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Today’s episode is a special one, and not just because we taped most of it on a handheld recorder on location in our rental house in Austin, Texas. Listen in as we chat about our trip to Austin and interview our good friend and housemate, Chef Gregory Gourdet, the runner-up in this latest season of Top Chef on Bravo! We’ll also gab about some of our favorite eats of this trip, and my pal Dr. Emily Deans pops in to help answer the Question of the Week, too. So listen up, y’all – and you might just find out which Spice Girl Gregory identifies with!

Show Notes & Links for Episode 3:

What We Ate:

While vacationing in Austin, I ate a lot of great barbecue and gluten-free, Paleo-friendly “fun stuff.” Specifically, I had a memorable meal at Picnik Austin, where I basically bought one of everything. To beat the heat while the rest of the house was at Paleo f(x), Henry and the kids enjoyed a movie and gluten-free eats in the dark at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

• You should definitely grab an iced butter coffee at Picnik Austin and lots of other yummy Paleo-friendly eats.
• If you’re looking to eat well at the movies, head to Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
• When in San Francisco, eat at my place for favorite dinner and a movie, Foreign Cinema.

Main Course:

The bulk of today’s episode is a dining room INTERROGATION of our friend Chef Gregory Gourdet. GG’s a fascinating fellow because under his humble exterior lurks a trendsetter, fashionista, Executive Chef, world traveler, ultra runner, hot yoga devotee, and CrossFitter too. And you can see his focus on health in his Portland restaurant, Departure, where guests have the option of delicious gluten-free, vegan, and Paleo menus, in addition to the nightly dinner menu. Plus, he’s won a slew of prestigious awards, including Portland’s Hottest Chef of 2012, Chef of the Year 2013 by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Eater’s 2014 Chef of the Year, and a 2015 James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best Chef Northwest. This year, he became a bona fide celebrity chef when he placed second on the 12th season of Top Chef, Bravo TV’s award-winning cooking competition.

But more importantly, GG’s a fiercely loyal friend, and we love spending time with him. This past weekend, we cornered him at the dining room table just minutes after he woke up (and well before he even had a chance to eat breakfast), and ambushed him with an interview for this episode. As rookie podcasters, we only had a handheld recorder with us, but hopefully, you won’t mind the extra ambient noise. (We keep it real, people.) Besides, GG’s an incredibly engaging and revealing interview subject. He’s honest about his path to professional cooking, his recovery from addiction, fantastic cooking tips, his flavor of Paleo, all things related to Top Chef, and how he keeps sane with a jam-packed plate. At the end of the interview, Big-O jumps in on the action and peppers GG with a list of rapid-fire questions that range from his last meal on earth to his favorite Spice Girl. We had a ton of fun recording this interview, and hope that you enjoy being a fly on the dining room wall during our laughter-filled conversation.

Don’t forget to connect with Gregory via Instagram (@gg30000), Facebook, and Twitter. And if you find yourself in Portland, you must partake of his fabulous Asian-inspired creations at Departure Restaurant + Lounge.

Crush of the Week:

Big-O reveals that he’s crushing on BookPeople, one of the coolest (and largest) independent bookstores in Austin. Lil-O reveals that he doesn’t love books, but he digs his pack of DC Heroes & Villains playing cards (affiliate link)—which he bought at BookPeople instead of, you know, a boring old book.

Question of the Week:

A reader, Natalee, shares in an email:

I became Paleo because of a nine year HORRIBLE struggle with bipolar 1 disease. I was desperate to try anything to help with this…and under the care of a forward thinking amazing psychiatrist, I was able to come off all of my meds and remain stable through food and supplements. And I’m actually better than I’ve EVER been…I have my life and family and marriage back.

All of this to say, I would LOVE to hear how food can help stabilize mental illness. I was literally told by doctors that I would always be on meds…and MANY mentally ill people believe that their lives will always have to be a certain way…because they can’t be fixed.

My friend Dr. Emily Deans, a specialist in evolutionary psychiatry, was hanging out with us at our house in Austin, so I strong-armed her into helping me answer this question.

You can find more of Emily’s articles about food, mood, and microbiome here.

Ciao for now!

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