This Is TASTE

It was so great having Marcus Samuelsson in the studio. Marcus is one of America’s finest chefs, born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden before, at age 24, being named executive chef of New York’s Aquavit and soon becoming the youngest ever to receive a three-star restaurant review from the New York Times. That was 1995. Today Marcus runs restaurants around the world, including the iconic Red Rooster in Harlem. He’s also involved in building community as much as developing dining concepts, and in this episode we talk about New York in the mid-’90s, building a restaurant for Harlem, by Harlem, and his various projects helping the food community. 

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Ifrah F. Ahmed is a Somali-born, Brooklyn-based writer, chef, and artist whose work centers around food, history, culture, memory, and migration. For years, she’s been sharing Somali food through her pop-up Milk and Myrrh and as a contributor to New York Times Cooking—and now, she’s releasing a gorgeous debut cookbook, Soomaaliya. It’s a pleasure to have Ifrah on the show to talk about the joys and challenges of translating an oral tradition into a cookbook, the rich legacy and influences of Somali cuisine, and much more. 

And at the top of the show, Aliza talks about my recent trip to Tokyo, covering many stops along the way including Ramen Jazzy Beats, Nasu Oyaji, Laekker, and the Mori Art Museum.

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Michelle Rabin is a Canadian food stylist and recipe developer who has worked as a culinary producer on shows like MasterChef Canada. She also appears in the terrific fever dream of a cooking show Just a Dash alongside Matty Matheson, now playing on Netflix. We love this show, and I love how Michelle speaks about making the leap from working behind the scenes to being on camera. Just a Dash is weird, visually creative, and highly entertaining, and we talk about how the show got made as well as her budding career as a “constipation consultant.”

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Elyssa Heller is the chef and owner of New York’s remarkable sandwich shop and slushie seller Edith’s, with locations in Williamsburg and the West Village. I love these restaurants for their singular point of view. They’re part modern Jewish deli, part downtown all-day café, and fully Elyssa. I really enjoyed catching up about her journey to opening Edith’s, her time working in professional candy sales, and how she thinks about tapping into her Jewish identity with foods honoring the past.

Also on the show we have a great conversation with Gráinne O'Hare, author of a terrific novel, Thirst Trap. We talk about the food scene in Belfast, and what it takes to write a great food scene in fiction.

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Alex Raij is the chef and co-owner of New York’s Txikito, Saint Julivert Fisherie, and La Vara, restaurants singular in their approach and wide reaching in their fandom. On this episode Alex takes the Resy Questionnaire, and we learn about her journey as a chef, what inspires her Spanish-inflected cooking, and her big hopes and dreams for the industry she cares so deeply about. 

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers – not of Resy—and do not constitute professional advice.
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