This Is TASTE

Kelly Mencin is the pastry chef and co-owner of Radio Bakery, a cult-followed destination for filled croissants and focaccia sandwiches with two locations in Brooklyn. Radio’s offerings—and its lines—are legendary, and today on the show Kelly talks about opening Rolo’s, transitioning to Radio, and their continued efforts to try and meet demand.Get your tickets to our live event on July 23 at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Featuring conversations with Padma Lakshmi, Hailee Catalano & Chuck Cruz, and a live taping of Bon Appétit Bake Club with Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic. Ticket sales benefit One Love Community Fridge.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

Noor Murad is a Bahrain-born, New York–trained, London-based chef and the author of the wonderful new cookbook Lugma. You may know her recipes from her time running the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen and contributing to the books Falastin, Shelf Love, and Extra Good Things. Now it’s time to get to know Noor herself through this delicious collection of traditional and re-imagined dishes from Bahrain and beyond.Also on the show we catch up with Brian Voll, the creative force behind the innovative cookbook series Menus By Brian.Get your tickets to our live event on July 23 at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Featuring conversations with Padma Lakshmi, Hailee Catalano & Chuck Cruz, and a live taping of Bon Appétit Bake Club with Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic. Ticket sales benefit One Love Community Fridge. 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

It was so much fun having Chris Morocco in the studio for a wide-ranging conversation about cooking, media, and his nearly two decades working at Condé Nast. Chris is the food director of Bon Appétit and Epicurious, overseeing the test kitchen team and the recipes they develop. In this episode, we go back to Chris’s early career working at Vogue before landing an assistant job in the BA Test Kitchen. We go over how he currently leads the team and how they think about seasonality, taste, and getting people to cook more in this rapidly changing world. We’re big fans of Chris’s work, and it was exciting speaking with him.We're hosting a really cool live podcast event in Brooklyn on July 23, featuring Padma Lakshmi, Hailee Catalano & Chuck Cruz, and a live taping of Bon Appétit Bake Club with Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic, visit the Bell House website.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

Dan Giusti is the founder and CEO of Brigaid, an organization bringing restaurant chefs to school cafeterias and senior centers. Formerly the head chef at Noma, he’s now dedicated to providing delicious and healthy meals to 40 institutions across the country. This year alone, Brigaid expects to serve over a million meals. It’s so special to have Dan in the studio to talk about growing up on Italian American classics, pivoting from Noma to Brigaid, and how all the work happens.Also on the show we have a terrific conversation with Adrian Miller. He’s the author of a groundbreaking new book: Cooking to the President’s Taste: Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History. We talk about how lesser-known Asian chefs have helped shape the food in the White House, and possibly policy.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

Today’s episode is really special: an eating and drinking survey of the wonderful city of Portland, Oregon. Matt visited recently and shares all his dining experiences, which span regional Thai, tasting menus, incredible pour-over coffee, and some ’90s nostalgia. He also catches up with two legendary Portland chefs who share why their city is one of the nation’s best.First up is Gabriel Rucker. He is the chef-owner of Le Pigeon and Canard and the winner of two James Beard Awards. He’s also a cookbook author and a runner and has some nice skills on the links. We talk all about Le Pigeon’s evolution over its nearly two decades in Portland.Next we speak with Earl Ninsom. He’s the chef behind some of the city’s top Thai restaurants, including Eem, Hat Yai, Yaowarat, and Langbaan, which was the winner of the 2024 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant. We talk about his early life in Portland and how tapping into specific Thai dishes, served with flair and ambition around the city, has brought him great success.Save our Google Map of all the places mentioned in the episode. This episode was supported by Travel Portland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rebecca Firkser is a writer, recipe developer, and food stylist based in Brooklyn. Her debut cookbook, Galette!, celebrates the highly riffable, always buttery pleasures of free-form tarts. In this episode, Rebecca and Aliza go deep on developing foolproof pastry recipes for nervous bakers like me, making a debut cookbook after years of working on others, and more. Also on the show, Matt catches up with Mitchell Davis to talk about the Great Nosh, a Jewish food and culture festival taking place on June 22 in New York City. They talk about the incredible lineup of chef collaborations, including Thai Diner x Katz’s Deli, Caroline Schiff x Junior’s Cheesecake, JP Park of Atoboy x Apollo Bagels, and Zahav x Ed Szymanski of Dame.While The Great Nosh is sold out, the festival has opened up additional tickets for the 2pm entry. Use the code TASTE to access the tickets at: thegreatnosh.comDo 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

We’ve been covering the nonalcoholic beer scene at TASTE for a minute, and it was a lot of fun having one of the most exciting names in the industry, Tate Huffard, in the studio. Tate is the founder of Best Day Brewing, which makes one of our favorite NA beers available today. Tate shares the story of the company, and how he’s bringing NA versions of Kolsch and IPAs to the masses. We also zoom out and talk about the future of NA drinking and how craft beer drinkers are embracing cans and bottles and kegs of beer. If you were ever interested in how nonalcoholic beer is made and why you are starting to see more of it around, this is the episode for you.Also on the show, we have a great conversation with Rob Jensen. He’s the co-founder of Chicago-based Visitor and we learn about the company’s unique approach with NA beer. Think: Less is more. So much more.   Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. Read more: It’s Cool to Care About NA Beer [TASTE] The 9 Best Non-Alcoholic Beers to Stock Right Now [Seven Fifty Daily] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the return of a special video podcast series: Food Writers Talking About Food Writing. It’s available on the TASTE YouTube channel, so make sure to subscribe and check out the video version of this podcast. 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.On today’s episode, we have an amazing conversation with Tammie Teclemariam. Tammie writes as the Underground Gourmet at New York magazine and combs the city for the most exciting new and historical restaurants. We cover so many topics in this episode, including New York City’s frozen yogurt boom, international chain restaurants, and whether Gen Z is really opposed to keeping a bar tab going. We also talk about the recent New York Times 100 Best Restaurants list as well as what Tammie is enjoying in the NYC food scene.Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. Featured on the episode: 7 New York City Slices in 5 Hours [Food Time with Matt Rodbard] This City Is Ready for Some Fro-Yo [New York Magazine] Gen Z Doesn’t Want to Start a Bar Tab [NYT]  A Chain Opening That’s Worth Getting Excited About [New York Magazine]  100 Best Restaurants in New York City [NYT] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Woldy Reyes is a New York–based chef and founder of the boutique catering company Woldy Kusina. He’s become known for creating modern, fashionable, plant-based food, and now he’s sharing it in a debut cookbook: In the Kusina: My Seasonal Filipino Cooking. Today Woldy talks about the inspiration behind In the Kusina, his Filipino pantry essentials, karaoke, and more.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 world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: The Meadow in Portland is our perfect store, a visit to Brooklyn’s Taquería El Chato, Mush peanut butter and an overnight oats conversation. Also: Exceptional Thai tea at Nuar in Manhattan, In for Dinner by Rosie Kellett is out in August and giving 1990s Jamie Oliver, and Coqodaq knows what people want in NYC.   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

Today we have a very fun episode highlighting one of the country’s emerging culinary cities: Traverse City, Michigan. Located in Northern Michigan on the stunning shores of Lake Michigan, Traverse City has a restaurant and wine scene that attracts visitors from around the globe. And this August marks the debut of the Traverse City Food & Wine, running August 20–24. In this episode, we speak with some of the people who make Traverse City such a special place.First up we speak with Sarah Welch, a Top Chef finalist who ran the acclaimed restaurant Marrow in Detroit before moving to Traverse City to open a forthcoming restaurant with her husband, Cameron Rolka of Detroit’s Mink. Next, we hear from Traverse City Food and Wine director Whitney Waara about the amazing event, with a lineup of chefs including Tyler Florence, Ji Hye Kim, Mei Lin, and Kate Williams. To close, we learn about Traverse City’s growing wine region from Patrick Brys of Brys Estate Vineyard and Winery.For Traverse City Food & Wine tickets visit traversecityfoodandwine.com. This very special episode is supported by Traverse City Tourism and Pure Michigan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices