This Is TASTE

London chef and author Yotam Ottolenghi puts out cookbooks that meet at the intersection of cool and practical—with a recipe development process that is part Warhol Factory, part Bon Appétit Test Kitchen, and pure Ottolenghi. After tackling baking with his last book (Sweet), and before that putting Israeli cooking on the international stage (Jerusalem), he most recently tackled the concept of simplicity—and how Simple (the book’s title and mission statement) means something different to all home cooks. You mean a 30-minute simple meal isn’t exactly simple for everybody single person attempting to make it? What a notion!Also on this episode, we speak with Sarah Gavigan, the talented chef and author of a new cookbook: Ramen Otaku. The book promises to guide readers through the totally worthwhile process of making bowls of ramen at home. The pressure cooker is your friend! It’s a great read.This episode is sponsored by Joule by ChefSteps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may know her from her New York Times column, On Dessert, or you may know her from trying one of her unbelievably chocolaty, world-famous World Peace Cookies at a party that one time. But before Dorie Greenspan was famous for her cakes and shortbreads, she was an early pioneer of food television and a coconspirator (and coauthor) with Julia Child.On this episode, Anna catches up with Dorie to talk about her new book, Everyday Dorie, and ask about what she actually does cook every day. We also talk about why gooey, underbaked cookies’ days are numbered but lava cake is here to stay.Later on the show, Anna chats with Lisa Ludwinski, the owner of Detroit’s Sister Pie bakery and the author of the new cookbook Sister Pie. We talk about the evolving Detroit food scene, malted milk powder, and why making pie crust is easier than people think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let’s get this out of the way first. Jeremiah Stone and Fabian Von Hauske are sweet dudes: extremely hardworking, generous, with lots and lots and lots of friends in the food world—in the United States, France, Mexico, and the darkest corners of the Noma fermentation lab (all spots the pair have worked in their short and ambitious careers). They own a trio of influential restaurants on New York’s Lower East Side: Contra, Wildair, and the newly reopened Una Pizza Napoletana. And they have just released their first cookbook, A Very Serious Cookbook (there’s a wink in there somewhere).On the show we dive into their story (how they met in a chat room that may or may not be branded America Online) and explore how they organized their very serious cookbook into very unique chapters. Plus, Jeremiah Stone in praise of Maryland blue crabs: “It’s in your blood when you grow up around Washington, D.C.”Also on the show, we talk with Sohui Kim, the chef behind Brooklyn's Insa and the Good Fork, as well as the author of the new book Korean Home Cooking. We chat about karaoke, kimchi, and why we should all eat more tomatoes for dessert. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There isn’t a restaurant in New York City that’s having a bigger and brighter fall 2018 than Atomix. It’s supremely ambitious, highly polished, and uncompromisingly Korean. We love it! After it got rock-solid reviews in Eater, The Washington Post, and New York, the New York Times critic Pete Wells last week dropped 3 stars on the restaurant, anointing it as one of the city’s top tasting menus. Period. “The way the Parks put Korean culture in the foreground recalls the early days of the Four Seasons,” writes Wells. The Parks here are Ellia and Junghyun Park, and we got to talk to them about the art of banchan, the distinct aesthetics they maintain in both of their spaces, and what Americans need to know most about Korean cooking in general.Later on the episode, Matt talks to chef Daniel Holzman in our ongoing series, 100 Questions for My Friend the Chef. This time we're talking about XO Sauce. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stay calm and…just act like Eric Ripert. Young cooks, are you listening? Ripert, a celebrated chef and TV personality, is a balancing force in this trash-fire age. And he’s also just a really good interview, as we find out. He joins the podcast to talk about communication. How one at the top of the kitchen chain needn’t yell to get his point across. “I don’t believe the pilots in the plane are having a screaming match,” he observes. True.We also discuss the Michelin stars at his restaurant, Le Bernardin, and how he finds out if he still has them. (He’s had the maximum three stars since the guide launched in New York City). And we talk about his love of Korean food and culture—from the late-night partying to the vegetarian temple style of cooking that aligns with the Buddhist religion that is so important to the chef. He loves it all, and we remember a trip we took to Seoul a couple years back.Also on the program, we ask Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman which of her favorite NYC restaurant dishes has she been able to re-create at home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just imagine: It’s the tail end of a dinner party you just cooked for, you’re dangerously full of food, and you realize you made about three times too much food. What are you going to do with that half-eaten plate of lukewarm crab toasts? If Julia Turshen had anything to say about it, you’re going to throw them in the refrigerator until tomorrow night, when you’re going to pulverize them to bits and turn them into buttery crab cakes for dinner.Turshen’s new book, Now & Again, thinks about leftovers not as inevitable detritus of entertaining, but as ingredients themselves that you can mix up and have fun with. On this episode, we talk about some of these party (and postparty) tricks, getting her start working with Gwyneth Paltrow, and why she decided to start Equity at the Table, a database of food professionals in the POC and LGBTQ community.Later on the episode, Matt talks to chef Daniel Holzman in their ongoing series, 100 Questions for My Friend the Chef. This time they’re talking about MSG and how to cook with it at home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You might know him from the Eat column in The New York Times, for which he went into dozens of restaurants, home kitchens, and church basements to report on some of the untold food stories from New York’s many immigrant communities. Or you might know him as the voice you hear when you tune into The Splendid Table, interviewing everyone from activist Cecile Richards to chef Jacques Pépin. But I was especially excited to talk to Francis Lam about his work as a book editor at Clarkson Potter, collaborating and conspiring with hilarious, colorful personalities like Christina Tosi, Tyler Kord, and Chrissy Teigen.In this episode, Francis talks about why he thinks it’s important as an editor to let your authors be a little bit weird. We also look back on some of his writing for the Times and talk about why he misses reporting so much more than he misses writing. Oh, and he tells the story of the time he hung out with Chrissy Teigen’s mom and she wouldn’t stop feeding him.Also on this episode, Matt catches up with Lisa Lillien, the founder of Hungry Girl—a project started in 2004 that has ballooned into a hugely popular magazine, podcast, and series of cookbooks. They look back at the early days of blogging, before cauliflower rice, Instagram, and rainbow everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christina Tosi is a chef, TV personality, Milk Bar CEO and CCCO (Chief Compost Cookie Officer), and the author of a new cookbook, All About Cake. And indeed, during this lively episode taped live in front of a packed house at our offices at Penguin Random House, we talk about cake. Like, we get her hot take on what is up with the addictive boxed yellow cake flavor? Which great American classic cake would she eff, marry, and kill? We also find out if the kids of MasterChef Junior really make all that food. Plus, we get some memories from the Tosi childhood: Otis Spunkmeyer, Orange Julius, and bowl cuts at the mall. It's all in here.Also on the show I get to ask my buddy chef Daniel Holzman a burning question for our column 100 Questions For My Friend the Chef. It involves what he calls the “fertile crescent of pizza”—which may or may not be in Italy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Solomonov planted his flag in Philadelphia more than a decade ago with the groundbreaking Israeli-American restaurant Zahav, and people went nuts. Two words: pomegranate lamb. He’s since won many awards, opened restaurants focusing on Israeli staples hummus and falafel, and essentially put Israeli cuisine in the American zeitgeist, sitting right next to Italian and Mexican. He’s the author of several books, including the new Israeli Soul: Easy, Essential, Delicious.In this fun and wide-ranging conversation, we talk about Israel’s major food groups—falafel, pita, sabich, and schnitzel—and dive into the history of the often-overlooked Ashkenazi food traditions in Israel. We swap stories about some of our favorite Tel Aviv and Jerusalem restaurants, and Mike shares the details of his five-minute hummus recipe—which is accurately called a “medium step forward for mankind.” And his dad used to own Subway restaurants! This is a cool fact. We discuss how this may have just informed the way he looks at his growing falafel and tahini-shake empire, Goldie. Are falafels the next Cold Cut Combo?Also on the show, Anna catches up with Dana Frank and Andrea Slonecker, authors of Wine Food: New Adventures in Drinking and Cooking. The pair offer some really unique takes on the merging of wine and food cultures in our modern world—as well as why pairing wine with chocolate is just a terrible idea. Plus, is rosé over? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniela Soto-Innes is the chef-partner at two New York baby institutions, Cosme and Atla. These young and progressive restaurants—a modern Mexican cantina featuring supremely delicious tortillas and corn meringue firmly supplanted in my dessert hall of fame, and a Mexican/Latin all-day café—are reshaping the way the city thinks about “Mexican food” writ large.Soto-Innes, winner of the prestigious James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef of the Year award in 2016, was born in Mexico City and raised in Houston, where she worked in kitchens before linking up with Enrique Olvera, and later partnering on the NYC restaurants. It’s a colorful conversation. I ask her about the ashwagandha root popping up on her IG feed. About her Mexican roots, and the regionality of Mexican cuisine—the vanilla of Veracruz and the wines of Ensenada—and the high percentage of women who make up her kitchen workforce. “It’s just the way it worked out; we hire nice people,” she says of her staff.Also on the show is Michael Harlan Turkell. He’s a photographer, radio show host, and author of a ridiculously cool book about vinegar, Acid Trip. We talk about his travels to Italy and Japan and why the inky bottle of “balsamic” you last put on your salad at Whole Foods is sorta not really what you thought it was. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices