sweet inspirations

(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.

🎙️ EP156 – 700 covers. Tickets spilling to the floor. Grill in freefall. This episode is about the nights everything falls apart, and why that’s where real cooks are made.

🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

🔥 Friday-Night Meltdown — When the pass loses the plot and how to reset

🧾 Ticket Tsunami — Reading, batching, and staying ahead of the board

🥩 Grill Triage — “Fire everything” vs. perfect sear and rest

🧠 Prioritize & Execute — Jocko’s playbook for the line

🧘 Detach to Survive — Mind control under pressure

🧮 Mental Mapping — Keeping six tables in your head without dying

📣 Expo Done Right — FOH-led pass calls and flow

🐻 The Bear IRL — What the show nails

🍜 Din Tai Fung — Systems, speed, and consistency at scale

🔥 Wok Logic — A la minute skill from Chinese & Japanese kitchens

🇵🇪 Chifa Legends — Javier Wong, ceviche + wok, and doing two things perfectly