This week, Host Chris Jacobs continues The Shift List's feature on music and restaurants in Austin, Texas with Mark Buley, Chef and Partner at Odd Duck and Sour Duck Market.

In 2009, Bryce Gilmore opened a food truck, the Odd Duck Farm to Trailer, with his brother in South Austin. The trailer featured dishes utilizing fresh and locally-sourced ingredients, which was still something of a novel idea at the time, and it became the cornerstone philosophy behind all of their endeavors moving forward, including the eventual brick and mortar version of Odd Duck and the more casual Sour Duck Market.

Mark Buley, originally from a small town in Wisconsin, journeyed to Austin in 2012 to partner with Gilmore in anticipation of Odd Duck opening as a brick-and-mortar restaurant. The pair have been working together ever since, and in the last decade, the Odd Duck collective has become a staple of the Austin food scene — fun and interesting, not too serious, and done well. Perhaps more than any of the restaurants recently featured on The Shift List, Sour Duck Market is intentionally communal. It’s a bakery, cafe, coffee shop, outdoor patio, and multi-service kind of place that’s designed for customers to stay a while.

Sour Duck and Odd Duck are both open for curbside pickup as things in Austin still move to fully open up during the coronavirus pandemic; listening to this conversation is a reminder of how much we’ve temporarily lost and have been taking for granted, but it also serves as a hopeful promise of what we’ll get back when the time is right.

In the meantime, if you want to bring the Sour Duck ethos into your own home, order a copy of The Odd Duck Almanac, a recently-released, annual cookbook/magazine-style publication that’s as true of a representation of the restaurants as you can get while we wait for everything to reopen.

This week, our first in a series of shows from Austin, Texas, starting off with Fermín Núñez, executive chef of East Austin’s Mexican-inspired restaurant Suerte and Eater Austin’s 2018 chef of the year. 

As you’ll soon discover, Chef Fermín is a man with a mission: To create the perfect tortilla, every single day. As he recently told Eater, “It takes a village to make tortillas every night, and the foundation of Mexican food is masa.” The process starts with one of the restaurant’s staffers bringing a pot of water to a simmer, adding the necessary ingredients including the masa, cooking it to a certain level of doneness, and then letting it sit overnight. Another employee comes in the next morning to rinse the masa, the source of the day’s tortillas.

It’s this attention to detail that has made Suerte one of the most beloved new restaurants in Austin, and Chef Fermín’s love of music is woven into each part of the day, from the making of the masa, to prepping his mise en place, to the entire staff stopping at 4pm to clap to a cover of "Achy Breaky Heart" in Spanish and prepare for the night of service ahead. 

Speaking of service, Suerte closed for a few weeks back in early March to regroup and recalibrate as the city of Austin sheltered in place because of the new coronavirus. In mid-March they reemerged with the Suerte Taqueria, providing highlights from Suerte’s menu for takeout -- a highlight being the Suadero Taco Meal kit for families to enjoy at home. The kit includes all the ingredients needed to prepare Chef Fermín’s signature dish at home, including confit brisket, avocado crudo, black magic oil, signature tortillas, and sides. In addition to cooking instructions, they rounded out the experience with a video of Chef Fermín cooking along in his own kitchen, and a link to his favorite playlist in an attempt to bring the full Suerte experience into your kitchen. 

The kits are still available, so if you live in the Austin area and need some high quality sustenance, head over to Suertetx.com.

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

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.

This week on the show, part two of our conversation with John Winter Russell, chef and founder of Restaurant Candide in Montreal.

This episode was recorded a few months back, before the world was thrown into chaos, and it serves as a reminder of how integral chefs and independent business owners are in shaping the culture of our cities.

Restaurant Candide is named after 18th century writer/philosopher Voltaire’s book of the same name, inspired particularly by the last line of the book: “Let us cultivate our garden."

This line is the guiding force to Russell’s food, as he works closely with producers local to Montreal and creates four-course meals inspired by those ingredients, crafting dishes that are produce forward, but not exclusively vegetarian.

The experience of eating at Restaurant Candide is unique and only something that can be experienced in Montreal. From the restaurant’s location, set in an old gothic church basement, to the warm interior that utilizes refurbished pews, and exposed brick along the walls that look into the kitchen. The restaurant is a defining part of the fabric of Montreal’s restaurant scene, not only in 2020, but overall.

Thankfully, Russell feels that he and his staff will weather COVID-19 and should be able to resume business at the restaurant once restrictions are lifted, and in the meantime he's given back to restaurant workers affected by job losses in Canada by offering beer deliveries every Friday. If you live in Montreal and are craving some craft beer delivered to your house, send an email at info@restaurantcandide.com. All proceeds will go to the Montreal Restaurant Workers Crisis Relief Fund.

This week, a conversation in quarantine with John Winter Russell, Chef and Founder of Restaurant Candide in Montreal.

Host Chris Jacobs first had the chance to speak with John at Candide before everything shut down, and decided to reconnect with him recently on FaceTime to see how he is facing the challenges of being an independent chef and restaurant owner in the time of Covid 19.

They get a chance to talk about some of the music he’s listening to in quarantine and the food he’s making at home, but John 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 need some craft beer delivered to your house, send an email at info@restaurantcandide.com. 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 17.

This week, 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 restaurant and worker across America, thousands of restaurant workers have an urgent need for assistance, and they need our help now more than ever.

In partnership with @makersmark, 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 that people can come to pick up and take home.

Restauranterus like Nancy Silverton in Los Angeles, Jose Salazar in Cininnati, and Lee’s Succotash team in D.C and 610 Magnolia team in Louisville, along with many others across the country are doing so much good right now, so we at BGS want to do what we can to spread the word and shine a spotlight on this important relief 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.

This week, our first of three episodes from the great and wintry city of Montreal with Arthur’s 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.

Opened in 2016, Arthur’s 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.

They sat down with The Shift List amidst the hustle of Arthur’s 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 their personal and professional journey that led them to open Arthur’s Nosh Bar.

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

A New York city native, Justin 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, Justin 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 to 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 provides seasonal vegetables for the restaurant, but for it’s sister restaurants, Linger and Ophelia’s. There’s even a Root Down at Denver International Airport, one of the main reasons to book a long layover in the city.

Justin 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. There is plenty of Steely Dan in this episode, so yacht rockers rejoice.

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 becuase it’s baked into Allison’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. Becuase 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 streaming music and playlists, the decision to play through records at Beckon is an extention 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. Bon Appetit described it as an all-day hang where you may arrive at 10am, but end up staying until 2pm with all of the spritzes and endless slection 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 Duncan, Allison, and the team undergo some renovations, but Beckon is now a year in and has topped multiple must eat lists in Denver and beyond.

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.

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.

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

Chef Katie 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 Jose Andres’ restaurants in Washington DC, volunteering on her days off to work at his avante garde restautant minibar to help prep in their 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 in the kitchen at New York’s Jean-Georges in their pastry kitchen as an intern.

From there, she moved out LA to work at The Bazaar by José Andrés, and that following Summer, she landed a postion in the pastry kitchen at elBulli, Chef Ferran and Albert Adria’s legendary 3 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, and earning status as a nominee for the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef award in 2014, semi-finalist for Best Chefs in America in 2015 and a nominee for Best Chef Southeast 2018 and 2019.

This week, Ashleigh Shanti, Chef de Cuisine of Benne on Eagle in Asheville in North Carolina.

Benne on Eagle is located on Eagle Street in Asheville’s historic neighborhood called The Block. Ashleigh describes the food at Benne on Eagle as Appalachian Soul Food, and working closely with Chef John Fleer, who’s best known around Asheville for his acclaimed restaurant Rhubarb and it’s sister cafe bakery The Rhu, the menu at Benne on Eagle pays homage to the rich African American culinary traditions that once thrived in The Block, as well as honoring her own history as a Southern, African American female.

The restaurant opened in late 2018, and it’s captured the attention of numerous media outlets, including a feature for Ashleigh in the New York Times as one of the 16 black chefs changing food in America and most recently becoming a nominee for Bon Appetit’s Hot 10 List for Best New Restaurants of 2019.

Now 29 years old, Ashleigh traveled across the US on a six-month sabbatical before landing in Asheville after being tapped by John Fleer, and as that story in the Times reported, she decided that her next step as a chef needed to fulfill a critical desire “cooking food that celebrated her heritage as a black woman from the South and rebuffed assumptions about what that food could be.”

Jenn Dowdy, Music Director at AL’s Place in San Francisco, tells us how to create the perfect playlist for any kind of shift.

This is a special episode, because of all the restaurants featured on this little podcast, AL’s Place is the only one that has a Musical Director. It’s just one reason that this intimate neighborhood restaurant in the Mission District stands out amongst the plethora of dining options and Michelin establishments dotted around the Bay Area.

AL’s place is the vision of Chef / Owner Aaron London - he being the AL that the restaurant is named after (initals A.L), but almost five years in, with a Michelin Star under it’s belt, and many other accolades to it’s name (including the title of Bon Appetit’s New Restaurant of the Year in 2015), AL’s Place is a true team effort.

The space only has 46 seats, and finding an empty one is rare, so a shift requires everyone to be on their A game the entire time.

And while Chef Aaron London’s seasonal, ingredient-driven menu highlighting Northern California produce is the foundation, the service, vibe, and music are essential elements to the dining experience at AL’s Place.

Jenn Dowdy started as a server at AL’s, and after a few months of getting to know the space intimately, she asked AL’s GM Kimberly Litchfield if she could take over the restaurant’s playlist, and the role of Musical Director, previously held by a part time staff member, was bestowed upon her.

22 public playlists later, with many more waiting in the wings, Dowdy weaves together 7-8 hour playlists that are highlighly curated for AL’s, never repeating a song, and compensating for the turns that happen throughout a night’s service.

Rum purveyor and exotic cocktail expert Martin Cate talks about the exotic soundtrack that plays every night at his world class tiki bar in San Francisco, Smuggler's Cove.

So, if you haven’t noticed, Tiki is having a major rennaissance all across the US, and it’s due in no small part to Martin Cate’s elevation and dedication to the form. As Martin likes to put it,“Tiki is a multidisciplinary genre. It’s not just about the cocktails, it’s about creating an atmosphere. All of the elements need to come together seamlessly, and when something is missing or discordant, it takes you out of the experience.”

And central to this experience in any tiki bar worth it’s salt is the music. As he writes in the Smuggler’s Cove book, along with exotica and other lounge music, the tiki sound incorporates hapa haole, which is traditional Hawaiian music with lyrics sung in English, as well as the sounds of surf music, which, as Martin will explain in this episode, was actually countercultural to the greatest generation that made tiki explode in it’s first wave of popularity back in the 1960s.

Be sure to visit one of his bars next time you find yourself in San Francisco (Smuggler's Cove), Portland (Hale Pele, co-owner), San Diego (False Idol, co-owner), and Chicago (Lost Lake, partner).

The Israeli born chef co-founded Honey & Co with his wife, Sarit Packer, a cozy spot located in London’s once sleepy Fitzrovia neigborhood that serves homey Middle Eastern fair directly across the street from their amazing food shop, market, and culinary boutique Honey & Spice.

Following in the footsteps of their UK colleague and cookbook author Yotam Ottolenghi, of whom they both worked for prior to starting Honey & Co, Itamar and Sarit have released a handful of Honey & Co cookbooks over in the UK, and they just finished a whirwind tour of the US to promote the release of their Honey & Co at Home cookbook just last month.

They visited cities and chefs all over the country to help promote the book, which presents their simple and delicious Middle Eastern dishes that are easy to make at home, and they stopped through Los Angeles to do a takeover of Sqrl, Jessica Koslow’s venerable breakfast and lunch spot which kind of feels like a version of Honey & Co in California.

Itamar excitedly talked to The Shift List about the role that music plays at Honey & Co last August, and we ended up recording this on two stools in a pseudo storage room in the working cellar underneath their Honey & Spice shop.

Chef Sheldon Simeon is as passionate about music as he is about bringing Hawaiian food to a new generation. On the Season 2 premiere episode of The Shift List podcast, Chef Sheldon revealed that if he could do anything other than be a chef, it would be a ukulele player.

“My cooking’s heavily inspired by music, for sure,” Simeon said on the podcast. “Like a song, food can tell a story, and that’s what I’m trying to do. With my food, I’m just trying to tell the story of Hawai’i, on the level of Ka’au Crater Boys,” he adds, laughing. “The greatest (Hawaiian) band ever!”

Chef Sheldon Simeon’s Shift List: Ka’au Crater Boys - “On Fire” Ka’au Crater Boys - “Brown Eyed Girl” Ka’au Crater Boys - “Are You Missing Me” Ka’ikena Scanlan - “Smoke All Day” Ka’ikena Scanlan - “Utu Bang Bang” The Green - “Good One” The Green - “All I Need” Ledward Kaapana - “Radio Hula” Cultura Profetica - “La Complicidad” Three Plus - “Who the Cap Fit”

Content to jam on the ukulele with friends in his spare time, Sheldon came to prominence on the mainland when he competed in the 10th season of “Top Chef: Seattle,” making it to the finals, and winning Fan Favorite. He returned to the show again in 2017 for season 14 of “Top Chef in Charleston,” once again winning Fan Favorite.

In 2016, Sheldon opened his very first solo restaurant, Tin Roof, in Kahului, Maui, where he serves up local dishes in take-out bowls, and last summer he opened Lineage, a full service concept for dinner that brings his interpretation of family-style dishes typical of a Hawaiian luau.

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 las May, Phil was instrumental in P. Franco being named Restaurant of the Year by London Eater in 2017.

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

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

Paramount to the customer experience at both P Franco and Bright is music, and like a good DJ, Phil is constantly dialing in the playlists during each night’s service, doing his best to follow the flow of where the evening should go.

A veteran of chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s venerable Ottolenghi and Nopi restaurants, Ramael Scully opened his first restaurant "Scully" back in March of 2018 with the backing and support Chef Ottolenghi himself. Given that Scully was born in Malaysia to a mother of Chinese and Indian descent and an Irish Balanese Malay father, his palate was destined to be filled with mixed influences. Add a move to Australia as a young child, where he was ultimately raised in a multiethinic neighborhood, and you start to get a sense of how Ramael Scully eventually found his culinary voice.

Utilizing a range of ingredients from homemade spices, pickles, preserves, oils, animal fats, dairy and sprouts, his food can only be described as his own, like the arepa stuffed with eggplant sambal and bergamont labneh - it’s neither middle eastern or Columbian - it’s just Scully’s.

Itamar Srulovich is an Israeli born chef who co-founded Honey & Co with his wife, Sarit Packer, back in 2012. A cozy spot located in London’s once sleepy Fitzrovia neigborhood that serves homey Middle Eastern fair 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 best selling 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.

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.

Colin Stringer and Jeremy Wolfe are two of the three chef/founders of Nonesuch in Oklahoma City, an intimate 22-seat restaurant that focuses on cooking with ingredients that come exclusively from their native Oklahoma.

In a landlocked state that rarely gets national recognition for it’s culinary ambition from any organization, Nonesuch was named best new restaurant in the country by Bon Appetit magazine back in August, ahead of 9 other restaurants from food capitals like Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington DC.

The inventiveness and inspiration for Nonesuch started when Stringer and Wolfe starting running a supper club back in 2014 called Nani in the 100-year-old Victorian house that Stringer also lived in near the heart of Oklahoma City.

Word grew around town about the semi-legal restaurant operation happening in Stringer’s home, and it was eventually shut down by the city for operating without a warrant. So when Nonesuch opened back in October 2017, it wasn’t a coincidence that the dining experience felt intimate, familial, and hospitable.

As Bon Appetit’s Editor in Cheif Andrew Knowlton wrote in his review of Nonesuch, the best analogy to describe the young chefs that run it are like brothers in a band - heads down - making incredibly beautiful music that they doubted anyone would ever hear. A little over a year after their opening Nonesuch is booked solid for the foreseeable future, and the guys are poised and focused to take on the newfound attention with a unique sense of artistry and a killer playlist.

Jose Salazar is a chef and restauranter based in Cincinnati Ohio. Originally based in Queens, he got his start in restaurants around New York, 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 in 2006.

In 2008 he and his wife Anne moved to Cincinnati after receiving an irresistable 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 of 2015, Jose and Ann opened Mita’s, their second restaurant together, which has earned Jose nominations for “best Chef”Great Lakes from the James Beard foundation in 2016 and 2017 consecutively.

Opened in 1945 by Thornton Prince, André inherited the restaurant and original hot chicken receipe in 1980, and has seen it grow into a culinary trend that’s caught on like wildfire in the past few years throughout the US.

Growing up in the 1940’s and 50’s, young André witnessed the origins of her great uncle Thornton’s restaurant, and it turns out that music has been an important part of their success from day one. Just wait until you hear about the typical late night guests that would stop by back in the day.

Philip Krajeck is the chef and owner of Rolf and 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.

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.

Edward Lee is the chef and owner of three restaurants with their own unique identities in Louisville, Kentucky: 610 Magnolia, MilkWood, and Whiskey Dry.

Beyond his adopted hometown of Louisville, Lee is the culinary director of Succotash in Maryland and Washington DC, and is the author of two books, Smoke & Pickles - his first - 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 his second, Buttermilk Graffiti, a uniquely inspiring read that is part food essay, part travel book, part memoir and part cookbook.

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.

Miles Thompson is the Executive Chef of Michael’s Restaurant in Santa Monica, a mainstay in the modern Californian cuisine movement for almost 40 years, having acted as a springboard for the likes of Nancy Silverton, Jonathan Waxman, Brooke Williamson, Sang Yoon, and more.

Originally from New York state, Thompson moved to LA over a decade ago to work in the kitchens of NOBU, Animal, and Sonofagun, respectively, before venturing out on his own to start the wonderfully-received pop-up series called The Vagrancy Project, a supper club that he ran out of his tiny Hollywood apartment for about 8 months.

The Vagrancy Project ultimately led to Thompson opening his first restaurant as head chef at the now closed Allumette restaurant in Echo Park, which was selected by Bon Appétit as one of the Best New Restaurants in 2013.

After a brief stint away from Southern California, Thompson returned in 2016 to take the helm at Michael’s, after founder Michael McCarty’s son Chas convinced his father to bring on the young chef, telling him they needed to “take things to the next step” at the venerable restaurant.

Two years in, Thompson continues to push forward the restaurant’s legacy as an icon of Southern California’s restaurant scene, coming up with many of his most innovative recipes while listening to music during his sometimes 90-minute commute from East LA to Santa Monica on the 10 freeway.

Andy Kadin is the founder, owner, and head baker at Bub and Grandma’s, a wholesale bakery that provides loaves to some of L.A.’s best restaurants, including Osteria Mozza, Petit Trois, Kismet, and Sqirl.

After 10 years of writing for TV and advertising in Los Angeles, Kadin decided it was time for a career change.

Being from New Jersey, he always had a deep love for sandwiches -- so much so that his nickname became ‘Lunch’ at a previous job...so while dreaming of someday opening a sandwich shop in LA, he decided that he first needed to learn how to bake bread.

He eventuatly commited himself to baking loaves every day in his home kitchen, giving them away to friends, and one such loaf got into the hands of Scott Zwiezen of Dune, home to some of LA’s best falafel and other Mediterranean bites. Zwiezen was so impressed that he convinced Kadin to supply Dune with their daily ciabatta, essentially turned his home kitchen into a commercial kitchen for the six months that would follow (something he would not recommend doing ever again, by the way).

Now baking in a warehouse east of downtown LA with 12 bakers by his side, Kadin and his team produce more than 600 loaves a day, making Bub and Grandma’s one of the best premium small batch wholesale bakeries in the city.

Andy's Shift List Neu! - "Isi" Can - "Vitamin C" Freddie Hubbard - "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey" Manuel Göttsching - "Deep Distance" Brian Eno - "Ambient 1 Music For Airports: 2" Juno Presents Wins The World Cup - "Dangerous Match One" Gregory Isaacs - "Night Nurse" The Saints - "I'm Stranded" Mastadon - "Blood and Thunder"

Andy's Shit List Shania Twain - "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" Alanis Morisette - "Ironic"

Bub and Grandma's: http://bubandgrandmas.com

Theme Song: Jamie Drake - "Wonder"

Lauran and Peter Lemos are the co-owners of Wax Paper Sandwich Company - a small but mighty sandwich shop operating out of LA’s Frogtown neighborhood since 2015.

Now married, they met back in 2012 while working in a restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles. Peter cooked, and Lauren served.

Since then, Peter has cooked in some of the finest kitchens on the California coast, such as SPQR, Étoile, Craft, Bazaar, and L&E Oyster Bar, and even had the pleasure of competing on Food Network's Chopped, while Lauren worked in the front of the house at many places around Los Angeles such as L&E Oyster Bar, The Ace Hotel in DTLA, and Sweet Lady Jane.

Wax Paper evolved from Peter and Lauren’s dream of opening a simple, but delicious neighborhood sandwich shop.

Guests are always greeted with a welcoming smile from the couple, who often work together in the combined 226 square foot kitchen and counter service restaurant, and music is always a constant source of inspiration in such an intimate space.

Lauren and Peter's Shift List Metallica - "One" Nick Kershaw - "Wouldn't It Be Good" Pusha T - "If You Know You Know" MF Doom - "Bomb Thrown" New Found Glory - "Happy Being Miserable" Taking Back Sunday - "Tidal Wave" Ronnie Hudson And The Street People - "West Coast Poplock" Home Improvement - "Theme Song" Curb Your Enthusiasm - "Theme Song" Jimmy Eat World - "For Me This Is Heaven" LMFAO - "Yes"

Wax Paper: www.waxpaperco.com

Theme song - Jamie Drake - "Wonder"

Matt Orlando is the head chef and founder of Amass restaurant in Copenhagen’s Refshalevej neighborhood, a somewhat secluded post industrial part of the city that you can choose to arrive to by public ferry.

Orlando opened Amass in 2013, which is a relatively short distance from both locations of Noma, where Orlando previously worked.

It turns out he actually spent two periods at Noma. His first post was sous chef in the mid 2000s, but he departed briefly for New York with his wife – who’s Danish – to take an opportunity as Sous Chef at Thomas Keller’s Per Se. Longing to return to Denmark, he got a call from Rene Redzepi after a couple of years in New York asking him to serve as NOMA’s first executive chef, a post he accepted and kept for three years prior to leaving to start his own restaurant down the street, an endeavor Redzepi was characteristically enthusiastic and encouraging of.

The result was Amass, a fine dining establishment located in a sprawling industrial warehouse covered in curated grafiti and proudly blasting often obscure and sometimes aggressive hip hop.

The juxtaposed restaurant is an extension of the chef himself, a San Diego native who grew up skateboarding and skiing amidst the graffiti’d culture of bay area hip hop legends Hieroglyphics before taking up a distinguished career in fine dining.

Chef Matt's Shift List Hieroglyphics - "You Never Knew" A$AP Mob Feat. Wiz Khalifa - "Molly" GZA - "When The Fat Lady Sings (Madlib Remix)" Mungo's Hi-Fi - "Scrub a Dub Style (Prince Fatty Mix) Gentlemen's Dub Club - "High Grade" Tool - "Sober"

Chef Matt's Shit List Rasmus Seebach - "Lidt I Fem" Arcade Fire - "Wake Up"

Amass Restaurant: http://amassrestaurant.com Amass Restaurant's Spotify Playlists: https://spoti.fi/2Pa8q9w

Theme Song: Jamie Drake - "Wonder"

Philipp Inreiter opened Slurp Ramen Joint in 2017, a shop near Copenhagen’s city center that merges Japanese ramen with Danish design and ingredients.

Originally from Austria, Philip has worked in kitchens around the world, most notably getting his start at noma, which originally brought him to Copenhagen, and took a detour to work in Tokyo where he discovered his love for ramen while apprenticing at Konjiki Hototogisu, one of the best ramen shops in Japan.

He soon returned to Copenhagen and worked for a while at Chef Christian Puglisi at Relae, and opened Slurp Ramen soon after to fill what he considered to be a void on the wintry city’s culinary scene.

The result is an exceptional bowl of noodles, served in a relaxed, fun, and tight atmosphere, and going through the experience of opening his own restaurant has led Chef Philipp and his collaborators to start an entirely new project called Informal - a tech-forward company that aims to be the Airbnb of the food world.

Chef Philipp’s Shift List Orgone - “Look-A Py Py” Lana Del Rey - “Ultraviolence” Beastie Boys - “Super Disco Breakin” Homeboy Sandman - “The Carpenter” Wu Tang Clan - “Protect Ya Neck” Dead Prez - “It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop (Hip-Hop Remix)” Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott - “Car Wash” Robbie Williams - “Rock DJ” Wa Dai Ko Matsuri Za (Japanese Drums) - “Kabuki Gomen-Jyo!” Iron Maiden - “Aces High”

Jonathan Tam was named executive chef at Copenhagen’s Restaurant Relæ in 2016.

Relæ was the first restaurant opened by Chef Christian Puglisi, and Tam’s been with him from the start.

Trained at a culinary school in his hometown of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, Jonathan, he landed an internship at NOMA in 2007 and has been in Copenhagen ever since.

His elevation to executive chef at Relæ was a natural progression, as he’s been creating menus at the restaurant with Puglisi from day one back in 2010.

Chef Jonathan’s Shift List Andrea Bocelli - “Con Te Partiro” Gali - “Zingarello” Fleetwood Mac - “Everywhere” Gang Starr - “Full Clip” Duck Sauce - “Big Bad Wolf” Johnny Cash - “Ring of Fire” Hailu Mergia - “Sintayehu” David McCallum - “The Edge” R Kelly - “Ignition” Gang Starr - “Mass Appeal”

Restaurant Relæ: relae.dk">http://www.restaurant-relae.dk • https://www.relae.community

Theme song: Jamie Drake - “Wonder”

When Chef Christian Puglisi opened Copenhagen’s restaurant Relæ in 2010, his first as head chef, it was quickly awarded a Michelin star and became known as one of the most sustainable restaurants in the world.

He’s since gone on to open three more restaurants in Copenhagen - Manfred’s, Mirabelle, and Bæst, and each have followed in Relæ’s footsteps with a focus on sustainability.

So, for example, instead of importing mozzarella for the pizza at Baest, they make it themselves with raw milk from the 16 cows grazing at Puglisi’s Farm of Ideas, just 40 km from the restaurant – and stretch it by hand several times a day.

Before opening his own restaurants, Puglisi worked at such humble fine dining establishments as El Bulliin in Spain, and Noma in Copenhagen, where he served as sous chef for 2 1/2 years until he ventured out to open Relæ.

He selected the music for Relæ on his own when it first opened, but that duty has since been delegated to his trusted Somalier Allesandro Perricone, who helps to guide the vibe and playlists at that restaurant, in addition to Manfred’s, Mirabelle, and Bæst.

Christian Puglisi and Alessandro Perricone’s Shift List ABBA - “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” Daft Punk - “Giorgio by Moroder” Adriano Celentano - “Susanna” Tullio De Piscopo - “Un'Onda D'Amore” Eros Ramazzotti - “Terra promessa” Lucio Battisti - “Il Veliero (Chicago Balls Rework)” William Onyeabor - “Fantastic Man” Fela Kuti - “Let’s Start” Prince - “Purple Rain” Johnny Cash - “Folsom Prison Blues (Live)” Neil Young - “The Needle and the Damage Done”

http://relae.community/

Theme song: Jamie Drake - “Wonder”

The Marksman pub in East London has been around for over 150 years, exemplifying what a pub should be - cozy wood paneling, regulars that have been stopping in for decades, comforting food and quality local beer - English hospitality at it’s finest.

Chef Tom Harris took over the place with his co-founder and co-chef Jon Rotheram in 2015, and perhaps their greatest achievement, aside from being named Michelin’s pub of the year for 2017 - the first time a London pub was awarded the accolade, is that they kept the historic pub...a pub!

They could have easily turned the space into a fine dining establishment only - given that Chefs Tom and Jon met while running the St John Hotel restaurant together and worked previously at London’s legendary St John restaurant under head chef Fergus Henderson - but with the Marksman Public House, they managed to leave the bar downstairs relatively unchanged and converted the second floor into a stylish yet casual dining room to showcase their English cooking.

Tom's Shift List throws down some amazing jazz funk and reggae (among other genres), and describes why recipes should be described in musical terms.

Chef Tom’s Shift List Johnny “Hammond” Smith - “Shifting Gears” Joubert Singers - “Stand on the Word” Fela Kuti - “Mr. Follow Follow” Idris Muhammad - “Piece of Mind” Roy Ayers - “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” Eddie Hazel - “California Dreamin’” The Allman Brothers Band - “Blue Sky” Moses Boyd - “Rye Lane Shuffle” James Brown - “I Got That Feelin’” Eek a Mouse - “Wa-Do-Dem” John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - “You Don’t Love Me” The English Beat - “Mirror in the Bathroom” Charlie Parker - “Ko-Ko” Neil Diamond - “Desiree”

Chef Tom’s Shit List Arcade Fire - “Wake Up”

marksmanpublichouse.com

Theme song: Jamie Drake - “Wonder”

Chef Jessica Largey was born and raised in the agricultural town of Fillmore, California, located just an hour outside of Los Angeles, and it turns out that growing up in a small town surrounded by orange groves, backyard avocado trees, and little else, was the perfect environment for a young chef to learn how to cook with fresh produce.

It’s not surprising, then, that Jessica will be incorporating Southern California’s abundance of produce into the menu at Simone, her first restaurant as head chef, which opened in Downtown LA’s arts district on September 20.

Prior to Simone, Jessica trained at the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, enrolling at just 16 years old, and from there she landed her first internship and eventual post as a line cook at Michael Cimarusti’s celebrated fine dining restaurant Providence, located in Los Angeles.

Her credentials in fine dining quickly added up in the years to come, most notably becoming chef de cuisine at Manresa in Los Gatos, California, under head chef David Kinch. During her time at Manresa, which received its third Michelin Star in 2016, Largey was nominated for the James Beard Foundation Award for Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2014, and was nominated again the following year, when she won the award.

Jessica departed Manresa soon after, taking some time to reboot and discover her next move as a chef, and eventually landed back in Southern California, where she’s now poised to open Simone.

Chef Jessica Largey’s Shift List: Shakey Graves - “Dearly Departed” Neko Case - “People Got a Lotta Nerve” Ben Sollee - “Mechanical Advantage” Shania Twain - “Any Man of Mine” Cher - “Believe” The Clash - “Straight to Hell (Live)” SNAP! - “Rhythm Is a Dancer” David Bowie - “Golden Years” Nina Simone - “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” Nina Simone - “Mississippi Goddam (Live)” Nina Simone - “You’ve Got to Learn” Gap Band - “Outstanding” Aerosmith - “Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)”

Rosio Sanchez is a Mexican-American chef from Chicago who’s now spent nearly a decade in Copenhagen.

Soon after working her first job at New York’s WD-50 with pastry chef Alex Stupak, she joined Rene Redzepi’s team at Noma, eventually becoming head pastry chef there while in her 20s.

After her time at NOMA, widely considered to be one of if not the best restaurant in the world, she struck out on her own to open a taqueria in Copenhagen - Hija de Sanchez - showing Denmark how delicious tacos made the right way—with fresh ground masa for tortillas imported from Oaxaca for starters - can really be.

In 2018 she launched Sanchez in Copenhagen, which she likes to describe as a Mexican Bistro, expanding the versatility of what Mexican food can be for the country of Denmark and beyond.

Rosio's shift list includes techno, salsa, disco, and reveals who she'd most want to sing like if she wasn't a chef (it's Mariah Carey).

Chef Rosio Sanchez’s Shift List Acid Polly - “I See a Darkness” Cafe Tacvuba - “El Aparato” Sister Sledge - “He’s the Greatest Dancer” ABBA - “Dancing Queen” Buena Vista Social Club - “De Camino a la Vereda” Margarita y Su Sonora - “Mi Bom Bon” Los Angeles Azules - “Mis Sentimientos” Daft Punk - “Instant Crush” Jenny and the Mexicats - “Verde Más Allá” Rocio Durcal - “Me Gustas Mucho” Selena - “Enamorada de Ti” The Distillers - “Hall of Mirrors” Mariah Carey - “Honey”