This Is TASTE

Pat LaFrieda is one of the world’s most celebrated butchers and sells ground beef, strip steaks, and rib eyes to more than a thousand New York City restaurants alone. On this episode we talk about the birth of the boutique burger blend, tracing its lineage back to Minetta Tavern, and dig deep into the meat business. We also discuss Pat’s own personal favorite way to cook a steak, roast a chicken, and dress a hamburger, with a couple of very specific choices. It was really fun getting to know the one and only Pat LaFrieda, and we hope you enjoy this conversation.Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you.   MORE FROM PAT LAFRIEDA: Pat LaFrieda on Expanding His Meat Empire [CBS Saturday Morning] How Pat LaFrieda Produces $270 million of Meat Per Year [Insider] Budget Grilling Ideas [Rachael Ray] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel is the chef and co-owner of Birdie’s, an Austin, Texas, restaurant that is innovative and exciting, and by far one of our favorite meals of the year. On this episode, we speak with Tracy about her journey from cooking at Lula Cafe in Chicago to working the line at some of New York’s most acclaimed places—Del Posto, Blue Hill, and Gramercy Tavern—and how she met her partner in life and business, Arjav. We talk about what excites her about restaurants and dig into some of Birdie’s most popular dishes. Also, stick around for Matt’s thoughts on a recent trip to Austin, Texas—featuring some of the restaurants and trucks that got him most excited, including Joe’s Bakery & Coffee Shop, Distant Relatives, Franklin Barbecue, Cuantos Tacos, Birdie’s, Canje, and Nido. The TASTE Texas Tour was supported by our friends at Travel Texas. Stay tuned for dispatches from Houston and San Antonio. MORE FROM TRACY MALECHEK-EZEKIEL:    Food & Wine Restaurant of the Year: Birdie's [Food & Wine] Food & Wine names East Austin spot Restaurant of the Year [Austin American-Statesman]  Inside Birdie’s Journey [Tribeza] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here are three classic conversations from This Is TASTE with three key members of the New York Times food desk. Melissa Clark is a prolific cookbook author, longtime NYT columnist, and one of the most respected food writers in the game. In this interview, we talk about her days collaborating with great chefs including Daniel Boulud, David Bouley, and Claudia Fleming, as well as her action-packed cookbook career. Genevieve Ko is a deputy editor of New York Times Cooking and the Food section, as well as a prolific cookbook author and collaborator. Here we have such a great time catching up about all things cookbooks, food media, and what it’s like to help run one of the best, and most popular, sections at the NYT.  Lastly we sit down with Emily Weinstein, the food and cooking editor of the New York Times. We’ve been a great admirer of her and her colleagues’ work at NYT Cooking, and we took the opportunity to talk about what makes a great story as well as some of the cooking trends Weinstein is most interested in covering. We also discuss Weinstein’s long journey working at the paper, starting as a dining listings fact-checker and rising to various editorial roles, eventually taking the top spot.Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clare de Boer is the chef-owner of Stissing House, a restaurant located in New York’s Hudson Valley and one we like very, very much. Clare is also the chef-owner of two New York City restaurants, King and Jupiter. On this episode, we speak with Clare about her time cooking at the River Cafe in London and her journey to America to open some of the country’s best restaurants. We also talk about her writing career, a forthcoming King cookbook, and some of the restaurants she is excited about right now.Also on the show, Matt catches up with Brad Metzger, a Los Angeles–based restaurant recruiter and the creative force behind the LA Chef Conference, a gathering of chefs and food media members taking place October 30. We talk about the role of recruiting in the restaurant industry and hear about Brad’s journey to launch the conference. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you.    MORE FROM CLARE DE BOER: Hello From My Island [Substack] A Manhattan Chef Heads Upstate. A Country Tavern Follows. [NYT] LA Chefs Conference [official] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Symon is the star of Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out and the author of a great new cookbook, Simply Symon Suppers, as well as a longtime TV host, Iron Chef, and food commentator. But we know Michael best as a really, really great chef who’s run well-regarded restaurants in New York City and Cleveland, where he was born. On this action-packed episode, we talk about Symon’s Greek and Sicilian background and how he hosts raucous dinner parties in all seasons. We discuss his star turn and what celebrity chefdom has meant for this true Midwesterner. It’s a great talk, and we hope you enjoy it.Also on the show, we have a great conversation with The Bear's set decorator, Eric Frankel. Eric, along with his team, is responsible for creating the kitchen and restaurant spaces on the hit show, and we find out how building the set was very similar to opening a real restaurant (with real fire and flame). We also learn about how he selected the many cookbooks featured on the show.Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you.   MORE FROM MICHAEL SYMON AND THE BEAR: 2 Easy Recipes For Fall [Good Morning America] Michael Symon’s Deviled Eggs [Food Network] Here’s the Complete List of Every Cookbook Featured on ‘The Bear’ [Eater] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason Hammel is the executive chef and owner of award-winning Lula Cafe in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. Jason grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, and is the product of a tight-knit Italian family. He studied writing at Brown University and then traveled in Italy, where an accidental stay in an apartment above a produce market left a lasting impression and presaged his career as a chef. In this episode we hear about the 24-year run of Lula Cafe, and about how Jason’s instinct to write blends with his culinary background. We also talk about his debut cookbook, The Lula Cafe Cookbook.Also on the show, Aliza and Matt talk about three things they are feeling, including a memorable Table of Contents event in Brooklyn, speaking at the Chow Chow Festival in Asheville, NC, the nostalgia of Save Me the Plums, Helen Rosner is on a roll at The New Yorker, Birdie’s pasta extruder in the dining room is a baller move.Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you.         MORE FROM JASON HAMMEL: Jason Hammel’s Dear Chicago [Star Chefs] Still Setting the Standard in Logan Square [Chicago Tribune] Konbi Has a Secret Croissant Machine [TASTE] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer, podcaster, and cookbook collaborator Andrew Friedman has a unique vantage point in talking about chefs and food writing as a profession. He’s worked with some of the most interesting voices in the restaurant world (going back a decade and longer), including Daniel Boulud, Alfred Portale, Michelle Bernstein, Bill Telepan, and David Waltuck. In this episode we talk to Andrew about his most recent work, The Dish: The Lives and Labor Behind One Plate of Food, a page-turning, behind-the-scenes look at what makes a single restaurant dish. We discuss the book’s unique reporting process and how Andrew views his work in the larger context of food media. We also get some restaurant picks—and pay tribute to one of the industry’s most influential and frankly forgotten players. Also on the show, Aliza shares some highlights from her recent trip to Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles. Stay for a report from the LA bagel wars, a camping beer hack, and what is exciting her on the the west coast.Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you.MORE FROM ANDREW FRIEDMAN: Andrew Talks to Chefs [official] Who Let the Cool Chefs Write Cookbooks? [TASTE] The Secret Lives of Private Chefs [TASTE] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sue S. Chan is an expert marketer, brand builder, and all-around busy bee on the global food scene. She was Momofuku’s first brand director, and in this episode we go back to her time helping to build the David Chang empire (and figuring out how to tell DC what to do). She later founded her own agency, Care of Chan, which has become a go-to for major fashion and retail brands looking to engage with the food world. Her current clients include A24, NYT Cooking, Gucci Osteria, Nike, J.Crew, and Hermam Miler. This conversation is fast and furious, but we always pause when Sue has a restaurant to talk about. We so enjoyed catching up with a real food-world one of one, and we hope you enjoy it too.Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you.MORE FROM SUE CHAN: The Food-World Entrepreneur Who Loves Clear Heels [The Cut] Mermaid Spa Brooklyn [CoC] Breaking Down with Sue Chan [Busyboy] FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW: instagram.com/sueperchan instagram.com/mattrodbard instagram.com/taste Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What a thrill it is to have our friend Adeena Sussman back on the show. Adeena is the author of numerous cookbooks, having cowritten three with Chrissy Teigen, and the voice behind the best-selling Israeli food tome Sababa. Sussman is back with a great new book, Shabbat, and in this episode we talk about the multitudes of Jewish food around the world. We discuss what is so exciting about food in her home base of Tel Aviv and also go over some of the comforting and innovative new recipes in Shabbat. MORE FROM ADEENA SUSSMAN: Embracing My Whole Self, Through Food [Tablet] The Perfect Shabbat Dinner Meets You Where You Are [Conde Nast Traveler] Adeena Sussman’s new cookbook includes Shabbat recipes from around the world [NPR] Mike and Adeena’s Excellent Israeli Culinary Adventure [Via Sabra] FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW: instagram.com/adeenasussman instagram.com/mattrodbard instagram.com/taste Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ellen Yin is the founder and co-owner of Philadelphia’s High Street Hospitality Group. She’s behind some of the best restaurants in not just Philly but the entire country, including Fork, High Street on Market, and High Street Provisions. On this episode we speak with Ellen about her journey to hospitality, what’s special about the Philly restaurant scene, and what it was like to win a James Beard Award for America’s top restaurateur. We also talk about the incredible cookbook festival she's organized, Cookbooks and Convos, which runs from late September through late October. It’s so great catching up with Ellen, and we hope you enjoy this conversation.Also on the show, Aliza catches up with Andrew Tarlow, the author of a new book, Diner: Day for Night, which pays tribute to his legendary Brooklyn restaurant. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you.More From Ellen Yin: Ellen Yin Talks Pineapple Pizza and 25 Years of Fork [Philadelphia Mag] Philly Chef Wins Big at the James Beard Awards [Billy Penn] Cookbooks and Convos [Philadelphia Inquirer] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices