October 29, 2025 • 38 mins
In this episode, Tanner and Jerry explore why a bar is the perfect place for a first date—and how to make it a great one, whether you’re the dater or the bartender behind the stick. Tanner shares a few memorable stories from bad dates gone worse before diving into a Short Order Cooking round of common questions people ask at him. Then, fresh from his visit to Patrón in Mexico, Tanner welcomes their brand ambassador to talk tequila—how it’s made, how to drink it, and what makes the world’s favorite agave spirit so special.
Thank you for listening! Join us again every weekend for more food inspired fun. Have questions you want answered, comments to make the show better, do you want to join our growing list of radio stations partners, or just keep in touch? Let us know at Flavorphiles.com.
Follow on Instagram:
Flavorphiles: https://www.instagram.com/flavorphilespod/
Tanner: https://www.instagram.com/tagaragar/
Follow on Tik Tok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@flavorphiles
Thank you for listening! Join us again every weekend for more food inspired fun. Have questions you want answered, comments to make the show better, do you want to join our growing list of radio stations partners, or just keep in touch? Let us know at Flavorphiles.com.
Follow on Instagram:
Flavorphiles: https://www.instagram.com/flavorphilespod/
Tanner: https://www.instagram.com/tagaragar/
Follow on Tik Tok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@flavorphiles
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Flavor Files. I'm Jerry Yegar along with my
son Tanna Regar. I'm a broadcaster. He is a restaurant tour,
a bartender and a chef. It's a show about food
and drink and culture. And we're going to start each episode, Tanner,
with something you call amuse booze. It's a takeoff of
(00:21):
amuse bouche.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Absolutely a moose boosh to entertain the mouth, and a
moos booze is a alcohol that is entertains my mouth. Okay,
my very first calories of the day today. Here we
can hear him. Yeah, classic sound. I'm starting with an
Octoberfest ale. So Octoberfest. It's funny. It's also called Marson,
(00:45):
as in from March. It's a beer that you brew
in March and you let age and you save it
all the way to the Octoberfest festival that's celebration of harvest,
the start of the second part of the year. It's
a beer, it's multi it's light. It's sort of like
a lagger, but it's got a little bit more character
to it. Every year when Octoberfest starts hitting the shelves,
(01:08):
I see it. I know that it's finally there. I've
been to Munich, which is of course the home of
Octoberfest in Germany. I have worked several Octoberfest festivals here
in Texas. So to me, it's sort of a ringing
in of the fall and a good excuse to buy
more beer.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
But is aging beer like that normally how it's done.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It depends, you know, If I want an ipa, it's
about fresh, fresh, fresh, I want super fresh hops. I
want really rich flavors coming out of those. An ipa
should be absolutely served as quickly as it possibly can,
which is sort of interesting comparing its history. But that's
a different amuz booze we'll talk about with that. But
a lot of beers do benefit from aging, you know,
(01:51):
lots of darker beers. You can buy barrel aged beers.
You can buy beers finished in whiskey barrels, rum barrels,
wine barrels. So aging beer, just like with spirits, can
develop the flavors. And so this is sort of one
of those beers. You make it early in the year
and you sort of wait for it to mature and
sort of that whole growing cycle. You're sort of waiting
(02:11):
for the beer and then here we come and we
celebrate with this beer. We celebrate all the harvest we've done.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
This is Flavor File. So I'm Jerry Yegark. He's Tanner Raggar.
He's a restaurant tour bartender and chef, and we talk
about food and drink and Tanner you think that a
bar is actually a great place for a first date.
I've never really thought about it that way.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Absolutely, I think the great place to be is a bar.
I mean, I'm a little biased because I own a
bar and we have a lot of first dates, but
I think a bar is a fantastic place to have
a date. You know, I know that you talk about dinner,
and I think that's certainly something that's changed culturally between
when you were dating at my age and the age
(02:55):
i'm aunt now. You know, for me, dinner feels formal,
it's kind of expensive. I'm locked into a couple hours.
Right when I had my first date with Grace, we
did go to dinner. Actually, we bar hopped and went
to several places. However, I had known her for a
couple of years at that point, and so I felt
(03:16):
comfortable knowing that this two hours or it lingered all
into the evening and now obviously years of my life,
but we knew it was gonna be fun. If this
was a stranger, if I met this person on an
app where I was swiping through people, I don't know
if I have two hours of chat. Whereas a bar,
I love doing a happy hour because then hey, it's
(03:38):
happy hour. Are you kind of hungry? We could stick around,
or I know a place around the corner you know
you can kind of or you can also say, oh
my goodness, I'm so sorry I have to go, even
if that's not true. So I think the bar gives you, firstly,
just a little bit of flexibility to be able to
control the time that you're at the bar. But what
(03:58):
I also love about the bar bar is, first of all,
if you're going to suggest a bar, make sure that
it's a bar that you know. This should be a
bar you've been to before you're confident in. Maybe if
it's a brand new bar that everybody's talking about, that's
kind of something to do. But my preference is to
go to a bar that I know, and even better,
where I know the people. My favorite thing if I'm
(04:21):
going to be on a date is I want to
sit at a bar with a bartender, I know who
I know can help make this a really great experience
for my date. And also that I know it's a
bar where I'm comfortable.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
You're not worried that if you say hi to the bartender,
she's not going to think, man, this guy must drink
a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
If somebody went on a date with me and didn't
realize I drink a lot of cocktails, then they literally
don't know who I am what to tell you? I
own a cocktail bar. Why am I not? Yes, okay,
this is my business. These are my friends. I did
have that thought at some point, being like if I
take a date and every single place it's like Tanner buddy.
(05:03):
But anyway, you don't have to worry about that for
most people. And one thing I do also like about
sitting at the bar is you have a third person
who kind of becomes your wingman. The bartender wants you
to have a great time. They want you to come
back to this bar. And what I find is a
bartender can do a really good job of picking up
some of those little gaps when the conversation maybe falls
(05:23):
off a little bit. That's you can use the bartender
and say, oh, excuse me, sir, I have a sort
of a question about something, and you can kind of
interact with the bartender. They can be this person who
helps keep the vibe, keeps the conversation flowing, and the
bar can also be the good conversation starter. I think
when you order one. Thing I love about Apothecary, and
(05:44):
part of the reason we do so many first dates
is our drinks are a little bit out there. They're
a little bit different.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You can say, do you think I should get a
cocktail made out of butter curry? Okay? I like, oh man, yeah,
I had that one two weeks ago. It's really cool.
Here's what's good about it? Okay, And so you sort
of immediately start in because look, everybody's been on the
first date. I don't care how many cousins you have.
I don't like, it doesn't matter. I'm either gonna meet
(06:11):
them or I'm never gonna meet them. And either way,
I don't need to know their names and their ages
right now too soon, and it's too soon. I don't
want to know. Do you have good chat? Are you fun?
Do we have some of the same interests? And so
you should order something that starts a conversation. Now, maybe
you're at a bar that doesn't have really eclectic drinks,
that's totally fine. Maybe you love a martini, order the
(06:34):
martini the way that you love it, and then a
martini is it's so funny. It seems like it's just
this one cocktail, but it is infinitely editable. There's so
many ways and variants of a great martini boom. There's
your very first conversation. If you're a martini drinker, or
if your date is like I think I just want
a dirty martini boom. Now you have something that helps
(06:58):
break that ice and make get a little bit less awkward,
and you can kind of get yourself going. You can
settle into the mood. I also love to see if
my date is nice to the bartender.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
To me.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That's part of the test. If you're not nice to
the bartender, this date's over. Because first of all, gar Son,
right boy, you know absolutely not, and that doesn't really
happen very much. But I just told you, these are
my friends. This is a bar where I like everybody.
Please don't make me look stupid here. I will never
(07:29):
want to bring you here again. And that's part of
the test. I hear from women, and that's more of
an issue that they have. I always like to have
that you're being really nice to this person. We're having
really good chat. The vibes are really good. This then
circles back to what I brought up earlier. If you
meet somebody at a happy hour, you now have this
(07:50):
opportunity to kind of get out of it, but you
also have that opportunity to keep it going forward. Right, Hey,
we can get some food here. Or something that I
think is a really great move is if there's a
neighborhood that you know, where you know a couple of
the places you know what's fun. I can't think of
anything I think is sort of a more impressive, really
sexy move than to say, are you hungry? You know
(08:13):
there's this place around the corner and they make fantastic xyz.
Would you like to get some food? I think this
is a really cool way to show that you know
the neighborhood, that you're sort of connected to the food culture,
which of course is more valuable to me than maybe
other people. But I think it's also really cool because
then if somebody says, yeah, I'm having a good time
(08:33):
with you, I want to go to this second place. Yeah,
that's sort of this perfect opportunity for both people on
the date to say, hey, I'm having a fun time,
I like you, I want to keep this going. So
it's that sort of reassurance from your date as well.
They're not just being entertained, right, They're enjoying themselves. And
(08:56):
that's a really fun move you can pull.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So then you've actually showed that you've planned kind of
an evening where you can say, hey, there's some other
places we could go. Maybe I know two or three
different restaurants. Do you like this, do you like that?
Do you like something different than that? You've really put
some effort into this here.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, absolutely. And people love people who know restaurants, who
have good suggestions. I mean, it's the same thing that
guy that you know who always knows about music or
always knows about what shows are in town are always
knows a lot about movies. People like that person. And
so if you're a person who's passionate about food and beverage,
I'm assuming that's why you're listening to our show. And
(09:34):
so this is a really good way for you to
leverage something that's cool about you, something you're passionate about
and that kind of conversation can really help you when
the date's not going well, when you can just tell
you know, every date has these lulls, the energy slips
a little bit, and like I said, you can talk
to the bartender. And if you know the bartender, that's
such that help. Right, you can say, oh, my date
(09:56):
has been drinking X. I know this bartender, and I
can say, hey, Kenny, you know two weeks ago you
were telling me about so and so. What was that?
Could you tell her? Boom? Now all of a sudden,
you're picking that energy back up. The bartender's making sure
that things are fun. You're fun, you're connected, and if
the bar is not a good fit for that person,
(10:18):
that's why you've got that second location of mind. That's
why you've got that neighborhood in mind, because you can say, oh,
you know what, this place is a little bit loud tonight.
You know, I know a place that's a little bit quieter.
I'd really love to hear more of what you had
to say about those six cousins you have. Oh now
we're up to the cousin stage. Yeah, you know, I
mean we're already two drinks in. You know, maybe if
(10:40):
you know these places in advance, you can know that
you're sure that they're the vibe. There are places that
are really great date spots and there are places that aren't.
I heard a long time ago that if you're more
clever then you are handsome, don't take dates to really
allowed bars, and that advice worked very well for me.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
When you're tending bartender, can you tell that it's a
first date?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Oh? Absolutely, Mostly I can tell before you've even sat down.
The way you walk, in the way that you handle it.
We can tell you're on a first date immediately. Oftentimes
we can guess within a certain amount, the first day, third,
fourth date, married, unhappily married. We can smell it on you.
(11:19):
In fact, just the other night, I watched a guy
in real time destroy his first date. It was absolutely horrible.
So I'm there at the bar, and you can tell
when it's a first date. People walk in the way
they walk into the room. You know, when you're comfortable
with somebody, you walk differently. You sort of walk like yourself.
When you're trying to make sure that your date likes you.
(11:41):
You put this outfit together. You're standing up very straight,
you're oh after you, oh after you? Right, this sort
of like this, this sort of this. It's slightly awkward.
It's slightly awkward because also here you are to try
to have fun and feel somebody out. So you can
just see it. You can you can tell when people
are comfortable together and when they're not. And so they're
sitting at the bar and they're chatting, and you can
(12:02):
tell that they're both they're both trying really hard, which
I would appreciate if I was on a date. You know,
they're kind of pushing the conversation and they've got that
nervous laugh, and they're kind of they're kind of hanging out.
They're having fun, and I'm keeping an eye on them.
You know, everything seems fine. Then the guy I didn't
quite catch how they caught into it. But then he's like,
(12:24):
oh well, then you know the whole me too movement.
That is not something you should bring up on a
first date. Don't bring it up. What are you gonna
say about it? Either I was a victim, which is
not exactly first date material. I was a perpetrator, which
is the probably the worst thing you could say on
a date. Just don't bring up the me too, movement.
You don't need to bring that up on your first date, okay,
(12:45):
And then he says, well, then after that, you know,
white guys weren't cool anymore, so then every movie that
came out sucked. I literally make eye contact with the
woman and both of us were like, oh, she looked
at you. She looked straight in my eyes, like, oh
my god, what just happened to my date? And here's
this guy, you know, he's taken another drink and like
(13:08):
nothing has happened. I don't think that that's what she
wanted to hear, because then she immediately wiped her mouth
and said, I need to go to the bathroom. And
that was the longest bathroom break I have ever seen.
And I'm confident that the bathroom break involved calling her
friend and being like, I need you to call me
in ten more minutes and tell me of an emergency
because I have to get out of the state. And okay.
(13:30):
Very shortly after the date was over, he crushed her.
And the funny thing is he kept sitting at the bar,
not at all realizing that he just shot himself in
the foot.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
She left and he just sat there. Yeah, he was like, oh, okay, well,
I'm gonna finish my drink.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
That's sorry. You know it sounds like you're taking care
of your friend. No, she's not taking care of her friend.
She's leaving you, don't. You don't need to bring up
controversial like remarks on your very first date. It's okay.
Just try to be likable.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Do you try to help out? I mean you mentioned
in the previous segment about the bartender's your wingman or
can be if you know the bartender.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Absolutely, if you're a good bartender, you should be helping people, right.
You want people to have a really good time. And
so one of the things that I try to keep
in mind if I'm bartending is I can tell there
on a first date they might sort of stall their energy.
And I said before, if you feel your energy stalling,
try to pull the bartender into a conversation and use
(14:27):
them that way. If you're a bartender, try to already
be there when they're ready. You can see it sort
of stalling. You can tell they're trying, they seem likable.
You sort of show up. The easiest question in the
world is what are you thinking of those drinks? Looks
like you're sort of getting down there is there another
cocktail you sort of want to chat about? You can
easily engage, especially if you know the guests, like we
(14:48):
talked about before, if you go to a bar where
you know some of the people behind the bar, they
will help you in these situations and keep it going.
At the end of the day, you're their friend. You
should be their friend. You're serving them, you're taking care
of them, You're making it a hospitable environment for them.
I like to ask people when the other one goes
to the bathroom, Hey, how's the date going? And I
(15:11):
find this to be a really cool thing. It's always
very interesting, if for nothing else than just my own amusement,
people like, oh, man, like they seem really cool, or
I can't believe I finally met somebody on Tinder. I
didn't think anybody was on there anymore. But I also
really like to ask women if their male date has
gone to the bathroom, hey's everything going well? And mostly
(15:32):
they just say, yeah, this is fine. But there are
instances where people might find themselves uncomfortable on a date,
and you can really do a lot for helping somebody
who says, hey, you know, I kind of need to
get out of this date. You know, maybe you need
to close them out, maybe they just need to go,
or maybe you just kind of keep an eye on them.
Just put people at ease, because it's scary to meet
(15:54):
up with a complete stranger. And I would imagine for
hearing from friends, like if you're meeting up with a
man who's significantly taller than you and stronger than you,
it can be a potentially uncomfortable environment. And by being
friendly and putting people at ease, you can make them
feel comfortable okay at the end of the day. That's
what tending the bar is all about.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, I appreciate that, and that is obviously a concern
for women. There's always potential danger in meeting a new
person and coming into an environment where as you're talking about,
people are having drinks, that kind of thing. The guy
goes to the bathroom and you say to the woman,
how's it going?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Everything all right? And it isn't. What can you do
about that? How do you help her out? Well, I
mean the easiest way is just to help get her
out of the bar, just say okay, wow, okay, I
didn't realize. Let me help you. Why don't you get
up right now? Why don't we step outside? Why don't
we xyz right? And so the easiest way is just
(16:54):
to remove somebody from a situation and sort of set
up a scenario where we're going to move this woman outside.
Maybe we're calling her an uber or you know, something
like that, and then when the guy comes back, you
say him in sorry, she had a run. She wanted
us to tell you. She was so sorry, but some
emergency had come up. If you want to hang out
(17:15):
and drink, okay, Otherwise we can kind of close your
tab and let you go. So you want to try
to make sure that you keep the energy calm. You
don't want to excite anybody in a scenario where somebody's uncomfortable. Ultimately,
it's your job to make them relax, you know, and
bring down the energy level, because most of the time
your job is to bring up the energy level.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
We started with the story of a guy who destroyed
a date right in front of you and her.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Do you have another story? I've got one more of
a probably my most memorable first date I've ever seen.
Guy comes in. We have this like big blue couch
and we normally sit like five people in this area,
but we're not busy. It's like a Tuesday, five point
thirty in the afternoon, and he goes, cou sit right
here on the couch. Yeah, sure man. So he's got
his arm around her. Doesn't even look at the men do.
(18:02):
He goes, you make express some martinis? Yeah, we can
make that. I want two with Repisodo tequila. Okay, sure
man knows what he wants. Talking to his date. They're
having fun, bringing the expresso martinis, they're making out on
the couch, they're drinking. They get another round and he's like,
I think we need to get out of here. And
I sort of appreciated that because the making out was
(18:23):
getting a little bit more intense. Okay, okay, all right, fine,
on you go. He had four drinks. He tips eighty dollars,
which was more than what his tab was. Wow. And
I picked that up and I go, oh, okay, good
for me.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Never seen this guy before, don't know him, but I
guess he had fun, has money whatever. Five minutes later,
the exact same man walks in with his arm around
a different woman and he said, hello, sir, how can
we help you today? He goes, man, it's my first
time here. You guys got any repsoa tequila espresso martinis. Yep,
(19:00):
so you didn't tip her off. That's what the eighty
dollars was for. Eighty dollars was to pretend I'd never
seen him before. I see. But what's also crazy to
me is how how are you making out with somebody
on a couch and you somehow unload them get the
new date into the exact same bar in a five
minute period. It was surprising to me. But in the
(19:24):
end he ordered the martinis, they met out on the couch,
he ordered another round, they kept making out. He tipped
me eighty dollars. Never saw the guy again. Maybe some
people's lives are more interesting than ours. Yeah, you know,
I guess so quite the lifestyle he's leading. And if
you're out there, sir, you're more than welcome at apothecary anytime.
I would promise I've never seen you before.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
We're going to do a segment ten are called short
order cooking. I'm going to ask you ten questions in
ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Can you do it? We'll find out, all right.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
So maybe it's somebody like Gordon Ramsey and the show
The Bear that makes people think this, But why are
chefs so angry.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Chefs are angry because you're slow, and you god and
you don't know how to season and you burn food.
That's why it's It really comes down to the fact
that if my name's on the door and this is
my brand, especially if I own the restaurant, I feel
this deep seated belief that my self concept is tied
into that plate, and you disrespected. It is a disrespect
(20:21):
to my guests, it's a disrespect to me. And that's
how chef's got that reputation for being so angry and me.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
All right, how can I find a good but not terrible,
but inexpensive restaurant?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Well, the best way is to ask, ask your friends,
ask people. One thing I don't understand. When you go
to a bar, you go to a restaurant, if you
have a good time, ask those people where they like.
So if there's other good, inexpensive places you like, ask
the people who work there where they like to go,
because frequently people like to go to the same kind
(20:57):
of places that they own and work at. So that's
your number one source. The other thing, a lot of
local media does a lot of really good food coverage
talking about these special, undiscovered kind of places and try
to pick up that free newspaper that maybe you always
walk by and you might find some gems in there.
Who's the most famous person you ever cooked for? Probably
(21:18):
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez back when they were together. Okay,
they did a private party in the hotel where I
was working at the time. That was in Toronto. Yeah,
that was in Toronto. That was in Toronto. So I
cooked for Justin Bieber, got to meet him very much
in passing by meet him. I mean he waved at
me and said the foods were good, and then he left.
So you know, I don't think Justin Bieber really saw me,
(21:41):
but I cooked for him.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
He had a fun party. What historical person do you
wish you could cook for?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I think the most economic historical person would probably be
Jesus because you don't have to bring fish or bread
or wine, so he pretty much pays for himself. He
doesn't really need you, right, he doesn't really need me.
He's got an entire meal. Plus. You know, I don't
mean this disrespectfully, but I think his standard was probably low,
(22:08):
Like I think I could really impress Jesus. You know,
I don't think he was probably eating a lot of
really good food back in Galilee. But if I had
to pick, like an actual historical person, I'd want to
cook for. You know, Anthony Bourdain is like every chef's hero.
I wish I could have met him, although I don't.
I would have rather eaten with him than cooked for him, honestly,
(22:29):
mm hmm. But it'd probably be really cool to have
gotten to meet him and cook for him, he'd be.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
All Right, we're just riffing through some questions, but I'll
throw this one in. Was he a really excellent chef
or a personality? I think he was a better journalist
than he was a chef. Okay, and if you read
his writings he talks about that, I mean that's his
writings really propelled him forward. I think he was probably
a good chef, but he's not like a Renee red
(22:56):
Zeppi or David Chang that helped move food forward. All right,
So if you're on a desert island, then leave out
the fact that just surviving would be your main thing.
But if some magical thing there was food, but you
could only have one spice, your desert island spice, what.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Would it be? Oh man, if you only had one spice.
I think you have to go with something that can
be both savory and sweet, and so for me, that
would have to be cardamom. I love cardamom. I love
the flavor, and it's something that you can put on
a duck. It's something that goes great with red meat.
(23:32):
But it's also something that goes well in custards or
ice creams. I guess in this story, I'm stranded on
a desert island, so I probably don't have a lot
of ice cream in my future. But if I had
to have one, it have to be one that can
go both ways, and probably be Cardamom doesn't go with fish,
you know, if I'm on a desert island, it's gonna
(23:53):
go with fish.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Okay, Well, I was hoping you were gonna say it
goes well with fish, but maybe not. Yeah, okay, all right.
Is brunch overrated?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
There are bunch restaurants that are overrated. The idea of
brunch isn't overrated. I know there are people. Bill Burr
actually has a great segment about this, talking about how
men hate brunch. Why would I want to get up
on a perfectly good Saturday morning or Sunday morning and
then go pay fifty dollars for eggs? Why would I
want to do that? So I understand why some people
(24:28):
aren't into it. But good brunch is not overrated. Good
bunch food. Spending that time with people, that's underrated.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Okay, morning show host at Newstalk ten ten where I work,
he hates the whole concept of brunch. Are you having
breakfast or having lunch? Pick a lane? I think is
his deal?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yes, Well, he's just sort of a grouchy individual.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Actually, I'm the one that has the reputation of being grouchy.
But so you're gonna buy a new stove, a new
oven for your house? Gas, electric or induction?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Oh amazing question. You know. I would say I'm most
experienced with gas. I'm most used to it. So from
that perspective, I like gas because I'm really comfortable with it. Induction,
that's a really cool option. Most people don't have that
in our house. But if you actually look at some
of the best restaurants in the world, they're run by induction.
(25:21):
The coolest thing about induction is it doesn't make your
house hotter while you're cooking, so it heats the pan,
but unlike a gas flame or electric where it's kind
of just putting heat out and your pants trying to
catch it. It's putting that energy directly into the pan.
So we cook with induction at the restaurant, some not all.
(25:41):
I would say, if I'm remodeling my kitchen and I'm
concerned about the cost, I'd probably go gas. If I'm
not concerned about the cost, Induction is so much easier
to clean. But man, is it expensive to get good
quality and you might have to replace all your pants
because induction only works with certain types of hands, and
so you need to be aware that that could be
(26:02):
part of a big expense for you.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
All Right.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I know a lot of people would ask this question,
how do I know when the steak is done the
way I want it or the person I'm cooking for
wants it?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Okay, So a really cool way to know when it's
done is raise your left hand and then put your
pointer finger and your thumb together. Touch that little space
at the base of your thumb. See how it kind
of feels soft. Yeah. Then move it to your pinky
and push that same spot. See how it feels really firm. Yes,
(26:34):
So pinky is well done. Ring fingers medium well, middle
finger is medium. Pointer finger is medium rare. Nothing is rare.
So the way that the meat will tighten up is
also the way that it tightens up as you move
across your hand.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Okay, so before you bring the steak out to me
at the restaurant, you're bulking the steak.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Oh, I've poked it so many times. If you don't
think people should be touching your food with their bare hands,
you should not eat at restaurants. Lots of restaurants put
on gloves. You know, we'll put on gloves. But if
you're uncomfortable with hands, bad news for you.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
We're doing short order cooking here. Just quick questions for Tanner.
You've got some time for this one on the segment.
Is a cast iron pan worth it?
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Yes, a cast iron pan is a pain, but it
is absolutely worth it. It's got a lot of weight
and it does a really good job holding heat. So
really cheap, flimsy aluminum pans. What they don't do well
is hold heat once they're exposed to something new. So
we're talking about a steak. If I'm searing a steak
(27:45):
in a pan, that steak's going to be colder than
the pan. So the problem is I'm gonna put it down,
and I'm gonna want this beautiful seer, But the meat
will cool the pan down so much that it can't
provide that quality seer. Whereas the cast iron is thick
and heavy and holds the heat, so it's gonna immediately
(28:06):
start to sear. That the best sears for your steaks
are gonna come out of cast iron. If you're not
using a grill, A good way to know if your
pan is good. Speaking of Anthony Bourdain, he believed that
you should pick up a fry pan, and if you
don't believe it would protect you in home defense, it's
not a good enough pan. Okay, good quick question.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
How do I avoid when I put a steak in
a hot cast iron pan setting off the fire alarms?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Well you're not gonna like this answer, and officially legal
won't approve it. But the answer is I pull the
fire alarms out first. I hope you're not doing that
at the restaurant. No, no, no, but the restaurant creted
for that. We have hoods. We're all set up. You know,
if I was in downtown Toronto when I was in
a little unit, I just unplug it. It's just for
(28:54):
a few minutes, and then I cook my steak and
I plug it in back before I go to bed,
and everybody's fine, and no one's ever known that I
do that.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
And today we're privileged to have a special guest.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Today, Jerry and I are joined by my friend Jesus Hernandez,
ambassador for Tequila Patron. He and I just returned actually
from Acienda Patron in Mexico. We walked the agave fields,
we saw the facilities, and of course drank a lot
of tequila. We're going to dig into kind of what
makes Patron special, bust a few myths and talk about it.
(29:25):
Where tequila is headed.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
State of Carlisco is the main state where tequila production occurs. Right,
so it is split into basically two areas. One of
them is called Tequila Valley. Tequila Valley is surrounded in
Tequila Town. This is where our beloved spirit gets its
name because of the town. And so this town will
(29:47):
be located about four thousand feet above sea level, which
is still pretty high. But so the soil here is
also particularly specific. It's very sandy. It feels a bit
drier for sure, the less water the roots actually get
in the agave is, the more it'll stress out, delivering
a higher sugar concentration. So in average, the Los Altos
(30:11):
agaves will have a higher sugar concentration versus those that
are cultivated in the Tequila valley.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Can you talk about how you're cooking the tequila or
how you're cooking the agaves, and why you need to
cook the agaves.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Once agave is ready, right, average is about six years
on the field, so when it reads, when it reaches
peak maturity, which by the way, is not so much
related to the years it's been in the ground or
in the fields, but rather the sugar concentration, and then
you need to cook.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
And why do you need to cook?
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Because agave when it's raw will have starch, right, just
like for example, potatoes. So this starch you need to
put through what's called a hydrolysis process to convert the
starch into fermentable sugars.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
We cook only in brick ovens.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
You'll have the rooms in our case are about twenty
tons in capacity. After slow steam injection, it'll take about
three fold days for this process to finish, and in
this case, after three days, now the agaves are tender,
they're full of sugar. In fact, there's so much sugar
going on there, there will be some honey that will
start dripping to the floor, and there is a system
(31:21):
that will recollect all of these juices, all of this honey.
Then you can add these sugars into the following steps,
which would be fermentation.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
But this is how we cook. Not everybody does this, though.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
There's a lot of other methods for cooking that'll definitely
reduce the cooking time significantly. But just like in the kitchen,
when you're using a pressure cooker, for example, when you
do something so quick, you might lose out on the tenderness,
on the complexity and the flavors, and on a bunch
of other things that are very important if you ultimately
want something that is very, very delicious.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Absolutely, I mean a visual just to give you here, Dad,
as you think about it, you know, it is called
a pina kind of looks like a apple actually, and
if you think about roasting the pineapple just all day
long to where it changes from sort of yellow or
in a GAVI's case, white to this caramel. I mean,
it's a deep caramel color. It gets really soft and
(32:13):
really calmly and one of the greatest things I've ever
eate in my life was a freshly roasted agave where
you just cut the slice out it's still warm, and
it just melts in your mouth and it's just like
having liquid caramel just immediately released, and it's just all
over your teeth and it's sticky and it's so sweet.
Do you sell that as a product? Tasoes?
Speaker 4 (32:36):
It is very unstable, So even if you keep it
at the right temperature and store it at the right
like in the right conditions, it'll change. And it's very
hard to get it into any market in the US
for people to try.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Can you talk to us about what a tahona mil
is and why it is that some of the tequila's
I like best are made using one.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
It's basically a wheel made out of stone, and it's
a very specific kind of stone, the same stone, by
the way, you could find in Morgachheitis or Mexican mortars,
the ones that we use for making salsa.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
So it's a very porous stone and it comes from
its volcanic stone actually coming from Tequila Town. So what
they do is they grab a big enough stone to
make sure that they can carve out a two ton wheel,
which is about my size. I'm almost six feet high,
so it is gigantic, right, And this wheel is meant
to go around in circles in a pit, crushing the
(33:27):
cocta gave from underneath it. So the idea here isn't
to acceparate the fiber in the juice, but to create.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
A paste of both.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Right, you want to keep the fibers in there with
the juice so that you can further infuse jagavia flavors
in the following steps. Out of over four thousand brands
that are out there right now registered of tequila, I
don't know this fun fact.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
There's over four.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Thousand brands of tequila registered out there right now, and
every month it just keeps growing. But out of all
those brands, there's only maybe twenty something brands that still
follow this Tahuna Stone method for making tequila.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
When you say Tequila Town, you're talking about a real place,
not like when Guy Fiatri says Flavortown.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yes, it's a real place.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
It's actually So the first thing that was called tequila
is actually the volcano located in Tequila Town. So first
the volcano was named Tequila, and then the town was
called Tequila, and thirdly was the spirit.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
When it comes to whiskeys, people think, oh, it's got
to be six, or it's got to be nine, or
I have a guest who says Scotch and men. I
have the same opinion. If it's eighteen or more, it's safe.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Why is it that we can age tequila for such
a shorter period then for whiskeys.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
You have to wait six full years for this I
got it to grow, So the time investment will come
in the majority of it will come from the plant itself. Right,
So you've already waited six to seven years for this
beautiful plant to grow.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Can you talk to me about how tequila has changed
over the last thirty years, you know, especially for what
Americans and Canadians would see getting delivered to.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
US thirty years ago.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Tequila already existed, obviously, and it was already being exported
to the US, but it was nowhere near the regards
at which it's currently at. Right, So, tequila thirty years
ago was considered, you know, a Mexican spirit. It was
intended to be something fun. Ultimately, also, the majority of
people sometimes would have a very bad experience with tequila
(35:28):
thirty years ago because there wasn't that many brands that
were actually delivering a high quality products and it was
not regarded as a quality you know.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Spirit, right, So it was done in a way to
kind of celebrate.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Fast forward thirty years later to where we're at now,
tequila is one of the highest regarded spirits in the world.
Tequila is now something that is a very big part
of what any beverage program in any given restaurant or
bar is, regardless if your Mexican or Latin focused, has
grown exponentially, and it is so much so that it
(36:02):
is actually being I think it's surpassed vodka consumption in
the US in the last year.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Where do you think tequila is going to be thirty
years from now?
Speaker 4 (36:11):
In the US, it's going to reach a peak, right,
There's only so much tequila that can be dranked drank
in the US. But there is so many other places
in the world where tequila is definitely not even close
to where the US is at.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
Right. So Europe is they're very much developing market for tequila. Right.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
There's certain places where, like for example, London or the UK,
where tequila already has a pretty substantial market share, but
there is so many other places in Europe where it's
not so much the case at all.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
If you go to Asia, it's not so big at
all either.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
You know, if you go to China, if we had
just one percent of the market as a category of
what they drink in China, it would be significantly increase
for everybody.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Right, I want to talk about some myths and misconception
about tequila. Does cheap tequila cause bad hangovers?
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Cheap tequilas could cause definitely could cause a worse hangover.
That being said, even if you're hiding, if even if
you're drinking the highest quality tequila you could ever think of,
if you have enough of it, you're not gonna feel
great the next day.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
That's I mean, that's just a given right.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
And when I'm trying those tequila is, I'm supposed to
put salt in my hand, shoot it as fast as possible,
and then bite into a lime. Right, that's the patron
preferred method of drinking.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
I would definitely not say that I thought that that
salt and lime thing came from. There were tequilas around
that weren't for good, and it was just a way
to sort of cover for the kind of nasty taste
sometimes of really cheap tequila. Thirty or forty years.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Ago, I mean thirty forty years ago.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
I think mostly it was the case right you were
trying to take those flavors away from your mouth as
quick as possible and try to chase it with whatever
you can find, lime and salt being one of the
most effective, and it just kind of became a ritual.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
I think those days are definitely far behind us.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Awesome, well, Jesus, thank you so much for being here
talking to us, not just about Patron, but about tequila,
how tequila's made. If anybody gets a chance to Visitaciendo Patron,
they were wonderful hosts. They have an amazing hotel on
the property and the bar does not take money, they
only serve drinks, so I highly recommend it if you
ever have a chance. Thank you so much for bringing
(38:23):
me down there. Thank you so much for having us
Jesus Hernandez ambassador for Tequila Patron.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
It's a pleasure. Tanner, thank you so much. Jerry to
you as well, thank you so much for having me.
This was a pleasure and looking forward to talking to
you guys. Soon and having another tequila.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Thank you. Hey, Zeus, I'm Jerry Aegar. He's Tanner Agar.
This is where food, drink, and culture meet and we
hope to talk to you next week on the next
episode of Flavor Files.
This is Flavor Files. I'm Jerry Yegar along with my
son Tanna Regar. I'm a broadcaster. He is a restaurant tour,
a bartender and a chef. It's a show about food
and drink and culture. And we're going to start each episode, Tanner,
with something you call amuse booze. It's a takeoff of
(00:21):
amuse bouche.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Absolutely a moose boosh to entertain the mouth, and a
moos booze is a alcohol that is entertains my mouth. Okay,
my very first calories of the day today. Here we
can hear him. Yeah, classic sound. I'm starting with an
Octoberfest ale. So Octoberfest. It's funny. It's also called Marson,
(00:45):
as in from March. It's a beer that you brew
in March and you let age and you save it
all the way to the Octoberfest festival that's celebration of harvest,
the start of the second part of the year. It's
a beer, it's multi it's light. It's sort of like
a lagger, but it's got a little bit more character
to it. Every year when Octoberfest starts hitting the shelves,
(01:08):
I see it. I know that it's finally there. I've
been to Munich, which is of course the home of
Octoberfest in Germany. I have worked several Octoberfest festivals here
in Texas. So to me, it's sort of a ringing
in of the fall and a good excuse to buy
more beer.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
But is aging beer like that normally how it's done.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It depends, you know, If I want an ipa, it's
about fresh, fresh, fresh, I want super fresh hops. I
want really rich flavors coming out of those. An ipa
should be absolutely served as quickly as it possibly can,
which is sort of interesting comparing its history. But that's
a different amuz booze we'll talk about with that. But
a lot of beers do benefit from aging, you know,
(01:51):
lots of darker beers. You can buy barrel aged beers.
You can buy beers finished in whiskey barrels, rum barrels,
wine barrels. So aging beer, just like with spirits, can
develop the flavors. And so this is sort of one
of those beers. You make it early in the year
and you sort of wait for it to mature and
sort of that whole growing cycle. You're sort of waiting
(02:11):
for the beer and then here we come and we
celebrate with this beer. We celebrate all the harvest we've done.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
This is Flavor File. So I'm Jerry Yegark. He's Tanner Raggar.
He's a restaurant tour bartender and chef, and we talk
about food and drink and Tanner you think that a
bar is actually a great place for a first date.
I've never really thought about it that way.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Absolutely, I think the great place to be is a bar.
I mean, I'm a little biased because I own a
bar and we have a lot of first dates, but
I think a bar is a fantastic place to have
a date. You know, I know that you talk about dinner,
and I think that's certainly something that's changed culturally between
when you were dating at my age and the age
(02:55):
i'm aunt now. You know, for me, dinner feels formal,
it's kind of expensive. I'm locked into a couple hours.
Right when I had my first date with Grace, we
did go to dinner. Actually, we bar hopped and went
to several places. However, I had known her for a
couple of years at that point, and so I felt
(03:16):
comfortable knowing that this two hours or it lingered all
into the evening and now obviously years of my life,
but we knew it was gonna be fun. If this
was a stranger, if I met this person on an
app where I was swiping through people, I don't know
if I have two hours of chat. Whereas a bar,
I love doing a happy hour because then hey, it's
(03:38):
happy hour. Are you kind of hungry? We could stick around,
or I know a place around the corner you know
you can kind of or you can also say, oh
my goodness, I'm so sorry I have to go, even
if that's not true. So I think the bar gives you, firstly,
just a little bit of flexibility to be able to
control the time that you're at the bar. But what
(03:58):
I also love about the bar bar is, first of all,
if you're going to suggest a bar, make sure that
it's a bar that you know. This should be a
bar you've been to before you're confident in. Maybe if
it's a brand new bar that everybody's talking about, that's
kind of something to do. But my preference is to
go to a bar that I know, and even better,
where I know the people. My favorite thing if I'm
(04:21):
going to be on a date is I want to
sit at a bar with a bartender, I know who
I know can help make this a really great experience
for my date. And also that I know it's a
bar where I'm comfortable.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
You're not worried that if you say hi to the bartender,
she's not going to think, man, this guy must drink
a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
If somebody went on a date with me and didn't
realize I drink a lot of cocktails, then they literally
don't know who I am what to tell you? I
own a cocktail bar. Why am I not? Yes, okay,
this is my business. These are my friends. I did
have that thought at some point, being like if I
take a date and every single place it's like Tanner buddy.
(05:03):
But anyway, you don't have to worry about that for
most people. And one thing I do also like about
sitting at the bar is you have a third person
who kind of becomes your wingman. The bartender wants you
to have a great time. They want you to come
back to this bar. And what I find is a
bartender can do a really good job of picking up
some of those little gaps when the conversation maybe falls
(05:23):
off a little bit. That's you can use the bartender
and say, oh, excuse me, sir, I have a sort
of a question about something, and you can kind of
interact with the bartender. They can be this person who
helps keep the vibe, keeps the conversation flowing, and the
bar can also be the good conversation starter. I think
when you order one. Thing I love about Apothecary, and
(05:44):
part of the reason we do so many first dates
is our drinks are a little bit out there. They're
a little bit different.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You can say, do you think I should get a
cocktail made out of butter curry? Okay? I like, oh man, yeah,
I had that one two weeks ago. It's really cool.
Here's what's good about it? Okay, And so you sort
of immediately start in because look, everybody's been on the
first date. I don't care how many cousins you have.
I don't like, it doesn't matter. I'm either gonna meet
(06:11):
them or I'm never gonna meet them. And either way,
I don't need to know their names and their ages
right now too soon, and it's too soon. I don't
want to know. Do you have good chat? Are you fun?
Do we have some of the same interests? And so
you should order something that starts a conversation. Now, maybe
you're at a bar that doesn't have really eclectic drinks,
that's totally fine. Maybe you love a martini, order the
(06:34):
martini the way that you love it, and then a
martini is it's so funny. It seems like it's just
this one cocktail, but it is infinitely editable. There's so
many ways and variants of a great martini boom. There's
your very first conversation. If you're a martini drinker, or
if your date is like I think I just want
a dirty martini boom. Now you have something that helps
(06:58):
break that ice and make get a little bit less awkward,
and you can kind of get yourself going. You can
settle into the mood. I also love to see if
my date is nice to the bartender.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
To me.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
That's part of the test. If you're not nice to
the bartender, this date's over. Because first of all, gar Son,
right boy, you know absolutely not, and that doesn't really
happen very much. But I just told you, these are
my friends. This is a bar where I like everybody.
Please don't make me look stupid here. I will never
(07:29):
want to bring you here again. And that's part of
the test. I hear from women, and that's more of
an issue that they have. I always like to have
that you're being really nice to this person. We're having
really good chat. The vibes are really good. This then
circles back to what I brought up earlier. If you
meet somebody at a happy hour, you now have this
(07:50):
opportunity to kind of get out of it, but you
also have that opportunity to keep it going forward. Right, Hey,
we can get some food here. Or something that I
think is a really great move is if there's a
neighborhood that you know, where you know a couple of
the places you know what's fun. I can't think of
anything I think is sort of a more impressive, really
sexy move than to say, are you hungry? You know
(08:13):
there's this place around the corner and they make fantastic xyz.
Would you like to get some food? I think this
is a really cool way to show that you know
the neighborhood, that you're sort of connected to the food culture,
which of course is more valuable to me than maybe
other people. But I think it's also really cool because
then if somebody says, yeah, I'm having a good time
(08:33):
with you, I want to go to this second place. Yeah,
that's sort of this perfect opportunity for both people on
the date to say, hey, I'm having a fun time,
I like you, I want to keep this going. So
it's that sort of reassurance from your date as well.
They're not just being entertained, right, They're enjoying themselves. And
(08:56):
that's a really fun move you can pull.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
So then you've actually showed that you've planned kind of
an evening where you can say, hey, there's some other
places we could go. Maybe I know two or three
different restaurants. Do you like this, do you like that?
Do you like something different than that? You've really put
some effort into this here.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, absolutely. And people love people who know restaurants, who
have good suggestions. I mean, it's the same thing that
guy that you know who always knows about music or
always knows about what shows are in town are always
knows a lot about movies. People like that person. And
so if you're a person who's passionate about food and beverage,
I'm assuming that's why you're listening to our show. And
(09:34):
so this is a really good way for you to
leverage something that's cool about you, something you're passionate about
and that kind of conversation can really help you when
the date's not going well, when you can just tell
you know, every date has these lulls, the energy slips
a little bit, and like I said, you can talk
to the bartender. And if you know the bartender, that's
such that help. Right, you can say, oh, my date
(09:56):
has been drinking X. I know this bartender, and I
can say, hey, Kenny, you know two weeks ago you
were telling me about so and so. What was that?
Could you tell her? Boom? Now all of a sudden,
you're picking that energy back up. The bartender's making sure
that things are fun. You're fun, you're connected, and if
the bar is not a good fit for that person,
(10:18):
that's why you've got that second location of mind. That's
why you've got that neighborhood in mind, because you can say, oh,
you know what, this place is a little bit loud tonight.
You know, I know a place that's a little bit quieter.
I'd really love to hear more of what you had
to say about those six cousins you have. Oh now
we're up to the cousin stage. Yeah, you know, I
mean we're already two drinks in. You know, maybe if
(10:40):
you know these places in advance, you can know that
you're sure that they're the vibe. There are places that
are really great date spots and there are places that aren't.
I heard a long time ago that if you're more
clever then you are handsome, don't take dates to really
allowed bars, and that advice worked very well for me.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
When you're tending bartender, can you tell that it's a
first date?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Oh? Absolutely, Mostly I can tell before you've even sat down.
The way you walk, in the way that you handle it.
We can tell you're on a first date immediately. Oftentimes
we can guess within a certain amount, the first day, third,
fourth date, married, unhappily married. We can smell it on you.
(11:19):
In fact, just the other night, I watched a guy
in real time destroy his first date. It was absolutely horrible.
So I'm there at the bar, and you can tell
when it's a first date. People walk in the way
they walk into the room. You know, when you're comfortable
with somebody, you walk differently. You sort of walk like yourself.
When you're trying to make sure that your date likes you.
(11:41):
You put this outfit together. You're standing up very straight,
you're oh after you, oh after you? Right, this sort
of like this, this sort of this. It's slightly awkward.
It's slightly awkward because also here you are to try
to have fun and feel somebody out. So you can
just see it. You can you can tell when people
are comfortable together and when they're not. And so they're
sitting at the bar and they're chatting, and you can
(12:02):
tell that they're both they're both trying really hard, which
I would appreciate if I was on a date. You know,
they're kind of pushing the conversation and they've got that
nervous laugh, and they're kind of they're kind of hanging out.
They're having fun, and I'm keeping an eye on them.
You know, everything seems fine. Then the guy I didn't
quite catch how they caught into it. But then he's like,
(12:24):
oh well, then you know the whole me too movement.
That is not something you should bring up on a
first date. Don't bring it up. What are you gonna
say about it? Either I was a victim, which is
not exactly first date material. I was a perpetrator, which
is the probably the worst thing you could say on
a date. Just don't bring up the me too, movement.
You don't need to bring that up on your first date, okay,
(12:45):
And then he says, well, then after that, you know,
white guys weren't cool anymore, so then every movie that
came out sucked. I literally make eye contact with the
woman and both of us were like, oh, she looked
at you. She looked straight in my eyes, like, oh
my god, what just happened to my date? And here's
this guy, you know, he's taken another drink and like
(13:08):
nothing has happened. I don't think that that's what she
wanted to hear, because then she immediately wiped her mouth
and said, I need to go to the bathroom. And
that was the longest bathroom break I have ever seen.
And I'm confident that the bathroom break involved calling her
friend and being like, I need you to call me
in ten more minutes and tell me of an emergency
because I have to get out of the state. And okay.
(13:30):
Very shortly after the date was over, he crushed her.
And the funny thing is he kept sitting at the bar,
not at all realizing that he just shot himself in
the foot.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
She left and he just sat there. Yeah, he was like, oh, okay, well,
I'm gonna finish my drink.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
That's sorry. You know it sounds like you're taking care
of your friend. No, she's not taking care of her friend.
She's leaving you, don't. You don't need to bring up
controversial like remarks on your very first date. It's okay.
Just try to be likable.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Do you try to help out? I mean you mentioned
in the previous segment about the bartender's your wingman or
can be if you know the bartender.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Absolutely, if you're a good bartender, you should be helping people, right.
You want people to have a really good time. And
so one of the things that I try to keep
in mind if I'm bartending is I can tell there
on a first date they might sort of stall their energy.
And I said before, if you feel your energy stalling,
try to pull the bartender into a conversation and use
(14:27):
them that way. If you're a bartender, try to already
be there when they're ready. You can see it sort
of stalling. You can tell they're trying, they seem likable.
You sort of show up. The easiest question in the
world is what are you thinking of those drinks? Looks
like you're sort of getting down there is there another
cocktail you sort of want to chat about? You can
easily engage, especially if you know the guests, like we
(14:48):
talked about before, if you go to a bar where
you know some of the people behind the bar, they
will help you in these situations and keep it going.
At the end of the day, you're their friend. You
should be their friend. You're serving them, you're taking care
of them, You're making it a hospitable environment for them.
I like to ask people when the other one goes
to the bathroom, Hey, how's the date going? And I
(15:11):
find this to be a really cool thing. It's always
very interesting, if for nothing else than just my own amusement,
people like, oh, man, like they seem really cool, or
I can't believe I finally met somebody on Tinder. I
didn't think anybody was on there anymore. But I also
really like to ask women if their male date has
gone to the bathroom, hey's everything going well? And mostly
(15:32):
they just say, yeah, this is fine. But there are
instances where people might find themselves uncomfortable on a date,
and you can really do a lot for helping somebody
who says, hey, you know, I kind of need to
get out of this date. You know, maybe you need
to close them out, maybe they just need to go,
or maybe you just kind of keep an eye on them.
Just put people at ease, because it's scary to meet
(15:54):
up with a complete stranger. And I would imagine for
hearing from friends, like if you're meeting up with a
man who's significantly taller than you and stronger than you,
it can be a potentially uncomfortable environment. And by being
friendly and putting people at ease, you can make them
feel comfortable okay at the end of the day. That's
what tending the bar is all about.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, I appreciate that, and that is obviously a concern
for women. There's always potential danger in meeting a new
person and coming into an environment where as you're talking about,
people are having drinks, that kind of thing. The guy
goes to the bathroom and you say to the woman,
how's it going?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Everything all right? And it isn't. What can you do
about that? How do you help her out? Well, I
mean the easiest way is just to help get her
out of the bar, just say okay, wow, okay, I
didn't realize. Let me help you. Why don't you get
up right now? Why don't we step outside? Why don't
we xyz right? And so the easiest way is just
(16:54):
to remove somebody from a situation and sort of set
up a scenario where we're going to move this woman outside.
Maybe we're calling her an uber or you know, something
like that, and then when the guy comes back, you
say him in sorry, she had a run. She wanted
us to tell you. She was so sorry, but some
emergency had come up. If you want to hang out
(17:15):
and drink, okay, Otherwise we can kind of close your
tab and let you go. So you want to try
to make sure that you keep the energy calm. You
don't want to excite anybody in a scenario where somebody's uncomfortable. Ultimately,
it's your job to make them relax, you know, and
bring down the energy level, because most of the time
your job is to bring up the energy level.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
We started with the story of a guy who destroyed
a date right in front of you and her.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Do you have another story? I've got one more of
a probably my most memorable first date I've ever seen.
Guy comes in. We have this like big blue couch
and we normally sit like five people in this area,
but we're not busy. It's like a Tuesday, five point
thirty in the afternoon, and he goes, cou sit right
here on the couch. Yeah, sure man. So he's got
his arm around her. Doesn't even look at the men do.
(18:02):
He goes, you make express some martinis? Yeah, we can
make that. I want two with Repisodo tequila. Okay, sure
man knows what he wants. Talking to his date. They're
having fun, bringing the expresso martinis, they're making out on
the couch, they're drinking. They get another round and he's like,
I think we need to get out of here. And
I sort of appreciated that because the making out was
(18:23):
getting a little bit more intense. Okay, okay, all right, fine,
on you go. He had four drinks. He tips eighty dollars,
which was more than what his tab was. Wow. And
I picked that up and I go, oh, okay, good
for me.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Never seen this guy before, don't know him, but I
guess he had fun, has money whatever. Five minutes later,
the exact same man walks in with his arm around
a different woman and he said, hello, sir, how can
we help you today? He goes, man, it's my first
time here. You guys got any repsoa tequila espresso martinis. Yep,
(19:00):
so you didn't tip her off. That's what the eighty
dollars was for. Eighty dollars was to pretend I'd never
seen him before. I see. But what's also crazy to
me is how how are you making out with somebody
on a couch and you somehow unload them get the
new date into the exact same bar in a five
minute period. It was surprising to me. But in the
(19:24):
end he ordered the martinis, they met out on the couch,
he ordered another round, they kept making out. He tipped
me eighty dollars. Never saw the guy again. Maybe some
people's lives are more interesting than ours. Yeah, you know,
I guess so quite the lifestyle he's leading. And if
you're out there, sir, you're more than welcome at apothecary anytime.
I would promise I've never seen you before.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
We're going to do a segment ten are called short
order cooking. I'm going to ask you ten questions in
ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Can you do it? We'll find out, all right.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
So maybe it's somebody like Gordon Ramsey and the show
The Bear that makes people think this, But why are
chefs so angry.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Chefs are angry because you're slow, and you god and
you don't know how to season and you burn food.
That's why it's It really comes down to the fact
that if my name's on the door and this is
my brand, especially if I own the restaurant, I feel
this deep seated belief that my self concept is tied
into that plate, and you disrespected. It is a disrespect
(20:21):
to my guests, it's a disrespect to me. And that's
how chef's got that reputation for being so angry and me.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
All right, how can I find a good but not terrible,
but inexpensive restaurant?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Well, the best way is to ask, ask your friends,
ask people. One thing I don't understand. When you go
to a bar, you go to a restaurant, if you
have a good time, ask those people where they like.
So if there's other good, inexpensive places you like, ask
the people who work there where they like to go,
because frequently people like to go to the same kind
(20:57):
of places that they own and work at. So that's
your number one source. The other thing, a lot of
local media does a lot of really good food coverage
talking about these special, undiscovered kind of places and try
to pick up that free newspaper that maybe you always
walk by and you might find some gems in there.
Who's the most famous person you ever cooked for? Probably
(21:18):
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez back when they were together. Okay,
they did a private party in the hotel where I
was working at the time. That was in Toronto. Yeah,
that was in Toronto. That was in Toronto. So I
cooked for Justin Bieber, got to meet him very much
in passing by meet him. I mean he waved at
me and said the foods were good, and then he left.
So you know, I don't think Justin Bieber really saw me,
(21:41):
but I cooked for him.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
He had a fun party. What historical person do you
wish you could cook for?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I think the most economic historical person would probably be
Jesus because you don't have to bring fish or bread
or wine, so he pretty much pays for himself. He
doesn't really need you, right, he doesn't really need me.
He's got an entire meal. Plus. You know, I don't
mean this disrespectfully, but I think his standard was probably low,
(22:08):
Like I think I could really impress Jesus. You know,
I don't think he was probably eating a lot of
really good food back in Galilee. But if I had
to pick, like an actual historical person, I'd want to
cook for. You know, Anthony Bourdain is like every chef's hero.
I wish I could have met him, although I don't.
I would have rather eaten with him than cooked for him, honestly,
(22:29):
mm hmm. But it'd probably be really cool to have
gotten to meet him and cook for him, he'd be.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
All Right, we're just riffing through some questions, but I'll
throw this one in. Was he a really excellent chef
or a personality? I think he was a better journalist
than he was a chef. Okay, and if you read
his writings he talks about that, I mean that's his
writings really propelled him forward. I think he was probably
a good chef, but he's not like a Renee red
(22:56):
Zeppi or David Chang that helped move food forward. All right,
So if you're on a desert island, then leave out
the fact that just surviving would be your main thing.
But if some magical thing there was food, but you
could only have one spice, your desert island spice, what.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Would it be? Oh man, if you only had one spice.
I think you have to go with something that can
be both savory and sweet, and so for me, that
would have to be cardamom. I love cardamom. I love
the flavor, and it's something that you can put on
a duck. It's something that goes great with red meat.
(23:32):
But it's also something that goes well in custards or
ice creams. I guess in this story, I'm stranded on
a desert island, so I probably don't have a lot
of ice cream in my future. But if I had
to have one, it have to be one that can
go both ways, and probably be Cardamom doesn't go with fish,
you know, if I'm on a desert island, it's gonna
(23:53):
go with fish.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Okay, Well, I was hoping you were gonna say it
goes well with fish, but maybe not. Yeah, okay, all right.
Is brunch overrated?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
There are bunch restaurants that are overrated. The idea of
brunch isn't overrated. I know there are people. Bill Burr
actually has a great segment about this, talking about how
men hate brunch. Why would I want to get up
on a perfectly good Saturday morning or Sunday morning and
then go pay fifty dollars for eggs? Why would I
want to do that? So I understand why some people
(24:28):
aren't into it. But good brunch is not overrated. Good
bunch food. Spending that time with people, that's underrated.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Okay, morning show host at Newstalk ten ten where I work,
he hates the whole concept of brunch. Are you having
breakfast or having lunch? Pick a lane? I think is
his deal?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yes, Well, he's just sort of a grouchy individual.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Actually, I'm the one that has the reputation of being grouchy.
But so you're gonna buy a new stove, a new
oven for your house? Gas, electric or induction?
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Oh amazing question. You know. I would say I'm most
experienced with gas. I'm most used to it. So from
that perspective, I like gas because I'm really comfortable with it. Induction,
that's a really cool option. Most people don't have that
in our house. But if you actually look at some
of the best restaurants in the world, they're run by induction.
(25:21):
The coolest thing about induction is it doesn't make your
house hotter while you're cooking, so it heats the pan,
but unlike a gas flame or electric where it's kind
of just putting heat out and your pants trying to
catch it. It's putting that energy directly into the pan.
So we cook with induction at the restaurant, some not all.
(25:41):
I would say, if I'm remodeling my kitchen and I'm
concerned about the cost, I'd probably go gas. If I'm
not concerned about the cost, Induction is so much easier
to clean. But man, is it expensive to get good
quality and you might have to replace all your pants
because induction only works with certain types of hands, and
so you need to be aware that that could be
(26:02):
part of a big expense for you.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
All Right.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I know a lot of people would ask this question,
how do I know when the steak is done the
way I want it or the person I'm cooking for
wants it?
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Okay, So a really cool way to know when it's
done is raise your left hand and then put your
pointer finger and your thumb together. Touch that little space
at the base of your thumb. See how it kind
of feels soft. Yeah. Then move it to your pinky
and push that same spot. See how it feels really firm. Yes,
(26:34):
So pinky is well done. Ring fingers medium well, middle
finger is medium. Pointer finger is medium rare. Nothing is rare.
So the way that the meat will tighten up is
also the way that it tightens up as you move
across your hand.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Okay, so before you bring the steak out to me
at the restaurant, you're bulking the steak.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Oh, I've poked it so many times. If you don't
think people should be touching your food with their bare hands,
you should not eat at restaurants. Lots of restaurants put
on gloves. You know, we'll put on gloves. But if
you're uncomfortable with hands, bad news for you.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
We're doing short order cooking here. Just quick questions for Tanner.
You've got some time for this one on the segment.
Is a cast iron pan worth it?
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Yes, a cast iron pan is a pain, but it
is absolutely worth it. It's got a lot of weight
and it does a really good job holding heat. So
really cheap, flimsy aluminum pans. What they don't do well
is hold heat once they're exposed to something new. So
we're talking about a steak. If I'm searing a steak
(27:45):
in a pan, that steak's going to be colder than
the pan. So the problem is I'm gonna put it down,
and I'm gonna want this beautiful seer, But the meat
will cool the pan down so much that it can't
provide that quality seer. Whereas the cast iron is thick
and heavy and holds the heat, so it's gonna immediately
(28:06):
start to sear. That the best sears for your steaks
are gonna come out of cast iron. If you're not
using a grill, A good way to know if your
pan is good. Speaking of Anthony Bourdain, he believed that
you should pick up a fry pan, and if you
don't believe it would protect you in home defense, it's
not a good enough pan. Okay, good quick question.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
How do I avoid when I put a steak in
a hot cast iron pan setting off the fire alarms?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Well you're not gonna like this answer, and officially legal
won't approve it. But the answer is I pull the
fire alarms out first. I hope you're not doing that
at the restaurant. No, no, no, but the restaurant creted
for that. We have hoods. We're all set up. You know,
if I was in downtown Toronto when I was in
a little unit, I just unplug it. It's just for
(28:54):
a few minutes, and then I cook my steak and
I plug it in back before I go to bed,
and everybody's fine, and no one's ever known that I
do that.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
And today we're privileged to have a special guest.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Today, Jerry and I are joined by my friend Jesus Hernandez,
ambassador for Tequila Patron. He and I just returned actually
from Acienda Patron in Mexico. We walked the agave fields,
we saw the facilities, and of course drank a lot
of tequila. We're going to dig into kind of what
makes Patron special, bust a few myths and talk about it.
(29:25):
Where tequila is headed.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
State of Carlisco is the main state where tequila production occurs. Right,
so it is split into basically two areas. One of
them is called Tequila Valley. Tequila Valley is surrounded in
Tequila Town. This is where our beloved spirit gets its
name because of the town. And so this town will
(29:47):
be located about four thousand feet above sea level, which
is still pretty high. But so the soil here is
also particularly specific. It's very sandy. It feels a bit
drier for sure, the less water the roots actually get
in the agave is, the more it'll stress out, delivering
a higher sugar concentration. So in average, the Los Altos
(30:11):
agaves will have a higher sugar concentration versus those that
are cultivated in the Tequila valley.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Can you talk about how you're cooking the tequila or
how you're cooking the agaves, and why you need to
cook the agaves.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Once agave is ready, right, average is about six years
on the field, so when it reads, when it reaches
peak maturity, which by the way, is not so much
related to the years it's been in the ground or
in the fields, but rather the sugar concentration, and then
you need to cook.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
And why do you need to cook?
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Because agave when it's raw will have starch, right, just
like for example, potatoes. So this starch you need to
put through what's called a hydrolysis process to convert the
starch into fermentable sugars.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
We cook only in brick ovens.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
You'll have the rooms in our case are about twenty
tons in capacity. After slow steam injection, it'll take about
three fold days for this process to finish, and in
this case, after three days, now the agaves are tender,
they're full of sugar. In fact, there's so much sugar
going on there, there will be some honey that will
start dripping to the floor, and there is a system
(31:21):
that will recollect all of these juices, all of this honey.
Then you can add these sugars into the following steps,
which would be fermentation.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
But this is how we cook. Not everybody does this, though.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
There's a lot of other methods for cooking that'll definitely
reduce the cooking time significantly. But just like in the kitchen,
when you're using a pressure cooker, for example, when you
do something so quick, you might lose out on the tenderness,
on the complexity and the flavors, and on a bunch
of other things that are very important if you ultimately
want something that is very, very delicious.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Absolutely, I mean a visual just to give you here, Dad,
as you think about it, you know, it is called
a pina kind of looks like a apple actually, and
if you think about roasting the pineapple just all day
long to where it changes from sort of yellow or
in a GAVI's case, white to this caramel. I mean,
it's a deep caramel color. It gets really soft and
(32:13):
really calmly and one of the greatest things I've ever
eate in my life was a freshly roasted agave where
you just cut the slice out it's still warm, and
it just melts in your mouth and it's just like
having liquid caramel just immediately released, and it's just all
over your teeth and it's sticky and it's so sweet.
Do you sell that as a product? Tasoes?
Speaker 4 (32:36):
It is very unstable, So even if you keep it
at the right temperature and store it at the right
like in the right conditions, it'll change. And it's very
hard to get it into any market in the US
for people to try.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Can you talk to us about what a tahona mil
is and why it is that some of the tequila's
I like best are made using one.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
It's basically a wheel made out of stone, and it's
a very specific kind of stone, the same stone, by
the way, you could find in Morgachheitis or Mexican mortars,
the ones that we use for making salsa.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Right.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
So it's a very porous stone and it comes from
its volcanic stone actually coming from Tequila Town. So what
they do is they grab a big enough stone to
make sure that they can carve out a two ton wheel,
which is about my size. I'm almost six feet high,
so it is gigantic, right, And this wheel is meant
to go around in circles in a pit, crushing the
(33:27):
cocta gave from underneath it. So the idea here isn't
to acceparate the fiber in the juice, but to create.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
A paste of both.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Right, you want to keep the fibers in there with
the juice so that you can further infuse jagavia flavors
in the following steps. Out of over four thousand brands
that are out there right now registered of tequila, I
don't know this fun fact.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
There's over four.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Thousand brands of tequila registered out there right now, and
every month it just keeps growing. But out of all
those brands, there's only maybe twenty something brands that still
follow this Tahuna Stone method for making tequila.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
When you say Tequila Town, you're talking about a real place,
not like when Guy Fiatri says Flavortown.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yes, it's a real place.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
It's actually So the first thing that was called tequila
is actually the volcano located in Tequila Town. So first
the volcano was named Tequila, and then the town was
called Tequila, and thirdly was the spirit.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
When it comes to whiskeys, people think, oh, it's got
to be six, or it's got to be nine, or
I have a guest who says Scotch and men. I
have the same opinion. If it's eighteen or more, it's safe.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Why is it that we can age tequila for such
a shorter period then for whiskeys.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
You have to wait six full years for this I
got it to grow, So the time investment will come
in the majority of it will come from the plant itself. Right,
So you've already waited six to seven years for this
beautiful plant to grow.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Can you talk to me about how tequila has changed
over the last thirty years, you know, especially for what
Americans and Canadians would see getting delivered to.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
US thirty years ago.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Tequila already existed, obviously, and it was already being exported
to the US, but it was nowhere near the regards
at which it's currently at. Right, So, tequila thirty years
ago was considered, you know, a Mexican spirit. It was
intended to be something fun. Ultimately, also, the majority of
people sometimes would have a very bad experience with tequila
(35:28):
thirty years ago because there wasn't that many brands that
were actually delivering a high quality products and it was
not regarded as a quality you know.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Spirit, right, So it was done in a way to
kind of celebrate.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
Fast forward thirty years later to where we're at now,
tequila is one of the highest regarded spirits in the world.
Tequila is now something that is a very big part
of what any beverage program in any given restaurant or
bar is, regardless if your Mexican or Latin focused, has
grown exponentially, and it is so much so that it
(36:02):
is actually being I think it's surpassed vodka consumption in
the US in the last year.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Where do you think tequila is going to be thirty
years from now?
Speaker 4 (36:11):
In the US, it's going to reach a peak, right,
There's only so much tequila that can be dranked drank
in the US. But there is so many other places
in the world where tequila is definitely not even close
to where the US is at.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
Right. So Europe is they're very much developing market for tequila. Right.
Speaker 4 (36:28):
There's certain places where, like for example, London or the UK,
where tequila already has a pretty substantial market share, but
there is so many other places in Europe where it's
not so much the case at all.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
If you go to Asia, it's not so big at
all either.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
You know, if you go to China, if we had
just one percent of the market as a category of
what they drink in China, it would be significantly increase
for everybody.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Right, I want to talk about some myths and misconception
about tequila. Does cheap tequila cause bad hangovers?
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Cheap tequilas could cause definitely could cause a worse hangover.
That being said, even if you're hiding, if even if
you're drinking the highest quality tequila you could ever think of,
if you have enough of it, you're not gonna feel
great the next day.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
That's I mean, that's just a given right.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
And when I'm trying those tequila is, I'm supposed to
put salt in my hand, shoot it as fast as possible,
and then bite into a lime. Right, that's the patron
preferred method of drinking.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
I would definitely not say that I thought that that
salt and lime thing came from. There were tequilas around
that weren't for good, and it was just a way
to sort of cover for the kind of nasty taste
sometimes of really cheap tequila. Thirty or forty years.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Ago, I mean thirty forty years ago.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
I think mostly it was the case right you were
trying to take those flavors away from your mouth as
quick as possible and try to chase it with whatever
you can find, lime and salt being one of the
most effective, and it just kind of became a ritual.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
I think those days are definitely far behind us.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Awesome, well, Jesus, thank you so much for being here
talking to us, not just about Patron, but about tequila,
how tequila's made. If anybody gets a chance to Visitaciendo Patron,
they were wonderful hosts. They have an amazing hotel on
the property and the bar does not take money, they
only serve drinks, so I highly recommend it if you
ever have a chance. Thank you so much for bringing
(38:23):
me down there. Thank you so much for having us
Jesus Hernandez ambassador for Tequila Patron.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
It's a pleasure. Tanner, thank you so much. Jerry to
you as well, thank you so much for having me.
This was a pleasure and looking forward to talking to
you guys. Soon and having another tequila.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Thank you. Hey, Zeus, I'm Jerry Aegar. He's Tanner Agar.
This is where food, drink, and culture meet and we
hope to talk to you next week on the next
episode of Flavor Files.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.