Tag: chef

The Shift List – Chef John Winter Russell (Restaurant Candide) – Montreal, Part 1

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on The Shift List, a conversation in quarantine with John Winter Russell, chef and founder of Restaurant Candide in Montreal.

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Host Chris Jacobs first had the chance to speak with Russell at Candide before COVID-19 related travel and gathering restrictions went into place, and decided to reconnect with him recently via phone to see how Russell is facing the challenges of being an independent chef and restaurant owner during a global pandemic.

In the episode, the pair talk about some of the music Russell’s listening to in quarantine and the food he’s making at home, but he also talks about some of the ways he’s been able to give back to the restaurant workers affected by job losses in Canada, as well as a recent opportunity to create menus for the food banks of Montreal.

If you live in Montreal and are craving some craft beer delivered to your house, send an email at [email protected]. All proceeds will go to the Montreal Restaurant Workers Crisis Relief Fund.

We’ll be airing our non-quarantine episode from Candide in Montreal on April 21.

The Shift List – Restaurant Workers Relief Program

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on The Shift List, a replay of our conversation with Chef Edward Lee, recorded back in 2018.

Chef Lee is helping to lead the way in bringing restaurant workers relief with his Restaurant Workers Relief Program through The Lee Initiative. Due to the closure of so many restaurants and bars across America in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of workers have an urgent need for assistance, and they need our help now more than ever.

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In partnership with Maker’s Mark Bourbon, Chef Lee is transforming restaurants across the country into relief centers for any restaurant worker who has been laid off or has had a significant reduction in hours and/or pay. The Lee Initiative, in conjunction with local chefs in every majorly affected community across the country, is offering help for those in need of food and supplies, and each night, they’re packing hundreds of to-go meals.

Restaurateurs like Nancy Silverton in Los Angeles, Jose Salazar in Cincinnati, and Lee’s own Succotash and 610 Magnolia teams in D.C. and Louisville are doing so much good right now, along with so many others across the country. The BGS Podcast Network team wants to do what we can to spread the word and shine a spotlight on this important work.

For more information and to donate, visit leeinitiative.org, and in the meantime, while we’re all trapped indoors, continue to support your local community by ordering takeout and pickup (if your local guidelines and recommendations permit it).

The Shift List – Duncan Holmes, Allison Anderson (Beckon | Call) – Denver

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week, Chef Duncan Holmes and Allison Anderson, Director of Experience, at Beckon | Call in Denver, Colorado.

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Chef Duncan Holmes and Allison Anderson have incorporated music and a guest’s entire experience at Beckon | Call in a way that is completely holistic and natural. Perhaps it’s because it’s baked into Anderson’s title — as the Director Of Experience, she takes the role of what would normally be considered General Manager and elevates it to a master class in hospitality.

Consider the music at Beckon – the evening’s answer to their popular all-day dining option over at Call. Beckon is a ticketed chef’s table dining experience with ever-changing, seasonal menus. It seats 34 people in a U-shape with Chef Duncan and his team serving you from the center of the intimate dining room, and the entire meal takes about two and half hours. Because the meal happens in phases, each evening’s soundtrack is a hand-picked selection of albums played in their entirety, allowing the staff at Beckon to play through about three records of their choosing over the course of a meal. In the age of playlists and streaming, the decision to play through albums at Beckon is an extension of the meal itself, forcing you to slow down and pay closer attention to each of your senses throughout the experience.

Call was named one of Bon Appetit’s Hot Ten Best New Restaurants of 2018, described as an all-day hang where you may arrive at 10am and end up staying until 2pm — with all of the spritzes and endless selection of unique items to snack on, like their smoked salmon tartine, roasted carrot salad with peas, and Scandinavian-inspired bites.

Call is now on a brief hiatus as Holmes, Anderson, and the team complete some renovations, but Beckon is now a year in and has topped multiple must-eat lists in Denver and beyond.

The Shift List – Jonathan Whitener (Here’s Looking At You) – Los Angeles

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on the Shift List, Jonathan Whitener — chef and co-owner of Here’s Looking At You in Los Angeles’s Koreatown. Similar to his cooking, Jonathan’s musical tastes are a reflection of his family and surrounding environment. Outlaw country from his father, ’80s metal from his brothers, and a love for Glenn Danzig that continues to this day.

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Since it opened in 2016, Here’s Looking at You has appeared on almost every ‘best of’ restaurant list around LA — and that’s due to a number of factors: Co-owner Lien Ta’s laser focus on service and comforting hospitality; top-notch tiki-adjacent bar service; the evolving playlists blending old school hip-hop and post-punk; but it’s anchored by Whitener’s anything goes approach to cooking.

Whitener grew up in Huntington Beach, CA the son of a Mexican mother and a German father. Growing up near Orange County’s thriving Vietnamese and Japanese communities, he pulls all of these influences into his “SoCal tapas-style” menu with standout dishes like the shishito peppers accompanied with an tonnato sauce — the Italian answer to hummus — sprinkled with Huamei, a preserved Chinese plum. Or for another example, frogs legs seasoned like Nashville hot chicken with a salsa negra, scallion, and lime.

Whitener cut his teeth for three years as the chef de cuisine for Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo’s restaurant Animal in Los Angeles before opening Here’s Looking At You with Lien Ta, who he met while she was serving as front-of-house manager at Animal.

Jonathan Whitener’s Shift List
Buzzcocks – “What Do I Get?”
Waylon Jennings – “I’m A Ramblin’ Man”
Waylon Jennings – “Rainy Day Women”
Danzig – “Am I A Demon”
Metallica – “Ride The Lightning”
Nick Waterhouse (Feat. Leon Bridges) – “Katchi”
Tupac (Feat. Syke) – “All Eyes On Me”

The Shift List – Katie Button (Cúrate) – Asheville, N.C.

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Katie Button is at the helm of two restaurants in Asheville, North Carolina: the lively and authentic Spanish experience at the acclaimed tapas restaurant Cúrate, as well as Button & Co. Bagels, influenced by Katie’s upbringing in New Jersey.

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Chef Katie Button took a winding road to open her restaurants in Asheville, first pursuing science degrees at Cornell and earning her master’s degree in biomedical engineering in Paris. Realizing that a life in science wasn’t for her, she changed course to the culinary field, starting as a server at one of José Andrés’ restaurants in Washington, D.C. She volunteered on her days off to work at his avant-garde restaurant minibar to help prep in the kitchen, since she didn’t have any professional cooking experience.

Being in the kitchen made her realize that it was the place she wanted to be most, so from there, she got a position as an intern in the pastry kitchen at New York’s Jean-Georges. After that, she moved to LA to work at The Bazaar by José Andrés, and that following summer, she landed a position in the pastry kitchen at El Bulli, Chef Ferran and Albert Adria’s legendary three-Michelin star restaurant in Spain.

It was there that she met her husband Felix, and together they moved to Asheville to open a restaurant with her parents, where they eventually opened Cúrate in 2011. The classic Spanish tapas restaurant received instant attention and accolades, from mentions in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times t0 earning status as a nominee for the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef award in 2014, a semi-finalist for Best Chefs in America in 2015, and a nominee for Best Chef Southeast 2018 and 2019.

In this episode, Chef Katie admits that when she’s expediting dishes, she really doesn’t hear much going on around her, underscoring her intense focus while working the line. But when she’s prepping for a shift, her staff has been surprised to learn that underground indie rock from the mid to late 90s is her go too – think “The Moon & Antarctica” by Modest Mouse, Archers of Loaf, and Built to Spill.

Katie Button’s Shift List 
Jason Durulo – “Want To Want Me”
Beyoncé – “Run The World”
Wilson Phillips – “Hold On”
Soul Coughing – “Super Bon Bon”
Modest Mouse – “Trailer Trash”
The Rolling Stones – “Honky Tonk Women”

The Shift List – Phil Bracey (P. Franco, Bright) – London

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Phil Bracey is not a chef, but rather the manager of P. Franco, a neighborhood wine shop, bar, and makeshift restaurant in Northeast London’s Clapton neighborhood. Along with Bright, a new restaurant that opened nearby last May, Phil was instrumental in P. Franco being named Restaurant of the Year by Eater London in 2017.

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It’s important to note that ‘manager’ is a broad term, as Bracey admits that even he doesn’t know what his actual title would be. Granted, he helps to procure and looks after the wines, but more important, and less easy to recognize, is that his approach to hospitality is passionately personal.

Fed up with the pretentiousness that often accompanies drinking wine, Bracey set out to make P. Franco a welcoming space that encourages experimentation by customers, allowing them to discover natural wines in an environment that’s relaxed yet lively, a space that you can pop into for one glass and ultimately end up staying for the rest of the night.

Music is paramount to the customer experience at both P. Franco and Bright, and like a good DJ, Bracey is constantly dialing in the playlists during each night’s service, doing his best to follow the flow of the evening.

Theme Song: Jamie Drake – “Wonder”

The Shift List – Honey & Co, London

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Itamar Srulovich is an Israeli-born chef who co-founded Honey & Co with his wife, Sarit Packer, back in 2012. Itamar is the music lover between he and Sarit, so he sat down for this interview, which includes music from Israel, Egypt, Nigeria, the UK, and the US.

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A cozy spot located in London’s once sleepy Fitzrovia neigborhood that serves homey Middle Eastern fare directly across the street from their amazing food shop, market, and culinary boutique Honey & Spice, they also opened Honey & Smoke in 2016, a big and buzzy grill house serving everything from lamb kofta and chops, whole fish and slow-cooked octopus, charred cauliflower and amazing drinks.

Itamar and Sarit racked up impressive resumes before going into business together with Honey & Co, both serving as alumni of the venerable Ottolenghi restaurant and cooked together in restaurants around Tel Aviv before their time together in London.

Three restaurants and three bestselling cookbooks later, family is the through line that brings everything together at Honey & Co, and not just because Itamar and Sarit are married. It seems like Itamar knows every staff worker, diner, and shop customer intimately, exuding a warmth and friendliness that surely brings people back.

Theme Song: Jamie Drake – “Wonder”

The Shift List – Jose Salazar – Cincinnati (Salazar, Mitas)

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Jose Salazar is a chef and restaurateur based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Originally from Queens, New York, he got his start in restaurants around New York City, most notably working with Chef Thomas Keller for a four-year stint at Per Se and as the Executive Sous-Chef at Bouchon Bakery when it first opened its doors in 2006.

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In 2008, Salazar and his wife Anne moved to Cincinnati after receiving an irresistible offer to be the Executive Chef of The historical Cincinnatian Hotel and Palace restaurant, and in December of 2013, they opened Salazar together in Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine neighborhood.

In August 2015, Jose and Ann opened Mita’s, their second restaurant together, which has earned Jose nominations for best chef in the Great Lakes from the James Beard foundation in 2016 and 2017.

We had a chance to talk to Salazar in the back corner of a press tent during a rainy Saturday morning in Louisville, Kentucky, at this year’s Bourbon and Beyond festival back in September.

salazarcincinnati.com

The Shift List – Philip Krajeck (Rolf & Daughters, Folk) – Nashville

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Philip Krajeck is the chef and owner of Rolf & Daughters in Nashville’s Germantown neighborhood. Distinguished in music city for bringing global cooking techniques to Tennessee’s Southern ingredients, he opened Rolf & Daughters in 2012 and it’s still full every night.

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His follow up, Folk, opened a few months ago in the Spring, and he describes the menu as loosely Italian-influenced food that he’d essentially like to eat himself on any given day.

Krajeck’s musical influences run far and wide, in no small part due to the fact that he moved to Belgium with his family at the age of 10 and soaked up the vast array of genres he was exposed to, most notably by listening to Engligh DJ Giles Peterson and learning about Dance Music, Hip Hop, Spiritual Jazz, Funk, Soul, World Music and everything in between, tapping him into an entirely new universe of artists that he otherwise may have never have discovered.

He contributes this passionate and eclectic spirit to the vibe at Folk, creating a seamless and relaxed dining experience that’s comforting but constantly engaging.

rolfanddaughters.com
goodasfolk.com

Theme Song – “Wonder” by Jamie Drake

The Shift List – Edward Lee (610 Magnolia, MilkWood) Louisville

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Edward Lee is the chef and owner of three restaurants with unique identities in Louisville, Kentucky – 610 Magnolia, MilkWood, and Whiskey Dry – and is the author of two books. Smoke & Pickles – his first – is a cookbook that chronicles the story of how he was raised in Brooklyn in a family of Korean immigrants to his arrival in Louisville, and Buttermilk Graffiti, a uniquely inspiring read that is part food essay, part travel book, part memoir and part cookbook.

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Released in the Spring of 2018, Buttermilk Graffiti finds Lee traveling across America to learn how immigrants arrive, thrive, and influence the cuisine of communities all over the country, from the Cambodian community of Lowell Massachusetts to the predominantly Muslim neighborhoods of Dearborn Michigan.

In addition to his appearances on award winning shows like Mind of a Chef and writing and producing the Feature Documentary Fermented, Lee participates in the annual Bourbon and Beyond festival held in Louisville at the end of each September for the past two years.

Equal parts bourbon, music, and food, the festival shines a spotlight on the things that make Kentucky and Louisville a great place to visit and live.

chefedwardlee.com