This Is TASTE

What a treat! Today on the show we have Meredith Erickson. She’s a journalist, cookbook writer, cycling fan, and the co-author of the new book Joe Beef: Surviving the Apocalypse. We talk about her many chef collaborations—she compares her writing style to that of creating a mixtape—and discuss a big project she’s been working on for years: documenting the foods of the Alps. Erickson also chats about splitting time between Milan and Montreal, which is just about the best way to split time.Also on the show we have Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman answering a reader question: What’s something that you know how to cook now that you wished you could cook in college? The answer is really great. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While the name Zabar is most associated with a delicatessen empire based on New York’s Upper West Side, it’s Eli Zabar (the punk rock Zabar of all in the Zabar clan) who has the most interesting story to tell. He founded one of NYC’s first specialty food stores in 1973, introducing the city to exotic imports like balsamic vinegar and fraises des bois shipped in from France. And he’s sharpened his bread-baking skills through thousands and thousands of loaves. Eli Zabar is low-key one of the city’s finest bread bakers.On this episode I interview him about his earliest memories of smoked fish, the changing landscape of the grocery business, and what it’s like running a restaurant and bakery with his son Oliver.Later on the episode, Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman answers a reader question: If you could take a cooking class to learn about anything in the food world, what would it be? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Helen Rosner is a journalist, Twitter commentator, and the editorial force behind much of the New Yorker’s food coverage. This year, we were treated with her writing about iceberg lettuce, fermenting blueberries with René Redzepi, a visit to an MSG factory in Japan, and a method for preparing chicken that involves a hair dryer. I sat down with Helen to talk about her work, and to look back at some of the highlights of 2018 in food writing, cookbooks, and Twitter outrage.Also on this episode, Anna spoke to Josh Gee, the writer behind the food-focused newsletter Snack Cart. They caught up about some of the best restaurant reviews of the year, and speculated a little bit about how food writing might evolve in 2019. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before he edited Epicurious, sharply reviewed restaurants in Chicago, and wrote a cool new cookbook, Cook90: The 30-Day Plan for Faster, Healthier, Happier Meals, David Tamarkin worked as a story producer on the first incarnation of Queer Eye. David is an interesting dude! In this fun interview we discuss what it means to cook 90 meals over a 30-day period—and how this Herculean-sounding task is actually quite doable and offers several lasting benefits to the home cook—as well discussing some of the popular (and controversial) recipes he’s published on Epi this year. Does a sheet-pan pancake make you happy? Mad?Also on the show, Tatiana sits down with Diane Chang—a caterer and private chef behind the incredibly cool company Eating Po Pos. Diane talks about what inspires her cooking, from Filipino desserts to dehydrated fruits. And about her time cooking for Gwyneth Paltrow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dirt Candy is a restaurant that has become famous over the course of the past decade on New York’s Lower East Side for making eggplant tiramisu, rosemary cotton candy, and tomato fruit leather. But its chef Amanda Cohen makes one thing very clear—it’s not about vegetarianism or health or politics. It’s just about making vegetables taste really good.On this episode, we talk to Amanda about what’s changed over the years—especially as Dirt Candy has rolled out their tasting menu full of tricks, surprises, and, yes, even table-side flames. We also talked about the changing landscape of restaurant review coverage, and why restaurant critics in 2018 have a responsibility to tell a story that goes beyond the food.Later on the episode, we ask Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman about her go-to dessert to bring to parties. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe you’ve been making macarons your whole life, could temper chocolate with your eyes closed, and have enough cake pans to fill a walk-in closet. But maybe, more realistically, you’re like the rest of us who love cake, have no idea what mousseline is, and are still fuzzy on the difference between cocoa and Dutch process cocoa.No matter which of these categories you fall into, Rose Levy Beranbaum’s books are written for you. Beranbaum’s books, like The Pie and Pastry Bible, The Cake Bible, and her newest, Rose’s Baking Basics, cover classic techniques and pastries with scrupulously detailed instructions. Nothing’s dumbed down, and everything is photographed. Anna talks to Beranbaum, along with her longtime collaborator and coauthor Woody Wolston, about how baking has changed over the decades. Hint: Egg yolks are getting smaller, and people are buying more kitchen scales.Later on the episode, Matt talks to author and artist Timothy Pakron about growing up in the South and the inspiration for his new book, Mississippi Vegan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The chef and cookbook author Anita Lo occupies a very special place in the hearts of many in the New York City restaurant world—chefs, journalists, civilians who merely dine at restaurants (that is, most people). Lo is a supreme talent, having run one of the city’s top restaurants—Annisa—for 17 years. She’s also a mentor to many in the industry. A leading light and an example of how to do things the right way. Stories of this journey, as well as some pretty cool recipes, are detailed in her new cookbook—Solo: A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One—disguised as a personal history. It's memoir light. During our interview at Books Are Magic, we talk about some of the recent controversies in the world of food, and her take on “the boys” and how there’s a clear double standard when it comes to business opportunities, etc. Lo also talks about the joy of cooking for one.Later we get to talk with Matt Startwell, managing partner at legendary New York City cookbook store Kitchen Arts & Letters. We tackle a number of fun topics: the shop's famous customers, like James Beard and Julia Child; the most requested books; books he thinks need to be published; and a rundown of the big books from the busy holiday season. Have you picked up a cookbook today?This episode is sponsored by Joule by ChefSteps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s just not dwell on the fact that Flynn McGarry is only 20. He’s young. The end. This is because McGarry, the chef and owner of the ambitious and well-reviewed New York City tasting-menu restaurant Gem, is an incredibly talented dude. Period. This is a really fascinating conversation, one that surprised us in many ways. We go over his time working in Los Angeles restaurant Alma at age 13—while being homeschooled—and his famous pop-ups even earlier in his career. “My formative years were spent in some of the most stressful environments,” McGarry admits. The journey is all documented in a new film, Chef Flynn, and we get into McGarry’s many travels and eventual opening in NYC—the most competitive and ruthlessly cutthroat restaurant city in America. There’s a fearlessness in McGarry that’s extraordinary.Also on this episode, we get to catch up with Steven Hall, a longtime NYC restaurant publicist and consultant. He tells some old war stories about NYC dining in the 1980s (he almost poisoned Mike Nichols) and details his work with many of the city’s best Japanese restaurants. We also rate the current roster of New York City restaurant critics: Pete Wells, Hannah Goldfield, Adam Platt, Ligaya Mishan.This episode is sponsored by Joule by ChefSteps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If there’s one thing Naomi Pomeroy has noticed in her years of cooking and running restaurants, it’s that people don’t seem to have time to eat anymore. Whether it’s the traffic in Portland, Oregon, where she is a restaurateur, or whether we’ve all just subconsciously sped up over time, it’s getting harder and harder to convince people to settle in for a leisurely several-hour-long dinner.This hasn’t stopped her from serving a six-course tasting menu at Beast, the restaurant she’s owned for more than 10 years, or from serving leisurely drinks and snacks (like her famous take on James Beard’s raw-onion sandwich) at Expatriate, the restaurant across the street.But slowing down and enjoying things is important to her, whether it’s the meals she eats with her kitchen staff or the time she spends on floral design at her new plant shop, Colibri. On this episode, we talked about what’s changed in Portland since she opened her first restaurant, what’s changing in restaurant work culture, and what cooking and flowers have in common.Also on the episode, Matt talks to chef Daniel Holzman as part of their ongoing series, 100 Questions for My Friend the Chef. This week, they’re talking about the virtues of homemade hummus.This episode is sponsored by Joule by ChefSteps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Max Ng tells it, his start at Momofuku—where he has risen to executive chef at the restaurant group’s New York City flagship, Ssam Bar—began when he showed up, as a young CIA student, with a backpack, knives, and a chef coat. Unannounced. On a busy Saturday afternoon. Asking for a “trail”—restaurant parlance for an unpaid tryout. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, this is a fucking Saturday and you are demanding a trail,” Max, laughing, recalls a cook telling him. “Come back in a week.” Ng did return, and has never left, and I wanted to talk to him this week about his experience working for David Chang and his time living in the United States far from his home in Singapore. It was so good to get to know this rising star in the chef world.Also on the show we have the editors of influential coffee blog Sprudge, Zachary Carlsen and Jordan Michelman. During a live taping at the Counter Culture Training Center in New York, they discuss their new book, The New Rules of Coffee.This episode is sponsored by Joule by ChefSteps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices