Juan Echanove does not look back fondly on his stint in A country to eat. In a candid talk with Herrera en COPE, the actor criticized the project he starred in alongside Imanol Arias as Cuéntame como pasó. He confessed that he didn’t enjoy it much, if at all, describing the experience as largely unenjoyable and fleeting in memory.
He recalled the shooting schedule as tightly packed, often spanning only four or five days and sometimes taking place across an entire city. The crew moved quickly, spending limited hours in the minibus and constantly coordinating around the light schedule to capture the scenes that mattered most. This anxious tempo was a defining feature of the production, he explained in the interview. The translator who accompanied the cast also reminded listeners of how demanding the shooting reality could be, especially with the format devised by Ganga, the producer behind Cuéntame How Happened. The crew reportedly faced repetitive takes, sometimes with a woman preparing croquettes being filmed by five cameras, while a separate camera may capture something as mundane as a croquette tray being readied for service. [Attribution: Herrera en COPE interview]
Reflecting further, Echanove painted a vivid picture of mornings spent on set, where cast and crew would be fed a modest breakfast like Asturian or Galician stew around eight in the morning, and the day would keep moving. He joked about eating half the croquet himself while the other half went to Imanol, after which they would be whisked back into the minibus for the next location. These details, though perhaps ordinary on the surface, underscored the grueling rhythm behind a production that blends culinary imagery with the road-weary reality of television work. [Attribution: Herrera en COPE interview]
Despite the grueling schedule and the often tedious pace, Echanove acknowledged a larger truth about television: the sense of pleasure and the emotional resonance it creates for audiences are what make the effort worthwhile. He emphasized that professional commitment matters—actors are paid to endure the rigors of production, and maintaining professionalism carries the day even when personal discomfort intrudes. In his view, the challenges on set contribute to the authenticity that viewers connect with, and that connection is a crucial engine behind successful television. The behind-the-scenes endurance, in his account, is a part of the craft that viewers rarely see but that ultimately drives the emotional payoff that audiences expect. [Attribution: Herrera en COPE interview]