BRENT ’ S FOOD DESTINATIONS
G
rowing up in suburban Chicago , Brent Petersen never thought he would become one of the top foodie podcast hosts in the world . “ My first career was in radio ,” he explains about his stints in Champaign , Peoria , and Providence , Rhode Island . “ I wanted to find a way to get back into that audio medium because I love radio . You can paint a picture with words , theater of the mind . As a listener , you can imagine anything in your mind that the host is talking about . I love that . At the time , I was living in Hawaii , and we had traveled all over the world , so my girlfriend and I Brent Petersen thought this would be fun to talk about all these different places in an audio format . In 2018 , I launched the Destination Eat Drink podcast on the Radio Misfits Podcast Network ( based in Chicago ). We ' ve done , I don ' t know , 260 270 episodes now .”
The weekly Friday podcast takes you to exotic locations , talks to people who know that place , and sets the table with the best food and drinks .
“ I love having people that are not specifically in the food industry on the show . That ' s fun to do . You don ' t have to be an expert because everybody eats . So , when I have someone on like Kate Pierson from the B52s , and she tells me about starting her life in Georgia on an organic farm and telling me about the real-life love shack . That , to me , is fascinating . When I have a guy like CJ Chenier , who ' s the Crown Prince of Zydeco , telling me about traveling around playing his concerts and keeping a portable kitchen on the bus so that he and his bandmates can make their own special Louisiana food . That ' s awesome . When I have Grammy winner Sarah Jarosz talking about her favorite gas station burrito in Texas . That ' s a lot of fun . People get excited when they ' re talking about their hometown when they ' re talking about food . And everyone loves food . So , it means that I ' m always smiling when I ' m doing the podcast .”
While he features locations around the globe , he has also featured his own hometown a few times . “ I had ( the late great WXRT jock ) Lin Brehmer on the show once . He told me a hilarious story about inhaling helium and making a scene at one of Chicago ' s finest Michelin restaurants . I also had Jonathan Porter on the show , who runs what I think is one of the most genius things from Chicago , Chicago pizza tours . He takes people around for an afternoon or an evening to try all kinds of different Chicagostyle pizza , not just deep dish .”
If you are going on vacation , you should look up Brent ’ s Archives . It ’ s almost certain he ’ s done a show about your vacation destination . But even if you don ’ t have time to listen to them all , he does have two generic tips . “ First of all , go on the food tour . Any city of a decent size
By Rick Kaempfer
around the world has someone doing a food tour . And take that food tour on day one . That way , you can pick the brain of the person who is giving you the food tour . You ' re going to taste all of this delicious food you ' re probably going to be stuffed , but also use them as a resource . Figure out the sites that you want to see and what sucks and doesn ' t because you have limited amounts of time . So that ' s my number one tip : go on the food tour . The second tip that I always give is to go to the local food market , especially in Europe , because every city always
has at least one market day a week . You can buy local produce , local fruits , local vegetables , and ask the vendors about the stuff because you ' re gonna see fruits , vegetables , and things that you have never seen . My thing is to buy hand food , fruits , and vegetables , maybe some bread , maybe some cheese , if you ' re lucky , a bottle of wine and go to a park and just set up shop in the park for a couple of hours . There ' s nothing more rewarding than watching the locals enjoy their day . It ' s something that you ' re not going to get by going to the big tourist sites in the city .”
Brent has taken his love of destinations , eating , and drinking to the next level . A few years ago , he actually moved to Europe . “ We came to Portugal in 2019 , before the pandemic , and we weren ' t really thinking seriously about moving to Portugal , but then we went back to the US COVID hit . And that was really what spurred us . Who knows what the future is gonna bring ? Why wait ? We sold all our stuff . And we took everything that we had left in three suitcases each and moved to a small city south of Lisbon in Portugal . And it ' s been a fantastic decision . We ' ve been here for a little over two years now . A lot of family members and friends have come to visit us over here . And the wonderful thing about living in Portugal is even if someone doesn ' t come to Portugal if they ' re in Italy if they ' re in Ireland , we can hop on a plane and be there in an hour , two hours , something like that .”
No regrets ? Is there anything he misses about America ? “ The thing I miss most is garbage disposals . There are no garbage disposals in Portugal .” january 2024 illinoisentertainer . com 19