TRUE HOSPITALITY | CHEF MICHAEL VOLTAGGIO

We're really excited about this month's cover, Bravo's Top Chef Season 6 Winner, and Titan Judge on Food Network's Bobby's Triple Threat, Chef Michael Voltaggio. He also makes a number of guest judge appearances on Guy's Grocery Games as well as Beat Bobby Flay! When he's not on set, you can find him taking his dishes and experiences to the next level alongside his brother Chef Bryan Voltaggio whether it's at Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse, Vulcania, Retro, Volt Burger and other projects! As someone who we have admired in terms of his culinary point of view, technique and keeping hospitality at the forefront of all that he does, we wanted to sit down with him to talk about how he got into the industry, where his passion comes from, how he has navigated the hospitality space, his approach to his concepts, working alongside family, Season 2 of Bobby's Triple Threat and how he has taken a number of opportunities to connect with guests and viewers as well as to stay sharp in and out of the kitchen!

ATHLEISURE MAG: So, when did you first fall in love with food?

CHEF MICHAEL VOLTAGGIO: Oh wow, I don’t think that I have ever been asked that!

AM: We ask the tough questions around here!

CHEF MV: I think that it happened around necessity. I would say that I first fell in love with it when I understood the creativity that went into it. Because, I was a very, very picky eater as a kid and when I got my first job cooking, I started to look at ingredients as a kid meaning that things like cauliflower for instance – I remember thinking to myself that if I could make this, in a way that I like it, then people who actually like cauliflower will love it. So for me, I started seeing how creativity could sort of, not only like give me a chance to artistically express myself, but also be a chance for me to maybe make ingredients more accessible for more people because it made the ingredients more accessible to me. So I think that realizing that the creative part was as important as the technical part, I think that was the moment that I fell in love with it.

I always knew that I wanted to do something creative, but up until I was 15 or 16 years old, which is when I started cooking, I wasn’t being creative yet. Like, I was playing sports in high school and I wasn’t the best student and I was sort of interested in a lot of things that were creative, but I didn’t have a creative discipline that I could focus on myself.

AM: What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be a chef? Taking something that you just enjoyed and then making it as a professional.

CHEF MV: I mean, I think that it happened as sort of a default. Like, I was doing it to just sort of survive. I was one of those people that started cooking – because when I did it, it wasn’t like it was today where it was like, “oh, you’re going to be a chef!” It was more like, “yeah, I figured that you would end up in the food industry.” I sort of feel like I woke up and 25 years later, I still have the same job and I’m just like, “wow, how did this happen?” I’m in my profession prior to even graduating high school. My career has started already, but I didn’t know that at the time. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was already on my path. I’ve loved food ever since I could remember like 4 years old and I have had this job since I was 15. Not many people can say that. I’m approaching 30 years of experience and I feel like I am just getting started.

I would say that my career, after my apprenticeship, that I did at The Greenbriar Hotel when I went there when I was 19 years old to start that program, that I really felt like that, “ok this is what I am going to be doing for at least a substantial amount of time.” I had never gotten to experience any form of luxury in my life at that point, either because I grew up sort of pretty humble or in humble surroundings I would say. When I got to work in luxury, I knew that not only did I want to do that because I wanted to take care of people at that level, but I knew that at some point in my life, I wanted to feel it myself as a guest. So I knew that the only way that I would be able to experience luxury is if I understood how to work in it at the highest level and then hopefully one day, get to sit down at the table for myself.

AM: I can understand that feeling!

How do you define your style of cooking?

CHEF MV: It’s weird because if you had asked me that question 10 years ago, I would have answered it differently than I would today. The reason being that I think that I have obviously matured a lot as a person, but more specifically in my professional career, I think that I have matured a lot in the sense that I don’t know if I have a style and I think that that is interesting about the way that I like to cook now. I’m really still obsessed with learning the things that I haven’t learned how to do yet. So for me, it usually starts with something that I want to learn and then I build something off of that, that I can then offer to my guests.

So, let’s say for instance that I want to study a specific cuisine, I’ll go and study that cuisine and then figure out how that fits into one of our restaurant concepts. Now that we have different concepts, it forces me to study different kinds of cuisine.

I would say that the style that we communicate in the restaurants on our menus is that we like to sort of under offer and over deliver. We like to write descriptions of menus that are familiar to people and that almost seems not that exciting so that we get that chance to sort of surprise them and wow them. I think that that’s oftentimes how we approach a lot of the things that we do is to sort of under offer and over deliver.

AM: I really like that.

Who are your culinary influences?

CHEF MV: Wow, that is a tough one because I mean, I would say the one culinary influence that I have had in my career and this is a direct influence, because I have worked with him is, José Andrés (The Bazaar by José Andrés, Mercado Little Spain, Nubeluz). For someone that made me look at food completely differently, it would be him and I think that a lot of people who think of José, they think of the modern things that he has done in restaurants and that’s a big part of it, but when you talk to José, the thing that he is the most passionate about outside of feeding the world and helping people right now which is incredible, is actually the traditional food of Spain. Seeing him communicate to me that without a foundation like that, you can’t really do all this modern stuff because at the end of the day, the food has to be delicious. Learning that from him was probably a sort of pivotal moment in my career, because I was doing a lot of things then because I wanted to learn all of these modern techniques and I want to do all of these modern things. I think that often, people get caught up in the exercise of that and lose touch of the hospitality or the make it taste good aspect of it. I would think that I really settled into a level of confidence where I worked with him that would sort of influence me for the rest of my career.

AM: I first became aware of you on Season 6 of Bravo’s Top Chef. I’m a huge fan of that show and seeing you along with competing with your brother on the same season, what was that like for you and why did you want to be part of that show?

CHEF MV: So, when I went on Top Chef, this was sort of a moment in the industry where that was really the beginning of how you had the legends like Julia Child (Mastering the Art of French Cooking, The Way to Cook, The French Chef Cookbook), you had Emeril (Emeril’s, Emeril’s Coastal, Meril), you had Wolfgang (Spago, Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill, CUT) and the list goes on and on – Yan Can Cook, Ming Tsai (Bābā, Mings Bings, Simply Ming) – they were cooking on television and the list goes on and on and on. They were a handful of real chefs that were cooking on TV and then there was sort of the entertainment side of it. I think that when Top Chef came out, I think that that was the first show or competition that was pulling chefs from kitchens that were really grinding and really after it and giving them a platform to sort of go out and come out from being those introverts in the back of house to like these big personalities!

So I think that when the opportunity came, I was like, I wonder if there is a bigger way to sort of bridge this gap between people that are actually chefs and people that are just sort of chefs on TV. Can we really tell this story in a bigger way and connect to a bigger audience and through that, grow the interest and the curiosity in a higher level of cooking or a different level. Whether it’s making people culturally more aware for those that are interested in cultural cuisine or demographics of cuisine or whatever it is, can you educate people by entertaining them? So I didn’t see it as, I want to be on TV and I think that there were certainly a few of those even on my season on Top Chef that were there for that reason. I signed up to do that competition because I really believed that I could win it. I think that some people get involved in programs like this not necessarily thinking that, “hey, I can really win this thing.” For me, I thought, “I could win this thing and this could create an opportunity.” I couldn’t predict what you’re seeing today where every chef at every level or cook for that matter is in some way trying to communicate what they do through some form of social media or entertainment. Back when I did Top Chef, it was like there was this line in the sand – these are the chefs, the real chefs and these are the ones that are on TV, but not everyone was doing television or some form of visual media to tell their story. Then you look at today and everyone is doing it. I think that the risk that I took was worth it, but I also wanted to learn a different kind of skill set, like I wanted to learn.

I think that I was doing this ad for I think Vitamix and I remember going up to the set and I had a teleprompter in the camera and I was reading my lines off the lens while doing my little demo and I was with the blender that came with it and it was like, “welcome to your new Vitamix.” They kept telling me, “Michael, we can see your eyes reading the words in the lens – we can see you doing it off the teleprompter. Can you try and memorize at least part of it?” Again, in that moment, I was like, ok if I’m going to do this, then I need to get good at it. By getting better at television or getting better at sort of some of these visual mediums, I felt that I was getting better at communicating with my guests too. I think that as somebody who works in hospitality, it started to pull another part of myself out that would allow me to want to communicate with my guests even more. I felt like that moment and all of it I can credit back to the opportunity that I had on Top Chef. I think that outside of the exposure, outside of the money, and outside of the study that I had to put into the food, I learned so much going through that process. Even I think as a company owner, how to better and more effectively communicate - I think that that is something that I was missing at that time of my life.

“I think that I have obviously matured a lot as a person, but more specifically in my professional career, I think that I have matured a lot in the sense that I don’t know if I have a style and I think that that is interesting about the way that I like to cook now. I’m really still obsessed with learning the things that I haven’t learned how to do yet. So for me, it usually starts with something that I want to learn and then I build something off of that, that I can then offer to my guests.”

— Chef Michael Voltaggio

AM: What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to open up your own restaurants as that’s such a big step!

CHEF MV: So I was in Pasadena and I was running a restaurant there called The Dining Room at The Langham. They were actually super supportive and that’s where I was when I won Top Chef. I had left The Bazaar and left José. I was working at this restaurant in Pasadena when this show started to air. They were super supportive and they were like, this is your project, this is your room. We’ll grow you here, you’ll grow something big with the hotel and all of that. In my head I was like, do I need to go and do this on my own before I can go and do this in somebody else’s environment?

So they were very supportive in saying, “hey, we’ll renovate a restaurant and conceptualize something around what your goals are.” I was like, “this is super incredible and I think that I would want to do that.” But then I got a phone call and somebody said that they had a restaurant space and they were interested in meeting me and investing in me. At that moment, I was like, “oh, it can happen that easy!” They had read and heard about some of my accomplishments and they genuinely wanted to invest in me. And so I was like, now I need to see if I can do this. So, I took the meeting, we negotiated the deal and this person, his name is Mike Ovitz he started CAA. I don’t know if you are familiar with them.

AM: Very much so!

CHEF MV: He basically said, “what do you need to open the restaurant?” I have the space. I said that, “I really wanted someone to get behind whatever vision I have because this is the first chance that I have to do this and I kind of want to figure out how to do this on my own. What I really just need is money.” He gave it to me. He got behind me, we were partners for over 7 years and we still remain friends to this day, and he was a really good partner in the sense that he was there, but he wasn’t in my face with expectations. He built his career as somebody who supported artists or somebody who supported creatives. As someone who supported creatives, I think he did just that. I think that as a restaurant partner, it was the best scenario that I could find myself in because this was a person that built his career supporting creatives. So then, the money was there and it was time to start opening the restaurant. As you can imagine, I had to learn everything. I had to learn the legal side of it, I had to learn the human resources side of it, I had to learn the accounting side of it – I had to learn how to become a president of a company – not just how to run a menu. That’s the part that I hadn’t realized that I had signed up for at that time. You don’t know all of the nuance of starting a business until you start a business and then it’s, wait a second, I have 10 full-time jobs now!

AM: Pretty much!

CHEF MV: And so, I think again, if you look at that experience, it’s very similar to what happened on Top Chef. Here I was not realizing that I was now going to acquire a whole new set of skills that I didn’t have yet and so for me, you have this trajectory where you’re building on top of previous successes and you’re combining those successes to get more than you have to put yourself in a situation where you are learning. Then you have to retain that information and then you have to be able to teach that to other people, because it's the only way that you can grow your team around you. If you don’t have the tools to give them to be successful in your role or if you don’t know the expectation of the people that are going to work with you, then they’re not going to have a good experience and neither are you and neither is your business. So, for me, it was really important that I really understood everything and every layer that I was responsible for.

AM: You and your brother back in 2016 opened Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse together which was your first venture together. What was that like doing that especially as siblings?

CHEF MV: I think that at that point, we had gone in separate directions from each other and I think that we realized that we could accomplish a lot more if we worked together so we started flirting with the idea, and so when MGM called and said, "we have a restaurant in the Maryland/DC area and we’re building this hotel, we think that you should be involved in that," at the time I was living in California and I had Ink – it was still open. My brother was living in Maryland. The reason that the call came in was that somebody who had previously been my boss was the one that was making that call. They had called me saying that they had been watching my career since we had worked together. We'd be interested n potentially doing the restaurant project together at the MGM National Harbor and I was like, in that moment, my brother still lives there, I live in California this story makes the most sense that Bryan and I are both locals from that area and we should do this together. So that became the pilot for how we work in perpetuity. Bryan and I are now business partners in pretty much everything that we do in the restaurant space. So creatively, logistically, work wise – everything involved, it just made more sense. If we work together, we can work half as harder or accomplish twice as much. Just having that support system and having something that you trust as a partner, we didn’t realize how beneficial that was going to be for us moving forward. Because here we are this many years later and we haven’t broken up yet. I think that speaks volumes for how you can do it the right way. There is nothing wrong with family getting into business together.

AM: I love that! We also cover a lot of EDM artists, we enjoy going to music festivals and you guys have Volt Burger which has been in various festival circuits and Live Nation venues. Why did you want to be part of this experience in this particular way?

CHEF MV: I think again back when I talked about entertainment as a medium or a discipline that would be a great tool to connect more people, I think that when Live Nation came to us with the opportunity of getting Volt Burger put together and being in multiple venues across the country, I think we’re in 30+ venues at this point. I think again, we get to connect to that many people that fast. So, for us and Tom See who is the President of Venues for Live Nation, when he called, he really – you could hear it in his voice and see it in his face, that he had a real commitment to elevate just not the food and beverage experience, but the hospitality experience at the venues, I think that when you look at companies that are willing to invest in the safety and the overall experience of their customer base, like I could feel it and I could feel his commitment to where they wanted to do something bigger and do something better. A lot of people call with sentences and statements like that, but they don’t really get behind it.

AM: Right!

CHEF MV: Then you get passed off to somebody else and then it sort of dilutes itself. I think that with Tom and his team, and Andy Yates, Head of Food and Beverage – they’re both personally up to Mr. Rapino the President of Live Nation – they’re personally committed to making sure that what they’re going to do is going to happen. I think that for us, we have learned just as much from them as they have learned from us. I think that again, it’s all about that learning aspect of it. When you can be in multiple cities at once, and I’m not saying physically. We are sometimes physically present at these venues, but it’s a chance for people who don’t necessarily have a direct access to us to sometimes go back to that surprise moment that I talked about when we can under offer and over deliver.

Imagine a fan – or somebody that has always just wanted to try something from the Voltaggio Brothers – they go to a concert to see their favorite artist and then they’re walking through and they see this big banner of Bryan and I on the side of a burger stand and I can only imagine in that moment from them that they have that reaction again! It's like, "oh wait, I'm here to see this musician and there’s the Voltaggio burger!” In my head, I’m envisioning people having an even better time. This point in my career, if you were to ask me what my most important part of my career is, it's hospitality. I genuinely still get excited when I see someone’s reaction on their face when they taste something that I have made. I’m not like, “yeah I knew it was going to be that good,” I’m more like, “wow, thank you! It means so much to me that you like it that much!” It makes me want to go and do more. I genuinely feed off the energy of the people that I take care of. I think that a lot of chefs and a lot of restaurateurs lose touch with that.

AM: This year, you opened Vulcania at Mammoth Mountain. What can guests expect when we’re going there?

CHEF MV: Mammoth Mountain made a commitment to elevate the food and beverage experience. It’s one of the best outdoor recreational mountains in the whole country and in all four seasons. In the summer time, we're going into that now, they still have snow – people are still snowboarding there until like August 1st or 2nd – skiing as well. But again, here’s an opportunity to connect to a whole different demographic that I have yet to really have a chance to get to.

I think that the most unique food markets to elevate the food right now are in markets where there aren’t huge saturation of other restaurants. 1, because there isn’t that much competition and 2, that means that there is probably a need for it right there. So getting to sort of pioneer and go into an area that there isn’t a lot of chef-driven sort of concepts in Mammoth and them wanting to bring that there, to me meant that there was a need for it. Their guests were asking for something different or maybe more and again they made that commitment to hospitality to provide that.

So, that’s when we were like, how do we create a concept that is appropriate for families, appropriate for a very transient sort of guest, but also please people that need fuel to go out and do all of these extreme sport activities. That’s when we were like, we’re Italian and our last name is Voltaggio, we haven’t really done an Italian American concept together, let’s use this as an opportunity to now study this and to do that cuisine together and expand on our repertoire and our portfolio of what we can offer moving forward. So, we dug deep and dove deep into the research. We have always made our own pastas and sauces, and pizza at various different opportunities, but never brought it all together in one restaurant concept.

Then we got to dig deep into even naming the restaurant. Vulcania actually means volcano. Mammoth sits in a volcano more or less. That mountain is a volcano. And the first ship that brought our family to the US was the Vulcania!

AM: Oh wow!

CHEF MV: Yeah, so Voltaggio’s that traveled from Italy to NY, came on a ship called the Vulcania. So, the whole thing just came together. You can never say that something is your favorite restaurant. I just love the restaurant, I love the location, I love our partners, and I think that being part of a destination like that, the restaurant itself becomes a destination too. That’s a pretty special thing!

AM: That’s insane and I love the story involved in that!

I also love the idea of Retro. I like that it is kind of feeding into that 80s/90s feel with fashion and entertainment and its confluence. Can you tell me more about the concept and what the vibe of this restaurant is?

CHEF MV: The goal – well 1, it was a very fast turnaround. We had to come up with a really strategic way to sort of redecorate or revamp a room if you will. When MGM came to us with the opportunity and as you mentioned, we already had a restaurant with them at MGM National Harbor and so my favorite thing about our partnership with MGM is the only reason we don’t do something is because we haven’t thought of it. Any idea that you have, they have the resources and the ability to bring it to life as long as it makes sense you know?

I look at that space and Charlie Palmer (Charlie Palmer Steak, Sky & Vine Rooftop Bar, Dry Creek Kitchen) is one of my mentors as well, how do we take this iconic space at the Mandalay Bay and how do we make it enough ours so that it doesn’t feel like what it was while not taking away from what it was. Meaning, Aureole which was one of the first restaurants in Vegas that really told the story of these chef partnerships.

So we approached it with, what if we like – we moved around a lot as kids – what if we treated it like we did as kids where our parents had us in a new house and we got to decorate our new room. That’s effectively what it is. We call restaurants the room – the dining room is the room. So, let’s go decorate our room. We started down this path of what that would look like and I always had this in my head. I used to work with this chef named Katsu-ya Uechi (Katsu-ya, The Izaka-ya by Katsu-ya, Kiwami) and we talked about a concept that would be retro modern meaning that you could start with retro dishes and modernize them a little bit. I remember having to call Katsu-ya and say, “hey, I know that we had this conversation together and I know that this was something that you were really big on and wanted to do one day. Is it ok if I sort of do this concept, but in a much different way than what we discussed?” We had both nerded out on this back in the day and this opportunity came up where I could bring it to life. He was like, “yeah, go for it. If anyone could do it, it’s you.” So my brother and I decided to noodle on the idea and using that as the foundation to build this whole concept on top of.

What if everything that was important to us in our childhood through our personal and professional careers, what if we could tell that story through a restaurant. So down to the white CorningWare pots with the blue flowers on the side of it, we’re serving food in that. To the décor, Keith Magruder, if you look up BakersSon on Instagram, he’s an artist that did a lot of the art in there. So there’s a lot of painted album covers that throw back and tribute to the music in the 80s and 90s. He did things like make 2 scale 3 dimensional water color paintings of Nintendos and Blockbuster Videos and he made these cool paintings of gummy bears. He did an Uno Table and these 3 dimensional donuts and things like that. So what we did was we went into this room and just like when we were kids, it was kind of like, I’m going to hang up my favorite poster on the wall and I’m going to put up a couple of tchotchkes in the space and it's going to be mine.

What we didn’t realize was going to happen is that all the creative people in the company that worked for the company got behind it in such a big way that everyone started to contribute to the process! Down to Tony Hawk sent us one of his skateboard decks and wrote, “Go Retro” on it so that we could hang it up inside the tower. It was just one of those things where it was like, you have to be so careful when you have an idea because you don’t know how fast it can go and how many people will embrace it and get behind it. Before you know it, you can wake up and have something as incredible as Retro.

The food, we have Pot Roast and Mac & Cheese. But our Mac & Cheese, we make the noodles ourselves, we make this cloud of cheesy sauce that sits on top of it that’s sort of feels like the sauce that would come in a package of Velveeta, but we’re making it from really good cheddar cheese, we’re making a bechamel, we’re emulsifying the cheese into it and aerating it with a whip cream siphon – we’re making our own Cheez Whiz more or less!

“Then we got to dig deep into even naming the restaurant. Vulcania actually means volcano. Mammoth sits in a volcano more or less. That mountain is a volcano. And the first ship that brought our family to the US was the Vulcania!”

— Chef Michael Voltaggio

AM: Oh my God! It’s the best Cheez Whiz ever though!

CHEF MV: Yeah! It’s like, how do we start with this idea and then turn it into something that can be appropriate in an elevated dining experience? We’ve got a lot of that sprinkled throughout the menu. We also have things that are comforting too.

It’s not just like kitschy or trying to do something for the sake of doing it. Our Caesar Salad is just a Caesar Salad, but then we serve it with a little bag of churros that we make out of Parmesan Cheese. Our Mozzarella Caprese is a piece of cheese that we dip in a Pomodoro skin that creates a skin of tomato on the outside of it so that it looks like a tomato, but it tastes like a tomato sauce and it’s on the outside of a piece of cheese.

AM: Oh wow! Earlier this week on your IG Stories, I want to say that you had an avocado, but it was a pit that looked like a gelee – what was that?

CHEF MV: So, we had a dish and once again, this was us reacting to guest feedback, we had a dish that I called back, we had a dish that I called Chips and Guacamole on the menu. So, we did this giant rice paper wafer and put a confit of avocado in the middle of it. But the problem was when it went out to the guests, they said, “well, that’s not Chips and Guacamole. I don’t know what that is.” I think that some chefs, their egos would not allow them to say, “ok, do I listen to the guests and do I make a change?” So, when I hear stuff like that and it’s consistent, I’m like, “ok, I need to change this dish!” It’s not living up to the guest’s expectations. So, then I was like, Avocado Toast, bread would be more appropriate to eat with this. I wonder how I could make this retro. I learned the technique of spherification from José Andrés. It was created by chefs, Ferran Adrià and Albert Adrià (Tickets, Enigma, Little Spain) back in El Bulli back in the early 90s. It’s not retro. We’re in 2023! Can I pay homage to it without saying, “oh that’s such a dated technique, that I can’t believe that you’re doing it.” It was such an important technique that it changed like, José, the Adrià Brothers, they made a global impact on how chefs looked at food. So for me, I was like, I think that I can make a black garlic purée and spherify that the way that I learned how to do it when I was working with José and put that in the middle of an avocado that I’m putting in the oven and put that on a plate and put a couple of other seasonings on it and put it with some really good crusty bread and serve it as an Avocado Toast.

AM: That looked so ridiculously good!

CHEF MV: But you know what’s so crazy? Some people today, like the next generation of people that are out eating in restaurants, they never saw spherification. Like let’s say that someone who is 19 or in their 20s or whatever, they missed that whole thing. We have this obsession with trends and we program our brains to say if it’s trendy, then eventually, it will go out of style. Therefore, you have to forget about it.

Where kale had its moment, like last year, or 2 or 3 years ago that the Kale Caesar Salad became so popular people were like it’s so popular, you can’t put it out because it is on everyone’s menu. Or like Pork Belly, it disappeared! Like Pork Belly was on every single menu and then all of a sudden, one day you woke up and you’re like, “where’s all the Pork Belly?” Every chef was cooking it, but I think that people got it to be trendy because they liked it and that’s what they wanted. We have this innate desire for change when change isn’t necessary. I think that spherification got trendier and then people were like, what’s the next cool thing? But then when we do that, we forget that the cool things that we have and that these chefs have sort of put forward to learn, we feel this pressure to not embrace it or to not do it anymore because now we have to create the next big thing.

AM: Yup!

CHEF MV: Why not just keep it around? So we brought that back and not only as a nod to the Avocado Toast, but a nod to the individuals that were behind that technique. I thought that it was so cool when we first learned it and I didn’t think that it needed to go anywhere.

AM: I love how you approach food like that. As someone who in addition to being the Co-Founder of Athleisure Mag is a fashion stylist and a designer, there are many times when I’m like, “yeah, this is a great look, we don’t need to lock it as a trend that has an expiration or pause around it. We can still use this.” I love that you’re talking about something that I fight about on the fashion side all the time.

CHEF MV: I think that there are a lot of similarities between fashion and food too! When you think about the sustainability aspect, when you think about again – in your world, and I think that that’s why I love fashion as much as I do. But now, even in buying my clothes, I go look for old things. Like, I don’t want the newest trendiest thing, I want the old trendy thing, why did it go away? Where did it go? I think that when you look at some of the most successful brands now, they’re the ones that can continue to just bring it back whether it’s recycled with an actual item or an idea, it’s that storytelling that I think that people actually gravitate towards.

AM: I totally agree! I always tell people it’s about going back to the archives!

CHEF MV: Yeah!

AM: There’s so many things that you can spring back from it. You can put a twist on it and do whatever. But the archives are the archives for a reason! They’re going to be here much longer than some of these other things that are going to be a flash in the pan.

CHEF MV: I feel like people can go shopping in their own closet. If you’ve saved stuff from 3 years ago that you haven’t worn and then all of a sudden, you’re like, “wait a second, I’m going to look back at that.” Maybe you got something as a gift that you would have never worn when they gave it to you and then you rediscovered it again in your closet and I think that any creative could recognize that with whatever kind of discipline that they have. Just go back into your closet and try something old.

“But now even in buying my clothes, I go look for old things. Like, I don’t want the newest trendiest thing, I want the old trendy thing, why did it go away? Where did it go? I think that when you look at some of the most successful brands now, they’re the ones that can continue to just bring it back whether it’s recycled with an actual item or an idea, it’s that storytelling that I think that people actually gravitate towards.”

— Chef Michael Voltaggio

AM: Exactly!

Since being on Top Chef, you have been on so many TV shows judging and guest hosting and even doing series, why did you want to add these into your portfolio?

CHEF MV: I think it’s because I don’t want to become complacent. I think that my biggest fear in life was going to be that I would get stuck doing the same job every single day. Although that’s great for some people, and it’s necessary to have those who are committed to that, it didn’t work for me. I never had the attention span to do just that. And so, as I get those opportunities, I think that it make me better for what I do. For instance, if I go and I have 4 days where I can work on this television show, after the 4 days are done, I’m excited to go back to my restaurant. Maybe in those 4 days while I was gone, I learned something while I was there that I could bring back to my restaurant. For me, again, it’s about learning. I’m learning. I get to do something that I would have never had the opportunity to do. When I started cooking, if you told me that I would be doing dozens of episodes of television a year or any television at all, I remember when I was doing some local television and how nervous I was. I was like, wait, I didn’t sleep and I was telling everyone and it was local news! I thought it was the coolest thing on the planet for me to able to get to do. Then, fast forward to now and I’m a show that can reach millions of people. So, not only did I see the opportunity, but I feel a sense of responsibility to use that platform the right way and I think that I just love the fact that I get to communicate with that many people at once. I think that it’s an opportunity for me to tell my story, but also to continue to contribute to this commitment of hospitality that I signed up for. I’m not just making people feel good, I genuinely do this because I love the fact that what I do that maybe I can make someone else smile or whatever. I know how that sounds, but I genuinely believe that! The fact that I do that and I get to call it work is so important!

AM: Well, I know that you always bring so much energy when I see you on different shows like Bobby’s Tripple Threat, we’ve had interviews with Chef Brooke Williamson (Playa Provisions, Top Chef Season 14 Winner, Tournament of Champions Season 1 Winner) a number of different times. When I saw that you were on there, I couldn’t wait to see what you would do. Or, if I see you on Guy’s Grocery Games – it’s really cool to see your point of view when you're doing all of these different things.

CHEF MV: Yeah, when you look at the competition side of cooking too and what I learned very quickly is that it’s a very different discipline. A lot of super talented chefs who are in restaurants struggle with the competition side of it, especially if there are a lot of different cameras and stuff around them. So again for me, I thought, if I could become good at that, then that’s another level of chef that I can become good at and I think that what’s interesting about that is that I do it so much that the first time I competed, I took it so seriously. I still do! I get so much anxiety every time that I’m about to go. But then I do it so much and I started to look at competition cooking like the sport of cooking.

AM: Yup!

CHEF MV: It really is and it’s not for me as much about entertaining and doing a demo of what you’re doing. It’s more so that people can watch it and cheer for their favorite athlete and I think that that's what culinary competition really is.

So now, we win some and we lose some. You have to learn from those losses and I think that those losses are the ones that I have learned the most from. I think that anyone that competes in any competitive setting would say the same thing. You have to experience those losses to then go back and say, how can I be better so that I can get more of those wins. I think that it became a personal obsession because I wanted to continue to learn and win! Because it really is a sport – it’s a sport!

AM: Are there any projects that you have coming up that you can share that we should keep an eye out for? I feel like you’re always doing something!

CHEF MV: One thing that I can say is that Season 2 of Tripple Threat will start airing in August! I think that that’s the next big thing that we’re excited about. Then it’s about just getting back to work with Bobby Flay (Amalfi, Bobby’s Burgers, Brasserie B), Brooke and Tiffany Derry (Roots Southern Table, Roots Chicken Shak, Top Chef Season 7 Fan Favorite). I think that there is more to that than what everyone has seen so far! I think that for me, that is really one of my favorite projects that we're doing right now. Myself, Brooke, and Tiffany - Bobby included, we’ve all become so close to one another through this project and I think that more of that – I want to be able to keep my knives sharp and my brain sharper. I think that the best opportunity for me to do that is growing my relationship with Live Nation, Bryan and I are really sort of excited about the amount of support that we’ve gotten from MGM with every project that we have in the works with them. I think that for now, honestly what I’d like to focus on is focusing on what I have going on. I think that right now is a good point to say that I am satisfied with everything that we have our hands around right now. Let’s just focus on doing the best job that we can at that and then maybe next year, pivot and start focusing on some other stuff. For now, I have a lot of responsibilities and I have a chance to make a lot of people happy and I’m going to focus on that!

AM: As someone who is so busy, how do you take time for yourself so that you can just reset?

CHEF MV: I mean, I think that you have to force it. I have a tendency to say yes to everything and I think that I grew up working more 7 day weeks then I did 5. I would say that I did that for a good part of my life. I wanted to do it, but I did it because I had to as well. I mean, I had 2 daughters when I was young and I remember when I was doing my apprenticeship, on my days off I was standing in a deer processing plant at a local butchers house processing meat and stuff to pay the bills you know? I think that my work ethic is something that is really important to me and it’s something that I don’t want to lose touch of. I think that it’s a super valuable asset, but at the same time, I’m allowing myself to do that, to take a couple of things and to just go do something. Like yesterday was my daughter’s birthday and it’s a little extreme, but my brother flew me here from Vegas, we were at our restaurant doing an event and I was like, “I need to get to my daughter, it’s her birthday.” She’s down here in medical school, she’s going to become a doctor.

AM: Oh wow!

CHEF MV: Not only is it like a Voltaggio going to college which is one thing! But a Voltaggio becoming a doctor is another! My other daughter is here as well and she’s like also doing her own thing and so when you have those moments to spend time with family, my brother flew my wife and I down here just to spend 2 days with my daughters here. I think that family time is so key!

AM: Your smile is so big right now!

CHEF MV: Well because I think that as much as I hate that I am going to say this, I really neglected my family for a long time because I had this path that I had to do these things so that I could be better for them. So now, I think that at this point in my life, as much as I provided for them, I think that I could be more present for them and that’s something that I am really trying to carve out time for.

AM: If we were invited to your house for brunch, what would be something that you would cook for us? I always love knowing what people’s brunch menus are.

CHEF MV: I mean as much as I hate to say it, I would have to have something with caviar on it because I think that, I don’t know, to me brunch is caviar. I think that that’s really weird to say, but when I worked, no one wanted to work brunch at the luxury hotel. If you got scheduled to work brunch, you were getting punished. I think that that was the first time that I tried caviar. Working brunch at The Greenbriar Hotel or at The Ritz Carlton or something like that and I was like, “hmm, I like this stuff.” Then when I was in charge of running things, there was Caviar Eggs Benedict, caviar this and caviar that! I just really liked it. There’s a restaurant that we have here in LA called Petrossian, you have one in NY as well.

AM: We literally lived around the corner from them!

CHEF MV: So, they do this Caviar Flatbread there and I had it once, I’ve had it a lot actually, and I’m going to go home and recreate my own version of this. Every time I have a brunch, I am going to do this. You can do this with smoked salmon like the Wolfgang Smoked Salmon Pizza that Wolfgang Puck makes. But you buy the flour tortillas, and you brush them with a little olive oil and season it with a little salt and bake those in the oven. You pull them out and you have a crispy flatbread.

So now, you can build this breakfast pizza on whatever you want on top of it. So, now you grab crème fraiche, capers, grab some chopped red onion, parsley, a little hard-boiled egg, and whether it’s smoked salmon or caviar, you cut it into pizza. It’s easy, it looks beautiful –

AM: Wow!

CHEF MV: You said wow, I only described it to you and you said wow! I used to get that a lot when I went to Petrossian for brunch and I would always order the Caviar Flatbread. So, a smoked salmon version or whatever, I just think that the idea of using a flour tortilla is something that everyone should have in their repertoire!

IG @mvoltaggio

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 16 - 27 CREATIVE DIRECTION Dominic Ciambrone, PHOTOGRAPHY Bryam Heredia, PHOTO COURTESY of SRGN Studios | PG 28 + 31 Food Network/Guy's Grocery Games | PG 32 - 35 Food Network/Bobby's Triple Threat |

Read the JUL ISSUE #91 of Athleisure Mag and see TRUE HOSPITALITY | Chef Michael Voltaggio in mag.

HOMAGE TO FOOD & CULTURE | CHRIS SCOTT

This month, our cover features Chef Chris Scott who was a finalist in Season 15 of Top Chef in Colorado and brought his technique and culinary view to the show. From that season, he continued to be on our radar as we saw him appear on a number of shows and food-oriented festivals and more. He's always focused on the food, making sure that it educates us on the cultures and regions it comes from as well as ensuring that he continues to reach back and assist chefs that are coming up by sharing knowledge where he can! We caught up with him ahead of the holiday season to dig a little deeper into his background, what he is focusing on with his restaurants, what it's like when you're going through the Top Chef process and his cookbook Homage: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen. His insights on the intersectionality of foods he grew up with as well as how he has created impactful James Beard Foundation dinners is a conversation that we truly enjoyed!

ATHLEISURE MAG: We’re excited to have you as this month’s cover. We have connected via in the past and it’s always great to see you and your food, and what you’re working on!

When did you fall in love with food and when did you know that you wanted to be a chef as a career?

CHEF CHRIS SCOTT: I would say that I fell in love with it when I realized that early on in my career. It was sort of when it became more than just cooking and it became more so a way of life and the way that I understood the power from within the food and what it could do. Not only to sustain our bodies and everything, but what it could do culturally and things of that nature. It became more of a revolutionary kind of platform for me.

AM: How do you define your culinary style?

CHEF CS: My style, it changes from time to time. When you first start out, you're busting out all of your best moves in the beginning. You see that a lot in younger chefs and they really want it to be more about them than it is about the food! So you kind of go through those phases – the up and down and through the ebb and flow. But the older that I get, I understand that it is about the food and it was never really about me so you try really hard to highlight those things as far as food and everything is concerned. It’s about the farmers, it’s about the growing aspect and it’s about all of those things!

My cooking, some of the styles of it, I have been trained in fine dining and I have been doing that for 30+ years. You know I’ve worked in some very high-end spots. Right now, I’m kind of focused in on the food of my ancestors, but I do it all! The focus is really about the food and not about me, you know?

AM: Right!

Tell us about Butterfunk Biscuit Co. I’ve looked at the IG posts over the past few months or so and it’s some drool worthy pictures!

CHEF CS: Yeah! I don’t do the social media on there! I’ve seen it here and there. Butterfunk Biscuit Co is heritage biscuits at its finest. You’re going to be experiencing biscuits that have been passed down for 4 generations and it’s the biscuit that I did on Top Chef that got a lot of notoriety and people were lined up outside of the doors and they still are! But it’s where you can really come and it emphasizes more on Black bakers because I actually do a lot of pastries out of there and I’m going to be expanding into a lot of Rotis and Jeera and everything. So really focusing on chefs that bake from Brown countries. Just really trying to emphacize breads that are made by Brown hands.

AM: We enjoyed your season of Top Chef Season 15 in Colorado. Why did you want to compete on the show? You were a finalist on that season which was amazing and it was great to hear your story!

CHEF CS: It’s funny because that particular season, I did not want to compete! I applied 5 times onto the show and just didn’t get onto it and everything. I read somewhere that over 200,000 chefs apply to the show every year and they choose anywhere from 12-15 people and after awhile, the process is very long. Not only do you have to fill out this intense application – sometimes you hear back and sometimes you don’t. To only have to go through a bunch of Skype calls, to doing tastings, to be flown to different locations around the country – it’s a pretty long process and I didn’t want to have to go through that process for a 6th time!

AM: That’s understandable!

CHEF CS: At that time, my wife and I, we had our youngest kid, so we had a 1 year old and a baby. When I got the call, I turned them down at first and I told my wife, “hey listen, Top Chef called, they wanted me to come and try out for this season, but I told them no.” She said, “call them back and tell them yes!” I said, “how are we going to do this? How are you going to run 2 restaurants and 2 small children if I get on the show?” She said, “don’t worry, we’ll find a way.” So I got on and we found a way.

AM: Well you found a way!

Shortly after that season aired, Cochon 555 happened and that’s where we first met you in person as we were media sponsors of that event here in NY. It was cool to see you as well as other cheftestants from your season there as well. We know that you support other chefs, you do other types of foodie events – why is that so important to you to be able to participate and to present yourself in those spaces with all of those people?

CHEF CS: You know, it’s always good to be able to keep yourself out there and to show people what you’re out there do show people what you’re out there doing and to use that platform sometimes for a bit more than just food. It’s also about talking about how the industry is moving, what’s new or even some new dishes that you might want to be able to highlight. But it’s also important to want to uplift the ones that are coming up behind you as well. I think I did that event with Tyler Anderson (Millwright's, Ta-Que, Bar Piña) and Bruce Kalman (Soulbelly BBQ, BK Brinery) you know back in the day. Actually, there was a Cochon in Aspen while we were filming and we were at the finals and we weren’t supposed to leave the cast house, but we snuck out and went to the Cochon party back then. Not only was it fun, but you get to rub elbows with your colleagues from different parts of the country, but it’s good to kind of lift up the other chefs that are coming up behind you to give them that experience to be there and to also see what’s happening so that in the following years, they can be involved.

AM: We recently saw you on Bobby’s Triple Threat! Love that episode and how was it to be on the show and to taste 2 great chefs going head-to-head and then having to score them and to figure out a winner?

CHEF CS: Right! I mean for that day, it was some good eats for sure!

AM: It looked so good!

CHEF CS: I knew I was going there so I didn’t eat breakfast at all and I went in there ready! But that whole experience was pretty surreal! I knew of Bobby (Amalfi Las Vegas, Bobby’s Burgers, Beat Bobby Flay: Holiday Throwdown) back in the day in my Philly days. He started out on Food Network doing a show called Grillin’ and Chillin’ with Jack McDavid who’s a Philly chef back in the day and they tried to have Jack McDavid who was this country bumpkin dude wearing a farmer’s outfit and Bobby was supposed to be a city boy coming on the scene. Now here we are 20 some years later, he’s still doing it and I’m still doing it and we were just kind of talking about the old days and having the opportunity to be on the show was a great time!

AM: We love that!

We’re excited to learn more about Homage: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen. I live in NY now, but I’m originally from Indianapolis, so I grew up around Amish communities although they were not in my town per se. I never thought about Amish and Soul Food having a connection until I saw you on Top Chef and you were talking about it. Can you tell us why you wrote this book and what that connection is like?

CHEF CS: So the book was written for a bunch of reasons. I think that the first and foremost is that I look at it like it is a love letter passed down from the women that have raised me to my children and their stories kind of run through me. My mother and grandmother passed away before my children were born and there always comes a time in anyone’s life when they kind of want to know where am I from, who are my ancestors, what did they do and what did they eat? So this book really touches base on that, but also with the intermingling of the food and everything. Soul Food to me, is regional and is based on where you are. So wherever you are in the country, is certainly where some of the ingredients will be available to you. For example, my people are from Virginia – tidewater people so you have a lot of that Virginia agriculture a little bit of that coastal stuff with the shad, the shad roe, the blue crab so on and so forth. You keep on going down South - the Gullah Geechees in the Carolinas. It’s more of a rice culture and more African flavors. Keep on going further South, now you’re in the panhandle of Florida, more Creole. Up where I’m from, there are German, Dutch and Amish, so after Emancipation happened, with the Great Migration and everything, by the time I was born, the Southern culture and the Amish culture were already intermingled so that was the only food that I knew. But that happens everywhere because Black people are everywhere!

AM: So what foods are considered Amish foods?

CHEF CS: It’s more of a flavor as opposed to Black Amish. You know the flavors that we bring with us from Africa, through the Caribbean, through the American South and so forth. But once you intermingle it with some of that German technique and flavors, you have acidity and sugars and vinegar and that sweet and sour aspect really plays its role. For example, that Lemonade Fried Chicken that I did on Top Chef and which is also in the book, everybody and their mama is doing some form of tea brined chicken, but I chose to do a lemonade brine. Now it’s not like Country Time, but it is lemon juice, it is hot sauce, it is buttermilk, it is fresh spices and everything. So, it’s more or less, a savory lemon like a marinade like that which is on the border of sweet and savory.

So you have all of those aspects and flavors that are into it as well. So when I talk about the Amish Soul Food, again, it’s not Black Amish food. It’s more like flavor profiles and stuff like that.

AM: You’ve cooked at 9 James Beard Foundation dinners, 5 of them as the lead chef and you also created the first Juneteenth Dinner at the Beard House with Brother Luck (Top Chef Season 15, Beat Bobby Flay, Chopped), Tanya Hopkins (Kwanzaa Menu, James Hemings: Ghost in America’s Kitchen, Savory & Sweet) and Andrea Cheatham (Top Chef Season 15 Runner Up, Alex vs America, Live! with Kelly and Ryan). This dinner is now an annual event. What is it like to cook at Beard House and what was it like to create that iconic meal on Juneteeth?

CHEF CS: It was super special! I also got invited back today and I am going back on Dec 5th.

AM: That’s exciting!

CHEF CS: So it will be #10 which blows my mind, but every single time I walk through those doors, I always intentionally get there first. I always want to be the first person in the room because I remember all of the legendary chefs that came through before me that stood in that same kitchen and I always like to be their first, put my hands on the table and kind of get a feel and play my music, start prepping and just kind of really set the mood and the vibe for everyone that comes through because tonight is my night! That has always been what’s going on and for chefs of color that might be coming through, I always say, “hey, listen. Before you go, call me and I’m going to tell you how you can really make this night special. I kind of have them follow through. As far as Juneteeth, it was special to be the first to do that and I’m really glad that they continued to do so. Like I’ve said, we always want to be able to pull all the others up and there’s a lot of really amazing chefs from generations that are behind me and that are up and coming and that they are already here! For them to be able to have their moment there is special too!

AM: Well, you’re also the chef at the Institute of Culinary Education. Why did you want to add this to your resume as you have done so many things that are so amazing. What was about that that you wanted to be part of it?

CHEF CS: Well, they asked me to come through. It more so started on the ambassador level, where they said here you’re doing great things – why don’t you use our space and we’ll pay you for it. So whenever we have an idea to do something creative, they want to be part of it. So they tell me to come through, use their kitchen, use their food and all I have to do is to document it and kind of teach that to the students. So that’s what we do. But again, it’s always paying it forward and really showing that next generation what it's all about. Again, it's not ever about me. There was a time when it was and when I needed the whole world to know what Chris Scott was doing. But that is so not important. What’s important is that I’m taking all my wisdom, all my experience, all my know how and kind of giving that to the next generation. Even when it’s how to navigate the way through the kitchen as a chef of color – all of those things. It’s so much experience that needs to be passed along.

AM: Couldn’t agree more with this. My background coming from fashion and being the Co-Founder of Athleisure Media, to navigate as a person of color in these spaces it’s not easy. Anytime I can go back and tell people that this is how they need to do it or how to be on set – giving that knowledge is going to help that person who may not have known anything about that. You have to know what you know and how to actually interact with other people.

CHEF CS: Absolutely!

AM: Are there any upcoming projects we can keep an eye out for?

CHEF CS: Well, we’re currently looking for a brick and mortar spot that’s a standalone for Butterfunk Co all over again. We left Brooklyn back in 2019 and we’re sort of looking to get back into it. I’m currently on the 8 city/19 event book tour. I’ll be down at the BayHaven Food & Wine Festival in Charlotte Oct 19th – 23rd for a second time in a row. As you know, that’s pretty much the mecca of Black chefs like all of the who’s who kind of goes there. We’re doing a dinner that Fri and I will also be there on Sat. On Fri, I am doing a seafood dinner with some of my colleagues and on Sat morning, I am doing a book signing and then I’m back on the plane.

IG @chefchris512

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Front Cover, 16-25, 27 + 29 Courtesy Chris Scott | PG 26 + Back Cover From Homage, ©2022 Chris Scott. Photos © Brittany Conerly |

Read the NOV ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see HOMAGE TO FOOD & CULTURE | Chef Chris Scott in mag.

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ATHLEISURE LIST | STICKY'S FINGER JOINT

During the summer of 2019, Athleisure Mag's team headed to the Liberty National Golf Course for The Northern Trust tournament. The night before the tournament launched we were treated to a fun party at the course and got our first taste of Sticky's Finger Joint which is known for their sauces and chicken.

Since 2012, this eatery has grown from it's Greenwich Village location and now includes 13 locations between NorthJersey and an array of neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. They have also been featured on Food Network's 3 Days to Open with Bobby Flay. This month, they will be opening their 14th location in Philadelphia.

It’s worth noting that their fried fingers, grilled fingers and bite-sized poppers are made from farm-raised, antibiotic and hormone-free chicken (and their mushroom poppers are made from crimini mushrooms, vegan tempura batter and panko breadcrumbs). They use local ingredients to make their 18 different homemade sauces inspired by cuisines from around the world. Between all those choices, plus sandwiches, wraps, salads, nachos and French fry baskets, there are literally quadrillions of different theoretical options on the menu.

SFJ also offers vegetarian fingers that are made with a mushroom-based protein. They have the following sauces that are vegan: Nashville Numb, SalsaVerde, and Thai Sweet Chili.

SFJ is available for delivery and takeout at all our locations.

Earlier this year, SFJ started RandomActofStickys where they donated individually packaged meals to first responders. In addition to sending meals on behalf of their own guests' inquiries and local hospitals, they partnered with NoshesforNurses, led by Jill Zarin and Ally Shapiro to send meals to nurses and first responders that were nominated by their fans. From this initiative, they donated over 800 meals.

For their most recent store opening, they ran a campaign called Basket4Basket and matched the number of small baskets sold in partnership with Boys and Girls Club of Harlem. They donated over 300 meals to kids going back to school

STICKY'S FINGER JOINT

Visit Sticky's Finger Joint for locations.

www.stickys.com

IG @stickysfingerjoint

Read the Nov Issue #59 of Athleisure Mag and see Athleisure List | Sticky’s Finger Joint in mag.

14TH ANNUAL STARCHEFS INTERNATIONAL CHEFS CONGRESS

We headed to Brooklyn for the weekend to watch a number of demonstrations, panel discussions and meeting with a number of vendors at the 14th Annual StarChefs International Congress. We were excited to do a deep dive into its various initiatives that it presents to those in the culinary community. We took some time at the beginning of this conference to talk with StarChefs' Managing Editor, Will Blunt on what took place at the conference, what he's looking forward to as well as the issues facing those in the culinary industry as we go into the next year.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Can you tell us about your background and how you came to Star Chefs?

WILL BLUNT: I grew up in Washington DC and my parents were in politics. I graduated from Georgetown University and like most people, I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I taught high school tennis for a bit and did some work on The Hill for a while. I then decided to jump-start my career by moving to NY – it was the height of the internet exuberance in the late 90s. I was thinking about going the path of a conservative banking job and I did some interviews and I got allergic to the concept. I eventually took a minute to help a friend at what is StarChefs now. This friend had been hired as the first employee after a fundraising round and I got the bug. I’m 20 years in now.

In terms of food, I fell into it and then fell in love with the industry. I do cook and I am really into food; however, I am most inspired by the industry and the people that work within it. In the early 2000s, like most internet companies, we didn’t have a lot of direction, but we were firmly committed with my business partner Antoinette to be completely on the trade side, publish for chefs and make our mission to support chefs and other people in the industry. The idea with that is that it’s a wonderful industry opportunity, but it is also one with with a number of pains and challenges. We have a classifieds area that helps with labor which is a pain, all of our publishing is about best practices and inspirations for chefs and they are really passionate people. I have been most inspired by them in this industry and I do love food. I have gotten to know them really well, but it is truly about the people for me.

AM: What are your day to day roles in StarChefs?

WB: Fortunately we have evolved a bit – we’re still 15 full staff and for this event, we have 100 people who work on it. I do a bit of everything now and we have fortunately evolved to the point that we have great people that have different departments. I do a bit of fundraising and development, HR, I make a point to stay engaged. So let’s say in the early days there were 5 people – I learned to use a camera and my business partner Antoinette as well – there was a rule that everyone needed to be able to use a camera – classic start-up that’s boot strapping. We would do the Tastings Interviews. I didn’t mention it, but our thing that distinguishes StarChefs from any other publication is that we do 600 tastings interviews on the ground, every year across the country. We organize that to the 4 markets typically by quarter and we spend 2-3 hours with the chef, pastry chef, somm, artisan baker, coffee roaster – anyone that’s industry and doing something well. We will visit them, document them and get to know them. We share what we think is done well and would be inspiring for other people. So, all of that to say that, I still do that. It’s important because it’s something I enjoy doing, but we now have a wonderful editor, writers, full time photographer who are super capable, but I still keep my toe in the editorial. Just to stay in touch and I love the culture of the restaurant community.

AM: What’s the biggest thing that you have learned about chefs by working in this environment that still keeps you inspired to be a part of this everyday?

WB: Yes, the industry is still – despite all of the media attention in food TV and all of the exposure with celebrity chef scenarios etc – it’s very merit based and egalitarian. So at the end of the day, even if you have a Top Chef show and all that goes with it, you still face the same challenges. Many of the chefs that really early on inspired me and were early supporters, they all started at the dishwasher level. I think Jean Georges who is one of our Board of Directors he made dog food to start his career – not even human food (editor’s note: at the beginning of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s career in Michelin three-starred L’Auberge de l’Ill in Alsace, he cooked and prepared the meals for the guests dogs)! Marcus Samuelsson who is a great friend and supporter, worked a hot dog stand, Bobby Flay scooped ice cream and so it’s very honest in that sense. There’s less patience in the industry because the demographic is such that there is such an explosion and there isn’t really a shortage. There are more opportunities that are quicker in the industry, but at the end of the day, there is still this certain base or sense of needing to work to get to where you are. I admire that and I like supporting people that are working that hard and trying to make it in an industry that has a lot of opportunity, but a lot of failure. I think 80% of all restaurants fail in the first 3 years or something along those lines. I think that my staff has had a lot of great people that have worked in the industry or gone to culinary school. We are all motivated by trying to be that extra leg up, or piece of perspective or inspiration. Folks that come to this conference – the best version for their experience of busting their ass all year is to come here to get a few days off to be inspired and to remind themselves on why they do what they do.

AM: Going into 2020, what do you think are 3 of the biggest issues that chefs are concerned about?

WB: Yeah of course! In this conference, I am hosting a session with Restaurateur Sean Feeney, his partner Chef Missy Robbins of Misi and Lilia and then Cosme’s Chef Daniela Soto-Innes – we will talk about restaurant culture and moving it forward. That was the theme of our conference last year, but it’s about being better humans. How you treat people and the culture. Everyone is on board in theory with that; however, I think that the challenge in terms of 2020 and beyond is how you walk the talk. It’s a challenge that’s easy to say in terms of providing benefits, treating employees better, more decent hours – but how do you develop the strategies to run a successful business and still do that?

I think that there is something that has developed amongst chefs and those in the industry in general, the brand image – it’s another panel we just finished. It focuses on how you manage your time and capital, what you invest in. That has been something that has built up over time. Which events do you decide to do and now it’s even more when you look at social media in how you present yourself and how much energy you put in to that. What opportunities do you say yes to and it’s pretty high level as not everyone is at that point. I think that even on a micro level, people who are starting out and opening a restaurant, they need to decide on investing in PR, social media and that’s another thing. I think there are the ongoing challenges that may not be 2020 challenges, but it’s becoming more acute with the larger companies that have bigger scale that are snatching up real estate that independent restaurateurs have harder times to access. Starting a restaurant is harder and harder and having to leverage to get the right space at the right price and to keep it once you're successful. That is a serious issue and when you look at NYC it's a great example because we have parts of Manhattan that are unattainable and all the leases are controlled by large management companies. Then you have the chains, I’m not saying that they’re all bad – they employ people and there are great ones that do home scratch cooking – but for the independent restaurant and chef that is a challenge.

AM: What are 3 panels, demonstrations, workshops etc that you are excited about for this year’s StarChefs?

WB: Our program is really strong this year and we tried to involve people that are more or less famous although our name is StarChefs, we’re not all about stardom. Some of the items I will highlight may seem like the less obvious ones. Ben and Brent from The Meat Hook will be doing an event on the main stage which they call Vintage Beef. I don’t know how much you know about them, but it’s my local butcher. They have been exploring different ways that they can be sustainable. One issue we have across the food system that we have with meat at least is a lot of our USDA and certification is centered around young animals. So they are going to be fabricating a 12 year old bull and they will serve it as a tartare. Apparently, I haven’t had it, but it tastes like an aged beef which is a cool thing to demonstrate that dairy cows, bulls etc have value if we could get to a place where we not only use the whole animal but all animals. I think that that will be a good one!

I think that an obvious one is that we have the most signups for Chef Francis Mallmann who is on Chefs Table on Netflix. He is so inspiring and I have wanted him to present for years! He is closing the show and he will be building a fire in the parking lot outside and presenting on the mainstage a vegetable roll! It will be carmelized and cooked with the fire ahead of publishing his Vegan cookbook which will be out next year. It's pretty cool as he has always been identified with a lot of meats. I think that for our chefs, one of the reasons why they are so excited for it aside from the fact that Chef Mallmann due to his great presence is that cooking with fire is really a thing that chefs find to be a bit of challenge. Everyone wants to cook with fire and it’s a trend, but how you actually harness fire, to cook consistently at different temperature points – those techniques are great takeaways for chefs.

I mentioned the panel earlier with the discussion with Daniela and Sean, they are 2 really special people that are models and examples of what the future of our restaurant industry should be and models that they should look at as one if a chef and one is a restaurateur. They have cool strategies to improving restaurant culture.

IG @StarChefs

@Will_Blunt

We sat down with James Beard Nominated husband and wife duo of Don Angie to talk about their West Village Italian American restaurant.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Can you tell us about Don Angie for our readers who have yet to swing by?

ANGIE RITO: It’s an Italian American restaurant in the West Village here in NYC. It’s more American leaning than Italian. We both grew up in Italian American families – like super passionate about red sauce and we take quite a few liberties with it. We use a lot of different ingredients and take more of a global approach to it.

AM: Why did you decide to do it like that?

AR: To be honest, there are a number of reasons and the major one being – we like to incorporate a lot of flavors that we like that aren't Italian into our food. Whether they're like Chinese or Japanese - or whatever it is. We just like to cook ingredients that we like. In NYC especially, there are a lot of Italian restaurants so we really like to set ourselves a part and this is the main way that we do that. Coming up with our own style of Italian food that we like that’s a broad perspective on what we do.

AM: As a husband and wife team, how does that work for you to cook together, work together – how does that coupleship work?

AR: We’re both super passionate about what we do and that’s what drives us. We could never work in this industry separately because we would never see each other. We tried doing it for a while. At the beginning of our relationship, we worked separately and like I said, you’re working 14-15 hour days and we wouldn’t see each other. We felt that working together was the best way to do what we loved together. It also works to our advantage. We’re typically on the same page and we can read each other’s minds because we spend so much time being together. It kind of helps because we communicate minimally when we’re at work and we’re always on the same page.

AM: What would you guys say would be your signature dishes at Don Angie?

AR: The most recognizable one is our lasagna. It’s a pinwheel style lasagna. That’s the one that everyone photographs and it’s all over Instagram. Aside from that, our Chrysanthemum Salad which is basically treated like a Caesar salad with a garlic anchovy dressing a lot of parmesan, sesame bread crumbs. The third thing would be ….

SCOTT TACINELLI: I’d say it’s a toss up between two things, the Buffalo Milk Caramelle and the Stuffed Garlic Flatbread.

AR: Oh I agree! Our Buffalo Milk Caramelle is a two tone black sesame and persimmon pasta. We just did a demo of our flatbread. This is something that is traditionally Italian, but we totally take it in a different direction by putting sesames on it, garlic, garlic chives and so it’s different than the original one.

AM: When did you guys know that you wanted to be chefs?

SC: I changed my careers as I did something else for like 9 years. I always loved cooking when I was a child and then I decided that I should try cooking and took a few classes at culinary school and then I went full time.

AR: For me, I always wanted to have a restaurant since I was a little kid. I used to play pretend restaurant when I was a kid. I wasn’t sure about what path in terms of cooking, working front of house or what that would be. I grew up in an Italian American family that had a bakery and I liked working there. I grew up in a very food-oriented family. Once I moved to NYC right after college, I was working as a waitress in a restaurant and at that moment at 21, I knew I was so passionate that I really wanted to know how to cook it. I started cooking then and didn’t go to culinary school and just asked if I could volunteer in the kitchen and I kept going.

AM: Do you guys envision another location or going to an entirely different coast?

AR: I think that the next thing that we would do is probably something in NYC, preferably something in the West Village as that’s where Don Angie is and easier for us to be present.

ST: I don’t know if it would be another Don Angie’s. AR: No, it would be another concept.

AM: How was it for you when you were nominated for a James Beard Award?

AR: I was surprised – I was like, ok! It was super exciting and I just wasn’t expecting it.

ST: I was very surprised and it was such an honor to be recognized by such an esteemed organization!

AR: Especially in NYC where there are so many other people!

AM: Do you forsee having a TV show or presenting your brand in different ways that we know chefs utilize.

AR: We are working on a cookbook right now. It won’t be out until 2021.

ST: We’re going to take it day by day and see what comes!

IG: @DonAngieNYC

When it comes to one of our favorite comfort foods, it's pizza! It incorporates a number of traditional ingredients as well as those that aren't. We chatted with Emily Hyland of Pizza Loves Emily and Emmy Squared to talk about how this food became the catalyst to this successful business.

ATHLEISURE MAG: So, pizza – why do you like pizza so much?

EMILY HYLAND: I mean, I think it harkens back to the quality of this nostalgia that all of us have as Americans. We all have this memory of pizza parties with friends or going out and have pizza or enjoying a slumber party and ordering pizza. It’s this uniting American food that lives in the state of our history. So why wouldn’t we want to have pizza?

AM: We know a few people who say that they don’t like pizza and we’re like, “really?”

EH: My dad says that and then every time he comes in he eats like a whole freaking pizza!

AM: How did you transfer this love for pizza to saying, I want to have a restaurant and make a business out of pizza?

EH: It was a dream for me and at that time, my husband as a dream for many years. We were in a moment where I had transitioned out of being a public school teacher and was a full time yoga teach – which is a next to nothing earnings for that time and space in my life. We had moved to Brooklyn and he was apprenticing at a neopolitan restaurant. I remember the day that he came home and he said, “I put my hands on the dough and this is what I want to do.” So the time and space really opened up and we took a chance and that really got us into our first brick and mortar, Pizza Loves Emily. From there, we found growth partners through our wonder partner Howard who has taken this small little baby, our first child and has helped us merge this into a growing company.

AM: How does it feel to know how you started and how it has evolved into what exists now?

EH: It’s really been surreal and I haven’t digested it – no pun intended! It’s weird as the founder and the namesake to have this identity that’s so rooted in my heart and then to relinquish some of this control to this corporate structure that is developing. It’s tons of learning and really taking something that is so very much mine and making it ours in this whole team. I love it and I’m having so much fun! The people that we have brought on to help it grow like the Director of Operations, the Director of Marketing are so talented and really care so much about the concept that it has made it so much nicer to be able to go to work everyday.

AM: What would you identify as your 3 signature pizzas?

EH: Our 3 signature pies at Emmy Squared are the Colony – so that’s got pepperoni, pickled chili honey so you’ve got salty, spicy, sweet trifecta – hands down fan favorite. Not too far behind it is the Vodka Pie. It’s house made, really nice creamy vodka sauce – the way I do it is dollops of burrata on it – I do it like a Margarita and just go extra on it. Then the Roni Supreme. A classic pie with tons of pepperoni and tons of Calabrian chili on it. So it’s like an elevated pepperoni pizza and the Calabrian chili oil is not so much spicy, but warm - it really rounds out the pie really nicely.

AM: Where do you get your pizza inspiration from?

EH: That’s all from our head chef, Chef Matt. He is really talented at developing topping creations and is trained as a culinary artist and a lot of that vision is from him. He conceptually wanted Emmy Squared and Pizza Loves Emily to be fun and not rooted in the formality that so many more esoteric pizza places do when they say, “this is what pizza is supposed to be.” We just wanted to open ourselves up to the variety of toppings that we could have without judgment. What you want is what you like!

AM: What are 3 ingredients that you like to have on hand when it comes to making that best pizza?

EH: So I think it’s our cheese obviously! At our original location, we still make our own mozzarella by hand. Over at Emmy Squared, we have a chef blend which we sprinkle around on the outside of the edge of the pan and it carmelizes with the dough on the pan so you get a fried cheese which is delicious. Our Ezzo Pepperoni cups are our ronis that cup nicely on the pizza. We also use really high quality flour. We use King Arthur Flour that is here in America and not shipped over from Italy. We start from that simple ingredient and just build from there and just add yeast, water and a little bit of salt as it doesn’t take much and we’re very simple with our dough.

AM: What are your goals as we close 2019 and thinking ahead to 2020 – what are you excited about for your brand?

EH: For the brand for next year, we’re really thinking about what it means to grow on a national scale. We just opened in Philadelphia and we will be in Washington, DC by the end of the year. If not then, early 2020 and on a growth path from there. Through my lens from there, my goal is to figure out how I can maintain this genuinely robust culture as a restaurant environment for my employees as well as to ensure that the same level of warmth is available to our guests that are coming in to dine with us. That is a big goal for me and when we do openings, I try to greet every guest table the few days that I am there and to say hi and to instill that cultural feel. I think that the other facet of it is to just synthesize our team and to lean on the talent there. It’s 2019, we’re all leading full robust lives. What are the things that my team members do that they can bring in and to support the types of things that we’re doing so that we are growing. We’re very people focused!

IG: @EmilyHyland

@PizzaLovesEmily

@EmmySquared

When we chatted with Will Blunt earlier in this conference, he shared that we should catch The Meat Hook founder's session on Vintage Beef and how they are lending their craft to the sustainable movement. We sat down with Ben Turley and Brent Young to find out about this duo, their business and what the holiday season is like for them.

ATHLEISURE MAG: We enjoyed sitting in your demonstration focusing on regenerative agriculture. How did you guys decide that you would be butchers, was this always a plan?

BEN TURLEY: We were both line cooks for a long time and living in Richmond, Virginia which is where we met. A small little butcher shop opened and we started interning there on our off time and the more you learned, the more questions we had. It wasn’t a whole animal shop as that’s not what existed at the time. The more we dug into it, we realized we wanted to do this and we moved to NYC to do just that. We could only find one restaurant group on the East Coast that was doing a whole animal program and we ended up opening a butcher shop for them and very quickly, it was disorganized and if you were going to be in it, you had to know everything like the finances. We thought we had to do it for ourselves and we ended up deciding to open our own shop. But essentially, we fell into it backwards and we were genuinely super interested in it as no one was doing it and we did and that was it.

AM: How do you go about finding the different farmers and farms that you’re working with? Are you constantly rotating things in?

BT: No not really. The whole idea is to develop a relationship with someone that you are going to find at a Farmer's Market and has dedication to their their craft. We’re very lucky to have found a great network of farms when we started. The whole idea was that we wanted to work with one farm that did one thing and that way, every single week, we’re able to give them feedback and not just buying things from all over. It was about having a very structured system and it was great because people could enjoy it and say that they would like to visit us and we could let them know the farm for them to visit. We wanted complete transparency in the food chain which is a major reason why we started this.

AM: We were talking with Will Blunt earlier this morning and he was talking about how you work with age cows. We had never had one before and we wondered what a Jersey cow would taste like. What was the thought behind integrating this as well?

BT: We had been tasting this on our own and when we would go up to the farm, we knew that they were not going to go and grind an older animal. We knew that they would have it in their farm store so when we went up there, we would just make a habit of asking if they had older animals. We would take them home and I remember the first one that I had cooked. I cooked it to medium and it was tough as nails and it sucked; however, the flavor was still incredible and you could tell that there was something still there. So we just brought it home for ourselves when we were there and eventually, we realized it was something that we had learned enough about that we could bring this into restaurants and have a dinner focused around these older animals. We were always blown away by these older animals. The texture was so different then what we had always been told it would be like and we thought it was phenomenal that no one knew about and no one was giving towards.

AM: Are there various breeds of cows you tend to deal with more versus others?

BT: Because everything we do is grass fed and grass finished, only a couple of breeds do well on grass and that would be Angus, Devon – that’s the best and what the farmers raise. We’re like, you guys know the grasses and we’ll tell you how it tastes. We’re the marketers for them!

AM: With the holiday season upon us, how crazy is this time of year?

BT: Bonkers.

BRENT YOUNG: Very busy!

AM: Do people order in advance with you. Just thinking about our readers that may be interested in swinging by today or prepping for their holiday meals, how would they go about it?

BT: We do everything online. We realized that after a few years, the amazing nature of human fallibility and error, all ordering is on our website. For Thanksgiving, we have a lot of options on our website. We’ll have over 550 turkeys for Thanksgiving this year. We normally sell 450, but we decided to go for it this year so we have a lot of turkeys. Then early Nov we’re heads down and you can’t even look up until after Thanksgiving and then 3 days after Thanksgiving, Christmas ordering happens and it’s heads down through New Years.

AM: Is there a down season when the orders aren’t as frequent?

BT: March. Just because we’re in NYC and everyone leaves in March. If you can get the hell out in March, your probably should!

AM: What are 3 dishes that you guys like to make with the items that you butcher when you’re at home?

BT: Both of us shop and we use what needs to be used. My personal favorite is beef shank and we always have beef shank. I think it’s still the most delicious things – it’s a nice project and it takes a couple of hours to get to relax and cook for that time.

BY: Chicken! Chicken in all forms. Last night was Chicken and Rice with scallions and a really simple sauce that was perfect for me. A real chicken and rice dish. I think that chicken to this day is so versatile and could be used in so many ways. It’s worth twice the price that you can pay for it.

AM: Why did you guys want to participate in this year’s congress?

BT: First year and I mean we were asked. We jumped on the opportunity. Talking about local meet is our mission and super fun and doing demos is fun too – no brainer!

IG: @TheMeatHook

@BenjaminStephen

@BrentonYoung

PHOTO CREDITS | Paul Farkas

Read the Nov Issue of Athleisure Mag and see 14th Annual StarChef’s International Chefs Congress in mag.

SAVOR THE SEASON WITH JAYMEE SIRE

The fall is an interesting time of year as you can still rock summer looks with a few layers to transition. You have some crisp days and a few toasty ones and the idea of still being able to go out without having to fight the elements is still easy enough! In addition, this time of year makes you think of your favorite gameday, comfort food, grabbing a few beers and waiting for the holiday season.

This month's celebrity cover is full of great fall trends you'll want to add to your closet (plaid, sweatshirts, layers and how to transition summer into fall). Food Network's Jaymee Sire, will be the floor reporter for Iron Chef Showdown whose season debuts next month on Nov 8th! We wanted to catch up with her on how she got into broadcasting, her love of food and what she enjoys eating and cooking!

ATHLEISURE MAG: Tell us your background and how you got into broadcasting and the various stations/networks that you have been on? 

JAYMEE SIRE: I decided pretty early on that I wanted to pursue a career in broadcasting, so I actually started running studio cameras at my local station in Great Falls, MT (my hometown) in high school. After studying broadcasting at Washington State University, I worked for a year in Great Falls before making the jump to San Diego, CA working as a sports reporter at the CBS affiliate there (KFMB). After 4.5 years, I moved to Northern California to work at a regional sports network, CSN Bay Area where I had the opportunity to cover two World Series by the SF Giants. Soon, ESPN came calling so I moved cross country to Connecticut, where I worked on various shows, including helping to launch SportsCenter:AM, the morning installment of the flagship program. In April of this year, I was unfortunately part of a mass layoff of over 100 on air talent. However, I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and it allowed me to pursue another passion of mine: food and travel TV! Starting November 8, I will be the floor reporter on Iron Chef Showdown on Food Network. 

AM: Have you always had an interest in food and how is preparing your work in this vertical different than sports? 

JS: Back in middle school, my mom made it a requirement for my sister and I to cook dinner for the family once a week. It really sparked my interest in cooking, especially when I realized I could really make anything I wanted as long as I had all the ingredients and followed the instructions of a recipe. That interest intensified living in California for 10 years, where there is no shortage of amazing produce and inspiration. While living in SF, I started my blog, E is for Eat, documenting my adventures in the kitchen, restaurants and even traveling around the world. Working in the food space is a dream come true for me, and while it's much different than sports, in some respects, it's also very similar in others. My role on ICS reminds me a lot of doing sidelines for a football game. I'm responsible for doing my research, knowing the storylines, quickly getting in and out for an interview, reporting my findings to Alton (Brown), and keeping an eye out for action happening on the floor. Additionally, the chefs are extremely competitive, we have a "home team" (the Iron Chef), and Alton calls the action much like a play by play commentator. It's actually the perfect transition for me from sports to food!

AM: We're excited about Iron Chef Showdown which premieres next month. Tell us about this show and what to expect? 

JS: For die-hard fans of the Iron Chef America, you will be happy to know there are a lot of familiarities. The original Kitchen Stadium set has returned from storage, with some updates. Al ton is still the host and The Chairman is back with his crazy antics. But there are some fun new twists as well. For starters, we have a new Iron Chef, Stephanie Izard, thanks to this spring's Iron Chef Gauntlet competition. Also, there is now a Round 1, where two challenger chefs compete for the opportunity to face one of the Iron Chefs in the second round. And of course, there is a brand new floor reporter. :) I think fans will really enjoy the high intensity competition they loved from the original series, with some exciting, faster-paced elements. 

AM: As fans of the Iron Chef series, what are some of the inside details that you can tell us - do they really cook in just an hour and is it as intense as it seems? 

JS: This is a common question, and a valid one with everything we know of "reality" TV these days. But, they really do cook in just an hour! There's a lot of setup involved, with camera angles, shots, the revealing of the secret ingredient that takes longer to shoot, but the chefs are not allowed to start cooking until the 60 minutes starts. And once the clock starts counting down, it doesn't stop until it reads zero. It's one of the things I love about working on the show. Even though it's a taped show, during that hour, it feels like live TV, which is what I've done for 15 years. There are some practices in place to make it possible for the judges to taste their food while it's hot, but everything must be finished in the hour, even if it must be reheated and re-plated right before tasting. And yes, the competition is FIERCE! The chefs take this very seriously. It's the OG in food competition shows, and the reputations and bragging rights on the line far exceed any other cooking competition. This is their Super Bowl!

AM: What other projects are you working on that you can share with us that we should keep an eye out for? 

JS: Nothing is imminent, but I'm really hoping to further my transition into this space by developing some other food and travel shows of my own. We have some ideas we are working on, hopefully I can share more soon!

AM: As someone who loves food, what are 3 of your favorite things to eat during this season? 

JS: Ooooooh! So hard to narrow down to just three, but I will try. I really do love eating with the seasons, and there are so many amazing ingredients and flavors we associate with fall. I love butternut squash, I think it's a far more superior and versatile option to pumpkin, which is kind of overplayed this time of year. Butternut squash is great in soups, salads, pureés, as a substitute for noodles in lasagna, or simply roasted as a side dish. I know they're cliche these days, but I love me some Brussels sprouts too. One of my go-to side dishes in the fall is roasted Brussels sprouts with red onion, garlic, apples, pears, fresh herbs and of course... BACON. Haha. I also really love pork this time of year. I just made pulled pork yesterday for a bunch of friends, which is an easy way to feed a crowd. But I also love to use it in ragus, or even just a big Berkshire pork chop served with a side of fall vegetables.

AM: What is a Jaymee Sire Thanksgiving like? 

JS: Thanksgiving is such a nostalgic time for me. As much as I love experimenting with new dishes and flavors most of the year, Thanksgiving is a time for childhood favorites... with a Jaymee twist.. One of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes is Green Bean Casserole (not what you were expecting me to say, right?) But since I started the blog, I've developed a way to make it with all homemade ingredients from the condensed cream of mushroom soup to the fried onions on top. It conjures up those memories, but omits the canned or processed products. I also do a Sweet Potato Casserole that my mom requests every year. I use Grand Marnier and top it with candied pecans instead of marshmallows. Some of my other Thanksgiving table favorites include: Brie Mashed Potatoes (either that or Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes), Sourdough Stuffing, and Grand Marnier Cranberries. I was also lucky to snag a fresh Stone Barns turkey this year. They went on sale at exactly 10:00am on October 25th, and one of my friends told me she missed out when trying to reserve at 10:04. (I clicked at 10:00 exactly, because I'm a huge nerd and really wanted one).

AM: Do you have a signature dish that you enjoy cooking? 

JS: I would say Ragu is my signature. That's a very broad dish to name, but I like to make new ones all the time, and experiment with different pasta shapes to serve with it. One of my all-time faves was a Wild Boar Ragu (can substitute pork shoulder if you can't get wild boar), and it actually placed second at a pasta sauce competition in San Francisco! (number 1 in my heart.) I've done a similar one with Oxtail on the blog as well, but recently I did a more traditional one with ground veal, ground beef, and hot Italian sausage and some homemade veal stock I had in the freezer. My boyfriend says it's the best thing I've ever made for him, so I should probably get that one up on the blog at some point!

AM: What's on your playlist whether it's to work out or simply when you're out and about? 

JS: People who know me well know that I'm sort of obsessed with a station on Pandora called "Hip Hop BBQ." It's seriously life changing, haha. It's basically a bunch of old school rap and hip hop from the late 90's/early 2000's and it's always the perfect station for any party, cooking dinner, working out, etc. In fact, I'm listening to it right now!

AM: When you're not working or trying the next meal, what can we find you doing? 

JS: Traveling! Almost as much as I'm obsessed with food, I'm addicted to traveling. I studied abroad in Barcelona my senior year in college, and have had the travel bug ever since. I love experiencing other cultures, trying new foods, and seeing the world. Just in the last couple years, I've visited South Africa, Thailand, Peru, France (twice) and Tulum... just to name a few. I'd really like to get to Cuba before it gets modernized, so that's probably next on my list. I love documenting my travels on the blog, and even have a separate tab for it on E is for Eat. 

AM: Are there any charities/philanthropies/mentorships that you are involved in? 

JS: I recently traveled back to my alma mater to attend homecoming with some girlfriends, and I decided to fly in a day early to spend the day speaking with broadcasting classes. I remember how cool it was to receive advice and guidance from others in the business, so I always do what I can to pay that forward and help young up and comers in broadcasting. Hoping to do much more in the future!
 

AM: Are there any charities/philanthropies/mentorships that you are involved in? 

JS: I recently traveled back to my alma mater to attend homecoming with some girlfriends, and I decided to fly in a day early to spend the day speaking with broadcasting classes. I remember how cool it was to receive advice and guidance from others in the business, so I always do what I can to pay that forward and help young up and comers in broadcasting. Hoping to do much more in the future!
 

Our cover shoot with Food Network's Jaymee Sire, took place in Battery Park at Treadwell Park Downtown (whose sister location is on the UES) and is led by Beverage Curator and Certified Cicerone® Anne Becerra. The best way to enjoy the fall season with great style is to enjoy 20 continually rotating draught beers and ciders, cask beers and hand-crafted artisanal cocktails made from independent spirits.

These beverages are paired with a curated menu from Chef John Villa that include in-house smoked beef brisket sandwiches, smoked crispy wings, and wagyu kobe style burgers.  For those with a sweet tooth, they offer a selection of seasonal "Beer Floats" featuring unique beer and ice cream flavor combinations.

We had a great time shooting here and sampling the fare and we chatted with our girl Anne for more details on this location.

ATHLEISURE MAG: One of the things that struck us about TPD is that people can select and have their beer canned! Can you tell us about the machine as well as a bit about the process?

ANNE BECERRA: We love the fact that we're able to consistently rotate our draught beer selection so there's always something new and exciting. And because of this, it's happened so many times- people fall in love with a beer they're drinking and then find out it's only available on tap, or they may not be able to get it in can or bottle. Our crowler machine allows us to fill a 32oz can with any of our draught beers, reseal it and take it to go. Because it's sealed it gives the beer a longer shelf life than if we used the standard growler which is typically a screw top glass bottle.

AM: How do you go about selecting the beers that are offered on tap?

AB: It's very important for us to maintain a balanced menu. Our goal is on any given day to offer a mix of hyper local, national, and international beers that cover a wide range of styles. While we change the individual beers after each keg, our style guidelines stay fairly consistent so regardless if you're looking for a Belgian Tripel, American IPA or Imperial Stout- we'll always have you covered. 
 
AM: Are there any beers that are limited in nature that are offered here that may not be found in any or many bars in the city?
 
AB: Absolutely. We always get really excited when a brewery we love has a new seasonal, one-off, or small batch offering. We have longstanding relationships with brewers, importers and distributors who help keep an eye out for new and interesting beers we can put on our menu. However, what's more important than being "rare," is being good. Who cares if there are only 2 kegs in the country if no one likes the beer? So we try to hit that perfect combination of exciting, delicious, and of course- worth the money. 
 
AM: There are a number of options from the menu - does this change seasonally and what kinds of food can you expect here?
 
Chef John Villa: We adjust the menu slightly seasonally. But we have standards and classics that stay on the menu all the time that people come for like the giant pretzel. 

AM: We loved the private room which seems perfect to watch a game with a few of your friends, can you tell us more about that?
 
AB: Our restaurants are lively, fun places to have some beers, play (or watch) some games, and enjoy yourself. We have several TV's, good music and an upbeat atmosphere. But because there's so much going on, we generally don't play the sound for the games so this backroom is where we can. It's a cozy place with a projector, awesome speakers and comfortable couches that you can watch your favorite games with the sound on and kick back and relax. It's typically first come, first serve but it is available to rent out for private parties,or as an intimate place to watch sports, movies, etc. 
 
AM: You guys have a number of pinball machines, foosball table and even board games - what is the typical girl/guy that comes here?
 
AB: One of the best parts of being in the neighborhoods we're in (East 60's and Battery Park) is that there really isn't a typical girl/guy that comes here. It's really the kind of place that everyone feels welcome and on any given day you'll find neighborhood folks, mixed with after work crowds, tourists, families, you name it. I think beer and games have always been great equalizers and hopefully when anyone walks in they feel comfortable and at home. 
 
AM: Now that it's fall, what special events or activities will be offered at TPD and can you tell us about what you are doing for the holiday season?
 
AB: Well because the space is pretty sprawling, it's a great choice for holiday parties, office gatherings, you name it.  We also see a lot of people coming to Treadwell Park for holiday shopping for the beer lover in their life. In addition to our crowlers, all our bottles and cans are available to go and we're more than happy to help put together gift baskets or give recommendations. We're also celebrating our 2 year anniversary of our uptown location November 30th so we'll be throwing a blowout party for that - I'm super excited! 

AM: We know that there are two Treadwell Parks (the other being on the UES), are there plans to open another location in the city?

AB: The goal of Treadwell Park is to get great beer to as many people as we can in a laid-back, non intimidating atmosphere. The fact that everyone has been so welcoming and into what we're doing is fantastic. Although there are no immediate plans, if opportunities arise in neighborhoods and communities that share our passion for beer, food and everything in between, I can't see why we wouldn't want to continue to grow. 
 

Read more from the Oct Issue and see Savor the Season with Jaymee Sire in mag.