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:...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.    ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,”...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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.”   ...

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...

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....

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...

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,”...

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...