7 minute read
Bad and Bouchée
Bad and Bouchée
ROCKSTAR CHEFS FIND CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE PLATE AND THE STAGE
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By Sarah Moore
Being a rockstar chef is a tall order. Every day they have to pick up their spoons (the non-musical kind) or their drumsticks (the non-edible kind) and perform for a room full of critics.
Few people have the amount of creativity, passion, hard-work, and perseverance to pursue either of these professions, let alone both.
After speaking to a few of these people who are constantly cooking up new riffs and recipes, I found myself thinking maybe all chefs were meant to make music, and vise-versa.
“I feel like there’s always been a commonality of chefs kind of acting like rock stars,” Mia Morrow, owner of Cheffed Up and bass player for the bands Boxknife and My Sister’s Brother, says. “You know, all tatted up and just kind of a ragtag bunch of people.”
Like Morrow, plenty of “chefsicians”—a term I proudly coined—hide under our noses daily in Kansas City. Much like your favorite superheroes, they live two lives. During the day, they julienne vegetables with ease, and at night use their calloused hands to rock out on stage.
We wanted to shine a light on them and learn more about their crafts. How did they get to where they are now, and what challenges do they face? Most importantly, we wanted to learn about why these careers pair so well together.
“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery…”
Most of us have a healthy respect for cooking and music from an early age. There’s a reason “What music do you like?” and “What’s your favorite food?” are get-to-know-you questions.
For Morrow, a love of food and music came to her early in life. Her first memories in the kitchen are from cooking family dinners with her mom, who owned a catering business for almost 20 years.
“As soon as I could see over the counter, I was trying to get into the sugar and just trying to get everywhere to cook and help my mom,” Morrow says.
On the flip side, the first time Morrow ever held an instrument was when she chose the cello in fourth grade. Like others we spoke with, having the chance to actually play music and cook meals is really what turned their appreciation into a passion.
Finding the ability to play and cook early in life was not the case for everyone. For some, a passion for food and music came later, but when they found it, they never let go.
In the case of Lonnie Fisher, a private chef in KC and frontman for Lonnie Fisher and the Funeral, music found him at the end of his high school career. When he was caught not participating in music class, his teacher’s punishment was to give him voice lessons after school. Spoiler alert: The lessons went really well.
He graduated from Kansas State with a music degree and an emphasis in opera. Soon after, he became a singer for the band Sturgeon Mill and moved to Lawrence, where he found a job on the sandwich line at Wheatfields Bakery.
He came in with almost no experience, but for 14 years, he kept his head down and worked his way up until he was named chef. Fisher says he didn’t picture himself as a musician or chef when he was a kid. However, once they fell into his lap, he studied, learned, and was rewarded.
“It doesn’t matter what your skill level is,” Fisher says. “If you show up every day and work hard, you’ll get opportunities.”
“If you can’t take the heat…”
In 2015, Fisher moved to Kansas City and took a break from music to focus on his culinary career. He worked under the chef at Bella Napoli, learning to make authentic Italian cuisine.
About six years ago, Fisher suffered a massive stroke that made him leave his position at the restaurant. As he recalls, he was the youngest person in the stroke center.
“[Working in a kitchen] is not for the weak, and it’s not what it looks like on the Food Network,” Fisher says. “The stress of being a chef takes its toll on you physically and mentally.”
The expectations from peers, the pressure to adapt to ever-changing styles, and the intense physical demand that he faced as a musician and a cook are what, eventually, pushed him too far.
Pat Snell, a private chef and a cook at Cerner in KC, echoed Fisher’s opinion, even saying that if his daughter came to him and said she wanted to be a chef, he would try to steer her in another direction.
“If she likes being broke, then I’d say go for it,” Snell says, laughing. “There’s not a lot of money in it, so if you don’t love it, don’t waste your time.”
Snell admits that part of the stress many chefs and musicians face is the need to always be creating and improving because a bored artist is almost as likely to quit as an overworked one.
“I’ve never once made the same dish twice,” Snell says. “If you’re not doing different things, if you’re not pushing yourself, if you’re not really giving yourself that outlet that so many creative types need— it’s really easy to give up and move on to something else.”
“If music be the food of love…”
All chefs are artists, Snell says. The craving to be creative and inventive is why he thinks many musicians are drawn to learn to cook and vice-versa.
“Someone who appreciates that artistic outlook on life is definitely going to appreciate the same things and different forms of art,” Snell says. “I definitely would consider my cooking a form of art in the same way that I would look at a song I wrote as something I created and put my heart and soul into.”
Aaron Pillar, the co-owner and chef at Culinaria Mediterranean Kitchen in Lawrence, says that his biggest inspiration to continue making food and music is bringing joy to the people around him.
“It is fun when the restaurant’s jumpin’ and it’s hoppin’, and I know what we’re putting out is really good,” Pillar says. “Even when it’s sometimes hard for my self-deprecating self to realize it, there is a part of me that knows, ‘you’re making these people happy; you’re giving them this experience.’”
Even in the early 2000s, before he truly knew how to cook, it brought him joy to make food for his band, The Appleseed Cast, when they were up late recording or working on new music. Today, the first thing he does when arriving at his restaurant to prepare for the day is turn on some music.
Pillar says that how he found his art wasn’t important, but his decision to turn that art into a future made all the difference in the world.
“You don’t have to be a great guitar player to be a great musician. You don’t have to be a technically perfect chef to make great food,” Pillar says. “It doesn’t really matter as long as you’re passionate about what you’re doing.”
