Episode Details

This week on Five Rules for the Good Life, I sit down with San Diego chef Tara Monsod to talk about one of our shared favorite topics: how to travel the world with food as the focus. Fresh off a trip to Japan and the Philippines, Tara shares her Five Rules for How to Travel & Eat Like a Chef on Vacation, covering everything from researching spots that locals love, to trusting a side-street ramen line, to balancing Michelin meals with late-night street carts. Whether you’re a chef planning your first real vacation or someone just trying to make their next trip tastier, this chat is a good guide for how to turn every bite into a deeper connection with the place you’re in.

Food is always the anchor for how I travel. It’s not just where I eat, it’s how I learn about the people, the rhythm of the city, the culture. I love the chase: the deep dives into local blogs, DM threads with chefs and friends, the obsessive spreadsheet with an itinerary built around breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. When you take the time to really dig in, you’re rewarded with more than just good meals. You get stories, context, and flavors that stick with you long after the trip ends.

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Transcription

Hello and welcome to Five Rules for the Good Life. I’m your host, Darin Bresnitz. Today, I sit down with one of my favorite people in the culinary scene, Tara Monsod, who’s the executive chef at Animae and Le Coq, both in San Diego. She recently returned from her adventures in the Philippines and Japan, and she shares her five rules for how to travel and eat like a chef on vacation. She talks about the importance of doing one’s research, how to strike up a conversation with someone who works at a restaurant that you love, and how keeping your eyes open while walking the streets of a new city might just land you the best meal on your trip. It is a great guide for anybody who wants to make food the focal point of their next adventure in the world. So let’s get into the rules.

Tara, so great to see you again. Always a pleasure to sit down and chat. How’s everything been? Everything is great. Sandy was perfect weather right now. Yeah, everything’s good. Just busy in the labs. Just finished one with Cato not that long ago. Yes. Yes, it was honestly a great day. What I like about your approach to living is that you work really hard and then you also travel. And when you travel, food is the main driver of how you approach your adventures. Why does a city’s culinary landscape dictate your decisions?

Who doesn’t travel for food? I mean, I don’t know, but sure. Yes, there are people out there. I’m just kidding. It’s just a good reflection of the people in the city. If there’s a lot of diversity in food and a lot of options for food, it’s the best way to experience the culture. Other people who may be transplant in those cultures. So when you go to other cities, it’s nice to just engulf yourself in all of those flavors as a chef and just kind of see what people are doing in the culinary world.

You recently got back from the Philippines and Japan, which are two of the biggest culinary worlds out there. What were some of the highlights? How did you even begin to get into what you wanted to do and where you wanted to eat in the city? Oh, my gosh. I mean, it’s really overwhelming when you’re going into a city, especially so compact like Manila and Japan. One of the first things I really do is see what people are talking about. Michelin guides are a good way to start what local bloggers are saying and then kind of go through a black hole of seeing where people are eating and what people are talking about and what’s exciting.

In Japan, th