Episodios

  • 738: How Wolfgang Puck Became Wolfgang Puck

    738: How Wolfgang Puck Became Wolfgang Puck
    Mar 2 2026
    Wolfgang Puck arrived in Los Angeles in 1975 with French technique and Austrian instincts, and he became the chef at Ma Maison in West Hollywood—a restaurant so exclusive the phone number wasn’t listed—where Orson Welles ate lunch every day and a generation of Hollywood royalty witnessed the birth of California cuisine. Then in 1982, after a falling out with the owner, he opened Spago on the Sunset Strip with a wood-burning oven, a funky dining room, and a smoked salmon pizza that changed everything. What followed was two James Beard Awards for Outstanding Chef and 32 years of feeding the most famous people on the planet at the Academy Awards Governors Ball. We talk about all of it—the early years, the big swings, and what it feels like to be America’s first celebrity chef. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 2 m
  • 737: Read the Cookbook. No, Really. Inside Tanya Bush's Narrative Baking Memoir.

    737: Read the Cookbook. No, Really. Inside Tanya Bush's Narrative Baking Memoir.
    Feb 27 2026
    Our friend Tanya Bush is back. The Brooklyn-based pastry chef, writer, and co-founder of Cake Zine visits the studio to talk about her incredible debut book, Will This Make You Happy: Stories & Recipes from a Year of Baking. It’s part coming-of-age memoir, part baking book, and the rare cookbook that is also a page turner. In this episode we get into the year of Tanya’s life that inspired this book and get into what is exciting at Tanya’s restaurant, the acclaimed Little Egg. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 m
  • 736: Hello Home Cooking with Ham El-Waylly

    736: Hello Home Cooking with Ham El-Waylly
    Feb 25 2026
    Ham El-Waylly is a chef, recipe developer, and video creator based in New York City. His New Orleans–style seafood restaurant Strange Delight is a Brooklyn favorite, but his wonderful new debut cookbook is decidedly for the home cooks. Today on the show, we talk about how the book draws from his fine-dining background and third-culture childhood—growing up with Bolivian-Egyptian parents in Doha, Qatar—with lots of hot takes about cooking tools, cross-culture cooking, wrestling, and more. Also on the show Matt has a great conversation with Paula Houde, Executive Director of The Trotter Project. We talk about her time working alongside the legendary chef, and some great scholarship opportunities for young restaurant workers. Applications are open now. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 9 m
  • 735: Tiny but Loud, Caper Has Arrived with Emma Orlow

    735: Tiny but Loud, Caper Has Arrived with Emma Orlow
    Feb 23 2026
    It's the return of Food Writers Talking About Food Writing. Every couple of weeks, Matt invites a journalist to talk about some favorite recent food writing as well as their thoughts on the industry as a whole. In today's episode, we talk with Emma Orlow. Emma is a founding journalist at Caper, the new food media startup covering the restaurant industry and food culture with a fresh set of eyes. We talk about why she joined the team, what Caper is doing differently, and this exciting era in food journalism. We also discuss some recent food writing that caught our attention. Discussed on the episode: My Dinner Date With A.I. [NYT] Would You Wait 8 Hours for This Waffle? [New York Magazine] Uncovering an Underground Cheese Sample Sale [Caper] Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    47 m
  • 734: David Cho Launched The Awl and Grantland. Now He's Mapping Good Taste Around the World.

    734: David Cho Launched The Awl and Grantland. Now He's Mapping Good Taste Around the World.
    Feb 21 2026
    It was a lot of fun having David Cho in the studio. David is a longtime media executive, having helped launch The Awl and Grantland. He’s also a pretty great guy to talk about restaurants with, and we do that. We also discuss Postcard, a new restaurant discovery tool and community. Matt's a user, and thinks it’s a great way to organize the restaurant recommendations that are constantly flowing through our world through a simple interface. We talk all about that and much more. And before that it’s the return on Three Things. Aliza and Matt discuss: A scene check at New York’s new favorite wine bar, Stars, and ​​Easy Joy Dim Sum & AYCE Hot Pot. Also, we have a new favorite boxed cake mix: Oh So Easy. And we make visits outside of NYC to Golden Russet Cafe & Grocery, No Comply Foods, Zinnia’s Dinette, and Random Harvest Market. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 12 m
  • 733: Building Santo Taco with Santiago Perez

    733: Building Santo Taco with Santiago Perez
    Feb 20 2026
    Santiago Perez is the chef of Santo Taco, a new taqueria with two locations in New York City. Born and raised in Mexico City, he made his name in NYC working as a partner alongside chef Enrique Olvera in opening Cosme, Atla, Los Angeles’s Damian, and Mexico City’s Pujol. Now he’s bringing underrated tacos like steak trompo to NYC. Today on the show, we talk about going from fine dining to fast casual taquerias, his favorite spots in Mexico City, and more. Also on the show, Matt has a great conversation with Daisy Alioto. Daisy is the cofounder and CEO of Dirt and the cohost of the podcast Tasteland with Francis Zierer. It was fun to discuss her work at Dirt as well as her thoughts on paywalls, newsletters (when is it too much?), and food media tapping into live programming. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Read these stories on Dirt: Life and death at BalthazarSoftware as a Style Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 14 m
  • 732: Simon Kim Changed the Language of Korean Barbecue

    732: Simon Kim Changed the Language of Korean Barbecue
    Feb 18 2026
    What does it feel like to run some of the country’s buzziest restaurants, with razor-sharp points of view and terrific cooking? Our friend Simon Kim shares his story while completing the Resy Questionnaire. Simon runs COTE Korean Steakhouse, a joyous restaurant with locations in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, and Singapore. He’s also behind Coqodaq, which, since opening in Manhattan in 2024, has changed the conversation around Korean fried chicken. This talk is honest, inspiring, and shows how Simon is one of the brightest stars in American restaurants. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    42 m
  • 731: 10 Years of Koreatown with Deuki Hong

    731: 10 Years of Koreatown with Deuki Hong
    Feb 16 2026
    Our old friend Deuki Hong joins Matt in this episode for a really fun conversation. Deuki is the chef-partner at Sohn in San Francisco, an all-day café and community space in the city’s Dogpatch neighborhood. It’s such a cool place, and we talk all about it. We also reflect on the publication of Deuki and Matt's first book, the New York Times Bestseller Koreatown, released ten years ago today. We talk about where Korean food was then, and the exciting moments over the past decade that we’ve had a front row seat for. Also on the show Matt has a really fun conversation with Anthony Randello-Jahn, known widely as social star Donut Daddy. They talk about his new cookbook and so much more. Buy: Koreatown and Koreaworld. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: ⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 13 m