This Is TASTE

Today’s episode is all about Dijon mustard, and it brings a couple of mustard lovers into the studio. First up is Jeremy Salamon. He’s the chef-owner of two singular and sensational restaurants in Brooklyn: Agi’s Counter and the newly opened Pitt’s. We talk about what he’s been cooking and all of the creative ways he thinks about using Dijon mustard, even with dessert.

Next up is a real treat—we get to talk with a mustard sommelier. His name is Brandon Collins, and he helps develop recipes for Maille mustard, which is our personal favorite brand. Brandon takes us through some of the company’s history before giving us a taste of some rare Dijons.

This special episode was made in partnership with our friends at Maille.

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Chef Edward Lee is a good friend of ours and one of the most respected voices in American cooking. He’s also one of the stars of the breakout Netflix cooking show Culinary Class Wars, which has earned millions of fans for its unique approach to cooking competition on television. In this episode, we hear all about the production and about how Edward prepared for the competition. We also talk about his new Washington, DC, restaurant, Shia, and his time cooking in New York City in the ’90s at the pioneering restaurant Clay. It’s always so much fun catching up with Edward.

Also on the show, Aliza is back from Asia! Her and Matt catch up about what they've been up to at the start of the year, and discuss how much boba you can drink in a month's time.

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Michael McCarty is the owner of two restaurants, Michael’s in Santa Monica, which opened in 1979, and Michael’s on West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan, which followed a decade later. McCarty is truly the father of California cuisine, at the center of a culinary movement that produced top Los Angeles chefs like Jonathan Waxman, Mark Peel, Nancy Silverton, and many others. I had so much fun having Michael back into the studio, and he was happy to go over his deep history in the American restaurant scene. He also talked about his early days cooking in Paris, and how he ended up in Santa Monica and helped establish the legendary farmers’ market there. It’s Michael, the early years, in this amazing episode.

Also on the show we catch up with Eater Chicago editor Ashok Selvam. He recently wrote about the revival of Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, and how Dylan Trotter is taking a big role in the rebirth.

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Today on the show, we welcome one of our favorite writers in the game, Jason Diamond. Jason writes the wonderful newsletter The Melt and has written two books, Searching for John Hughes and The Sprawl: Reconsidering the Weird American Suburbs. He’s also worked on the truly amazing New York Nico’s Guide to NYC, which we talk about in this great episode. We get into what Jason has been eating and reading, and the Jason Diamond way of life. I always enjoy catching up with Jason, and I hope you enjoy this episode.

Also on the show, we catch up with Vivian Song. Vivian wrote a terrific piece in the New York Times, “It’s Zinc Bar vs. Barista in a Paris Battle of the Buzz,” and we hear all about the shifting coffee scene in Paris.

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Today we have a very special episode. Visit California invited us out of our New York City studio and over to the West Coast for a food-focused road trip around Orange County and the San Gabriel Valley. We start our journey at Mercado González at Northgate Market in Costa Mesa, where Aliza and Matt share an incredible afternoon walking around the mercado looking for pozole, churros, and many more surprises along the way.

We hit the road for our next stop, a visit with Sara Lezama, the owner of Rye Goods, an acclaimed sourdough bakery and deli with three locations throughout Orange County in Newport Beach, Tustin, and Laguna Beach. 

Next on our road trip, we head to the San Gabriel Valley, where journalist Kristie Hang gives us a tour of some of her favorite new and under-the-radar restaurants, including Banh Mi Hoa Phat, Good Alley, and Bistro Na’s.

We stay in the SGV for a conversation with chef Chris Yang of Yang’s Kitchen, which has firmly become one of our favorite restaurants in all of California. To close, Aliza and Matt share many more discoveries from their road trip around Southern California.

More places we visited: Folks Pizzeria, A&J Seafood Shack, Burritos La Palma. 

And a great hotel for your future home base in the SGV is the Hilton San Gabriel.

To donate to California wildfire relief, visit Restaurants Care.      

This very special episode of This Is TASTE is supported by Visit California. While this episode was recorded before the LA wildfires in January, all of the restaurants featured are open for business, and we can’t think of a better time to pay California a visit for your own food-obsessed road trip. Dining out in LA is one way to help support the city, and these truly were some amazing places. Questions about visiting LA now?

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Today we have a very special episode. Visit California invited us out of our New York City studio and over to the West Coast for a food-focused road trip around San Diego and North County, including stops in Carlsbad and Oceanside. We start our journey at the source at the legendary Chino Farm, where three generations of Japanese American Chinos have been growing incredible produce used by chefs throughout California. 

Our next stop is a visit with Jeff Lozano, a brand ambassador at San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing, one of the foundational craft beer makers in a city famous for its great beer. 

The journey then heads up Interstate 5 to Carlsbad, where we catch up with Eric Bost, a prolific chef behind the newly opened Wildland and the soon-to-open tasting menu restaurant Lilo. To close, Aliza and Matt share many more discoveries from their road trip around Southern California.

More places we visited: Rare Society, City Tacos, Tribute Pizza, Wayfarer Bread, Aisu Creamery, Little Fox Cups and Cones, Wrench & Rodent. 

You can visit the Salk Institute for Biological Studies by reserving a spot on a weekly docent-led tour. 

And some great hotels to keep in mind: Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa and the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.

To donate to California wildfire relief, visit Restaurants Care.            

This very special episode of This Is TASTE is supported by Visit California. While this episode was recorded before the LA wildfires in January, all of the restaurants featured are open for business, and we can’t think of a better time to pay California a visit for your own food-obsessed road trip. Dining out in LA is one way to help support the city, and these truly were some amazing places. Questions about visiting LA now?

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In her latest cookbook, Romy Gill’s India, chef and British TV personality Romy Gill shares more than 70 of her beloved family recipes, each a testament to the flavors that define her childhood. From the iconic butter chicken, a beloved staple in every Indian home, to the delicious simplicity of her masala omelette, Romy taps into her personal connection to India. In this episode, we talk about what drives her to write a perfect recipe and how her London home base informs so much of her work.

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Over the last nine years, journalist Shane Mitchell has braved snakes, fire ants, floods, rallies, marches, protests, pageants, and near heat stroke to write the essays contained in her new collection of work published in The Bitter Southerner. The Crop Cycle: Stories with Deep Roots has Shane traveling throughout the South, uncovering history both past and modern and reporting on major topics such as farm labor, race, gender, and the history of the Georgia peach. Shane has incredible writing chops, and she has contributed memorable stories for TASTE as well. We go over all of it in this terrific episode.

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David Joonwoo Yun has a great story to tell. As one of the partners of New York City Korean restaurants C as in Charlie and Kisa, he’s been at the center of Korean cooking in NYC for a minute. But how did he get here? And how did he and his partners eventually redefine Korean cooking one banchan at a time? We dig into his great story in this terrific episode.

Also on the show we have a great conversation with journalist Mehr Singh, who speaks about her recent TASTE reporting digging into Gen Z cheesemakers. We also talk about her career, and some memorable stories.

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In Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III, Tom Parker Bowles, award-winning food writer, restaurant critic, and son of Queen Camilla, blends history, monarchy, and gastronomy to provide a fascinating window into the world of royal tastes and traditions as far back as Victorian times. In this episode, we hear about Tom’s reporting on how the Royal Family really eats, and we dig into his long restaurant reviewing career. Finally, we get his take on the food scene in London, and we talk about some unexpected places to find amazing food around the United Kingdom.

Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

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