🎙️ 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. Some obvious, some hidden. All about how this city eats—and why it matters.

🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

🌊🐖 Mar i Muntanya – Catalonia’s surf-and-turf DNA

🍝 Canelons + Lobster Butter – humble pasta, obscene sauce

🐟🔥 Suquet, Monkfish & Seawater – fishermen logic in a pot

🇪🇸🏆 Spain’s Case – why Spanish cooking belongs in the pantheon

🎄🍲 Galets at Christmas – meat-stuffed pasta that makes its own broth

🍋🐟 Fismuler Barcelona – Nino Redruello’s “cuisine doctor” vibe

🧀🔥 Cheesecake Wars – Zuberoa’s blue-cheese whisper, Ama vs. Fismuler, crust included

🥬🔥 Kimchi Butter & Charred Cabbage – fusion with restraint

🇪🇨🍲 Ecuador in BCN – Ñaño’s encebollado + plantain–peanut fish stew

🍺🍤 Counter Culture – Cal Pep & the gospel of the plancha

🧑‍🍳🥄 Bar Pinotxo → Sant Antoni – market bars done right

🥂🐙 Ultramarinos Marín – produce-driven seafood and “that bill”

🥃🍲 Bar Gèlida – the last cheap, working-class dinosaur

🥑🏙️ Gentrification vs. Culture – hip cafés, fragile ecosystems

📩 Follow & Support Us:

🍽️ Everything in one place: linktr.ee/potluckfoodtalks

📸 Instagram: @potluckfoodtalks

▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

💙 Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/potluckfoodtalks

📢 Want to advertise with us? potluckfoodtalks.com/advertise-on-the-podcast

🔥 Enjoy!

🎙️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:

🍰 The Cheesecake Test – Why eating from the back might mean you’re a psychopath

🔥 Improvising in Caracas – No oil, no problem (fish confit saves the day)

👨‍🍳 Mentors Who Changed Everything – Ruben Martinez, Michel Hopfel, and the craft vs. business debate

🍃 Mugaritz & Beyond – Life lessons from chaos, herbs, and endless mise en place

🥕 When Food Makes You Cry – Hay ice cream, strawberry salads, and flavor as memory

🎵 Music or Silence – How sound shapes cooking and dining

🥩 Fine Dining vs. Chuletas – From Bourdain’s Mugaritz epiphany to Etxebarri’s steak supremacy

🎨 Doing Less, Doing It Right – Why Picasso lines, rap lyrics, and cooking all share the same truth

📩 Follow & Support Us:

🍽️ Everything in one place: linktr.ee/potluckfoodtalks

📸 Instagram: @potluckfoodtalks

▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

💙 Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/potluckfoodtalks

📢 Want to advertise with us? potluckfoodtalks.com/advertise-on-the-podcast

🔥 Enjoy!

🎙️ 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. The greatest spud dishes every chef should know.

🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

🥔 The Potato is King – humble, ugly, glorious

👨‍🍳 Robuchon’s Legendary Purée (60% butter rule)

🍟 Heston’s Triple-Cooked Fries – the recipe that changed fries forever

🔥 Why Technique Matters – turning classics into innovation

🇪🇸 Spanish Fries vs. French Fries – soggy but soulful

🥛 Potato Gratin & Tartiflette – French comfort classics

🍲 Pommes Boulanger – baked potatoes with broth & onions

🥘 Creole Potatoes & Family Food Memories

🎶 Potatoes, Smell & Memory – food as time travel

🧪 WTF Potato Recipes – juicing, gels & experimental sauces

💨 Potato Espuma – fish, olive oil vs. butter debates

🤬 The Cheesecake & Potato Purée Wars – dogma in the kitchen

🧄 Marco Pierre White’s Butter-Roasted Potatoes

🍷 Potato Dressings – truffle oil, stock & genius simplicity

📚 Final Thoughts & Outro

📩 Follow & Support Us:

🍽️ Everything in one place: linktr.ee/potluckfoodtalks

📸 Instagram: @potluckfoodtalks

▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

💙 Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/potluckfoodtalks

📢 Want to advertise with us? potluckfoodtalks.com/advertise-on-the-podcast

🔥 Enjoy!

🎙️ 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 he’s Executive Chef at Amelia in San Sebastián, running a 2-Michelin-star kitchen and helping launch restaurants from Bangkok to Miami. This is about passion, discipline, and saying yes before you’re ready.

🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

🇮🇹 Florence Beginnings – From canteen life to chasing flavor

🍝 Italian Roots – Grandmothers, Bolognese, and milk debates

🏨 Luxury Standards – Four Seasons and the precision omelet

🌍 Global Openings – Bangkok, Barcelona, Miami & more

🍣 Product First – From kinome leaves to Chawanmushi 💡 Mentorship & Discipline – Why only the best touch the protein

👨‍🍳 Career Advice – For the 20-year-old who thinks it’s too late

🥖 Basque & Beyond – Breaking the local culinary lineage

📩 Follow & Support Us:

🍽️ Everything in one place: linktr.ee/potluckfoodtalks

📸 Instagram: @potluckfoodtalks

▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

💙 Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/potluckfoodtalks

📢 Want to advertise with us? potluckfoodtalks.com/advertise-on-the-podcast

🔥 Enjoy!

🎙️ 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 Covered in This Episode:

🏛️ What Is a Sociedad? – Basque supper club rules & culture

🍽️ Cooking in the Sociedad – Eric’s 100-dish Basque challenge

🥣 Marmitako Deep Dive – Peppers, bonito, and potato theory

🦑 Next Up: Squid in Ink – Eric’s cooking plans

🐟 Bonito vs. Big Tuna – Size, flavor, and grandma’s preserves

🔥 Hay-Fired Tataki – Japanese bonito torched over dry hay

🎣 Fishing Bonito in Venezuela – Eric’s childhood story

💡 Why Freshness Matters – Catch it, cook it, eat it

🧂 Bonito Flakes & Umami – Katsuo in Japanese cooking

👑 The Tuna King – Tokyo’s auction legend & surprise meal

🐄 Tuna Is the New Steak – Ribs, necks, cheeks & more

🍖 Pulled Smoked Tuna Head – LA chef Junya Yamasaki’s method

🥩 Belly Cuts & Wagyu Comparisons – Why tuna eats like beef

🍳 Tuna au Poivre – With ponzu, yuzu kosho, and matchstick fries

🍟 Roasted Nori Fries – The seasoning twist

🌡️ Warm-Blooded Tuna – And why the texture hits different

🍖 Reverse Vitello Tonato – Tuna with veal jus espuma

🐟 Bone Marrow & Tuna Cocochas – Cuts chefs overlook

🥫 Canned Tuna Memories – School lunches & government aid

🫙 Conservas Matter – High-end bonito belly in oil

🍅 Simple Salad, Elevated – Tuna belly with tomato & onion

🍱 What They’re Serving Now – Tartlets, truffle tuna & spicy rolls

🌶️ Truffle Oil in Spicy Tuna – Sounds wrong, tastes right

🧁 Akami & Otoro Tartlets – The one-bite umami bomb

📩 Follow & Support Us:

🍽️ Everything in one place: linktr.ee/potluckfoodtalks

📸 Instagram: @potluckfoodtalks

▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

💙 Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/potluckfoodtalks

📢 Want to advertise with us? potluckfoodtalks.com/advertise-on-the-podcast

🔥 Enjoy!

🎙️ 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 stomachs, we tried to make sense of every course kissed by smoke, salt, and fire.

🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

🥣 Pea Broth – A liquid emerald that sets the tone with gentle smokiness

🥩 Our CHORIZO – Melt-in-your-mouth pork butter and restraint in seasoning

🐟 Home Salted ANCHOVIES – Crusty bread, rich fish, and zero vinegar shock

🧀 Fresh Buffalo CHEESE – Mozzarella meets bitter rocket, unadorned perfection

🦐 Palamós PRAWNS – Sweetness, smokiness, and chewing every edible part

🌊 SEA URCHIN – Seaweed oil, unctuous cream, and ocean umami

🦑 CUTTLEFISH – Peas, garlic flower, and a grilled Sunday memory

🐟 Hake KOKOTXAS – Rebosado style, wild garlic cracker, gelatinous bliss

🥄 CAVIAR – Pork fat emulsion, smoked pearls, and goat milk butter

🍄 Cardoon & Black TRUFFLE – Marzuelos mushrooms in broth worth bathing in

🐟 Sea BREAM – Grilled with finesse, sour restraint, and yes… the eye

🥩 CHORIZO Tartar – A raw pork tartare sandwiched between Basque talos

🥩 Beef CHOP – Txuleta from “Marilyn Monroe,” rare, warm, and unforgettable

🍨 Reduced milk ICE CREAM & beetroot – Smoky, earthy, ice-cold perfection

🍫 Chocolate SOUFFLE – Airy, rich, sweet, and intentionally “too rare”

🧀 Cheese FLAN – A warm, naked ode to Basque cheesecake without flour

🛋️ Upstairs at Etxebarri – Private rooms, wooden tables, and feeling at home

🧠 First Times – What stays with you when everything is done just right

📩 Follow & Support Us:

🍽️ Everything in one place: linktr.ee/potluckfoodtalks

📸 Instagram: instagram.com/potluckfoodtalks

▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

💙 Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/potluckfoodtalks

📢 Want to advertise with us? potluckfoodtalks.com/advertise-on-the-podcast

🔥 Enjoy!

🎙️ 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:

🦆 What is Foie Gras? – The duck breeds and strange logistics behind it

📦 Born in Spain, Shipped to France – Why marketing determines birthplace

🌾 Duck Life – 90 days of freedom, feeding, and finality

🍽️ Force-Feeding Explained – What Eric actually saw (and didn’t)

⚡ Conscious Slaughter – Electricity, bleeding, and respect

🪷 Ritual vs Cruelty – Saying a prayer before each kill

🪓 Lobsters, Langoustines & Knives – Why killing still haunts professional chefs

🔋 Duck Poop Power – How a slaughterhouse fuels itself with methane

😶 “I Don’t Want to Know” – Phil’s takedown of meat ignorance

📚 Cookbook Censorship – The chicken photo that made readers sad

🎯 Know Your Food – Why cooking starts with understanding your ingredients

📩 Follow & Support Us:

🍽️ Everything in one place: linktr.ee/potluckfoodtalks

📸 Instagram: @potluckfoodtalks

▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

💙 Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/potluckfoodtalks

📢 Want to advertise with us? potluckfoodtalks.com/advertise-on-the-podcast

🔥 Enjoy!

🎙️ 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. From nostalgic late-night cheesecake sessions in San Sebastián to adapting the classic recipe for a new audience, the two dig into what makes this dessert so addictive.

🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

🍰 The Cheesecake Origin Story – How a late-night craving turned into a brand

🇨🇴 Exporting Flavor – Bringing Basque cheesecake to Colombia

🧂 Salt > Sugar – Why the best cheesecakes aren’t that sweet

🍪 Cookie Base Controversy – Breaking tradition or improving it?

🐐 Mamia & Sheep’s Milk – Basque desserts in all their minimal glory

🍠 Sweet Potato, Matcha & Dulce de Leche – Remixing the recipe

💡 Tips for Home Bakers – How not to mess it up

🧀 Cheesecake Cheese? – From secret cheeses to white mold crusts

🍷 Pairings We Love – From Sauternes to Pacharán

📈 Going Viral – Runny centers, arepa confusion, and social media gold

📩 Follow & Support Us:

🍽️ Everything in one place: linktr.ee/potluckfoodtalks

📸 Instagram: @potluckfoodtalks

▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

💙 Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/potluckfoodtalks

📢 Want to advertise with us? potluckfoodtalks.com/advertise-on-the-podcast

🔥 Enjoy!