Aliza Abarbanel

is a freelance writer and editor based in Brooklyn. 

She is the co-founder and co-editor of Cake Zine, 

a contributing editor at TASTE and a co-host of the podcast This is TASTE,

the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.

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A selection of episodes I've hosted from 

Podcasts

Brendan Chareoncharutkun is the founder of ⁠Uncle’s Thai Food⁠, a freeze-dried curry brick brand based in New York.

Brendan Chareoncharutkun Built Uncle’s Thai Food. Curry Fans Are Following.

Dr. Ashanté M. Reese is a writer, anthropologist, and associate professor of African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Ashanté M. Reese Would Love to Come to Your Family Reunion

Claire Wadsworth and Nikki Hill are the owners of ⁠La Copine⁠, an oasis of a restaurant in California’s Mojave Desert. I

La Copine Built an Oasis in Joshua Tree. The Crowds Followed.

Gabrielle Davenport is the cofounder of ⁠BEM⁠, a bookstore and community space for Black food literature in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. It’s been a wonderfully busy season of cookbook events and releases, and this week BEM is reaching a whole new level by hosting the ⁠Edna Lewis Festival⁠. 

50 Years of Edna Lewis’s The Taste of Country Cooking with BEM’s Gabrielle Davenport

Alicia Kennedy is a food and culture writer from New York based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is the author of the essential weekly newsletter ⁠From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, ⁠the book ⁠No Meat Required⁠, and a lush new memoir, ⁠On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of My Appetites⁠. 

Alicia Kennedy on the Power of Memoir and Martinis

Inside Steak Zine, Cake Zine’s Medium-Rare New Issue

Cake Zine: Steak Zine

Amanda Perdomo is a pastry chef raised in Louisiana and based in New York.

Amanda Perdomo Is Your Favorite Pastry Chef’s Favorite Pastry Chef

Trinity Mouzon Wofford is the cofounder and CEO of the wellness brand ⁠Golde⁠ and the author of ⁠Eating at Home: The Nourishing Practice of Everyday Cooking⁠. 

Eating at Home with Golde’s Trinity Mouzon Wofford

Lucie Franc de Ferriere is the owner and head baker at ⁠From Lucie⁠, a small bakery in the East Village.

Bringing The French Countryside To East 10th Street with Lucie Franc de Ferriere

Ham El-Waylly is a chef, recipe developer, and video creator based in New York City. His New Orleans–style seafood restaurant Strange Delight is a Brooklyn favorite, but his wonderful ⁠new debut cookbook⁠ is decidedly for the home cooks.

Hello Home Cooking with Ham El-Waylly

Ifrah F. Ahmed is a Somali-born, Brooklyn-based writer, chef, and artist whose work centers around food, history, culture, memory, and migration.

A Delicious Deep Dive Into Somali Food with Ifrah F. Ahmed

Benjamina Ebuehi is a London-based recipe developer and food stylist who rose to fame as a quarter-finalist in the 2016 Great British Bake Off. She’s also the author of three baking cookbooks, including the new release I’ll Bring Dessert, and it’s so fun to have her on the show to talk about the differences between London and NYC bakeries, developing recipes, and more.

Great British Baking with Benjamina Ebuehi

Celina Baljeet Basra is the Berlin based author of Happy, a sweet and surreal postmodern novel released last year. It follows a young man named Happy from his family cabbage farm in Punjab to his clandestine journey to Europe, and the service jobs he works along the way. I’ve never read a book quite like Happy and it's so fun to have Celina on the show to talk about unconventional food writing, her favorite restaurants in Berlin, and more.

Fictional Food Comes Alive with Celina Baljeet Basra 

MacKenzie Chung Fegan is the new restaurant critic at the San Francisco Chronicle. She’s a former Bon Appétit editor who returned home to the Bay Area to shape food coverage at her hometown paper, and it’s so fun to have her on the show to break down her first few months on the job, the state of modern restaurant criticism, and more.

San Francisco's New Restaurant Critic with MacKenzie Chung Fegan 

Tama Matsuoka Wong is a renowned forager who supplies top New York City restaurants like Atoboy and Daniel with the good stuff: wild delicacies like chickweed, stinging nettles, and American sumac. She’s the author of Foraged Flavor; Scraps, Wilt, & Weeds; and her latest book, Into the Weeds; and it’s a delight to have her on the show to get real about ramps hype, gardening like a forager, and more.

The Life of a Professional Forager with Tama Matsuoka Wong 

Abi Balingit is the author of Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed, a delightful cookbook full of maximalist personality and transfixing sweets, like the adobo chocolate chip cookie. She’s a singular force in the NYC baking scene, and it’s so fun to have her on the show today to talk about what she’s been up to since publishing her first book, her love of kitsch, and more.

Abi Balingit 

Olga Massov and Sanaë Lemoine are the authors of Hot Sheet, a delightful new cookbook dedicated to the wide world of possibilities unlocked by the humble sheet pan. They’ve conjured up seriously smart recipes for breakfasts, starters, dinners, and desserts, and today they’re going deep on their process for developing creative yet accessible sheet pan staples.

Last Night a Sheet Pan Saved My Life with Olga Massov & Sanaë Lemoine 

Arielle Johnson is a flavor scientist who advises some of the top restaurants and chefs in the world on how to turbocharge their cooking with chemistry. She’s currently the science director of Noma Projects, and she’s sharing all her wisdom in a new book: Flavorama. It’s a delight having her on the show to answer all our questions about the science behind what we eat—truly a must-listen episode for anyone interested in food.

Flavor Science 101 with Dr. Arielle Johnson 

Nicolaia Rips is a true New Yorker. She grew up in Manhattan’s famous Chelsea Hotel, which served as the subject of her memoir, Trying to Float. Now she’s the features editor of HommeGirls, and she’s writing for places like Cultured, Air Mail, and the New York Times. It’s so fun to have her on the show in an all-out New York episode.

NYC Forever with Nicolaia Rips 

Julius Roberts is a chef and farmer living in the idyllic English countryside off the Dorset coast. He’s also the author of The Farm Table, a new cookbook chronicling his life cultivating crops and animals and cooking with this bounty. It’s a real delight to have him on the show to talk about transitioning from cooking in restaurants to family farming, daily life on his smallholding, recipe development, and more.

Julius Roberts

Hailee Catalano and Chuck Cruz are two of our favorite social media follows (@haileecatalano and @chuckycruz). The two chefs, who met in culinary school, cooked at Chicago restaurants like Dos Urban Cantina and Cellar Door Provisions before starting to share recipes on TikTok and Instagram. Their inventive recipes and laid-back vibe have won many, many fans, and it’s so fun to have them both in the studio to talk about their shifting careers.

Hailee Catalano & Chuck Cruz 

Kanchan Koya will forever change how you look at your spice drawer. The chef, author, podcast host, and nutrition coach has a PhD in biomedical sciences from Harvard Medical School, which she uses to champion the science-backed benefits of ancient spices. We invited her into the studio for a truly fascinating conversation answering our many questions about health claims around spices—such as, what is inflammation, actually? Find out now.

Spice Spice Baby with Kanchan Koya 

Christina Chaey is a writer and recipe developer based in Brooklyn. A former Bon Appétit food editor, she’s currently writing the newsletter Gentle Foods, where she shares essays and recipes rooted in cooking how you want to feel. It’s so special to catch up with Christina in the studio about her background working in magazines, expanding the concept of wellness food, and making her very own cookbook.

Christina Chaey 

Rachelle Hampton is a culture writer and the cohost of ICYMI, a digital culture podcast from Slate that provides funny and deep insight into the weird, wide world of the perpetually online. It’s so fun to have Rachelle in the studio to unpack some of the most pressing online food questions of the moment—Stanley cups, The Bear thirst—plus her own food media consumption, and much more.

Rachelle Hampton & Suzy Karadsheh 

Rose Wilde is the pastry chef and owner of Red Bread in Los Angeles, a pioneering microbakery that’s been championing whole grains and sustainable baking for over a decade.   She's headed the bread and pastry programs at Michelin-starred Rustic Canyon, Manuela, and Mother Wolf, and now she’s sharing her wisdom in the wonderful baking book Bread and Roses. We loved having Rose on the show to talk about the joys and challenges of baking with whole grains, her flock of chickens, and more.

Rose Wilde 

DeVonn Francis is a chef, recipe developer, and events producer based in Brooklyn. His culinary events studio, Yardy World, has developed a cult following around vibrant, lush experiences rooted in Caribbean cuisine with some of the best vibes and playlists around, and now they’re joining the CPG boom. It’s a joy to have DeVonn in the studio to talk about his distinctive POV, starring in the second season of High on the Hog, his dream dinner party lineup, and more.

DeVonn Francis 

Sana Javeri Kadri is the founder of Diaspora Co., an equitable—and highly useful—spice company paying an average of six times the commodity price to 150 farm partners across India and Sri Lanka. On this episode Sana unpacks exactly how Diaspora Co. has expanded their scope and scale while remaining true to their mission, plus moving back to Mumbai and much more.

Diaspora Co

Klancy Miller is the author of For the Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food, a fantastic new anthology pairing recipes and reflections that began as a magazine with the same name. Klancy is also a trained pastry chef, a recipe developer, and the author of Cooking Solo: The Fun of Cooking for Yourself. We’ve long admired Klancy’s work, and it’s a thrill to have her on the show to talk about creating the book she wished she had access to when coming up in the industry, her love of Paris, and much more.

Klancy Miller

Cake Zine is an independent print magazine exploring society through sweets, cofounded by Tanya Bush and TASTE contributing editor Aliza Abarbanel. Their fourth issue, Tough Cookie, presents a hearty batch of trials and triumphs, all in the context of cookies. On the show, Aliza and Tanya unpack how they made the issue, the many cultural connotations of cookies, and their latest trip to London.

Cake Zine: Tough Cookie

Nasim Lahbichi is a recipe developer based in Brooklyn, where he’s built a big following creating videos that blend craveable recipes drawing from his Moroccan and Puerto Rican heritage with highly relatable dating escapades. His roots in interior design and New York City inform his work in exciting ways, and we’re excited to have him on the show today to talk about the future of food content creation.

Nasim Lahbichi

Melissa King is a Top Chef icon—but she’s also much more. The champion turned judge is also the host of Tasting Wild, a far-out outdoor cooking show, and she still finds time to be in the kitchen with pop-ups. It’s so fun to have her on the show to talk about cooking with her Top Chef crew, plus career-defining gigs like appearing on Sesame Street and cooking for the Met Gala.

Melissa King

Bryan Washington is a writer from Houston whose latest novel, Family Meal, is an intimate portrayal of friendship, queerness, and pastries. He also writes about things like Japanese curry bread and queer bars for the New Yorker, and today we’re thrilled to have him on the show to talk about food as a plot device, his favorite okonomiyaki spots in Osaka, and more.

Bryan Washington

Abena Anim-Somuah is the James Beard Award–winning host of The Future of Food Is You, a Cherry Bombe podcast network show in which she interviews rising talent in the food space. She’s also behind the Eden Place, a food-focused community series, and always has her eye out for what’s new and next. We had her on the show to talk about the future of food podcasting, spending time in Mexico City, and much more.

Abena Anim-Somuah and Margie Namura

Christina Ward is the author of Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat. It’s a fascinating book that digs deep into how the fringe and mainstream spiritual practices of Americas past shaped modern food culture, from trends to products still in the grocery aisle today. It’s a conversation you won’t soon forget and we hope you enjoy.

Food, Religion & Cults with Christina Ward 

If you’d call yourself a “fruit person,” you’ll eat this episode up. William Mullan is a photographer and marketing manager whose book, Odd Apples, documents the stunning, strange world of heirloom apple varietals. His love of fruit extends to caring for urban apple trees in South Brooklyn and brewing his own cider—clearly there’s a lot to discuss! It was so fun to have William on the show to nerd out on fall fruit, the wine harvest, and more.

Odd Apples

Luke Fortney is a reporter at Eater New York, where he keeps an eagle eye on openings and closings, plus trends like the city’s burgeoning breakfast burrito scene. Aliza had him on the show to talk about what it’s like staying on top of New York’s ever-shifting dining landscape. Whether you live in New York City or you’re thinking about taking a trip there, it’s a must-listen.

Luke Fortney & Ravinder Bhogal 

How much do you know about olive oil? After this episode, a lot more. Skyler Mapes, cofounder of EXAU Olive Oil and coauthor of the new book The Olive Oil Enthusiast, joined us from her home in Calabria, Italy, to drop invaluable olive oil knowledge from harvest to bottle, plus Italy travel tips and more. It’s a fun episode, and we hope you’ll enjoy it.

Skyler Mapes

Today’s special episode is from our recent conversation with baking cookbook authors Natasha Pickowicz and Claire Saffitz, live at Rizzoli Bookstore in NYC. 

Natasha Li Pickowicz & Claire Saffitz 

C Pam Zhang is the author of the acclaimed novel How Much of These Hills Is Gold. Her new book, Land of Milk and Honey, is set in a near future where smog has choked out almost all agriculture, and where a chef is lured to cook at a reclusive mountain institute for the global elite with the promise of produce. It’s a gripping book about power and politics and, mostly, a love letter to food, and we’re thrilled to have her on the show to discuss it.

C Pam Zhang

Ham El-Waylly is a chef, recipe developer, and video creator based in New York City. You may know him from the NYT Cooking channel, where he shares ingenious tips and whips up opulent feasts from niche ingredients alongside his wife, Sohla. But you probably don’t know Ham’s rich history in food, from growing up in Doha, Qatar, with Bolivian-Egyptian parents in the food business to running research and development at Momofuku’s Ando. Today we dig into it all, plus his love of graphic tees and live music, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Ham El Waylly

Chef Eric Adjepong was a finalist on season 16 of Bravo's Top Chef and a contestant on season 17 of Top Chef All-Stars, where he earned consistent acclaim from judges and popularity among viewers. As a first-generation Ghanaian-American born and raised in New York City, Eric sources the flavors and influences in his cooking from many of the West African dishes he grew up eating. He is passionate about introducing diners to West African cuisine and the impact its diaspora has had on South American, Latin American, Caribbean, and American food, all in his elegant, artfully plated style. On this episode we talk about Eric's new children's book, Sankofa: A Culinary Story of Resilience and Belonging. We also talk about is forthcoming cookbook, as well as what it was like to compete on Top Chef. 