The Podcast for cooking and eating Pokemon.
And Pokemon Crossroads cordially invite you to an interview with the world renowned ICY Chefs from hit podcast, I Chews You.
This interview will feature the words of Jeremy Zeilik (He is the host of the show), Ben Montoya (the friend of the show), Ian Davis (the Walter Cronkite of the show), and Evan Aubrey (here to provide some answers). Together they make up the hosts of I Chews You. A podcast for cooking and eating Pokemon.
This group of friends have been hosting I Chews You for two years now. Together they have been serving up Pokemon as a buffet for the ears every Tuesday. Along the way they have gather fans like a chef grabbing groceries at a local supermarket. Though, with these fans they too have joined in on cooking and eating Pokemon. Overall, they are creating a weekly show that is not only serving Pokemon but also serving laughs from a steaming hot platter.
We here at Pokemon Crossroads have gotten together with the ICY Chefs for their second anniversary. Together they have gathered their responses and ready to give you a full course interview that we hope will not only will leave you satisfied but bring a smile to your face.
So please, sit back and crack open a La Croix as we present you an interview that will feed your eyes.
Interview Time
Pokemon Crossroads: Let’s address the Donphan in the room. How and who came up with the idea of making a podcast about “Cooking and eating Pokemon?” After, it isn’t the first thing many people think about when they start a Pokemon podcast.
 Jeremy: In 2016, not long after Pokemon GO came out. Ben and I were hanging out at a restaurant talking about the fact that there was a sudden resurgence in interest in the franchise off of the new mobile game. It’s the kind of thing where in town you would see signs on diners and shops noting that they were stops in the app. So we were eating, talking Mon, and well the rest is history. |
 Ben: If I remember right, Jeremy, Ian and I (plus friend of the show Michael Woods I think) were at a Vietnamese restaurant in Santa Fe and somehow started talking about if people in the Pokemon world ate Pokemon. We started joking about what Pokemon would make for good pho or something like that, just sort of the usual fare for our conversations. There wasn’t a lot of other people in the restaurant and this older couple next to us came up as they were leaving and said that we reminded them of The Big Band Theory. And well the rest is history. Bazoinga |
PXR: Bazoinga! Alright, next. How about we talk about the name. I can take guesses on why “I Chews You” as the podcast name but…Why. And why not something like “Gotta Eat’em All”?
| I Chews You: I think we knew early on that we wanted to make a podcast at some point: we’d grown up listening to shows like Game Scoop and Beyond and the conversations we’d have just hanging out the four of us always were naturally outlandish and hilarious. Pretty sure Ian might’ve come up with the title “I Chews You” first and it was one of those moments where everything came together. In all honesty, Gotta Eat’em All would probably be a more SEO friendly name. It’s a pun that is so subtle when speaking, but plain on paper that it works on multiple levels. We’re a sucker for puns and this one just happened to stick with us! |
art by Jillian Roed on Twitter
PXR: Well, I sure do love a good pun or five.
How did the group, the ICY Chefs composed of Ian, Ben, Evan, and Jeremy, first met?
| I Chews You: Ben, Evan, and Jeremy have known each other for a long, long time. Elementary school in fact. Through our time growing up together we would always poke around with ideas about making things. Evan’s dad was a filmmaker and we would sometimes film little videos here and there. Ian joined up with us in high school and we were fast friends in a small city so we formed a really close bond. We were all doing various music and film projects together through school and with other friends. Jeremy would host weekly movie nights with our friend group which was pretty huge in our friendship. After people started splitting off across the country for college, we’d keep in touch for holidays and whatnot. So when we decided to start the podcast, it sort of started as a way to stay in touch after college and beyond while making something creative together. |
PXR: One of the things that makes your podcast so unique and maybe what I love is your musical parodies. After all, you have made parodies of three Pokemon opening theme songs. One of them including a song that I dislike but now it is one of my favorites (your parody).
What is the process of making one of these songs? How does it goes from idea to writing and finally getting hands on instruments and mouths to mics?
 Ian: Ben and I are kind of the Tenacious D of the group. Our process has changed a bit over time, but in general I think it starts with the lyrics. We’ll listen to the theme songs for that generation of Pokemon and we’ll try to choose one that we think has the most potential for some funny lyrics. I’ll usually come up with a draft of the lyrics, and Ben is the mastermind behind the music. He’s fantastic in Logic and really knows how to put together the track. We’ll collaborate on what style/vibe we’re going for, and then once the bones of the track are ready, we work together to flesh it out with vocals and replacing the MIDI instruments with real instruments. And somehow it all comes together! |
PXR: So…One question that I keep asking myself. What happen to the I Chews You: Johto theme song?
You have the original Pokemon opening Parody Song for Season One. Then Season Three had a new ending with the ICY Parody for “I’m Unbeatable”. Though nothing for Season Two and Johto. Now, I swear there was one made for Johto. So what happen?
| Ian: Years before we recorded a pilot episode that was never published, Ben and I put together what would become the season one music as a kind of joke to show Jeremy. We were hanging at Ben’s brother’s house, and he had a little room with a drum set and various instruments. If I recall, going from writing the lyrics to mixing and finalizing the track took about 45 minutes total. At the time, we had no idea the show would really happen or that it would be going on for over a hundred episodes. It’s probably my favorite Pokemon theme song, so it just seemed natural to make a spoof on it. We got about 20 episodes in and thought, “Whoops… Let’s just spoof the OG theme I guess”. A little out of order, but you can expect a remastered version of the Johto music with the 30th anniversary re-release of the show. |
PXR: For Christmas, you guys release a song called “I Chews Yule”. Any chance that your other parody openings be coming to iTunes?
| Ben: Yes, we’re very much hoping to release all the theme songs and upcoming ones on streaming services very soon. It may even be coming out around the same time as a certain triple digit episode coming soon… |
PXR: As a group, you are all pretty funny but do plenty of research. Especially on other food related personalities. If you could invite any food personalities on to the show to “Cook and eat Pokemon”, then who would you invite?
| Jeremy: Personally I still have a fondness for Alton Brown and his unique approach to kitchen questions. |
| Ben: I think Guy Fieri would be like the pinnacle of success for this show. Like if we could get him on the show and get him on the record for talking about which Pokemon would be permanent residents of Flavortown, we’d have to end the show. That would be like the series finale! |
 Evan: I want to see Frankie Celenza from Tastemade’s Struggle Meals on the show. He’s a new player in the celeb chef world and seems like a great personality to have on the show. |
PXR: With almost a hundred episodes coming. Your show has produce almost four hundred recipes on cooking at eating Pokemon. That isn’t counting fan submitted ones. What has been a favorite recipe that you guys have come up with?
| Jeremy: Arcanine Hibachi, Sandshrew Fajitas are probably still some of the tops for me. |
| Ben: I think my “Ben Montoya’s Cheap Mareep Peeps for Freaks” recipe will follow me till my dying breath. A recipe that pushed boundaries, dared to stand for something my colleagues thought impossible, unthinkable. |
| Evan: Any time Ian takes us on a culinary journey I’m right there with him. There are so many layers to his recipes and it all falls into place in just the right way. |
PXR: What are some of your favorite fan submitted recipes?
| Jeremy: Not a recipe, but the funniest email to me is one that suggest a Twelve Days of Christmas challenge that includes things like “eat a rock.” |
| Ben: This show attracts a very specific kind of humor and the people who write in each week almost always come with amazing recipes! But my favorites are the recipes that sorta verge on the edge of fan fic, Pokemaniac Chris is someone in particular that will write a recipe but include all these other details that really create a sense of worldbuilding. I remember being really impressed with this Solrock recipe because it was a beast of a Mon to cook and he pulled it off with ease. |
PXR: The Pokemon Podcast community is pretty vast and wide. Plenty of personalities out there. Have you consider reaching out to them to collaborate? Any that you would love to cook with?
| Ben: I think it’s fair to say that before starting this podcast neither of us really knew or listened to any podcasts about Pokemon. So in that sense it’s been really fun over the last two years to learn about different shows and really feel embraced by the community. We’ve only recently started doing more collaborative projects and testing out a guest judge format for the show but I think we’d all love to at some point work with our friends at EXP Share and Pokescience. But the community is so varied with different styles that we’d really be down to collab with anyone, as long as they’re not squeemish about cooking Pokemon of course! |
PXR: What are your opinion of the podcast’s first ten episodes? Do you like them? Anything you wish could have come out differently?
| I Chews You: The first 10 episodes are kinda rough to listen to after doing the show for two years but the things that make the show special are still there. Since episode 3 we’ve declared that Diglett is a potato and we’ll be damned if we don’t make at least one reference to that per episode. So the first 10 are definitely crucial to the full experience, though they’re a little bare bones in terms of what the show has become. |
PXR: What is your favorite thing about the Pokemon fandom?
| Jeremy: That people will make Pokemon recipes independent of each other. |
| Ben: I think the thing that’s so great about Pokemon is that it’s so many things to so many people. It’s a huge franchise that can be specific games or it can just be Pokemon as like cultural figures. So my favorite things is seeing how different people connect to Pokemon, sometimes through the show! I know there’s a lot of people who listen regularly that aren’t really hardcore Pokemon people and we’re this strange connection for them to the games/anime. |
| Evan: It’s one of those franchises that will stick with you for life and you can be as deeply involved with it as you want. As folks who listen to the show know, our Pokémon knowledge is sub par compared to some of the other Pokémon podcasts out there but that doesn’t deter our fans from having a good time listening along. |
PXR: What do you enjoy about the podcast’s fans?
| I Chews You: Most of them are better chefs than we are by the sound of their recipes. We’re glad to give them a platform to showcase their creativity! They’re also very warm, welcoming people. There’s really a sense of community among Chewsies and it’s the most heart-warming thing to watch new listeners enter the fold. |
PXR: What kind of advice would you give to any of the podcast’s fans who may be interested in podcasting? Either Pokemon or another subject.
| Jeremy: Just try to be consistent with your work. Audio, upload schedule, fan contact. Sounds tedious, but it’s important. |
| Ben: The advice that I have for anyone wanting to make a podcast is for them to spend some time thinking about what they can bring to their show that’s unique. There’s so many different kinds of podcasts out there from indie productions to corporate exclusives so I think it’s important that small creators realistically think through their individual gifts and brainstorm how to incorporate them into their show. For a show like ours, it’s all a labor of love: from the website and social media promotion to the music production, merch design and videos, with some friends helping along the way. It’s all projects we’d all want to be doing anyway but ICY has become a fun outlet for our individual talents. |
PXR: How do you think the podcast has grown since the beginning?
| I Chews You: We’re definitely more comfortable on the mic now than when we started. We’ve also added a few new segments and bits to the show as time has gone by to mix things up a little. We know the recipes will always be the core of the show but it’s nice to play around with the format to surprise and delight our listeners. While we’re nowhere near the big leagues yet, we’ve definitely seen substantial growth over the last year! |
PXR: Where do you think the podcast will be in another three years?
| I Chews You: It feels like we can’t really imagine what the next three months will look like, let alone the next three years. But we won’t run out of Pokemon to cook anytime soon! Over the past two years, this show has become a really good way for the four of us to hang out, goof off and just be friends so even if the podcast in its current form changes, we’ll definitely still be making something similar to ICY. |
PXR: What is your favorite podcast memory?
| Jeremy: When Evan got us matching sweaters as Christmas gifts with the ICY logo on them before the premiere of the last Star Wars movie. Not really on the show, but sweet nonetheless. |
| Ben: I think my favorite memory so far from the podcast was when we were recording episode 67 (Beldum) and me and Ian had almost the exact same idea to riff on Insane Clown Posse’s song “Miracles.” It’s a crisp 30 minutes of reading various articles about ICP that I’m pretty sure most of the audience was 100% over 5 mins in but it was just one of those days where Ian and I were on the same wavelength and I laughed like a fucking maniac. Also the Season 3 finale was pretty turnt too! |
PXR: Which podcast episode from the last year would you like to recommend to new listeners and why?
| Jeremy: Mareep. It’s episode fifty, so holds a special place, is a good entrance, and allows the listener to go backwards and forwards. |
| Ben: I know some people are hardcore about listening to new pods and start at the beginning. I’d actually recommend listening to one of the more recent episodes first, like the Psyduck or Miltank episodes to get a sense of the more refined version of the show. And then if they’re into it, I think to get all the various references going back to like the Dugtrio episode. |
PXR: Lastly, what would you like to tell to fans of the podcasts?
| Ben: I think I’d just say thank you so much for rocking with us for this long! We really didn’t know if anyone would actually listen to the show when we started and it’s so cool to see listeners become Twitter friends or make fan art or meet up with listeners (pre-pandemic). You all really make the show an ever evolving thing and we’re so happy we get to entertain you for an hour a week. |
| Evan: Thank you so much for listening to the show! I’m glad this weirdly niche concept found a following of passionate fans. We can’t wait for the next 100 episodes. It’s going to be a wild ride! |
| Jeremy: Tell your friends and family about the joys of cooking and eating Pokemon. |
We would like to thank the ICY Chefs for this wonderful interview. We hoped that they had a great time answering these questions. Meanwhile, you the loyal listener of I Chews You had a wonderful reading experience. Hopefully that filled your appetite when it comes to learning about your favorites chefs.
Make sure to wish I Chews You a happy anniversary at @IChewsPod on Twitter! Also, leave a rate and review on your favorite podcast app of choice. Lastly, for all those readers out there on internet land. In awhile, Totodile.
