It’s Lunar New Year, and Spoonie and Tongs are making Vietnamese spring rolls for “The Big Taste." Their biggest challenge? Trying to stay up late to celebrate the holiday! Between noisemakers, dance parties, and a little help from the listeners, will they make it to midnight?? Chef guest Calvin Eng joins the fun and talks about his family’s Cantonese traditions and favorite recipes, and kid guest Milo shares his favorite Korean rice cake soup, Tteokguk! 

Calvin Eng is the chef & owner of Bonnie’s, a Cantonese-American restaurant in Williamsburg. Brooklyn born and raised in a traditional Chinese family, Eng had the dream & goal of opening a restaurant for the last decade, but only in recent years has he realized how important it is to pursue Cantonese food and dive deeper into the dishes of his heritage. Bonnie’s has received positive reviews from The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Eater and Bon Appetit. Eng is a 2023 StarChefs Rising Star, 2023 James Beard Best Chef: New York State Semifinalist, 2022 James Beard Emerging Chef Finalist, 2022 Food & Wine Best New Chef and 2023 Forbes 30 under 30. 

Spoonie is excited for her show all about Nigerian food and can’t wait to make chuk chuk candies! But she keeps getting interrupted by a super fan of “The Plate Show”, Canastasia, the can opener. Spoonie is flattered at first but will she be able to keep her cool... even though she’s ready to fly off her handle? Author and cook Yewande Komolafe shares her favorite Nigerian food from growing up, and kid guest Lexie tells us all about Jollof rice and moin moin that she eats with her family. 

 Yewande Komolafe is a Berlin-born, Lagos-raised and Brooklyn-based food writer, stylist, recipe developer and cookbook writer of My Everyday Lagos: Nigerian Cooking at Home and in the Diaspora which released on October 24th, 2023. After years working in restaurant kitchens around the country, Yewande transitioned to food media. Her work has been featured in outlets like Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Whetstone, Saveur and Food52, in addition to books Waffles + Mochi: Get Cooking! (based on the Netflix show), Sheetpan Chicken by Cathy Erway, and Why We Cook by Lindsay Gardner. She’s currently a staff writer at The New York Times, where she writes a monthly column and published the popular feature “10 Essential Nigerian Recipes.” Yewande lives, cooks and gardens in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters. 

Spoonie is excited to make challah bread for her beloved Aunt Mitzi, the oven mitt, but is astounded to realize just how long it takes. Will Spoonie finish before Aunt Mitzi arrives? Special guest Elyssa Heller joins to talk about Jewish food, both traditional and modern, and kid guest Juliet shares her favorite food, latkes, for the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah!

Elyssa Heller started Edith's as a pandemic-born sandwich shop inside of the Brooklyn institution, Paulie Gee's pizzeria. Named after her Great-Aunt Edith, Edith's was supposed to last just six weeks and was started with $8,000 of savings. The pop-up immediately went viral, its twists on classic Jewish comfort food enabling Edith’s to become a permanent jewel-sized sandwich shop in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Edith's brings global Jewish flavors to the forefront of New York's culinary landscape and offers food influenced by the Jewish diaspora, exploring the flavors and cultural experience of Jewish cuisine. Elyssa's goal with Edith's is to create an empire built on delicious sandwiches, bringing global Jewish food to everyone.

A born and bred Chicagoan (but New Yorker for the last decade) Elyssa grew up on smoked chubbs and loved spending Sundays at the deli with family. She is a retired Canadian volleyball player and graduated from Queen's University. Elyssa lives in Brooklyn with her dog Murray (named after Bill) and you can often find her behind the register slinging sandwiches.