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.