Podcast
This Is TASTE
Hosted by Aliza Abarbanel & Matt Rodbard · EN
If you're a fan of smart and lively conversations about food, home cooking, and culture, this is the place. We interview the most interesting characters in the world of food, media, and cookbooks and release episodes several times a month. The program is hosted by TASTE editors Aliza Abarbanel and Matt Rodbard, and is sometimes recorded live at Rizzoli Bookstore in New York City.
Visit TASTE online: tastecooking.com
82episodes
Episodes
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806: Lydia Pang Argues “Stinky” Is a Great Thing
Yesterday00:58:57Tap to summarizeLydia Pang is a creative director and the author of Eat Bitter: A Story About Guts, and Food. It’s a memoir that connects to the Chinese cultural concept of 吃苦 (chi ku), “eating bitterness” or being resilient, to her own life, with each chapter rooted in a recipe. Today on the show, we chat about how the book began as a zine in 2020, being inspired by her Hakka-Welsh heritage, and more. 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 Chicago with visits to Maxwell Trading, Loaf Lounge, Best Intentions, and Colectivo. Aliza discusses her interaction with dirty soda in Utah, a recipe in the latest issue of Kismet Magazine, and a very good frozen drink at SAA in Brooklyn. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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805: Real Talk About Drinks Writing and Trend-Chasing Bars with Echo Lake’s Chloe Frechette
3d ago00:38:03Tap to summarizeChloe Frechette spent nearly a decade as executive editor at Punch, the James Beard Award–winning drinks media brand, writing seriously about cocktails and the culture around them. Then she did what most drinks writers most certainly do not do: she opened a bar. Echo Lake and Undercurrent, her two-story rum destination in Williamsburg with partner Paul McGee, opened this spring—one a breezy daiquiri bar, the other an intimate den of rare and vintage spirits. In this episode, I speak with Chloe about making the jump from writing about bars to running one, the vintage rum collection that includes pre-embargo Cuban Bacardi, and so much more. Echo Lake is at 357 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY 11211 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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804: Toby Maloney Made Half a Million Cocktails. Emma Janzen Was Taking Notes.
4d ago01:04:55Tap to summarizeBartender and author Toby Maloney has made somewhere north of half a million cocktails over thirty-plus years, from Milk & Honey and Pegu Club to the Violet Hour in Chicago and the Elbow Room in Vancouver, Washington. His new book with coauthor and drinks journalist Emma Janzen, The Classic Cocktail Sessions, is a deep-dive master class on 61 classic drinks: not their histories but their inner workings. In this episode, we talk about the daiquiri that changed Toby’s life and the difference between mastering a classic and making it yours. Also on the show Matt shares a few final thoughts on the Summer Fancy Food Show including a first look at rugelach from Manischewitz, how Jangin is a new Korean food brand that you should keep your eye on, and a look at Lapos NA aperitivo. Also: Juggad It from Spicewalla and cool things happening at Raazi Tea. Also see: This Is TASTE 801: We Went to the Summer Fancy Food Show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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803: Netflix's Culinary Monster Finally Gets His Own Kitchen with Hasung Lee
6d ago00:53:05Tap to summarizeHasung Lee spent a decade cooking inside other people’s restaurants—Gramercy Tavern, Geranium, Atomix, the French Laundry—before Netflix viewers met him as Culinary Monster, the mysterious “black spoon” who muscled his way into the final round of Culinary Class Wars season 2. While he lost in the finale, he opened Oyatte anyway and is clearly shooting for Michelin stars. In this episode, we talk with Lee about what it’s like to compete under an alias, and we hear about the chef’s journey through some of the world’s greatest kitchens. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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802: 200 Million People Watch Vikas Khanna Talk About Indian Food. Here's What He Couldn't Say on TV.
1w ago01:01:55Tap to summarizeVikas Khanna grew up in Amritsar cooking beside his grandmother, arrived in New York with $3 and a dream, and became one of the first Indian chefs in the city to earn a Michelin star. His restaurant Bungalow—now one of NYC’s most coveted reservations—tells India’s culinary story through its 28 states. We talk about Vikas’s early cooking career in NYC, the rise of Junoon and later Bungalow, and what it means to cook for both presidents and homeless folks. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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801: We Went to the Summer Fancy Food Show. We Have Notes.
2w ago00:48:58Tap to summarizeThe Specialty Food Association's Summer Fancy Food Show is where the next year of grocery shelves gets decided, and Dan Frommer, founder of The New Consumer and one of the sharpest minds tracking how people spend their money, was there for all of it. Dan joins Matt to unpack the trends and new products they spotted on the floor of the Javits Center this week in New York. We talk about sparkling water, functional cookies, and some emerging categories that surprised even us. Check out Dan’s 2026 Mid-Year Consumer Trends Report. Brands mentioned on the episode: Mr. Pickles Industries Wandel Mad Mutz The Great Chestnut Experiment Ginja Snap Folkland Foods Buffs Rodeo Snacks Monte's Fine Foods Gamsa Foods Sooki Dirty Virgo Nomina Sparkling Water David Protein Field Goods Yakitori Guy Sauce Manischewitz 50 Hertz Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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800: How Long Gone’s Jason Stewart on Erewhon Losing the Pizza Plot, Noma’s LA Adventure, and a Visit to Ballerina Farm
2w ago01:04:40Tap to summarizeJason Stewart, cohost of How Long Gone and one of food media’s sharpest outside voices, returns to the studio. We talk about his early vegan days, his current London dining life, and what he’s enjoying in his hometown of Los Angeles. We also revisit some of his past TASTE writing, including a review of Noma in Copenhagen. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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799: The Dream of the $50 Dinner in New York Is Alive and Canada's Wild Run at North America’s 50 Best with Luke Fortney
2w ago00:51:41Tap to summarizeIt’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. Luke Fortney went from covering New York’s restaurant scene at Eater to contributing weekly to the terrific New York Times food newsletter Where to Eat. In this episode, we talk about the dream of the $50 dinner in New York, changes at the grocery store, Canada’s big showing at North America’s 50 Best, and how restaurants can think about a membership mode. Featured on the episode: But First, Restaurant [NYT] The New Grocer [Snaxshot] The Dream of a $50 Dinner Is Still Alive at These Restaurants [NYT] Why don't more restaurants have memberships? [Expedite] Oh, Canada [Caper] Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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798: French Training, Japanese Soul: Tadashi Ono's Long Road Home
2w ago00:45:55Tap to summarizeTadashi Ono spent nine years as executive chef of La Caravelle, one of America’'s great French restaurants—twice earning a three-star New York Times review—before walking away to cook the Japanese food he actually wanted to cook. Since then, he’s run Matsuri and Maison O; written four cookbooks with Harris Salat on Japanese hot pots, grilling, and comfort food; and opened Teruko, a sushi bar and Japanese restaurant in the subterranean belly of the Hotel Chelsea. We talk about his long career and his latest cookbook, Japanese Comfort Cooking. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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797: Rita Gigante Grew Up the Godfather’s Daughter. Now She’s Sharing Classic Italian American Spots on Instagram.
3w ago01:01:41Tap to summarizeRita 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. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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