Forget Fine Dining, Learn to Actually Cook: Your Questions, Our Brutal Answers!
🎙️ 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. ⚡🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:👨🍳 Best Advice for Aspiring Chefs – Why foundations matter more than stars🔥 “F### Tasting Menus” – The lost art of real cooking🔪 Choosing Your Path – Decision fatigue in a career with too many options🍚 The Rice Wars – There’s no one right way (sorry, Valencians)🍗 The Underdog Meat – Why chicken deserves respect🥂 Berlin Dining Scene – Hype vs. substance🥔 Potato Purée Salt Debate – Timing, superstition, and science🌶️ Cooking with Identity – Context, culture, and food credibility📩 Follow & Support Us:🍽️ Everything in one place: https://linkin.bio/potluckfoodtalks/📸 Instagram: @potluckfoodtalks▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks📢 Want to advertise with us? potluckfoodtalks.com/advertise-on-the-podcast🔥 Enjoy!
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30:59
Becoming a Chef: Julián Otero Inside the World’s Most Provocative Kitchen
🎙️ 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 controversial restaurant in the world, the dish isn’t finished until you eat it.🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:🎙️ Intro – Meet Juliano Otero, creative chef of Mugaritz🤳 Gastro Cringe – calling out bathtub tiramisus & clueless critics📚 From librarian dreams to kitchen life💡 El Bulli ambitions & rejection from Basque Culinary Center👨🍳 Inside El Bulli Foundation & working with Ferran Adrià🤝 Learning from Oriol, Eduard & Mateu at Disfrutar’s roots🎓 Teaching at Basque Culinary Center at 24 years old🍽️ Breaking into Mugaritz – skipping the usual stagiaire ladder🎸 From fan to bandmate – making books at Mugaritz🌍 What really fuels Mugaritz: thousands of young cooks🧪 Beyond flavor – cooking as ideas, not comfort🔄 Why Mugaritz keeps changing to stay alive👥 How dishes are created: teams, topics & young blood🎨 When is a dish finished? Why the diner completes it🧫 Four years to grow a fungus – the long road of R&D👋 Closing thoughts & Juliano’s philosophy👥 Relevant People & Restaurants Mentioned in This Episode:Julián Otero (Mugaritz): @gastrojuliusMugaritz: @mugaritzEl Bulli Foundation / Ferran Adrià: @elbullifoundation_ferranadriaBasque Culinary Center: @bculinaryOriol Castro (Disfrutar): @oriolcastrofornsEduard Xatruch (Disfrutar): @eduardxatruchMateu Casañas (Disfrutar): tagged in @disfrutarbcnDisfrutar: @disfrutarbcn📩 Follow & Support Us:🍽️ Everything in one place: linkin.bio/potluckfoodtalks📸 Instagram: @potluckfoodtalks▶️ YouTube: youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks📢 Want to advertise with us? potluckfoodtalks.com/advertise-on-the-podcast🔥 Enjoy!
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24:59
A Cook's Guide to Eating in Barcelona
🎙️ 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: https://linkin.bio/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!
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27:48
Major Turning Points That Define a Chef’s Career
🎙️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: https://linkin.bio/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!
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36:11
Potato Rhapsody: The Dishes That Made History From Robuchon to Blumenthal
🎙️ 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: https://linkin.bio/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!
After almost 2 decades of working in some of the best restaurants in the world, Phil & Eric have a lot of stories to tell and things to set straight!Put Luck Food Talks are unfiltered, unapologetic conversations about food, the crazy stories inside Michelin Star kitchens, and anything involving the search for the most delicious dishes.With these two experienced chefs, you'll discover some of the best places to eat, how to apply professional techniques at home and just some good old fashioned real talk amongst food-obsessed friends.
South Africa