
From Line Cook to Lab: Can Plant Fats Taste Like Meat? Ft. Ernesto R. Vecilla
Pot Luck Food Talks: Kitchen Stories From Behind the PassShow Notes
🎙️ EP193 — Ernesto R. Vecilla, R&D chef at Nourish Ingredients, breaks down how fermentation is engineering plant fats to nail the taste, texture, and mouthfeel of real animal meat, plus what pushed him to trade the line for a lab coat and chase flavor through food tech instead.
🎧 In This Episode: 🔬 From Restaurant Line to R&D Lab 🧪 What Precision Fermentation Actually Is 🥩 Making Fungi-Derived Fat Taste Like Meat 🧀 Cracking the Code on Dairy Alternatives 📅 A Day in the Life of an R&D Chef 🌍 Why Cows Can't Feed 10 Billion People 🍺 The Bioreactor Is Just a Beer Vat 🦠 The Cheesecake That Grew Its Own Mold 👨🍳 Growing Up in His Father's Michelin Kitchen 🇯🇵 Narisawa, Discipline, and Kitchen Chaos in Tokyo
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🍷 Enjoy
More from Pot Luck Food Talks: Kitchen Stories From Behind the Pass
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🎙️ EP207 — The better you are at keeping a broken kitchen running, the less reason anyone has to fix it.
🎙️ EP206 — It shouldn't be two teams: the kitchen and the floor win or lose the same service together.
🎙️ EP205 — Better restaurants often pay less, and nobody teaches cooks about finances: why are so many of us struggling to make good money?
🎙️ EP204 — Low pay, long hours, starting at the bottom: are kitchens only built for cooks who start young, or is there an advantage to starting at 30, 40 or 50?