We wanted to close the year by talking about the year in dining in Los Angeles, a city that always inspires with new openings and truly singular legendary spots. We are joined by Jenn Harris, a columnist and critic for the Food section of the Los Angeles Times. The paper just released its annual 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles list, and we talk about many of the selections. Also on the show, we speak with Jordan Okun and Max Shapiro, the team behind the terrific podcast Air Jordan. Jordan and Max are always honest, and we have a great time discussing the year in restaurants in LA. And to kickoff the show, Aliza and Matt share some memorable meals from Los Angeles this year.

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We wanted to close the year by talking about the year in dining in our hometown of New York City. Matt has a great chat with New York magazine food editor Alan Sytsma. We talk about the magazine’s best new restaurants list as well as some long-standing favorites. Next up, Aliza has a wonderful conversation with Mahira Rivers, who covers the city through her Substack, Sweet City, and by reviewing restaurants in the pages of the New York Times. To kick things off, Aliza and Matt share some of their personal favorites from the year in NYC dining.

Have a future guest request? A restaurant we should visit? Take the ⁠This Is TASTE listener survey⁠. We really appreciate the feedback.

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Yara Herrera is the chef-partner at Hellbender, a Mexican-American restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she honed her skills in the city’s fine dining restaurants like Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and Providence before moving to New York in 2018 to work at Momofuku Ko, Xilonen, and Sobre Masa. Today on the show, we talk about Yara’s culinary journey, running Hellbender, and creating her distinctive approach to Mexican-American cuisine.

And before that, Rob Rubba, chef-owner of Oyster Oyster in Washington D.C. takes the Resy Questionnaire. In 2023, Rob won the James Beard Award® for Outstanding Chef and continues as a leader in plant-focused, sustainable cooking. 

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not of Resy—and do not constitute professional advice.

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For over two decades, Andrew Zimmern has starred in some of the most thoughtful and compelling food television being made for TV and online. He’s the longtime host of Bizarre Foods and a number of other food travel shows that defined a generation of programming. He’s also a longtime friend of mine, and it’s crazy that this was his first time appearing on the show. We go in so many great directions with this conversation, including talking about his incredible new seafood cookbook, The Blue Food Cookbook.

Have a future guest request? A restaurant we should visit? Take the This Is TASTE listener survey. We really appreciate the feedback.

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It was so much fun having Carla Hall in the studio. Carla Hall is a chef and TV host who is currently serving as judge on Fox’s Next Level Baker, a show that tests both professional and home bakers on their baking bona fides. In this episode, Carla shares some great baking ideas for the holidays, and she answers the question that some of us have been asking: What is Gordon Ramsay like in real life?

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. The show’s hosts were on the road and report back about what they ate during their travels, including Aliza making stops for onion rings at Frisko Freeze and a big serving of vibes at Bob’s Java Jive in Tacoma, Washington. Matt visited Cleveland and was blown away by the creative Midwestern cooking at Cordelia, the waffles fries with Ranch and sharp comfort cooking at Heart of Gold, and a little museum called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In Seattle, Aliza has short rib and dry pho at Phở Bắc. And we couldn’t forget about New York, and Aliza enjoys her visit to Zeena Bakery at the Ft. Greene Farmers Market.

Watch: Prince, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne - "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (no, really, watch it).

Read: It’s About Time You Bought a Digital Scale

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Zoë Kanan is the baker-partner of Elbow Bread, a very special Jewish-American bakery in New York’s Lower East Side. She’s produced some of the most important pastries in New York over the past 15 years, from being one of the first-ever interns at Christina Tosi’s Milk Bar to baking bagels at Sadelle’s under Melissa Weller and running the bread and pastry programs for the Freehand Hotel. Today on the show, we talk about what it’s like to have a bakery of her own, developing her own signature pastries, and much more.

And also on the show, Aliza chats with TASTE contributor Grayson Samuels about his work as a writer, actor, and baker in New York, including some of his favorite stories for TASTE.

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It was really great to have Jessica Koslow in for a conversation. Jessica is the chef and founder of Sqirl in Los Angeles, a pioneering breakfast and lunch counter that serves inventive rice bowls and jams on toast and that inspired a whole generation of all-day cafés. In this episode, we talk a bit about Jessica’s early career before going into her exceptional jam business and hearing some big news about changes at the restaurant.

And before that, we have a fun conversation with Tigist Reda, chef and owner of the popular Chicago Ethiopian restaurant Demera. Tigist completes the Resy Questionnaire, and we find out about her favorite food book, her ideal last meal on earth, and, most important, her favorite Chicago pizza. 

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What better way to talk about the year in cookbook publishing than by speaking directly with the source: the booksellers. Today on the show we are joined by Matt Sartwell of New York’s Kitchen Arts & Letters and Ken Concepcion of LA’s Now Serving. Matt and Ken tell us about what is selling in their stores and name some of their personal favorite titles from this busy year.

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Book editor Michael Szczerban joins us in the studio to talk about The Talisman of Happiness, a book he worked over a decade to have translated from Italian into English. As we find out, it’s an iconic (and quite unwieldy—1,680 recipes!) text that its author, Ada Boni, originally published in 1929. The book’s influence cannot be overstated, and for first-time readers, it gives insight into the foundational Italian cooking that we still see today. Michael shares how he was introduced to the book by Samin Nosrat while editing Salt Fat Acid Heat, which sent him down many dead-end roads toward acquiring it for publication in English. This is a wonderful conversation for Italian food nerds like us.

Read: The Book That Taught Nonna to Cook Is Coming to America [NYT]

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Rich Torrisi is the prolific New York City chef and empire builder behind some of the most buzzed-about restaurants in the United States, including Parm, Sadelle’s, the Pool, Carbone, and his most personal venture,Torrisi. Matt was a fan of Rich’s breakout restaurant, Torrisi Italian Specialties, when it opened at 250 Mulberry Street in 2009. What a restaurant. That mozzarella! In this episode, Rich takes the Resy Questionnaire, and we find out so much about his unique point of view on restaurants, innovation, and hospitality as a whole. This is such a great conversation.

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not Resy - and do not constitute professional advice. 

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