This Is TASTE

Ham El-Waylly, New York chef and cookbook author blending New Orleans flair with third-culture roots. Paula Hood, former Charlie Trotter colleague now leading scholarships for young restaurant pros. They chat about multicultural recipe play, preserving family recipes, cookbook photography and promo quirks, practical home-cooking tools and techniques, and scholarship opportunities for culinary and hospitality students.

Emma Orlow, founding journalist at Caper who covers restaurants and the business of hospitality. She explains why she helped start Caper and how it aims for deeper, trade-adjacent reporting. They trade recent restaurant tales, dissect notable food stories like an AI dining stunt and an eight-hour waffle craze, and tease reporting on distributors, supply chains, and underground food scenes.

David Cho, longtime media exec who helped launch The Awl and Grantland and now builds Postcard, talks restaurants and food media. He maps trusted recommendations, explains Postcard’s save-and-share discovery tools, and traces dining culture from LA Korean waves to internet-driven hype. Short, smart conversations about how taste gets organized and shared.

Santiago Perez, a Mexico City–born chef who left fine dining to open Santo Taco in NYC, talks tacos, tortillas, and designing a tight menu. Daisy Alioto, founder of Dirt and Tasteland cohost, discusses the future of food media, paywalls, newsletters, and live programming. Short, lively conversations about culinary craft and media innovation.

Simon Kim, restaurateur behind COTE Korean Steakhouse and Coqodaq, who helped elevate Korean barbecue and fried chicken in the U.S. He talks new openings and global scaling. He recalls early struggles that shaped him. He shares tools, favorite dishes, and inspirations. He reflects on food as culture, intentionality in restaurants, and why pleasing customers matters.

Deuki Hong, chef-partner behind Son and bestselling author of Koreatown, and Anthony Randello-Jahn, pastry chef and viral creator Donut Daddy. They trace Koreatown’s 10-year arc, Son’s cafe concept and menu, Korean food’s global rise, pastry and fine-dining shifts, and Anthony’s path from market cart to cinematic donut videos and a new cookbook.

Maxine Sharf, a former tech worker turned culinary creator and cookbook author, shares her blend of Korean, Chinese, and Eastern European roots. She talks about leaving tech to build Maxie’s Kitchen, organizing recipes by weekdays, family cooking rituals like grandma’s wontons, viral recipe moments, simple production tips for creators, and her plans for teaching and a possible cooking show.

Marcus Samuelsson, acclaimed chef born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, founder of Red Rooster and former Aquavit leader. He recalls mid-90s New York dining, mentorships that shaped his technique, blending French precision with Asian flavors, and the community-driven creation and evolution of Red Rooster in Harlem.

Ifrah F. Ahmed, Somali-born Brooklyn writer, chef, and artist behind the cookbook Soomaaliya. She talks about translating oral culinary traditions into a book. Conversation covers Somali staples and flavors, structuring the cookbook by meals, photographing food in Somalia and New York, and her angero breakfast burrito pop-up.

Michelle Rabin, a Canadian food stylist and recipe developer who moved from behind-the-scenes to on-camera work, chats about joining the wild Netflix show Just a Dash. She describes the show’s surreal, unscripted style, improvising crazy segments like king crab shoots, and the rise of her quirky “constipation consultant” bit. They also touch on wardrobe, production twists, and trends like fiber and psychedelics.