This Is TASTE

Helen Rosner returns to the TASTE Podcast, and we couldn’t be happier. Helen is a journalist, Twitter commentator, and staff writer covering food at the New Yorker. We wanted to have Helen into the studio to talk about some of her recent stories, including writing about roasting duck at home, the Chicago-style hot dog, and the busy fall cookbook season. We also discuss the epic Twitter thread, bursting with wisdom and common sense, that she wrote on her 40th birthday. But we mostly just wanted to catch up with one of our oldest friends from food media. 

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It was with great anticipation, and some unknowns, that we spoke with George Saunders, the author of many works, including the Booker Prize–winning Lincoln in the Bardo. This is a really great conversation that switches gears often. We talk about pizza and Italian delis on the South Side of Chicago, as well as lunch in the Texas oil fields. We talk about success in the kitchen and how intuition crashes together with luck. We talk about food in the year 2300. We talk about the near future and mustard collections in a short story from his new work, Liberation Day. We talk about perfectionism, Santa Cruz coffee, and time traveling to find out how dinner has been prepared over thousands of years. The great George Saunders is on the show. Enjoy it.

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Yes, Gideon Glick joined us in the studio for one of our favorite conversations in recent memory. Gideon is a prolific actor, having starred in memorable roles on Broadway (including in Little Shop of Horrors, in To Kill a Mockingbird, and in the original Broadway cast of Spring Awakening) and on television, including the mysterious magician Alfie on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, currently filming its final season. Gideon is the coauthor of the excellent new cookbook Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway: The Broadway Lover's Cookbook, and we talk about the art of creating a great theater-themed recipe pun. We also talk about the food situation on set and during the marathon-like eight-shows-per-week Broadway schedule. Having Gideon join us in the studio was such a ray of sunshine, and we hope the theater lovers out there enjoy this conversation with a living legend.

Also on the show we catch up with Brian Noyes, author of The Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook and a certified pie master.

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Genevieve Ko is a deputy editor of New York Times Cooking and the Food section, as well as a prolific cookbook author and collaborator. Here we have such a great time catching up about all things cookbooks, food media, and what it’s like to help run one of the best, and most popular, sections at the New York Times. We talk about Genevieve’s collaborations with chefs like George Mendes, Pichet Ong, and many others. We also discuss the problem with calling an ingredient “trendy” and share some thoughts on the recipe reply guy. I really loved catching up with Genevieve, and I hope you enjoy this talk.

Read more from Genevieve Ko:

Read: My Portugal: Recipes and Stories

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Tokyo-based journalist Craig Mod is part journalist, part ethnographer, and part performance artist, and we’re really happy that he stopped by the studio for a lively chat. While he may not be a household name (yet), those in the know about such topics as digital book publishing, Japan, and multiday walks around Japan respect Craig’s incredible body of work. This is a wide and deep conversation about food trends in Japan, where you should visit in the country outside Tokyo, and Craig’s unique style of publishing—all based around his Special Projects membership program. It was such a pleasure to get to know Craig Mod, and we hope you enjoy this conversation. And subscribe to Craig’s latest walk around the Kii Peninsula, taking place October 4-17.

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Reem Assil’s cookbook, Arabiyya, shows that great hospitality is easy to pull off—as long as you have enough pomegranate molasses to go around. In this lively episode, we talk to the Bay Area chef and activist about her inspiring career, which has taken her between the kitchen and the community—and sometimes to the poker table. Yes, Reem is a hell of a poker player, and we dive into that. We also talk about her zaatar hookup and how she is crystallizing  a “Pali-Cali” (that would be Palestinian-Californian) style of cooking. Get to know Reem Assil a little better on this fun episode.

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It’s not often that we get to speak with an NBA legend on the show, but Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler is no average NBA legend. He’s a coffee geek, just like us, and we talk about his exciting new company, BIGFACE, and what inspires Jimmy’s love for all aspects of coffee, including the farming, cupping, and barista work. We also talk about food in the NBA and hear about the coffee orders of some of his Heat teammates. 

Also on the show, we catch up with Ashley Rodriguez. Ashley is the boss barista behind the popular podcast and newsletter Boss Barista, and we welcome her to the show to talk about all things coffee. We learn about Ashley’s long history working in coffee—as a writer and leader in a movement toward education and equality. We talk about the idea of “sweetness” in coffee, and together we go through her method in tasting and grading coffee. We also tackle the big topic of espresso. Is it a net positive for coffee? I loved catching up with Ashley and hope you learn a little bit more about one of the world’s most popular beverages.

More from Jimmy Butler and Ashley Rodriguez:

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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 book Cook This Book was a New York Times Best Seller, and we talk about some of the many things she’s been up to since its release a little over a year ago. We find out about her move from New York to the West Coast, as well as what it was like growing up in New York’s Hudson Valley. We really enjoyed catching up with Molly on this really great episode.

Also on the show, contributing editor Aliza Abarbanel joins Matt to talk about what’s on their minds: Quarter Sheets, late-summer apples, samgyetang roasted chicken, A24 merch, the great B. O. Boys podcast. They also play a game involving Chex Original Party Mix and ASMR. 

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Stefano Secchi is a modern pasta master and the chef behind New York City’s hit restaurant Rezdôra. In this entertaining episode, we dive into the ins and outs of making hundreds (sometimes thousands) of fresh tortellini, ravioli, and gnocchi a day. We also talk about what it’s like running the restaurant attached to one of New York’s most difficult reservations, and how screening an episode of the TV show The Bear might hit a little too close to home for the chef. We loved getting to know Stefano, and we hope you do, too.

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Bettina Makalintal is a reporter at Eater who previously served as associate print editor at Bon Appétit and a staff writer at VICE’s Munchies. We’re big fans of Bettina’s erudite and internet-first journalism, and we wanted to have her on the show to discuss it all. We talk about her home cooking feeds on Instagram and TikTok, and we dive into how her natural curiosity drives her to find answers to the most esoteric food and cooking questions. Why are so many cakes shaped like domes? Why are reservations for hot tables so impossible to land these days? This is such a great conversation with one of food media’s strongest voices today.

Also on the show Matt catches up with Contributing Editor Aliza Abarbanel to talk about two recent New York Times articles that got them thinking.

More from Bettina Makalintal and NYT Food:

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