Podcast

What a fun conversation with the one and only Bobby Flay. Bobby joins us in the studio to talk about his New York City restaurant career, including highly memorable restaurants Mesa Grill, Bolo, Gato, and Bar Americain. We dig into why Mesa Grill was such a groundbreaking idea in the early 1990s and how his cooking there brought Southwest flavors into the mainstream. We also discuss how beating Bobby actually means beating Bobby, and we talk about some classic Iron Chef episodes as well as his great new cookbook, Bobby Flay: Chapter One. Also on the show, it’s the return of Three Things where Aliza and Matt discuss what is exciting in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole. On this episode: It's persimmon season (we have thoughts), Atlanta's Breaker Breaker is extremely chill, New York's 99 Favor Taste is the best birthday spot, Camilla Marcus wrote a really cool book, My Regenerative Kitchen. Also, some thoughts on cooking beans, when are beans really a "meal", and a reminder about how much we love the book Cool Beans. Lastly, the chicken Big Mac is very bad, and the new episodes of Chef's Table are very, very good. Stay tuned for an episode with Chef's Table creator David Gelb very soon. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.  MORE FROM BOBBY FLAY:Bobby Flay Taught Ina Garten His Go-To Easy Pasta [F&W]Bobby Flay owes his career to an Easy-Bake Oven [Today]Don't Sleep on Pinto Beans [TASTE]

We’ve long been fans of cookbook author and creative thinker Molly Baz, and many of you have too. With a signature voice and absolutely wild recipe development skills (as well as years of professional cooking under her belt), Molly has won over millions of fans worldwide. Her cookbooks Cook This Book and More Is More are both New York Times Best Sellers, and she returns to the show to give us some big updates, including what restaurants she has been enjoying in Los Angeles. We also talk about her jump into the CPG game with the launch of a new line of flavored mayonnaise: Ayoh! Also on the show, Clayton and Matt taste their way through Ayoh! to see if the dill pickle flavor is really hitting. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.  MORE FROM MOLLY BAZA Cacio e Pepe Gets Drunk and Breaks the Rules [TASTE]Molly Baz Shares the Must-Have Recipe of the Season [Glamour]Baz to Basics [TASTE]

As we approach our 500th episode, we are bringing back two memorable episodes from 2018, our first year of the podcast. Samin Nosrat is a chef and the author of the legendary cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat. This episode was our very first, and it was recorded at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn on July 12, 2018. We talked to Samin about “too-mami” (cooking with too much umami), angry letters, and the differences between brands of kosher salt—that is, not all kosher salt is the same.  Also on the show is a great conversation with Flynn McGarry. He’s the chef-owner of Gem Wine and Gem Home in New York City. In this episode, we discuss his time working at Los Angeles restaurant Alma at age 13, while being homeschooled, and his famous pop-ups even earlier in his career. The journey is all documented in the great film Chef Flynn, and we get into Flynn’s many travels and eventual business opening in NYC—the most competitive and cutthroat restaurant city in America. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you. 

Nicola Lamb is a pastry chef and recipe developer based in London. After training in some of London and New York’s top bakeries, like Dominique Ansel, Ottolenghi, and Happy Endings, she launched the pop-up bakery lark! and the popular newsletter Kitchen Projects—and now she’s written a wonderful debut cookbook, Sift, that’s truly the most comprehensive baking book I’ve read in years. It’s so fun to have Nicola on the show to nerd out about pastry process and much more. Also on the show, Matt has a great conversation with Hetal Vasavada discussing her great new cookbook, Desi Bakes: 85 Recipes Bringing the Best of Indian Flavors to Western-Style Desserts. Do you enjoy This Is TASTE? Drop us a review on Apple, or star us on Spotify. We’d love to hear from you.  MORE FROM NICOLA LAMB & HETAL VASAVADA:Kitchen Projects [Substack]A crash course in better baking: Ella Risbridger meets Nicola Lamb [Financial Times]Badam Burfi Bark [NYT]

"I need to be going to the Trumpy diner and just putting up a good hang in my little short shorts."