Pot Luck Food Talks: Kitchen Stories From Behind the Pass cover art

Pot Luck Food Talks: Kitchen Stories From Behind the Pass

Pot Luck Food Talks: Kitchen Stories From Behind the Pass

Written by: Chef Phil & Eric | Experienced Cooks & Restaurant Insiders
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About this listen

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.

Erich Eichstetter, Philipp Walther & Xander Bartole Art Careers Cooking Economics Food & Wine Personal Success
Episodes
  • Trash Talk: Chefs Are Throwing Flavor Away

    Trash Talk: Chefs Are Throwing Flavor Away
    Dec 28 2025

    🎙️ EP166 – Cooking With Trash. This episode is a love letter to the parts we ignore… and the flavor we’re too lazy to earn. If you’ve ever thrown something away and then paid for it again in a different form, this one’s for you.

    🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

    🗑️ Cooking with Trash – Why upcycling is a real chef flex

    🥕 The Veg Stock Revelation – Balance, seasons, depth

    🧈 Stock Veg Tapenade – Bread-course alchemy

    🐟 The Cod Water Crime – Pouring flavor down the drain

    💸 Waste Is Expensive – Laziness costs money

    🐑 Underrated Cuts – Lamb belly, heads, bone flavor

    📛 Menu Mind Games – How naming shapes taste

    🥦 Broccoli Stems – Cooking on cultural autopilot

    🧪 Scrap Condiments – Vinegars, powders, patience

    🧫 Garum Power – Quiet umami domination

    🎯 Go Fact Yourself – The avocado pit myth

    📩 Follow & Support Us:

    🍽️ Everything in one place: https://linkin.bio/potluckfoodtalks

    📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/potluckfoodtalks

    ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

    💙 Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/potluckfoodtalks

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

    🔥 Enjoy!
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    29 mins
  • Ticket Nightmare Before Christmas Service

    Ticket Nightmare Before Christmas Service
    Dec 21 2025

    🎙️ EP165 — Christmas service is the cruelest shift of the year: everyone’s celebrating, you’re bleeding tickets, and the smell of cinnamon just mocks you. Eric and Phil talk why working Christmas Eve always sucks—and the fantasy menu you’d cook for your tribe if you weren’t trapped on the line.

    🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

    🎄 Why Christmas Service Breaks Chefs

    🔥 Cinnamon Fantasy vs Kitchen Reality

    💭 Should Restaurants Even Open on Christmas?

    🍽️ The Christmas Menu Chefs Dream About

    🥔 Chips, Caviar & Low-Effort Luxury

    🍞 Are We Tired of Sour Dough?

    🦆 When Game Becomes the Main Event

    🥣 Chicken Blanquette as Peak Comfort

    🥬 Bitter Greens That Save Heavy Meals

    🥔 Potatoes Done the Serious Way

    🧀 Cheese Without Rules or Apologies

    🍐 Quince & the Fruits We Forgot

    🍸 How Naming Changes Taste & Expectation

    🍮 Rice Pudding, Memory & Why Nostalgia Wins

    📩 Follow & Support Us:

    🍽️ Everything in one place: http://linkin.bio/potluckfoodtalks/

    📸 Instagram: http://instagram.com/potluckfoodtalks

    ▶️ YouTube: http://youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

    🗞️ Newsletter: https://www.potluckfoodtalks.com/start/

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

    🔥 Enjoy!
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    36 mins
  • Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking?

    Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking?
    Dec 14 2025

    🎙️ EP164 – These books were impressive, innovative and expensive. But does Modernist Cuisine still hold up? We talk cooking with science, gizmos and gadgets vs. cooking with just a knife, a pan, and years of repetition.

    🎧 Topics Covered in This Episode:

    📚 What Modernist Cuisine Actually Is

    💸 The 500€ book and who it was really for

    🧠 Cooking by intuition vs. cooking by process

    🧪 When technology helps—and when it gets in the way

    🌍 How restaurant scenes evolve

    🌶️ Tradition, adaptation & the gentrification debate

    🔥 Go Fact Yourself – Why searing doesn’t lock in juices

    📩 Follow & Support Us:

    🍽️ Everything in one place: http://linkin.bio/potluckfoodtalks/

    📸 Instagram: http://instagram.com/potluckfoodtalks

    ▶️ YouTube: http://youtube.com/@potluckfoodtalks

    🗞️ Newsletter: https://www.potluckfoodtalks.com/start/

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

    🔥 Enjoy!
    Show More Show Less
    35 mins
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