S3. E5. | ATHLEISURE KITCHEN CHEF YIA VANG

On today's episode of Athleisure Kitchen, we know that there is something about a great meal that allows you to enjoy the flavors, the ambiance and so much more. When the food becomes a gateway to a deeper understanding about the people and culture, it's truly an immersive experience that leaves you with a bigger takeaway.

Today's conversation with Chef Yia Vang explores a history that is infused with his passion for food by sharing his love for Hmong cuisine, his parents as well as the people that it comes from. This multi-nominated James Beard Award chef whose restaurant is up for Best Chef: Midwest for a 2nd year in a row, has two restaurants in Minnesota, Union Hmong Kitchen and Vinai. He is also the host of a number of shows including: The Outdoor Channel's Feral, Food Networks' Stoked, and PBS' Relish. He has competed on Netflix's Iron Chef: Quest for An Iron Legend and hosts his podcast Hmonglish just to name a few of his projects. He tells us about the food, his philosphy and the importance of representation.  

Athleisure Kitchen is part of the Athleisure Studio Podcast Network and is a member of Athleisure Media which includes Athleisure Mag. You can stay in the loop on who future guests are by visiting us at AthleisureStudio.com/AthleisureKitchen and on Instagram at @AthleisureKitchen and @AthleisureStudio. Athleisure Kitchen is hosted by Kimmie Smith and is Executive Produced by Paul Farkas and Kimmie Smith. It is mixed by the team at Athleisure Studio. Our theme music is "This Boy" performed by Ilya Truhanov.

FOOD IS MEDICINE | CHEF TODD ENGLISH

This month, we're kicking off our transition into the Spring! It's always an exciting time to find more reasons to be out and about with friends, travel to new destinations and to have the best meals at new and treasured restaurants. When it comes to the culinary industry, there have been a number of luminaries that elevated this space and showcase how they interpret and infuse their passion in this field.

Our March cover is an innovator and trailblazer in this field. We're pleased to have 4X James Beard Award winner, Emmy nominated, Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival's 2022 Chef of the Year, restaurateur, entrepreneur, food advocate, best-selling author, philanthropist, and Host/TV personality, Chef Todd English. We enjoyed eating at his restaurant Olives, here in NY back in the 2000s as well as eating at his restaurants in Las Vegas.

His passion for his love of cooking rustic Mediterranean, creating an immersive ambiance when you're at his establishments and having that Todd English aesthetic when you're at his properties is something that we enjoy. He has blown our collective minds, palettes and senses with such utter delights over the years - with so much more coming!

We caught up with Chef Todd to talk about his culinary background, how he got in and navigated the industry, providing insight into what it meant to be in the indsustry when there weren't the resources that we have access today, English Hospitality Group (its portfolio includes Olives, Figs, The Pepper Club, Bluezoo at Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort, The English Hotel to name a few), an array of projects, luxury in hospitality, cannabis and food advocacy. In this interview, we get an inside look on how he approaches food, the state of food and the power of relevancy as a brand.

ATHLEISURE MAG: It is such an honor to be able to talk with you and to you have you as this month’s cover of Athleisure Mag. We used to go to Olives here in NY quite a bit, it was definitely our hangout quite a bit, it was definitely our hangout spot! So to be able to have you and to talk about your background, all the things that you have been involved in and what you're working on is a great moment. It’s been inspiring to see what you have done in the culinary scene and how you have pushed boundaries.

CHEF TODD ENGLISH: Well thank you very much and the honor is mine as well. Thank you for being a patron of mine over the years and we will have to continue that down the road with all of the new stuff that’s going on.

AM: I know I saw that you are doing a lot of amazing things that’s coming down the pipeline, we definitely want to check out your restaurants. For me personally, when I first came to NY in 2002, you kind of showed me what being a Celebrity Chef was like in terms of having the restaurants, having the programs that you were on, the cookware, cookbooks and so on. It’s really interesting to see where the industry has gone and how you continue to do these really amazing things.

CHEF TE: Yeah, it’s fascinating you know? I was talking to somebody else yesterday and it’s somebody that I actually cooked with who was one of the first people that I worked with when I got my amazing cooking jobs when I got out of culinary school. It was in 1980!

AM: I was 1 year old then ha!

CHEF TE: Haha it’s crazy where the world has gone as far as in the cuisine. There was no Food Network at that time, there was no Internet, there was no Instagram. I remember that when you wanted to learn something about cooking, you went to the library for culinary or you went and read a book or that was pretty much it! There was no Internet or Google!

AM: Versus now, where everything is so much at your fingertips. This issue marks our 87th, and when we first started, food has always been a big category for us in our coverage, you were always someone we'd love from the beginning to have share your story. So to be chatting with you now 7 years later with all of this comingi up is a thrill for the Athleisure Mag team.

CHEF TE: Well thank you and that’s so cool. I will first and foremost say that I still really love what I do. I’m always working on different categories of things that interest me. My sons, Oliver and Simon, they did a documentary called Feeding Tomorrow that just won a bunch of awards at the LA film documentary and they were just invited to Sundance. It talks about sustainability, regenerative soils and etc. etc. and all of the things that we’re starting to pay attention to here. So I have been working with one of my cool – because I have gotten into working with cannabis as well mostly from medicinal standpoints from my sister way back when it wasn’t legal.

So having to work through this all these years I found that there all sorts of interesting things that are coming out of that whether it’s the hydroponics (editors note: hydroponics is the technique of growing plants using a waterbased nutrient solution rather than soil) and the way that they grow it and etc. Now, we’re learning to do that and I’m working with one of my good friends who has one of the leading hydroponic companies in North America, not to mention the world. I was talking to them about sustainability, hydroponics and how we’ve been working on a project to make wine and to do it in a hydroponic way and wild stuff like that.

So, I’m always interested in what is the future. I worked in Dubai with the Museum of the Future on a project there. What is the future of food, how are we going to provide food for 10 billion people in 20, 25 years or whatever that number is going to be? How do we produce healthier food that’s not full of GMOs. One of my first cookbooks was Alice Waters' cookbook, Chez Panisse and her dedication to local farms and obviously, being in California that was a lot easier than when I was in Massachusetts at the time. I mean, we went local, but in the summer. I would buy exotic seeds, sometimes legal and sometimes not, but we would buy stuff from all over that was not being grown and so it was fun. To me, that’s the beauty of what we do. Not to get sidetracked, but that’s what I do and why I love it.

AM: Well that’s the thing that I have seen about the different projects that you have been involved in. You continue to trailblaze and really dig deep into these areas. I find it fascinating!

When did you first fall in love with food?

CHEF TE: Well, if you ask my mother, my mother tells a story where I grew up part of my life in Georgia and I was 8 or 9 years old and I wanted to figure out how to make ice cream. Again, there’s no Internet, so we went and bought a White Mountain hand churned ice cream machine. I figured it out, once again, it was a hot August day in Atlanta. We went to the Farmer’s Market and I bought a bunch of peaches and I made Georgia Peach Ice Cream!

AM: Wow!

CHEF TE: I was so young and it was handmade! There was no Food Network. My family were pretty good cooks, but where the hell that came from, I had no idea!

AM: That is crazy and it takes a long time to! We used to have one as a kid that had salt in the tumbler and you had to keep churning it and churning it and my dad loved doing it. It was great ice cream, but as a kid, I was like, “can’t we just buy it out of the tub?”

CHEF TE: It’s definitely a real labor of love.

AM: Exactly.

CHEF TE: It’s worth it in the end when it comes out of there and it’s delicious and the Georgia peaches were super ripe.

AM: At what point did you realize that your passion for food and you’re love for it would be a career path that you wanted to take?

CHEF TE: You have to remember that when I got out of the Culinary Institute of America, it was 1982 and I started working in French restaurants, then Italian and I ended up going to Europe and cooking just because I had just met with someone who said, “here, I will give you a letter,” it was Tony May (founder of San Domenico NY, SD26, Palio) – I don’t know if you know, but Sirio Maccioni (Le Cirque), Tony May, they were the super Tuscan guys that came over from Italy and opened restaurants in NY. Tony May had a restaurant called San Domenico and he was a wonderful mentor to me because again in those days, I went over in the 80s and knocked on someone’s door and said, “can I have a job?” with a letter in my hand! They ended up giving me a job and one thing led to another and I worked in Italy and it was the 80s. I don’t know, there was something about it - it was amazing. You’d go to the markets to cook, you’d make fresh bread, fresh pasta and you did all those great things and that’s what I did. The same with the French, you’d make sauces and I think that that’s one of the things that I was most fascinated by – learning about flavors, learning about extractions of flavors, sauces, technique and there’s nothing easy about it! It’s 14 hour days and I was also going to school. So, I’d go to French school, bakeries and it was pretty crazy.

AM: I didn’t even think about that. That’s crazy so you must have slept for 4 or 5 hours in a day, but you were either training or working.

CHEF TE: Pretty much!

AM: Wow!

CHEF TE: Luckily, I was born with a lot of energy. I was also studying music, I love music – I was studying the classical guitar at the NY Guitar Institute in NY. So I would go home and practice guitar and classical guitar is a lot of practice. It was fun!

AM: Who were some of the people that you trained under when you were coming up?

CHEF TE: In NY, it was Jean-Jacques Rachou at La Côte Basque and he was like a papa to me he was very very encouraging to young American chefs although he was still an old school chef where you really didn’t want to mess up, let’s put it that way. So that’s the old school. He would invite me in and he was from Toulouse and they are famous for their cassoulet. I would have these obsessions with certain types of food. So cassoulet, he found out that I wanted to know more about it and he brought me in early and he came in early and he taught me cassoulet. To this day, I still think that I make the best cassoulet - learning from Jean-Jacques Rachou. Then he also spent a lot of time in Provence and he talked about Bouillabaisse and I was obsessed with it. I did a whole thing on Martha Stewart when she had me on and we went through the whole process. You can Google it – it’s crazy!

AM: I remember that!

CHEF TE: She didn’t want to skip one step!

I guess I try to teach the glamor of this which is interesting how it has obviously become so glamorous. You have Food Network, Instagram stars, TikTok stars that do food. I watch all of these Instagrams where you have these people and they just go out and cook food and they have millions of followers. It’s wild! I think it’s great! With my chefs when we have menu writing sessions, I tell them to go out and find me your 10 top Instagram moments on food and bring those to the table because I want to see the perspective of everybody out there. Everyone follows different people, what are people eating, what makes them excited? What is the entertainment of food now? That’s something where I think that you have to stay modern and to keep your finger on the pulse to see what’s out there and I’m constantly always out there researching that and we try to always stay ahead of the curve. It’s not easy because it moves so fast now.

AM: Exactly!

CHEF TE: I think it’s great. I think it’s wonderful what’s going on and I’m very encouraged. The only thing that concerns me is the cost of goods. We need to figure that out and do better because at some point, where is luxury defined? I have always felt like food is our greatest democracy.

AM: Yup.

CHEF TE: If we don’t continue to look at our democracy of food, we are not going to and you know – when I go to Italy, food is very reasonable in most cases and in most restaurants. You can pretty much have the most incredible pasta in the world that you could ever have for not a lot of money. I find that is something that is concerning. I feel that we can grow more vegetables nearby or on our own gardens and let's do things that aren’t going to be so prohibitive as far as what we eat. That is one of the things that is so important to me. It really really bothers me that the biggest aisle in a big grocery store in a big chain one, not like a Whole Foods, is the cookie aisle and the sugary aisle! It’s disgusting!

AM: Absolutely, the sodas!

CHEF TE: Yes. Sugar pumped up foods that people eat. It’s just, what? Unfortunately, a lot of bad things are happening out of that from diabetes, obesity, etc. I find that I always like the 5 or 10lbs that I

lose when I go to Italy because you’re just eating good food. How did all these allergies come about? Being allergic to celiac and these other things. Maybe they have always been there, but why is it worse than ever?

No one ever really wants to admit it, but it’s the way that we process food.

AM: Absolutely.

CHEF TE: It’s pretty simple and yet Big Agra and the government are not going to ever admit it –

AM: That’s their bread and butter.

CHEF TE: That’s their bread and butter. It’s how they make their money, no pun intended. I think that there’s a much bigger awareness out there for sure and that’s what my sons are doing and I think that that’s why their docu is getting so much attention because it’s actually calling out these people. Not necessarily by name, but it’s saying that we have 50 years and we won’t have any more soil that has the nutrients that we need etc. etc.

AM: But that is a big part of it. As I said earlier, I’m originally from the Midwest. Although I was from a large city, we would talk about soil, supporting local farms as opposed to factory farms that were moving in and you grew up knowing about food sourcing and the importance of being able to know about the environment and how your food supply was affected. There are a lot of people walking around not understanding that the labels on their food don’t really say all the things to say and so you could be eating things that are contributing to an allergy or other underlining particular conditions.

CHEF TE: I don’t even know if we know!

AM: Yeah!

CHEF TE: I think that it has gotten to the point, and I preface this by saying that I don’t think that it is everyone’s intention to do this, there are those people who do have these intentions. It’s troublesome!

AM: Exactly! When did you realize that you wanted to own your own restaurants and what was that point that you said that this was something that you wanted to take on? Did you think it would be as large as it is today?

CHEF TE: Not at all. No, no, no. I was working at a job, that I was like, oh ok. I had been there for a while and being a little bit wild I guess I could put it and feeling like I wanted to prove something else and my ex-wife and I had a baby die at birth in 1986 and it was shocking, I was young and 25 years old. I was like, ok well what is the meaning of life? Trying to get a different perspective and at 25, you think you’re really old.

AM: This is true!

CHEF TE: We had a baby and it was very traumatic and it was a very complicated process. So I had to make the decision on whether we were going to try to save her from a very – what would have been a very terrible existence from what we were told.

Anyway, so I remember sitting there on a mountain top looking out over the valley and I went out on a journey through Italy and I’m by the ocean and I go, “you know what? It’s time to do my own thing.” I ended up leaving the job, I didn’t have anything set up. I did a little catering here and there with the clients that we knew about. Long story short, we opened the restaurant and never looked back!

AM: That’s amazing!

CHEF TE: Yeah, it was the original Olives and we did 50 people I think the first night, 100 people the next night and then there was a line around the corner for 16 years.

AM: Tell me about English Hospitality Group and the brands that make up this portfolio?

CHEF TE: Yeah, yeah, I mean that’s – it’s really about us – I mean incorporating my family, incorporating what I think that the business is very much about not just the food, but the whole hospitality world that we’re in. Hospitality to me, I like to have a good time and have people over as I’m more than just the food. It’s a whole ambiance.

AM: As someone who has had a number of different restaurants, how do you go about deciding which one it will be, what location you want to take on as it seems like it would be a strategic situation when you’re thinking about this.

CHEF TE: Right. I don’t know I just kind of like exploring a lot of different things. I look at it like, I like music in the same way. I love exploring different types and genres of music and I find that it’s really the same kind of thing. It is the same thing – to me. Truly, the food end and the music are the most when it comes to emotions, energy and synergy – all of those kinds of things. I think that when you put on a song that you can listen to, it reminds you of something or whatever that moment may be in your life as well as aromas or something that you might eat – it evokes the same kind of things. So that’s why I like to explore different genres of things and it’s kind of one of the most exciting things and why I love what I do!

AM: Why did you want to open The English Hotel. It looks stunning in the pictures.

CHEF TE: Haha – thank you! For all the same reasons!

AM: I thought that you would say that!

How do you define the Todd English aesthetic?

CHEF TE: It’s pretty simple. I don’t like for it to be too complicated or uptight. It’s come in and have a good time, let your hair down, be in the moment. That’s what I try to evoke and it’s like those are the special memories that will hopefully come out of it. It’s those simplest things that are the fondest memories.

AM: Pappas Taverna, what can you tell me about this? It seems like a very exciting project and I know you’re working with Stratis Morfogen (Jue Lan Club, Brooklyn Chop House Steakhouse, Philippe Chow) on this.

CHEF TE: That has been a great project. I’ve spent a lot of time in Greece over the years and I have always loved and have a lot of really great Greek friends. I have spent a lot of time traveling the country and enjoyed the amazing food. So it’s been a great project to work on and what I want to do, I call it Greek Unplugged and I have been working on a couple of other projects that the English Hospitality Group is working on with that and actually, exploring Greece as an outlet for us to do something in Mykonos over the summer as a pop up.

“I mean incorporating my family ... the business is very much about not just the food, but the whole hospitality world that we’re in. Hospitality to me, I like to have a good time and have people over as I’m more than just the food. It’s a whole ambiance.”
— Chef Todd English

AM: Oh wow!

CHEF TE: It’s like you can create songs out of 3 notes like The Beatles have done. A lot of great rock songs are only 3 or 4 chords. Food is the same thing, it's how you mix it up, you know? What’s your interpretation of it, how you change the notes or the ingredients around it just a little bit to make it something that is unique to you and makes your own song. So that’s how I kind of always look at it.

AM: Very cool.

Are there other projects coming up that are here in NY?

CHEF TE: Yeah! I’m working on doing my sort of revised version of Figs which I opened up 30 years ago. I’m very excited about that. I think that pizza is having its moment again. I’m very excited to dabble back into that. With Figs, it’s always been over the years, Lobster and Corn Pizza, Peking Duck Pizzas, Foie Gras and Confit Duck Pizza! We’ve always pushed those limits and taken it out of the tradition and that was always happening in the beginning. So my outlook on food is the same way. I always say that it’s common things and uncommon ways. When I do cooking seminars or classes and I’ll say, well you know, let’s look at this for a second here. As an example, we all have a beautiful Hen of the Woods Oyster – Oyster Mushrooms, there’s 10 of us at the table and we’re all going to make our own version of whatever this is, but it’s the one ingredient. How does one take that ingredient and how do we make it special? How do you make it different or is it just the technique? How do you grow? So that is always what I am looking at.

AM: I love how you get into different kinds of details and how you challenge yourself basically. Looking at something in a different way, taking that same item and having various variations out of it. I think that that is very interesting.

CHEF TE: Well, it certainly is what it is. You have to challenge yourself every day. You don’t have to, but I believe that’s what keeps me coming back. We always say in the business that you’re only as good as your last dish, but in retrospective, that is true! Life changes and things move on. I don’t cook things that we used to cook when I first started cooking you know? Veal kidneys – have you ever eaten them?

AM: Um no, I don’t think so.

CHEF TE: Right? You’re the generation – what about sweetbreads?

AM: No, I’m not a sweetbread person, no.

CHEF TE: What about brain?

AM: No just no! I had sweetbread once I believe – but still no.

CHEF TE: See, if I made it for you and you were sitting at my table, you may go, “eww gross” or you may go, "I have no idea!"

AM: Right!

CHEF TE: Yeah, because I’m the generation that if you kill an animal, you eat it head to toe. Early on in my career, that’s what you did and not so much anymore. I would seek small farms with lamb that they would raise like I would see in Rome. They would be 35lbs and you would roast it and it would be the most delicious thing that you ever ate in your life. That appreciation for killing an animal, one of the things that I have always loved about my roots in the Mediterranean diet is not only are they finding that it is actually one of the healthiest ways to eat and live, only 20% of the diet is protein, meat or fish. Again, that’s very localized and eaten head to toe whether it’s rabbit, lamb or something that’s freshly caught that day, It’s a highly based vegetable diet and also very legume oriented. So that’s where a lot of the protein comes from. Again, I’m not getting on my stumping stool here, but it’s something that I believe in and I believe in it in a sense of eating it for animals as well.

AM: I can appreciate that, but I will pass on the sweetbreads.

You have a private restaurant at the Bentley Residences.

CHEF TE: Yes!

AM: It sounds amazing. Can you tell me about that and why did you want to be part of that?

CHEF TE: You know what it’s going to end up being? First of all, I like the idea of – it doesn’t have to be that the food is exclusive or the exclusivity of it, but I do like the specialization or the exclusivity of have something that I hope can be a very interesting experience – it’s different than what you normally might have. Luxury is being defined in very different ways, now. This to me is a fun way to look at luxury and it will actually be more of a test kitchen. Even though Gil Dezer, the developer is a good friend of mine, he said, “Todd do whatever you want. It’s fine.” I said, ok I may be down there being like a mad professor in there, people will come in and try – it’s some mad professor stuff! He said it was cool and that he loved that.

AM: He’s like, whatever you want to do!

CHEF TE: Yeah, whatever I want to do!

It’s not going to be just one genre of cuisine and cooking. I’m hoping that people will use it as their daily basis to and to create stuff that they can place in their fridge, we’ll run it up to your condo and give you instructions on how to throw it into the Todd English Air Fryer that we’ll sell to you and will come along with it!

AM: Nice!

CHEF TE: It’s so often that in these large condos, nobody even knows where there kitchen is.

AM: And very clean because it’s not used.
CHEF TE: The design is a very cool kitchen. It gets kind of put away behind a cabinet.

AM: You’re also in the Ghost Kitchen space. Why did you want to be part of that as I love that concept.

CHEF TE: I think again, those people that don’t know their kitchens and have busy lives as you do, there’s just different ways to be able to get people their food. I look at it like another outlet. As an example, Figs delivery, our pizza delivery is over 35% - it’s a lot and it’s the kind of food that transports very well.

AM: For the Ghiost Kitchens, is that just for your restaurants and brands in your portfolio or can others partner with you in this as well?

CHEF TE: It will be other people as well, yes. I don’t try to take all of the glory or to pretend that I could do it better than some places where that’s what they do. I respect that and I would never – I may try to mimic it and do my best to be –

AM: Right!

CHEF TE: It’s always to pursue things and to have different goals and perspectives of things.

AM: We were talking about cannabis earlier in our conversation and I love Mac & Cheese, you have this Mac & Cheese from LastLeaf that is cannabis infused. What was that process like?

CHEF TE: I actually changed it. The name is no longer LastLeaf, it’s actually called Bougie.

AM: I like that even better!

CHEF TE: We’re going to be making that out of Nevada now with some very prominent doctors out of that field that are pretty cool. One of the things that I got a call on was from St. Jude. I used to do a lot of stuff on HSN and during the holiday season, I would have a certain pot during Breast Cancer Awareness, we can talk about that too as a I do a lot of charitable stuff. With St. Jude’s Hospital, we always had that we would sell and the proceeds of that would go to St. Jude’s. In Oct., we would manufacture these hot pink pots that were really cool and we would sell those for proceeds going to my sister’s foundation, Wendy English Breast Cancer Research Foundation as she passed away from that. So that was another motivating factor for me to get into my own business too.

Having said that, so with Bougie and its Mac & Cheese, we’re going to be creating this and also at St. Jude’s Hospital, I don’t know if they have cleared it yet, but they called me and asked if we would be willing to donate the Mac & Cheese to their terminally ill kids. And I said yes, without me crying, I would certainly be willing to do that. I know we’re following up on that and they will be following up with us, but I’m very very excited to have the ability to do this for these poor kids that are amazing.

AM: Wow, that’s amazing.

CHEF TE: Food is our medicine, baby!

AM: Absolutely!

CHEF TE: It is our medicine, and we can’t ever forget that. Any legacy that I would want to live by in my life is – let’s look at this in a different way and let’s think about how we can provide healthier food to people in the world. I think especially because I’m doing something as well with a super food group that is pretty interesting called BOKU Superfood that are friends of mine that I met through the shopping channels when they would sell their products. I used to joke with them that I loved that they had 75 different types of mushroom powders, but the taste, I can’t drink it. I have to choke it down! We joke about it. They laugh about it too and I told them that I get it, but here’s the thing, let's make it taste good, because that's what I do and I will do my best to make it taste good. Let’s talk about the nutritional contents of what it is that makes it. During the pandemic, I actually ended up staying with them on their ranch in Ojai, California for a little bit of time. We were working on some stuff there and we’re looking to put those things out there as well.

AM: That’s exciting!

CHEF TE: Yeah, that’s what I love.

“Food is our medicine baby!”
— Chef Todd English

AM: Do you think, as I remember watching you on your show Food Trip on PBS, do you think that you would come back and do a series?

CHEF TE: Yes! We’re working on that now!

AM: Yay! There are so many awesome food shows like Top Chef and different things like that, but I thought that you would have to come back to a network or whatever streaming platform.

CHEF TE: Yes, probably a streaming platform. I’m very excited about it. I think that people really love and most of my friends, they travel for food.

AM: I do as well! So yeah. I love knowing where things come from.

CHEF TE: I’m sure you do, yeah. What restaurant you’re eating in is a pretty big on the agenda right?

AM: Absolutely and even if it’s something that we’re doing in work as I’m also a fashion stylist, if I’m pulling, I need to know the different things that we can try if I’m in a certain neighborhood or other city.

CHEF TE: You’re also in fashion?

AM: Yes! I am also a fashion stylist. I’ve designed a number of lines and I was also on HSN and I had a collaboration with Sebago shoes so I did that for 3 years. There’s a lot of things from my background and everytime you’re talking about music, my great uncle was a jazz artist and I used to see him and Herbie Hancock.

CHEF TE: Oh my God!

AM: Yeah my great uncle was Joe Henderson.

CHEF TE: Oh wow! See, I’m old enough to know all of those names! That’s great!

AM: Yeah, I loved his music, continue to play it. I do like how music, food and fashion – all of these things, come and play together which is why we created Athleisure Mag. We shoot a lot of our active lifestyle wellness content in luxury residences here in the city. We just love having that blend together. Food with me is huge. Even on our sets, we have to have something tasty. I’m not satisfied if I’m not happy with what I’m eating.

CHEF TE: Right, I love that!

AM: Absolutely and in this industry, it’s great to know so many people and in food, it was an honor and super fun to have had Cat Cora, we shot with her right before the pandemic and I’m always interested in the space and thinking in the mind of a chef.

CHEF TE: I love Cat, she’s great! Well tell her I say hi!

AM: I will for sure! I think that one of the things that we enjoy about the magazine and our podcast equivalent for Athleisure Kitchen was just hearing the stories of the why and the how. Seeing it on one side, like going to your beautiful restaurants is one thing. But now, being able to talk with you and to see how you sketch things out, I find that highly impactful.

CHEF TE: It’s crazy!

AM: What are some other projects that you’re tackling that we should know about?

CHEF TE: One of the things is that I have my charity called Hunger Pains. Hunger Pains is about figuring out ways to get food to people in places so that we can set up commissaries for people so that we can actually feed the 1 million kids that go hungry every day. This happens even in NYC where people only have 1 meal a day and that’s kind of crazy how we live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world – what’s the deal here? That’s a big movement on my side right now.

AM: We were speaking with Tom Colicchio last month and he was talking about the Food Bill and other initiatives that he is involved in to drive awareness to the government, do you do things like that where you’re partnering with local or the federal government to push these initiatives along?

CHEF TE: Yeah. That’s certainly the goal. My son was showing me a clip where there is a place that they grow these beautiful melons, but they only grow them for their seeds. So they have a way of extracting the seeds and then they throw out the meat. Wait a second?

AM: Wait what? That’s so strange.

Our readers always like knowing what ingredients or spices that you love using and is in your kitchen? If you could only have 3 spices that would be the main theme in a dish that you’re creating, what would it be?

CHEF TE: If it’s a fresh herb, it’s usually a rosemary, not to sound boring.

AM: I love rosemary it’s also great in cocktails.

CHEF TE: I’m pretty much a rosemary guy. Not to mention basil and all the sweet herbs, but sometimes, depending on what I’m making, I like some dried herbs. Dried herbs, I mean I remember growing up that on the Italian side, tomato sauce would be made, it had to have dried oregano. Only dried! You’re talking about flavors and blooming flavors, essential oils and bringing things to their peak flavors, learning how to work with herbs and how to extract flavors out of them. I definitely love aromatic spices and there’s no question! I’m also a salt freak!

AM: Me too! I’m obsessed with various kinds of salts.

CHEF TE: Yeah, there are times when I have over 40 or 50 kinds of salt in my cabinet. I’m always picking one up whether I’m in the desert of Ibiza or I’m in Sicily or wherever, I’m getting salt and bringing it home.

AM: Absolutely, I like sauces, spices and I like salt. Those are my things.

CHEF TE: Good, there you go. We’ll get along really well then.

AM: Yes!

If we were coming over for brunch which is my favorite meal to have, what would be the meal that you serve and what cocktail would you pair with it?

CHEF TE: Brunch to me is a fun all day meal.

AM: Exactly.

CHEF TE: I like it to be ever so evolving. Let’s say we were in the Hamptons over the summer, which is one of my favorite places to do a Sunday Brunch kind of thing. Obviously, you want to go over to the Farmer’s Market which is amazing out there and so you say, ok, they just harvested those beets, those beautiful tomatoes just came in or peaches for example or fennel. Whatever all the amazing stuff there is that comes out of the ground over there. Sometimes what I will do is courses that are about 1 topic.

AM: I love that.

CHEF TE: So, if it’s a topic. Today is going to be tomato day and what are we going to do with these tomatoes? We're going to have various courses that are about tomatoes. We’ll be doing tomato shots with fresh tomato juice that I have squeezed with a knife and then we would do a Clear Bloody Mary.

AM: Oh, that’s awesome!

CHEF TE: So we’ll start you with a Clear Bloody Mary so it’s just the tomato juice that is infused with horseradish and all the things that make a little bit of spice like black pepper and that kind of thing. So that’s sort of where I would go with that and that’s kind of fun because I’d serve them chilled – they’d be shaken and chilled and placed in martini glasses and then I’d float tomatoes in the glass.

AM: Oh wow!

CHEF TE: So that’s fun and it’s a fun little experiment for you!

AM: I love that ok, I thought I was doing something when I had Green Bloody Mary, but this sounds fantastic!

CHEF TE: And to me, I just go back to the beauty of tomatoes – tomato sauce – however that would be interpreted. My Sicilian grandmother used to make tomato sauce with Italian tuna or it might be with poached eggs. So, it’s not one particular item, but you might have a beautiful harvested tomato day with me including dessert!

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PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | FRONT COVER/BACK COVER + PG 16-47 Chef Todd English

S3. E4. | ATHLEISURE KITCHEN CHEF TODD ENGLISH

On today's episode of Athleisure Kitchen, we're embracing all the reasons to be out and about with friends, traveling to new destinations, and having the best meals at new and treasured restaurants. When it comes to the culinary industry, there have been a number of luminaries that elevated this space and showcase how they interpret and infuse their passion in this field.

I'm pleased to have 4X James Beard Award winner, Emmy nominated, Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival's 2022 Chef of the Year, restaurateur, entrepreneur, food advocate, best-selling author, philanthropist, and Host/TV personality, Chef Todd English. He is also Athleisure Mag's MAR ISSUE #87 cover! We enjoyed eating at his restaurant Olives, here in NY back in the 2000s as well as eating at his restaurants in Las Vegas.

His passion for his love of cooking rustic Mediterranean, creating an immersive ambiance when you're at his establishments, and having that Todd English aesthetic when you're at his properties is something that we enjoy. He has blown our collective minds, palettes, and senses with such utter delights over the years - with so much more coming!

I sat down with Chef Todd to talk about his culinary background, how he got in and navigated the industry, providing insight into what it meant to be in the industry when there weren't the resources that we have access to today, English Hospitality Group (its portfolio includes Olives, Figs, The Pepper Club, Bluezoo at Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort, The English Hotel to name a few), an array of projects, luxury in hospitality, cannabis, and food advocacy. In our conversation, he provides an inside look at how he approaches ingredients, the state of food, and the power of relevancy as a brand.

Athleisure Kitchen is part of the Athleisure Studio Podcast Network and is a member of Athleisure Media which includes Athleisure Mag. You can stay in the loop on who future guests are by visiting us at AthleisureStudio.com/AthleisureKitchen and on Instagram at @AthleisureKitchen and @AthleisureStudio. Athleisure Kitchen is hosted by Kimmie Smith and is Executive Produced by Paul Farkas and Kimmie Smith. It is mixed by the team at Athleisure Studio. Our theme music is "This Boy" performed by Ilya Truhanov.