This Is TASTE

70:43

808: The Man Who Coined Fusion Cuisine and Discovered...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/07/17

We're thrilled to have chef Norman Van Aken on the show. Norman is the founding father of “new world cuisine” and the man who introduced the word “fusion” into the culinary lexicon—at a 1989 symposium in Santa Fe, decades before it became widely used and sometimes critiqued. A former carnival worker and tar roofer who never went to culinary school, Van Aken built his vision in Key West and Miami, gave Charlie Trotter his first kitchen job, and has spent 40-plus years arguing that Florida deserves a

en

53:22

807: Caroline Chambers on Hallmark Bakeries, Ramen...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/07/15

Caroline Chambers built the number-one food and drink newsletter on Substack, What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking, on one radical premise: most of us don’t want to cook, and that’s fine. Her debut cookbook became an instant New York Times bestseller. Her follow-up, Make It Fast, was written with the help of reader feedback and organized around a new concept: the “walk away” recipe. It’s like millennial “set it and forget it,” if you will. In this episode, Caroline talks about the

en

58:57

806: Lydia Pang Argues “Stinky” Is a Great Thing

This Is TASTE ·

2026/07/13

Lydia 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

en

38:03

805: Real Talk About Drinks Writing and Trend-Chasing...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/07/11

Chloe 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

en

64:55

804: Toby Maloney Made Half a Million Cocktails. Emma...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/07/10

Bartender 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

en

53:05

803: Netflix's Culinary Monster Finally Gets His Own...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/07/08

Hasung 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

en

61:55

802: 200 Million People Watch Vikas Khanna Talk About...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/07/06

Vikas 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

en

48:58

801: We Went to the Summer Fancy Food Show. We Have...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/07/03

The 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

en

64:40

800: How Long Gone’s Jason Stewart on Erewhon Losing...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/07/01

Jason 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

en

51:41

799: The Dream of the $50 Dinner in New York Is Alive...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/29

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. 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

en

45:55

798: French Training, Japanese Soul: Tadashi Ono's...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/27

Tadashi 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

en

61:41

797: Rita Gigante Grew Up the Godfather’s Daughter....

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/26

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

en

44:51

796: Founder in the Field with Fishwife’s Becca...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/24

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:

en

32:50

795: Toshi Kizaki's Retirement Project Won Him a...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/22

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,

en

68:09

794: She Wolf Bakes Thousands of Sourdough Loaves...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/19

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

en

65:36

793: The Best Cookbooks of the Year So Far. Plus, a...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/17

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

en

53:56

792: Vibe Coding Your Restaurant Recs Map Is the...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/15

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

en

70:19

791: Solid Wiggles Doesn't Call It a Jell-O Shot

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/13

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

en

95:25

790: Brendan Chareoncharutkun Built Uncle’s Thai...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/12

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

en

64:05

789: Mythical Kitchen's Josh Scherer Is Food Media's...

This Is TASTE ·

2026/06/10

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

en

All Episodes

Similar Podcasts

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Eliana Benavides

The Moth

The Moth

About Art

Heidi Zuckerman

Stage Whisper

Andrew Cortes and Hope Bird

Podcast Patapoe

0d0a