This Is TASTE

Dr. Marion Nestle is a renowned nutritionist who has been shaping food policy for over half a century. She co-founded NYU’s groundbreaking Food Studies program in the ‘90s and has published over sixteen books, including her newest, Sugar Coated: Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping America's Favorite Breakfast Food. Today on the show, she weighs in on many buzzy topics in the food world (think: highly processed foods, fiber-and-protein-maxxing), the dramatic evolution of food culture, and how her cereal box collection inspired this new book.

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Irene Yoo’s groundbreaking book Soju Party just won a James Beard Award for teaching Americans to drink like Koreans—the rounds, the rules, the anju, all of it. It’s a big topic to cover, and we get into the soju tornado, the convenience-store hangover industrial complex, and how a pop-up turned into Orion Bar, the Bushwick bar she co-owns with her husband and cocktail collaborator, Nick Dodge.

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Joe Beddia opened Pizzeria Beddia in 2013 as a six-seat, cash-only Philadelphia shop with no phone and no logo. Two years later, Bon Appétit called it the best pizza in America, and the line never really stopped. Now Beddia runs a 140-seat restaurant with a Michelin Bib Gourmand distinction and a private “Hoagie Room,” and he’s just opened his first restaurant outside the country: Bar Etna, in London. We talk about the myth of the original shop, why the initial dough recipe hasn’t changed much, and how Beddia honed his skill in Madison, Wisconsin, of all places.

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Gecile Fojas and Anthony Virey are the team behind HOSE New York, a creative R&D studio observing systems that shape culture, ecology, and consumption. Their projects include the honey brand Deadass Beekeeping, the beverages pop-up Palate Service, and the Listening Apiary and Hive Theory, an installation and live radio show streaming the sounds of their beehives at Wave Farm art park. Gecile and Anthony stopped by the studio to talk about the ethos and systems driving their many creative processes.

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Daniel Kessler is a guitarist and founding member of Interpol, one of New York’s defining bands. He also helped build Bergen Hill—a beloved Carroll Gardens crudo bar he conceived from scratch with Ravi DeRossi—and quietly became a fixture of the city’s cocktail and natural wine scene. On the eve of Interpol’s eighth album, This Mirror Weighs a Ton, Kessler joins us to talk about what turned a late-night bar regular into a serious eater, eating between Barcelona and the East Village, and remembering the early 2000s NYC food scene.

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Zeena Lattouf Joy is the founder and head baker of Zeena Bakery, a Palestinian American bakery based in NYC. Their ma’amoul, focaccia, and other treats are beloved mainstays of the artisan side of the Fort Greene farmers’ market—and a regular part of Aliza’s weekend routine. Today on the show, Zeena talks about building a bakery that supports farmers in NYC and the Levant, the realities of operating a bakery stand at the market, and her plans for the future. 

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Carla Lalli built her name in the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen before going independent and publishing two best-selling cookbooks. Yet there was much more going on in her life. Her marriage ended after 24 years, and her sparkling new book, Food Is a Feeling, tells the story through 65 recipes and 30 essays that treat cooking not as a lifestyle brand extension but as the thing that got her through it all. In this episode, Carla and Matt talk Substack life, savvy recipe shortcuts, and getting it all down in a voice that feels true to real life, not online life. 

Read Carla’s Substack: Food Processing

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Zach Griff spent nearly seven years as The Points Guy’s most recognizable reporter, filing dispatches from first-class cabins and airport lounges around the world—before walking away in 2025 to launch his own venture, From the Tray Table. Today he joins Matt to talk about what actually makes airline food good, the science of why food tastes different at 30,000 feet, the credit-card-fueled arms race over airport lounges, and how one might achieve the coveted Delta 360 status.

And it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt discuss what’s interesting in the food world and beyond including amazing juice at Olabisi Sips, stops at Morning Sunshine Market in Ellenville, NY, Eataly Caffè in Manhattan, and Win Son in Brooklyn. Also: Maya Kaimal’s new Indo-Chinese sauce line, and watching Moonlighting for the first time is highly recommended.

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Sally Ekus has been inside the cookbook business since before she could walk—literally stuffing press kits for her mother’s culinary PR firm as a kid. Now a senior literary agent at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency leading the Ekus Group, she’s brokered hundreds of book deals and become one of publishing’s most transparent voices on how cookbooks actually get made. She’s behind the terrific Substack Not So Secret Agent, and Matt speaks with her about what agents really do for authors day to day, why a book deal is rarely a retirement plan, and some favorite books from years past.

Also on the show we have a great conversation about Rebecca Eisenberg, author of the terrific new book Small-Batch Breads.

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Patrick Miller is the founder and distiller of Faccia Brutto, an Italian-style spirits brand based in Brooklyn, New York. He worked as a chef for 19 years in some of LA and New York’s brightest restaurants, and he began making amari as holiday gifts for loved ones while working as the chef-partner at Rucola in Brooklyn. Today Faccia Bruttio is busy using old-world techniques to create singular and special amari and aperitivi, and on the show, we go deep into their process and vision.

And it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt discuss what’s interesting in the food world including Matt’s visits to Golden Hof in Manhattan and The Dale in the Catskills, and he previews Morgan Eckroth’s debut coffee book, Coffee, for Here. Aliza visits a Creole pop-up from Chasing Chaz, enjoys Ha’s Snack Bar a great deal, and tries Julia Sherman’s new salad dressing.

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