This Is TASTE

On today’s episode of the podcast, we’re talking to Fany Gerson, the pastry chef mastermind behind La Newyorkina, Dough, and, most recently, Fan-Fan Doughnuts in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. In addition to making some of New York’s most legendary doughnuts, Fany has written extensively about the paletas, ice creams, and other sweets of Mexico, where she grew up. We talked about the secret ingredient that makes her yeasted doughnuts special, how the fan-fan (her signature eclair-like doughnut baton) came about, and some of the best, often-overlooked Mexican food in New York.Later on the show, hosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard discuss the ever-present, ever-evolving world of fad diets.Additional Reading: Mexican Desserts and the Magical Can [TASTE] Inside Fany Gerson’s Brand-new Doughnut Shop [Grub Street] The Best Advice After Trying Every Fad Diet? Just Eat. [TASTE] When SnackWell’s Was the Flavor of Permissible Indulgence [TASTE] The Summer of Halo Top [TASTE] Buy Fany’s cookbooks: My Sweet Mexico, Paletas, Mexican Ice Cream Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show, we’re talking to Hrishikesh Hirway, the musician behind The One AM Radio, the podcaster behind The West Wing Weekly and Song Exploder, and the host of Netflix’s adaptation of Song Exploder. In addition to collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma and interviewing musicians like Michael Stipe and Alicia Keys, Hrishikesh is also the cohost, with Samin Nosrat, of Home Cooking, which has quickly become one of our favorite food podcasts during the pandemic. We talked about the joys of savory oatmeal, lessons learned from hosting a call-in show about cooking, and a very special mango pie. We also got to hear about an exciting new EP that’s hot off the presses.Additional reading and listening: Accept Cookies [Substack] A Very American Mango Pie, Inspired by Indian Aunties [The New York Times] Song Exploder, The West Wing Weekly, Home Cooking Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show, we have a colorful conversation with Cara Nicoletti, a fourth-generation butcher, writer, and cofounder of the vegetable-centric sausage company Seemore Meats & Veggies. We’ve fallen hard for these sausages, which are made with 35 percent vegetables, and we wanted to have Cara on the podcast to talk about how she went from working at the legendary Meat Hook butcher shop in Brooklyn to disrupting the sausage game. We also talk about the many problems with the massive investment and growth of the plant-based meat megacompanies, and how TASTE readers can buy better at their local butcher shops.Also on the program, hosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard discuss all things chicken soup: the many versions made around the world, and how the recipe is interpreted in some of our favorite recent cookbooks. Matt also remembers many a fine bowl of Detroit Lions’ loss chicken soup. Additional reading: Can Chicken Soup Save Us? [TASTE] Samgyetang: Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup [TASTE] Cooking At Home by David Change and Priya Krishna Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode, Anna sits down with longtime chef and sustainable seafood advocate Bart van Olphen. The Dutch chef has written many cookbooks for an international audience (including several on the topic of tinned fish), and he’s the founder of Sea Tales, a company that sells sustainable canned tuna, anchovies, and sardines. They talked about why tinned fish is having a moment, how to shop responsibly for seafood, and Bart’s newest book, Veggies & Fish.Later on the show, Anna talks to author and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra about mindful holiday eating and why the self-care industrial complex might not be such a bad thing. Deepak has some thoughts about how to eat well (and thoughtfully), even in the midst of a hectic travel schedule or a deluge of holiday celebrations.Buy the books: Veggies & Fish, by Bart van OlphenTotal Meditation, by Deepak Chopra Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One morning this fall, Matt found himself in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, seated in the front yard of Edy’s Grocer, the remarkable deli and specialty food shop run by the amazing young entrepreneur Edy Massih, who joins him on the show today. Massih formerly worked as a caterer, and during the pandemic, he took over a storefront and began selling all sorts of delicious foods—all with a modern and exciting point of view. There’s a long list of mezze—Lebanese small plates like baba ganoush, rosy ricotta, and za’atar goat cheese—as well as harissa paste, jams, oils, and packaged spice rubs. It’s a delightful shop, cared for with the greatest eye for detail and deliciousness. We find out how the store began and how its ambitious owner is making things work during this challenging time to be running a food business. Additional reading: Edy Massih Wants to Be 'the Middle Eastern Martha Stewart' [Grub Street] The Dish: Chef Edy Massih on Lebanese roots, new shop [CBS This Morning] He Rescued an NYC Deli So He Could Share Lebanese Food With the World [The Manual] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt met author and television writer Jean Kyoung Frazier through Instagram during last year’s NBA playoffs. She is a Los Angeles Clippers fan, he’s a Brooklyn Nets fan, and they had a lot to talk about. But what most inspired the exchange, and eventually this episode, is Jean’s novel Pizza Girl, which is based partially in a suburban Los Angeles pizzeria. We speak with Jean about how she writes about food in her fiction, as well as not writing about food on Law & Order: Organized Crime. We also talk about her upbringing in Southern California—the food, the hoops, and how pizza topped with pickles plays as a critical plot point in her work.  Also on the show, hosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard talk about some of the winter cooking projects and goals they will be undertaking during the colder months ahead. We go through a year of buying cookbooks and clipping recipes on the internet, but sometimes we run out of time to actually make them. Winter is a time to make things happen, and your cohosts have some thoughts about cannelloni, kimbap, khao soi, chocoflan, fresh tortillas, and pan pizza.Additional reading: Writing Toward Feeling: An Interview with Jean Kyoung Frazier [The Rumpus] Long Distance with Jean Kyoung Frazier [Literary Arts] Buy the book: Pizza Girl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’ve caught some of the exciting new writing coming from the relaunch of Gawker, you may have read some food writing by Tammie Teclemariam, who’s been taking down moka pots, making the case for buying a whole ham, and lauding the Black Russian as a far superior alternative to the espresso martini craze. Tammie’s also written for TASTE about the virtues of fried chicken livers, how Caraflex is the ultimate cabbage flex, and why mozzarella in carrozza is the fanciest iteration of a grilled cheese. We talked about some of the joys (and terrors) of whole-ham ownership, as well as a few unexpectedly cool ideas for holiday drinking.After recording the episode, it was announced that Tammie will be New York Magazine’s first ever Diner-at-Large. You can follow along with her eating and writing in 2022 here.Also on this episode, hosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard dive into the topic of nonalcoholic drinks for celebratory occasions—all of the sodas, seltzers, and beers that are worth pulling out for a toast, including drinks from Kimino, Casamara Club, and Athletic Brewing. Finally, Matt recalls his grandma Gert’s stash of Canfield’s Diet Chocolate Fudge in Highland Park, Illinois.    Additional reading: On the Acquisition and Maintenance of a Ham [Gawker] Moka Pots Make Shitty Coffee [Gawker] If You “Like” Espresso Martinis You’ll Love the Black Russian [Gawker] Have You Fried a Chicken Liver Lately? [TASTE] The Grilled Cheese Gets Regal [TASTE] The Year I Ate New York [New York Magazine] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Samah Dada is the brainpower behind Dada Eats, a recipe blog that has blossomed into a plant-based lifestyle brand. We got to know Samah a few years back at a TASTE Podcast taping at Books Are Magic, and we have been following her career as she’s grown from Today Show production assistant to author of Dada Eats: Love to Cook It. In this interview, we talk about her recipes for chocolate chip cookie pie and the “best dal ever” (controversial!) while diving into her understated and, we'd say, highly seasoned take on plant-based cooking. Samah’s vibe is fun and approachable, and the lack of meat and dairy in her recipes is sorta less emphasized. We also talk about the challenge of baking with avocado and her time working food TV.Additional reading: How Samah Dada Got The Confidence To Share More Personal Recipes [Cherry Bombe] Chocolate chip cookie pie [Dada Eats] 2 Easy Plant-Based Dinner Recipes For When You're Cooking Solo [Today] Buy the book: Dada Eats: Love to Cook It Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest today needs little introduction—but if you didn’t grow up watching cooking on television over the past 20 years, here’s the deal. Jamie Oliver pioneered a form of food television that brought cameras into the home in a way not previously seen. When the Naked Chef debuted on BBC Two in the UK and the Food Network in the United States in 1999, home cooking on TV was a stand-and-stir affair. Here, a young and floppy Oliver was cooking real food from a cool East London flat, talking viewers through the relative simplicity of making dinner. Oliver has gone on to write numerous cookbooks (selling 50 million in the UK alone) and create food TV that expanded beyond cooking, producing documentaries about the sugar industry and school lunches that transitioned his work from dude food evangelist to heartier activism. Oliver was a joy to have on the program, and we talk about the early days of his television career, working at the River Café with the legends Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray, and a pressing question: Blur vs. Oasis (while discussing bassist turned cheese maker Alex James). We also learn about his latest book, Together: Memorable Meals Made Easy. Additional reading and viewing: Jamie Oliver’s first TV appearance in 1997 [YouTube] It’s Not Always Excellent to Be Jamie Oliver [The New York Times] Keep Cooking and Carry On [Jamie Oliver website] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The truly unique food worldview of chef and entrepreneur Lucas Sin is shaped by a Hong Kong upbringing, a US education, and a deep love for culinary history, which we talk about in this entertaining interview with one of the food world’s rising stars. We also discuss his love of the Midwest—Michigan in particular—and how his work at his restaurants, Junzi and Nice Day, is partially based on a drive to “reeducate” Americans about Chinese American food, which represents over 45,000 independent mom-and-pop restaurants around the country. And if you haven’t followed Lucas on Instagram, you are missing out.Also on this episode, cohosts Anna Hezel and Matt Rodbard talk about cooking the whole fish! There are many techniques being presented in the recent crop of cookbooks released this fall. They debunk some of the myths about the difficulty of cooking the whole fish (it needn’t be hard), and they each share some of their fondest memories of cooking whole fish at home and enjoying it around the world.Additional reading: A Course Correction for American Chinese Food [TASTE] Best New Chefs 2021: Lucas Sin [Food & Wine] 1 Fried Rice, 4 Ways [YouTube] Grab That Whole Fish By the Tail [TASTE] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices