Tag: music and food podcast

The Shift List – Chef Dyan Solomon (Olive et Gourmando, Foxy) – Montreal

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week, The Shift List closes out its miniseries focusing on the food of Montreal with chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author Dyan Solomon. 

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If you’re from Montreal, Dyan Solomon needs no introduction. She’s the co-owner of multiple restaurants there, including Foxy, one of the city’s essential fine dining establishments. Back in November 2019 she released the Olive + Gourmando cookbook, a collection of 150 recipes from the namesake cafe that put Solomon on Montreal’s culinary map when it opened back in 1999. 

Host Chris Jacobs checked in with Chef Dyan via email the other week to see how her restaurants have been affected by the stay-at-home orders in Canada. She replied with cautious optimism, saying that while all of her restaurants are are closed until further notice, they are surviving and trying to remain positive about the future.  

If you’ve listened to the last two episodes of The Shift List with Chef John Winter Russell of Restaurant Candide, you’ll know that he highlighted the work that’s being done to help support the Montreal Restaurant Workers Relief Fund, an organization set up to provide emergency relief to restaurant employees who are facing economic hardship due to COVID-19. Coincidentally, the fund was set up by Kaitlin Doucette, the Sommelier at Solomon’s fine dining restaurant Foxy, and donations are still being accepted at mtlrestorelieffund.org.

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 – Arthurs Nosh Bar – Montreal

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week on The Shift List, our first of three episodes from the great and wintry city of Montreal with Arthurs Nosh Bar, a cozy breakfast and lunch spot serving Jewish classics, including menu standouts like crispy schnitzel served on thick-cut challah or a latke smorgasbord featuring organic gravlax, fluffy scrambled eggs, and caviar.

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Opened in 2016, Arthurs has garnered praise from Bon Appetit, Goop, and Canada’s Globe and Mail, and it all started with owners Raegan Steinberg and her husband, Alex Cohen.

The pair sat down with The Shift List amidst the hustle of Arthurs staff wrapping up service in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon to talk about everything from the playlist they prepared for the birth of their daughter Freia to the personal and professional journey that led them to open Arthurs Nosh Bar.

The Shift List – Justin Cucci (Root Down, Linger, Ophelia’s) – Denver, CO

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

Justin Cucci sits down with The Shift List. A mainstay of the Denver food scene, Cucci tends an ever-growing list of both homegrown and high concept restaurants, including Root Down, Linger, Ophelia’s, El Five, and more.

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A New York city native, Cucci grew up revering the chefs and culture at the Waverly Inn — a West Village dining institution that was owned and operated by his grandparents as a kid.

About the same time, Cucci started playing in bands, and continues to do so to this day. He opened Root Down, his first restaurant in Denver, over a decade ago, transforming the building from a gas station into a neighborhood restaurant with a cult following that serves globally-influenced seasonal cuisine with a focus on organic, natural, and locally-sourced ingredients. Root Down features two onsite gardens, which not only provide seasonal vegetables for the restaurant, but for its sister restaurants, Linger and Ophelia’s. There’s even a Root Down at Denver International Airport, one reason to book a long layover in the city.

Cucci has infused music into the culture and business of all of his restaurants — each one of their business entities is named after a Steely Dan song, for example, and you’ll find out what each of them are soon. This episode has plenty of Steely Dan, so yacht rockers rejoice.

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”