Israeli cooking on the international stage with Jerusalem, he most recently tackled the concept of comfort with his incredible new book Comfort. In this conversation, we consider the many ways comfort food is served around the world, and how personal preference plays a major part in the quest for ultimate comfort. The result is a conversation that circles the globe and brings one of my all-time favorite recipe writers into focus. 

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We loved catching up with legendary Seattle chef Renee Erickson. She is the chef-owner of The Walrus and the Carpenter, The Whale Wins, Barnacle, and several other restaurants in that great American restaurant city. She is also the author of a unique new book, Sunlight and Breadcrumbs, that explores creativity in and out of the kitchen and how the process of making everyday food can result in much more than dinner. It’s a really smart way to think about home cooking, and I enjoyed catching up with Renee to talk about her collection of recipes.

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Today’s episode is really special. It’s a conversation with Innis Lawrence, who runs restaurants in one of our favorite towns in New York: Kingston! Innis operates the restaurants Ollie’s, Eliza, and the market and charcuterie shop Fletcher & Lu, three anchors in the upstate New York scene. On this episode we talk all about Kingston, a wonderful place just outside New York City that is home to some incredible restaurants and people. We talk about why there are so many chefs moving to this town upstate, and go over several must-visit spots.

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Harry Tannenbaum is the cofounder and president of Mill, a tech company aiming to reduce food waste with a “food recycler” that turns kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich grounds. Prior to Mill, he led analytics and e-commerce at Nest and worked on Google’s hardware team. It’s so fascinating having Harry on the show to nerd out on sustainability, food waste, and more.

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Steve Hoffman is a Minnesota tax preparer and food writer. And according to Steve, “When he dies, the tax-preparer-food-writer industry will die with him.” He is a French speaker and a shameless Francophile, and his love of France shines through in his terrific memoir, A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France. Steve writes with great detail and care about uprooting his family to live in rural France and the many twists and turns—and disappointments and revelations—that came with this big life change. If you ever dream of moving abroad to live a different life, this is the episode for you. A cautionary tale? Perhaps. But Steve is such a delight in telling his story that it may have you considering moving anyway.

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