Danny Serfer is the chef behind two of Miami’s favorite restaurants: Mignonette and Blue Collar. In his first appearance on Pan Con Podcast, Danny told Mike about his experience with addiction and getting clean. In this latest episode, Danny opens up about his having relapsed during the early stages of the pandemic and what it took to get clean all over again. Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DADEmag Follow Pan Con Podcast everywhere: Facebook: www.facebook.com/panconpodcast/ Instagram: ...
May 15, 2022•1 hr 39 min
Chef Manny Arredondo has been referenced a lot on Pan Con Podcast. The Ariete chef was walking by when Mike Beltrán and Nick Jiménez were recording this episode. So he was pulled in to recap a recent dinner that the Ariete team executed with a crew from Washington, D.C.’s Bresca (including chef-owner Ryan Ratino, who was our guest on the last episode of the podcast). Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DADEmag Follow Pan Con Podcast everywhere: Facebook: www.facebook.com/panconpodcast/ Inst...
Apr 19, 2022•1 hr 38 min
Ryan Ratino is the chef-owner or Washington, D.C. restaurants Jônt (two Michelin Stars) and Bresca (one Michelin Star). Ryan and Pan Con Podcast host Michael Beltrán became fast friends when they met — spurred largely by the fact that they're in a very small group of American chefs running restaurants with duck press programs. In this episode of the podcast, Ryan talks with Mike about his career, his leadership style, the dinner the two executed together art Bresca and the dinner the two would w...
Mar 27, 2022•1 hr 30 min
When a Miami social media personality went South-Florida-viral for posts about New York-based Café Habana’s plans to open a Miami location, the news of that brand’s story — namely, its having taken inspiration from Fidel Castro’s revolution and its using images of figures like Che Guevara — felt like a punch to the guts of many Cuban exiles and their descendants. How did Cuban Miami respond? How should it have reacted? Are efforts to keep the restaurant from opening actually productive? Can anyt...
Mar 25, 2022•1 hr 14 min
Martha Bueno is an entrepreneur, activist and candidate for a seat on The Miami-Dade County Commission. Though she’s running without party affiliation, she calls herself a libertarian and had previously worked on Hispanic voter outreach for Libertarian Party presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen’s 2020 campaign. Martha joined Michael Beltrán at Ariete for a discussion on why she’s involved in local politics, its relationship to small business, COVID relief spending, and more.Martha Bueno is an ent...
Mar 11, 2022•1 hr 35 min
Ali Noorani is the CEO of National Immigration Forum. After dinner at Ariete, he joined Mike Beltrán for a conversation about food, culture, and immigration policy. The two also discuss Ali’s upcoming book, Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants. In the Patreon-only extended cut, you’ll find out where Ali goes for his favorite doughnuts (hint: it’s in California and it is not Krispy Kreme), how he likes his eggs, and other food preference things. Follow Ali Noorani and th...
Feb 12, 2022•1 hr 42 min
In this episode of Pan Con Podcast, chef Michael Beltrán get together to recap a James Beard Foundation dinner built around food created by the Ariete team in collaboration with Itamae chef Valerie Chang, lament the Miami Dolphins’ failure to make the playoffs, and wonder whether Nick will somehow screw up this episode since it was recorded with new gear. [Spoiler, Nick only screwed it up a little.] Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/DADEmag Follow Pan Con Podcast everywhere: Facebook: www...
Feb 01, 2022•1 hr 8 min
Miami chef Raheem Sealey has an impressive résumé, with his most recent restaurant gig as the executive chef at Kyu being the one he’s best known for. Raheem parted ways with Kyu — which he’d helped open about six years ago — a month before this recording. These days, he says he’s as excited about food as he’s ever been. He’s got projects in the works that he wasn’t ready to talk about publicly. One thing he did say, though: he’s on the hunt for permanent home for Drinking Pig BBQ, the unassumin...
Jan 15, 2022•2 hr 23 min
This episode was a long time coming; screenwriter Nick Zayas and eighth grade basketball MVP Mike Beltrán have been friends since kindergarten. Nick has been living in L.A. for the last 16 years or so, where he spent years working for movie producer Scott Rudin before making a tansition to writing for TV, including series like Major Crimes and Star Trek: Picard (to name just some of the work that comes up in this conversation). Nick and Mike also talk about how Miami is portrayed in movies and T...
Jan 07, 2022•2 hr 15 min
Mike and Nick didn’t do any planning for this episode, so it’s all over the place. We talk about changes that are coming to the Chug’s Diner menu, Mario Cristobal’s being hired as the University of Miami’s football coach, boxing’s renaissance, golden chicken wings, what kind of lettuce belongs on sandwiches, and more. In the Patreon-only extended cut: Mike takes lightning round questions and we talk monsters, pizza chains, hot PB&J, and Jacques Pepin’s fried eggs. Become a patron: https://ww...
Dec 18, 2021•1 hr 23 min
We’ve mentioned on the podcast that Mike was invited to travel to Napa to speak and demo his food at the Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival at the Culinary Institute of America. In this episode that we recorded in an awkward new set up in Mike’s house, Mike recaps his experience with the conference along with some of the meals he had and people he met while in California — including a bucket-list dinner at chef Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry. We also talk about the impa...
Dec 09, 2021•1 hr 54 min
Carlos Escanilla is a psychologist and a musician; we delve into both mental health and music — along with his and Mike Beltran’s experiences with weight loss — in this episode of Pan Con Podcast. Along the way, the podcast is crashed by past guest John Falco, whose restaurants and brewery also serve as a frequent venue for Carlos’ gigs. In the Patreon-only extended cut, Carlos answers lightning round questions about food and we learn about some of his preferences and his unusual Wendy’s hamburg...
Nov 25, 2021•3 hr 8 min
Tattoo artist Jessica Suárez — better known as Pooka, a nickname whose origin she explains in this interview — has some of her work on our host, Mike Beltrán, including a pine cone that Mike admits he got for the sake of getting in Pooka’s good graces and a mamey hanging from a branch on his arm. In this episode, Pooka talks about her creative process and what it’s been like for her to strike out on her own — she just opened Great Oak Tattoo — and create a tattoo shop culture that reflects her o...
Nov 13, 2021•1 hr 53 min
This episode was recorded Sept. 22, 2021 at Maxwell Bros. Clothing Co. in front of a live audience, whose members were also enjoying a special menu born out of a collaboration among the teams at Maxwell Bros., Crybaby Creamery (both owned by John Falco’s Firepit Hospitality) and Ariete (which is, of course, our host Michael Beltrán’s flagship restaurant). This absolute shit show of a podcast is a conversation with chef Michael Beltrán, restaurateur John Falco, and printmaking artist Peter Santa-...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 59 min
Mike Beltrán first saw Robby Ramos in New York, where the actor was playing a chef in an early iteration of Amparo, the play written and directed by past guests Vanessa García and Vicky Collado. Now, Robby is a member of the cast of Heels, a Starz drama about professional wrestlers, where he plays Diego Cottonmouth. He also hosts his own podcast called Dropping Character. In this episode of Pan Con Podcast, Robby and Mike discuss their respective evolutions as creatives, the distinction between ...
Oct 29, 2021•2 hr 26 min
Health issues in his family led José Manuel Perrone to ditch a job at a major tech company and look for a way to put his career in service of combating disease and giving people the tools they need to lead healthier lives. Eventually, that motivation inspired Cura Market, the company he cofounded as a way to give people more control of their nutrition and the quality of their food. For now, Cura gives creators a way to simplify the process of bringing their food products to market. For instance,...
Oct 20, 2021•1 hr 28 min
Louie Estrada left Miami for New York knowing that he wanted to make his mark by starting a business of his own. After years picking up experience working in restaurants, bars and clubs, he planted his flag in a tiny corner of Brooklyn. From the roughly 150-square-foot kitchen at My Cuban Spot, Louie’s been cranking out Cuban classics the city’s Cubans were sorely missing at a level of quality that’s earned him a following even in lechón-saturated South Florida. Louie joined Mike at Ariete to re...
Oct 05, 2021•1 hr 55 min
Miami native chef Giorgio Rapicavoli (known for Eating House and, most recently, Luca Osteria) has been a James Beard Award semifinalist, a Chopped winner, and a perennial favorite of Miami diners. In this episode, Giorgio joins Mike Beltran to talk about the maturation of his cooking, moving beyond “stoner food,” their mutual admiration for the precision and consistency of restaurants like Hillstone, and his plans for the revival of Eating House. Also, in the Patreon-only extended cut, Giorgio ...
Sep 14, 2021•1 hr 50 min
We recorded this episode of Pan Con Podcast at Chug’s Diner shortly before its Sept. 8 reopening. In this conversation at a booth in the Chug’s dining room, Mike Beltrán talks about the restaurant’s new space, team and menu, along with some of the challenges he faced in designing a restaurant from scratch for the first time. Also, the new Suicide Squad movie was pretty good, Mike did a thing with Ludacris, and Pan Con Podcast’s next live episode dinner is right round the corner. Become a patron:...
Sep 11, 2021•1 hr 22 min
Pan Con Podcast recorded an episode with a live audience for the first time ever, and we brought in a special guest for the occasion. Chef Norman Van Aken was one of Mike’s early interviewees. He’s also Mike’s longtime culinary mentor and the author of at least one cookbook that changed the course of Mike’s career in food. This episode was recorded at Ariete in front of an audience of other past guests and friends of Pan Con Podcast — Larry Carrino, Josh Pascual, John Falco, Matt Kuscher, Caroli...
Aug 02, 2021•2 hr 42 min
July 11, 2021 brought an eruption of protests on the streets of Cuba. Mike Beltrán and Nick Jiménez got together to record some reaction and reflection on those events. Note that this podcast is being released more than 24 hours after it was recorded and the situation in Cuba is changing rapidly. We also talk about changes in Ariete's tasting menus and the beginning of live Pan Con Podcast recording events, which will create an opportunity for you to join us as we record podcasts (and eat and dr...
Jul 13, 2021•48 min
Nidal Barake is the founder of Gluttonomy, a marketing firm specializing in digital strategy for the dining world. As he notes in this episode of Pan Con Podcast, “Big agencies, they don’t know anything about food. They have no clue about what happens at a restaurants, what’s behind the production process, or what drives the consumer.” Nidal, by contrast, is passionate about dining and has leveraged that passion to build a successful firm that the people behind the food he loves can trust. Nidal...
Jun 15, 2021•1 hr 54 min
Chef Pablo Zitzmann was one of our very first guests on Pan Con Podcast in 2019. Nearly two years later, he’s also our first repeat guest (not counting the short interviews we did at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic). This time, he’s here to talk about the success he’s found on the other side of lockdown with Zitz Sum, a new Asian inspired concept he opened in Coral Gables shortly before we recorded this interview. Pablo and Mike talk about the joy and the agony of launching a new venture, bu...
Jun 04, 2021•2 hr 31 min
A May 8 Washington Post story by Laura Reiley bearing the headline “As his restaurants’ customers return, a Miami chef is missing a critical ingredient: Workers,” examines the widespread difficulty restaurants and other hospitality businesses are having in staffing their businesses to meet the demand of an economy that is recovering — even if slowly — from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions imposed by government. The piece uses Ariete Hospitality (of which our host M...
May 21, 2021•56 min
Nedal Ahmad was one of the co-founders of Pincho, the Miami-born fast casual chain we discussed at length on Pan Con Podcast with previous guest (and Nedal’s cousin) Otto Othman. Nedal has since moved on to other ventures, including a healthy meal delivery service and a digital food hall — a term that describes something eerily similar to the ghost kitchen model that’s been a hot button issue on this podcast before (for instance, in Mike Beltran’s conversation with publicist Larry Carrino). Neda...
May 14, 2021•3 hr 4 min
Whether painting for live audiences at nightclubs, showing his work at galleries or creating hand-drawn covers for the zines he bought from Miami record stores, Kiki Valdés has been making art consistently since he was a kid. His work has been inspired by religion, cartoons, secret societies, and the color characters he encountered while painting at those clubs. Along with his brother, he also created Abuela Mami, a Cuban care package company that’s expanded with its own premium coffee brand wit...
Apr 25, 2021•1 hr 43 min
Ike Shehadeh is the founder and face of Ike’s Love & Sandwiches, the San Francisco-based sandwich chain with about 80 locations, known for its extensive menu, unusual flavor combinations and quirky sandwich names. Miami is home to the first Ike’s location on the east coast — a franchise store in Aventura — and Ike says the company has aggressive expansion plans that include another 40 or so locations in Florida. Ike joined Mike Beltran at Ariete for a wide ranging discussion about his fast c...
Apr 20, 2021•1 hr 49 min
María Cabré is the general manager at Miami’s J. Wakefield Brewing. In this conversation with Michael Beltrán, she talks about her experience as a pastry chef, how those skills have served her in a career in brewing, and what it’s been like for her to find success in the beer business as a woman. Also in this conversation: what the COVID pivot looked like for J. Wakefield, Mike’s impression of chef José Mendín, and Mike’s and María’s takes on the Irish goodbye. Become a patron: https://www.patre...
Apr 12, 2021•1 hr 45 min
Pincho — perhaps better known in South Florida by its original name, Pincho Factory — is a distinctly Miami fast casual restaurant brand that’s grown to 10 locations serving kebobs and burgers. Co-founder and CEO Otto Othman joined us on this episode to talk about his own path from marketing to restaurants, how his Palestinian and Brazilian heritage came together with time growing up in Hialeah to inform Pincho’s take on Miamian casual dining (from the Tostón burger, which replaces the bun with ...
Mar 30, 2021•1 hr 57 min
Luciana Giangrandi and Alex Meyer are the chefs behind Boia De, a Miami restaurant that Mike has recommended on Pan Con Podcast numerous times. The two made their long-overdue appearance on the podcast to talk about their respective culinary careers, toast to their being named 2021 Star Chefs Rising Stars, and discuss the wave of New York City restaurateurs that has hit Miami at the tail end of the COVID pandemic. Also, Alex explains why he’s getting his first haircut in a year, Luci recommends ...
Mar 26, 2021•2 hr 9 min
