This Is TASTE

We’re excited to launch a special video podcast series: Food Writers Talking About Food Writing. It’s available on the TASTE YouTube channel, so make sure to subscribe! Every couple of weeks, cohost Matt Rodbard will invite a journalist or cookbook author to talk about some favorite recent food writing as well as their thoughts on the industry as a whole. Our first guest is a special one: Eric Kim is a writer and columnist at the New York Times and a great consumer of food writing. In this episode, we talk about Eric’s media diet, discuss a few favorite stories, Eli Sussman taking over as NYT restaurant critic, and ask the big question: What would you pitch 1997 Graydon Carter? That is, Eric considers his dream no-budget reporting assignment.

You can check out the full episode on YouTube now.

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We have such a great episode today. Shilpa and Miro Uskokovic are the husband and wife duo behind the amazing new New York City bakery Hani’s Bakery + Café, located in the East Village. First up Matt has an amazing conversation with Shilpa about her professional cooking career, which led to a job at Bon Appétit. Today Shilpa is BA’s senior test kitchen editor, and we talk about some of the stories she is working on and how the new BA Bake Club is getting so many people to take a break and just bake.

Later on, Aliza catches up with Miro to talk about his own incredible pastry career and his legacy as pastry chef at Gramercy Tavern, where he worked for over a decade. Of course, they also talk about Hani’s and the amazing desserts, breads, and other items lining the bakery’s case. Shilpa and Miro are two of our favorites in food—what a power couple! I hope you enjoy this episode.

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Robert Sietsema is a longtime New York City restaurant critic and neighborhood wanderer who has written for the Village Voice and Eater and who, prior to that, ran the influential underground food zine Down the Hatch. He currently publishes a really great Substack, Robert Sietsema's New York. It’s dispatched in a purely Sietsema way - full of reporting, knowledge, and lots of undiscovered restaurant gems around New York City. You should really be reading Robert’s work and our conversation covers burgers, soups, pizza, and New York as a place that has everything - and not always good. 

Also on the show, Matt shares about his recent trip to Tucson, Arizona. What a great food city! Mentioned on the episode: Seis Kitchen at Mercado San Agustin, La Estrella Bakery, Presta, La Mesa Tortillas, Time Market, Casa Asada, Taqueria Juanitos, El Rustico. Check out the Tucson Google map and save for a future visit.

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It was really fun having Molly Yeh back in the studio for an absolute riot of a conversation. Molly is legitimately one of the funniest writers (and guests) that we’ve encountered in a long time, and has amazing recipe writing chops to boot. We get into all sorts of topics on the show including her latest book about Midwest baking, Sweet Farm. We talk about Minnesota's deep cookie salad traditions, the genius of Furikake puppy chow, and what it’s like to live on a sugar beet farm.

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: Besha Rodell’s memoir Hunger Like a Thirst, Carolina Gelen with a hot (cold) coffee tip, Selva is an all-day cafe/wine bar doing special things. Also: Syme's Letter Writer will make you appreciate letter writing in a special way, Sing Sing didn’t get the attention it deserved, Brooklyn’s Dinner Party is a restaurant serving what we are looking for right now, Wonder Bread has its first product launch in a hundred years.      

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We recently headed out of the studio to visit Victoria, British Columbia, to check out the food and drink scene and report back on my findings. Listeners, this is a really exciting place, and we’re excited to speak with Andrea Alridge, the chef at a terrific new restaurant, Janevca, and Lori Joyce, owner of truly unique ice cream shop, Better Acres Ice Cream. 

Victoria rests on the naturally stunning Vancouver Island and is located a short ferry ride from Vancouver and Seattle. We found amazing coffee, fine dining, a historic botanical garden, and fresh seafood around every corner. Throughout the episode, Aliza and Matt also catch up to talk about some of the highlights of the visit. We hope you enjoy our dive into Victoria.

Save our Google Map of all the places mentioned in the episode. Visit Tourism Victoria for more information on places to eat and drink.

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Today on the show we welcome Eric Adjepong to the studio, who, along with the writer Korsha Wilson, has released one of our favorite books this spring: Ghana to the World. It’s a wonderful collection of stories and recipes that captures Eric’s deep connection to Ghana and how the country’s cuisine has shaped his career. Eric has appeared on Top Chef and various Food Network programming, and he shares his amazing story and the deep reporting that went into this special book.

Also on the show are sisters Alia and Radwa Elkaffas, who have been creating food videos together for over a decade. Known online as the Food Dolls, they’ve built a following with craveable recipes that blend their Egyptian heritage with their Midwestern upbringing. Now it’s all enshrined in their new debut cookbook: Pretty Delicious. It’s so fun chatting with Alia and Radwa about finding cooking inspiration, working together as sisters, and much more.

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Zaynab Issa is a cookbook author, recipe developer, and content creator based in Brooklyn, New York. Formerly a food editor at Bon Appétit, she contributes recipes to a variety of publications and just released a great debut cookbook, Third Culture Cooking: Classic Recipes for a New Generation. It’s so fun having Zaynab in the studio to talk about blending her East African and South Asian roots with Americana classics, building the perfect dinner party menu, and more.    

Also on the show we have a really fun talk with Holly Brickley, author of the new novel Deep Cuts. We talk about the music scene in the early 2000s, and how the novel tackles a generation of musical vibe shifts. We also talk about the book’s exciting Hollywood future with A24.

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Camilla Marcus is a chef, restaurateur, and founder of west~bourne, a wildly progressive restaurant and products company based in Los Angeles. Camilla is one of my favorite big thinkers in food, and I so enjoyed having her in the studio to talk about some important topics of the day, including the pioneering west~bourne, her career in and out of the kitchen, and how the government can help restaurants survive during these challenging times.

And before our conversation with Camilla, 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: We love Spongies Cafe in Manhattan Chinatown, early thoughts on Keith McNally’s buzzy memoir I Regret Almost Everything. Also: Visits to Kru in Brooklyn, Paul’s Pel'meni in Madison, WI, and Smithereens in the East Village. And we’re really enjoying the debut cookbook from New York City’s Scarr’s Pizza. It’s called The Scarr's Pizza Cookbook and is out March 25.

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Asmeret Berhe-Lumax is the founder of One Love Community Fridge, a network of ten community refrigerators across New York City and Seattle working to eradicate food insecurity. Its work is more urgent than ever, and it’s so special to have Asmeret into the studio to talk about fighting hunger and the stigma associated with it, and about One Love Community Fridge’s big plans for expansion. 

Also on the show we have the big grocery news of the week. Poppi was acquired by Pepsi and we’re joined by Andrea Hernández of Snaxshot to talk about what this means for the better-for-you soda wars.

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How fun is it having Paul Carmichael in the studio? Paul is the chef of Kabawa and Bar Kabawa, which is part of Momofuku and located in the former Ko space in New York City. Paul is a Momofuku veteran, having served as chef at Má Pêche in NYC and Seiobo in Sydney, Australia. In this episode, we hear about Paul’s career, from wd~50 to his leadership position working alongside David Chang. We discuss what makes a Momofuku restaurant special and about the Caribbean food history that flows through Paul’s menus. We also get the latest updates on the opening of Kabawa, which is one of New York City’s most hotly anticipated restaurants. It was so fun catching up with Paul.  

Also on the show, Aliza has a great talk with Roger Kamholz. A longtime contributor to PUNCH, he’s something of a cocktail world expert, and today he unpacks how he tapped into his mixology knowledge to create Pour Together, a book of imaginative and delicious two-ingredient cocktails. 

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