Lior Lev Sercarz is the chef, spice blender, and owner of La Boîte, a world-renowned spice company located in New York City. On this episode, we catch up with Lior about his unique path from Israel to some of the most famous restaurant kitchens in New York. We talk about the culinary school he’s founding in Northern Israel and dive into his incredible new book, A Middle Eastern Pantry. For real, this is one of our favorite books of the year, and together we go over many of the spices and condiments that shape this amazing culinary history. Lior is a true original, and we hope you enjoy our conversation. Also on the show, Aliza and Matt give some very early thoughts on the upcoming fall cookbook season, including exciting new books from Yossy Arefi, Rie McClenny, Yewande Komolafe, Andrew Tarlow, Pierre Thiam, Jing Gao, Dwight Garner, and C Pam Zhang. FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW:instagram.com/chefliorinstagram.com/mattrodbardinstagram.com/taste

260: Lior Lev Sercarz

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<p><strong>Chase Joynt</strong> is a non-fiction filmmaker and writer whose latest film, <a href="https://www.thefilmcollaborative.org/films/stateoffirsts" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>State of Firsts</i></a>, about Rep. Sarah McBride, is playing in theaters across the US from June 26. His documentary features <i>The Nest</i> (with Julietta Singh) and <i>State </i><i>o</i><i>f Firsts</i> both premiered in 2025, at Hot Docs and Tribeca, respectively. His documentary feature <i>Framing Agnes</i> was named a Best Movie of the Year by <em>The New Yorker</em> after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award. The film has played more than 100 festivals internationally and is distributed by Kino Lorber. With Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase co-directed <i>No Ordinary Man</i>, which was presented at Cannes Docs, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was hailed by <em>The New Yorker</em> as “a genre unto itself” and <em>Indiewire</em> as “the future of trans cinema.” For the CW, Chase directed episodes of <i>Two Sentence Horror Stories</i> which are now streaming on Netflix; his episode <em>Elliot</em> from Season 2 won a Telly Award for directing. He is the co-author of three non-fiction books, including the Lambda Literary Award Finalist <i>You Only Live Twice</i> with Mike Hoolboom and <i>Boys Don’t Cry</i> with Morgan M Page. His latest book, <i>Vantage Points,</i> was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust of Canada Prize for Nonfiction and named a Best Book of the Year by CBC Books, <i>The Walrus</i> and <i>Autostraddle</i>. (Photo by Amos Mac.)</p>


Chase Joynt

Film

A Trans Lens, a Cinema of Defiance

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<p><strong>Curls Ultra</strong> is an underground post groovy rock band and activist network based in America. The band is known for their exhilarating live shows which feature <strong>Boredoms</strong>-esque noise jams, <strong>Can</strong>-inspired kosmiche grooves, and tender ballads depicting the degradation of the American psyche. They have performed at Pitchfork Music Festival, toured across multiple countries and opened for or collaborated with <strong>Tame Impala</strong>, <strong>Ariel Pink</strong>, <strong>Frank Hurricane</strong>, <strong>Sunburned Hand Of The Man</strong>, <strong>Wild Pink</strong>, <strong>Salesforce Child</strong>, and most recently <strong>Tim Heidecker</strong>’s <strong>Dekkar</strong>.</p>
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260: Lior Lev Sercarz

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