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PODCAST

This Is TASTE

Matt Rodbard & Aliza Abarbanel

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

arts food

All Episodes

55:09

709: Kitchen Advice and Meditations with Tamar Adler

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/31

Tamar Adler is the James Beard and IACP Award–winning author of An Everlasting Meal; Something Old, Something New; and the best-selling Everlasting Meal Cookbook. Currently living in Madrid, she stopped by the TASTE studio to talk about writing her new book Feast on Your Life: Kitchen Meditations for Every Day. It’s a thoughtful collection of dispatches from a daily life anchored by food, and today on the show, we go deep on Tamar’s writing process and perspective. Have a future guest request? A

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81:59

708: Shorting Protein, Starbucks’s Stumbles, and WTF...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/29

Snaxshot, the curatorial and slightly mercurial grocery newsletter and community, has grown into an industry force, read by consumer packaged goods executives and members of the food media on a near-religious level. (We are among these readers.) Andrea Hernández returns to the show to go over the big headlines from the year at the grocery store and in the CPG trenches. We talk about shorting protein, Stiller’s Soda, and Starbucks’s stumbles, and we play a fun game of “WTF is up with…”... It’s a fun

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54:32

707: Behind the Scenes at America’s Test Kitchen with...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/26

It was a blast having Dan Souza in the studio. Dan is the chief content officer of America’s Test Kitchen and the former editor in chief of Cooks Illustrated. Dan has such a great style in the way he talks about home cooking, and we discuss his time working in food media before digging into a very cool and ambitious new drinks book: Cocktails Illustrated: 400+ Recipes for the Home Bartender, from Spirit Forward to Zero Proof. And, at the top of the show, it’s the return of Three Things, where

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77:06

706: The Secret History of the Bagel with Laurel...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/24

Laurel Kratochvila is an American-born writer and baker based in Berlin and trained in France. She runs the iconic Fine Bagels bakery, and her first book, New European Baking, was a finalist for a James Beard Award in 2023. Laurel joins us in the studio to talk about her incredible new book, Dobre Dobre, which focuses on both the modern and traditional baking of Poland, a country with deep culinary roots. We talk about Jewish baking in Poland, and dig into some real bagel history. Also on the show

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73:25

705: The Year in Los Angeles Restaurants with Jenn...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/22

We wanted to close the year by talking about the year in dining in Los Angeles, a city that always inspires with new openings and truly singular legendary spots. We are joined by Jenn Harris, a columnist and critic for the Food section of the Los Angeles Times. The paper just released its annual 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles list, and we talk about many of the selections. Also on the show, we speak with Jordan Okun and Max Shapiro, the team behind the terrific podcast Air Jordan. Jordan and

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120:52

704: The Year in NYC Restaurants with Alan Sytsma of...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/19

We wanted to close the year by talking about the year in dining in our hometown of New York City. Matt has a great chat with New York magazine food editor Alan Sytsma. We talk about the magazine’s best new restaurants list as well as some long-standing favorites. Next up, Aliza has a wonderful conversation with Mahira Rivers, who covers the city through her Substack, Sweet City, and by reviewing restaurants in the pages of the New York Times. To kick things off, Aliza and Matt share some of their

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59:56

703: Yara Herrera’s Hellbender Can’t Be Ignored

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/17

Yara Herrera is the chef-partner at Hellbender, a Mexican-American restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she honed her skills in the city’s fine dining restaurants like Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and Providence before moving to New York in 2018 to work at Momofuku Ko, Xilonen, and Sobre Masa. Today on the show, we talk about Yara’s culinary journey, running Hellbender, and creating her distinctive approach to Mexican-American cuisine.And before that, Rob Rubba, chef-owner of

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58:00

702: Andrew Zimmern's Secret Restaurant Critic Past

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/15

For over two decades, Andrew Zimmern has starred in some of the most thoughtful and compelling food television being made for TV and online. He’s the longtime host of Bizarre Foods and a number of other food travel shows that defined a generation of programming. He’s also a longtime friend of mine, and it’s crazy that this was his first time appearing on the show. We go in so many great directions with this conversation, including talking about his incredible new seafood cookbook, The Blue Food

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46:18

701: Carla Hall Is the Best Kind of Cookie Snob

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/13

It was so much fun having Carla Hall in the studio. Carla Hall is a chef and TV host who is currently serving as judge on Fox’s Next Level Baker, a show that tests both professional and home bakers on their baking bona fides. In this episode, Carla shares some great baking ideas for the holidays, and she answers the question that some of us have been asking: What is Gordon Ramsay like in real life?And, at the top of the show, it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt talk about what is

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97:41

700: Elbow Bread's Zoë Kanan Makes the Case for the...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/12

Zoë Kanan is the baker-partner of Elbow Bread, a very special Jewish-American bakery in New York’s Lower East Side. She’s produced some of the most important pastries in New York over the past 15 years, from being one of the first-ever interns at Christina Tosi’s Milk Bar to baking bagels at Sadelle’s under Melissa Weller and running the bread and pastry programs for the Freehand Hotel. Today on the show, we talk about what it’s like to have a bakery of her own, developing her own signature

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65:25

699: Exciting News From the Land of Sqirl with...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/10

It was really great to have Jessica Koslow in for a conversation. Jessica is the chef and founder of Sqirl in Los Angeles, a pioneering breakfast and lunch counter that serves inventive rice bowls and jams on toast and that inspired a whole generation of all-day cafés. In this episode, we talk a bit about Jessica’s early career before going into her exceptional jam business and hearing some big news about changes at the restaurant. And before that, we have a fun conversation with Tigist Reda, chef

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72:58

698: Best Cookbooks of the Year with Now Serving and...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/08

What better way to talk about the year in cookbook publishing than by speaking directly with the source: the booksellers. Today on the show we are joined by Matt Sartwell of New York’s Kitchen Arts & Letters and Ken Concepcion of LA’s Now Serving. Matt and Ken tell us about what is selling in their stores and name some of their personal favorite titles from this busy year.Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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51:05

697: Translating Italian Cooking’s Holy Grail

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/05

Book editor Michael Szczerban joins us in the studio to talk about The Talisman of Happiness, a book he worked over a decade to have translated from Italian into English. As we find out, it’s an iconic (and quite unwieldy—1,680 recipes!) text that its author, Ada Boni, originally published in 1929. The book’s influence cannot be overstated, and for first-time readers, it gives insight into the foundational Italian cooking that we still see today. Michael shares how he was introduced to the book by

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37:16

696: Rich Torrisi Doesn't Do Vanilla

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/03

Rich Torrisi is the prolific New York City chef and empire builder behind some of the most buzzed-about restaurants in the United States, including Parm, Sadelle’s, the Pool, Carbone, and his most personal venture,Torrisi. Matt was a fan of Rich’s breakout restaurant, Torrisi Italian Specialties, when it opened at 250 Mulberry Street in 2009. What a restaurant. That mozzarella! In this episode, Rich takes the Resy Questionnaire, and we find out so much about his unique point of view on restaurants,

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74:25

695: Holiday Cookie Boot Camp with Vaughn Vreeland &...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/12/01

Vaughn Vreeland is a cookbook author, NYT Cooking writer, and longtime video personality—or, as he writes, “that guy from that thing I saw once.” His first book, Cookies: The Best Recipes for the Perfect Anytime Treat, was published in collaboration with NYT Cooking and includes 100 amazing cookie recipes from Vaughn along with a deep bench of recipe developers from the New York Times orbit. We had such a fun time talking with Vaughn about how to win your office holiday cookie competition and some

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60:35

694: Inside the New York Magazine Food Beat with...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/11/29

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. In today’s episode, we talk with Chris Crowley. Chris is a senior writer at New York magazine covering food and culture around the five boroughs. We’ve long admired Chris’s work and wanted to have him in the studio to talk about some of his recent reporting. Featured on the episode: Why

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63:13

693: Rome's Real Deal and Cracking Carbonara's Code...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/11/28

There is no food writer we would rather talk to about Italy—and maybe about food in general—than Katie Parla. Katie is the author of several books, and her latest is a return to her hometown of Rome. Rome: A Culinary History, Cookbook, and Field Guide to the Flavors that Built a City captures the history and modern culinary spirit of one of the world’s greatest cities. In this episode, we speak with Katie about her independent book publishing business, the current tourist vibes of Italy, and what

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55:54

692: What Breaking 2 Million on Social Really Feels...

This Is TASTE ·

2025/11/26

Hannah Taylor is the fast-growing culinary creator known on TikTok and Instagram as LilyLouTay. She is the author of the New York Times Best Seller Measure with Your Heart, and she joins us in the studio with a really fun conversation about her Southern cooking roots and her journey from being a working mother of three to a social media megastar. Also on the show, Mina Park and Kwang Uh of Baroo in Los Angeles take the Resy Questionnaire. It’s impossible to overstate the devotion fans have to

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67:29

691: Samin Nosrat Does It Again

This Is TASTE ·

2025/11/24

Samin Nosrat is a chef, teacher, and author of the bestselling, James Beard Award–winning cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and the star of the very popular titular documentary series on Netflix. Now, she’s back with a truly excellent new cookbook: Good Things. Today on the show, we go deep on the journey that led her to Good Things, why recipes are like rituals, and the dishes she makes at home on repeat. And, at the top of the show, it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt talk about

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60:56

690: Eating Along the Many Silk Roads with Anna Ansari

This Is TASTE ·

2025/11/21

Anna Ansari is a former New York international trade and customs attorney and now lives in East London. She's written a fascinating debut cookbook, Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing. It covers Anna's life growing up in an Iranian American family in Michigan and traveling throughout Asia from a young age on what she describes as the many silk roads. And, at the top of the show, it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt talk about what is exciting them in the

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