Ben Norton

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City, welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am joined with Jen Ichikawa. We are your hosts. How are you doing, Jen? Hi, good. How are you? You know what? I'm fantastic. We get to talk with Chef Ben Norton, who is a Charleston, South Carolina transplant moved here to be the executive chef of Husk Restaurant. It was awesome today. I loved hearing about him and just kind of, sometimes you just hear people's stories and what they do and I feel like he's got his work cut out for him there at Husk.

01:00Yeah, I do too. But the great thing about Husk is like when it came here and you mentioned this in the interview, it was such a big deal and it has stayed a big deal, which is hard to do over the course of years and years and years and different chefs and some ins and some outs. And so I think it's a really impressive place with such gusto behind it. So I'm excited to see what he does with it. Absolutely. I am excited also because I'm always excited about everything. I am excited about this coming Thursday. This Thursday, we are doing a special show. It's going to be a live show at four o'clock in the afternoon and it is called the Influencers Guide to the Best of Nashville 2021. So Best of Nashville, Nashville scene voting ends on September the 7th, but you have to vote for 20 categories for your vote to count. So if you don't know the answer to 20 different categories, this is going to be the show for you because we are going to we are asking social media influencers, chefs, anybody who has an opinion on their favorite places.

02:10And I'm going to be talking and maybe bring on a couple of chefs to tell us their favorites. But if you are an influencer out there, if you're, you know, like Nashville food fan or the moody foodie, these guys who are constantly posting pictures and doing their thing, we want you to come on our show live and tell us your favorites. I think it'll be a lot of fun. What do you think? I think it'll be super fun. I mean, obviously we all all of us have followed these people for forever and I think they're all really good at being equal with like the restaurants that they highlight and talk about and stuff like that. So it'll be fun to know like, but who's actually your favorite? Yeah. And I think at the end of this, Jen and I are going to go through our favorites. We're just going to go to the top categories, right? Best chef, best new restaurant, best restaurant, all of those type categories. So that's going to be Thursday, this Thursday at four o'clock p.m. live on the Nashville Restaurant Radio Facebook and YouTube page. So put your comments in whatever you want or email me Brandon at Nashville Restaurant Radio to reserve your spot on that show.

03:17I'm happy to have you on the show. Then we have two more live shows. Sunday we have a live Brandon's Book Club, which we're talking about Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and Sunday night we are talking shift with Alex Winkos and Michael Hanna from St. Vito's Focaccia. So that is going to be this coming Sunday night from nine to eleven. We need your restaurant stories. Lots of fun stuff going on there. I have a girl crush on Alex, so that'll be really fun. She's like an absolute girl crush. I love her so much. She was so much fun on the show. She just I love shows that are like conversations like that. It was good times. Yeah, she's great. So we're going to continue that again. But right now, let's jump in here with a quick on brand from Super Source. What's up, Brandon? How are you doing this morning? How are you doing, Jen? Good morning. Good morning. Fantastic. Happy Monday to everybody out there.

04:17Jason, what's the most important thing that you're seeing right now out there in the in your world? So the biggest thing that I'm seeing right now is everybody's opening back up. We're back in the hustle and bustle of everything. New restaurants are opening is just making sure that you're staying compliant with your health department regulations, making sure your sanitizer on your dish machines functioning, make sure the sanitizer on the three compartments sink. Make sure you have hand soap in your dispensers, paper towels in your dispensers, just going back to the basics of everything that we needed to make sure we had for the health inspections. As we start to open back up, that's one of the biggest things I've seen with some competitive accounts as well as some accounts that I share with a competitor is machines aren't being maintained to the efficiency that they need to be to make sure that they're staying health code compliant. I actually went into a place last week and they were actually missing the complete sanitizer line going into the machine. It was pulling it, but it was dripping down the back of the wall.

05:19So it was not even getting into the machine. Luckily, I was there to help talk with the client and get it taken care of so they could get their their rep for their company out there. But I think all in all, we'll probably have to pick up that business because of that issue. I think that that's I think that's really important to make sure that you're all these little things. I love doing these on brands is because there's so many little things that we can be doing on a regular basis that you focus on all the time. But since I'm focusing on the people at the front door and the bar and inventory and all the other stuff, hot food, hot cold food, cold, full hands in, full hands out, like the basics of running the restaurant. Some of this stuff gets by you. And if you're going out there this week, make sure to check all those little details with your with your dish machine. Super important. Yeah, 100 percent. I mean, I can't agree more. It's the little things that will get you on those health inspections. But that's where we can come and help and be a partner and help make sure that we're an extra set of eyes in the kitchen or take that pressure off of you.

06:23Well, Jason, you are the man and I appreciate you coming on the show today. If you want to get a hold of SuperSource, go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com, click the Sponsors tab and click down to SuperSource and that will get you three free months of your new Dish Machine rental. If you are looking for a job, yes, if you want to work with Jason Ellis, hit him up. Again, go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com, Facebook or just the NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. Click the Sponsors tab and get a hold of Jason Ellis and apply now. All right. Let's jump in with Ben Norton. We are super excited today to welcome in Ben Norton. He's the executive chef at Husk Nashville. How you doing, Ben? Great guys. I'm glad to be here. How you guys doing? Are you a morning person? You know, I don't know if I'd say I'm a morning person. I don't know if many people in this industry would say that they're morning people, but I mean, some are, you know, I have kids, you know, so I get up at like five every day and I just, that just started happening to me and then I still go late night.

07:37I'm just, I'm just kind of a crazy, I'm a both night and now I'm a morning, by like proxy I've had to become a morning person. We do these interviews in the morning. I didn't know. The older you get, the older you get, I feel like you can't help it. That's a true story. So Ben, you just recently moved to Nashville. You were the executive chef at McGrady's in Charleston and then they transferred you here to, to be the chef at Husk. Yeah, it was kind of a, it took a little while. We once COVID started happening, we kind of just put McGrady's on hold for a little while and we just kind of just played it by ear for as long as we could and then finally, I think my bosses kind of realized that there wasn't going to be much of an opportunity in the near future for us to go back to serving such a small like tight dining room. So they were kind of like, I don't know if this is going to work for right now.

08:38So we just kind of put an end to that. It was a sad day for everybody. I think that was like, McGrady's was like an institution and it was like a, there were a lot of people who, who went through there. So that was like a, a sad day for a lot of people, I think. But McGrady's closed. Yeah, McGrady's is done. I did not know that. Yep. So we kind of went through that process and then a little while later, some of the folks from neighborhood dining group started to reach out to me about coming here and we went back and forth for a little while and then we kind of just ended up doing it and honestly, I'm happy to be here. I really love this restaurant. I like Nashville a lot too. I think it's a great city to be in. Awesome. So do you feel welcomed by the culinary community here? Have you met anybody? Have you gone out to eat? Like what do you do in your free time?

09:39I wouldn't say I have a lot of free time, but I do try to go. With my girlfriend, we do try to go out to nice restaurants as much as possible. And honestly, I knew a fair amount of people here beforehand. Like I said, McGrady's was kind of like an institution. There's just like a lot of people who have come through there. So I've met a lot of people from my time in Atlanta and from my time in Charleston that have kind of ended up here. So I know quite a few people here already. How long have you actually been here now? I would say probably two months. Oh, wow. Yeah, not long at all. I got here for the first month or so. I just kind of like loaded up my car and brought what I could fit. So I've been in like a big empty house with no furniture and no family or animals for a while.

10:40But yeah, now everybody's here. We've got everything moved and we're all situated and I have furniture. Nice. Furniture helps. Yeah. What part of town are you in? Cleveland Park. Oh, okay. I used to live over there. Yeah, it's nice. Definitely a good part of town. So I have a question for you. As you're moving into this new restaurant, you come into Husk Nashville. How does it work? Obviously, when Husk came to Nashville, it was a gigantic deal. I mean, really, it was one of the biggest restaurants to come to Nashville. Then all of a sudden, the floodgates opened once Husk was here. Taking over in that restaurant, do you have full autonomy over the menu? Is there a basic game plan that you have? Are you now a farmer also? What does it look like walking into a restaurant as the executive chef? I think that restaurant is maybe a little bit different of a situation.

11:44For years, Sean was always a huge part of it and he had a big say over what went on. He always had input on everything. I think that was just the way things ran for all of the Husks and McCready's and Monero. But now that he's moved on to his project, it's kind of like Mr. Howard, who runs Neighborhood Dining Group, just lets the chefs from each particular restaurant handle things. And of course, we all worked for Sean for a long time and we all have quite a bit of respect for him. So, I mean, there's an ethos to the restaurant. We just kind of follow that. And I mean, we don't bring anything in that's not from the South. That's still like a thing. So coming in, there was already an outline for the restaurant, sort of, and we don't want to change that.

12:45I mean, that's what Husk is. It's kind of our responsibility to kind of keep up that concept. So it is a lot to come into that and there's a lot of moving parts. It's a very busy restaurant. I feel like there's always so much going on. It doesn't matter if I like walk in at 8 o'clock in the morning or I get there at noon. There's like always so much stuff happening. But it's sort of to the point where it's almost like it's been moving like that for so long that you can't stop it. So you kind of just had to, I kind of just had to jump in. Yeah. What's been your biggest challenge so far? My biggest challenge, I would say, honestly, there's so much service and so much, obviously it's better than it was. We're not doing lunch right now. That's a lot of moving parts. So I'm glad that we aren't doing that when I'm still getting my feet wet with everything.

13:49But it sort of as a whole, I feel like the biggest challenge for everybody in the restaurant business right now is employees. It's really difficult for us as a staff. So we can have all these goals and aspirations, but if we don't have people to get it done, it makes it kind of tricky. Yeah, that's everybody. Last night we had, you know, we just had a lot of our staff. I'm the director of operations for two restaurants in town, Maribol and Green Hills Grill. Jen is our digital content manager. And last night we had, you know, a couple hundred people in the books and I had nobody to wait on tables on the patio. Like we have a patio and I literally had parties that was full and I just, kids went back to college and we're trying to hire, but it's like, I can't see you on the patio. I mean, it was frustrating. Are you running against a scenario like that? We're in a lot better shape than I think a lot of restaurants are right now, but we're still like right on the verge of not having enough people to do what we need to do.

14:54It gets a little weird sometimes. Sometimes we got to get creative, but for right now we're making it happen. Did you bring people with you? So your kitchen team, did you bring a sous chef? Did you bring a saucier? I brought the neighborhood dining group has like a great network of people. So there's always like Katie is in upper management. She was the pastry chef at McCready's for years. So she's still with the company. So she's kind of like our pastry safety net. She's not in the building every day. We actually hired a new pastry chef named Rachel. She's awesome. But we always kind of have Katie to help us with, you know, whatever pastry needs. So sometimes she'll come here, she'll go to Savannah. She kind of goes wherever she needs to be. She helps us out. And then I also brought a good friend of mine, Brian O'Kelly, who worked with me at McCready's for years. He has been a sous chef in Savannah for the last couple of years.

15:58So when we came, that was kind of like part of the deal. If I come here, then, you know, Brian comes with me. So that's kind of where we're at. He's the chef de cuisine. There's also, I have like a really solid team of sous chefs too. So myself, Brian is a chef de cuisine, and then I have three, like really solid sous chefs. Wow. Yeah. I have, it's a, it's a big restaurant, big, busy restaurant, but I have like a good, solid team of people. I don't feel like I can't leave the restaurant on Friday night. That's awesome. There's always somebody to kind of handle things. Yeah. Genuine jump in. Yeah, sorry. I was staring. I had a bug that I had to kill and it has a friend. So I was like looking at it. Anyway, so the thing that I think, Husk is such an institution here. Did you have any fears about how, I mean, obviously you've been with the same restaurant group, but did you have any fears about like the difference of the Nashville aesthetic or vibe or anything like that compared to other cities you've been in with the group?

17:10Uh, I mean, it was certainly a thought, but I grew up in Atlanta and I feel like just from being here for a short period of time, that Nashville is fairly similar to Atlanta. Like as far as the city goes, like more similar in size and you can't walk anywhere. Yeah. The traffic isn't as bad though. Yeah, not nearly as bad. So, you know, it's, it's not that far from Atlanta. I kind of knew what to expect with the restaurant group. I knew what to expect with the restaurant. And I also kind of feel like this is the coolest Husk, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're, they're all great restaurants and they're all in beautiful, awesome buildings. But I think in my humble opinion that this is the coolest one with the garden and just the way the house is set up and just the whole restaurant. I was excited to come to this one. Yeah. I mean, we're, Mayor Bowl is also a house and there are so many benefits to that, that I think one big space doesn't even know about, like being able to close off rooms or book private rooms or things like that.

18:17It's such an asset that, and it feels immediately family driven. And there are certainly some challenges with that. Most of the restaurants being in very old buildings, there's like, it seems like we always have some kind of issue. There's always something that we need to get fixed or a dress or, you know, something's leaking. Like there's always something that needs to get fixed that day. So how, when was the house built? Man, they're going to kill me for not even knowing this. This is like, there's so much history involved in all of that. I'm not even sure when it was built, but I remember in that building, it was a house that was just kind of an old house and then a man, a guy named Andrew Chadwick started a restaurant there. He turned it into a restaurant called Andrew Chadwick's and he put all induction burners in there. And it was, it was beautiful. It was an amazing restaurant. Just Nashville wasn't ready for it.

19:19And that when he closed, it sat empty for a little while. I think that that's when they came in and were like, Hey, this is ready to roll. It's in a beautiful spot on top of Rutledge Hill. Let's make it happen. And what they did with the Husk is absolutely gorgeous. I mean, you're the interior and everything about it is just fantastic. Okay. Do you guys want to take a guess on when it was built? I have the answer now. 1942. Okay. I'm going to say 1898. Okay. It was, it says Husk Nashville located at 37 Rutledge Street was constructed into the side of a hill between 1879 and 1882 by Dr. John Bunyan Stevens. And it served as Mayor Richard Houston Dudley's home in 1897. It's old old. I was way wrong. Big old house. But it is gorgeous. I can't imagine living in something that big.

20:19I know. I feel like, you know, Maribol is haunted. No question. So there's like one room that I won't hang out in by myself and that's just a me thing. Like they will. I will not. I didn't know that about you. Oh yeah. I won't hang out in Martha by myself. Really? Yeah. I will not. I absolutely will not. Because somebody showed me a YouTube video of like her, the ghost speaking and I was like, I'm out. Does Husk have anything like that? For sure. I haven't, I'm not familiar with the stories from this restaurant, but all of the buildings, I know at McCready's for years, there was always like, that's just a huge empty building. Like I feel like you're there at three o'clock in the morning counting inventory and there's only like one other person in the building and something moves or you hear something. Oh my gosh. I know Husk is the same way. The closing managers are all like a little sketched out by it. I live in downtown Franklin now and I used to work at Cork and Cow and there's a church down the street that I went to recently where they said that there was like an Al-Anon meeting, which I go to, and nobody was in the building.

21:33And I'm walking around like, hello, hello, and I'm like, this is an SVU episode. This is where people die. But I do have questions about, not for you, this is just a general inquiry in my mind of like why the South is so haunted and like it doesn't seem the North has like all of those issues in the same way, except for like New England, but like you don't hear about haunted houses in like California or like North Dakota. Like all of the conjurings are like in New England or in the South. So I just, I don't know why the ghosts like this area so much. Yeah, there was a, there's a, we have like our security camera footage from the crates. There was like this wall of like glass wine cooler and it's, the camera's like pointing directly at it and there's no one in the frame. It's late at night. It's the middle of the night. There's no one in the building.

22:34Wait, I'm going to open my door. Excuse me. You're scaring her. I hate ghost stories. I get so freaked out. There's no one even in the building and you can see like just a huge pane of glass on the wine cooler just shatters. And I don't, it's not like it's like a huge difference in pressure or temperature. I don't know why it would break, but it was just a huge pane of glass that you can see just shatter in the middle of the night with no one in the building. I would not, I would not hang out there. More ghost stories right after these words. Trust 20 is the new standard of restaurant safety and diner comfort. Trust 20 restaurants are part of a national network of restaurants that meet a high standard of cleanliness and safety, giving diners confidence in the measures you're taking to keep them safe. Trust 20 restaurants receive expert guidance, operational resources, and benefit from diner focused promotion on behalf of Trust 20 network of participants. So how do you get certified? It's easy. First, go to trust20.co and request a certification appointment.

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25:40Guys that is $3.16 an hour. You cannot hire somebody to do it for better. This locks you in for one year at this price, but it is a limited time offer, so you need to call Jordan right now. 615-973-4511. I know it sounds too good to be true. I use them at both of my restaurants and it is amazing, and I have bar managers. I have bar managers that do that job, but now I have my bar managers focus on education for my staff and managing the cleanliness of the bar and how we're pouring and coaching the bartenders. It's really been a godsend for me, and if you're a general manager, you're somebody who's doing the inventory every week because you can't afford a bar manager, this is right up your alley. Give Jordan Williams a call. Again, that number is 615-973-4511. We've had stories at Maribor where people have said that they've walked in, like we have private dining rooms upstairs and this big spiral staircase that goes upstairs, big grand entrance, beautiful, but this big spiral staircase that goes upstairs, and we've had the host walking up front with five or six people behind her, like taking them upstairs to a private event, and the last person in the group that walked up has stopped and said, Excuse me, is this house, are there spirits here?

27:10And she said, you know, we don't know. And the guy's face was pale white and said, I'm walking up the stairs and somebody whispered the name Martha in my ear and there's nobody around me. And weird. Just one of those things. That's why I don't hang out in her room and like the staff used to make fun of me when I would close the restaurant at night because I would leave the door to the office open and they were like, why do you do that? And I'm like, so that I just this was Martha's home before it was mine. I want her to feel she can come and go as she pleases. I don't want to upset her. I just want to borrow the space. So I would leave the door open and the staff used to make fun of me and try and scare me. And I was pregnant. So that was like, could have gone bad. Yeah, I don't know if all that's real, but sometimes it sure does seem like it is. There's some unexplainable things that happen in buildings like that. I just like I joke, but I always walk in there and I'm like, hi Martha, how are you? Give me a high five if you're here. I like my hands out. I'm always like real friendly. I'll leave a cup of milk in the corner for her.

28:14Is it there when you get in there in the morning? No, just kidding. I don't have that. I believe she's in the carrots. Yeah, we're confusing Santa Claus. Yeah. Right. All right. So I saw a cat just walked by your your walked behind you. Yeah, we got lots of animals in here. We have two cats and a dog, two cats and what are your cat's names? One of them's name is baby and the other is Herbert, baby and real sweet cats. The dog's name is Bernadette Bowie. We call her baby dog or chicken. She's you know how people are with dogs that have a name, but we don't ever actually call it. So I don't know why we do that. Do you have any kids? Yeah, no kids. Nope. Very nice. Culture is really important and bring kind of your own stamp in a restaurant is really fun. I saw an Instagram post from Husk that said first it was Dolly, then it was Willie and now it's Sturgill.

29:20There's a huge like picture of Sturgill Simpson. Is that in the kitchen or is that where is that? Yeah, it's in the kitchen. It like overlooks the past. So it was Willie Nelson. Yeah, they they were kind of like Katie, the chef that was there before had Dolly. She like picked Dolly and Dolly was up there for a number of years. And then when she left, they all signed Dolly and gave her the Dolly picture. So that was like a really sweet, sweet send off. But when they were talking to me about coming here, they were like asking me who I wanted. And I love Sturgill Simpson. I don't know. A big fan. I feel like it's like, you know, like a younger name, myself being a bit younger. So I don't know. I feel like it kind of fit both both bills. I think Sturgill Simpson fan. So I am too. I'm a big fan. I like that. It just I think that makes a little bit of a statement about you, does it?

30:24I feel like it does. I hope so. It's a it was like a really touching moment, too. When I walked in, Rory is the general manager there and he's a really great dude. And I walked in and like was kind of I've been in the restaurant before, but I haven't, you know, walked down all the hallways in the kitchen and kind of like really looked around. So when I got there that first day, I just kind of like walked up the stairs and saw that thing. It was like, it's pretty cool. So when you buy everything that you do is from the South, right? A couple of questions in here. How do you define the South and who are the purveyors that you're using and what are you growing yourself? Three questions in there. Three questions. I feel like we try to get as much as we can from like the surrounding states that border us. There are obviously certain things that, you know, we just like diamond crystal kosher salt.

31:26I don't know where that comes from in the country, but there are certain things that we have to have that, you know, we can't do anything about, but fryer oil, stuff like that. We try to get things as close to home as we can. As far as like sourcing protein and produce and all that stuff, there's like a huge community here. When I had first moved to Charleston, there was like a pretty big food scene. There were quite a few farms, but it seems like in the last few years, there's not so much going on there anymore. There's some like Greg from Marchin, John from Spaden Clover. They're like all the best guys and they have really nice stuff, but there's not like a lot of choices. I was pleasantly surprised when I got here and there were like, I still have people come in every day that I haven't met yet. You know, there's like quite a few different farmers and stuff that just show up with all kinds of stuff.

32:31It's all awesome and beautiful too. There's like a huge community. Yeah, a lot of people check out my stuff and just say like, hey, yeah, you want to see what we got out here? So, yeah, it's a lot to keep up with, honestly. There's always somebody saying like, hey, can you help me get rid of some of this? So it's kind of our responsibility. It's a big, busy restaurant. So we try to take as much stuff as we can from people and kind of spread the love out. So we're helping to support all of those folks. And you know, Leanne and Bill from Bear Creek, I know everybody says this, but they're like the best people. Like Leanne is, she always takes care of like whatever we need. And she's kind of like a support system too. Every time I talk to her, she's like asking about me, asking about my girlfriend and my animals. And she's like a therapist.

33:32So not only does she have like the best pork and beef around, she's also like the best person around. That's awesome. How long have you been, your girlfriend and you, how long have you all been together? Like three years. We've met at McCready's and we've kind of just been together ever since. Does she work in the industry? She does. She just started at Folk last night. Oh, nice. Folk is great. We were just talking about... Yeah, it's great. And it's like two blocks from your house. Nice. We were just talking about like meeting people and how I feel like all of us have met our significant others in the industry. I feel like you have to. There's not like a, it's hard to meet people that aren't getting off work at the same time as you, you know? Yeah. Or, you know, we spend so much time in the building, you know, that's what people say. Like I spend more time here than I do with my actual family. I mean, if you're single in the industry, like that's where you spend your most time. Yeah, for sure.

34:32Even if you're not single, you spend your most of your time there. Yeah. Yeah. True story. Yeah. Is she working in the kitchen or is she front of the house? She's front of the house. How's the dynamic at Husk, the front of the house and back of the house? Do you have, does everybody work together really well? Yeah, everybody works together really well. The front of the house is really solid. Not that I expected to have any, you know, not great people when I went into that building, but the staff as a whole, like really solid, all really great people. The bar staff, super knowledgeable. They're all really nice guys. So I was excited that, like... Adam Morgan is, you're like, I don't know what his title is, if he's your head bartender or what, but Adam Morgan- Bar manager. Yeah. He like taught me how to serve. And then Jared, who I think just left, but Jared Dunham, they both were my first introduction to Nashville.

35:35And they're just like such incredible people. Yeah. Great people. Adam's the best. He's a nice guy. He's so talented. Like the drinks he posts about and the things that he, he's so talented. I'm always blown away by him. Yeah. And he's quiet and humble too. He doesn't have a lot to say. And sometimes he'll like put stuff up and I'll be like, wow, this is, this is great. Yeah. Let's talk about your food. What, what can people expect if you've never been to Husk in the Ben Norton era? What are people, what can people expect when they come in? What are some of the dishes that you're bringing to the table? Can you describe anything or talk about just your style of cooking? Yeah. I won't get super specific, but I grew up outside of Atlanta and my grandparents had, you know, a garden in their backyard and that's what we ate out of during the summer. So there was always like, my grandma made biscuits or cornbread every single day.

36:37And then, you know, corn or tomatoes or okra or whatever was back there that day is kind of what we ate all year. So the whole Husk like way of thought isn't that foreign for me. I sort of grew up eating like that anyway. So it's sort of comes naturally as far as like that's, that style of food is what I think of. That's where my brain goes immediately. So it's nice to just kind of look at the produce list or look at what Leanne has and say, well, this is what's growing right now. This is what's really great. And it's my brain just kind of automatically takes it in a southern direction. So that part makes it a little easier for me. And then I have a background that's like being in the cradies and I worked at a restaurant called Restaurant Eugene for years in Atlanta that was also a tasting the new restaurant. So I have like some more, you know, like a little more intricate detailed experience.

37:43So, you know, it's kind of like a mesh in between that I try. We try to make things like nice, intricate, but, you know, still with a like a southern feeling to the whole thing. So not so much of a reach that it's unrecognizable, but it's nice to put like a little bit of a spin on things to where you're like, oh, this doesn't look like what it is, but it kind of tastes, you know, like something that reminds you of your childhood. So that's like kind of the whole idea with it is to make it something that feels familiar, but doesn't necessarily look so familiar. So that's the process. You identify foods that are in season at the peak of their freshness of the most flavor. Farmers come up, you get, I'm just, I'm just walking through how I imagine you're going to make a dish. You get this food, you kind of lay out this produce there, you identify what your center of the plate or protein is going to be, and then you just start playing with it. Do you, do you have like a vision before you start creating a dish?

38:47And do you do, are you do specials on the weekends that allow you to be more creative or how does that process work? The whole process, like as far as McCready's always was in here is we're always kind of like working on something. There's always like a dish that we're playing with, and then we'll get that on the menu and then we'll move on to the next thing and just kind of always try to be working on. Yeah, it's really collaborative, like Brian and myself and then Rick and Greg and Lauren and then all the line cooks as well. We always, we're kind of during service, we're kind of just standing there cooking and talking about food. So it's sort of a continuous thing for us to always be, you know, like working on the next thing. I think it's so apropos for Nashville because this is Music City. What you just described is the way that 90% of people I think write music. You know, somebody has an idea, somebody plays guitar, somebody has a hook, somebody has this and they all kind of put it together until it kind of finishes up to be this, this individual unique thing that is a song and they put out and they start doing a new one.

40:00And do you see that assimilation? Yeah, for sure. That's, that's just kind of the way that it comes most naturally, at least for the way that we do things. I think it just kind of works that way. And sometimes, you know, we'll get something and it just feels like we're trying too hard and it just doesn't come to us. But sometimes there's like inspiration from stupid things like Taco Bell or Doritos where we're like, wow, this is, why does this taste so good? You know, not that we're going to use that style or ingredient, but, you know, to like look at Doritos and be like, this is cheese and chili and a lot of MSG, like, why does this taste so good? And then kind of go from there, like use that in a different application, you know, not those same flavors. So you heard it here first, Husk's menu is inspired by Taco Bell. All right, wow, I knew we were going to get deep here today. This is fantastic. Yeah.

41:00Yeah, that's maybe we're blowing us out of proportion, but, you know, like they're there. That food has qualities that makes it undeniably delicious. Like people get paid a lot of money to stand in a lab, you know, play with the salt and acid and seasoning for Taco Bell. You know, there's a reason why all that stuff tastes good. So I just had the executive culinary director for Bojangles on the show last week. And his process for making a chicken sandwich was incredibly interesting, you know, with what he has at his disposal and focus groups and the number of people working on it. And it's like, well, yeah, I guess you could create something that was like, it's alive! Yeah. With what he's doing. It's kind of crazy. It's crazy to think about how much thought goes into that, but it's a big, big operation, you know, so. They've got to figure it out. Yeah. So what's your favorite Southern dish that either is on the menu at house or you like to put on the menu that you just that feels warm to you?

42:12Oh, there's there's been iterations of country fried steak on the menu before, but that's like kind of the thing. Whenever I go to my parents' house, that's like what I want my mom to make is like fried cube steak and mashed potatoes and gravy. That's like my favorite thing to eat. Like my favorite Southern thing, you know, so that's been on the menu before. Maybe it'll be a brunch thing again. We'll see. But that's certainly like my favorite Southern staple is really gravy in any instance. I hear you. What's the best compliment somebody could give you? Best compliment? That somebody could give you, like for all the work that you put in and everything, what's the one thing somebody could tell you that would make you feel like seen? Man, I don't know. Honestly, I feel like the I appreciate, you know, guests coming in and enjoying things, but a thing that really makes me feel good is when one of the guys like one of the cooks is like, wow, this is good or like, you know, I really enjoyed this whole process and I really like coming to work here.

43:24It's not I just I don't know. That feels good to me to have the guys that work really hard and, you know, make all this happen to enjoy things and have a good time. So that's kind of a lame answer, but no, it's I mean, a lot of people in your position love to mentor young people. I I love people who are passionate. I love people that come into our system. And immediately I can tell when somebody's here because they want to make a lot of money or somebody's here because they really want to learn and they want to get better at their craft and they have a genuine spirit of service. It sounds to me like when you're doing something, collaborating with other people and you're able to teach or you're able to learn from somebody else, but just that moment when you too go, wow, this was really good. Or when somebody who you respect tells you that something's really good, that's a that's a special moment for you. Yeah, that's really important for me is having, you know, I don't want I don't want anybody to get up in dread coming to work like this is a hard job.

44:34And there are times when we get angry and things get weird and, you know, we have to be tough. But I would prefer that everybody enjoys coming to work. And I want it to be like a fun, you know, nice environment. Who taught you that? Who was that person for you? I don't know if I. I've certainly had that in my career, but I feel like a lot of it is. I'm. You know, not having that there were a lot of times where I did, you know, wake up and be like, oh, man, I got to go to work today like this is a lot of stuff I got to get done in a short amount of time. So. You know, I've always had good relationships with the people that I work for, but there were also places that I worked that were like tough and it was just not a pleasant place to be in that moment. Looking back on it, I'm glad I went through a lot of that, but sometimes it was, you know, a lot to deal with.

45:38Did you start in front of the house or have you been back in the house for your entire restaurant career? I've been back to the house for my entire restaurant career. I started washing dishes when I was 15 and I just kind of. How old are you now? Thirty one. Wow. Yeah, I love it. So you're 31. That's you're right. You're you're in your best years having fun. Yeah, it seems like it. I hope so. What's your ultimate goal? Where do you see yourself when you turn 40? You try not to think that far ahead. Yeah, I don't know. I try not to think that far ahead, but yeah, that's the eventual goal is to have my own place where I can. It would be nice if it were in a market that could support, you know, a restaurant like McCready's was something that's that's that's kind of the dream job. You know, it's you get to work every day and you look at the reservation sheet, you know who's coming and you know who is allergic to what and you know what time everybody gets there. It kind of takes all the it doesn't take all the stress out, but it takes a lot of that side of the stressful part of the business out.

46:49So that's a really that's like the dream job. OK, tasting the new even the bastion yet. I haven't been to Bastion yet. I'm dying to go. I went to a catbird seat last night for a dinner, Dano and Dano did a dinner with Baxter there and those are both McCready's guys. So I didn't know Baxter like at Brady's. I obviously knew he was a catbird. How was it? It was awesome. It was great. I walked in and Dano looked pretty frazzled and stressed. And then, you know, once people started to get in there, he was like, man, this is just a room full of my friends. This is great. And that's and that's probably a ton of fun. I love the the whole vibe inside of the catbird seat. And I love Josh telling the story of being able to watch people eat and make changes on the fly as to what people are eating, because most times in kitchens, you just put food in a window and it disappears.

47:50Catbird seat, you can watch what everybody does with each individual plate and make adjustments. I thought it was just so interesting, the whole concept. Yeah, it's a cool restaurant. It's awesome. For sure. Well, you got to go check out Bastion. It's one of my absolute favorites in town. And Josh and his wife, Laura, do an amazing job. All right. So what do you see for the future of Husk? What are we looking at for the next six months? Do you anticipate this coronavirus, the Delta variant, to take us back down? I hear a lot of people talk that it's coming up, that that's what's happening. And I hope not. I'm no scientist, but I hope it doesn't take us down as hard as it did the first time. I really enjoyed sitting in my house for a couple of months, not doing anything, but I don't want to do that again. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, the vaccination rate has thankfully gone up, so hopefully that will prevent any big lockdown. Hopefully people are realizing what's going on and we'll get this fixed.

48:52But yeah, who knows? Nobody knows. Check up any kind of cool hobbies during the pandemic. Did you start like knitting or doing origami or something crazy while you were at home those two months? Honestly, exercising. Yeah, being like in a in a restaurant for 12 or 14 hours a day didn't hasn't really that was never really a priority for myself. But when I didn't have to get up and do anything for a while, I was like, man, I need to my girlfriend and I both were like, we need to actually do something. We can't just watch TV. So it was nice to make time for that and I need to continue to make time for that. But what's your best advice for a young chef, somebody in their 20s? It's coming up that is listening to this. It's like, man, one day I want to be the executive chef of a restaurant like Husk. What's the one bit of advice you would give to a newer or a line cook that wants to be a chef?

50:00The best advice I think is to just keep your mouth shut and work. Just observe what everybody else is doing and just keep trying to do better and do what everybody around you is doing. You kind of just got to work. Keep your mouth shut and do your job. Yeah. All right. That's how you do it. Take it. Hustle. Yeah. Be on time. Do your thing. Yep. Learn. Ask questions. Yeah. All right. Awesome. Well, what am I leaving out? What do you want to tell the city of Nashville? Do you have anything that I'm not talking about that you want me to talk about? Uh, I can't think of anything. You know, I was prepared for this portion of the show. I knew you were going to do this and I still don't have anything prepared to say.

51:01Well, that's gonna say, so now, now you get to take us out. One of the things we do is we give our guests the floor, whatever you want to say, as long as you want to say it, you can be talking to anybody. You could say, you know, I always say you can say nib high football rules. I don't care. Yeah. I was like, what are the other people say to this? And it sort of seems like everybody else is always like, man, I don't know what to say. And you would say that for me, for me noticing that I would have thought of something to say, but I don't really have anything. I just want to say like, thanks to Nashville for, you know, making this like a, a really welcoming community. I feel like I already feel at home here and I am glad that there, you know, so many awesome farmers and restaurants and chefs, and I feel like everybody was, you know, really welcoming to me and, you know, reached out to me and said, Hey, like, let me know if you need anything. So it feels good to be in a city. That's not so cutthroat. Like I feel like all of the people in the city are kind of in it together.

52:05So, yeah, that's all I got. I think that, I think that was lovely. Good. Thank you. I think you said it all. It was perfect. Yeah. What's that? Jen totally prepared. Yeah. I was partially prepared. Well, it felt totally. So if we're going to fake it, so we make it. I, I thought it was very prepared and I didn't talk about Southern charm at all, um, which is one of my favorite reality shows that takes place in Charleston, because I felt like you were not in your audience, but they do her restaurant tour on that show. And so I did, I just have to ask if you've been to any of her restaurants. I honestly don't really know anything about all of that. I know that we would occasionally go out and somebody would be like, that's that guy from Southern charm. That's a dream of mine. I can't even like, Bravo needs to sponsor me. I am such a fan. I can see why that's a TV show because people are, uh, there's a lot of really interesting, wealthy folks in Charleston.

53:09Yeah. I watch them do everything. I watched them eat. I watched them buy swimsuits. I watched them do everything. Sabotage relations. Yeah. We're going to find something better for you to do with your time. Listen, sometimes mind numbing television like that is necessary. Well, it's escapism for me. I mean, like the world is so heavy, so I'm like, Oh, well, let's watch something that is totally mindless. That is just people being ridiculous. I love it. Do you have any guilty pleasures, Ben? Uh, guilty pleasures. I don't know. We, I, I do come home and, uh, sometimes Billy's watching love Island. Oh, yes. I knew this was such a thing, apparently like kind of a big thing now. And honestly, it's not so bad to sit there and watch that. It's interesting. It's, I don't understand any of that. It's really funny though. I'm a, I'm a bachelor, bachelorette guy.

54:09Now I watch everything so that it's, it's, um, trash, but it's fantastic. It's so good. Yeah. It's, it's like watching a train wreck. You can't turn away from it. It's, I love the hometowns where the guy has to go to meet the girls dad and he says on the off chance that I actually proposed to your daughter. Can I have your permission? And the dad said, I'm not going to give you my blessing until you can narrow it down to just my daughter and everybody's angry with the dad. And I'm like, what do you mean? He's a good dad. Stop it. It's so weird that they put that on television for everyone to see, but it sure is entertaining. Well, chef, thank you so much for taking the time today. Um, can't wait to come into husk and check out what you're doing over there. Uh, follow chef Ben Norton at Benjamin S Norton on Instagram.

55:10Go to husk, uh, is it husknashville.com? Um, and go check them out there on Rutledge street, which is up at the top of the hill, kind of looking down over second avenue, um, doing amazing things. Thank you so much chef for taking the time today. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's nice talking to you guys. Absolutely. All right. Thank you so much to chef Ben Norton from husk Nashville for joining us here on Nashville restaurant radio. Good to learn everything about him. I really can't wait to go back and try his food in the restaurant. Yeah. I haven't been back to husk in a couple of years. Well, I mean, pandemic. Yeah. Well, that's a thing. Yeah. But I haven't, yeah, I haven't been out there in a few years. And so I'm, I think right before I got married was the last time I was there. So I'm excited to go back and yeah, we have a lot of field trips planned. Yes. There's so much fun stuff to do. Um, we're going to just slowly let you guys in on all of it, but, um, definitely we'll do a field trip over to husk.

56:14Thank you for listening today. We hope that you are being safe. Love you guys. Bye.