On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with kosher sushi chef Marisa Baggett, who blends tradition, identity and intention in her culinary work.

“My sushi journey and my Jewish journeys are actually very much entwined,” Baggett explains. “When I was going through sushi school, I was also embracing Judaism, so there was always this kind of… pull between how I'm going to show up as a Jewish sushi chef.”

Baggett, who once owned a kosher deli and has brought her Japanese training into her Jewish food, decided to focus mostly on plant-based food in the last year.

“I think that I was probably always kind of on this path of heading towards only making plant-based sushi,” she says. “It just took me a while to get there.”

When asked what she knows now that she wished she knew early in her career, Baggett says that it’s okay to bring all of the pieces of who you are to the table at once.

“For the longest time, I tried to keep everything separate,” she explains. “I really wish that I brought more of everything together - Southern, Jewish background, the Japanese training - earlier in my career.”

Chef Marisa Baggett talks about her out-of-the-blue sushi origin story, food memories from growing up in the south, and how to embrace creativity in the kitchen. She also shares her recipe for miso mish mash soup, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

“Give yourself permission to have fun in the kitchen,” she says. “There's a lot of flexibility in that one bowl.”

Learn more at MarisaBaggett.com, follow @ChefMarisaBaggett on Instagram and watch Marisa Baggett compete on “Morimoto’s Sushi Master” on The Roku Channel.

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Sasha Zabar, founder of Glace and Glace Candy in New York.

While many kids dream of opening an ice cream shop or candy store, it’s something Zabar actually did! The two stores are connected in the middle, so customers and their friends/family can visit one or both sides, and if they want, mix their candy into the ice cream for infinite variations and options.

Zabar has fond memories of getting these ice cream and candy at his neighborhood shops. Since most of those establishments have since gone away, Zabar now gets to be the source of others’ nostalgia … and revitalize the neighborhood in the process. After his first year’s ice cream season, when business started to dwindle, Zabar started thinking outside the box … er cone.

“We created what has become kind of a viral sensation, which is our s'mores hot chocolate,” he explains. “We make a house-made marshmallow [which] we pipe around the rim and toast … it's very theatrical, but it's also delicious.”

Their hot chocolate videos - some of which are in the millions of views - have led to lines around the block every day during hot chocolate season (November to middle of January),

While social media is an amazing tool to see what people and businesses are doing, especially in the food scene around the world, you need to be creative to stand out.

“We take a common conceit - hot chocolate, ice cream, sundaes, candy - and play around with it until we find something that is both familiar but different,” he explains. “We randomly found our way into a corner of the universe: people love … trying something different than what they expect.”

Sasha Zabar talks about growing up in the family food business. His grandparents, Louis and Lillian, founded Zabar's in 1934; his father, Eli, had various businesses, including Eli’s Market and Eli’s Bread. Zabar also shares how he started Glace and Glace Candy, the part social media played in making Glace a destination, and the recipe for one of his favorite year-round treats: apple crumble, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

“I don't remember a time where I didn't want to be in some way in the food business,” Zabar says. “So it is kind of destiny.”

Learn more about Sasha Zabar at GlaceNY.com and follow @GlaceNewYork on Instagram.

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Emmy award-winning and Golden Globe-winning comedy writer, actor, and comedian Monica Piper. After a smash-hit run off-Broadway, her one-woman show, “Not That Jewish,” returned to The Braid in Santa Monica for the show’s 10 year anniversary; it runs through the end of May.

Piper was a high school English teacher, before she left to try comedy and eventually create this show. She has been a standup comic, a writer for “Roseanne” and “Mad About You,” and head writer on “Rugrats.”

“Not That Jewish” is a love letter to being Jewish, as Piper tells stories of her family - particularly her funny father and passing on the humor gene to her son - and her foray into comedy.

“Someone asked me what's my favorite thing about being Jewish … there's so many things, but right up there was food,” Piper shares. “They said, ‘Even gefilte fish?’ Yes, even gefilte fish.”

In fact, a chopped liver sandwich, one of Piper's go-to comfort foods, is something she strongly associates with her Jewish identity.

“Food is so much a part of life and Jewish life, but it's the comradery,” Piper says. “As a child, my memories [of Shabbat at my aunt’s home with] people talking and arguing and laughing is so much a part of me, so I associate that with food.”

Monica Piper shares food memories, the importance of laughter, and her “Not That Jewish’” origin story, which came with encouragement and assistance from The Braid founder and artistic director Ronda Spinak. There are also tangents on the Instant Pot, goals, and a shared fandom of The Braid.

Taste Buds host Debra Eckerling recently did a Sunday at the Braid event for her new book, “52 Secrets for Goal-Setting and Goal-Getting,” via Zoom, hosted by David Chiu and along with Katie Chin and Elaine Hall, who are in the book. The Braid’s newest salon show, “For the Love of Animals,” opens next week.

Learn more about “Not That Jewish” at The-Braid.org/Monica and the new show at The-Braid.org. Watch Debra Eckerling’s Sundays at The Braid conversation at @TheBraidStories on YouTube.

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Amy Dell, founder of Sababa Foods, which produces authentic Middle Eastern foods with a modern-day flair.

Dell's first product, Saturday Sauce, is her take on matbucha. It is a slightly spicy tomato-based sauce, like the base of shakshuka. It’s like the Jewish version of Sunday sauce.

“Sunday sauce generally refers to [what] an Italian family’s grandma is making [on] Sunday,” Dell explains. “Tomato sauce, stewing for hours … [that] you use it in so many different ways and formats.”

Both are good, simple red sauces that go with just about everything. Dell uses it for Moroccan fish, sheet pan chicken, so many different things.

Dell grew up in the restaurant industry and is still deli-adjacent. Her father, who is from Israel, owned Mr. Broadway kosher restaurant in New York City. Her husband, Jake, is the third-generation owner of Katz’s Deli.

“The first date that I went on with my husband, I was like, ‘Oh, you smell like pastrami, that's a familiar smell,’” says Dell, who is “Team Pastrami” all the way.

“Pastrami just melts in your mouth,” she says. “But I will say my favorite thing at Katz’s, which might be controversial, is the turkey; the turkey is underrated and it's delightful.”

Amy Dell talks about growing up in a deli, marrying into one, and creating Sababa foods. She also shares some of her favorite ways to use Saturday Sauce, including her recipe for Tunisian tuna toast, which you can find at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more about Amy Dell and Saturday Sauce at Sababa-foods.com and follow @Sababa_foods on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Saturday Sauce is now available in Erewhon stores.

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On this episode of Taste Buds with Deb, host Debra Eckerling speaks with Sarah Nathan, founder of NOOISH, a modern Jewish comfort food brand. Nathan has always been a huge fan of soup. Matzo ball soup in particular is well-known and beloved, so it’s no wonder instant matzo ball soup is NOOISH’s first product.

“[With soup] you get this melding of flavors and that warmth in your heart,” Nathan explains. “We call it a hug in a cup for a reason.”

NOOISH’s matzo ball soup, which uses clean, high-end ingredients, is similar in format to Instant Ramen. “Just add water and microwave for two and a half minutes, and you get a really delicious steaming fresh bowl of matzo ball soup,” she says.

And even though you get instant gratification with this matzo ball soup, it still counts.

“I get comments online all the time: ‘My grandmother would be turning over in her grave; if you're not making it from scratch, it's not real,’” Nathan explains. “Well, I'm making it from scratch, so you don't have to.”

The brand, however, is about more than soup. NOOISH’s mission is to elevate and make Jewish food accessible to everyone.

Nathan has been in the culinary space for a while, and was a producer on the Great Big Jewish Food Fest at the beginning of the pandemic. During that time, she noticed how everyone was seeking comfort and connecting through food. Then, after the pandemic, Nathan noticed a gap. Others were still elevating their own culture's food, but nobody was really doing that for Jewish food, outside of the kosher aisle.

And now there is!

Nathan shares the NOOISH - and her own - food origin stories, her love of Jewish comfort food, and the recipe for one of her favorites: New York Shuk’s Jerusalem latke, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

Learn more at NooishFoods.com and follow @NooishFoods on Instagram and YouTube. 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 Hannah Sattler, owner of Hannah's Kitchen, a Jewish-focused catering business and cafe in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sattler prides herself on nourishing the soul, preserving tradition and creating meaningful connections through food.

While Sattler always loved food and cooking, she started off as an engineering major, ended up in the financial industry (“I’m a numbers cruncher”), and then took time off to be a stay-at-home mom to her three daughters. She ended up running her synagogue’s kitchen, starting as a volunteer, before being hired as their kitchen manager.

About 10 years ago, when her life went through some changes, Sattler started Hannah’s Kitchen.

“I've always been really organized and [that applies] especially in the catering world,” she explains. “You really need to not just know food, but how to organize and delegate.”

It may have taken a while to get to her destiny, but she ended up in the right place.

Hannah Sattler talks about her childhood food memories and career journey. She also shares tips for not overwhelming yourself when cooking, whether it’s for the family or a larger occasion, as well as her grandmother’s recipe for parve strawberry ice cream, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts.

“Not everything, culinarily, has to be complicated,” Sattler says. “You can make some easy meals and [then have] quality time with your family.”

Learn more at HannahsKitchenmke.com and follow HannahsKitchenMke on Facebook and @Han_kit_mke on Instagram.

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

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, which you can get at JewishJournal.com/podcasts. 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.”

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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.