What is authentic when it comes to taste? Though an impossible topic to wrap your mind around in 30 minutes, author and NYU Associate Professor of Food Studies, Krishnendu Ray, discusses taste, authenticity and culture through the lens of immigrant cuisine and restaurants on a special episode of "Taste Matters" with Mitchell Davis. Tune in and get an introduction to some of the themes Krishnendu has explored in his career such as vernacular cosmopolitanism and the idea of food as fashion. This program was sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.

"American food cultures are so inflected through immigrant prisms." [08:00]

"Indian restaurants in Manhattan have always been outward directed because there hasn't been a large Indian population until recently." [23:00]

--Krishnendu Ray on Taste Matters

This week's episode of Taste Matters is all about taste memory. Guest host Izabela Wojcik is joined by cookbook author Raquel Pelzel and chef Ryan Hardy. Tune in to hear some personal memoirs on how taste memory can be completely different from the taste itself. This episode was sponsored by Whole Foods Market.

As the corporate wine and beverage director for the Marlon Abela Restaurant Corporation (MARC) US, Olivier Flosse offers a wealth of experience garnered in France, the UK and New York City. In this position, Olivier is responsible for the award-winning wine collection at A Voce Madison and A Voce Columbus in New York, as well growth of the already impressive wine program at MARC’s award-winning restaurant, Morello Bistro, in Greenwich, Connecticut and Bistro du Midi in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as the development of wine programs at future MARC restaurants in the U.S. Under the direction of Olivier, A Voce Columbus was one of four restaurants in the U.S. to receive the Wine Spectator Grand Award in 2012. Flosse is also responsible for training the restaurants’ sommeliers and floor staff in all aspects of the wine and beverage service, as well as the wine and spirit purchasing in the US. On this week's episode of In the Drink, he speaks to the importance of ensuring a guests happiness while drinking and stresses that the communal experience of wine is more important than the knowledge base. This program was sponsored by Bonnie Plants

"Now, you can go to a restaurant and the food doesn't have to be amazing, but with incredible service people will come back!" [27:00]

"Service is not something you're just doing for two hours to get your paycheck. It's something you have to have inside." [28:00]

--Olivier Flosse on In the Drink