This Is TASTE

Rita Gigante is not your average food influencer. She’s a psychic medium and healer and the author of The Godfather’s Daughter, an autobiography about growing up as the daughter of notorious Genovese crime family boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante. Rita is passionate about creating videos that showcase the old-school Italian restaurants and food businesses of her childhood, creating a new generation of fans, and it’s so fun to have her in the studio to talk about her lifelong interest in food.

And it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt discuss what’s interesting in the food world, including Matt’s trip to BevNET Live with introductions to the great Umma Juice, Cabu, and Dad Grass Leisure Drinks. Also: Visits to Xi’an Famous Foods in Midtown, the newly opened Uovo in NoMad, Pizzeria Panina in Ridgewood, and Supreme Restaurant in Manhattan Chinatown. Lastly, love for Saicho hojicha. 

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Becca Millstein built Fishwife into one of the buzziest brands in food, turning a sleepy pantry category into something people actually want to talk about. This time, we didn’t talk to her in our New York City studio—we followed her to Santoña, Spain, to board boats, participate in an anchovy auction, and visit the processing plants where tins of fish get packed by hand. Welcome to our new series, Founder in the Field. It’s a different side of the grocery business than the one you see on Instagram: less buzzy branding, more bidding war over the morning’s catch. It’s an introduction to a founder, at origin, doing the actual work.

Also check out: Whole Foods Buyers Never Sit Still. We Followed Them to Spain.

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Toshi and Yasu Kizaki opened Sushi Den on Christmas Eve in 1984 on South Pearl Street in Denver. Little did they know how the opening would impact Japanese food in America. Over the next four decades, they built a supply chain that flies fish from a market in Kyushu to Denver in under 24 hours, took over a corner of Platt Park with a cluster of Japanese restaurants, and earned a Michelin star — at 69, the oldest sushi chef in the U.S. to receive his first. This is the story of Sushi Den's expansion, including the Michelin-starred Kizaki, and a rare sit-down with the founding brothers.

Also on the show we have a great conversation with Mawa McQueen, the chef-owner of Mawa’s Kitchen in Aspen. This Michelin Guide–recommended restaurant is the flagship eatery of owner and executive chef Mawa McQueen, a 2022 James Beard Award semifinalist and recipient of the 2022 Colorado Governor's Minority Business Award. The menu at Mawa's Kitchen is hyper-seasonal and reflects Mawa's international heritage, serving Afro-Mediterranean cuisine with a French-American flair. We talk about building her mini empire, and what it’s like to cook for the private jet crowd.

Thank you to Visit Colorado for supporting this episode.

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Kim Vallejo is the business director at She Wolf Bakery in Brooklyn, NY. She Wolf produces exceptional sourdough and sweet treats made from regional heritage grains that are sold at 12 greenmarkets across NYC, plus their cafe in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and over 70 restaurant wholesale clients. Today on the show, Kim goes deep on the serious logistics that makes all this possible, working with regional grains, and more.

And it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt discuss what’s interesting in the food world, including visits to Oyatte, Via Carota, Sunfish Seafood, and Lefty’s Burger Shack. Also: Island Way Sorbet has taken over our freezer, How to Rule the World is the One L for journalism, and the legend of the green bag with Taiwanese Guai Guai.

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Maggie Hoffman is the writer and host behind The Dinner Plan, a podcast and Substack where she talks to a cookbook author every week about weeknight cooking realities, kitchen burnout, and what people actually cook at home. She joins Matt for a look back at the standout cookbooks of spring 2026. Here are the spring books mentioned, and listen at the end for our early fall favorites.

And it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt discuss what’s interesting in the food world, including Aliza’s swing through the Pacific Northwest for strawberry picking and visits to The Paper Bridge and a Portland Pickles game. Matt tries push-pop sushi at Suka Sushi, pays tribute to the mujaddara at Kalustyan's, and he checks out the new infused oils from Primis Imports.

MAGGIE’S FAVORITE SPRING COOKBOOKS

Özlem Warren’s Istanbul

Natasha Pickowicz’s Everyone Hot Pot

Georgina Hayden’s MEDesque

Hillary Sterling’s AMMAZZA!

Joe Woodhouse’s Weeknight Vegetarian

MATT’S FAVORITE SPRING COOKBOOKS

Ham El-Waylly’s Hello, Home Cooking

Ella Quittner’s Obsessed With the Best

Jena Derman and Jack Schramm’s Solid Wiggles

Adeena Sussman’s Zariz

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It’s the return of Food Writers Talking About Food Writing. Every couple of weeks, Matt invites a journalist to talk about some favorite recent food writing as well as their thoughts on the industry as a whole.

Nadia Chaudhury is the deputy editor of Eater New York and Eater Northeast, a born-and-raised New Yorker who spent a decade running Eater Austin before coming home. Her family is behind Kalustyan’s, the legendary NYC specialty food store that has been feeding chefs, cooks, and curious eaters since 1944. On this episode, Nadia and Matt discuss the state of food media, the stories she’s chasing at Eater, and what it’s like to grow up with one of New York City’s most essential food institutions in the family.

Featured on the episode:

The Carbone Team Will Open an American Tavern in the Tribeca Grill Space [Eater]

The Whimsy Killer in Your Pocket [Best Food Blog]

New East Village Restaurant Threads Korean and Italian Culinary Lines [Eater]

Faux Is a Real McNally Restaurant [NY Mag]

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Jena Derman and Jack Schramm are the Brooklyn-based cofounders of Solid Wiggles, the cocktail jelly company that turned the Jell-O shot into a legitimate art form—and a legitimate cocktail. Their debut book is a full system for making layered, clarified, beautifully decorated cocktail jellies at home, from quick party animal shots to three-day party pro cakes with injected flowers and glitter. Jena comes from Momofuku Milk Bar; Jack from Booker and Dax and Existing Conditions. Together they’re making the case for the solid cocktail—and that parties matter.

Also on the show I spend some time with Carolyne Lane, director of coffee at Noma Projects. We stop by her cafe in Copenhagen to hear about how she thinks deeply about coffee sourcing, with an emphasis on Mexico. I really enjoyed getting to know her a bit and hope you enjoy this episode.  

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Brendan Chareoncharutkun is the founder of Uncle’s Thai Food, a freeze-dried curry brick brand based in New York. He got his start in food by working on farms around the world, learned to cook by working in restaurants in Bangkok, then came to New York to work in marketing, all while doing food pop-ups on the side. That experience and wisdom is combined in Uncle’s, and today on the show, we go deep on everything it took to bring this brand to life—plus Brendan’s new products in the works. 

Also on the show, Matt has a great conversation with Chef Nelson German, author of the terrific new book Caribbean Cocktails.

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Josh Scherer didn’t set out to make an expansive and deeply heartfelt show about mortality. He set out to make a funny YouTube video about a carne asada burrito. A hundred episodes of Last Meals later—with Tom Hanks, Jason Kelce, and Elijah Wood having sat in the chair—he’s built the best food talk show online. The executive director of culinary content at Mythical Entertainment and NYT best-selling author joins Matt to talk food, grief, celebrity, and the last thing you’d ever want to eat.

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Jess Shadbolt cofounded King in SoHo in 2016 with almost no money and no restaurant experience—and built it into one of the best restaurants in New York City. Now she and partner Annie Shi have opened Dean’s, a British seafood pub that features stargazy pie and pork scratchings on the menu as well as a Guinness challenge where 500 pints earn you an engraved tankard. We talk about why British food still has to fight for its reputation in New York and the dayboat fisherman in Suffolk the restaurant is named for.

Also on the show, we have an entertaining (and entertaining-focused) conversation with Amber Mayfield Hewett, author of Your Turn to Host: A Guide to Great Parties and Gatherings.

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