Pot Luck Food Talks

🎙️ EP151 – 🍳 Forget the tasting menu. If you want to be a real cook, start in the trenches. 🔥This week we take on audience questions — and crack open the uncomfortable truths young chefs need to hear…

🎙️ EP150 - Julián Otero isn’t here to make you comfortable. As creative chef of Mugaritz, he serves ideas disguised as food—sometimes brilliant, sometimes brutal, never safe. At the most controversia…

🎙️ EP149 – Tourists chase paella. Chefs chase truth. This is Barcelona through a cook’s eyes: lobster-slick canelons, seawater stews, five-euro dinosaurs, and bars where the plancha still shouts. Som…

🎙️EP148 – A casual catch-up ☕ turns into a deep exploration of a cook’s career 👨‍🍳—turning points, mentors, and the lessons that shape a chef’s path to excellence ⭐.

🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

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🎙️ EP147 – Eric and Phil go all-in on the potato hall of fame—Robuchon’s butter-bomb purée, Heston’s triple-cooked fries, French gratins, plus some real WTF recipes like potato sauces and espumas. Th…

🎙️ EP146 – From Canteens to Michelin Stars – Giacomo Zani’s career didn’t start in gleaming fine-dining kitchens. It started with peeling potatoes for 400 in a pharmaceutical company cafeteria. Now h…

🎙️ EP145 – This is tuna, lip-to-tail. From cheeks to collars, marrow to belly—we break down every cut, every technique, and every dish that makes this fish a true culinary heavyweight.

🎧 Topics Covere…

🎙️ EP144 – A Basque Temple of Smoke and Simplicity. It’s nearly impossible to get a table—yet somehow, we found ourselves upstairs at Asador Etxebarri. Later, over wine-stained notes and full stomach…

🎙️ EP143 – Eric visited a foie gras facility. What he saw wasn’t what you'd expect. This episode is about what it means to kill, eat, and stay honest about both.

🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

🦆 Wha…

🎙️ EP142 – The Rise of the Basque Cheesecake. On the road to Etxebarri, Eric chats with José Pelares—chef, entrepreneur, and founder of LA VASCA, Colombia’s cult-favorite Basque cheesecake brand. Fro…

🎙️ EP141 – Finding Your Culinary Identity? After a stretch of solo episodes, Eric and Phil are finally back together—and Phil’s got stories. In this episode, he unpacks his new role at the Arts Club …

🎙️ EP140 – Chef Jackie Villena, a.k.a. The Caviar Queen, knows more about caviar than most people know about salt. From harvesting secrets to wild pairings, she breaks down the luxury ingredient like…

🎙️ EP139 – The Umami Conspiracy. From parmesan-in-mayo hacks to kombu-fueled flavor bombs, Phil and Eric dive mouth-first into the misunderstood world of umami. They trace the Japanese origin of the …

🎙️ EP138 – 🔬From Fine Dining to Harvard Ft. Alejandra Touceda. From her early days dodging crazy chefs, staging at El Celler de Can Roca to now managing the food lab at Harvard University, Alex’s pat…

🎙️ EP137 – 🥣 Soup, Salsas & Sea Urchin: Why the Simple Stuff Blows Your Mind From Basque fish soups to sea urchin redemption arcs, Phil and Eric go deep on the dishes that stick with you for life. Th…

🎙️ EP136 – 🧈 Fat is Flavor: From Robuchon’s legendary mashed potatoes to duck fat caramel and toasted yeast butter, Phil and Eric go full-fat in this unapologetic ode to cooking’s richest ingredient.…

🎙️ EP135 – 🍜 Phil’s Japan: Ramen, Tempura & the Soul of Japanese Cooking. Back from a 10-day pilgrimage across Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, Phil shares stories of smoky yakitori counters, jazz-filled sob…

🎙️ EP134 – 🌱 Henry Obispo is growing a new Bronx. Also known as The Sustainable Papi, this eco-gastronomer is reimagining food systems—one rooftop farm, hot sauce, and mushroom taco at a time. From f…

🎙️ EP133 – 🍽️ Johan Jörgensen thinks so. The Sweden Food Tech founder joins Eric to talk about how our food system got so broken—and why chefs, not consumers, are the real agents of change. From bloo…

🎙️ EP132 - 🧀 Phil & Eric dive headfirst into the funky, melty, glorious world of cheese. From trashy cravings in Japan to British blues that rival France 🇬🇧, this episode is an unfiltered ode to curd…