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622: Basque Restaurant Blowout: The Good, The Bad, and the Pil Pil with Max Shapiro

This is such a great conversation with Max Shapiro, co-host of the Air Jordan podcast and a guy who knows what he likes. We’ve enjoyed Max’s very active, and sometimes blessedly candid, Instagram reviews of restaurants around the world. While he’s based in Los Angeles, his recent trip to Spain, particularly a dozen stops at legendary restaurants and new places around San Sebastián, got us interested. Max shares an action-packed road trip around the Basque region, including stops at Gresca, Casa Julián, Asador Etxebarri, and Kaia Kaipe. And why you should most certainly not book at Arzak. He also tells what is good in his hometown of Los Angeles including Dunsmoor, Budonoki, Horses, Shunji, and Muse.      Read more about Air Jordan and the Los Angeles podcast scene. It’s interesting. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 

July 12, 2025

621: Unpacking Swedish Candy’s Viral Success with BonBon’s Leonard Schaltz

Leo Schaltz is a cofounder of BonBon, a Swedish candy store with five locations in New York City (six total) and a cult following on TikTok. The pick-and-mix bulk candy selection is entirely imported from Sweden, from salty licorice to sour strawberry cream skulls. Today on the show, Leo talks about growing BonBon’s candy empire, meeting viral demand, and building a candy library. And before that, Matt shares some of his discoveries from the recent Fancy Food Show in New York. These aren’t the “best” products at the show per say, and lord was it a big show. These are simply some of Matt’s favorites, including: Vietnam’s Marou Chocolates, Baris frozen dipped raspberries, Gamsa Foods savory instant oatmeal, Rotten “better for you” candy, Long Weekend freeze-dried instant soup, Pari zero-proof, Michigan pies in the grocery store from Achatz Pie Company, Salad Sprinkles is really smart. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 

July 11, 2025

819. – Stephanie Danler

July 11, 2025

Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” with Sam Sanders

July 10, 2025

Josh Ritter: Truth is a Dimension (Astrophysics with Avi Loeb)

Truth is a Dimension: Navigating Perspectives on Cosmology and Meaning)

July 9, 2025

620: Hailee Catalano Shares Her Hearts For Chicago, Red Sauce Classics, The Jersey Shore, and Rachael Ray

Hailee Catalano is a trained chef, a former restaurant cook, a recipe developer, and one of our favorite voices in all of food. She is the author of a great new cookbook, By Heart. In this episode, we talk about her early years in Chicago, growing up in an Italian American household, and her later years working the line as a cook before launching her social media account on a lark. If you follow Hailee, you know her unique take on home cooking is absolutely mesmerizing, and we discuss how she thinks about developing recipes for Instagram Reels and TikTok. Also on the show we have a great conversation with David Nayfeld. He’s the chef and co-owner of Che Fico in San Francisco, among other restaurants, and the author of a great new book, Dad, What's for Dinner? We talk about restaurant life and how cooking for his daughter inspired him to write this unique book. Subscribe to This Is TASTE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 

July 9, 2025