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.  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 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.” *   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 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 Jewish Journal.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.  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 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.   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 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.   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 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.   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 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. 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 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.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Shani Seidman, Chief Marketing Officer for Kayco Kosher. Kayco’s brands include Gefen, Heaven & Earth and of course Manischewitz, which has been around since 1888.   “They call me Mrs. Manischewitz. ... It’s surreal working on a brand that we had at our table growing up,” Seidman says. “I have these memories of Manischewitz being at my Passover seder or making Manischewitz chicken soup with my grandmother.”    Seidman talks about her experience working for Kayco and Manischewitz’s recent rebrand, as well as Passover memories, food traditions, and Amy Kritzer Becker’s recipe for Asparagus Tomato Matzo Brei. Get Amy’s recipe and read the article at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.  To connect with the company and get more recipes go to Manischewitz.com or follow @manischewitzco on social media.  For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with cookbook author Joan Nathan, who has made a career of discovering Jewish cuisine from around the world and sharing it with others.    The author of twelve books, Nathan’s titles include “Jewish Cooking in America” and “The New American Cooking,” both of which won James Beard Awards and IACP Awards,    Her latest - and she says her last - book is, “My Life in Recipes: Food, Family and Memories.” Nathan hopes her memoir is an inspiration for others to live a good life.    “I think it’s the most important thing I want to teach people,” she says.    With more than 100 recipes, along with the memories attached to them, “My Life in Recipes” includes updated versions of old favorites (matzoh ball soup to challah and brisket) and new ones too (salmon with preserved lemon and za’atar; Moroccan chicken with almonds, cinnamon and couscous). You do not want to read this book - or listen to this podcast - when you are hungry.    Nathan offers a sneak peek into her culinary adventures and discoveries. She talks about her love of food, creative cooking, and the different ways meals connect people. Nathan also shares her recipe for Passover Pecan Lemon Torte with Lemon Curd Filling. Note: The lemon curd is amazing and the recipe can - and should - be enjoyed year round.    Get the recipe and read the article at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. To learn more about “My Life in Recipes” - and Joan Nathan’s upcoming events - go to JoanNathan.com.  For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.  

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Joel Haber, food lecturer and host of the 18 Jewish Foods” podcast. His website is TasteofJew.com.   “[Food] offers you a window into the Jewish culture,” he says.    Each episode of Haber’s new “18 Jewish Foods” podcast explores a food, food category or iconic dish. “Each episode will … also [offer] something to learn about the Jewish people,” Haber explains. “There's a short interview, as well of somebody contemporary who's connected with that food to show that these foods are still alive now and are taking on new faces all the time.”   Haber shares his backstory, how he defines Jewish foods, his love of Israel flavors, and more. He also shares his recipe for Hamin Kharshuf, also known as Chulent.    Get the recipe and read the article at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.  

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Katie Workman, founder of The Mom 100 website, author of “The Mom 100 Cookbook” and “Dinner Solved,” and a food writer for the Associated Press.   Workman spent her childhood reading cookbooks the way others devour books. She created “The Mom 100 Cookbook” - 100 recipes every mom needs in her back pocket - as “an answer to the everyday cooking challenges, conundrums that parents face, day-in day-out when they're cooking for their families,” Workman says.   Workman talks about her origin story and food philanthropy work, as well as her love of comfort food and finding your food soul mates. “I love food that the first time that you eat it, you think, ‘Oh, where has this been all my life?’” she says.  Workman also shares her recipe for ground turkey tacos; her family’s favorite. Get the recipe and read the article at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. Learn more about Katie Workman at TheMom100.com. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Jamie Pachino, a consulting producer on CBS’ “So Help Me Todd.” The show, starring Marcia Gay Harden and Skyler Astin, is about Todd, a “failure to launch-ish” son (Astin) who goes to work as an investigator at his mother Margaret’s (Harden’s) law firm.    Between family dinner and endless conversations about food - both on and off screen - food is a main character on the show. “We talk about it in the writer's room, it shows up in a lot of the scenes where people are eating or people are talking about eating,” Pachino says.   An award winning playwright, screenwriter and TV writer, Pachino started her career as an actor and morphed into playwriting, which led to writing for film and TV.  Pachino believes she has put food in almost everything she’s ever written.    “There's a long running joke … when I started out playwriting, there would either be bourbon or Chinese food in every play,” she explains. “Chinese food is a hundred percent from my Jewish upbringing.”    Pachino talks about food on tv, the origins of her love of food and cooking, and why her husband calls her the MacGyver of the kitchen. She also shares her mother’s recipe for chocolate chip cake. Get the recipe and read the article at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. Watch “So Help Me Todd” Thursdays on CBS and on Paramount + and learn more about Jamie Pachino at JamiePachino.com. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Micah Siva, founder of Nosh with Micah and author of “Nosh: Plant-Forward Recipes Celebrating Modern Jewish Cuisine.”    “I see the word nosh as something that you just can't stop eating,” Siva says. “It's just so easy to eat and to snack on and there's always room in your stomach.”   As a vegetarian, Siva specializes in plant-based cooking. She is a chef, registered dietitian, recipe writer and food photographer. Siva also wrote the children’s book, “1, 2, 3 Nosh with Me” with her husband Joshua. “Everything I do is food related,” she says.    Siva shares her backstory, her favorite foods for noshing, and cooking tips, as well as her recipe for Halvah Granola.  Learn more and get more recipes at NoshwithMicah.com and follow @NoshwithMicha on Instagram. Get the recipe and read the highlights at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with father-daughter team Phil and Lily Rosenthal, authors of Just Try It! Phil Rosenthal is creator and host of Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix, author of Somebody Feed Phil: the Book, and creator of Everybody Loves Raymond. Lily is an actor, writer, producer and now food lover!     Just Try It! is more than a kids’ book about food. It’s an illustration of their family philosophy to have an open mind. “It's all about broadening horizons, whatever that looks like,” Lily says. “For us, it's food.”   “I've never been a particularly brave person,” adds Phil. “But I felt like every time I took a baby step out of my comfort zone, and you see it in the show, that's where the magic happens.”    In this fun conversation, Phil and Lily Rosenthal share their favorite foods, food memories and adventures, and take on food pride in different cultures. They also talk about their workarounds, since neither of them cook! Learn more about “Let’s Try It!,” “Somebody Feed Phil” and their upcoming events at PhilRosenthalWorld.com. Read the highlights at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Amy Kritzer Becker, founder of What Jew Wanna Eat and Modern Tribe. She is also the author of “Sweet Noshings: New Twists on Traditional Jewish Desserts.” Becker shares her blog’s origin story, lots of food and cooking anecdotes, and her recipe for drunken honey pomegranate cake. She also offers tips for making cooking fun, your food colorful, and your experiences amazing.  Follow Amy Kritzer Becker on Instagram @WhatJewWannaEat and learn more at WhatJewWannaEat.com and ModernTribe.com. Get the recipe and read the highlights at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Sonya Sanford, author of  "Braids: Recipes From My Pacific Northwest Jewish Kitchen." The child of Ukrainian immigrants, Sanford grew up in Seattle and is the first born American in her family. She is a chef, writer, and podcast host, and has been studying cuisine in the diaspora for more than 15 years. “Jewish food differs in any region,” Sanford says. “That's because of what's available to people and what the cultural trends are.”  Sanford talks about her culinary journey, attributes of Pacific Northwest Jewish cuisine, and why her book is called, “Braids.” It is - and isn’t - what you think. She also shares her recipe for marionberry rugelach, as well as cooking tips and her cooking philosophy. “If there’s a part of you that wants to cook, that’s the most important ingredient,” Sanford says. Learn more at Sonyasanford.com, follow her on Instagram @sonyamichellesanford, and subscribe to Sonya Sanford on substack. Get the recipe and read the highlights at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with award-winning culinary historian, food writer and chef Michael W. Twitty. Twitty is the author of Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew, which received the 2023 National Jewish Book Award.  “I've grown up with …African diaspora foodways from the Caribbean, Latin America and foodways from African immigrants in the United States,” he says. “And I've lived an entire life with Jewish food from challah to kibbeh. Being able to translate across those cultural lines is really important for me.”  Twitty is also the author of The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South, which won the 2018 James Beard Award for best writing as well as book of the year, and “Rice,” a Savor the South cookbook from The University of North Carolina Press. In addition to sharing his food origin story (his food education started in his intergenerational family kitchen and with PBS food shows), Twitty talks about his love for exploring, elevating, and combining food cultures/foodways from around the world. He also explains the three parts to every food tradition, the value of mastering the trinities (the two or three or more ingredients that are the basics of every cuisine), and other cooking insights. Follow @TheCookingGene on Instagram and MichaelWTwitty on Facebook. Learn more at KoshersoulBook.com and JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with poet Jehanne Dubrow (JehanneDubrow.com), author of  “Taste: A Book of Small Bites.” Dubrow, professor of creative writing at the University of North Texas, has also written nine poetry collections and a non-fiction book, called “throughsmoke: an essay in notes,” about how she came to fall in love with the sense of smell.  “Taste and scent work together in particular to tap into the part of the brain where we access memory and emotion,” she says. “It's linked to feeling and to a sense of personal identity.” The book, “Taste,” is divided into five sections, focusing on the five known tastes, sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Within each of those sections are tiny essays, just like small bites.  “We are so often shaped by the things we've eaten in our lives,” Dubrow said. “We've all had those Proustian experiences where we taste something and Instantly we're taken back to a moment that we've forgotten about up until that time.” Dubrow talks about her love of food and cooking, vivid food memories, and suggestions for exploring taste. She also shares her recipe for the Matzah Bromelette, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Amy Steinhaus Kirwin and Rebecca Edana, hosts of “Two Jews Making Food” on ChaiFlicks. Amy and Rebecca love to cook, eat and share their joy of cooking with others! During the half-hour episodes, the duo shares recipes for food and drink, based on their weekly theme; they also have a loved one Zoom in to share the Yiddish Lesson of the Day.  “We're not kosher, but we love food and we love stories and we love to learn,” Rebecca says. “The show was created in an effort to find out what is out there.”  Adds Amy, “It’s not just Jewish cuisine; that's why it's not ‘Two Jews Making Jewish Food.’ It’s food from our culture and sometimes it's somebody else's.  Amy and Rebecca talk about their - and the show’s - backstory, their different cooking styles, their opinion on viral cooking trends (note: most of them are awful), and more. They also share Amy’s recipe for vegetarian kishka. Get the recipe at JewishJournal.com/Podcasts. Follow @twojewsmakingfood on Instagram and learn more at TwoJewsMakingFood.com and ChaiFlicks.com. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.  

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Judy Elbaum, founder of Leave it to Bubbe.  A food columnist and author of ”Judy Elbaum's Seasonal Delights,” Elbaum shares her cooking origin story, along with other food memories and lots of cooking tips. She also talks about her mother’s amazing chicken soup and the recipe for Colombian “Penicillin” that is another family favorite.  Get the soup recipes at JewishJournal.com/Podcasts. Happy National Soup Month! Follow Judy Elbaum @baba_judy on Instagram and LeaveItToBubbe.com to watch her cooking tutorials and get more recipes. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.  

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Noah Bleich, founder and artistic director of The TeaBook. The company, founded in 2015, offers organic, kosher teas with punny names and custom art to go with it, as well as a literal “TeaBook” organizer.  Bleich shares his love of tea and the power of PositiviTEA, as well as what goes into these unique creations. He also talks about the benefits of tea, the fun of tea flavors, and some of the differences between tea versus coffee. Learn more about Noah Bleich and explore all things tea at TheTeabook.com.  For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Dianne Jacob, author of Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Reviews, Memoir, and More, now in its fourth edition.  Jacob, who also co-authored two cookbooks: Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas and The United States of Pizza, teaches and coaches food writers.   “If you are trying to write recipes, you need to take ownership of that recipe, she says. “It's your recipe. It's the way you like it, and that's how you should present it.” Jacob talks about the origins of her love of food, how it relates to her identity, and her take on how cooking, eating and food writing have changed. She also shares cooking and recipe-writing tips, including how using salt relates to both.  Follow @DianneMJacob on Instagram, learn more about her at DianneJ.com, and subscribe to her newsletter on Substack. For more about Dianne Jacob, read the article at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.  

On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Michaele Weissman, author of The Rye Bread Marriage, as well as other books and hundreds of articles. Rye bread is a beloved foodstuff with a rich history. To author Michaele Weissman, it’s so much more.  “What do you do if you're a writer, married to a guy who was born in Latvia, is obsessed with Latvian rye bread and stays obsessed through [all] decades of your lives,” Weissman said. You write a book, called The Rye Bread Marriage. Weissman’s literary memoir intertwines the bread’s history along with their personal journeys.  Weissman talks about her - and her book’s - backstory, the power of connecting through food, and so much more. She also shares a recipe for Composed Beet Salad. This is her favorite first course, as it fits beautifully with her love of breaking bread. Follow @MichaeleWeissman on Instagram, learn more about her at MichaeleWeissmanwrites.com, and get the recipe on JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.  

Food volunteering is a beautiful way to bring people together. It brings joy to the participants, as well as the recipients.  On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Chaya and Yossi Segelman, founders of Our Big Kitchen Los Angeles (OBKLA). At OBKLA volunteers come together for 2-hour sessions, where they prep, cook, and package meals for Angelenos in need.  The Segelmans talk about OBKLA’s origin, mission, and process, as well as food volunteerism and their recipe for gnocchi with meat and vegetarian options. Chaya has a nutrition background. However, it’s Yossi, who doesn’t cook, who gives detailed instructions on how to make gnocchi. Learn more at OBKLA.org and get the recipe at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. For more from Taste Buds, follow @TheDEBMethod on social media.