This Is TASTE

Emily Schildt wants food shopping to be a more fun and mind-expanding experience, and with her company, Pop Up Grocer, she’s getting customers closer to the destination. As the name suggests, PUG travels the country and sets up shop for 30-day runs in cities like Miami, New York, and Washington, DC. Each pop-up sells hundreds of the most interesting and emerging food brands around (some of which we’ve covered on the TASTE Podcast), all heavily curated and many run by women and BIPOC founders. We speak with Emily about the company’s big ideas, even bigger plans, and some of the products she is most excited about selling. What a great conversation with Emily!More from Emily Schildt: Emily Schildt on Rethinking the Grocery Experience [Modern Retail] The Utopian Promises and Novelty Cheese of a Discount Grocery Store [TASTE] How Pop Up Grocer Curates its Aisles with Emerging Food Brands [Forbes] Pop Up Grocer [official website] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yay, Adam Roberts is here for a very special episode. You may know Adam from his pioneering food blog Amateur Gourmet, or from his stint doing videos for the Food Network, which he talks about candidly in this episode (spoiler: it didn’t go so well). What has gone well is Adam’s new newsletter, naturally called the Amateur Gourmet, which is so worth checking out. We touch on many topics, including gossip about his early blogging days, some Food Network memories, his time working in television, his love of British cookbooks, the Broadway cookbook he wrote with Gideon Glick, what he’s cooking, and where to eat in his hometown of Los Angeles. It’s action-packed with Adam Roberts!More from Adam Roberts: Blow-Your-Mind Baked Beans [Amateur Gourmet] Homemade Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting [Youtube] The Amateur Gourmet Podcast Pre-order: Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show, we welcome Linda Holmes. Linda is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of the popular Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. She’s also a novelist, and we talk about her recent book release, Flying Solo. We also discuss some cool topics in the crossover of food and pop culture, including meal kits, olestra, The Flavor Bible, macaron rules that need to be broken, food on TikTok (specifically cinnamon rolls covered in apple pie filling), the New York City diner breakfast that needs no notes, the supremacy of Is It Cake?, and wrestling with the legacy of Anthony Bourdain.More from Linda Holmes: Love in the Time of Hollering: The Age of Enthusiasm [NPR] After Beanie Feldstein's departure, can Lea Michele really save 'Funny Girl'? [NPR] Buy: Flying Solo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

She calls herself the Bob Ross of salads, and for very good reason. Jess Damuck is the salad freak behind the new cookbook Salad Freak and a really fun guest on our show today. Of course, we get into the Xs and Os of salad making, but we also find out about her journey—which included working closely with Martha Stewart for over a decade. We learn about the best way to store salad greens, the best way to use a salad spinner, serving salad hot, and the single mistake that most salad preppers are making. It’s a revealing conversation.More from Jess Damuck: Working for Martha Stewart Turned This Cookbook Author Into a ‘Salad Freak’ [Time] A Self-Proclaimed Salad Freak’s Kitchen Leads Right to the Garden [Domino] Essential Tools for a Better Salad [Food Network] Buy: Salad Freak Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode we're speaking with actor and comic Ayo Edebiri. Have you checked out The Bear, a new show on FX that is one of the finest representations of the white-knuckle restaurant world in popular culture since, well, Kitchen Confidential was first published? Ayo joins us to talk about her important role on the show and how she prepared to play the role of Sydney Adamu. We also find out about Ayo’s real-life work in restaurants, and we get into some behind-the-scenes talk about filming on location in Chicago. Last, we learn about shooting what many (us, at least) consider the greatest episode of television to air this year. This is such a great conversation!  More from Ayo Edebiri:  Meet Ayo Edebiri, the Breakout Star of FX’s Intense New Show The Bear [Glamour]  The Bear Renewed for Season 2 at FX [Variety] In The Bear on Hulu, a Kitchen Staff Is Nearly Eaten Alive [New York Times] Watch: The Bear Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bartees Strange is one of the most promising and confident voices in music today, and we wanted to have him on the show to talk about his new album, Farm to Table. The title suggests an interest in food and cooking, and we dive into some of the dishes he enjoyed growing up around the world in Oklahoma, Europe, and most recently living in Washington DC. He makes a strong case for Ben’s Chili Bowl and for traveling to Northern Virginia for Chinese seafood. But we also find out about what his food life is like on the road. We loved getting to know Bartees Strange during this lively conversation.Also on the show Matt is joined by producer Pat Stango to talk about The Bear, a new restaurant world drama on FX/Hulu that has exploded on the scene in recent weeks. We love it. How does the show get restaurant life oh so right? Matt and Pat chop it up.  More from Bartees Strange: Bartees Strange Ponders Success in Dire Times [New York Times] Bartees Strange Explores His Journey [NPR] Kelly Rowland [Youtube] Buy or stream: Farm to Table Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yes, yes, yes! Dana Brown is here for an entertaining and mildly gossipy episode. We’ve long followed Dana’s career at Vanity Fair, where he served many roles during his more than 20 years at the magazine. Dana has published a page-turning memoir, Dilettante, and we dive into his story, which starts with him working at the legendary “Conde Nast cafeteria” Forty Four, where he was scooped up by a young magazine editor, Graydon Carter, to serve as his assistant in 1992. Dana talks about so many things: editing A. A. Gill, food at the legendary VF Oscar party, NYC sushi in the ’90s, trashing the restaurant 66, the “Graydon Carter lunch order,” the power of a Waverly Inn reservation, Keith McNally vs. the world (including Graydon Carter). We also hear about Dana’s recent meal at the Noma pop-up in Brooklyn. What a fun conversation!    More from Dana Brown:  Bonfire of the Vanity Fair [Book & Film Globe] Graydon Carter Hosts a Vanity Fair Ancien Régime Reunion [NY Mag] Tour De Gall [Vanity Fair] Divine Intervention [Air Mail] Buy: Dilettante: True Tales of Excess, Triumph, and Disaster Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer, podcaster, and cookbook collaborator Andrew Friedman has a unique vantage in talking about chefs and food writing as a profession. He’s worked with some of the more interesting voices in the restaurant world (particularly 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 collaborating vs. full authorship, and about his most recent work, Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll, a sweeping account of the chef world in 1970s and 1980s America. Andrew also talks about the chef “takedown” piece—a particular style of article that litigates a wide variety of behaviors in and out of the kitchen. Are they all merited? We have an open conversation about the responsibility of writers, chefs, and the many judgment calls being made by journalists and editors covering the industry. Also on the show, Clarkson Potter’s Bianca Cruz returns to talk about her journey in culinary school. We hear about her current section, pastry, and how one might study for an exam. We also discuss the recent book she worked on, As Cooked on TikTok. More from Andrew Friedman: Who Let the Cool Chefs Write Cookbooks? [TASTE] The Secret Lives of Private Chefs [TASTE] Listen to: Andrew Talks to Chefs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wondered how chefs rise from relative obscurity to the pages of your favorite glossy magazine or online publication? Longtime food writer Kate Krader has the answer. Kate worked at Food & Wine for over two decades and served as the magazine’s restaurant editor for years, overseeing the Best New Chefs program that spotted talent from New York City to Honolulu. We talk about Kate’s career, from studying at La Varenne in Paris to her current position as food editor at Bloomberg. Kate will soon be moving from New York to London, and we talk about some hot food topics, including Tesla moving into the restaurant business and why nobody can land a restaurant reservation these days. We also talk rivalries: Eater vs. Grub Street. Bon Appétit vs. Gourmet vs. Food & Wine. And with Kate’s pending move to the UK, naturally, Blur and XTC were discussed. It’s a great conversation.More from Kate Krader: The Best Restaurant in the UK Isn’t in London. It’s in Wales. [Bloomberg] Snagging a Table at a Hot Restaurant Will Be Even Tougher This Summer [Bloomberg] Talking Italian Restaurants [Charlie Rose] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today is Nicole Enayati Day on the TASTE Podcast, and we’re so happy to welcome one of our favorite voices in food to the program. Nicole is one half of the popular food podcast A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich, and she can be found all over the Mythical Kitchen YouTube page serving as senior culinary producer. We debate and discuss some of food’s biggest controversies, and we dig into her background as a young eater growing up in Los Angeles. We also talk about “geriatric cereals” and the book she wrote, Bake Up!, a baking cookbook geared toward teens and tweens. Nicole tells us the single recipe that can unlock the joy of baking for any young cook. It’s a wild ride with Nicole Enayati, and we’re really happy to welcome her to the show.Also we are joined by chef Alon Shaya and 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Steven Fenves. The pair struck up a friendship over an effort to preserve and digitize the recipes of Steven’s youth before his family was taken to Auschwitz. The journey of this family cookbook is absolutely remarkable. More from Nicole Enayati:  Is Cold Brew a Scam? [A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich] Cooking With The Internet's Worst Food Crimes [YouTube] TASTE Podcast 08: Alon Shaya [TASTE] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum [official website] Buy: Bake Up: Kids Cookbook: Go from Beginner to Pro with Recipes and Essential Techniques Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices