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Taste Talks NYC Recap

By Dan Q. Dao at New York University

Last week, the big kids at Spoon University joined forces with the Student Intern Network to host Taste Talks NYC at General Assembly East.

The event brought in some of the best and brightest names in the food game—including Tasting Table founder Geoff Bartakovics, Food Network’s Deb Puchalla and Num Pang‘s Ben Daitz and Ratha Chaupoly.

Talking to a packed audience, the speakers and panelists touched on a variety of culinary topics ranging from creative ways to get involved in food media to the basics of starting a food & drink business.

NYU Spoon dropped in for the treats—provided by sweetgreen, Pretzel Crisps and Oatmeals—great conversation, and the killer bag of party favors.

Here are a few of our takeaways from the night:

• “Food has joined the pop culture conversation alongside movies, music and TV, with chefs as the new celebrities” – Geoff Bartakovics, founder, Tasting Table
• “Some websites cater to more industry people. We want chefs, people who work in restaurants to read us but our first priority is the diners.” – Sierra Tishgart, associate editor, Grubstreet
• “We see a big uptick in people’s interests across the [Food Network] sites in health and wellness. And it’s not necessarily health in calories, it’s very lifestyle health. So lighter ways of cooking, incorporating more produce into your diet, knowing what to eat that needs to be organic and what doesn’t need to be.” – Deb Puchalla, VP digital editorial, Food Network
• “We’re doing thousands of orders a month now, and things go wrong — it’s delivery in New York City…It’s how you react to those adversities as a team, as a company, that will define you.” – Ben Daitz, founder, Num Pang Sandwich Shop

See the full list of speakers and sponsors here.

Need more? We recorded the entire thing. Watch it here.