
Advertise on podcast: This Is TASTE
Rating
4.5from
This podcast has
756 episodes
Language
EnglishPublisher
Aliza Abarbanel & Matt RodbardExplicit
No
Date created
2018/06/02
Latest episode
2026/10/21
Average duration
54 min.
Release period
3 days
Description
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
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Podcast episodes
Check latest episodes from This Is TASTE podcast
856: What Does the Future Hold for California Wine?
2026/10/21
Today on the show, Resy managing editor Jon Bonné and Matt have an incredible roundtable conversation with three California wineries that changed California wine forever: Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts of Arnot-Roberts, Matt Licklider of Lioco Wine Co., and Steve and Jill Klein Matthiasson of Matthiasson Wines. Twenty years ago, they were the insurgents. Now they’re the establishment, as the industry encounters new drinkers and rapid change. In this episode, we talk about the big topics in California wine today. We figured it all out over the course of an hour! Just kidding, but this is a must-listen for anybody interested in the future of wine.
The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not Resy—and do not constitute professional business advice.
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855: Ayesha Nurdjaja on the Line: Burns, Swollen Knuckles, and Stolen Kunz Spoons
2026/10/19
Ayesha Nurdjaja grew up in Gravesend, Brooklyn, with an Indonesian father, an Italian mother, and a grandmother who walked her to Sahadi’s on Atlantic Avenue. After years in Italian kitchens like Felidia, she talked her bosses into a Middle Eastern New Year’s Eve menu that became the wildly popular Shuka and later Shukette. We discuss her debut cookbook, Mediterranean All the Way, a legendary onion dip, and her collection of stolen spoons.
Also on the show Matt has a great conversation with Zola Gregory. Zola is a TASTE columnist and worked on The Pasta Box, a just-released recipe deck from TASTE featuring 50 pasta recipes that transform any dry pasta into tomato-y, cheesy, and creamy dishes. The recipes are so good.
Buy: The Pasta Box
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854: Adam Weisblatt Wrote the Restaurant Industry’s Realest Owner’s Manual
2026/10/17
Adam Weisblatt has opened seven restaurants with Last Word Hospitality, the LA group behind Hermon’s, Barra Santos, and Rasarumah. His terrific new book, For the Love of Restaurants, colorfully traces the arc of building a restaurant—from location scouting, lease negotiations, financing, hiring, and opening night—through the story of the group’s first and smallest restaurant, Found Oyster. Adam joins the show to talk about why he wrote the industry playbook he wishes someone had handed him, and why sharing hard-earned knowledge is good for operators and restaurant fans alike.
Also on the show, Matt talks about some recent restaurant visits in Los Angeles, including stops at Rustic Canyon, Mírate, Soban, and Little Fish.
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853: Rachel Gurjar Thinks Mumbai and NYC Should Be Sister Cities
2026/10/16
Rachel Gurjar is a Mumbai-born, Brooklyn-based chef and recipe developer whose recipes have appeared in Bon Appétit and the New York Times. Her new debut cookbook, East to East: Recipes and Stories From Mumbai to New York, showcases her love for the two cities that shaped her through more than 100 innovative dishes that combine Indian staples with some New York flair. Today on the show, Rachel goes deep on her story, the importance of recipe testing, and how she brought this singular book to life.
Also on the show Matt has a really great conversation with Kyle Beechey. Kyle is a writer, actor, and playwright, and is staging her first show - “The Restaurant Diaries” - in a downtown New York City restaurant. The show runs October 18 - November 9. Get your tickets while they are available.
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852: Washington Post Food Critic Elazar Sontag on His First Big Best Restaurants List
2026/10/14
Elazar Sontag published a cookbook at 18, ran Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurants list in his mid-twenties, and (last fall) succeeded Tom Sietsema as the Washington Post’s food critic—with no disguise required. He joins us to talk all about his inaugural best restaurants list, which is firmly an Elazar list and likely causing some debate in and around DC. We also talk about bringing back star ratings, his many travels to Virginia and Maryland, and much more with one of my favorite voices in modern food writing. It was a real treat to have Elazar in the studio.
Read: The 40 Best Restaurants In and Around Washington D.C.
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851: Eric Sze’s Cookbook Puts a Question Mark on Taiwanese Food on Purpose
2026/10/12
Eric Sze first joined the show amid research for his debut cookbook, Taiwanese?. The book will be released later this month, and I speak with the Wenwen chef about his deep research around lu rou fan, what “authentically inauthentic” really means on the page versus the plate, and how his sparkling book brings fresh perspective to both Taiwanese food and culture.
Also on the show, Matt shares some of his recent restaurant visits in northern California, including stops at Valley, El Molino Central, and Flour + Water Pizzeria.
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850: Clarissa Wei Sells Excellent Soy Sauce and Demystifies Ancient Postpartum Cooking Practices
2026/10/09
Clarissa Wei is a writer and cofounder of HEYDOH, a single-origin Taiwanese soy sauce brand. Her debut cookbook, Made in Taiwan, was a cultural exploration of the island she calls home. Now she’s following it up with Sitting the Month, a study of postpartum cooking and care informed by Chinese medicine and her own experiences with zuò yuè zi. Clarissa stopped by the studio to go deep on this fascinating ancient practice and its contemporary evolutions as well as to share updates from her life as a single-origin soy sauce founder.
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848: Kendal Mitchell Turns Eggshells Into Servingware: A Design Intervention for Food Waste
2026/10/05
Kendal Mitchell is a chef and biomaterials designer based in Brooklyn. Her Instagram series Bringing Food Waste Back to the Table turns often-wasted ingredients like eggshells and oyster shells into stunning tableware, and she’s constantly exploring new ways to create circularity with organic materials. Today on the show, she talks about training in sushi, her design work with groups like Ghetto Gastro, and the infinite potential within food waste.
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847: Korean Soup University with Clara Lee and Eddo Kim of Queens
2026/10/03
Clara Lee and Eddo Kim are the co-founders of Queens, the San Francisco Korean American food company that started as a delivery-only deli in 2018, became a beloved Inner Sunset superette, and now makes gochujang, doenjang, and gochugaru from Northern California–grown ingredients. Their debut cookbook is Korean Soups: Recipes for Soups and Stews That Nourish, Restore, and Delight, and we absolutely love it. Today on the show, Clara and Eddo join Matt to talk guk versus tang and what closing a storefront taught them about building a brand.
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846: The Birth of 'Hot Ones' and a Garage Full of Dead Restaurant Shirts with Justin Bolois
2026/10/02
Justin Bolois has spent over a decade helping build the iconic First We Feast media company—from features editor to VP of programming and development, shepherding popular shows like The Burger Show, Tacos Con Todo, and Hot Ones within the media empire. Off the clock, he’s chasing something equally cool: vintage restaurant staff shirts, forgotten diner ephemera, and the last physical traces of beloved restaurants that no longer exist. That’s Restaurant Relics, a side project we absolutely love that’s part museum and part store. Justin joins Matt to talk about everything from his work on Hot Ones to the virtues of a well-worn JG Melon tee.
Check out: Hot Ones Game Night.
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845: Kenta Goto’s Bartender’s Guide Is a Must-Read for Professionals and Amateurs Alike
2026/09/30
Kenta Goto is a bartender and the owner and operator of two acclaimed cocktail bars: Bar Goto on the Lower East Side and Bar Goto Niban in Brooklyn. Born and raised in Tokyo, Goto moved to New York and worked at the lauded cocktail bar Pegu Club for seven years before opening his own bar. Now he’s sharing his considerable wisdom in a debut cookbook: The Goto Bartender’s Guide. Today on the show, we chat about developing his cocktail skills and his signature approach toward drinks and how home bartenders can do the same.
Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, YouTube
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841: Carla Hall Doesn’t Need a Holiday to Bake Something Special
2026/09/21
Everybody loves Carla Hall. Carla Hall is a chef and TV host who has appeared on many of our favorite food programs over the years, from Bravo’s Top Chef to Fox’s Next Level Baker. Her latest cookbook is also her first baking book—Carla Bakes: Sweet, Savory, and From the Heart. Today on the show, Carla stops by the studio to chat about all things baking, and what makes this book so special.
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840: Mohamed Attia Sold Street Smoothies in Times Square. Now He Shapes Vending Policy.
2026/09/19
Mohamed Attia spent nearly a decade running a food cart in Times Square before he became the person fighting to change the law that made carts like his semilegal in the first place. As managing director of the Street Vendor Project, Attia helped lead the campaign that, this past January, finally broke a New York City vending permit cap that had been frozen since 1979. He talks with Matt about his own path from vendor to advocate, and we go over so many great carts to visit in New York City.
The fifth annual Street Heroes gala takes place on Tuesday, October 6 at MoMA PS1. Get your tickets here.
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839: Olivia Tiedemann on the Perks of Private Cheffing and Making Crab Cakes for Martha Stewart
2026/09/18
Olivia Tiedemann is a chef who began creating videos while working as a private chef in the Hamptons. Her signature deadpan delivery and no-nonsense techniques have won her millions of fans. Now she’s sharing her highly craveable recipes in a debut cookbook: Eat (Like) the Rich. Today on the show, Olivia talks about why everyone is fascinated by private chefs, making crab cakes for Martha Stewart, and more.
And it’s the return of Three Things, where Aliza and Matt discuss what’s interesting to them in the world of food including Matt visits Philadelphia with stops at Middle Child Clubhouse, the Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park, Supérette, and the newly opened Manna Bakery. Aliza stops by Cafe Kestrel and Sake Bar Asoko in NYC, and has high praise for the new Apollo Bagels bagel chips.
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838: How Apollo Bagels Took Over NYC… and Tokyo with Joey Scalabrino
2026/09/16
Joey Scalabrino is the cofounder of Apollo Bagels, a new-school bagel shop rooted in old-world techniques with nine locations across New York City and Jersey. He started making bagels in the kitchen at Leo, the Williamsburg sourdough pizza restaurant, and built Apollo through thoughtful pop-ups, design, and collabs. Today on the show, we chat about building up Apollo Bagels, its recent mega-popular pop-up with Dean & DeLuca in Tokyo, and its brand-new bagel chips.
Also on the show Aliza and Matt preview some exciting cookbooks from the busy fall season, including:
The Kitchen I Came Home To Nixta Taqueria Presents: From Tacos to Tahdig Radicchio: A Celebration of the Beloved Italian Vegetable Fundamentals of Flavor Korean Soups East to East: Recipes and Stories from Mumbai to New York The Little Green Book of Chartreuse The Little Book of Olives Today We Are Cooking . . .Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, YouTube
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Podcast reviews
Read This Is TASTE podcast reviews
Rach4477 2026/10/18
New listener 😁
I’m new to TASTE and enjoying the show a great deal. Great hosts. Keep it up.
Jsb237$ 2026/08/25
Gaza & Adeena Sussman
The fact that Gaza was not mentioned when talking about Isreal is pathetic. A bunch of cowards. Especially Matt, the biggest coward.
Qui231 2026/06/01
Whole Foods bribed you
Listened to the Spain feature which was way over the top publicity for Whole Foods. The enthusiastic , gee whiz promotion of Whole Food was astounding...
Here for the Podcasts 2026/05/17
Adeena Sussman is chef’s kiss!
Everything from her cookbooks is DELICIOUS- so nice to hear her voice!
Natatatatatatatashaa 2026/05/16
Love!
Love your content and guests, especially Adeena my goddess of Jewish and Israeli cooking! Her golden challah recipe has become my default for challah ...
Agatha.K 2026/05/15
The Definitive Podcast on All Things Taste
I’ve been listening to this pod since its early days. Matt is such an incredible host, bringing humor, years of experience in food media, and respect ...
Cucjfydicudyd 2026/05/15
Love this podcast
Always entertaining!
2BBMama 2026/05/15
Love this podcast!!
I cannot get enough of this podcast! I especially loved the episode with Adeena Sussman! Keep up the good work!!
2dogsmom 2026/05/15
Really enjoy this podcast!
I enjoy listening to this podcast, it really makes me feel like I’m there with the guests and having a conversation! Great food recommendations too!
MelissaNY03 2026/05/15
Exceptional!
Love being able to dig into food, and hear this podcast and discover different perspectives.
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