Eva Longoria Is A Huge Food Nerd

Eva Longoria is a household name for her work as a TV star, director, and producer. But when she sits down with Dan, she reveals another side of her personality: She’s a huge food nerd. She explores this side in her new CNN show, Searching for France, and on her podcast Hungry for History.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dan Pashman?

  Boar's Head brings to the deli the taste of deep fried turkey. Look, whether or not you've had deep fried turkey, I think you can probably understand that it's amazing. But making it is also a massive production. That's why Boar's Head now presents the Friar's Turkey Breast. One bite and flavor takes over. Perfectly seasoned, deliciously golden fried. A backyard tradition, available at the deli only from Boar's Head. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite at your local Boar's Head deli. Boar's Head, committed to craft since 1905. As someone who has been lucky enough to go to Napa Valley, I can tell you, it's everything people say it is. Beautiful scenery, quaint, beautiful towns, and phenomenal food and drink everywhere you go. I don't even know that much about wine, but I know that every glass of wine I had in

• 0:45Dan Pashman?

  Napa Valley was excellent. I mean, there's no bad glass of wine and no bad meal. Choose between hundreds of wineries, tasting rooms, and chef-led restaurants from a low key lunch on a vineyard terrace to a full tasting menu paired by the winemaker. Plan your trip at visitnapavalley.com.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  People think jalapenos come from Jalapa in Mexico, which is why they're called jalapenos, but they're not chilies native to Jalapa. That's the first place that canned them. So that's why they named the first place that canned chilies.

• 1:28Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  And they just called them jalapenos.

• 1:30Dan Pashman?

  You see, Eva, this is why I'm excited to talk with you because I feel like...

• 1:34Speaker 01

  With kindred spirits?

• 1:35Dan Pashman?

  Yes, 100%. But also, I think that deep down, you're actually a huge nerd.

• 1:39Speaker 01

  I'm such a nerd. Oh, my God, I'm such a nerd and specifically with like aliens.

• 1:44Dan Pashman?

  Okay.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  Yep, and food.

• 1:45Dan Pashman?

  Okay, we might not have time to get into the aliens today.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  Oh, come on.

• 1:54Dan Pashman?

  This is The Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. Quick note before we start, that our live show in Boston is this Friday, May 1st. I'll be at WBUR City Space. There are only a few tickets left, so grab yours if you want to join us to see my conversations with Matt Shearer, AKA Reporter Matt, cookbook author Omi Hopper, and Ian Kos, host of Catching the Codfather. It's an all-star lineup. For info on tickets, head on over to sporkful.com/live. All right, let's get into it. This week, I'm talking with Eva Longoria, actor, director, and now host of a CNN food travel show. In that series, Eva eats and drinks her way

• 2:35Dan Pashman?

  around a different country every season. First season, searching for Mexico, then searching for Spain. Now, she's searching for France.

• 2:43Speaker 01

  Sito Abi cheese is renowned for its earthy aroma and dense texture. Mmm, it's creamy.

• 2:51Speaker 02

  In summer, the color is a little bit yellow because cows are eating grass. In the winter, hay.

• 2:59Speaker 01

  I can taste the grass.

• 3:00Speaker 02

  That's the idea of terroir.

• 3:03Dan Pashman?

  It's important to say, Eva is not just a celebrity who happens to be hosting a food show. She is really, really into food. She hosts a food podcast called Hungry for History with her friend Maite Gomez-Rejon, who's an educator with a focus on culinary history. They talk about all kinds of food stories, like the history of breakfast cereal, to how ovens have evolved over the years, and much more. As Eva said, she's a big food nerd. And a lot of that food nerdery is filtered through the lens of her identity as a Texican. When she came into the studio, we immediately bonded over our shared love of a Texas specialty. You make your own flour tortillas?

• 3:36Speaker 01

  Every day. Every day. Because I live most of the time in Spain now. You can't find Mexican food. First of all, because they don't eat spicy. The Spaniards don't eat spicy, but um, so I have to make everything because it's just not like flour tortillas and corn tortillas. All of that's just not there. But my son, my son is addicted to them. That was my breakfast every day, every day for my entire life was a flour tortilla with butter or a flour tortilla with beans inside. And that's my son's breakfast. And if I give him a store bought flour tortilla, he will not, he's like, what is this? I'm like, gosh.

• 4:12Dan Pashman?

  There's such a difference.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  Such a difference.

• 4:14Dan Pashman?

  I, I love flour tortillas so much. I order them from a, a place in Kansas.

• 4:18Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 4:19Dan Pashman?

  There's a guy, uh, he set up this company called Caramello and they make insane tortillas and they send them vacuum sealed to you.

• 4:25Speaker 01

  And are they like raw and you heat them up?

• 4:28Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, I mean, they're cooked, but you still heat them up.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 4:31Dan Pashman?

  Yeah.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Oh, interesting. Are they thick or thin?

• 4:33Dan Pashman?

  Pretty thin and you can get them made with, um, with pork fat, duck fat or avocado oil.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 4:39Dan Pashman?

  Flour tortillas and bean tacos were standard where Eva grew up in Corpus Christi. But one of her early memories of venturing outside her community was when she started at a new school, a gifted and talented program in another part of town.

• 4:50Speaker 01

  I was the only Mexican at the school and I remember getting on the bus with my bean taco and everybody had a Pop-Tart and I'd never seen a Pop-Tart. I was like, what is that? It was like sparkly sprinkles.

• 5:05Dan Pashman?

  Yeah.

• 5:05Speaker 01

  I want that. And I remember going home and begging my mom to buy Pop-Tarts and she was like, absolutely not. Like it's just sugar.

• 5:12Dan Pashman?

  Right. But what did the kids say when they saw what you were eating?

• 5:15Speaker 01

  They didn't know. They were like, what's that? And I was like, it's, it's a bean taco. Doesn't everybody eat bean tacos for breakfast? And they were like, no, not here. That's like, she's Mexican. And they whispered it and I was like, what's that? I was never called that because I grew up in a Hispanic neighborhood. So we were all Mexican American. And so it was really interesting to hear that for the first time. And I was like, oh, okay, I'm different.

• 5:38Dan Pashman?

  That, that was what you took from it?

• 5:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. I was like, mom, what is Mexican? She's like, well, that's, you know, that's our heritage. That's our culture. But I remember quickly being proud of it because I did think my bean taco was superior.

• 5:53Dan Pashman?

  Did you end up trying a Pop-Tart and you were like, oh, it's not as good as it looks?

• 5:56Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Like, and I'm not a, to this day, I'm not a sugar person. I don't like donuts for breakfast or I don't like a sugary breakfast.

• 6:04Dan Pashman?

  Yeah.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  Um, I love a salty, hot breakfast. And so to this day, I'm like, yeah, my bean taco won out over the Pop-Tart.

• 6:13Dan Pashman?

  Growing up, Eva says her mom was an okay cook, but Eva's Aunt Elsa was the real chef of the family.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  My aunt was a caterer. So she would do quinceañeras and weddings and we would have to go help her. So she would, she only had recipes for like 500 people. I was like, right, but Aunt Elsa, how do I make it for just, you know, me?

• 6:33Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  She had this amazing biscuit recipe and I, it was for 500 people. And I remember having to figure out the math for just 10 people.

• 6:42Dan Pashman?

  Right. I don't need 10 tons of flour.

• 6:44Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:45Dan Pashman?

  Aunt Elsa made flour tortillas, of course, but she also made carne guisada, which is stewed beef, and fide o seco, a vermicelli dish. Eva was a very independent child. Her parents worked and had four kids, one of whom had special needs. So Eva was used to fending for herself. When she was nearing her 15th birthday, she decided she wanted a quinceañera. But it was too expensive and her parents said her sisters hadn't gotten one, so she couldn't either. Eva decided she'd get the money herself.

• 7:10Speaker 01

  So I went into Wendy's and got a job and didn't tell my parents. I snuck in.

• 7:19Dan Pashman?

  That you had a job?

• 7:20Speaker 01

  That I got a job because I was like, I'm going to pay for it myself. And so I remember applying and I was like going after school somewhere and my mom would smell like, I smelled like french fries. But yeah, I loved working at Wendy's. I think every kid should work in fast food or any kind of customer service.

• 7:38Dan Pashman?

  Yes.

• 7:39Speaker 01

  Because it really teaches you, you have all these responsibilities, you know, it's assembly line work and you got to do your part in that assembly line. And if not, it could all fall apart. I remember I was making minimum wage. It was like $3 an hour at that time. And then I've got a 10% raise because I got promoted and I, I thought it was the greatest thing. I was like, mom, I got a 10 cent raise. It was a big deal.

• 8:07Dan Pashman?

  Make it rain.

• 8:08Speaker 01

  Woo, here we go. But I just remember wanting to move up and I was like, I don't want to be fry girl. I want to do the grill. I want to be a cashier. I want to be a manager. I was like very goal oriented. So what do I have to do to go over there?

• 8:18Dan Pashman?

  But Eva's secret job couldn't last forever.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  My teacher came in to Wendy's and was like, are you working here? And I said, nope, I don't, I've never seen you before in my life.

• 8:29Dan Pashman?

  You're like standing behind the counter with a Wendy's shirt on.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  Name tagging everything. I don't know who you think I am.

• 8:36Speaker 01

  And she told my mom and my mom, she wasn't mad, but she was just like, what are you doing? And then I said, I just, I want a quinceanera. And when she saw like, I was super determined to do it. Then they, they did help out.

• 8:46Dan Pashman?

  So you did end up?

• 8:46Speaker 01

  We did. I did end up having, I had it with my best friend Claudia, so we could split the cost. And you get padrinos for everything. So you get sponsors for the food, sponsors for the music, sponsors. And I was good at that. I was like, I would ask any, I went to my neighbors who barely knew me. I was like, will you sponsor the DJ?

• 9:06Dan Pashman?

  Oh, so that's a good traditional part of?

• 9:08Speaker 01

  I don't know. That's what we did.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  I'm sure there's families that pay for it all. Not my family.

• 9:14Dan Pashman?

  So it's interesting because just in that story of your experience at Wendy's and the quinceanera, I see two personality traits that I think I still see in you today and that have served you well, which is ambition, goals, wanting to achieve, and then also hustling. Like getting those sponsors, like we're gonna, this event's gonna happen and I'm gonna make it happen.

• 9:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know how, but it's gonna happen.

• 9:35Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  Yes, definitely a theme in my life.

• 9:40Dan Pashman?

  Coming up, Eva makes more things happen for herself with the help of a beauty pageant. Stick around.

• 9:50Speaker 03

  Sauté, you stay, because it's time for some ads.

• 9:56Dan Pashman?

  When you're cooking, ingredients matter, right? You use higher quality ingredients, you usually get better results. And if you're listening to this show, you're probably the kind of person who puts some thought and effort into your ingredients. But ingredients don't just matter with food, they also matter with laundry detergent. Of course, the cleaning job needs to get done, the odors and stains have to be tackled, and I want to feel good about the detergent and the ingredients in it. Because remember, whatever's in your laundry detergent is essentially in your clothes. And then you're putting those clothes on, you want good stuff in there. And All Free Clear uses only essential ingredients. It's 100% free from dyes, perfumes, parabens, and irritating residues. Check out the label and see for yourself, it lists all the ingredients and what they do. We've been using it in my house, we're very happy with it. And let me tell you, family of four, two teenagers, we do a lot of laundry.

• 10:41Dan Pashman?

  So we have put All Free Clear to the test. It's a powerful clean that you can feel good about. All Free Clear is the number one detergent brand recommended by dermatologists for sensitive skin. When it comes to laundry detergent, the choice is clear, All Free Clear. Pick up a bottle for your next laundry day. As we turn to fall and the weather starts to cool down, I think of things like crunching leaves. I think of cheering from the sidelines of a soccer game, walking the dog in the woods. And when I think of doing all those things, I'm usually wearing something from L.L. Bean. Whether it's my puffer vest, my puffer coat, my scarf, whatever you're doing outside this year, you probably need something from L.L. Bean, whether it's their boots, their Scotch plaid flannel, their rugged field coat, or more. Grab the layers and people you love and get

• 11:24Dan Pashman?

  outside. Visit llbean.com to shop the fall collection. L.L. Bean, be an outsider. I grew up on Lando Lakes cheese. I still remember going to the supermarket deli counter with my mom and her ordering Lando Lakes American cheese. And now, Lando Lakes cheese and butter are a huge part of my home. There are so many easy weeknight recipes using Lando Lakes cheese and butter that bring delicious restaurant taste right to your table. From chicken parm to weeknight shrimp pad Thai, Lando Lakes has plenty of quick dishes that'll have the whole dinner table talking. Visit landolakes.com/reцепes/collection for easy weeknight dinners.

• 12:04Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back to The Sporkful. I'm Dan Pashman. Last week in the show, I get a rare look behind the scenes at Disney World to see how they use food and drink to build whole universes. I learned the surprising story behind Tiana's Bayou Adventure, which features what might be the most famous gumbo recipe in the world. And I get to try a few items at the Toy Story Roundup Rodeo Restaurant and the Star Wars Cantina.

• 12:27Speaker 04

  A little morning pick-me-up.

• 12:28Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, there's caffeine in here. I like that.

• 12:31Speaker 04

  There's some caffeine. You might get a hint of the bourbon that's in that as well.

• 12:35Dan Pashman?

  Oh, that's what it is.

• 12:38Dan Pashman?

  It's 8:30 in the morning. We're in the cantina having bourbon. Okay. Whether or not you're a Disney person, I think you'll find this one to be a fascinating look behind the curtain. It's up now. Check it out. And one more quick note. Make sure you stick around to the end of today's episode for a special segment sponsored by Bonnie Plants. I talk to a horticulturist to get answers to your gardening questions. All right, let's get back to Eva Longoria. Eva's a household name, but her origin story is lesser known. After college in Texas, she entered a beauty pageant and won. Part of the prize package was she got sent to LA. Well, she never turned back. She went from acting in soap operas to starring in the hit show Desperate Housewives. In recent years, she's been producing and directing, including the feature film Flame and Hot, about the guy who claims to have invented flame and hot cheetos.

• 13:23Dan Pashman?

  Through it all, the constant for Eva has been her love of cooking. She's even said that the first thing she does after getting off a 12-hour flight is head straight to the kitchen.

• 13:31Speaker 01

  It's therapeutic for me. Not eating at home really, oh, it just throws me off. I have to cook. I have to cook. So I will get off a flight from Europe into my kitchen in LA and start a big meal.

• 13:47Dan Pashman?

  Beyond the therapeutic part, there's another reason why Eva cooks.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  You know, this chicken's too dry in the restaurant.

• 13:54Speaker 01

  You know, the eggs.

• 13:54Dan Pashman?

  I could have made it better.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  I could have made these eggs way better than this, you know, room service. Like, so I get bored and tired of like, not having it done right, which is my way.

• 14:08Speaker 01

  Don't you're particular about your eggs?

• 14:10Dan Pashman?

  Yes, I am.

• 14:11Speaker 01

  Do you like to eat breakfast out?

• 14:13Dan Pashman?

  I like to go out once in a while because I find it, you know, relaxing. Like, I don't have to do the dishes and all that. But I do, I love to cook when I have time. If it's like a weekend afternoon and I can go shopping and I have a couple of hours to cook and no one's bothering me and I really enjoy that. I agree, though. I mean, there's sometimes I go out to eat and I'm like, oh, I couldn't have made this.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  See, I'm the opposite. I love going home, opening the fridge and figuring out a meal.

• 14:38Dan Pashman?

  That's fun, too.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  With what's in the fridge.

• 14:39Dan Pashman?

  That's like a fun game.

• 14:39Speaker 01

  Like, I'm like, ooh, okay, ooh, I'll do this. And my husband's always blown away. He's like, how did you make this? And I'm a fast cook. I can have something on the table within 15, 20 minutes.

• 14:50Dan Pashman?

  Can you think of something recently that you looked in your fridge, saw random ingredients, and made?

• 14:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I always have staples, so usually fidele is like a go-to. I always have a package of ground beef. And so I got home and I, I looked in the fridge and I made albóndiga soup with fidele. Yeah, which sometimes you think like, oh, you gotta plan that. You really don't. You really have everything. You have cumin, you have paprika.

• 15:14Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  You have the fidele, you have the chicken broth.

• 15:17Dan Pashman?

  How would you feel about pickled red onions on that?

• 15:19Speaker 01

  Love pickled red onions. I love pickled anything.

• 15:23Dan Pashman?

  Yeah. Pickled red onions is like so easy.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  It's so easy and it really brightens any dish.

• 15:27Dan Pashman?

  It has anything, you just slice it thin, salt, and then I just use white vinegar.

• 15:31Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 15:32Dan Pashman?

  Like the same stuff that like we used to clean the house. My wife's like, that's a cleaning product. I'm like, no, this is how you make pickled red onions.

• 15:37Speaker 01

  Yes. I always have a can of cannellini beans because I think the apocalypse is gonna happen. So I have a lot of canned beans. Cannellini beans with olive oil and red pepper flakes. Done. That's a meal.

• 15:49Dan Pashman?

  Phenomenal, yeah.

• 15:49Speaker 01

  A phenomenal meal.

• 15:50Dan Pashman?

  Throw some greens in there if you can. That's another thing that'll be great with pickled red onions.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:55Dan Pashman?

  Most of Eva's food opinions are not controversial, but she does stir up some trouble online. You recently posted a video on TikTok in which you were eating tamales with ketchup.

• 16:06Speaker 01

  But let me tell you something, that's a Texas thing.

• 16:08Dan Pashman?

  Okay, right, right.

• 16:09Speaker 01

  A lot of you read the comments. I let them battle it out in the comments. People are like, of course I eat with ketchup. It has to be water burger ketchup. And then some people were like, ah, the old meal, why are you doing that? My husband can't even be in the room with me when I do that. I'm like, I'm sorry.

• 16:25Dan Pashman?

  Eva's husband, Jose Bastone, is from Mexico, which explains why that habit of hers pains him so much. Anyway, Eva's obsession with food and cooking led her to start the podcast Hungry for History. Then she signed on to host the series Searching for Mexico with CNN. It was a similar format to Stanley Tucci's Searching for Italy series. Visit different corners of the country, meet interesting people, and stuff our face with regional cuisines. Mexico seemed like a natural fit for the series, not just because Eva is Mexican-American, but because of everything Mexico has to offer.

• 16:54Speaker 01

  You know, there's only two cuisines protected by UNESCO in its entirety, and that's French cuisine and Mexican cuisine. And I thought, we should do Mexico. And they just said, okay. And I love, like I told you, I love the history of countries. So I think if you want to know a country, the easiest way in. To culture is food. You can go to China and not speak Chinese, but experience the culture because of the food.

• 17:20Dan Pashman?

  Right. So what did you learn about Mexico, working on that series that you didn't know before?

• 17:24Speaker 01

  So much, so much history of ingredients and colonization, specifically Veracruz, the episode in Veracruz, which was where the conquest happened and the main port was. So if you go to Veracruz, it's African influence. The slave trade went through Veracruz. But because of the amount of cultures that came through that port, that had such an influence on the food. So in that area, there is platanos from the Caribbean. There is West African spices. There is Asian spices, you know? So it's pretty fascinating how colonization's changed. Before colonization, before the Spaniards came,

• 18:05Speaker 01

  Mesoamerica was pretty vegetarian, except for fowl. They would eat wild fowl, wild turkey. But then, when the Spaniards came, they brought the cow and the goat and the pig. So they brought pork and they brought not only red meat, but the milks. So then cheese became a thing.

• 18:27Dan Pashman?

  Right, right, right.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  And so it's amazing how much cheese the Mexican diet has now.

• 18:32Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 18:33Speaker 01

  When it never had dairy, never. It never had the milk of a animal. And then there was so much endemic to Mexico. Vanilla, chocolate, the chile, the tomato. People think, you know, Italy's associated with the tomato.

• 18:47Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  It's endemic to Mexico.

• 18:49Dan Pashman?

  So much of European and Asian cuisine is actually like, I think we tend to think of history moving from Africa and Asia and Europe to North America.

• 18:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:00Dan Pashman?

  But that's, there actually has been.

• 19:02Speaker 01

  The reverse.

• 19:03Dan Pashman?

  There was the indigenous cultures that were here.

• 19:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:06Dan Pashman?

  But also, a lot of things started here and moved in the other direction.

• 19:08Speaker 01

  Exactly. Well, and you know, Switzerland's known for chocolate because they put milk and sugar in it, where chocolate in Mesoamerica was a bitter drink. It wasn't sweet. It was bitter and they used it for ceremonial things. It wasn't. And so you go, oh, Switzerland really made it its own thing. Same thing with the tomato. You think of Italy, but it wasn't that Italy. It's endemic to Italy. They just were the first to can it. They were the first to really embrace it as an ingredient. And so that's why they're the famous ones for the tomato.

• 19:41Dan Pashman?

  Right. I mean, when I think of tomatoes, I think of Italy and New Jersey.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  Do you?

• 19:47Dan Pashman?

  My home state. We have good tomatoes.

• 19:48Speaker 01

  You have good tomatoes.

• 19:49Dan Pashman?

  Yes, yes, Jersey tomatoes.

• 19:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. All right. Well, you gotta eat them from Mexico.

• 19:55Dan Pashman?

  On the heels of searching for Mexico, Eva wrote a cookbook called My Mexican Kitchen. It has recipes, of course, but also a lot of history. As we've made clear, Eva's a food nerd. There are deep dives into vanilla and agave. The difference in old world and new world beans, the variety of chilies in Mexico. But as Eva told me throughout this interview, she's more Tex Mex than Mexican. So I was curious why she chose to write a Mexican cookbook.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  I was really trying to honor my travels. And so all the things that I had learned and saw from, you know, the leña, the firewood that they use for grilling to these Mayan, old Mayan techniques for folding tamales to pozole and kind of the history of a pork broth and all of that, which I didn't grow up with. I didn't grow up with pozole. I grew up with menudo. Um, I didn't grow up with, you know, Mayan tamales. I grew up with Texas tamales. And so I really wanted it to be more Mexican.

• 20:52Dan Pashman?

  But it seems like this sort of relationship between your upbringing in Texas and that kind of Tex Mex, which is is a distinct culture and cuisine versus Mexico. That kind of relationship between Tex Mex, Mexican American and Mexico Mexican.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:08Dan Pashman?

  Is something that you're especially interested in. I know you directed a documentary called La Guerra Civil about these two boxers, Oscar De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez, who had this huge rivalry. And part of the rivalry was kind of, it epitomized this Mexican American versus Mexican.

• 21:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. Are you Mexican enough?

• 21:27Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 21:27Speaker 01

  And who gets to say that? Yeah.

• 21:29Dan Pashman?

  What interests you about that subject?

• 21:31Speaker 01

  Because I'm a hyphenate. I'm a Mexican dash American and so I'm a hundred percent of those things at the same time. I'm a hundred percent Mexican, I'm a hundred percent American. And so to navigate the world with that identity can be complicated. So anytime I could put that lens on my work, flaming hot was that. You know, flaming hot was a kind of a point of view with that lens.

• 21:54Dan Pashman?

  I do feel like that experience is somewhat unique because huge parts of America were Mexico.

• 22:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:02Dan Pashman?

  So it's different from being on another continent and coming.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:06Dan Pashman?

  Like your family could be in the same place for generations.

• 22:08Speaker 01

  My family was, is, yeah. Nine generations.

• 22:11Dan Pashman?

  Like the old saying, Mexican people will say, we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  Absolutely, yeah. So yeah, so it's almost like we're grounded in that history here and proud of that history. And a lot of that history is being erased as well. And so I think food is a way to hold on to that storytelling.

• 22:28Dan Pashman?

  After Eva finished searching for Mexico, she followed her roots even deeper. She did a season called Searching for Spain. Her ancestors came from a province called Asturias on the country's northern coast. There's even a town there called Yongoria, like Longoria with two L's. Eva learned about all this when she went on the PBS show Finding Your Roots. That was the first time she visited Yongoria. Then she got to go back doing Searching for Spain.

• 22:50Speaker 01

  Because it's in the mountains, it's very cold, the best dairy comes from there, the cows, the cheese, the milk in Spain comes from Asturias. But it is cold there and so they're, they have a lot of stews, so many stews. And in the original Asturian language, there was no word for fork. It was just spoon.

• 23:11Dan Pashman?

  What was it like the first time you went back there?

• 23:13Speaker 01

  Amazing. I went to my little town, it was like 40 people lived there. I saw the ruins of the Longoria Palace. Um, and I was like, I want to buy this. And my husband's like, it's, I was like, I want to buy this house. And my husband's like, it's not a house. A pile of rocks. I was like, wouldn't it be great? And he's like, we're never coming up. I was like, come on, there's more sheep than people. Yeah.

• 23:35Dan Pashman?

  Tell me more about the stews.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  Oh, my God. So the best thing you'll ever eat in your life is fabada, which is this white bean, the basically like fava, but fabada. It's a different white bean that's grown there and they make this broth of four different porks. So it's like bacon and the stomach and a pancetta and a sausage. And you boil that in water and you put the beans and oh, a little bit of saffron. It's like a red broth. You eat the beans with all four of those porks. It is to die for. And then there was another one, pote, which is a, it's another bean stew, but it has like, almost like kale or some sort of green in it and it's a white broth.

• 24:20Speaker 01

  Oh, they had so many. I was like, I was just in heaven because I love a, I love a soup. I love a stew.

• 24:25Dan Pashman?

  That all sounds incredible.

• 24:26Speaker 01

  I know. And hearty. They're very hearty.

• 24:27Dan Pashman?

  Right. What surprised you the most about spending time in Spain?

• 24:32Speaker 01

  How diverse it is and how, oh, my God, the, the Basque Country is the pinchos, the, the food culture in San Sebastian and Bilbao. Oh, my, you're just, it's, it's, what didn't surprise me, but what was really hammered home is how important meal time is to Spaniards. The time to sit and eat. And they have a thing called sobremesa, which we also have in Mexico, but like after you eat, you sit there and you talk. Um, they have a thing called hora de vermut, which is vermut hour. And you have to eat bar snacks and sardines and they have the best canned seafood in Spain and Galicia. And so you have canned mussels, canned oysters, canned sardines.

• 25:17Dan Pashman?

  When, when they're drinking, they're eating.

• 25:19Speaker 01

  When you're drinking, you're eating. And a lot of this food, a lot of this is not just tapas, but they're like pinchos, tapas. They just come, they just come out in a restaurant.

• 25:28Dan Pashman?

  Well, and I think that episode with vermut was also the one where you had the jamon.

• 25:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:33Dan Pashman?

  It was like these pigs that had been raised, especially eating all the acorns. And they had the guy, like one of the guys at the farm was just like the master slicer.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 25:40Dan Pashman?

  They had the whole leg, like, like you would see with prosciutto, but he was slicing it.

• 25:44Speaker 01

  So thin.

• 25:45Dan Pashman?

  It made me, I had like just eaten and I was watching those slices of jamon and I was like, I want that so bad.

• 25:50Speaker 01

  And that's jamon y berico, which is very, the black foot, they eat the acorn, they fatten them up. There's many different jamons, but that one's like the award winning leg.

• 26:01Dan Pashman?

  It was like room temperature, I assume.

• 26:03Speaker 01

  It has to be room temperature, it's cured for years.

• 26:05Dan Pashman?

  It was glistening.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, that's how you know if it's a good plate of jamon is they do a thin layer on a plate and if you turn it upside down, it won't fall off. Because of the, the amount of fat that's sticking it to the plate, it doesn't slide off and you have to slice it the right way. They get very, I mean, it's a whole, you saw me, I was sweating, sweating going, I'm gonna ruin this leg of jamon. Yeah.

• 26:28Dan Pashman?

  How did doing those shows in Mexico and Spain affect the way you thought about your own identity?

• 26:33Speaker 01

  It's so interesting to have the gift of doing this show. I mean, I, CNN has an insane research team. And the thing we try to do on each show is like high lows, you have the Michelin star, amazing chefs really, you know, doing molecular gastronomy, doing that. And then you have the chiringuitos who are still cooking these little sardines over open fire on leña and they're equally as good. The other thing that I was surprised about Mexico, Spain and France is food is political. And, and specifically in Spain, the Franco era, when he, the dictator was in charge, he wanted one Spain.

• 27:16Speaker 01

  So he forbid recipes, ingredients, regional food, regional languages. And the minute he, he died, there was this resurgence of like, this is what our area was about, our region. And it's beautiful to see that. And, and then France was really affected by World War Two. The rationing of food and the potato, right? The potato was a sustenance food and it was a food of the poor, bread. Once the French Revolution happened, that was when restaurants started. Was because all of these people were out of work and they were artisans, these master bread makers for the monarchy and they had nothing to do now.

• 27:57Speaker 01

  And they said, well, should I bake bread for the town and patisserie shops and boulangeries? And cafes and restaurants, like all of that was birthed out of the French Revolution from a political situation.

• 28:12Dan Pashman?

  Coming up, Eva goes searching for France and gets reprimanded for one of her misconceptions about the food there. Stick around.

• 28:24Speaker 05

  Hope you're hungry, because it's time for some ads.

• 28:29Dan Pashman?

  As we turn to fall and the weather starts to cool down, I think of things like crunching leaves. I think of sharing from the sidelines of a soccer game, walking the dog in the woods. And when I think of doing all those things, I'm usually wearing something from LL Bean. Whether it's my puffer vest, my puffer coat, my scarf, whatever you're doing outside this year, you probably need something from LL Bean. Whether it's their boots, their Scotch plaid flannel, their rugged field coat, or more. Grab the layers and people you love and get outside. Visit llbean.com to shop the fall collection. LL Bean, be an outsider. I grew up on Lando Lakes cheese. I still remember going to the supermarket deli counter with my mom and her ordering Lando Lakes American cheese. And now, Lando Lakes cheese

• 29:12Dan Pashman?

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• 29:33Speaker 06

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• 30:05Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back. Eva Longoria's latest CNN series is Searching for France, which is airing new episodes now. She's long had an affinity for France. Her ex-husband is the French NBA player Tony Parker. So it was yet another dream come true for her to film the series there. But it was also grueling in its own way.

• 30:22Speaker 01

  I don't eat sugar.

• 30:24Dan Pashman?

  Oh, OK.

• 30:24Speaker 01

  I just, like I said, I don't, I'm not a sugar person. And we did a whole episode, which is when we shoot nine days of patisseries. And it was just patisseries. I, I, my stomach was hurting. I had migraines, only because it's so rich and so good. But it was like chocolate croissant to these insane creations that, that they're doing with custards and...

• 30:48Dan Pashman?

  I also have to imagine that when you're doing that, it's like on the sixth day of pastries, you have to lean a little bit on your acting abilities.

• 30:55Speaker 01

  Oh, gosh, yes, yes. One, one region, I forgot what the pastry was called, but it was just sugar and butter, like literally, and a little bit of flour. Like, and I, when you pick it up, it's just, you're, you're just soaking with butter and... But it was so good, but at the same time, I was like, I can't eat one more sugary thing. It was the same thing in Mexico when we had so much tequila. And depending on our shooting order, it's like, might be nine in the morning. Right? And I was like, I might have to fake that this is really good right now because it's nine in the morning. Um, but I hope you don't see that.

• 31:31Dan Pashman?

  Well, did I, did I read correctly that Stanley Tucci, because he had done Searching for Italy before?

• 31:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:35Dan Pashman?

  His advice to you was like,

• 31:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:37Dan Pashman?

  the drinking

• 31:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:39Dan Pashman?

  is a challenge.

• 31:39Speaker 01

  Well, he said, he's like, because I finished Mexico. And he goes, you did all the episodes back to back. I guess he, he would like go for two weeks, come home.

• 31:48Dan Pashman?

  I see.

• 31:49Speaker 01

  Go shoot another region, come home. And I did them straight through. And he goes, you're gonna need a detox. I was like, yeah, yeah, I think I do after Mexico.

• 31:59Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 32:00Speaker 01

  But yeah, so working my way through France was, was really... Amazing. We did Paris as an episode. We did Provence, which is the south, Brittany, which is the north, Bordeaux and Burgundy, which are enemies. And we did Alsace, which is the German side.

• 32:17Dan Pashman?

  Right. I love, in the Burgundy episode, you go to this abbey.

• 32:20Speaker 01

  That's where wine comes from.

• 32:21Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 32:22Speaker 01

  The monks were the first to plant vines. Our Grand Cru, Premier Cru, the whole ranking system comes from the monks because they would just go, oh, this area of land produced a better grape. And so we're going to call that this. And then this area of land didn't do so well. So we're gonna, and to this day, we still use the system that the monks invented.

• 32:42Dan Pashman?

  Right. Well, and, and I mean, that's sort of one of the, the themes of the whole season is so much of how we think about food, how we talk about food, comes from the French, comes from French culinary history.

• 32:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:56Dan Pashman?

  Cuisine.

• 32:57Speaker 01

  Fine dining was birthed in France.

• 32:59Dan Pashman?

  Right. And even like the idea of, you know, Escoffier's mother sauces, which every culinary school student learns.

• 33:05Speaker 01

  Has the bible.

• 33:06Dan Pashman?

  The brigade system in kitchens. So, so that's all fascinating. And I love that part of the series. What's also interesting to me though, and this is what I'm curious to ask you about is in the last 10 or 20 years, at least here in America and in Europe as well, there's been a little bit of sort of like a backlash against French because it's sort of like, all right, come on, you've had your turn. You know, like, yeah, French food's great, but like, you're not the only game in town. And like, going to France, how were you thinking about that history and the newer perspectives about French food?

• 33:32Speaker 01

  Well, there is a lot of, it's interesting when you talk about Escoffier. I was in Bordeaux with this kind of rebel chef at the Prince Noir. He has a restaurant called the Prince Noir. And he's, he's kind of known as the rule breaker. And so he turns all those sauces on its head. And he does all these different things, but he goes, you cannot break the rules if you don't know the rules. So he knows the mother sauces. But now he's changed the mother sauces. So he feels like there's still this great respect. There's a lot of chefs in the south and Marseille, there's this great young chef who does not have a brigade system. He has, everybody does a little bit of everything in his kitchen. And he has resident chefs come in and out and they do the menu for a week. But he too said, But I did come up in the system of

• 34:16Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 34:16Speaker 01

  of French culinary excellence. And now he's allowed to break those rules. So even the rule breakers were rule followers at one time and now and most of them are young. They're the young chefs that that really still admire Alain Ducasse. And there's a great chef, Maury, Chef Maury in France.

• 34:33Dan Pashman?

  Right, Maury Sacco, right. And he's doing like West African,

• 34:36Speaker 01

  Japanese, French.

• 34:38Dan Pashman?

  Sort of, uh, uh,

• 34:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:39Dan Pashman?

  taking all these different influences. And that's an example. So the series, so you do go to an abbey and talk to the monks who like invented wine and cheese, basically. But then you also are talking with this young chef who's doing very new and different things.

• 34:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. Mm hmm. And the other thing I learned about France was everybody thinks it's like butter, butter, butter, butter. Only the north is butter. The south is olive oil. That's why a lot of great olive oil comes from France is because the the south of France, specifically Marseille and Provence, was settled by the Greeks. And so it's very Greek influenced, the olives, the keepers, fresh fish, this, you know, the open phase grilled fish that you would find in Greece. The grilled octopus, you know, all of that is still strong in Provence. But I remember I was in Provence and I said, oh, let me guess, we're gonna put butter. And he looked at me, he went, we do not use butter here. Here in the south, we use olive oil. And I was like, oh, OK, they don't cook with butter.

• 35:36Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 35:36Speaker 01

  Or very, very rarely cook with butter.

• 35:38Dan Pashman?

  I think I think we think of these borders because it's similar in Italy. Northern Italy is much, is more like

• 35:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:43Dan Pashman?

  German and Swiss, it's more like meat and potatoes. So I mean, I know you were married to a Frenchman.

• 35:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:49Dan Pashman?

  I'm curious to know, you had spent time in France before this series, but like, how is it different? You know, you you don't have as much of a sort of family connection as you did in Mexico and Spain.

• 35:59Speaker 01

  I have such a connection in France. I don't know why. I think I want it in the divorce. Because I am, I, I love France and it really has loved me back. Every time I, I'm in France, chaque fois que je suis en France, je me sens à la maison. Like I feel at home and I work a lot in France. But I don't know what it is. It's just, I just, I think my 10 past lives must have been in France. You know, when I was married, Tony was, played, he's a basketball player. He, and he played for the French national team. And when you play for the French, you have to go to all these tiny towns. I mean, we went to, you know, Fekon where he did a camp. And then we went to Limoges, which I fell in love.

• 36:41Speaker 01

  Limoges is the porcelain capital of the world. It's beautiful porcelain, but tiny town. I remember in one place, it was in the north, the guy, we stayed at like a bed and breakfast. And he made me a lunch of a Dover sole, you know, with butter sauce. It wasn't a sole mignon, but it was, it was some similar. And I was like, can you show me how you make this? And he took me into his kitchen and he said, you gotta put cold water, has to be cold butter. You gotta do it in this order. And so that, my first cookbook was a lot of those experiences of like a guy in a kitchen who just taught me the sauce.

• 37:14Dan Pashman?

  So Eva, you're here in New York.

• 37:16Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 37:16Dan Pashman?

  You're doing the press thing.

• 37:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:19Dan Pashman?

  What's the first thing you're gonna cook when you get home?

• 37:21Speaker 01

  Um, definitely Mexican, probably tacos.

• 37:25Speaker 01

  What I do, I do my food prep every Sunday, which is like a pot of charro beans, charro beans, and then those end up being free fried beans. Um, I make, you know, flour tortillas every morning, so that's on rotation. And the tomatillo salsa, that's I make every Sunday. My husband drinks that, like, we go through jars and jars of that. Um, yeah, so that's, usually it's Mexican food is like my go-to comfort, comfort food.

• 37:56Dan Pashman?

  I learned so much in this conversation, Eva.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  I'm a nerd.

• 38:00Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, fellow food nerd.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  I'm a nerd. I'm so happy to be on. I'm such a fan of your show. Thank you for having me.

• 38:05Dan Pashman?

  Thank you for being here.

• 38:15Dan Pashman?

  That's Eva Longoria. Her show, Eva Longoria Searching for France airs Sundays at 9 PM on CNN and streams the next day on the CNN app. Next week on the show, I'm solving your food disputes when I take calls with cookbook authors Ham Alaweli and Pai Changchana. Things get pretty heated on the topic of double dipping. You don't want to miss this one. That's next week. While you wait for that one, check out last week's show where I get to go behind the scenes at Disney World. I hit up the Star Wars Cantina, the Toy Story BBQ joint, and I hear about the real gumbo that inspired the ride, Tiana's Bayou Adventure. That one's up now. Check it out. And hey, did you know you can listen to The Sporkful on the SiriusXM app? Yes, the SiriusXM app, it has all your favorite podcasts, plus over 200 ad-free music channels curated by

• 38:58Dan Pashman?

  genre and era, plus live sports coverage. Does your podcasting app have that? And there's interviews with A-list stars and so much more. It's everything you want in a podcast app and music app all rolled into one. Right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. This episode was produced by me along with managing producer- Emma Morgenstern- and senior producer- Andres O'Hara- It was edited by- Camille Stanley- Our engineers are- Jared O'Connell- and- Casey Holford- And our intern is- India Rice- Music help from Black Label Music. The Sporkful is a production of SiriusXM Podcasts. Our executive producer is Camille Stanley. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.

• 39:39Speaker 03

  And I'm Nora from Taylor Texas, reminding you to eat more, eat better, and eat more better.

• 39:54Dan Pashman?

  Thank you to Bonnie Plants for sponsoring this segment. Amy Enfield was always into plants. As a kid, she helped her parents work in their vegetable garden. And in grade school, she remembers-

• 40:04Speaker 07

  Doing the bean experiment where you get the little paper cup and the little bit of soil and a little bit of water and you plant your own bean.

• 40:10Dan Pashman?

  When she grew up, Amy was still so into plants that she got a master's degree in horticulture and a PhD in plant and environmental science. So as we head into spring, I thought I'd chat with Dr. Amy.

• 40:21Speaker 07

  I've had the opportunity to work with young four, five, six-year-olds and seeing that same amazement with them again. Like, we're gonna start this seed and you're gonna come back in a week and there's gonna be little seedlings there and you're gonna come back in a month from now and it's gonna be in flower.

• 40:35Dan Pashman?

  Right. It is kind of amazing. At what point did you decide that this would be your career?

• 40:40Speaker 07

  I had the opportunity at the end of my junior year to go work with a horticulture professor at Michigan State, and I just kind of really fell in love with it, just like the hands in the dirt, planting, growing things, being in the greenhouse, out in the gardens. It was kind of like, yeah, I could make a living out of this. And I did.

• 41:00Dan Pashman?

  As we get into April and May, you're past the last frost. What's the summer of year like?

• 41:05Speaker 07

  Mid to late spring is my favorite time of year. Just it's spending time outside. Stuff is growing, things are blooming, almost like that rebirth coming out of winter after that long nap. Everything smells fresh. Everything feels new.

• 41:19Dan Pashman?

  These days, Dr. Amy is a senior content editor at Scott's Miracle Grow. So she's the perfect person to help answer gardening questions that you sent in. All right, Dr. Amy, let's begin with a question from a beginner. Megan asks, where's the best place to start with the least chance of messing up?

• 41:34Speaker 07

  To me, herbs tend to be foolproof. They don't need a ton of care. You do need to water them. I'm like, nothing's going to be completely foolproof, because if you forget to water it.

• 41:45Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, we can't help you then.

• 41:47Speaker 07

  But herbs are a really good starting point. They make a great garnish just to have outside your door to go add to any kind of meal you're cooking.

• 41:55Dan Pashman?

  It is a great feeling to be in the kitchen. And like, you know what would make this better? A little basil. You know what would make this look prettier? A little parsley. You just go out to your garden and cut it off. And you feel like, oh, look, look at me living off the land. Jeff writes, when is the best time of day to water?

• 42:09Speaker 07

  The best time of day to water is morning, between nine and before 11, ideally. So you want to water before the sun hits peak.

• 42:18Dan Pashman?

  And if you can't do it, then?

• 42:19Speaker 07

  That late afternoon after kind of three o'clock, but before six is also a good time to water as well, because then there's enough time for your leaves to dry before you go into nightfall. So you don't get the risk of disease.

• 42:33Dan Pashman?

  Wet leaves at night create risk of disease?

• 42:35Speaker 07

  Yes.

• 42:36Dan Pashman?

  Interesting. All right. Next topic, gardening with limited space. So we heard from a lot of listeners who live in apartments. What are your tips on this one, Dr. Amy?

• 42:44Speaker 07

  So when it comes to balcony growing in small spaces or just small outside patios, think vertical, stuff that can grow up, hanging baskets, find tumbling varieties. Cucamelas can grow in a pot and they trail down. Look for the really small varieties. There are tomato varieties on the market, if you can find them, that will grow in a six inch pot.

• 43:06Dan Pashman?

  Bonnie Plants actually has a whole guide to vertical gardening on their website. So whether you're in an apartment or just want to make the most of your outdoor space, check it out. There are tons of tips and ideas. It even explains how to grow tomatoes upside down. I did not know you could do that. Anyway, final section, Dr. Amy. Pam writes, how much water is too much for herbs like basil?

• 43:26Speaker 07

  They only need about an inch of water a week. If you water them too much, one, they can rot out. But it also dilutes the flavor. A little bit of drought stress on herbs is actually a good thing because it intensifies the flavors.

• 43:42Dan Pashman?

  That's a good tip. And full sun for most herbs?

• 43:46Speaker 07

  Full sun for most herbs. Basil definitely needs the full sun.

• 43:50Dan Pashman?

  Thank you again to the sponsor of today's segment, Bonnie Plants. You know, if you're a first timer, I get it. Gardening is intimidating. My wife, Janie, and I have been doing it for a couple of years and we're still finding our way. Even if you're an experienced gardener, you're always going to have questions, right? With factors like weather, climate, expense, and time, gardening can feel daunting. Bonnie Plants believes that growing your own garden should be simple, accessible, and attainable. And it's so rewarding when you plant the plants and you get to watch them grow and then you get to harvest them. You get to snip those herbs. You get to eat those tomatoes. Fresh ingredients right in your backyard or on your windowsill for you apartment dwellers. Find your moment of peace and quiet in the day, spending a few minutes watering or weeding to keep your plants growing healthy.

• 44:33Dan Pashman?

  And the Bonnie Plants website is a great resource. Like I said, they have their vertical gardening guide. They have a tomato picker. So you can like put in, how much space do you have? How much sun do you get? Even if you don't really know what kind of tomato you need, check the right boxes. The Bonnie Plants website will tell you what kind of tomatoes you need. Then a couple of clicks and the seeds show up at your door. With over a century of experience growing fresh, quality plants, Bonnie Plants can be your partner in successfully growing delicious, fresh food and finding your moment. Head to BonniePlants.com for more.

• 45:04Speaker 06

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• 45:34Speaker 06

  Origavatazona? Is that a word? In the 2026 Kia Sportage Turbo Hybrid, it might as well be. Because it can be one road trip. It's all about turbocharged power and hybrid efficiency working together. So you get the thrill of quick acceleration and the satisfaction of fuel efficiency. Book a test drive and keep the adventure going. Kia. Movement that Inspires. Call 800-333-4KIA for details. Always drive safely.