Explore every episode of the podcast Taste Buds With Deb

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with filmmaker, Accidental Talmudist and longtime “Jewish Journal” contributor Salvador Litvak. Litvak’s Passover classic, “When Do We Eat?” stars Max Greenfield, Ben Feldman, Shiri Appleby, Lesley Ann Warren, Michael Lerner, and Jack Klugman. Litvak directed the film that he co-wrote with his wife and partner, Nina Davidovich Litvak. 

The Litvaks’ second movie was “Saving Lincoln.” Their new film “Guns & Moses” is out this summer. 

“The perennial fifth question of the Passover Seder is, ‘When do we eat?’” Litvak, who is also the author of “Let My People Laugh: Greatest Jewish Jokes of All Time,”  says. “There's all these holiday movies… but there was no Passover movie.” 

When the Litvaks made “When Do We Eat?” they were connected to Judaism, but not yet Orthodox. 

“The movie's probably a little bit edgier than we would make it today,” Litvak says. “One of the main plot points is that one of the kids doses his dad with a strong hallucinogen at the Passover seder, but also the movie contains wonderful spiritual teachings.”

He adds, “[Our dream: that] it would become the Jewish, ‘It's a Wonderful Life,’ the movie that people watch every year.”

Salvador Litvak shares the backstories behind “When Do We Eat?” and his new Jewish joke book. the connections between Judaism and food, and his recipe for Sal-mon. He also talks about creating The Accidental Talmudist, how that community embraced his Passover classic film aka “My Big Fat Jewish Seder.” 

“My mom always used to say there's two kinds of people: those who get into conversations in the checkout line at the supermarket and those who don't,” Litvak says. “We are [the first] kind.”

Learn more at SalvadorLitvak.com, AccidentalTalmudist.org, and GunsandMosesMovie.com. Check out Salvador’s new book, “Let My People Laugh: Greatest Jewish Jokes of All Time.”

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Beejhy Barhany, the founding owner and executive chef of Tsion Cafe, an Ethiopian and Israeli restaurant in New York. 

“Ethiopian Jewish food is just a little bit of everything,” Barhany explains. “It’s an array of an abundance of flavors … packed with nutrients.”

Her new cookbook, “Gursha” is a celebration of Ethiopian Jewish (Beta Israel) cuisine. It features more than 100 recipes, along with stories and traditions, from the places she has lived: Ethiopia, Sudan, Israel, and Harlem. The recipes in “Gursha,” which is is loosely translated as “mouthful” or “the act of feeding one another,” range from traditional dishes (Doro Wot, Shakshuka, Legamat [Sudanese doughnuts]) to ones that Barhany created (Berbere Fried Fish, Injera Fish Taco, Queen of Sheba Chocolate Cardamom Cake). 

“I encompass a lot of heritages and cultures and what have you, and that is actually showcased on the menu [and] in the cookbook,” she says. 

Beejhy Barhany talks about her background, Ethiopian Jewish cuisine - including some recipes, and the power of food from different cultures. She also shares her recipe for Ethiopian Matzah, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Barhany believes food is a wonderful tool to bring people together, as well as to engage and learn about each other’s cultures. 

“Once you are open to tasting a particular group of flavors and dishes, I think you will have a better understanding [of one another],” she says. “I would say my offering is to have food as a medium of peace, harmony, and understanding and respect.”

Learn more at TsionCafe.com. Follow @BeejhysGursha and @TsionCafe on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On the 100th episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Sean Kanan, author, actor, Emmy-award winning producer, and founder of Bad Boy Hot Sauce. 

Kanan, who has portrayed Deacon Sharpe on CBS’s “The Bold and the Beautiful” since 2000, got his Hollywood break playing bad-boy Mike Barnes in “Karate Kid III.” He reprised this role on the fifth and sixth seasons of “Cobra Kai” on Netflix. 

“Martial arts has always been an important part of my life since I was probably about 14, 15 years old,” Kanan says. “The tenets of martial arts are something that I try to embody every day: courage, honesty, humility. … I look at my life as being very holistic and everything that I do, even though  it may seem like they're very different pursuits, they're all interconnected.”

His latest books are the series: “Way of the Cobra,” “Welcome to the Kumite” and “Way of the Cobra Couples,” co-written by his wife, Michele. His new food venture, Bad Boy Hot Sauce - flavors are Cobra Venom, Mango Madness and Red Pepper Punch - are also on-brand.

“Bad boy Mike Barnes, bad boy karate, Bad Boy Hot Sauce,” he said. “It seemed like there was a good synergy there, and it's been really fun.”

Kanan talks about his food philosophies and his favorite Jewish foods, Bad Boy Hot Sauce, martial arts, and living a life of humility and gratitude. He also shares a pasta recipe - pappardelle gemelle - from “The Modern Gentleman: Cooking and Entertaining with Sean Kanan,” along with the backstory. Get the recipe at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 

“You break bread with somebody and have a great meal, [then] authenticity tends to come out: walls get dropped, commonalities get brought to the forefront,” he says. “I've always recognized that food has that power.”

Learn more about Sean Kanan, at SeanKanan.actor and BadBoyEats.com. Follow @sean.kanan on Instagram. Watch Sean Kanan’s TEDx on how to be the hero of your own story.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with nutrition coach and naturopath Remi Haik. 

Haik grew up in Israel, where the kitchen was the most loving room in the house. 

“It's a sort of love language to feed our loved ones,” she says. “We share this experience, [and] we also are giving and receiving [food].”

One of her favorite recipes is energy tahini and dates balls. They're simple to make, give you a burst of energy when you need it, and most importantly remind her of home. 

“Dates, for example, are a very well known food in the Middle East,” she says. “Whenever I eat dates [and also hummus] … I feel connected to that identity.”

Haik believes that how food makes you feel is as important as the act of eating.

“There’s this idea of if I do not eat healthy 100% of the time, I am not healthy; it’s very much an all-or-nothing mentality,” Haik explains. That’s not the case. If you focus on how you are feeling as you eat one meal a week, you can let your healthy eating habits grow from there. 

Since self-care is another key to a healthy life, Haik also suggests finding one or two things to do each day that make you feel rejuvenated. And, if you feel stressed during the day, the easiest way to do a quick reset is to breathe. 

“Literally stop for three seconds,” she says. “If you want, you can put one hand on your chest - on your heart - [and] one hand on your stomach [then] inhale, exhale.”

Doing this, even for a few seconds, reduces your stress hormones. You will immediately start feeling calmer. 

Remi Haik shares her personal healthy eating journey and tips for self care, along with the recipe for her energy tahini and dates balls, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more at RemiHaik.com and follow @remihaik on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Aliza J. Sokolow, author of “This is What I Eat: Fun Activities for Mindful Eating.” 

Sokolow, who is a private chef, food stylist and photographer, loves the change of seasons … and the fruits and vegetables that go with it. 

“My eating and cooking and shopping is very seasonal,” Sokolow says. “Luckily in California we have microclimate, so we get the best of everything all year round.”

For Sokolow, the simplest thing is to go to the market and look around. Find a few things that look good, sample and eat them. When you buy great ingredients, you do not need to do a lot to your food.

One of her go-to farmers market recipes is a breakfast taco, made with local ingredients: tortillas (from local grain), eggs, avocado and limes. Sometimes she’ll buy salsa at the market or make it herself. 

Sokolow wrote “This is What I Eat” as a way to get kids excited about healthy eating and cooking. The book is filled with activities - regrowing produce, food scavenger hunts - designed to make fruits and vegetables fun! Sokolow wants kids to build curiosity about produce through the lens of color, shapes, sizes and seasons. 

“Cooking is daunting for many people, but it's really just washing and cutting things [and] not everything needs to be cooked; certain things you can eat raw,” she explains. “I just want to encourage eating things that you find at the farmers market or stuff that doesn't have a nutrition label, because it's [usually] pretty delicious; and if it's not, add a little bit of salt to it and it'll probably bring out the flavors.”

Sokolow talks about her love of produce - and what started it, some of her favorite spring recipes, and ways to have fun at farmers markets. She also shares her fail-proof vegetable puree recipe at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more at SokolowPhoto.com, @alizajsokolow on Instagram, check out her book “This is What I Eat,” as well as the This Is What I Eat Substack.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Ben and Max Berkowitz aka the Berkowitz Brothers. The award-winning producing and writing duo (NotABillionaire.com) co-wrote the graphic novel, “The Writer,” along with Josh Gad. 

“The Writer,” illustrated by Marvel and DC Comics legend Ariel Olivetti (who they pitched via Instagram DM), is a four-issue series, to be released in trade paperback on April 22. The supernatural adventure comic - in the vein of an Indiana Jones story - follows Stan Siegel, a comic book writer whose life unravels when the fantastical worlds that he writes about start bleeding into reality.

“We also added a lot of our family stories into this as well,” Max explains. “We put our mom into the story; it's literally Josh Gad's character's mom.” 

Adds Ben, “Our mother's character, Liz, in the book, is constantly pushing food on the characters.”

Ben and Max clearly have strong ties to food.

“ Our family, we always talk about the next meal, even when we're eating a meal,” Max says. “It's always on our mind.”

“For us, food has always been the connector, bringing people from walks of life [together],” Ben says. “When our dad helped build out the family restaurant business … it was made to bring people [together] to enjoy just good, simple fish dishes.”

Whether your family business is fish or creating content, you need to navigate what's most important for work and your home life.

“At the end of the day, what kind of solved most any argument was a great meal,” Ben says. “If anything, it stops people from talking because their mouths were too full of food.” 

The Berkowitz Bros talk about how “The Writer” came together, their family food legacy, bagel and other eating habits, and more. They also share their father’s famous whitefish salad recipe, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Check out NABvid.com and follow @BerkowitzBros and @TheWriterComic on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

Known as “the kosher baker,” Paula Shoyer started baking at the age of five with her Easy Bake oven. At the time, she had no idea it was even possible to make baking her career.

A former lawyer, Shoyer’s decision to go to cooking school in Paris for fun evolved into an amazing career.

“I took all of those dairy pastry desserts, converted them into parve or dairy-free desserts, so that I could eat them with my shabbat meat meals,” Shoyer explains. “People started asking me to cater for them, and I started teaching cooking classes. She also edited cookbooks for others, before writing her own.

“I'm so happy in my kitchen, testing recipes over and over again, trying new combinations and hoping to avoid the bake and dump where something is a complete fail,” she explains. 

Paula Shoyer talks about mistakes people make when baking, how to correct #bakingfails, and ways to level up and get creative with your recipes. She also shares her recipe for babka bites, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

“People make food to survive, but people bake to comfort, to celebrate,” Shoyer believes. “They're baking out of this great generosity of soul.”

Learn more at  www.thekosherbaker.com, sign up for her newsletter, and follow Paula Shoyer on Instagram @kosherbaker and TikTok @chefpaulashoyer. Feel free to send a message to Paula, so she can answer your baking questions.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Joshua Silverstein, an award-winning actor, comic, writer, allergy-culture advocate and food lover. 

Silverstein’s creativity clearly lends itself well to the kitchen, especially since he needs to work around his many allergies. 

“My relationship with food has been challenging, it's been exciting, it's led to a lot of interesting stories,” he explains. The executive director of Cazadero performing arts camp, he is also a staple writer-performer at The Braid Jewish Theater Company. Silverstein’s The Braid’s shows include “True Colors,” “What A Surprise” and the upcoming “Hold Me, Heal Me,” as well as a solo show. 

“Because I'm a father with a multicultural family that leaves room for a lot of experimentation [especially since] my children also have allergies,” he says.

Silverstein explains how he gets to be a “mad scientist” in the kitchen. Combine the mindset of exploration with being inclusive. 

“The kitchen should be a place of play and fun, and that's a privilege,” he believes. “Keep trying new things [and] keep being curious about what's on the other side of people's palates.”

Joshua Silverstein talks about his upbringing, creativity in the kitchen, and how everything his family eats is a community project. He also shares about his grandmother’s latke recipe, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. There are also shout outs to Natasha Feldman, NoshwithTash.com,  author of “The Dinner Party Project.”

Learn more at JoshuaSilverstein.com and CazFamilyCamp.org. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chef Olivia Ostrow of Miami's Ostrow Brasserie. Her restaurant is the only kosher-French restaurant in the United States. 

As a French person and a chef, Ostrow’s love language is food. “This is how we express ourselves,” she says.

Ostrow - who was born in Paris, moved to the States with her family in the 1990s, and spent time in Israel - grew up surrounded by a love and knowledge of food. 

While she has helmed both kosher and non-kosher restaurants throughout her career, a few years ago, Ostrow decided it was time to go back to kosher. It turned out that the owner of the building happened to be Jewish and religious, so they decided to become partners.

“It was faith and fate,” she explains. Ostrow Brasserie opened in August 2023. 

Most people do not associate kosher with French food, and there’s a reason: It's difficult. Not only is French cuisine butter based, everything needs to be made from scratch in order to actually execute a dish. There are so many kosher laws, besides not mixing milk and meat.

Also, French is usually associated with fancy. However, Ostrow calls her cuisine “fine comfort food.”

“The reason people outside of France don't associate it with [comfort food] is because they're not French,” she says. For Ostrow, beef bourguignon - a stew of short rib and braised with wine - was made from leftovers of the meat of the week. She would eat in front of the TV with mashed potatoes or pasta.

Olivia Ostrow talks about her restaurant and love-of-food background, along with kosher-French cooking and comfort food. And, since Ostrow’s restaurant’s Valentine's Day menu is inspired by the most romantic cities in the world - Paris, Venice, Rome and Kyoto - she also shares her recipe for Heart-Shaped Raviolo (ravioli), which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 

When you celebrate love, it “should be said in every language and in as many ways as possible,” Ostrow says.

Learn more at OstrowBrasserie.com and follow @OstrowBrasserie on Instagram.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Rick Nahmias, founder and CEO of Food Forward. The nonprofit recovers surplus produce that would go to waste and distributes it to agencies who feed the hungry.

“We're the Robin Hoods of produce,” Nahmias explains. “We recover it, we refrigerate it, and then we redistribute it.” 

While Food Forward is based in Los Angeles, their work reaches the entire Southwest. It launched in 2009. Nahmias, who walked his dog around his neighborhood in San Fernando Valley, says that as his dog got older, the walks got slower, and he started to notice all this fruit on trees that was going to waste.

“Maybe a few went to someone's office or the family that had the tree, but for the most part, it was going to squirrels, rats and under car wheels,” he says. Nahmias organized volunteers to harvest the fruit and donated the first few harvests to SOVA.

“They took the produce and said, ‘Great, when's the next delivery?’” Nahmias recalls. 

By the end of that first year they rescued and distributed 100,000 pounds of hand picked produce. By the second year, they rescued 250,000 pounds. Today, they move more than 250,000 pounds on a slow day.

What started by rescuing food from local fruit trees has turned into a bounty of abundance. Agencies get produce to give to those who are food insecure; volunteers get to participate in meaningful community service; farmers have less waste, which helps the environment. It’s the ultimate win-win-win situation. 

Rick Nahmias talks about Food Forward and its evolution, the joy of sharing abundance, and his grandmother’s stuffed cabbage recipe, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.  

“I don't talk about a glass half-full or a glass half-empty,” Nahmias said. “When I talk about Food Forward, I come at it from a glass overflowing.”

Learn more at FoodForward.org.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Chef Elizabeth Mehditach, whose mission is to unite people through food. With a specialty in the fusion of California, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern cuisine, Mehditach is all for eating healthy, as long as you remember that it’s okay to make exceptions.

“If you have a cheat day, just get back on [the wagon],” Mehditach says. “And the next meal you have, make it a healthy one.” 

Studies show that most people ditch their New Year’s resolutions by the end of January. Regardless of the time of year, there are certain things you can do to incorporate healthier foods into your routine. One of the best ways to do that is alter your grocery shopping habits. Stay on the outer rims of the supermarket, buy whole foods - items in their natural state with nothing added to it - and try to avoid processed foods. 

“A tomato off the vine with a little salt and olive oil [is] a great snack,” she expalins. “We've convinced our palates that just raw tomato doesn't taste as good as a potato chip.”

Mehditach talks about her background and what the Mediterranean lifestyle means. She also shares tips for shopping and eating healthy, along with her recipe for quinoa salad, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 

“It's all about those textures and hitting those different notes of salty, savory and sweet, crunchy and smooth, cool and hot,” she says. “That keeps your tongue, your mouth, and your brain entertained; you think you're eating something exciting that's actually really good for you too.” 

Learn more at LizaMichelleLifestyle.com and follow @Chef.Leza on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chef and restaurateur Daniel Shemtob, whose home burned down in the Palisades fire. He is also one of many local chefs teaming with José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen (WCK) to feed those displaced by the fires and first responders.

'It’s been crazy, dealing with the consequences of losing your home, losing all your stuff, dealing with insurance, finding a new place to live and [having] a pregnant wife who is stressed out,” Shemtob says. “[I’m also] a business owner, [wanting] to give back to the community; I think that that's the necessary step in rebuilding.”

Shemtob is the all-star winner of Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race” with The Lime Truck, as well as the chef behind Downtown LA’s Hatch Yakitori, co-founder of Snibbs footwear company and author of “Food Truck Mogul.” 

Four days after evacuating from the Palisades fire, Shemtob returned to his food truck, where he was greeted by Tyler Florence, host of “The Great Food Truck Race.”

“Tyler's kind of the people's chef,” says Shemtob, who worked with Florences on the line, serving 500 people in 90 minutes that first day. “We were serving delicious food … and I just felt that good energy of taking care of others; that felt really nice.”  

Because of WCK and the chef corp, setting up around Los Angeles, people are getting nourishment, but also engaging, talking and commiserating. 

“We're laughing and we're crying; it's all the things that you go through when you go through a shared tragedy with others,” he says. 

Daniel Shemtob shares his experience with the fires and how he was able to bounce back. He also talks about the role of food in healing, the good work World Central Kitchen and the chef’s core is doing, and how people can help those impacted. 

“If you have the capital, donate; if you have the time, volunteer, and if you don't have either of those, just send a nice message to someone affected by the fires,” Shemtob says. “I have [received] so many messages… it's so nice to know that so many people are thinking about me or I'm in their thoughts and prayers; it feels like a warm hug, even from afar.”

For those who want to learn more - whether you need help, want to help or both - follow @wckitchen and @damiel.shemtob on Instagram. You can also email daniel@danielshemtob.com. Read more about Shemtob and WCK at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Suzy Sapir, founder of the Hippy Pilgrim Helpline. Every night, between 4 pm and 6pm PT, Sapir, who also owns the Hippy Pilgrim gourmet seasoning company, takes calls on her private cell: 781-291-0264. People around the world ask her cooking questions or just call to chat. 

Los Angeles, where Deb and the Jewish Journal are based, is currently dealing with the wildfires, evacuations, and the resulting trauma. Organizations, restaurants, and individuals in the LA community have been great about offering meals to those displaced by the fires. However, sometimes people want that normal feeling of cooking, whether they are at a hotel, an AirBNB or sharing a space with others.

“Nothing tastes so good as that first meal that you make in that crisis or in that moment,” Sapir says. “It fosters true appreciation for the family meal … breaking bread together.” 

Crisis cooking requires some creativity. However, the kitchen basics - you want a can opener, strainer, and compact, countertop electronic devices, like a crock pot, air fryer, rice cooker, and teapot - are relatively easy.

The next step is to be strategic about what food to buy.

You want small quantities that are portable, along with shelf stable foods. This includes freeze dried powdered milk, canned protein (meats, tuna) and vegetables, dried fruit and little pouches of rice, noodles and instant mashed potatoes. If you want fresh produce, get whole foods, such as potatoes, carrots, apples, bananas and/or oranges. Anything with a peel or coating will stay fresh for an extended period of time.

“You're going to curate a time-efficient, space-efficient pantry in whatever space that you're in,” she advises. 

To compose a meal, start with the starch and decide what protein to put with it. Then decide what sauce would bring the ingredients into a meal. Be sure to add vegetables and fruit to finish things off. 

In moments of trauma, it comes down to self care. And the best way to take care of yourself is to eat.

Suzy Sapir gives recommendations for tools and small appliances, along with tips for shopping and cooking, in crisis. She also shares her recipe for brisket, which you can easily make in a crock pot wherever you are. Get the recipe at JewishJournal.com.

Learn more about Suzy Sapir at HippyPilgrim.com and follow @HippyPilgrim on Facebook and @hippypilgrimgarlicsalt on Instagram. For personalized answers to any kitchen or food related questions, the Hippy Pilgrim Helpline is open daily from 4 to 6 pm PT: 781-291-0264.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Annie Kantor, owner of Modern Metal, about decorating with entertaining in mind. The key is to create a beautiful space that exudes warmth and encourages conversation.. 

“I don't really have doors on the whole main floor of our house because … I wanted to encourage socialization,” Kantor explains. “And we designed [the kitchen] in a way so that people could really gather, because everybody ends up in there anyway.”

She adds, “One of the first things I bought when we started our remodel was a [10-foot long] antique table … it embodies everything I want when I think of entertaining [with] a design element.”

You also want to add touches that reflect your personality; it’s what makes your house feel like a home.

For instance, on the wall of photos in Kantor’s foyer, she does not display the best, frame-worthy pictures; she selects the ones that highlight memories.

“One of the pictures is a photo of my [two] daughters’ feet, wearing these Roman sandals,” she says. “Our whole family knows, when we see it, it captured a moment on a family trip to Rome [where] my girls had a massive, three-day fight over Roman sandals.” 

Annie Kantor talks about the origin of her love of entertaining and how redesigning her home led to her business: Modern Metal. She also shares ways to add personal touches to your home and gatherings, along with her friend Anne Schmitz’s kugel recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more about Annie Kantor at ModMetalDesigns.com. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chocolatier and chocolate educator Ruth Kennison of The Chocolate Project.

Honey represents a sweet Jewish New Year! Why not kick off the calendar year by indulging in chocolate. Just make sure it’s the good kind.

“When you're using really good chocolate, it just elevates everything,” explains Kennison, who turned a life-long love of chocolate into her fourth career. 

“I thought I'd never had any artistic bone in my body; I was an organizer and a production assistant and all sorts of things,” she says. “And I realized, this form of art combines food, chocolate, and art.”

After her pastry certification and the decision to focus on chocolate, Kennison took a trip to Paris, which led to an origin trip to Mexico. There, Kennison met farmers, saw cacao trees and learned how chocolate was processed from bean to bar. 

“Chocolate comes from a fruit [that] grows only 10 to 20 degrees above and below the equator … so it grows in West Africa, Asia, Central America, South America and Mexico,” she explains. “When you open it, [the] white stuff is fruit and it tastes like lychee, and then inside of it are the little cocoa beans that need to be fermented to be made into chocolate.”

The craft chocolate and bean-to-bar movement have made good chocolate more accessible than ever. 

“Bean-to-bar makers [are] roasting the beans very low and slow, so you're getting the pure natural flavors of the bean, similar to wine,” she says. “And when that batch of cacao goes away, you'll never have that exact bar again.”

Once you have quality chocolate, there are plenty of things you can make. Kennison likes to use all parts of the cacao, which includes the cocoa nibs. For instance, Kennison loves vanilla soft serve ice cream with homemade caramel sauce, cocoa nibs, and sea salt. She also makes double chocolate chip cookies, and dark chocolate truffles, which you can adapt by adding different flavors. 

“It can be a coffee chocolate truffle by steeping coffee in your cream,” she explains. “I just made a London fog truffle with Earl gray and vanilla.”

Ruth Kennison talks about her chocolate-centric career journey, the Jewish-chocolate connection, and the basics of the bean-to-bar movement. She also shares tips on how to identify quality chocolate, as well as some of her favorite chocolate recipes, including dark chocolate truffles, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Go to Chocolate-project.com to learn more about Ruth Kennison and her in-person and virtual chocolate classes and events, including ones at The Gourmandise School in Santa Monica. Follow @ChocProject on Instagram and Facebook. 

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, Debra Eckerling hosts a special Hanukkah panel with authors Eitan Bernath (“Eitan Eats the World”), Joan Nathan (“My Life in Recipes,” “A Sweet Year” and many others) and Beth Ricanati (“Braided: A Journey of A Thousand Challahs”).

Holidays are all about uniting friends, old and new. What better way to honor Hanukkah than to bring together three previous Taste Buds with Deb guests for a conversation about food and family traditions.

Eitan Bernath, Joan Nathan, and Beth Ricanati talk about what they love about Hanukkah and ways to lean into the light of Hanukkah this holiday season. They also share advice for entertaining, options for sufganiyot (fried donuts), and latke recipes and tricks. 

Get Joan Nathan’s apple latke recipe, Eitan Bernath’s Brussel sprout latke recipe, and Beth Ricanati’s tips for making a latke board (a reimagined cheese board) at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.  

Learn more at EitanBernath.com, JoanNathan.com and BethRicanatiMD.com.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Yuliya Patsay, author of “Until the Last Pickle: A Memoir in 18 Recipes.” 

A Soviet-born, San Francisco-raised storyteller, Patsay started this project as a collection of family recipes; it turned into a celebration of her past and a legacy for the future.

The first two recipes Patsay collected were her grandmother's blinchiki, which is crepes, and her dad's borscht, a popular Ukrainian soup with beets and cabbage and potatoes. She also asked them questions like, ‘Where did you learn to cook?’ ‘How did you first start making this?’ and ‘What's your favorite thing to cook?’

“As I did that, I realized I wanted to talk about my relationship to having grown up in the former Soviet Union and then immigrating to the United States, to San Francisco,” she explains. 

This gigantic culture shock, particularly in terms of the food, also led to a greater appreciation of the foods she grew up with. There was a nostalgia of having certain foods at every holiday meal and family gathering. For instance, mashed potatoes and pickled herring were non-negotiable; they were always on the table.

One of her favorite, easy recipes is from her mother-in-law. It’s called sirniki, but is basically fried cheese. 

“That's a hit in the house, especially with the kids,” she says. “[They are] these little very fragrant, delicious little balls of fried cheesy dough.”

Yuliya Patsay talks about her, her book’s, and its title’s origin stories, along with holiday traditions, family favorites, and the importance of hospitality. She also shares the recipe for sirniki, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Subscribe to Yuliya Patsay’s Substack, Buckle Up Bubelah, and learn more about “Until the Last Pickle” at YuliyaPatsay.com.

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with David Chiu, communication manager at The Braid and producer of their new video series, “Tastes of Tradition.”

“One thing that we at The Braid notice is that food and storytelling, especially for us Jews, are  inseparable,” Chiu explains.  “Food is as much about the people you're sharing it with as the recipes themselves.”

In their snackable videos (they are about two-and-a-half minutes each), “Tastes of Tradition” invites the audience into the kitchens of five diverse Jewish families. 

Featured in the series are Instagram chef Sivan Kobi (Sivan’s Kitchen) and her Iraqi Jewish mother, Yafa, who prepare kitchri, and Chinese-American celebrity chef and cookbook author Katie Chin and her teenage daughter Becca, an Asian American Jew, who make latkes with Asian-inspired dipping sauces. 

Also,  graphic novelist Emily Bowen Cohen, a Muscogee (Creek) Nation member, joins her son Maccabee and mother-in-law Beth to make fry bread for Hanukkah; award-winning comic and educator Joshua Silverstein, who is black and Jewish, and his 16-year-old stepson, Ami, make allergy-friendly hamantaschen for Purim; and Kimberly Dueñas, co-founder of Jewtina y Co, and her father Solomon, a crypto-Jew from El Salvador who kept his Jewish identity hidden for years due to the legacy of the Spanish Inquisition, prepare challah. 

The series is on brand for The Braid, a vibrant cultural hub for connection, creativity, and stories that reflects the diversity of the Jewish experience. And food is frequently part of the mix. 

“To me, the most powerful thing about food is that it's passed down,” Chiu explains. “Even if you don't  pass down Shabbat traditions or other religious things,  there's something that you take from your family related to food.” 

Chiu, who is a Chinese American Jew, says he finds that also true on the Chinese side of his family. When he went off to college, Chiu wrote to his dad, asking him how to cook. 

“He sent me all these recipes, which was hard for him because he's an immigrant and he never wrote anything down,” Chiu explains. “But his recipes became my way of connecting with him and his culture.”

David Chiu shares the origin story of “Tastes of Tradition,” the different ways The Braid integrates food into their offerings, and how he developed his love of cooking. He also shares Katie Chin’s recipe for double happiness latkes with Asian dipping sauces, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more about The Braid’s “Tastes of Tradition” video series at The-braid.org/tastes. 

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with New York teen Steven Hoffen, founder of Growing Peace Inc. The organization installs hydroponic systems in communities in need, so that they can grow their own fresh produce. 

“Growing Peace is really about trying to give back to the world, to my community, and trying to help it out and make the world a better place,” he says. “Whatever little I can do is going to be helpful.”

Hydroponics produces food efficiently and sustainably; plants receive nutrients through nutrient rich water, rather than through soil. It uses 80 to 90 percent less water, uses up less space and doesn't use pesticides or chemicals.

The wheels were set in motion in the summer of 2019. On a trip to Israel, Hoffen visited a non-profit organization, called Sindyanna of Galilee, where Arab and Jewish women work together to try to create peace within their communities through engaging activities. The following summer, Hoffen learned about Sindyanna’s hydroponics project and created a film, called “Growing Peace in the Middle East.” This led to him creating Growing Peace Inc.

“Learning about the way that Sindyanna was using hydroponics and growing produce to help people [is] what inspired me to think I could potentially do the same in my own community,” he says. 

Hoffen has since installed seven hydroponic systems: one at a food pantry in Tel Aviv and the rest in the New York City area, including systems at Hope House in the Bronx, Edgecombe Residential Treatment Facility, and Queensboro Correctional Facility. Each tower yields a bounty of five to ten pounds of nutritious, organic produce every month. Hoffen volunteers each week at one or two of these communities. 

“I do love getting on the ground and helping out to maintain the hydroponic systems, because getting that hands-on experience is what's really fun to me,” he says.

Hoffen shares what led to the launch of Growing Peace, his interest in sustainability, agriculture and food insecurity, and plans for the future. He also talks about his favorite Jewish foods, tips for giving or starting a philanthropy, and more. 

“If you're not interested in pursuing something that's super large … try and help out other people who do have their own initiatives,” he says. “Or you can just do something more local, donate to your food pantry, give to charity, tzedakah, that sort of thing.”

He adds, “Whatever you can do and whatever you're capable of, if it seems like it's the right thing to do, it probably is.”

Learn more at GrowingPeaceInc.org and JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Jessie-Sierra Ross, founder of Straight to the Hips, Baby, and author of “Seasons Around the Table: Effortless Entertaining with Floral Tablescapes & Seasonal Recipes.”

Ross took the leap from prima ballerina into the food and cooking world, after she retired from professional dance. 

“I started cooking at my mother's side at six or seven years old, just fascinated by not only the chemistry of bringing food together and the sort of food is love aspect, but also just spending quality time with my family,” Ross explains. “That passion for food continued to grow with me, even if I couldn't always indulge: my daily staples were yogurts, oranges and bowls of chicken soup, but that didn't stop me from the occasional cocktail and slice of brie.”

Once Ross’ blog took off, she started doing food photography and styling, magazine articles and TV work. Her recently released cookbook, “Seasons Around the Table,” covers the four seasons, and melds garden, home decor, lifestyle and food and drink. The linchpin is entertaining: inviting people to the table and creating beautiful tablescapes for people to enjoy. 

“There's nothing better than a little coffee, a little cake and a little kibitz,” she says. “We eat to remember, we eat to connect, we eat to nourish, we eat to love.” 

Jessie-Sierra Ross talks about her backstory and how it led to “Seasons Around the Table,” along with tips for simplifying the entertaining processes, creating showstoppers, and bringing family history to the table. She also shares her recipe for apple and pear crumble, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 

“It doesn't have to be a special occasion to make a special meal,” she says. “Focus on the flavors, focus on the food and obviously the guests.”

Learn more at StraightotheHipsBaby.com and follow @StraighttotheHipsBaby on Instagram and Jessie-Sierra The Last Bite on Substack. 

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chef Or Amsalam, a two-time James Beard Award semifinalist and founder of Lodge Bread Co., which has three locations in Los Angeles.

Amsalam, who served in the military before pursuing his culinary dreams at Le Cordon Bleu, says he has always been obsessed with bread. 

“Bread has always been a staple in my household,” Amsalam says. “Growing up in an Israeli Moroccan family, we ate bread with virtually everything: we ate bread with rice, we ate bread with potatoes, [we ate] bread with bread.” 

He continues, “Towards the end of my cooking career, I started doing some private cheffing and I just couldn't find the type of bread that I wanted, so I just started making bread.”

Just as good bread has the power to elevate a dish, the opposite is also true “If you're eating shakshuka, and the bread is no good, it just kind of dulls it all down,” he explains. 

Or Amsalam shares his love of bread, bread making tips, and his thoughts on the value of failure. He also shares his shakshuka recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more at LodgeBread.com and follow @LodgeBreadCo on Instagram. Lodge Bread has locations in Culver City and Woodland Hills; the Pico bakery and cafe closes November 17. The new location in Beverly Hills opens November 22.

* National Homemade Bread Day is November 17. For more on baking bread at home, Amsalam recommends “Tartine Bread” by Chad Robertson and “Josey Baker Bread.” *

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with author, food writer, and recipe writer Aaron Hamburger. His novels include “Faith for Beginners” and “Hotel Cuba;” which is based on his grandparents’ immigration story. Hamburger also developed the babka recipes for Lesléa Newman’s children’s book “The Babka Sisters.”

While food informs all of his genres, cooking has not always been his thing. 

“I could barely boil water for a long period of my life,” Hamburger explains. 

Around the time his first book, a short story collection called “The View from Stalin’s Head,” came out, Hamburger’s publicist went on vacation to cooking school. He liked that idea, and decided to attend the Institute for Culinary Education in New York.

Once bitten by the cooking bug, Hamburger started taking as many classes as he could, collecting cookbooks, and learning through trial and error. After a while, he decided to combine the two interests. 

“Food's [even] been present in all of my fiction, just in different ways, often depending on the places or topics that I'm writing about,” Hamburger says.

Hamburger also believes that food writers, fiction and nonfiction, tend to over-write the food description. 

“Fiction writers tend to … describe [food] in lofty, elevated terms, rather than just dealing with it frankly and head-on, like what kind of food is it and how it functions in this world," he explains. 

So, if you're writing about food, either fiction or nonfiction, be direct, specific, and accurate.  

Hamburger talks about the advantages of being a former non-cook; the impact of food in history, relationships, and conversations; and how to really examine food, especially when you plan to write about it. He also shares his love for baking - particularly seven-layer cake and cookies (“almost anything can be made into a cookie”) - along with his recipe for mojito cookies, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 

Learn more about Aaron Hamburger and his books at AaronHamburger.com. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with actress Yael Grobglas. Grobglas, who played the series regular dual-roles of ‘Petra’ and ‘Anezka’ on “Jane the Virgin;” Hallmark Channel’s “Hanukkah on Rye;” and recently started an arc on the new “Matlock,” believes food is magical. 

“It can heal you, it can make you happy, it can bring people together,” she says.  

Grobglas was born in France and grew up in Israel, and loves the cuisines from both. Some of her happiest memories involve holidays and food. 

“You all sit at the table together, you sing songs and you eat,” she explains. “And the kids run around under the table and between everybody's legs, [while] the parents try to keep some sort of adult conversation going.”

Grobglas, whose mother and father are wonderful cooks, was destined to love food. When she moved out on her own, Grobglas knew she had to learn how to cook, so she could continue to eat good food.

“Luckily I'm pretty creative,” she says. “I cannot follow a recipe to save my life [but] I have so many cookbooks … I'll look through them for inspiration. I feel like I'm making art.”  

When asked how her training as an actor influenced her creativity in the kitchen, Grobglas said it made her trust herself, and the creative process, more. 

“If you botch a take, it's fine; you do another one,” she explains. “You make mistakes, that's how you learn. It's okay, you get better.”

On “Matlock,” Grobglas plays a jury consultant aka human lie detector. She previously worked with “Matlock” showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman on “Jane the Virgin,” which Urman created.  “It was incredible to work together again,” she says. 

Yael Grobglas talks about her earliest food memories, how she creates in the kitchen, and the amazing craft (food) services on Matlock. She also shares the recipe for her mom's signature dish: lentil salad with apples and red onion, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Follow @YaelGrobglas  on Instagram and watch her arc on “Matlock” on CBS; her character arrives on episode three.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chef, cookbook author and dinner-party aficionado Jake Cohen. The author of “Jew-ish” and “I Could Nosh,” Cohen believes cooking should be easy, fun, and shared with others. That message comes out loud and clear in his new show, “Jake Makes It Easy” on the FYI channel.

“Going to the gym is difficult, but the hardest part is showing up, and I think it's the same thing when it comes to cooking,” Cohen explains. “The hardest part is deciding you're going to cook, and then from there, the rest is pretty easy.”  

In each half hour episode of “Jake Makes it Easy,” Cohen provides a step-by-step process for creating a main course and dessert that go together. He also gives tips on the order of preparation, rounding out the meal with a salad or a side and how to turn it into a dinner party. 

The show really exemplifies Cohen’s relationship with cooking, the importance of cooking with love, and the blessing of cooking for others.

“It's why I love baking bread or desserts or cakes, because these are things that feel like alchemy,” he explains. “You're taking something - and you're truly just making it from the wildest things that should not turn into the final product - and all of a sudden people are eating something that you made with love.”

Jake Cohen talks about what led to his love of cooking, the backstory behind “Jake Makes It Easy,” and how Fran Drescher inspires his contribution to the Jewish conversation. He also shares tips for making cooking easy and adding love to your meals, as well as his recipe for date brownies, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

“Jake Makes It Easy,” premiering on the FYI channel on October 28, is a part of A+E Networks partnership with Rachael Ray’s Free Food Studios. Follow @JakeCohen on Instagram and TikTok and find Jake Makes It Easy on the FYI channel, the FYI app and FYI.tv. #JakeMakesItEasy

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with children's book author, fiction writer and poet Lesléa Newman. Jewish comfort food showed up in one her first children's books, “Matzo Ball Moon,” and has been making appearances in her work ever since. 

“[Food is] part of our every holiday, every Shabbat,” Newman, whose titles include “The Babka Sisters,” “A Sweet Passover” and “Hanukkah.” says. “It's important to  … literally break bread; it's a way to show love [and[ nourish each other, literally and figuratively.”

While these books are fiction, they are rooted in Newman’s own experiences. Characters are based on family, such as her grandmother, who taught Newman how to cook many of her favorite Jewish comfort foods. 

“My grandmother was from the old country, and she was a real balaboosta, which is someone who really runs the kitchen well’” Newman says. “She used to say [that] she could make a meal out of a potato and half an onion.” 

Newman’s books guide the reader through this history of holidays, along with family traditions.

“It’s really important for kids to see themselves in books and … for kids to see families and kids, who are not like themselves, so they learn about the world,” she explains. “I hope … Jewish children will see themselves in these books and feel proud, excited and like they have a place to belong.”

Lesléa Newman talks about her food-centric children’s book, food poetry inspiration, and more. She also shares her poem about knishes, as well as her recipes for latkes and applesauce. Find the recipes at JewishJournal.com.

“Essen en gezunt,” Newman says. “Eat in good health!”

Learn more about Lesléa Newman - her books and poems - at LeselaNewman.com. 

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Ilan Stavans and Margaret Boyle, authors of “Sabor Judío: The Jewish Mexican Cookbook.” 

“The book is a celebration of Jewish Mexican identity, but it also is a celebration of all diaspora identity and how people connect with culture and movement through food,” says Boyle, director of Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies at Bowdoin College and associate professor of Romance Languages and Literatures. 

Featuring 100 personal recipes, enjoyed by Mexican Jews around the world, “Sabor Judío” shares the vibrant history of Jewish immigration to Mexico from 1492 to the present. Organized by meal, and including dishes made for Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, Hanukkah, Shavuot and other holidays, it connects the past to the present and the future.

“It's really a book about how different generations have migrated with food from one region of the world to another,” Stavans explains. Originally from Mexico, Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College and the publisher of Restless Books. 

“The extraordinary story of immigration is that it is never static … and food is [a] wonderful  opportunity to understand those changes,” he says.

The authors spent a decade gathering recipes and personal narratives from Jewish Mexican households. The result: the ultimate comfort food cultural combination. 

“Put the [food of the Jewish and Mexican] cultures together, [and] there's so much warmth, you might never stop eating,” Boyle says.

Stavans and Boyle talk about how they met, the evolution of the project, and how they hope people will use their cookbook. They also share food memories, some of their favorite meals, their combined recipe for brisket tacos - which you can find at JewishJournal.com - and more.

Learn more about “Sabor Judio,” Ilan Stavans at RestlessBooks.org and Margaret Boyle on the Bowdoin College website.

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Ken Albala, author of Opulent Nosh: A Cookbook for Audacious Appetites and other books about food.

A professor of history at the University of the Pacific, Albala’s other books span from Eating Right in the Renaissance to The Great Gelatin Revival: Savory Aspics, Jiggly Shots, and Outrageous Desserts. He has written historical cookbooks; books on fine dining, banqueting, and individual ingredients; and more. Albala is currently working on an atlas of fermentation, as well as one on carving spoons, which is something he taught himself to do.

Opulent Nosh, which includes more than 100 recipes that transform simple dishes into memorable feasts, actually began as a breakfast book.  

“I love breakfast because it's the one meal I get to cook whatever I want,” Albala explains. “And, if I make something that doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter; I'll eat it the next day.”

Albala sent the breakfast version to a half dozen agents, who called breakfast "passe." He considered going the self-publishing route, but that didn’t work out either. In the end, Albala replaced the word "breakfast" with "nosh," made a few other changes, and had success getting it out into the world.

“One of the messages I've been trying to promote in most of my books is that cooking is inherently fun, that everyone should do it, as often as they can,” Albala says. “It's one of those fundamental things about humanity that gives us pleasure, like making music or dancing or running around in circles, whatever you do to make you happy.”

Albala, whose mother's side is Ashkenazi and father's is Sephardic, talks about his background and how it led to his deep dive into food. He also shares Opulent Nosh’s origin story, examples of his unique cooking style, and his recipe for Matzo Brei, which you can find at JewishJournal.com.

Learn more about Opulent Nosh, follow @KenAlbala on Instagram and find his food groups on Facebook.

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with food and lifestyle writer Ariel Kanter, whose Substack is called Rel's Recs, and who fell in love with food by accident. 

Growing up as a ballerina, food was not part of Kanter’s lifestyle. Then in high school, she discovered the original Japanese version of “Iron Chef” on the Food Network. Kanter loved the experimentation and all of the wild ingredients. Mostly, though, it was the warmth, something Kanter was missing in ballet. 

“The ballet studio is beautiful, but I always felt like it was cold, whereas in the kitchen, there is warmth, fulfillment, experimentation,” Kanter explains. “I think that's why I love cooking so much now, and writing about it.” 

After college at NYU, and working in an editorial department, Kanter attended the Institute of Culinary Education. Armed with a background in food science and food preparation, she dove deep into writing about food. She has written for “The New York Times,” “Vanity Fair,” “InStyle,” “Serious Eats,” and more. 

There were not a lot of food moments in Kanter’s youth. However, there was one exception: the Kanter family meringues. 

“We had a family recipe passed down on my mother's side,” she explains. “These were the cookie that we made for every birthday, every Jewish holiday.”

Meringues are magical, fluffy and fun. Get the recipe at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

“That sense of whimsy has never really gone away for me,” she says. 

Ariel Kanter talks about her two childhood food memories, her career journey and food philosophy, and the love of cooking and baking she shares with her niece and nephew, and more.

Subscribe to Ariel Kanter’s Substack, Rel's Recs and follow @arielkanter on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Jeffrey Eisner, founder of Pressure Luck Cooking and the bestselling author of the “Step-by-Step Instant Pot” series of cookbooks. “Pastabilities,” is his fifth and first non-Instant Pot-centric cookbook.

Filled with his signature user-friendly style of instruction – and chapters that include farm and garden, soups, salads, stir frys, one-pot dishes and more – “Pastabilities” is a comfort-food palooza.

“A big bowl of pasta on the couch [is] one of my favorite things,” Eisner says. 

While Eisner has always loved to cook–something he learned from his Grandma Lil–it wasn’t until the Instant Pot started becoming popular in the mid-2010s that he decided to try something new. His previous career as a video producer kept him behind the camera. Eisner filmed himself making mac and cheese in the Instant Pot and put it on YouTube just for fun. He had no expectations; he just wanted to see if people would find it when they did a search.

“Everyone started seeing my video and then I very quickly got a following,” Eisner explains. “The next thing I knew it was just building, like a pressure cooker, and I started getting television appearances, then I got a cookbook deal and it became my career.”

Eisner believes cooking should make you feel accomplished. And anybody can do it!

“All it takes is to follow a recipe and prep your ingredients ahead of time,” he says. “If you read [the recipe] properly and do everything [it says], you're going to have an unbelievable meal in your hands.”

Jeffrey Eisner shares his career evolution, his amazing Instant Pot timing, and his love of pasta. He also talks about some of his favorite recipes, his user-friendly style of cooking, and his recipe for Kasha Varnishkes, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 

Learn more at PressureLuckCooking.com and follow @PressureLuck on YouTube, and @PresuureLuckCooking on Facebook and Instagram.

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Jeffrey Kollinger, of Spice of Life Catering in Dallas. He’s a celebrated chef, kosher caterer, and CEO with more than three decades of experience.

Whereas kosher food sometimes gets a bad rap–you can’t mix milk with meat, you need separate kitchens, you can only eat fish with scales–Kollinger believes kosher can be gourmet, delicious and fun.

“There’s so many distinctive flavors now that you could use that probably weren't available 10, 12 years ago,” he says. “There's truffle oils [and] all kinds of different spices.”

You can put a fancy sauce on pretty much anything. For instance, you can do fish with a beurre blanc and fancy vegetables. 

To uplevel your kosher cooking, Chef Kollinger said to stop thinking of it as kosher. It’s just regular food. After all, an aioli, a demi glace or a sauce made from a rich stock can be done in the kosher world because you can use them in both dairy and meat.

“I think a lot of people [let] the heckscher (kosher certification) throw them off,” he says. “What you need to do is seek out ingredients that match or come close to what you're trying to [create] and play around with the dish.” 

Chef Kollinger talks about his love of food and cooking, along with his personal connection to kosher catering. He also shares tons of kosher cooking tips and his recipe for Macadamia Nut Crusted Chilean Sea Bass, Basmati “Confetti,” Cippolini Onions and Carrots and Lemon Beurre Blanc, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more at TheSpiceofLifeCatering.com.

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Dr. Beth Ricanati, author of “Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs.”

More than 15 years ago, Ricanati started baking challah on Fridays as a self-care ritual. Now, she gives challah workshops–both in person and digitally–around the country to people of all faiths, and speaks about the teachings in her book.

“When you're mixing flour and sugar and watching the yeast bubble, you can't be doing anything else,” Ricanati explains. “I wasn't worrying about my patients, I wasn't worrying about my kids.” 

Ricanati says the experience was utterly transformative. Before she knew it, she rearranged her schedule, so she could continue her Friday challah practice. A board-certified internist, Dr. Ricanati now sees patients at the Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles. 

“Particularly since October 7, it has been so meaningful, so resonant, to be able to build community [around] this beautiful ancient ritual,” she says. “When you're standing next to someone and your hands are literally in a bowl of dough, you can really come together and talk.”

Ricanati talks about her challah origin story, the impact of baking challah, and so much more. She also shares her challah recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 

Learn more at BethRicanatiMD.com and follow @BethRicanatiMD on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chef/restaurateur Daniel Shemtob, The Lime Truck, TLT, and Hatch Yakitori. The all-star winner of Food Network's "The Great Food Truck Race," Shemtob is also co-founder of Snibbs, the world’s most comfortable non-slip shoe. 

About two weeks before opening Hatch, Shemtob had a nasty fall in the kitchen. 

“I herniated and slipped my L5 and L4 disc, which is pretty much the lowest part of your vertebrae,” Shemtob explains. “I'm 23, 24 years old, and I'm watching someone else open my line, which, as a chef, is a very difficult thing to do.”

Shemtob went down a rabbit hole of wondering, ‘Why isn't anyone making good footwear? Why isn't there anything that actually speaks to the worker, to the chef?’

As a result, he partnered with renowned orthopedic surgeon Jason Snibbe and entrepreneur Haik Zadoyan, his high school best friend. Snibbs footwear was born! 

Outstanding service sets a restaurant apart, and that is something that has translated well to Snibbs.

“Because we're hospitality people … whenever customers need something, we go above and beyond,” he explains.

While there are nuances, whether you are developing a recipe or a great pair of shoes, you start with a product and then you reiterate, perfect, test and reiterate again. 

“My two loves have always been food and fashion and now I get to exercise both muscles,” Shemtob says. “I'm just having a lot of fun doing it. “ 

Daniel Shemtob shares his career journey from soup to Snibbs. He also talks about his love of food, his first cooking memory–hence, the matzo pizza, Food TV, Food on TV (“The Bear”), and the joy of entertaining. 

Learn more at Snibbs.co and Danielshemtob.com and follow @snibbsfootwear  on @daniel.shemtob Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Daphne Subar, founder of Subarzsweets. Subar launched her company–a unique online bakery and gifting service–in 2016, after practicing law for 26 years.

“I love to bake, I love to cook and I would always be experimenting in the kitchen,” Subar explains. “It was really my [three] daughters who encouraged me–almost challenged me–to leave the practice of law and launch a bakery.”

The business offers one signature treat in a variety of flavors and sizes. Subarz combines the sweetness and fun of a cookie with the crunch of mandel bread, which is often described as Jewish biscotti. 

“We have chocolate almond, peanut butter, matcha, lavender, all sorts of really fun flavors,” Subar says. 

While Subar feels like the mandel bread component is a bit of a tribute to her heritage, her baking experiments were a result of her oldest daughter’s severe food allergies; she wanted her daughter to have something she could eat. Not only did Subar succeed, she created a treat everyone in her family loves … and embarked on a fun and fulfilling entrepreneurial adventure. 

Subar talks about her career change, cooking experiments, and more. She also shares her brisket recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. Even though Subar is a vegetarian, she still makes brisket four times a year, usually for Jewish holidays and celebrations. It’s everyone in her family’s favorite.

Learn more at Subarzsweets.com and follow @Subarz on Instagram.

Get Rabbi Jo David’s vegan brisket recipe mentioned in the ep.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Shari Foos, founder of The Narrative Method. The nonprofit addresses the crisis of loneliness by connecting people to their stories and creative expression. 

Now in its tenth year, The Narrative Method offers free online salons, interviews with interesting people, programs for communities in need, and more. One of the events they offer is called the library dinner, which can happen at a library, in a public space or at someone's home. 

“Everyone meets at this space and goes away for one hour and learns something, anything,” therapist Foos, MA/MFT/MS, explains. “[Then] everyone has a lovely dinner and goes around and shares what they've learned; it’s a fascinating experience of just exchanging what seems to be impromptu knowledge and information.” 

Foos, a former punk rock musician, radio and TV writer, comedian, university professor and co-founder of IKAR-LA, adds, “It's really fun, and it's a great way for people to get to know each other on a whole other level."  

“I love what meals do,” she says. “Enjoying [food and conversations] with other people… is such a thrill.”

Foos talks about her connection to cooking and food, as well as the Library Dinner experience and how to curate your own. She also shares the recipe for Cinnamon Surprise Cake, which her son and his cousin created in 2001; they were six and seven at the time. This inexact recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts, really illustrates the joy and creativity that can go into cooking and baking.

Learn more about Shari Foos and sign up for the programs at TheNarrativeMethod.org and follow @TheNarrativeMethod.com on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with actor, writer, and philanthropist Patricia Heaton. While Heaton has created relatable characters on TV over the years (“Everybody Loves Raymond,” “The Middle,” “Carol’s Second Act”), she is also known for her commitment to philanthropy, as well as a love of food. 

As founder of an organization called O7C, which stands for October 7th Coalition, Heaton has been organizing a series of unity dinners, designed to bring Christians and Jews together in conversation. Recently, Heaton and O7C partnered with Maman Nonprofit for an event with The Dream Center Foundation in Los Angeles.

“Sharing a meal together is a sign of peace and of unity ,” she says. “It's the perfect way to start helping our communities get to know each other.” 

For Heaton, growing up in an Irish Catholic family was a world away from the food she discovered, as a result of working in entertainment. She explains how she got a food education after moving to New York City; working with Phil Rosenthal (“Somebody Feed Phil”) only amplified it. (Deb previously interviewed Phil and Lily Rosenthal on Taste Buds for their children’s book, “Just Try It!”)

“Phil Rosenthal, who created “Everybody Loves Raymond,” [also] had a mom who wasn't a great cook,” she explains. “Even as a starving actor/writer in New York, he would save up money all year, and then for his birthday, he would take himself out to a very high end restaurant.”

Rosenthal brought that same sensibility to “Everybody Loves Raymond.” 

“He also introduced me to the finer things in life, as far as cuisine was concerned,” Heaton explains. “It didn't start out that way, but eventually my adventures in the entertainment industry took me to all these great food places.”

Heaton, whose books include “Your Second Act” and the autobiographical “Motherhood and Hollywood -- How to Get A Job Like Mine,” also has a cookbook: “Patricia Heaton’s Food for Family and Friends.” Get Heaton’s recipe for Chicken Chilaquiles at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

“For someone who works in an industry where everything is sort of ephemeral - you go in front of cameras, you do stuff, but the editor takes it away,” Heaton says. “You have no idea how it's going to turn out, you don't know if anybody's actually going to watch it.

“It's great to be able to go into a kitchen, pull some ingredients together, start cooking,” she explains. “At the end of it, you have a meal and it actually is nourishing yourself and others; it's a very tangible thing.”

Heaton talks about the O7C and her other interfaith experiences - including her first seder, her food and cooking evolution, and so much more.

Learn more about O7C at october7coalition.com and follow @PatriciaHeaton on Instagram.

For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Jamie Schler, a Jewish American writer, hotel owner, and jam maker, who has lived in France for decades. Schler specializes in food and culture, and loves sharing the traditions and history behind French food, which she does on her “Life’s a Feast by Jamie Schler” Substack.

“Once I had kids, I started to be fascinated by the cultural aspects of food,” Schler says. Schler and her husband’s two sons are American, French, Jewish, and Catholic. They also have a little bit of North African, where her husband lived before they married, Eastern European from Schler’s family, and some Italian heritage from the years they lived in Italy. 

“They had all of these cultures that made up who they were,” she explains. “It just made sense to use food … as a vehicle to teach them about all of the different parts of who they are.”

Schler talks about her love of the history and traditions of food, how easy it is to cook many French foods, the backstory of French onion soup, and so much more. She also offers her take on French desserts and shares the recipe for one of her favorites, crémet nantais, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 

For more recipes, subscribe to Life’s a Feast by Jamie Schler’s on Substack and follow @LifesaFeast on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

#FrenchFood #FrenchCooking #Jewish #Olympics #TasteBuds

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with author/illustrator Alex Schumacher. While you would expect Schumacher’s graphic novel “The Effects of Pickled Herring to be about food - and it is - it’s not in the way you think. While the title dish is only mentioned a couple of times, the love and joy of food is a theme found throughout.

Schumacher’s semi-biographical work is a coming-of-age story about sibling dynamics, faith and family. As 12-year-old Micah and his sister Alana prepare for their B’nai Mitzvah, the family deals with his grandmother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. 

“[“The Effects of Pickled Herring”] is an exploration of the strength and the love of families, what can bring them together and keep them grounded in one another,” Schumacher explains. “A big part of that is food; it's the meals that you have together and it's the foods that give you comfort and heal.”

Schumacher, an author/illustrator whose work has also appeared in picture books, webcomics and graphic novels, talks about his book’s origins, the food-family connection, and his artistic approach. He also shares his recipe for vegan Impossible meatloaf, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 

Learn more about Alex Schumacher and “The Effects of Pickled Herring” at AlexSchumacherArt.com and follow @ajschumacherart on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Chef Shawna Goodman. Among other endeavors, Chef Goodman combines her love of cooking and living in Israel with her philanthropic work; she also leads a yearly tour for women, called Shefa. 

“The incredible initiatives that are coming from everybody's regular kitchen [in Israel] and the capacity for giving is [amazing],” she says. “There's no greater comfort than someone's home cooked meals.”

Goodman, who grew up in Canada, graduated from the Natural Gourmet Cooking School and in pastry arts from the Institute of Culinary Education (formerly, Peter Kump’s Cooking School) both in New York City; she also trained at the Cordon Bleu School in Paris. She loves the abundance of fresh produce in Israel.

“As a Canadian, eating local would have meant eating apples and maybe some potatoes and some onions, because most of the year we're under mega snow,” Goodman explains. “Being a chef in Israel … I really appreciate when something comes in bloom and something becomes ripened, and it's usually from my backyard or my friend's backyard; the sharing and the partaking in what's around me is inspiring.” 

Chef Goodman talks about living and cooking in Israel, her food-loving origins … and how that love continues to shine, culinary school adventures, and more. She also shares why you should always share your recipes, along with her favorite comfort food recipe - overnight French toast - which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Connect with Chef Shawna Goodman on Facebook. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with singer and composer Craig Taubman. The founder of the Pico Union Project (PUP), a multi-faith cultural arts center in downtown Los Angeles, Taubman is passionate about food and nourishing the community.

“Food is deep: it's cultural, it's philosophical, it's spiritual, it's nourishing,” Taubman believes. “[You] can use food to build community, to build relationships and to feed people's minds, hearts and souls.”

According to Taubman, every week they distribute fresh produce that would have otherwise been thrown away. PUP provides 19 people in the community with jobs, offers cooking, nutrition and mental health classes, health services and more.

“The food's great; the conversation is invaluable,” Taubman says. “Each time that we break bread together, we discover something new about each other, something powerful … we give the community the opportunity to flourish, and it's usually around food.”  

Taubman shares his background, and how the Pico Union Project came about, along with food memories, a food song, and his recipe for spicy Asian noodles. Get the recipe and read the article at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more about Craig Taubman PicoUnionProject.org and Craignco.com. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with food writer Amy Rogers, who has covered topics ranging from pie contests to public policy, Her books include “Hungry for Home: Stories of Food from Across the Carolinas” and “Red Pepper Fudge and Blue Ribbon Biscuits.”

Rogers, who has been a contributor for The Food Network, Salon and Business Insider, among others, says it was inevitable that her passion for food and stories would meet. She had been working as a journalist for a long time, when she noticed that food kept showing up in her work. 

“I will always tell people that I'm not a chef and I'm not a fancy cook,” Rogers explains. “I'm just someone who appreciates good food.” 

Everything is a food story, and everybody has a different perspective from the way they love, appreciate, or approach food. 

“Most people have in their family legacy, a person who … made the best pie or made the best something,” she explains. “Those kinds of little snapshot recollections become very, very meaningful.” 

Rogers talks about her love and appreciation of food, her favorite ingredient (it’s everything bagel seasoning), and how food - and food stories - connect us all. She also shares her recipe for writing a recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more about Amy Rogers and connect with her at AmyRogers.net. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Emily Paster, author of “Epic Air Fryer Cookbook” and “Instantly Mediterranean,” among others. 

While food was always a big part of her life, and even though she had an aunt in the food business, it initially didn’t occur to Paster, a former lawyer, that food was a possible career path, 

“If you … cast your mind back to the 1980s and 1990s, food did not have the place in our culture that it does today,” she says. “Even when I was practicing [law], I was at my desk, researching the next restaurant I wanted to go to, planning the next dinner party I was going to host [or] dreaming about what was going to be at the farmer's market that week.” 

After having kids and staying home with them - “My husband's also a lawyer and two lawyers and two kids was a lot,” she explains - Paster started a food and parenting blog that then transitioned to a food blog, called West of the Loop. 

Paster talks about her culinary career journey, air fryer cooking, her pet peeve about salt, and more. She also shares her lamb and bulgur kofta air fryer recipe, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Get additional recipes from Emily Paster at WestoftheLoop.com. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Chef Rossi aka the anti-caterer! The founder of The Raging Skillet (which happens to be the name of her first memoir), Rossi is all about making fun, surprising foods that people love, as well as putting love into everything she makes. This shines through in her writing, as well. 

Whereas “The Raging Skillet: The True Life Story of Chef Rossi” shares the behind the scenes of how she became a chef and caterer (complete with kooky recipes), her latest, “The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews” is kind of a prequel; it’s her wild, queer coming-of-age true story, she explains. 

“I never quite wrote anything like that where I made myself so vulnerable,” Rossi says. “I wish so much that I had been able to read something like that when I was 16 years old, because I felt very often like I was the only person in the entire world who understood what I was going through.” 

Rossi talks about her books, her personal and professional journeys, and how to put love and kindness into food … and into the world. She also shares cooking tips, as well as her gluten-free recipe for the ultimate comfort food: mac n cheese, which you can find at JewishJournal.com. 

“I think the secret ingredient is just really taking the time,” she said. “If you rush through it, you might not have the great balance; you want to really whisk it with a lot of love in your heart.”

Follow @ChefRossiNYC on Instagram and learn more at TheRagingSkillet.com. Find “The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews” at Bookshop.org or at your favorite place to buy books. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Chef Amy Jurist of Amy's Culinary Adventures. While Jurist has had a passion for cooking since she was a child, she had a career in advertising and marketing before formalizing her training and pursuing a career in the culinary arts. Amy’s Culinary Adventures is now in its 20th year. 

“I wouldn't be able to be where I am and wouldn't be able to do what I do, if I hadn't had that marketing and advertising background,” Jurist says. “Just because you're a chef doesn't mean that you can be a caterer; there's a lot more to it.” Jurist, who likes to find beautiful, unique ways to present food, is known for her plating. “I try to make everything look fun,” she explains. “You don't have to have food just sitting on a white plate.”  

Jurist shares the origins of her love of cooking, her career journey, and some of her favorite tips for preparing and plating food. She also talks about her recipe for curried chicken salad with cucumber cups, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Follow @ChefAmyJ on Instagram and learn more at AmysCulinaryAdventures.com. For more from Taste Buds, subscribe on iTunes and YouTube, and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with entrepreneur and passionate foodie Alex Canter. The 4th generation of Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles, Canter loves trying new places.

Canter publishes a list of his favorite 100 restaurants in LA every year and, every week, he posts his favorite bites on Instagram via @DeliBoySwag. “That's been a fun way to keep track of the places that I'm going,” he says. 

In May Canter launched the Hot Pastrami podcast, which he co-hosts with Lily Rosenthal, a restaurateur and New York Times bestselling author. Note: Lily and her father, Phil Rosenthal (“Somebody Feed Phil”), were guests on Taste Buds with Deb in March to coincide with the release of “Just Try It!” Canter and Rosenthal, who both grew up in Los Angeles, showcase amazing restaurants and talk about all things food.

“Every episode, we interview different special guests, whether it's an actor, a comedian, a chef or restaurateur,” he explains. Their guests have included Henry Winkler, Tiffany Haddish, B.J. Novak and Josh Peck. Each episode is filmed at a booth in Canter's Deli over bowls of matzo ball soup and pastrami sandwiches. While Canter grew up on corned beef, as the podcast title suggests, he is now more of a pastrami guy.

Canter talks about the podcast, his foodie and restaurant backstory, and tips and recommendations for dining out. He also shares Canter’s recipe for cheese blintzes, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

The Hot Pastrami podcast is produced and distributed by Cloud10 and Clamor. New episodes are released on Thursdays. Follow @DeliBoySway and @HotPastramiPod on Instagram. Subscribe to the Hot Pastrami Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast platform.

For more from Taste Buds,  subscribe on iTunes and follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Inbal Baum, founder of Delicious Israel food tours, Delicious Experiences (virtual corporate events) and Delicious Cities, a global network of immersive food tours. 

After working as an attorney in Manhattan, and then becoming a yoga instructor, Baum moved to Israel where she founded her first “Delicious” company. For Baum, food and joy go hand in hand. And, even as she currently resides in the States, Baum continues to share her love of Israeli food. 

“Israeli [food is] so many things,” she says. “You've got vegan, gluten-free, healthy and indulgent; you've got the full range.” Plus, Israeli food is served family-style. “It's togetherness around the table,” she says. 

Baum shares how she created “Delicious” everything, food memories, and the power and joy of food. She also talks about why people love Israeli food so much and her recipe for Coconut Cream Malabi, a milk pudding that is Turkish in origin and Middle Eastern in flavor. You can find the recipe at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more at DeliciousIsrael.com, DeliciousCities.com and DeliciousExperiences.com. Follow @DeliciousIsrael, @DeliciousCities and @DeliciousExperiences on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with adman Murray Kalis, who has worked on everything from Taster's Choice Decaffeinated Coffee, Kraft Foods, and KFC to Noah’s Bagels, Starbucks, and Dave’s Hot Chicken.

Kalis started his career in advertising in August 1970. He went from copywriter to VP/creative director with Leo Burnett in Chicago. He then moved to Los Angeles as creative head for Young & Rubicam, before starting his own agency. While Kalis has not solely worked on packaged goods (aka food), they have been a significant part of his creative endeavors over the years. 

“The technology changes, people don't change,” Kalis says. “They're looking for that new taste, that new thing … or they're looking for the memory of something wonderful.” 

He adds, “If they've tried you, you want to give them a reason to try you again. … People need to eat, but they want something special.”  

Kalis shares how he got his start in advertising, some of his favorite food - and non-food - ad campaigns, and more. He also shares his recipe for Mexican No-Matzo Matzo Brei, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. Connect with Murray Kalis on Linkedin. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with chef, entertainer, and cookbook author Eitan Bernath. Bernath, 22, has been working in food entertainment for about ten years. 

“I didn't really fit in, when I was younger, with the little league or sports, but I really loved food,” Bernath says. “My mom encouraged me [to] try cooking … and I really just fell in love with being in the kitchen.” When he was 11, Bernath randomly auditioned for an episode of the Food Network’s “Chopped;” the episode aired when he was 12. The rest is social media history,

In his new digital series, “Eitan Explores: Mexico City,” Bernath dives into the culinary joys, along with the history from the Jewish kitchens of Mexico City. The seven two-minute episodes, which just premiered in May, explore a melting pot of culture and people deeply connected to the spirit of their country as well as their ancestral roots.

Bernath talks about journeys in food, cooking, and social media, as well as the new series. He also shares some cooking tips and his love of egg salad. Get Bernath’s egg salad recipe at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

To learn more about Eitan Bernath and to check out “Eitan Explores: Mexico City,” go to EitanBernath.com and follow @Eitan on Instagram. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with celebrity chef Katie Chin, who is an award-winning cookbook author, caterer and playwright. 

“There's incredible symbolism in Asian cuisine, but there's also incredible symbolism in Jewish cuisine,” Chin says. Her husband is Jewish and they are raising their 15-year-old twins Jewish; she loves to combine the cuisines. 

Chin’s titles include “Katie Chin's Global Family Cookbook,” “300 Best Rice Cooker Recipes,” and “Everyday Thai Cooking,” as well as “Everyday Chinese Cooking,” which she wrote with her late mother, restaurateur Leann Chin. The duo, who had a catering business together, also co-hosted the national PBS cooking series, “Double Happiness.”

“[Food] is an expression of love,” Chin believes, “But it's also storytelling and legacy.” 

Chin shares her backstory and how she combines cuisines, along with lots of tips for Chinese cooking - including ways to fold dumplings. She also talks about her recipe for Chocolate-Raspberry Wontons, which you can find, along with the highlights from the conversation, at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

To learn more about Katie Chin and her award-winning one woman show, "Holy Shitake!  A Wok Star is Born," go to ChefKatieChin.com and follow @ChefKatieChin on Instagram.  For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Chico Menashe, the CEO of Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel in Tel Aviv. Founded in 2021, Asif is a non-profit organization, dedicated to cultivating and nurturing Israel’s diverse and creative food culture. 

“It's an Israeli food culture, not specifically Jewish culture,” Menashe says. “We have influences from all over the world.”

Menashe talks about Israeli food and cooking with chutzpah. He also shares stories from Asif’s Open Kitchen Project, where Israeli locals open their homes to people who have been displaced by the war and need a place to cook. The Open Kitchen Project connects individuals, families and communities. 

“The [recipes and stories] that we recognize that bring special cultural, traditional value we put on our website,” he adds. “It's an online treasure box of families’ unique recipes with their stories, with their traditions, with their heritage.”

Get the recipes for Sylvie Atias’s Stuffed Artichokes and Lizi Ezra’s Veal Sweetbread Stew, along with the highlights from the conversation, at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. To learn more about Asif’s initiatives and read more recipes and backstories, go to Asif.org. Asif is a partner organization of the Jewish Food Society. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Beth Lee, author of “The Essential Jewish Baking Cookbook,” cooking teacher and OG food blogger at OMGYummy.com.

Lee worked in marketing and communications for high tech companies in Silicon Valley for many years before deciding in 2010 that she liked “pita chips better than memory chips.” She was delighted when she got the url OMGYummy.com. While initially Lee didn’t know what to do with it, she dug in, figured out blogging/social media, and never looked back. 

Lee talks about her origin story, food from eclectic cultures, exciting flavors, and more. She also shares her love of preserved lemons. “They're an amazing ingredient,” she says. “I encourage everybody to take a lemon, put a slit in it, put some salt in it, stick it in a jar and wait for it to become a preserved lemon.” 

Not only will preserved lemons change your life, Lee predicts they will become your new favorite condiment. Get the recipe at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 

To learn more about Beth Lee and get more recipes go to OMGYummy.com and follow @OMGYummy on Instagram. 

For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.