You're listening to Heritage Radio Network. Hi,
everyone. Welcome to Potluck Food Talks, your
favorite chefs and your mama's favorite food
show, where we talk about food and life, smoke
cigarettes on camera, and yeah, that's basically
it. That's what we do. If you don't like it,
you can fuck off. So today is going to be a question
show. We have some questions from our audience
and we're going to go through them. What do you
think? I think that's great. I'm really happy
that there's so many people interacting and sending
us questions. So first one, Tamika's World is
asking, to an aspiring chef, me, what is the
best advice you can share or knowledge? To look
out for in a kitchen. Wow, that's a very open
one. Yeah, that's a lot. What's the best advice
you could give in life? It's actually also a
difficult one to answer, isn't it? It's a difficult
one because there's different, it really depends
what you want, right? Like, why are you in the
profession? Where do you want to go? Like, what
is your goal, right? Your goal might change along
the way. We talked about similar topics already.
I think a good approach is today, in today's
gastronomic world, the tendency is to jump around
a lot. And it's because we're spoiled. We have
this curse of too many options. Back in the day,
you were in your town, in your country, whatever.
You had what you had. You would maybe look for
the best restaurant that you could go to. Or
if you were in Europe, you could travel somewhere.
You could travel to France or whatever. Nowadays...
And this happened to me, I think, after I was
in Mugaritz. I got into Mugaritz. It was like
a dream come true super early for me. And then
after that, things just opened up for me. And
suddenly, I was confronted with too many options.
And I was like, what a great privileged position
to be in, right? But I had almost sort of like
decision fatigue. because I was like well this
path that I could go down that would lead my
life in a certain direction is really great but
this path is also really great this path is all
different directions that my life could have
taken and you need to make a decision and like
then suddenly you kind of like I don't know what
to do because it's all so great so it's important
to kind of like either you have a certain idea
where you want to head Or you need to find that
out as two different like ways that you can sort
of like choose the place that you want to go.
If you still need to find out kind of where you
want to head, you know, I would choose a certain
sort of place. If you kind of have a general
idea, for example, you say, I want to open my
own restaurant one day. And the kind of food
that I like to cook is this and this, right?
Then you have a general direction that you can
go in. And then my advice is be patient. Carefully
choose the place that you work in. and the people
that you work with it's a little bit hard in
the beginning to understand that and it was hard
for me also to realize that but you will in your
journey you will work in places and with people
that really nurture you that you come out of
and you like while you're there you really resonate
with the place and you come out of like two years
or whatever three years maybe you it's almost
like you're leaving your family And you close
a great chapter and you're like, man, this was,
you know that this was a very impactful time
in your life. Other places you work and it's
almost like you're just clocking in and clocking
out. You're not really learning anything. You
don't resonate with the people. It's almost just
like another day, another dollar. That's bad.
You know, this is the wrong profession to be
in, to have another day, another dollar, because
you don't make enough dollar for the day, right?
Do you remember Mugaric's admission letter? That
it says, you should have, like, what was it like?
You should formulate for yourself the reason
why you are here. And that's something you should
think while you're in the hardest moments. They
would say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember.
And I think that's actually important because
there are moments that are hard. for sure and
you should have like a pretty clear idea of what
you why you're doing this right like yeah absolutely
and then it's kind of like obviously i'm kind
of imagining like a young a young chef or like
i mean not young as in age but in experience
wherever you are in your journey you know aspiring
chef this like things are going to change right
you're going to learn things you're going to
see things you got your preferences are going
to develop your own cooking style and what you
like is going to develop further but for example
if you say i like european cooking i like french
cooking i like italian cooking you know that
sort of style that's what feels the best to me
that's kind of what i want to do and i want to
be somebody who owns a restaurant that cooks
that style of food one day then find a place
where you really learn how to cook. And I mean
really learn how to cook. Honestly, Eric, these
days I'm more and more against people learning
how to cook in Michelin star environments if
that means that they cook tasting menus. Fuck
tasting menus. You don't learn to cook through
a tasting menu. I really, really am starting
to believe this. The more that I work with people,
the more that I work with chefs from all around
the world, I believe that in the beginning you
need to suck it up and you need to not want to
go to fucking Osteria Francescana. You should
go to a really good restaurant that does a la
carte and that does a large amount of covers.
That's what you should do. You're going to get
put through the fucking meat grinder. But you're
going to come out at the other end if you choose,
for example, a good one Michelin -star restaurant
that does, I don't know, between 50 and 100 covers
a night. And you work through the sections, you
work through the Garde Magie, you work through
the Entremetier, you work through the Saussure
and the Poissonnier at some point. Do three years,
really stick it out. You're going to come out
at the other end after three years and you're
going to be better than 80 % of the chefs that
are around in the world right now that are walking
around with their flash jackets and their fucking
tweezers and that, oh, I staged it normal and
oh, I did this and who have... seen cool things
and that's very very important i'm not trying
to downplay that but your ability as a craftsman
your actual ability and your sensitivity and
your jedi senses and your feeling that's going
to be ahead of everybody on the curve um and
i i i'm going to recommend this to anybody who
has a passion for cooking actual really cooking
like not the superficial type of cooking but
like i want to make things really really well
i think that's one of the best ways to go because
you're really going to learn everything from
the ground up i would say do that and then when
you have that basis the fundamentals the fundamentals
always it's like in martial arts the fundamentals
are going to rule everything if your fundamentals
are good you're going to excel you cannot be
at the top and not and have shitty fundamentals
but you can be at the top and only know fundamentals
but extremely well like that's the thing Everything
else that comes after that is going to enrich
you and it's going to make it more and more complex
and it's going to build on that. But if you don't
have that, you might as well not even start.
Create your own concept of understanding. Why
should something be done like this or like that?
Try for yourself. Try different ways and see
what works best for yourself. Because in some
cases you will discover, I don't know, let's
say if we talk about mashed potatoes and people
bake the potatoes with skin, some others boil
them without skin. I wouldn't say that there
is a definitive way to do things and that's the
correct way and everything else is wrong. I would
say it depends on what you're looking for. So
just try different things and decide for yourself
what works best for you, for your concept. Because
also some criteria are not the same if you're
in a kitchen with 40 people or if you're in a
kitchen on your own and you have to do everything
on your own. So you have to apply that criteria
as well. 100%, yeah. You can't act out from a
standpoint of just what you know. The game is
too complex for that. I would add to that, maintain
an open mind. learn things but like you just
said eric like there are so many different like
approaches also that um that are very very valid
a very very arrogant and stupid sous chef once
said to me at mugarets he looked me dead in the
eyes with his thousand years there and told me
there's only one correct way to cook rice and
that is the way of cooking rice in like a Arroz
a banda. Arroz a banda? Is that the one that
is baked? No, that's like Valencian style. No,
because there is a type of rice in Valencia or
Alicante that is baked. And I remember I was
working in a restaurant and they would do that
often for staff meal. And there were lots of
Latin Americans working in that restaurant. And
all of the Latin Americans were really angry
about this. Like, this shitty rice that is all
stick that looks like a cake, completely stick.
And I once said that in a staff meeting, and
they went mental. Like, what? You're not going
to teach us in the land of rice how rice should
be cooked? Yeah, but I mean, hey, just adding
to that, the Latin Americans need to be very,
very quiet when it comes to rice. With their
fucking, I'm going to mix in. uh like raw tomatoes
into water and boil rice with it and you have
this like soupy sort of like red rice it's like
jesus i i'm very sorry if i might offend some
people but i have had the worst i've had the
worst rise of my life in latin america no i also
i also it came to my mind i i i met this japanese
woman japanese american like her parents were
japanese and she was american basically And she
asked her mother, she told her, like, I want
to learn how to cook Japanese food. And the answer
was... She just laughed in her face. And that
was it. Oh, no. She had a problem with that.
That's terrible. I mean, the daughter. Yeah,
I can imagine mine. Tule asks, what restaurant
in Berlin do you recommend? Difficult question.
Do you have one before I go? Restaurant in Berlin.
Food is shit in Berlin. No, I'm kidding. I'm
kidding. Ständige Vertretung. That's one I like.
Like proper old school German food. I like that
one. Yeah, that's a good one. It's a classic
one. Food in Berlin is difficult. Berlin has
a certain sickness that is like superficialness
over substance, where things are trendy and kind
of hyped, but not very good. Places open up,
they do something that stands out, but not because
of its quality. just because of the newness factor
and people really buy into that and other people
from the industry support that i saw a very renowned
chef in berlin the other day recommend his favorite
restaurants and every single one that he named
i was like jesus fucking christ man really it's
just a big circle jerk honestly it's like a group
of friends that are friends not because they
like each other but because they're all like
well known And that just keep recommending each
other, you know. There's so few people that are
actually doing something well. There's one restaurant
I can wholeheartedly recommend without a doubt.
And unfortunately, it's a Michelin star restaurant
because it's not so accessible to everybody.
But that's restaurant Horvat. Great owners. I've
been there. Great owners, fantastic food, fantastic
cooking. I loved it. I really, really liked it.
Yeah, I think what they do is amazing. It's really,
really nice. There's a couple of casual places.
I love Ming Dynasty. Ming Dynasty is great. Is
that the one in... You mean Zoologischer Garten?
Yeah. Is that the one around there? The one with
the round tables? Yeah, exactly. That's really
good. There's a really amazing Thai place in
Friedrichshain. called lap koi and uh like they've
just recently like put on their menu sort of
like hey it's not our fault if you can't eat
spicy please don't complain um which i love because
they just it's not because they're arrogant it's
just that they they do their shit they do northern
thai food they're like if we change the spiciness
it's not going to be the same it's not going
to taste the same so please just like if you
don't eat spicy just don't come um they have
this octopus dish on the menu Where it says like,
hey, if this is your first time eating here,
you can't order the octopus because it's like
so spicy. Because people just kept fucking themselves
up. That's really good. Imren for dinner. I like
that one. There was a really great brunch place,
which now just recently closed down, which is
really sad, called Love Deluxe. It was like a
Caribbean -led brunch place with amazing food.
Super nice. Best cold brew coffee in Berlin also.
I like that one. Yeah, I've not been. I can also
really recommend restaurant Remi by Lode van
Zulien, who used to have a restaurant called
Lode & Steen. It's near Rosenthaler Platz, and
it's like a European brasserie with a lot of
Dutch influence. It's super cool, super beautiful
dining room, good ingredients, amazing cooking.
Yeah, and I would also recommend Halman & Klee.
Yeah, like, I can't come up with, because I'm
seeing, like, many of the restaurants I was going
to recommend, they're already closed. They don't
exist anymore. Currently overrated and underrated
ingredients. The question is by Robluje. Overrated
and underrated ingredients. Underrated sardines,
for sure. Oh, yeah. Yes. Pig's ear. Pig's ear
is fucking underrated. Pig's ear is underrated.
You don't ever see that anymore, right? Yeah.
You don't see that anywhere. The anchovies, like,
I mean, sardines and anchovies, I'm going to
put them in the same category. The anchovies
that we had at Mucha. One of the best bites I've
had in such a long time. You know that the other
day we were talking about this, like, time stop
moment when you eat something and you're like,
oh, this is amazing. That was definitely one
of them. I ate them and I was like, how many
fucking anchovies have we eaten in our life?
A lot, right? And for us to kind of like eat
one and be sort of like, man, Juan Vargas is
doing magic in that restaurant. I'm super excited
to see how that restaurant develops, honestly.
And other rated, maybe caviar? Yeah, I mean,
I do like caviar. Caviar is very tasty. So obviously
it is kind of like overused and very, you know,
it's very luxury. But it is a great product when
it's good. Yeah, I agree. I wouldn't say that
there is any overrated product because everything
can be amazing, you know. Like if the product
is really like a top quality product, everything
is king. You know, there isn't anything where
you could say, I don't know, Parsley is overrated
or whatever. These are just like controversial
statements like when Grant Ackert said that wine
is overrated. You know, it's just grape juice.
Who cares about that? I'm sorry, but what a dumb
thing to say. No, I like your stance that you
say nothing is overrated, you know, because it
just depends of the context that you put it in
and the quality of it and like everything. I
think there's a couple of underrated things.
I think that, like you say, something like pig's
ear, something like that is underrated. I think
in the poultry world, a lot of things are underrated.
You know, things like chicken, because chicken
that we get usually is very, it's not, when you
get a good chicken, you realize like how good
chicken actually can be. I really think that
a lot more restaurants that serve meat, and especially
i serve chicken should put a focus on it's like
with steaks we have this like grass fed this
that wagyu um and even with pork you have sort
of like old breeds chicken is still like the
you know the real underdog of the sort of like
meat world and it really shouldn't be um in the
same category things like quail quail is fucking
amazing it's by far one of my favorite meats
The problem is that it's kind of tedious to prepare
and people don't really know how to cook it right.
But if you do it right, it's unbelievable. Also,
guineafowl is unbelievably good. I heard an interview
with Carlos Garcia, who is one of the best Venezuelan
chefs there is. And he was talking about how
they built like a whole... you know, like a movement
in Venezuela among chefs to cooperate with local
producers and start that, like, same thing as
what happened, for example, here in the Basque
Country or in the Nordic countries, like reshaping
a food identity with your own things, right?
But this... got completely destroyed in the last
years, mainly because of the massive migration
and also this emergence of new rich. And then
suddenly there was this whole snob scene where
you would find wagyu and tomahawks and all these
kind of things in Caracas instead of continuing
working with local producers and enhancing or
elevating. uh local traditions into fine dining
instead of that just importing the most expensive
wagyu the most expensive caviar or whatever and
i think that's that makes Those products, for
me, overrated, and at the same time, the local
products underrated. You mentioned context, and
I think that putting these kind of things into
context, especially when you're developing the
identity of a dining scene, I think that's key.
And I think no strong dining scene, except for
Dubai, of course, survives with only imported
stuff. Yes, that's very true. That's very true,
yeah. Cabezon Bob asks, what's your opinion about
everyone doing the same at the same time? For
example, deer in Berlin. So I read that question
and I was like, okay, basically you're asking
us what is our opinion on your opinion, right?
which is a little bit tricky because i don't
know if everybody's doing the same thing at the
same time i mean he is referring to berlin is
a very small scene even so i don't think that
everybody's doing the same thing at the same
time what's really like noodled out is this whole
sort of like ultra hyper local kind of thing
where everybody's like i'm going to like you
know like what uh what otto does you know it's
like i'm going to use only ingredients that come
out of like the the region right around it's
kind of like yeah okay cool but it's it's very
gimmicky you know um but deer like You can't
bash it. It's kind of like deer is a local product
and it's fantastic meat. And it's like you get
amazing quality. And if it's there, use it. Nobody's
going to be like, oh, everybody in Italy uses
tomatoes. Nobody would do that. Also, if it's
in season, I mean, everybody will take advantage
of the season, I guess. Yeah, for sure. I will
definitely always have like, I don't give a shit
if the restaurant next to me has deer on the
menu. At the end of the day, it's just the protein,
right? Like what I do with it, how I prepare
it, what I serve with it. I never like look at
the menu and be like, oh, deer again. I'll never
look at the menu and be sort of like, oh, fish
again. Oh, white asparagus. They're everywhere.
This stupid bell eats asparagus, you know? Yeah,
absolutely. I don't know. I can't jump on board
with that. Sorry. Next question from our beloved
editor, Atrevio01. He asks, at what point do
you add salt in a Robuchon potato puree? I have
a very direct answer for that one. I don't know
about you. Go for it. Once you already mashed
the potatoes and passed it through the thicker
and then the finer strainer, I bring milk to,
I heat it up and I add the salt there so it dilutes
and I add that to the potatoes and mix it. So
it's, I think you mentioned you add milk as a
last thing. I added before adding the... I add
it before adding the fat because I think that
helps the emulsifying process. I used to do the
same. Now I do it differently because now I add
butter until my potato puree basically splits.
And then I just bring it back with some hot milk.
So the amount of milk that I add is very, very
minimal. And I boil the potatoes in salted water.
Unless I like bake them or whatever, but it's
very rare. So they have a base seasoning kind
of. I will add a little bit of salt into the
milk. But I will kind of season as I go. I'll
like add a good scattering of salt as I'm putting
the butter in. And then I just like adjust the
seasoning in the end. First I get the texture
right. And then at the end I adjust the seasoning
and that's it. But I don't think it matters very
much when you, I think if you had a perfect recipe
and you had everything weighed out correctly
and you do the same potato puree every day, same
potatoes, et cetera, and you know exactly, I
need only 50 milliliters of milk. I, for this
amount of riced, cooked potatoes, I need exactly
this amount of salt, which would be pretty easy
to do, actually. You just need like between two
and 2 .5%, right? of the whole weight and then
you'd be pretty golden. Then you could just mix
it all together. I don't think it makes any difference
to the texture, honestly. Yeah, I do agree that
it's not a big deal in a potato puree, but what
do you think about adding salt in general? Because
that's also a thing. For example, I would never
add pre -salted steak, for example. but I would
definitely pre -salt a piece of fish. You know,
like there are these things that... What? Really?
Wait. Hold on. Oh, yeah, this is very commonly
done here, around here. No, no, and this is something
I have seen also since I started cooking, like
in my first restaurant in Café Atlantique. I
remember seeing the station chef of the fish
section. opening his drawer before service and
pre -salting fish and having it pre -salted and
then sending it to service or even like brining
it and having it pre -salted. But I would do
that with fish, but never with meat. Why I wouldn't
do it with meat? Probably superstition. I don't
know. But I like adding coarse salt on top once
it's already grilled or whatever. It's not that
I would never make it, but I would never make
it too much in advance like I would do with fish.
I could pre -salt a steak and throw it to the
pan. Fine. But I wouldn't pre -salt a steak and
leave it there for half an hour. but i could
do that with a fish for sure i could you know
that's interesting because for me it's kind of
like the opposite oh really okay yeah yeah i
always pre -season meat when i cook it always
always always and like quite quite generous generously
but like i said that you will only grill quickly
as well yeah 100 100 always sometimes even if
it's a very big piece of meat i will pre -salted
like 15 -20 minutes before i start cooking it
that's interesting okay yeah with fish i almost
never do that oh that's that's so funny yeah
yeah it's really funny but like i'm just kind
of thinking about it now because it makes sense
what you're saying and also with a lot of fish
i can see the benefit of pre -salting it because
it's kind of like curing it because some fish
i cure right like if i have like a cod or even
like a turbot and i want to like poach it maybe
i'll just give it like a light salt cure for
like 30 minutes and then wash it off pat it dry
It changes the texture, draws out some of the
moisture. So I get it. Like for some fish, it
totally makes sense. No, but also imagine, for
example, if you have a service that you will
be delivering 150 fish fillets, I definitely
recommend like, you know, formulating a proper
brine. so that you have your fish pre -brined,
pre -salted, like a brine, you dip it in, let's
say 20 minutes, whatever, you take it out, and
everything is just properly salted, and you just
throw it to the oven without even thinking about
anything. It's like a good way of standardizing,
something like that. that's very true that's
very very true and it improves the texture and
stuff on the juiciness and stuff if a lot of
things that's that's very good like for example
i do it a lot with chicken it makes it like the
chicken is pre -seasoned you know like you can
grill it it stays juicy um super convenient what
about uh vegetables so completely different thing
right like But for example, in vegetables, I
would never, let's say, like doing a sofrito,
for example. Okay, it will reduce a lot, and
then you have to calculate how much salt to add.
But I would definitely add some salt at the beginning.
I think it changes something. It's not like you
do your sofrito, it's completely reduced, and
then you add salt for the first time. For me,
that's counterintuitive somehow. Yeah, it feels
wrong. It feels like you can't get the... I think
this is where I feel like I have superstition.
I feel like I have to add salt, even if it's
just a little bit in the beginning, to get the
seasoning in there. even though that's probably
not true at all, I don't know. But I feel like
if it's not there from the beginning, it doesn't
penetrate. But I also add salt, like if you're
talking about sofrito, just to help it kind of
release moisture, to draw out the liquid so it
evaporates more quickly, cooks down more quickly,
kind of for that. Yeah, exactly. I think it has
a functionality that it dehydrates the produce,
so it takes water out, it squeezes it somehow,
and that water evaporates. 100%. That's what
I think. Maybe a physical chemical will tell
me, oh, that's bullshit. You guys are such idiots.
Yeah, but even if a scientist would tell me.
For the first time I heard a scientist. laughing
at me because of preheating the oven. Like, why
are you doing that? Why? Exactly. And it was
like, yeah, it makes a fucking difference. And
I was like, no, but the heat impact will keep
the juices inside. And he was like, no. You fucking
idiot. No, I don't believe that. That is nonsense.
No, I will die on that hill. That is nonsense.
That makes no sense to me at all. How could you
say that? Anyway. Anyway, but you know, even
if a scientist told me, hey, it makes no difference
if you add this hold now or later, I would be
like, okay, thanks for the information. I'd still...
to it, you know? Yeah, no, of course, and I think
that's perfectly valid, you know, like, because
I think cooking is not only a scientific process,
there's also, like, this ritual to it, this magic
to it, you know, like, that science can't explain,
you know, like, and I think that's also very
relevant. That's it for this week's episode of
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