Port Of Entry Podcast: Valle De Guadalupe Chef Turns Pandemic Problems Into Solutions

Bonus: ‘Like Someone Turned Off A Faucet’

In a new “Port of Entry” bonus episode: One Baja chef’s pandemic story and the camera crew who followed it. Valle de Guadalupe has exploded over the last decade. It’s become a hugely popular wine and food destination for people from around the world. But when the pandemic hit, the flood of tourism to the culinary region just completely stopped at first, then slowly turned into a trickle. A new one-hour special on KPBS called “Ingrediente” tells the story of how Valle de Guadalupe chef Drew Deckman and his restaurant crew learned how to survive and even thrive through the ongoing pandemic. We talk to Deckman and the show’s producer, Jill Bond.

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Valle de Guadalupe has exploded over the last decade. It’s become a hugely popular wine and food destination for people from around the world.

But when the pandemic hit, the flood of tourist traffic to the region stopped.

“It was like somebody turned off a faucet,” said Drew Deckman, the famed chef behind the restaurant Deckman’s en el Mogor.

A new one-hour special on KPBS TV tells the story of how Deckman and his restaurant crew learned how to survive the pandemic and use the down-time during restaurant shutdowns to reflect and make some changes.

“It was really an unbelievable gift from the universe to be able to reset,” Deckman said. “We've definitely become more efficient. And really we took the time to look and analyze everything we were doing…. And, and instead of maintaining, we just recreated. It's really positive.”

We talk to Deckman and the show’s producer Jill Bond in a new bonus episode of KPBS’s border podcast, “Port of Entry.”

Port of Entry