This Is TASTE

Melissa King is a Top Chef icon—but she’s also much more. The champion turned judge is also the host of Tasting Wild, a far-out outdoor cooking show, and she still finds time to be in the kitchen with pop-ups. It’s so fun to have her on the show to talk about cooking with her Top Chef crew, plus career-defining gigs like appearing on Sesame Street and cooking for the Met Gala.

Also on the show Matt has a live interview with British author and TikTok chef Julius Roberts. He’s releasing his debut cookbook, The Farm Table, in February and we were lucky to get a preview at a recent live conversation in New York City. Julius will be back in our studio next year, so let this serve as just the beginning of our interest in this extremely talented and cool star in food. 

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We’re big fans of Marissa Mullen and super excited to have her back in the studio to talk about the keys to winning the holiday entertaining game (mostly through cheese), and also reveal some details about an exciting trip to France we are planning for next summer. Our latest TASTE Travels has Marissa joining TASTE editor Matt Rodbard for a week of cheese, wine, and castles in Normandy. Limited spots are filling up quickly. Marissa is the author of two books revolving around modern entertaining and the art of the cheese plate. Her latest, That Cheese Plate Wants to Party, is a sharp and highly enjoyable guide to buying cheese for all sorts of occasions, including a solo evening at home. We hope you enjoy this talk.

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Shelly Fireman is the owner of several New York City restaurants of acclaim and heritage, including Redeye Grill, Bond 45, and Cafe Fiorello. He’s also a very accomplished sculptor with a studio in Tuscany. On this truly amazing episode, we hear some great stories from an industry legend, like about opening the first stand-alone bagel shop in New York in the early 1960s, the Hip Bagel, as well as many more from over 50 years in the business. Get to know Shelly Fireman in this great episode.

Also on the show we have a fun interview with Lorenzo Espada, a 25 year old self-taught chef who has blown up on TikTok and has a cool debut cookbook, Somethin' Outta Nothin': 100 Creative Comfort Food Recipes for Everyone.

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Bryan Washington is a writer from Houston whose latest novel, Family Meal, is an intimate portrayal of friendship, queerness, and pastries. He also writes about things like Japanese curry bread and queer bars for the New Yorker, and today we’re thrilled to have him on the show to talk about food as a plot device, his favorite okonomiyaki spots in Osaka, and more. 

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Buy: Family Meal

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Today on the show we have a really fun conversation with Jon Kung, a Detroit-based chef and TikTok creator we’ve fallen hard for over the past couple years. We wanted to have Jon in the studio to talk a little bit about his cooking videos on YouTube and his life online and off, but mostly we wanted to dig into his terrific new book, Kung Food: Chinese American Recipes from a Third-Culture Kitchen. We hope you enjoy this conversation.

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Leah Koenig is the author of six cookbooks, including The Jewish Cookbook and Modern Jewish Cooking. Her latest book, Portico, is one of my favorites of the busy fall and taps into the rich history of Jewish food in Rome. On this episode Leah and I talk about the iconic dishes from Rome's Jewish ghetto, and talk about the years she took reporting this wonderful book. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Also on the show, Matt has a great talk with New York Times reporter Amelia Nierenberg. Amelia has long written compelling pieces that tie together food and current events, and we speak about her journalism career before digging into her latest story: How to Hijack a Quarter of a Million Dollars in Rare Japanese Kit Kats. It’s great catching up with Amelia.

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Today on the show, we have Claire Saffitz back in the studio for a really entertaining conversation. Claire is the author of a great recent cookbook, What’s For Dessert, and she’s truly one of our favorite cooking instructors and personalities on the internet. We talk about how to visualize a recipe before baking it, as well as some of the common bakeware mistakes we are all making. Dark bakeware is a big no-no! We also hear a little bit about her journey from Harvard to the kitchens of France to millions of YouTube streams. We all love Claire Saffitz at TASTE, and we hope you enjoy this talk.

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Maurizio Leo is the big bread brain behind The Perfect Loaf, an incredibly popular online community of bread fans and home bakers. He’s also the author of The Perfect Loaf: The Craft and Science of Sourdough Breads, Sweets, and More, winner of both James Beard Foundation and IACP awards and an instant classic. On this episode we talk about what excites Maurizio in bread today, and his unique journey to teaching and writing cookbooks. 

Also on the show Aliza and Matt go over three things they each are feeling, including: New releases from Alaya Tea, McDonald's Crocs, the many birthdays at 99 Flavor Taste, New York's Don Don is the Korean barbecue restaurant of our dreams, the Send Chinatown Love cookbook, Abi Balingit's Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed, and happy 10 years to our friends at PUNCH.

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Fly By Jing is one of the most exciting brands in food, and we were lucky to have the company’s founder, Jing Gao, live in conversation at Rizzoli Bookstore in New York City. This conversation was part of our TASTE Live at Rizzoli author series, and we had Jing speaking about her amazing new cookbook, The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp.

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Sanaë Lemoine is a novelist and cookbook author whose work is united in its ability to make you very, very hungry. Before she wrote her novel The Margot Affair, Sanaë was a cookbook editor at Martha Stewart Books and Phaidon Press; now she combines her love of food and literature in her own writing and through cowriting cookbooks, like Make It Japanese with Rie McClenny. It’s a joy to have Sanaë on the show to talk about her creative process, her favorite spots for croissants in the city, and more. 

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Buy: The Margot Affair, Make It Japanese, Hot Sheet

This episode is supported by Parmigiano Reggiano USA.

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