This Is TASTE

We’re thrilled to welcome Sohla El-Waylly back to the show. Sohla is a prodigious recipe developer, a fixture of food YouTube, and a judge on HBO’s cooking competition The Big Brunch. Next week she will release her debut cookbook, Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook. It’s a terrific book, and we discuss many of the recipes and techniques, and how Sohla photographed the book in her New York City apartment. We also talk about her love of Top Chef, her own reality cooking show turn, and what excites her most—including breakfast at Veselka. 

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Yewande Komolafe is a recipe developer, food stylist, and author of the New York Times “10 Essential Nigerian Recipes”. She also has a terrific new cookbook out now, My Everyday Lagos: Nigerian Cooking at Home and in the Diaspora. On this episode we talk about Yewande’s journey to writing this groundbreaking work, and how the book's recipes cover the converging cuisines of her hometown of Lagos. We also talk about her life in and out of the kitchen. It’s a great talk and we hope you enjoy it.

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Here are two classic conversations with two of our favorite people in food. Jamie Oliver returns to the show, and we could not be happier to talk with him about so many things. For those who didn’t grow up watching food TV, here’s the deal. Jamie pioneered a form of food television that brought cameras into the home in a way not previously seen. When The Naked Chef debuted on BBC Two in the UK and the Food Network in the United States in 1999, home cooking on TV was a stand-and-stir affair. Here, a young and floppy Oliver was cooking real food from a cool East London flat, talking viewers through the relative simplicity of making dinner.

Oliver has gone on to write numerous cookbooks (selling 50 million in the UK alone) and create food TV that expanded beyond cooking, producing documentaries about the sugar industry and school lunches that transitioned his work from dude food evangelist to heartier activism. His latest book, One: Simple One-Pan Wonders, is out now.

And it’s a great day when our friend Alison Roman turns up at our New York City studio. We’ve really enjoyed reading and cooking through her recent baking book, Sweet Enough, and we wanted to ask her about what it’s like to write three cookbooks in five and a half years, as well as to talk about the TV show she made, her spirited newsletter writing, the kosher salt wars, sheet pan shortcake, and where to eat in New York City right now. 

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Luke Fortney is a reporter at Eater New York, where he keeps an eagle eye on openings and closings, plus trends like the city’s burgeoning breakfast burrito scene. Aliza had him on the show to talk about what it’s like staying on top of New York’s ever-shifting dining landscape. Whether you live in New York City or you’re thinking about taking a trip there, it’s a must-listen.

Also on the show Matt catches up with British cookbook author, journalist, and chef Ravinder Bhogal to speak about her great new cookbook, Comfort and Joy: Irresistible Pleasures from a Vegetarian Kitchen.

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What a fun time it is having Max La Manna in the studio. Max is a recipe developer and former NYC and Los Angeles line cook. He’s also big on TikTok and various other social media channels, and we get into what makes a great food video as well as hearing about Max’s journey. We also talk about Max’s new cookbook, You Can Cook This! 

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As writer and podcast host Chris Black tells it, he sits at the heart of American culture. “The bridge between the high and the low; the very high and the very low.” This is a very good—and often entertaining—place to live, and in this episode we get to know Chris a bit better through his particular takes on restaurant culture, home cooking, cookbooks, and the two cities he spends the most time in: New York and Los Angeles. Chris is the cohost of How Long Gone (along with Noma beat reporter Jason Stewart) and consults for brands like J.Crew, Thom Browne, Stüssy, Balenciaga, and Reigning Champ. 

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Robert Simonson writes about cocktails, spirits, bars, and bartenders for the New York Times and is the creator and author of the Substack newsletter The Mix With Robert Simonson. In this episode we talk about his terrific new book, The Encyclopedia of Cocktails: The People, Bars & Drinks, with More Than 100 Recipes. The book is amazing in that it covers the world of modern drinking (the people, places, and watering holes) without being dry or overly earnest. Simonson cuts to the heart of the past 100 years of the cocktail, and we go over many of the entries and also dive into Robert’s history of covering the scene for nearly 20 years. It’s a great episode, and we hope you enjoy it.

Also on the show, Matt talks about his recent trip to San Antonio, which included stops at the Jerk Shack, Landrace, Cured, Con Huevos Tacos, and Ray’s Drive Inn. The TASTE Texas Tour was supported by our friends at Travel Texas. Check out Matt's dispatches from Austin and Houston.  

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We’ve long been fans of cookbook author and creative thinker Molly Baz, and many of you have too. With a signature voice and absolutely wild recipe development skills (as well as years of professional cooking under her belt), Molly has won over millions of fans worldwide. Her debut book Cook This Book was a New York Times Best Seller, and she’s back with a new one, More Is More, that taps into the food world’s more maximalist urges. This is a really fun talk with one of the strongest voices in cookbooks.

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Dwight Garner has been a book critic for the New York Times since 2008, and he has now written one of our favorite food books in years (not an exaggeration). The Upstairs Delicatessen is a book about “eating, reading, reading about eating, and eating while reading.” This is completely, 100% our bag, and Dwight’s style and rhythm had us reading until we were full (and then some). In this extremely fun episode, Dwight shares the book’s origins and digs into some of his most memorable meals and books, and books about meals, and meals…you get the point. It’s a fun conversation with one of the sharpest minds in the media.

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Hillary Dixler Canavan is Eater’s restaurant editor and the author of the publication’s debut book, Eater: 100 Essential Restaurant Recipes From the Authority on Where to Eat and Why It Matters. On this lively episode we talk about Hillary’s reporting for Eater’s debut cookbook, and how one wrangles recipes from chefs without going nuts. We also hear about Hillary’s work covering the national restaurant scene, and, of course, get her favorites in New York, Los Angeles, and beyond. This is a great conversation, and we hope you enjoy it.

Also on the show, Matt recaps a recent trip to Virginia Beach, VA and the surrounding area. There's great food down there! He discusses visits to: Love Song, The Pink Dinghy, a fried chicken vibe check starring BoBo's Fine Chicken and Pollard's. He also stopped by Four Eleven York in Norfolk, Heirloom, and Gelati Celesti.

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