Tagan Engel
Producer/contributorTagan Engel is a guest co-host of Seasoned. She brings more than 25 years of experience in food systems and justice work. After a decade as a chef, baker and caterer in NYC, Boston, and through travels to Brazil, Nigeria, and Israel/Palestine, she returned to New Haven, her hometown, to merge her passions for food and social justice. She became deeply involved in community organizing on local food justice efforts, partnering with community members, businesses, organizations, and the city to create solutions to school food, equitable access to nourishing food, culturally connected cooking education, community and school gardens, food workers rights, sustainable supply chains, and supports for BIPOC food entrepreneurs. She led efforts to pass the first community driven city food policy plan, establish the Food System Policy Director position for the City of New Haven, and founded the Kitchen at CitySeed.
Tagan currently hosts The Table Underground podcast/website where she records inspiring stories of food and creative social justice, and consults on related work. She is a Resident Fellow at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment and the Yale Center for Environmental Justice where she advises on community driven liberation practices, regenerative agriculture and food systems, and racial, economic and social equity. Tagan is a founding Board Member of Soul Fire Farm and a Mentor and Advisory Board Member with CitySeed Incubates. She was a co-creator of the 2020 New Haven Cultural Equity Plan and a 2018 Graustein Memorial Fund Inspiring Equity Story Fellow. Tagan is a wife and mother of two teenagers in a family that she loves with abandon. She is an Ashkenazi Jew, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors - whose legacy of story and liberation she carries on - and an Iyanifa in the Yoruba orisa tradition.
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This week on Seasoned, we talk with two culinary trailblazers about Indigenous and Puerto Rican food and cooking.
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This week on Seasoned, get to know chef Reneé Touponce and spearfisherwoman Valentine Thomas. Plus Carolyn Wyman is your guide to the best local clam cakes and fritters.
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This week on Seasoned, it’s our annual celebration of all things grilled, smoked, and barbecued. Where is your favorite BBQ joint in the state?
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Chef Plum forages for fiddleheads along the Housatonic River with chef Chrissy Tracey. And, Tagan Engel talks with Mohegan elder Chris “Painted Turtle” Harris about forest foraging.
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Nicole Taylor discusses the history and spirit behind the Juneteenth holiday, on this episode of Seasoned. Plus, get to know the local chef of the Peruvian restaurant Coracora. And, Chef Plum gets an Emmy nod for Restaurant Road Trip.
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Thirsty? Bartenders join Chef Plum on this episode of Seasoned to taste and talk about seasonal cocktails, both spirited and zero-proof, as we slide from spring into summer.
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Terry Walters explains the benefits of fermented foods in this episode of Seasoned, and talks with Chef Plum about her new cookbook. Plus, baker Kevin Masse talks about expanding Small State Provisions.
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In this episode of Seasoned, Chef Plum talks with the tea master from Grace Farms and visits a tea shop where an herbalist creates blends inspired by tarot card readings. Plus, we chat with members of Central Connecticut State University’s Tea Club.
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Michael Twitty discusses his 'Koshersoul' in this episode of Seasoned. Chef Plum and Tagan Engel taste a Rosca de Reyes bread from Atticus Bakery in New Haven, and learn about natural wine.