For wife duo Lish Steiling and Abbey Cook, curiosity is a serious business. With backgrounds in the culinary arts and color and pattern trend forecasting, respectively, their professional histories are rich with discovery, exploration, and experimentation.

In this exclusive interview with the trailblazers behind The Taste Curators, they divulge how they first merged their unique disciplines, reveal a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creation of their coveted cookbook series, and demonstrate how the classic pairing of technique and taste translates across fashion, food, and interior design.

The Taste Curators: We had both been working in our respective industries for quite some time, thinking they were so polarized. The assumption was that fashion folks didn’t eat and that chefs didn’t really pay attention to what they wore. We got tired of that stereotype. When we stood back and looked at the two side by side with a different perspective—similarities instead of differences—the sky was the limit! 

We eat and we get dressed every day, so that laid the foundation. We examined other areas, such as how salt holds a dish together like thread holds a garment, and how recipes are to cooks what patterns are to seamstresses. We can grow textiles with cotton seeds or food with vegetable seeds. The list goes on and on. If it’s even possible, merging our two backgrounds paved the way for an even bigger platform to explore our creativity. We get to play with various forms, allowing for a lot of experimentation.

We did a photoshoot for a magazine in 2013 around food and fashion and finally decided to create The Taste Curators in 2020, which started on Instagram. Now we have a self-published cookbook series called Palate Palette, a Substack newsletter, events, collaborations, and talks. We are still at the starting point but have a big vision ahead of us to create a sensorial lifestyle brand.

The Taste Curators: When creating anything, we first ask what is the story we want to tell? With a meal, we often create a flavor palette to tell a story, much like you do with making a color palette or mood board for a room. Then you start with a base. For a meal, most often that is the protein. In a room, let’s call this the wall color, the thing that really anchors the room. Then you think about the preparation of the protein and flavors you want to go for to “name” the dish. This could be the furniture, the items that bring life to the wall color and vice versa. Next comes the side dishes to accessorize the main dish. Do you want them to have texture or be soft and velvety? Bright and acidic or a bit sweet and savory? Hardwood floors or a large rug? Pillows and throw or just a bare sofa? The finishing touch of the meal could be a sprinkle of flake salt and drizzle of spicy olive oil. This finishing touch is your lighting. It’s the thing that brings a feeling to a meal or room.

The Taste Curators: The colors chosen for our cookbooks are planned out. We started with yellow, as for us it represented a happy color. We knew we would be launching in the heart of winter when sunshine is limited, so we began the series with a ray of light.

Once we choose a color, we both write down ingredients that are in that particular color family. Then we turn to what that color makes us feel or represents culturally so we can start thinking about what flavors that color evokes. For our Purple/Blue book, the color duo reminded us of the ocean and cooling flavors, so there is a recipe for Oysters with Cucumber Mignonette that doesn’t use any ingredients literal to purple and blue but to us tastes like the color palette.

After we nail down the recipe ideas, Lish begins to develop them, and Abbey becomes the official taste tester. We also have a few volunteers that test the recipes to make sure they work and do what they are intended to do. We create about 25–28 recipes per book and then photograph each recipe ourselves, often using textiles from our travels around the world to bring in a fashion element. We also research artwork, runway shows, movies, and cultural moments that are iconic for a certain color. We use these in some of the headnotes and encourage readers to look up these moments to get a full sensorial perspective on the dish, making connections in a variety of ways.

The Taste Curators: Purple and Blue were a bit of a challenge, especially the blue ingredients, as there just aren’t that many in nature—or at least not many that are readily accessible. Purple is a very polarizing color when it comes to interiors and fashion. You either love it or hate it. Blue, however, is a color so many enjoy in fashion and interiors but is often unwelcome in food. It was an interesting juxtaposition pairing them together and getting everyone’s reactions.

The Taste Curators: We did an event with the Museum at FIT around their exhibit called “Food and Fashion” where Abbey pulled inspiring pieces from the exhibit and Lish created bites to taste like the garments via color, texture, shape, etc. Watching the audience have a collective reaction together was so fulfilling. We could literally watch their senses awaken with each bite. The experience being created around taste in a nontraditional sense really got people talking.

Abbey Cook: Trend forecasting involves using all of your senses, plus listening to one’s intuition. Inspiration comes from everywhere, and a good meal is no exception. Today the world of interiors plays a huge role in restaurant design. Those two worlds have merged more so than ever before. If a restaurant has incredible design and food, it’s a winning combo, as both elements have become equally important—it’s no longer just about the food. Many restaurants are leading trends in that way, so I’m always researching what’s new and next in hospitality. This is something that is playing a bigger role in my trend forecasting than ever before, and I often look at it first, even before fashion, when researching to create a new trend.

The Taste Curators: We love Mexico for all of its color explosions around every corner. It’s a country that utilizes all the senses in the most kaleidoscopic of ways. We like the work of the Mestiz brand based in San Miguel de Allende for use of color in tabletop and interior design. Ignacia Guest House in Mexico City is also a dream hotel for color lovers.

Lish Steiling: Honestly, we find inspiration everywhere. Our motto is “stay curious” and we mean it. Connection and inspiration often lie right in front of our faces if we simply stay present and pay attention to it.

Abbey Cook: I really enjoy the artist Hilma af Klint for her use of color, spirituality, and patterns, as well as Sonia Delaunay for expanding beyond paintings and into interior design and fashion. Kelly Wearstler is forever a current inspiration for utilizing her curiosity and risk-taking with interior design, bending the rules much like the Wiener Werkstätte art group from the early 1900s.

The Taste Curators: People often don’t understand the magnitude of power that color has. It’s easy to overlook this seemingly mundane thing that surrounds us at every corner. Color can make or break how you feel. If you put on your favorite red sweater, you can feel that warm hug. And if you put on a color that just isn’t your color, you may not stand quite as tall or feel good. That said, the same actually holds true for food. A bright red steak showcases freshness, making you excited to cook it. If you pick up a brown wilted head of lettuce, it leaves you disappointed and moving on to look for the brightest green one. That’s the power of color.

The Taste Curators: Color has become even more sensorial and truly makes us realize how important it is to pay attention to color. When eating a certain color, it brings out an array of emotions and ideas. And once your senses are ignited, your whole world becomes more vibrant in everything you do.

The Taste Curators: We are planning on doing three more books on green, neutrals, and orange. You can currently buy our cookbooks at our online store on our website, at Takamichi Beauty Room in NYC (a gem of a store for all your hosting gifts), at Binding Agents in Philadelphia, and at Process General Store in Stevens Point, WI.

We also have ideas for a podcast and are hoping to get that launched next year. Along with this, we are excited to potentially partner up with Mexico City fashion designer Carla Fernandez, who we have admired for quite some time, to do a fun food and fashion event with one of her collections. We’re super excited for that to happen. And we will also do an event with Binding Agents around our Palate Palette series in spring of 2026.

Lish Steiling: My flavor is “balanced.” Does that count as a flavor? I like to create food that appeals to many and leaves them with a moment of excitement or childlike enthusiasm. And my color is “burgundy purple,” like the color of radicchio: grounding, but with warmth and a whisper of bitterness.

Abbey Cook: My flavor is “pink peppercorn,” because trend forecasting is about discovery and curiosity. The same is true for this ingredient, it’s more floral than spicy, surprising your tastebuds if you have never tried it before, and encouraging you to look at that flavor and ingredient with a new lens. Plus, the color is gorgeous. And as for a color, I would choose anything in the purple family, as it represents creativity and unity—two elements that drive my work.

Explore the power of color to bring flavor to your designs with exclusive large-sized samples, complimentary with your PRO+ account.

Top image: Photos (left and right) by Claire Mazourek. Photo (center) by Lauren Volo.