This Is TASTE

This Is TASTE

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

Episodes

October 1, 2025 59 mins
Today we have a really great episode where we go behind the scenes with two incredible chefs, Sara Kramer and Sarah Thompson. Sara Kramer is co-chef and co-owner of Kismet in Los Angeles, a restaurant that blends Mediterranean and Californian sensibilities flawlessly. Kismet has been a go-to for LA diners for nearly a decade, and we talk about the restaurant’s Resy Standby status.  Sarah Thompson is the chef at Casa Playa in Las V...
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David Lebovitz is a cookbook author and pastry chef based in Paris. After spending 13 years in the pastry kitchen at the legendary Chez Panisse, he embarked on a prolific blogging and cookbook writing career. His latest is an all-new edition of the classic Ready for Dessert, a revised and expanded collection. It’s so fun to talk with David about life and pastries in Paris and about updating this classic book. And before that Matt,...
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Ruby Tandoh is a writer and baker based in London. A finalist on season four of The Great British Bake Off, she’s written several smart and singular books, including the fantastic new book All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now. It’s an incredible exploration of taste as a social construct that traces the historic and cultural context behind contemporary food culture. Today on the show, we go deep on Ruby’s research and repor...
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Fardad Khayami, the chef-owner of Muse in Santa Monica, has a really great story. Raised in London, and a restaurant fan basically from birth, Fardad attended University of Southern California and started hosting his own pop-up dinners, first for friends and then for ticket holders. The waiting list reached over 6,000 names, and he eventually channeled that love for hospitality into his own restaurant—all before the age of 25. Muse...
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September 22, 2025 87 mins
Jake Cohen returns to the studio for a really fun conversation. Jake’s a talented cookbook author who is most certainly in the modern social media mix. His new book, Dinner Party Animal, is honestly a joy to read. It offers complete party plans with recipes in the Jake Cohen style—smart, a little sweaty, and with fun and creativity at the center. We talk about what makes a great party and how to think creatively while in the heat o...
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Today is a really special episode for Matt in that we dive into two of his great loves: food and fiction. In this episode, he catches up with two authors and journalists he has deep respect for: Ed Park and Jason Diamond. Ed is the author of the terrific new short story collection An Oral History of Atlantis and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. We talk about the 1990s and Ed’s past life working at the Village Voice. Food is at th...
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Bettina Makalintal is a senior reporter at Eater and helps lead the publication’s cookbook coverage. Today Eater released a list of its favorites from the busy season, and we talk all about it, as well as some trends Bettina is seeing in book publishing. I always look forward to Eater’s robust and well-considered lists of books each season, and this one is no different. Bettina fills us in, and I hope you enjoy our talk. And, at t...
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Today on the show, we have a great conversation with Aaron Crowder. Aaron is the chef-partner at two of New York’s buzziest restaurants, Cervos and Eel Bar. In fact, these restaurants are often mentioned on this show’s TASTE check segments. I had a wonderful talk with Aaron about his Florida upbringing and what he is excited to cook this fall. At the top of the show, Gilberto Cetina, chef at the iconic restaurant Holbox in Los Ang...
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Melissa King is a chef, entrepreneur, television personality, activist, model, tastemaker, and author of the incredible new cookbook Cook Like a King. She is the winner of Bravo’s Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. and holds more challenge wins than any other competitor in the history of Top Chef. As mentioned previously on the show, I love Cook Like a King. It really speaks to me, and Melissa shares about what inspired the recipes as well a...
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Today on the show, we have a great conversation with Joseph Hernandez. He’s the associate director of drinks & lifestyle at Bon Appétit and Epicurious, and we talk about BA’s best new restaurants of 2025 list that drops today. It’s a terrific list that covers the United States with ambition and great taste, including stops in Pittsburgh, Honolulu, Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Who made the list? We go over all of it. Also on th...
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Evan Funke is a Los Angeles chef and roller of pastas, starring on Netflix and in the dining rooms of Felix Trattoria, Mother Wolf, Funke, and other restaurants in his expanding empire. It was such a pleasure sitting down with Evan in Los Angeles to talk about his wild ride of a career, the good word on the restaurant Funke in Beverly Hills, and how he collaborates closely with his staff to make sure the pasta is always right.  We ...
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September 8, 2025 62 mins
You may know cookbook author and culinary personality Dan Pelosi as GrossyPelosi, a self-proclaimed “Italian meatball making meatballs.” Dan’s approachable recipes and warm personality, and his debut book, Let’s Eat, have won him lots of fans online and off, and his second cookbook, Let’s Party, delivers more comfort—and lots of smart entertaining tips. It’s so fun to have Dan on the show to talk about building a brand that still f...
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Dan Frommer is the founder and editor in chief of The New Consumer, an influential publication that covers the intersection of technology and consumer brands—and many of these brands live in the food world. We wanted to have Dan back on the show to talk about his new trends report. As Dan writes: “Between tariffs, geopolitics, DOGE, egg prices, measles, fires, floods, and more, the US consumer has had a chaotic start to the year.” ...
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Alexis deBoschnek is a cookbook author, recipe developer, and writer based in the Catskills in upstate New York. Her latest book, Nights and Weekends, is extremely cool, and we talk about how she brings her deep recipe writing chops to help people cook better and faster. We also discuss her upstate life and some of the memorable recipes from the book. Also on the show, Aliza talks with Miyoko Schinner, the trailblazing plant-based...
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Drew Nieporent is the guy behind legendary New York City restaurants Montrachet, Tribeca Grill, Nobu, and nearly 40 more, and he joins me in the studio today for an amazing conversation. He’s written a memoir, I’m Not Trying to Be Difficult: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches, and it’s one of Matt's favorite restaurant books in recent years. In our conversation, we cover a lot of ground: opening in Tribeca in the early ’80s, coll...
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What does it take to build a buzzy food brand in 2025—a brand gushed about online, used by legit chefs around the country, and found on the shelves of Erewhon? It’s a tough question, but Zab’s Datil Pepper Hot Sauce cofounder Miles Soboroff is pretty qualified to answer it. In this great conversation, Miles shares how he discovered the datil pepper by near accident and how he think about growing his amazing company. Matt is a major...
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Sally McKenney is the creator of the wildly popular website Sally’s Baking Addiction. She is known for providing clear, concise instructions, tips, and tutorials to make every recipe approachable for home bakers of all skill levels. In this episode, we talk about her great new cookbook, Sally's Baking 101, and what she is excited to bake this fall. And, at the top of the show, it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt ...
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Khushbu Shah is one of our favorite writers online, and she’s the voice behind the great Substack Tap Is Fine. She’s the former restaurant editor at Food & Wine, and we go over so many topics bubbling over in the world of food, media, recipes, restaurants, and her hometown of Los Angeles, where we recorded this interview. We could speak with Khushbu for hours, and we actually do that when we hang out offline. But here’s our on-the-...
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August 25, 2025 45 mins
Cake Zine is an independent literary food magazine cofounded by pastry chef Tanya Bush and TASTE contributing editor Aliza Abarbanel. The newest issue, Forbidden Fruit, explores how fruit fuels temptation, transgression, and fantasy. Today on the show, Aliza invites Tanya into the studio to talk about the editorial process behind this seventh issue and fruit’s many cultural meanings. Pre-order the new issue of Cake Zine: Forbidden...
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It was so fun having Jeff Gordinier in the studio. Jeff is a journalist, an author, and one of the more prolific writers in the food world. He’s currently Esquire’s food and drinks editor, leading their restaurants and bars coverage. Before that he was a reporter at the New York Times and held various roles at Entertainment Weekly. In this episode we have a great conversation about his work, the current dining scene, and his award-...
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