basque cuisine

(The picture is from La Vasca, for me the best I’ve ever tried, the recipe is a take on AMA’s Cheesecake. Both are inspired by a crossover of La Viña’s style and Hilario Arbelaitz’s […]

🎙️ This Week’s Episode

Pot Luck Food Talks: Kitchen Stories From Behind the Pass

Two decades on the line leave scars, stories, and a way of seeing the world that doesn’t wash off with the apron.

Pot Luck Food Talks is where the chef lifestyle gets laid bare—raw chef talk, the kind you don’t hear in PR interviews.

Phil & Eric aren’t here to romanticize. They’re here to trade food stories that smell of sweat, butter, and burned fingers. Stories about the beauty and brutality of restaurant culture, the quiet rules, and the loud disasters.

It’s the truth about Michelin Star kitchens, the whispered restaurant secrets, the victories no one tastes but the cooks, and the mistakes that teach more than any school.

If you want sanitized food media, go elsewhere. If you want chef conversations about life, gastronomy, and why flavor is the only compass worth following—pull up a chair.

🎙️ EP162 – El Bulli is gone. But if you cook today, you’re still cooking in its shadow. This episode is about how one weird beach restaurant rewired modern kitchens, pastry, foams, ferments – and the way chefs think about creativity itself.

🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

🏰 El Bulli: The Most Influential Restaurant?

🔧 The Prep Table Revolution – One Long Bench, One Brain

🔥 How Mugaritz, Noma & French Laundry Carried the DNA

🥚 Deconstruction: Tortilla in a Martini Glass & Other Crimes

🧪 Xantana, Agar, Lecithin – Powders That Became Kitchen Gospel

🍺 Beer Courses & Foams – When Texture Became an Idea

🍮 Sweet Cuisine – Albert Adrià Breaks Pastry Open

🧠 Creativity Is Not Copying – Ferran’s Real Legacy

📸 The Final Waltz – A Whole Generation in One Photo

🕯️ Who Holds the Torch Now? Roca, René, Andoni…

🧩 Why Enigma Is Today’s Last Bulli Temple