Podcast

Our Las Vegas week continues! Penny Chutima is the next generation of Lotus of Siam, an iconic, James Beard Award–winning restaurant serving up regional Northern Thai food in Las Vegas since 1999. The daughter of chef Saipin Chutima, Penny is dedicated to preserving and expanding Lotus of Siam’s legacy, beloved by chefs like Anthony Bourdain and just about everyone else who comes to Vegas.  Also on the show, Matt talks with Amanda Signorelli about running the Golden Steer, an iconic Vegas steakhouse founded in 1958, frequented by Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, that’s been in her family for years. These very special episodes of This Is TASTE are supported by Las Vegas.

Our Las Vegas week continues with a very fun interview with Michael Mina, a legendary Bay Area chef who has deep roots in Las Vegas. We talk about how the city has grown into a world-class culinary destination and get into what he is cooking up at his restaurants there, including Bardot Brasserie, International Smoke, Orla, StripSteak, and his namesake restaurant at Bellagio. This guy has serious range, and we discuss how he sources California produce and seafood and gets it to his Las Vegas restaurants in a snap. We also get a locals-only tour of restaurants off the Strip from the point of view of a world-class chef who also happens to be a local.  Also on the show, Aliza and Matt pay a visit to Sphere, the now-legendary Las Vegas performance venue. We attended a recent Dead & Company show and wanted to check in with the food! It’s actually quite good, and we share some highlights from the concession stand, including good pizza, great pretzels, craft beer for days, and a thoughtful approach to modern stadium food. It’s yet another example of how Las Vegas is getting food right.  These very special episodes of This Is TASTE are supported by Las Vegas.

Influential and esoteric celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has been operating restaurants in Las Vegas for more than 25 years, earning a following through his creative cuisine and sense of showmanship at restaurants including Caramá, CUT, and Spago. On this entertaining episode, we hear how Wolfgang was initially drawn to Las Vegas when opening Spago, his first restaurant there, in 1992, and how he’s seen the Las Vegas dining scene develop into an internationally acclaimed destination. Also on the show, Aliza and Matt take a tour of Las Vegas’s bustling Chinatown, making visits to some really cool places, including Ping Pang Pong, Gäbi Coffee & Bakery, Shang Artisan Noodle, and the 24-hour cocktail bar Golden Tiki. We also experience Cantonese barbecue nirvana at Win Kee HK BBQ and Noodle and catch up with the restaurant’s owner, Ida Shek.  These very special episodes of This Is TASTE are supported by Las Vegas.

We’re so happy to feature two great friends: chef Deuki Hong and New York Times columnist and cookbook author Eric Kim. We had a great conversation about the new book Koreaworld, a cookbook and cultural study that Matt wrote with Deuki. This conversation was recorded live at Rizzoli Bookstore and touches on many topics related to modern Korean food in both Korea and the United States. We hope you enjoy the conversation. Got a question, comment, future guest idea, fact to share, fun fact to share, less-fun fact to share? Send us a voice memo and we will listen to it, and may feature your message on the show! MORE FROM DEUKI HONG:Buy: KoreaworldThe Seoul Train of Inspiration Runs Through Los Angeles [Eater]Koreaworld: A Culinary Revolution [NBC Washington]Chef Deuki Hong Talks New ‘Koreaworld' Cookbook [NBC Bay Area]

St. Agrestis has had a couple very big years in the competitive nonalcoholic drinks arena, and it’s long overdue to have the brand’s cofounder Louis Catizone on the show. The Phony Negroni is a near-perfect NA cocktail, and on this episode we talk about how it was born and how NA bottled cocktails are appearing in bars and restaurants at record levels. This is a great talk for anybody interested in hearing the story of an emerging brand in the drinks world. Got a question, comment, future guest idea, fact to share, fun fact to share, less-fun fact to share? Send us a voice memo and we will listen to it, and may feature your message on the show! MORE FROM ST. AGRESTIS:A Nonalcoholic Amaro ‘Falso’ From St. Agrestis [NYT]St. Agrestis Debuts the Phony Mezcal Negroni [Appetito]

The popular Instagram account Book More Women began tracking the statistical data for gender inclusivity on U.S. music festival lineups in 2018, and has grown to a following of over 16k over the last six years. The account has become hailed by the likes of Brandi Carlile, who says that founding her own festival (Girls Just Wanna Weekend) was directly inspired by seeing the data that Book More Women posts. The identity of the woman who runs this account and handles the hefty task of tracking this data has mostly been a mystery, and it took us five years to finally convince Abbey Carbonneau to join us for a SHEROES interview. In this not to miss conversation we learn about the methodology and inspiration behind Book More Women, and find out a bit about the passionate music fan that has single-handedly built it from the ground up, completely on a volunteer basis.

"And then the next day, the doom is back again. Is it like that for you?"