Tradition at the Table: How Food, Travel, and Shared Experiences Shape Family Legacy
Nearly a decade ago, my wife Angela and I traveled to Italy for our honeymoon. Despite working with a conventional travel agent, we found ourselves piecing together our itinerary at the last minute around two shared passions, food and wine. What began as a challenge quickly became a discovery that changed how we travel.
We weren’t interested in the popular spots. We sought restaurants and vineyards steeped in history and flavor, along with chefs, winegrowers, winemakers, and artisans who had stayed outside the mass media and influencer circuits that often shape tourist itineraries. They were built on tradition, not trends.
From that point forward, every trip we’ve taken has centered on culinary exploration. Over time, a simple belief became a guiding ethos:
The best way to immerse yourself in a culture is through its cuisine.
When you learn the stories behind a place, understand the origins of its flavors, and see how they come together on a plate, you gain insight no guidebook or television show can offer.
The idea resonated with me because I’ve spent my career as a founder, investor, and advisor across education and sports, building and advising businesses where the smallest details matter and where judgment, relationships, and execution determine the outcome. Those same instincts carry naturally into designing hospitality experiences shaped by careful curation, strong relationships, and a genuine sense of place.
Food First Travel® grew out of that philosophy. Angela and I co-founded the company to create the kind of culinary journeys we had hoped to find on that first trip.
Today, we design small-group culinary journeys through leading food and wine regions for travelers who value depth, access, and ease. Each itinerary is built around defining restaurants, vineyards, producers, and cooking schools, all chosen to deepen understanding of regional cuisine and culture.
If you’re the kind of traveler who plans days around what you’ll eat and drink, and believes the soul of a destination is found at the table, you’ll feel right at home.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Welcome to the Tamarind Learning podcast. I am your host, Dr. Kirby Rosplock, and we're talking about a subject near and dear to my heart and most people's Stomach. So we're talking food today with Brian Burke, and he has an extraordinary story that's super fun and fascinating, um, but it's also something really personal. So Brian, why don't you tell us more about Food First Travel, how you came up with this idea, and why food is an important part of our rituals and our culture?
Brian Burke
I would love to. So thank you for having me on. I've been looking forward to this. So Food First Travel really came out of something that my wife and I were looking for when we decided that we wanted to begin traveling in our late 20s. The first trip we were actually looking to take was our honeymoon, and we really were looking to travel through this food and wine lens. And we quickly realized that going through the typical travel agency route that they made, had expertise in travel, but the depth that we wanted to go on the culinary side was something that we couldn't find. So like most entrepreneurs, we saw a gap and we ended up filling it. So today we design culinary journeys for travelers who care about exceptional dining, access, a stronger connection to place. And to your, the latter part of your question, I think that that's something super important in a day of today where, you know, everything can be generated by an app and you can get recommendations on where to go and who to see and things like that. But we very much are old school in what we're doing and believe that relationships are still the foundation to society.
Brian Burke
And we are going all in on in-person and experiential traveling. But yeah, why food? It's always honestly been the most honest part of travel for us. And it's always been something that our families have— we didn't travel growing up often, especially to Europe, but it was always the center of every day. You know, I grew up spoiled in an Italian-American household that my mom cooked dinner every night. My grandmother did the same thing. My wife Angela also grew up in a household where, you know, food was cooked every night. So it's just something we kind of always grew up around and our most sacred, you know, traditions and, you know, things that we hold near and dear to our hearts and, you know, our family for people who are still with us or not with us anymore, all goes back to food. So for us, it was a very easy transition into doing this as a career, but that's not where my career started. So definitely, something that grew out of a passion and being in prior businesses beforehand and just something that we didn't fall or stumble upon. But if you were to ask me 10 years ago if we would've had a culinary travel company, my answer probably would've been no.
Brian Burke
But it would've been really cool to be able to do that. Yeah.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
And I mean, speaking of, I know you have quite an eclectic background. So do you wanna talk more about how you went from sports and tech and education and investing and— Just also how that— those sort of probably formative pieces of your career also had notes of like, yeah, food was pretty important, you know, in all those other ventures. But tell us more about your background because it's fascinating.
Brian Burke
Yeah, I mean, hindsight is 20/20, right? So I'm able to now look back and see the through line in anything that I've ever done, even from being 13 years old and canning at a country club. You know, my parents didn't play golf. I didn't play golf. I still don't play golf. I always looked at the, you know, caddying on a golf course as I was going to get paid if I was going to walk the golf course. But it was honestly the most informative and impactful job that I've ever had because it got to show me, you know, really what entrepreneurship was like. Although I grew up and my father was an entrepreneur as well, but this was kind of my first taste of it for myself. At a young age. And I loved the fact that depending on the experience that I was able to deliver for the golfer was the more money I made. And I found that super fascinating. So it started there. And then, yeah, like you had mentioned, I had started my first company out of school in higher education and, and fundraising. And again, very much experiential and hospitality.
Brian Burke
Maybe not the first thing that you think about when you think about, you know, university fundraising, but it very much started there because it was special events and taking donors and alumni out to events and having those conversations of why someone should donate to a university. A lot of that happened over a table. Yeah. And then, yeah, you keep expanding that beyond into some of the investments that we've made and, you know, into sports and entertainment and again, always around restaurants, food, hospitality. But I actually didn't even realize any of that until we decided to start, you know, our, our new company that we started about 2 years ago. So I think hospitality and service, I will tell you that as much as I love, you know, investing in other companies and helping founders grow, I very much am service-oriented. If you put a product in front of me, I have a harder time even knowing where I can bring my value. Maybe it's a, a check as an investor, but as far as an advisor of how to grow that business, I've always been service-oriented and I always connect that back to my very first job that I ever had.
Brian Burke
So if you were to ask the people who are closest to me what they know me best for, it would be food and wine. I mean, we're the people who host every holiday and love to cook and, I'm obsessive about wine and things like that. So very natural transition into having a business beforehand and now doing something that I actually really love to do. To people maybe a little bit, you know, one degree outside of my network, going from, you know, edtech to alumni relations to sports entertainment might not be the linear path that is as clear, but to people around us, it was everything I really learned throughout my career. And just applying it in the space in which, you know, we want this to be our legacy company. This is something that's really important to us and we want this to be at the, you know, when it's all over that this is the company we're known for. Yeah.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Well, and I love that you see the through line. I see the through line. And yes, I love food. I admit it.
Brian Burke
But who doesn't?
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Who doesn't, right? Even if you're like on a GLP-1, I know people who are on GLP-1 still love food too. And I love that you think about what you're building now as your legacy venture. Tell us more, like, why did that really resonate with you and your wife?
Brian Burke
I think going back to, again, how we grew up, and it was such a central part of every, you know, of our lives— every holiday, every birthday, uh, every Sunday, just gathering around a table. I still to this day believe it's the most important thing that a family can do is gather around a table, whether it's you know, one day a week or every night during the week, if you're blessed enough to be able to have that opportunity. I just think it's, it's so important from that perspective. It's just, that's the reason why we, we want to do what we do. And we're never going to be those parents. We have two little girls, a 5.5-year-old and a 2-year-old. We're never going to be those parents who force a G2 business onto our kids, but it is something that I've always thought about, that if I continued on my trajectory prior to this company, it would have never been something that my kids would have been able to take over. And not just my kids, it wouldn't have been something that anyone would have been able to step in and do because it— if you really boiled it down, I was a, you know, well-paid consultant for a long time.
Brian Burke
This is a lot cooler where, you know, when we do travel, if I'm away from home, my girls know where I am. They're, you know, interested in what we're doing. My 5-year-old has a little desk in my home office that, you know, has Future CEO written on it. And she loves talking to the chefs and hearing about what we're doing. And, you know, if we're at a special event like we do often in New York and, you know, we're saying goodnight, we walk away from the table to say goodnight, her first question is, is like, how was the raviolo tonight, right? Like, she loves what we do. And I think it's really special to be be able to explain and share what you do for a living with your children. And if one day they wanna take it over, great. If not, I'm sure we'll have another plan by then. But that is why when I say our legacy company, I think it's so valuable. And I think just society as a whole, it's something that is really fading. And it almost seems like a 1940s, 1950s type of concept of gathering around a table I wanna make sure that it's here 100 years from now.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
And you know what? If you as parents don't emphasize the importance of rituals, like sitting down together, your kids don't think it matters either. So I actually, I think it's a lot of times the values that we are instilling and for generations, right? Yeah. The table was the time to convene to, I know for my family, like a lot of family business discussions was always had growing up and hearing what was going on. And I, a lot of families that I work with, it's like the one kind of safe zone. Yeah, they might bicker and like disagree, but it's not the board table, it's the kitchen or dining room table. And that's like a huge point I wanna make that I think the kitchen or the dining room table is a place of like nourishment. Like we're eating together, we're feeling good, we're filling our bellies, we're drinking a good glass of wine or having a beverage. Tell us more about just the places that you go and like how you get inspired by this food ritual that you're creating.
Brian Burke
Yeah, so we focus a lot of our work in Europe. We go where, you know, the best culinary experiences are. Very often than not, flows where the wine flows. So in France, we're going to places like Champagne, Burgundy, Northern Rhône, Bordeaux. In Italy, it's Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Piedmont. Spain, it's Basque Country, Catalonia, Rioja. So everywhere that is very, very unique and regions that are very unique to that culture that are there. So that's where we tend to go. We do a lot of work in the United States as well because I think as Americans, we think that we have to leave the United States to have an amazing experience. The truth is some of the best food that's even native to, let's say, Italian food, you can have some of the best Italian food in the world in Los Angeles and New York, right? You don't have to get on a plane and go there. But when you do go there, the reason it's so important is and this is very different, I feel like, when you do travel. One, I think travel opens up your eyes to, you know, a literal different place of the world.
Brian Burke
Yeah. But by doing that, especially in Europe, you're— you slow down. And it's not just because you're taking a vacation, because you can take a vacation here and not slow down, but you can't help but to slow down if you move to, you know, go somewhere for Europe for a longer period of time. And the stories of those chefs and those restaurants and the history for someone who's never been to Europe, it's mind-boggling that a restaurant there can be older than the, you know, how old the United States is. Like, it's— and by 10x. Like, it's just, it's very— sometimes it's the space in which a restaurant is held is, you know, a couple thousand years old. So to me, it's a good, um, it grounds you. Uh, and I think it's really important that you know, especially as things become more digitized and AI-like. I think those things that really matter, the tradition, heritage, immersive experiences, you're already seeing an increase in all of those everywhere. But I think it's super important. And, you know, as Americans, a lot of us can draw our heritage back to Europe as well. So from that perspective, it's really cool to see, you know, my family could have been doing this, you know, 200 years ago.
Brian Burke
Yeah. And a lot of the best experiences are traditions that build from there. So for us, it's the story behind the food that matters the most.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
You talk about food as cultural intelligence. I love this idea. And tell us more because I can imagine when you're popping into a restaurant that's been there for a couple hundred years, right? That family culture is, pouring through generation to generation, but the same recipe might be passed on for decades and how that also informs the experience that your clients are having.
Brian Burke
Yeah, I think food is the number one lens into how a family, town, city, region, country lives, right? I think food teaches family, what a place actually values and wants to preserve. So to your point, a recipe might be passed down from generation to generation, and maybe every time it's passed down, something minor is tweaked. But when you look back on, you know, history of where that recipe came from, I think it's really important. And I think there's a really good balance of balancing tradition and then putting your own spin on it. We do that all the time with the holidays in which we host. But, you know, you can, you can learn a lot from architecture and museums, but food puts you inside your daily life. Like, I just hung up a call with a client this morning of, and we were just talking about, and even you said it on this call, everybody needs to eat. Like, it's, it's a basic function of human life. So why would we not do it well?
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Yeah.
Brian Burke
So to me, it always just is a place to gather around and to celebrate the best moments in life. But it doesn't need to be a holiday to have a really great experience if there's a lot of thought into the table that you're curating for even just having family or friends over. But I think it's the best lens into how a place lives and what they care most about. You'll find that on the table or during your conversation across the table.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Yeah. And I think like intentionality, because right now we're a grab and go, at least in American culture, grab and go kind of culture, instant gratification. Does it taste good? Is it in a pretty package? And there's something to be said about creating the space and having a pause, put down like the phone, put down the technology. See each other, be in each other's presence, share that like deliciousness or that experience. And I don't know, I think we're rushing through so much of our food rituals, not actually recognizing what quality food is, what the history is. And I do think that what you're shaping are durable learning experiences that as families, they'll always remember what it tasted like that night in Tuscany at that small little, you know, that only had 5 tables, right?
Brian Burke
Yeah. Yeah. We actually hear that. One of the things I hear often, just, I mean, even prior to this business is when someone tells me that was the best cup of coffee I've ever had, like I ever had, or, you know, fill in whatever they're eating or drinking. And I, I probably am one of the only people who then take it a step further and say, why? Because I'm trying to peel back why that experience is. Because the reality of you drinking that best cup of coffee is pretty unlikely. Probably was very good coffee if it stood out. But the best and the real reason behind that is the atmosphere around it, where you were, the people you were sharing it with, the memory and experience that you're able to pull on. Right? We're all going to look back when we're 80, 90, 100 years old, and we're always going to look back on the memories of the experiences we had, not the product that we bought in 2026. It's just not going to matter. And I think realizing that at an early age is such an advantage. And that's what we're able to deliver, you know, every day.
Brian Burke
And it's fun being in those experiences.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Yeah. I love knowing the rituals that you're creating. And I know one thing you shared with me earlier was how important the word tradition is and Maybe to some it's like, "Oh, that's dated. That's old news." But we see all these things that were old coming back and why a tradition like sitting around the table, eating really good food, being intentional, what is that value that families are sharing? And that doesn't have to be, it can be culture to culture, but it's that space. And I'd love to hear more from you about that.
Brian Burke
Yeah, I mean, like you had mentioned, it is my absolute favorite word in the English language, probably in any language. But to me, tradition does not necessarily have that connotation of— it's not just nostalgia. I think the most important part about tradition is continuity. And to me, that's something that's very important. Tradition is how families can take those values that very much can be taught around a table without needing to announce them or celebrate them. It's just, it's how something, a memory, a piece of your culture, a piece of your family, it's how you get that carried forward. And you know, when we work on our side of the world, you know, what we work with our clients, I mean, wealth can open a lot of those doors, but tradition is often what holds those people together once they, you know, sit down at that table and walk through them where Especially from a wealth perspective, there's a lot of— someone had to change that family tree. Someone had to make that money at some point. And I think your traditions are able to pull you back into a time where maybe your family tree wasn't as blessed and as fortunate as what you've been able to experience today.
Brian Burke
So, to me, tradition isn't just getting together on Christmas. It's why you're getting together on Christmas. It's why you're doing— in our family, it's why am I cooking the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve, right? As, you know, an Italian American family, it's because 90+ years ago my great-grandmother started it. And I— it's only been passed down from 4 different people. I'm the 4th person from there that it's been. So to me, it's— I'm cooking what my great-grandmother did 100 years ago versus, And to me, there's just so much value there. And do my little kids know that right now? No. They know that we get together on Christmas Eve, but I'm teaching them the traditions and values that we hold close to us. And when they come of age, they'll realize what it is. And they'll probably be just like me. They'll be a kid that realizes as an adult, wow, that was so special back then when it was just the way we grew up. And I didn't take enough time to appreciate it then. But I also think that's part of the beauty of tradition. It's you get to a point in life, you could be in your early 20s, you can be in your 60s when you actually finally appreciate it.
Brian Burke
But yes, definitely my most— my favorite word. Yeah.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Yeah. Well, I love the idea of how tradition doesn't have to feel like outmodish, old, stale, and how you also talk about bringing your lens to it, adding to it, building on it. And I think about the fact that the table and food and community is really where we build the most trust. So we get to know each other. And I mean, I'm sure in your prior lives of doing business, like it wasn't when you were inking the deal at the boardroom table, it was all those trust building, conversation building, knowing who's across the table from you. Like literally breaking bread, right?
Brian Burke
Yeah.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
And that's—
Brian Burke
yeah, it's— I think it's even that, that phrase that you just said, breaking bread, that people just like throw around so like casually, that has a very, very old origin of where that came from. And it's super important to do that. I've had the best personal and professional conversations I've ever had in my life have all happened over a long meal. Just full stop. It's just always been that way. Um, so I couldn't agree with you more. Yeah, it doesn't happen in the, in the boardroom. Um, definitely happens over a table. Yeah.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
And from what you've observed, what do families miss when they try to design a meaningful travel experience? Like, I know so many families who don't even really look at the brochure. They're just like, yep, I trust so-and-so, blah, blah, blah. And then, then they're disappointed. What do you think is oftentimes missed in that pre-phase?
Brian Burke
I think that they overdesign it, um, whether it's them or the agent in which they're working with. Um, I think they overdesign it and they make it a checklist of things that they think that they need to see. Um, and they really undervalue of like the participation that you can have with the immersive experiences that you design. So for example, especially today, I'm guilty of this as well. On my honeymoon, I had, I bought a professional camera. I traveled with it. I took thousands of photos over 18 days in Italy. I never, even with this business, go back and look at those photos. Number one, I'm not a professional photographer, right? So now in my world, it's like, I can't even use that. But I was seeing Italy on our honeymoon through a camera lens, right? And that you see it all the, you know, in big sports moments, everyone has their iPhone out and up and like, no one's living in the moment anymore. So I think right there, it's, you know, Instagram has kind of changed the game for travel or restaurants in a good way. But a lot of people are just traveling to check off a box, just take a selfie and say, hey, they were here, versus really the way like we travel it's very, I keep using the word immersive.
Brian Burke
It's, you're feeling like you're part of that culture when you're visiting there because you are. And whether or not, you know, so to me it's the meaning rarely comes down from like the most orchestrated part of the trip. It usually comes from the moment that people are drawn into something a lot more meaningful, whether it's, you know, a meal or sitting quietly in a chapel in a church, there's something that sticks with them that goes beyond what just the itinerary itinerary was. Of course you need structure. Of course you need sequencing, pacing. All those things matter. But when someone sets out to either do it on their own or, you know, use a service, I think that's the biggest thing that they do. They look at it and go, well, there's only 1 or 2 things here, like, on the itinerary today. I want to do 4. Then you're not really experiencing any of them, and you're also discounting the fact that where you are is already an experience versus it having to be something that is a checkbox on an itinerary.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
I love that. You also talk about like participatory moments, like things that are shared and it may not be seeing the Eiffel Tower. It might actually the stop you made at the cafe to have like this one really famous kind of flaky, flaky, buttery croissant, right? Talk to us about why those moments may be just as important as like you said, the big check the box. Moments?
Brian Burke
I think whether it's your kitchen at home or when you're traveling, I think people remember something that they helped create. I think that participation, like you had just said, leaves a much stronger imprint on you personally, on your family, than just observation, right? When your hands are involved, when you're making pasta from scratch, when you're getting up early to go see how you know, goats are milked in Greece and then it goes from the cheese and you go through the whole process. It's a shared task that can bind you with whoever is there. There are people that not only that were producers that we still now work with, you know, years later that we did, you know, but there's also people that we experienced that trip with who we didn't know beforehand that we still keep in touch with today because of the shared experience that we had. So if that matters with complete strangers that you've never met before, think about what that can mean if you actually go through it with your family. But I think people remember much more of what they— if they helped make it, especially in our world, they remember it a lot more than just, you know, dish 10 on a tasting menu at a Michelin-starred restaurant.
Brian Burke
Although those are great experiences too. I don't want to discount that. Yeah, it's a different experience.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Yeah, well, I'll share one story. Last summer we were in Africa and it happened to hit over the time that my oldest daughter had her birthday. So we had apprised this, you know, all these different camps we were going to that she had this birthday, but we're in different like parts of Africa in different cultures every camp. So every camp at one of the meals there would be a birthday celebration. So she had like multiple birthday celebrations in a 3-week time frame. But the coolest part about it was that every camp that we went into, the singing, the dancing, the festivities around it was completely different. And of course, the like, whatever they— I mean, sometimes they were eating, we're like out in the bush, so there's not like, yeah, you know, It's— it was super gourmet for what normal— we were glamping, I'm not gonna lie.
Brian Burke
But there's no other way to camp. You'll never catch— I'm not even a glamper, to be honest. But yeah, but I had to go to Africa. I have to—
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
yeah, I mean, to see the Great Migration and wake up with, you know, wildebeest in your, like, front of your tent and then have a birthday celebration— she will remember that birthday forever because it was like Groundhog Day over and over again. And it was so much fun to wake up every day and like basically celebrating for 3 weeks. We thought maybe she'd get one birthday like around the day. And then everyone was like, no, no, we'd like almost have to outdo. So it was, it was really special. And I can imagine, you know, really when you want to memorialize like an important marriage, like you getting married or an anniversary. Tell us more about where you see the marriage between food culture and like those celebrations.
Brian Burke
Yeah, uh, first of all, my bucket list item is actually a safari in Africa. I have never done that yet, um, so that is definitely on my list. I'm gonna wait for my girls to be a little bit older because I want them to have that same experience, not just my wife and I enjoying it. So that, but that is definitely number one on my bucket list. To your question, I think it comes around memory is obviously, you know, the cliché word that pops up into my head, but I think it gives families a reference point long after they come back on their trip. So a birthday is great, but if I really asked you, what did you do on your 31st birthday? You might not be able to answer that really quickly, but if you were in Africa, having that experience, you'd know that in a heartbeat that that was attached to Thirty-One. So I think celebratory moments are almost best ex— through experiences. They will always be remembered that way. I say something often that a meal can become a story, a recipe can become a ritual. And that really is just shorthand for the family values that you're able to create.
Brian Burke
And I think when you create your own traditions, which is also super important, you shouldn't just rely on your history. You should make your own traditions that may or may not be continued or passed on beyond you. But that's how you do it. I do something that when I travel, I keep a journal. And one day in my head, I think, if I'm keeping all my itineraries and all the places and experience I had, how cool would it be if my grandchildren were able to do the same thing 50, 60 years from now? So I'm probably more wired to that experience and memory and, you know, aware of it than most people just 'cause I'm obsessive about it. But I think that that is a really cool way to, you know, celebrate your milestones in life.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
I love it. And I also know we're fighting this love-hate relationship with AI and technology where it's so conveniencing to make things easier and faster and AI makes a smarter email than I can write, whatever your AI weakness is. At the same time, like, AI can't eat your dinner, or like, AI can't really participate at the dinner table. So I also would love your take on why that human experience actually will never be replaced by AI.
Brian Burke
I think at the very foundation that in-person experiences are forcing a level of literal presence and attention that AI and the digital world is constantly trying to pull us away from. So I think families are probably better when they travel and they slow down to maybe not be consuming email and social media and things like that. But in your everyday life, I think it's really important to still have those, you know, unplugged moments. I mean, if you have your immediate family around you at a dinner table on a Sunday, what do you need your phone for? I mean, right, there's always the safety thing. And if your children aren't with you, and I get that, but I think as much as you can unplug, the better. And we are clearly going all in on, you know, in-person. Experiences. Doesn't mean that we don't use AI. There's a lot of, you know, mundane tasks that I've now automated. I tried to fight the trend and I said, I'm going to be left behind if I don't do it. So I've gone pretty deep into it now. I do love AI and it has a lot of really good benefits to it.
Brian Burke
But I'm not one of these people who thinks it's going to take away jobs from the sense of it's going to create new ones. And I think people still, from our world, I think the thing that is going to continue to be built beyond just the AI movement is we say the word discernment all the time, or quite literally taste in our world. That is never going to be replaced by AI or robotics or anything like that. AI can't live your life. It could make your life better. It can make businesses better. But I think that this idea that, you know, the robots are going to take over the world and We're no longer gonna leave our homes. I'm not buying that.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
I'm not buying that either. I, yeah, I like to travel too much and I like to experience, and that artificial piece of the world doesn't replace, I think, the real. Tell me a story or, um, something that really inspired you by what you saw with a client and, and why it makes you double down on this. This whole business venture?
Brian Burke
So one of our newer clients had came to us and asked us to plan a trip for him and his family very recently in Spain. And this is someone who has traveled the world for both business and leisure and has eaten at the best restaurants in the world and, you know, had any experience that you can really think of. So when he came to us, it was really about, you know, maintaining that, you know, expectation and level. But taking it a step further, right? Not just eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant, but, you know, why are you there? Or having a unique experience just to them. So a quote that we got on a recap call last week was— he's not a super emotional guy, you know, so it meant a lot more, I think, from him— was that it was a life-changing experience and it brought 7 adults to tears at the table. And that's not to say that every experience has to have that, but it was the thoughtfulness behind it, the connection that they felt. They were having actually a celebratory moment from the sale of a business, and they were celebrating with their family and friends, and they had everyone around the table in literally the ranked number one ranked restaurant in the world.
Brian Burke
Uh, and they were able to connect with the chefs and have an experience that that, you know, you can't just walk off the street and walk into. So that's an experience that is cemented in their minds for the rest of their life. And, you know, there's no way that you can create and replace that, right? That's— there's only one way to do that, and it's to live it. Um, so we try to deliver those experiences as often as we can.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
That's such a great example of just the high touch, the tailored moment, the pinnacle of like a family founder achievement, you know, It's— that's a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing. I know I could talk to you about food and traditions and gathering all day long, but sadly I'm— I've gotten to our lightning round. So I'm going to ask you a whole series of questions. Give me a short answer. We'll go through one by one. I'm so grateful that you joined us today on the Tamarind Learning podcast. Super fascinating. Um, I want to come be a client of yours. So, okay, first question. Okay. One family tradition worth reviving?
Brian Burke
Weekly shared meals. I think whether it's especially on Sundays or Saturdays, depending on, you know, your religion. But, you know, we grew up Catholic. We're a Catholic family. Sundays are really important to us. It's not just the end of the workweek. It's a time that we gather around our table and it's never— we're never ordering food out. We're always cooking something. So I would say weekly shared meals and touchpoints with your loved ones is the most important thing that you can do.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
I love it. Okay. One meal that instantly creates connection.
Brian Burke
I think going back to what we said earlier about anything that you can cook together and participate in, very specifically when we do pasta here on Sundays, we're cooking pasta from scratch. Everyone from a 2-year-old to, you know, an 80-year-old great aunt can all participate in what you're doing., and some pieces, you know, it's fun when you get a piece that the 2-year-old made. Um, so I think pasta in general, uh, is something really a, a great tradition to build around.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Awesome. And what's one place every family should experience more slowly?
Brian Burke
So right over my shoulder, that black sign right there actually says Live Slow, which is something that my Lake father-in-law always said. So I'm thinking about this question probably more uniquely is your own local region to where you are, right? We always get in our car and we're driving to school, we're driving to church, we're driving to work, and we kind of just don't look at where you are has its own, you know, local flair to it or traditions. And, you know, where we live here in Connecticut, there's so many farms and vineyards and just right here, you can have a very what you consider rustic European experience, right? Maybe it's not as great, but you can still have that locally. So I would, I would slow down and look locally. I think that's most important.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Yeah. And one thing families should do more often around a table.
Brian Burke
Definitely no devices, but that's an obvious answer for you. Probably ask better questions. That's something that we're really, you know, keen on with a 5-year-old, especially at the table, who loves to talk and doesn't have a phone, that she doesn't even know that world yet. So I would say ask questions. More often than not, the first answer that you get is going to be informational. But if you peel that back a little bit more, it actually shows, you know, what that person's thinking about and reveals a little bit more about how their day or week has been going. So I would say that, ask more questions and definitely participate in doing it. Even if you don't consider yourself a cook prior to sitting down at the table, get involved because it's fun. And people who really love to cook like, you know, us, I don't care if you're not a cook or it might not be the best technique. To me, it's just the experience of doing it together. That's the most important thing.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
One word you hope listeners leave this conversation with? Tradition. Tradition. I love it. I love it, Brian. This was such a great conversation. I really appreciate just the thoughtfulness, the approach, your connection to food and weaving it with travel and having deeper experiences, how that translates into new traditions, cultural intelligence. Family memories, all of the above. And you've opened my eyes to say, well, what can I bring to my family? What can I do a little bit differently? I know you build these unbelievable curated specialized tours and experiences. Tell us more where people can find about Food First Travel.
Brian Burke
Sure. Well, thank you very much for your kind words. I love that I was able to do a little bit of that for you today. Our website will be probably the best thing that will always be able to find us. So www.foodfirsttravel.com. We have a very literal name for a reason. And I'm pretty active on LinkedIn as well. So I would love to hear from some of your listeners and hear about what they resonated the most with what we shared today.
Dr. Kirby Rosplock
Awesome. Well, thank you so much again for joining the Tamarind Learning podcast. If you enjoyed this, you're listening today, Please subscribe. You can find us on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and share it with your friends and family because we need more folks to know about Brian Burke and food travel experiences and building those traditions in our family. So thanks again, Brian.
Brian Burke
Thank you, Kirby. This was fun.
