Noelle Marchetti

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01:04Wanna learn more? Give David Perry a call at 615-306-7455 or email him at dperryatvolunteerwelding.com. Hey, I'm super excited to talk to you today about Corson Fire and Security. This is a testimonial because we are opening a new restaurant, Chagos Belmont Cantina. I'm in the process right now of setting up everybody and Corson has come in and if it's hood suppression systems to our security cameras, just doing audits and checks to make sure that we're completely compliant, they have been absolutely amazing. It is so nice to know I can, and one phone call away from getting Kevin Rose to talk to me about fire extinguishers, general fire products, emergency exit lighting, fire alarm systems, sprinkler systems, fire suppression systems, security, monitoring, communications, they do it all. And I'll tell you what, they can do it all for you too. You could have a guy like Kevin taking care of you on a daily basis.

02:06His number is 615-974-2932. If you would like to experience the Corson experience, Kevin Rose will make that happen for you. Again, that's 615-974-2932. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. And welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll, and I am your host. We are powered by Gordon Food Service, and we'll be joined with Caroline Gowson, our co-host, very, very shortly. Today we are talking with Noelle Marchetti. And Noelle is a James Beard semi-finalist.

03:07As I find out that that's apparently not a nominee, I thought that was, you'll find that out really quickly in the episode. But she was absolutely lovely. We're so proud of her, and just since Yolan and the Joseph Hotel opened, Tony and Kathy, big fans of the podcast, we loved having them on, and they're doing some of the best food in the world. It's Caroline's favorite restaurant, and this is just one of those things. To have her in studio and to learn more about her was just super duper fun. And I think I hope that you're gonna enjoy this interview. We got a big week ahead of us this week. Father's Day will wrap the week. We have a Father's Day episode of The Roundup. It's gonna be coming out on Friday with Ben Whitlock, who is the president and now owner of Mobile Fixture. So he is a lot of fun, a friend of the show, been on before a couple times, and this interview will not disappoint. It's not really an interview. It's an episode of The Roundup. So we're talking about Father's Day stuff, what dads might want, just a lot of catching up, industry fun stuff.

04:15So I hope that you enjoy that. And do wanna tell you real quick about Big Dan. Big Dan does heating and cooling. So HVAC, he also does electrical and plumbing. I know there's a lot of restaurants out there that have to call individual contractors for all these different things. He's a triple threat. He does it all. And he has availability to come help you. So what you need to do is you need to get your phone together right now. Press pause, go get your phone, and what you gotta do is you gotta write down this number. I'm gonna wait, go ahead, get your phone. Okay, ready? It is 678-343-3329. That is Big Dan. If you need anything in your restaurant, you just need to call him and he will take good, good care of you. Tell him you heard about him on Nashville Restaurant Radio. This is the guy, he's five stars on Yelp. He works with me at my house. Guy's amazing.

05:15He is really, really a good guy. And I told him I'd help him out and get the word out that this guy, he's been doing it for 30 years. He can do it all. And he's a lot of fun. He's a lot of fun to work with. So without further ado, I am so excited to jump in right now with Noelle Marchetti. We are super excited today to welcome in Noelle Marchetti, executive pastry chef. Yes. Is that the official title at Yolan? Official title of the Joseph in general, but yes, Yolan is our restaurant in the bottom of the hotel. Well, I was all wrong. Oh, I'm gonna do this again. Third time, we have Noelle Marchetti, James Beard nominated for the best pastry chef in the world. James Beard nominated executive pastry chef at the Joseph Hotel, which includes Denim, a rooftop bar, and Yolan by Tony and Cathy Montuano. Yes.

06:16Was that a better intro? That's great. Was that it? I'm not a nominee though. I'm a semi-finalist. Was, okay, what's the difference? The nominee is like the next step. So a James Beard semi-finalist. I can't call that a nominee. You're nominated for a James Beard award, right? Yeah. Okay. But it's like the semi-finalist. You say long list and short list. Yeah. Okay. Well, you were. But I think we should keep this in because I think we're explaining to people how the awards work. I don't know how it works. Which all of that to say, to be on any list is really incredible. So congratulations. Thank you. And I would say very, very, very well deserved. I'm so lucky that I've had many wonderful meals at Yolan. It is my favorite restaurant on the planet. And I truly think one of the best restaurants I've ever been to in my life, period, truly. And your desserts are a huge part of that. Thank you. Yeah.

07:17I just ate there Friday, actually. Did you? I did. Yeah, we had a very long time employee at Nicky's who was moving, moved on Sunday. And we took him out to a great dinner to celebrate. What dessert did you have? So we had the peach dessert. And we had the Earl Grey. The Fiore. Yes, yes. Okay. So tell us about these desserts. Cause I said the peach and the Earl Grey, which is a horrible way to describe these incredible desserts. Completely butchered what I meant to do there, but no. No, it's just the names that we named them. And we, you know, try to think about these names for hours on end. And then it ends up being something super simple just because we're overthinking it, just like we probably do the whole dessert. You should change the name of it to the peach. The peach. It's called the peach and the Earl Grey. Well, in Italian, pesca does mean peach. So you weren't that far off. Yes. Yes. So, sorry. What are these desserts? I'm curious now, what do you, what is the pesca?

08:20So the pesca is, it's a peach mousse with a peach compote inside, but we kind of derived off elements of like sour cream and there's a peach veil on there, which is a really cool textural element, which is really just kind of like peach puree that we cook and set and we're able to cut. And then it's got almond gelato and some glazed peaches and caramel cream and 13 different elements. It's unreal. That's the thing I think that, like I'm fascinated by. Do you only do desserts? Yes. Okay, I don't know. Well, we do bread. Okay, you do bread too. Yeah, we do the bread too. I don't know if that's okay to do the bread as well. Yes. It's artwork. Thanks. What you're doing is not dessert. It is edible artwork. I mean, I 100% believe that in my soul. Do you have an art background? Not at all. And my team absolutely makes the worst fun of me for any drawing you will ever come, like see come off my desk.

09:21They're like, what is this? Like, I can't tell what I'm looking at, what you're drawing, what shape this is. I can't do anything with a paintbrush or a pencil or a computer or any of it. But if you give me some flour and some butter, then yeah, we can make anything happen. What's the genesis? Were you, was your mom a baker? Did you, where did you learn to do this? So my, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents growing up. My single mom, she worked a lot. Where did you grow up? Kingston, New York, so Hudson Valley. So we had ton of fresh food, ton of produce, lots of local restaurants. But I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. And so my grandfather really loved to cook, but he also really loved to bake. So, and he would kind of tinker with recipes and pretty much mess them up most of the time. But it was him trying to figure out how far he could push the envelope before it really went down the drain and nobody would eat it.

10:23So, but most of the time, I mean, they came out pretty good, but I kind of grew up seeing him be able to do that and watch the science behind it. So how much you could change an element before something in pastry really made a difference. So that kind of just piqued my interest. And from a kid, I started to do my own kind of tinkering. What is your professional background? How did you go from kind of tinkering as a kid to where you are today? So seeing that growing up, I knew that I wanted to do something in food and beverage and pastry was really that calling. So I, because I was lucky enough to grow up in the Hudson Valley, we're right next to the Culinary Institute of America. So it's right across the river in Hyde Park. So when it came to college, that was just the obvious choice. So I graduated with a bachelor's from the Culinary Institute of America with baking and pastry management. And then moved on from there to work in certain hotels.

11:23Oh, and in that same area or? No, we actually moved to Utah after that. And everybody looked at us like we were crazy. Your whole family moved. No, me and my now husband, yes. So we moved to Utah and everybody looked at us like we were crazy. And they're like, are you like, okay, you losing your mind? Yes, so what is in Utah? But we really wanted to travel and see the whole West and just kind of. Were you in Park City? Yeah, we were in Park City. So. It was like skiing. Skiing is in Utah. So we were at Montage Deer Valley in Park City, beautiful hotel, luxury resort, very highly regarded. So their pastry program was top notch, moved there and worked there for about a year and a half until our family said, it's really far. We're not gonna come visit. So we decided to move back to the East Coast and move to Charlotte. And then that's where I worked for the Ballantine Hotel, which is a luxury collection as well, similar to the Joseph.

12:23And I led that pastry team for six years before Nashville came calling. Awesome, so is the hotel connection how you came to work at the Joseph or? Yeah, so we knew that we wanted to leave Charlotte after six or so years and didn't know really where we wanted to go. And it was smack during the middle of COVID. So I actually had a GM who was opening this hotel, who reached out, kind of made the connection for me and Tony and we hit it off wonderfully and decided that this was the right fit. We should definitely move to Nashville. So we've been here for, yeah, almost, it'll be three years in August we'll be open and we moved pre-opening and it was a crazy time to open a hotel. Oh yeah. Yeah. It worked. It did work. What an opportunity to come work for somebody like Tony. I mean, to have that kind of pedigree in a city like Nashville, I was personally really just excited that he was gonna be doing what he did here. I mean, you're from Chicago, you know, it's been just done forever.

13:26I mean, I remember before we knew that they were opening the hotel, it was a Saturday night and I was, no, it wasn't even Saturday, it was a weekday night because I was getting ready to leave and I just looked at open table just briefly before I left to see what was on the book and I saw Cathy Manchuano and I was like, huh, that's weird. Surely this isn't Cathy Manchuano and I looked at the phone number and it was a 312 area code. I'm like, what's happening? So I was like, Tony, my husband, I was like, I have to tell you, there's this reservation. There's no way that it can be them but just on the off chance it is, I'm gonna stick around for another 30 minutes and they walked in and asked to sit at the bar counter and it was just like so casual and Tony's, my Tony's eyes were like popping out of his head. He's like, oh my God, it just, and they are the, I don't have to tell you, just the loveliest people on the planet and can't believe that they're in Nashville, how lucky all of us are to have them here.

14:28They are, they are the most incredible people. They are the most genuine and hardworking and trusting and inspiring. They're really amazing. That's amazing. I love that. So you're now, you've moved to Nashville. We're getting back into your story. You moved to Nashville. The Joseph, do you just have free reign? What does he say? You come in working for a guy who's been, I guess, I don't wanna say he's nominated for 12 James Beard Awards now but I mean, he had a dozen. He won a James Beard Award in 2005 and now you're working for this guy. Does he just say, I trust you, go? Or does he give you parameters? Is there a chef that you work with, chef de cuisine? That's a great question. How does, you coming in, do they just say, full autonomy, make it beautiful? Pretty much, which I was really extremely lucky for. Tony and I hit it off really great over the phone and when we met before pre-opening. So we actually shared this kind of connection of a story which is kind of, I guess, how our heartstrings got connected.

15:34Before we moved, we were on a phone call talking just about kind of traditions and our heritage and things like that and I might not look Italian but I do have a lot of Italian on my grandfather's side and I mentioned this cookie that I had seen him make on one of his kind of like news things in Chicago and it was called a scalete and it's a kind of a fried dough that you dip in honey. So kind of a cookie, kind of a holiday item. We made them all the time growing up but only at Christmas. So it was kind of that running joke of it's kind of child labor at Christmas time in the basement. My grandfather would make us tie all these cookies and fry them and it was little fingers did small work. So I kind of mentioned that to him and he's like, you're kidding, I've never met anybody that has made this cookie before. So we kind of connected over that and realized that our family recipes were one ingredient off but exactly the same otherwise.

16:39So from that kind of moment, going through what he expected of me and what I expect of my team and our previous work and things like that, came on the scene, moved to Nashville and we just kind of ran with it, wrote a menu, put every dessert in front of him and he was like, you're good, just go. So when we do menu changes even now, we'll talk about ideas or talk about a region of Italy which is what our menus follow is a specific region. But within those parameters, it is free reign for me and my team. How many people on your team? I have nine. How do you pick these people on your team? Is there, when you hire somebody, are you like, here's the deal, you gotta be all in? Pretty much, yeah. I mean, this isn't some restaurant job where you're gonna come in, like, oh, we're gonna get you in here. And do you have to be a culinary graduate to come and be on your team?

17:39What are the prerequisites? No, I have multiple team members that are not culinary graduates but have some sort of experience and you have to just be inspired. I mean, that's the biggest thing is attitude, teamwork. You'll hear me say all the time that pastry's a team sport and I am not the one sole person standing behind that pesca dessert. There are nine other people that put their heart and soul and their ideas and inspiration into that one plate and then times that by eight that are on the menu. So you allow every single person who's on your team to have creative input and execution for what you're doing as far as desserts are. So it's not just, hey, I drew this up, I need you to execute this. You're actually taking their input too? Yeah, so we'll draw up something. I'll get ideas from everybody. I'll kind of put something together, draw it. My sous chef Abby and I will sit down and just kind of clash heads and hash something out and then we'll go back to the team, say what do you think about this?

18:41And they're honest. They'll say, that's not gonna work on the line. That's gonna be too soft or something like that. We take all those ideas and then we'll test it. So if they test a recipe and they say, hey, Noel, this is really not gonna work. We scrap the idea, we start over. So they're really an integral part of everything that is completed on that final product. Wow. And then do you have to do tastings with the rest of the kitchen team before something goes on the menu or? Yeah, so we'll do training days, which are really awesome for our front of the house staff is that when we change a menu, culinary will change as well, we'll change desserts and then we'll kind of go through the history and our inspiration and the products and the farms that we're using and anything that's local and really let them ask questions, explore, see the plate and then taste. Love that, yeah. That's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot for one dessert and then you times that by six and it's a good hour of dessert eating.

19:48What is the dessert you've made that you're like the most proud of? Is there one that you made that you were like, this right here was the one that I was like, this is it. That's like picking your favorite child. I could never. Well, I can tell you my favorite child. No, I'm just kidding. What's your favorite dessert on the menu right now? How about that? I think it might be the pesca actually, which is funny you bring that up and I think it's just so colorfully beautiful and peaches are in such a demand this year and we were lucky enough to get local peaches from farmer Dave and it's just. Already? Yes, yes, yes, yes. Wow. And they're in such a demand because there was a little bit of crop loss this year and things like that. Oh, that freeze. So. There's a bunch of crop loss. You're right. So I feel like the ones that we have are just delicious and that dessert just highlights every part of it. This time of year, you're crushing it. It's amazing. Yeah. I think that's why though I gravitated more towards hotels even in the beginning of my career. Like I will tell you, I will never branch out to just be a single restaurant pastry chef.

20:54That's why I love the hotel world is that you do a little bit of everything. So I don't have to pick my favorite child. It can be a plate of dessert or a croissant or a bread or a banquet function. It's every day is different. Well, in restaurant pastry chefs, like you were saying, single restaurant pastry chefs, it's kind of a dying thing, unfortunately. You don't get a lot to work with except maybe a sheet pan if you're lucky in a tiny corner. And so many restaurants just don't have pastry chefs anymore. Yeah. Like if you're a big group, like they might have a pastry chef for the group, perhaps. Like I know, I think like Boca Group in Chicago has like a pastry chef, but they do desserts for multiple concepts, which is why you're right. A hotel is a place that has the resources to allow you to do what you do and you do it so beautifully where you might not be able to do that. Right. There's a lot of opportunity with a hotel and especially being so lucky, there's not a lot of hotels that have such great restaurants in them.

22:00And to have Yolande be that amazing restaurant that's also in a hotel is unheard of. It's like a dime a dozen. Yeah, it's not just the afterthought of like, oh, this is just an amenity to the hotel. Right. No, I love that. Where do you two-parter here? You're not working. Where would you go to find a really good pastry in town or dessert in town that somebody else who's like crushing it? And then where do you find inspiration? So here, I'll do that one. That one's the easy part. So the inspiration can come from anything. So it can be pottery. We work with a great potter, Christina Crone, and she does these amazing works of art that are plates. And she thinks our food is art and we think her plates are art. And it all just kind of comes together and photographs beautifully and looks beautiful and then tastes beautiful on top of that. So it can be something as simple as a plate. It can be a new mold. It can be a new spice or what's in season.

23:02So really any combination of all of those aspects. It could also be somebody that inspires us as far as a higher end pastry chef that maybe we follow online or something like that that will take one little snippet or one little technique and apply it in a completely different application. So we try to really pull from a lot of different areas for inspiration, which I think is what keeps our desserts looking the way they do. Do you have a favorite show that you watch and why is it, is it cake? No. Is it cake? It is never cake. Have you seen Is It Cake? No. There's a show called Is It Cake? And they have like two pedestals that each have an identical sneaker on the pedestal and one of them's a sneaker and one of them is cake. And they have a panel where they try and guess which one is. This is a real television show. There's like four options. They'll have like a head of Romaine.

24:03You look so horrified. And then they'll make a cake that looks identical to the head of Romaine. And they have like four different heads. Which one is cake? And then like, is it number two? And the guy pulls out a knife and he's like, and he chops it in half. He's like, not cake. What's the name? Then they cut through and they go, oh, this one is cake. And it's a fooling kind of show. It's like Cake Jeopardy. Well, it's like cake tic-tac-toe. I don't know, but it's Mikey Day from Saturday Night Live is the host. And. It's very amusing for like one or two episodes. I feel like if I like to smoke a lot of weed, I would probably really be getting into this show. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like. How close can you get to the cake? You're like 10 feet. Yeah. I mean, these are some impressive cakes. They really look. It's on Netflix. It's called, Is It Cake? I can't tell you that I'm gonna watch that. I mean, I feel like you've got to at least get your ass. I'll have to look at it. Does that type of show like offend you? No. Are you looking at that going, what a mockery of this craft they are?

25:07Not at all. No, I will say this. Because these two are artists too. Now, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I would say that being a restaurant pastry chef versus being a baker who like makes wedding cakes and that sort of thing, I think there's a common misconception that it's all the same thing. But I know because I married to someone who was a restaurant pastry chef, it is quite a different world to be a restaurant pastry chef. Tell us the difference. A baker and a pastry chef are very different. And I. I'm gonna take a break to hear a word from our sponsors. We are so excited that Cytex is back. Cytex was an amazing sponsor of ours for so long, right? Like right as the pandemic started. And then the supply chain got weird. Everything was crazy in this world. And literally they were, they were paused. They were trying to get product. They were taking care of all of their customers. It was really amazing to see how a company prioritized the people that were working with them and took care of them.

26:09Well, now they are back. They are back bringing on new accounts. I know a lot of people tried to get started during the pandemic. It was just a challenge for literally everybody. But now if you're a locally owned and operated independent restaurant, they wanna talk to you. So Ross Chandler is gonna be your guy. His number is 270-823-2468. As a testimony from me again, they do such amazing things. Their service is amazing. Their quality is amazing. And just working with a company that genuinely cares is all the difference in the world, especially Ross Chandler. Let me give you his number one more time. 270-823-2468. That is Cytex. We absolutely love partnering with Sharpies Bakery. Aaron Mosso has been selling bread, fresh baked bread to locally owned and operated restaurants six days a week for 36 years. Yes, her father started the company 36 years ago and Aaron took it over five years ago.

27:12And it is doing amazing things. I have so many guests that come in the studio that are like, I love Sharpies. They save me so much time and the bread is so good. So we've got round buns, specialty round buns, dinner rolls, hoagies, baguettes. They do cheesecake. They do flourless chocolate tortes. They do specially loaf breads and regular loaf breads and bullies. Bullies? B-O-U-L-E-S. Sourdough, long tuscan, wheat, multigrain. They got everything. You should go check them out at sharpies.com. That is Sharpies, C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com. Or you should give them a call at 615-356-0872. Supporting local is so damn important. And Aaron Mosso and all of our friends over at Sharpies Bakery do that daily. Give her a call right now. We are joined with Jason Ellis from SuperSource Nashville. They have been a sponsor for this podcast for almost three years. We are so honored to work with them.

28:14This is a great company and a great man. Jason, what can people expect if they give you a call? We'll come out, do a complete audit of their facility, see in which ways we could help them approve, if any, and see what we can do as far as helping them save some money. So the first thing they gotta do is just give us a call. 770-337-1143, or they can email me directly at jellis at SuperSourceinc.com. We'll come out, take a look at your operations, see in which ways we can help. That's amazing. So if you're out there right now listening to this, call Jason Ellis or email him today. Quite a different world to be a restaurant pastry chef. Tell us the difference. A baker and a pastry chef are very different. And I think that each can have strong suits that the other has, but neither are the same. Pastry chef, you're going more. Moose, custards, molded items, gelato bases, chocolate work, baker, you're going more.

29:14Cake, buttercream, bread, croissants, things like that. And I think that's important also when I talk about my team. They're also made up of these people. I have two amazing people in the morning of my team that make all these croissants and all of our beautiful breakfast pastries and scones and things like that. And while I know how to do it, they are far better at it than I would be on my own. So I trust them to kind of carry out their craft and do their amazing work and they succeed beautifully. So it's a kind of one of those balances you have to have of I know how to do these things, but I'm not good at it. And I know that I'm not good at it. So that's where you let somebody else take it over. Okay, so perfect. So back, there's two questions we've kind of missed and I'll go back to your favorite baking show or pastry chef kind of a, what do you like to watch? I don't watch anything.

30:16And this is a horrible answer. No, this is the best answer. But my team also will make fun of me endlessly that they'll talk about all these shows they watch, pastry or not. And I'll be in the conversation and act interested. And they're like, you're never gonna watch it. Don't worry about it. I don't sit down and watch TV. I don't know. What do you do? Do you read books? What do you do? I just kind of walk around the house and try to be productive. I don't know. How do you relax? I don't have a hobby. So that's how people take their, your hobby is making pastries. Yeah, it really is. Your hobby is making desserts. It really is. How we spend our time. My husband and I love to just eat, honestly. And that sounds so cliche, but that's how we enjoy our free time is kind of going out and travel and eating and exploring. What are some of the best meals that you've had this year? Either here or otherwise. That was the perfect segue to that initial question of where do you find the best place, the other pastry chef in town, or where would you go to eat pastries that you were like, I don't wanna answer this question.

31:21I know, this is another, can't pick your favorite child. I will say that. So there's too many versus not enough? Yeah. I would say so, for me. And it doesn't have to be anything that's fancy. When I'm not at work, I don't need a plate of dessert that has 13 components. I'd like an ice cream cone with chocolate sprinkles, and I'd like a delicious sundae or something like that. And there are so many talented pastry people in Nashville. A bunch of the cities that we've lived in, there isn't that connection, and there isn't that kind of background and support from the pastry side. There may be great restaurants, but not necessarily anybody that does great cakes or great desserts or ice cream. But Nashville, I've found that the pastry community is actually pretty large and very welcoming. So really everybody wants to connect if they see you out or see your name on a reservation.

32:22They want to talk to you. It's not this kind of standoffish vibe where a lot of other places are. It's very welcoming. Yeah. I love that about the Nashville hospitality community. Okay. You didn't name any names though. I didn't name any names. What if you named the top three? In no order of best-ness. Like just three awesome ones that other people can check out. Oh my gosh. I don't know if I can do that. All right. Well, then we'll go back to Caroline's question of when you go out to eat, where is your favorite place to go? Well, yeah, I said what are the best meals that you've had so far this year, whether they're in Nashville or somewhere else. I'm just curious where you're eating. I am in Nashville. We actually go to Nicky's. Oh my God. Decent amount. We live right down the street. Oh my God. Really? That's the nicest thing ever. Thank you so much. We're actually there, decent amount, regardless. It's just like, we love to sit on the patio and pre-baby, I was there drinking wine on your patio and now I'm missing the wine.

33:26Because I actually, you may or may not know this, but I feel like you probably don't. Tony absolutely idolizes you. I don't know if you guys know each other at all, but he is like. Your Tony? My Tony, truly, because you're just, the work that you do is so incredible and so beautiful. And I will say he, being a pastry chef, former pastry chef, can be very critical of desserts when we go to a restaurant. And you know, he's a tough one. And I mean, he's just obsessed with your desserts. Well, that's the sweetest, thank you. Yeah, I don't know if he knows you're coming all the time. He's gonna be excited when I tell him. Yeah, we're coming all the time. We're like, oh, we don't wanna cook tonight. Oh my God. Well, let's just go down the street. I love this, thank you. So yeah, we eat there. We love Hawthorne. That's probably our biggest go-to place. And we just sit at the bar and again, when I drink a Clementine and have dinner and have donuts for dessert and just kind of relax. Love Butcher and Bee.

34:29Love all the work that they do. Actually gonna go there for my birthday this week. So happy birthday. When's your birthday? On June 1st, so Thursday. Okay, I'm like, yeah, that's amazing. So yeah. Happy birthday. Thank you. I'd say maybe those are our top three, really. Places that we visit and they're, I mean, like it's just such consistent, delicious food that that's what we wanna do when we're out is just relax and spend time together. I work a lot. Is your husband in the industry as well? He is absolutely not. What does he do? He builds homes for a living. Well, that's a good business to be in around here. Yeah, so he works in Franklin and builds homes. So he says to see all the all the fancy goings on. And you alluded to, you just mentioned you said that you are pregnant. Yes, I am eight months pregnant. I have five weeks left. Congrats. Thank you. Congratulations. So looking forward to wine on the patio. Soon, just in time.

35:30Did you guys do like a, what's the agenda reveal party? We did, we're having a girl. You did, you're having a girl. What did you guys, how did you reveal the gender? Did we do anything special? Nothing with fire, I assume. Nothing with fire, nothing with cake. We thought about cake and we're like, oh, that's so cliche for me. I can't do that. So we had it packed in an envelope and we sent it to our friends. They packed us a box of clothes and all, you know, the pink items and then, and then we opened it with friends and family. So it was super cute. They gave us a popper for a photo op. So we are 100% ready. So. Love that. So the, on TikTok, that video the other day, the mom walking out to go to the gender reveal party and the little kid comes by and he pops the balloon. I saw that. And it's like blue and the mom's like, what the? It's like the whole perfect ruining the party before you get there thing. I just saw one where the, it was like a family party in the backyard and I guess the mom already had two girls and they did the gender reveal and it was revealed to be another girl and she went ballistic and was like knocking the tables over, like breaking stuff, walked out of the party.

36:43Like she was like, she's not one another girl. Is this your first? Yes, this is our first. Yes. So we don't know really what we're in for, but like we kind of do, but we really don't. So. Are you just accepting all the unsolicited advice in the world? I haven't gotten that much. Really? No, I said, I said, Oh, Brandon, we'll give you some. No, I'm not. I'm listening. Enough people to have children or like, everyone's like, oh, let me tell you what you have to do. And it's like, I don't have to do any of that. Like I'm, it's this, it's that, it's this. Everybody just wants to just tell you all about their experience. It's like, well, I'm gonna have my own experience. Thank you. Right. Like I appreciate you telling me that. I've been very lucky. Nobody's tried to pet me. Nobody's, I haven't gotten any unsolicited advice. I've been very lucky to have the next five weeks to escape that. And I think that would be the coolest thing about being pregnant is like, come pet my belly. No. No. Not a thing. No thing. That's me though. I'm weird. Women don't like to be touched by strangers in any way or capacity.

37:45I can imagine that. Yeah. Right. Am I right? I feel like, I feel like I will speak for all women and make that sweeping statement. I guess I'm probably the same way. I probably don't like being touched by strangers. If a stranger just walked up to you and started rubbing your stomach. Okay. I want to like friends and people. Not okay. Okay. Nevermind. My wife is like, we're on different wavelengths here. So you said that you live in the nations. I am so thrilled for this information. Right down the street. Have you guys lived there since you moved here? Yes. So actually we were super lucky. We, when we moved, obviously it was during COVID like I mentioned. So we rented a townhouse and just loved it. It was a new build and the gentleman just kind of wanted a new lease on life. So he moved to Franklin. And got a horse farm and he wanted to rent out this home. And so we got in there and mentioned to him a few times. Hey, if you ever wanted to sell it, we'd love to live here.

38:46And then finally, two years ago, he said. Nice. Yeah. You know what? Let's do this. So we bought it. Good for you. And we love it. We love the neighborhood. We, it's going to be so hard if we ever have to leave. You know, if you ever have to upsize or anything but we absolutely love the nations. So you're enjoying Nashville. Yes. We love every part of it, honestly. We loved Charlotte as well. And we spent obviously like six years there but it was very corporate. And it's very kind of clean cut and kind of structured. Nashville's much more lively, much more laid back. And there's always something going on here. So we love to just kind of what's going on this weekend or even during the week, there's always something to do. And so we love to explore and eat and go to festivals and anything we can to just kind of get out of the house when we have free time. That's great. Yeah. I think Nashville, something that's nice about Nashville is that there's so many easy day trips.

39:46There's so many, you know, cool other cities and things to do that are just great. Yeah. And there's so much good food here too. Like it's, that's why when you ask me these questions it's too hard to pick. Do you do any food traveling? Have you like traveled regionally or have you ever been to like eat somewhere specific or try like, you know, West Tennessee barbecue or anything like that? Not regionally yet, but hopefully soon. Obviously when I have some, a little time off maybe we'll take some road trips, but we love to kind of travel and eat internationally as well. Like you're, I mean, Europe, Spain, all of these places that, you know, are known for all these amazing foods and items that we want to search out and find the best of. That's, that's our happy place. Have you been to Italy with the Montuanos? Not with the Montuanos. No, I think that would be a, that would be like a roller coaster. What a dream. They could do like an annual trip and charge whatever they want to go to Italy with them and just, gosh, that'd be amazing. I feel like Tony, doesn't, doesn't Tony do like a food tour or something like you can buy a weekend?

40:50Sometimes, yeah. But they're in Italy. They love it. Obviously they love Italy. They're in there all the time. Well, they have a place there, right? No, not yet. Do they sell it? I believe so. Well, when they left Spiaggia, they moved to Italy and they had like this big farm. And then I guess the Joseph, Joe, what is his name? I can't think of the name. Joel Pizzuti. Pizzuti. Yes. Called them and they had the meeting and like, what kind of an offer must it be to like, I'm in retirement in my country home in Italy. Oh, let's move to Nashville and do this whole restaurant thing again. And just to me, it was like, wow, that's amazing that they did that. And then they were like, well, why not? And then the pandemic hit and they were like, oh shit. We figured it out. Yeah, we figured it out. We had to figure it out quick, but we did. Yeah, I mean, it was like right at the very beginning of the pandemic, like we were ramping up to, you guys ramped up to go and then. Yeah, and we did not know if we were gonna, you know, have the business and there were weeks that we didn't and there were weeks that we were packed.

41:56Really honestly, when we opened, it was that local traffic. That's what got us going was all the locals because it wasn't anybody traveling in, but everybody who has been here and has wanted this fine dining experience came in droves and really like pumped us up and it was amazing to see. So that's really kind of how we took off for the first opening kind of chapter. What is business like for you guys now? Is it a mix of locals and tourists? Is it mostly tourists or? I would say we're a really good mix. We have a lot of regulars and then we have a lot of tourists. We have a lot of transient guests, hotel guests, people that are staying at other hotels that are looking for that amazing dinner experience or anniversary or celebration. But then we have a lot of guests that love to just come in and eat at the bar and casual Monday night tasting menu and things like that. So I would say it's a really even mix, but we are busy.

42:57That's great. I love to hear that. And I love that you mentioned your bar too. I think that that's something that a lot of people might not realize that it doesn't just have to be a special occasion restaurant. While it certainly is great for that, you guys have a bar that anybody can walk into, order a la carte on the menu. Absolutely. Something I love to do. Maybe you've had a great dinner somewhere else and then you can bop over to your bar and order your dessert. Absolutely. Have a nightcap. Yeah, it's perfect. Yes, absolutely. And that's like the best way to do it too is a la carte options as well as the tasting menu. I mean, once you've experienced a region on a tasting menu, a la carte is changing and there's pasta dishes and salads and all these different ways you can kind of build your meal. I had such a memorable dinner at your bar. I kind of, we had a little bit of a family emergency a few years ago, it was our 10 year wedding anniversary and I was supposed to be out of town and wound up coming home at like four o'clock on the day of my 10 year wedding anniversary.

44:02And we're like, well, it's still our anniversary. What do you want to do? And we threw on some clothes and we just came and sat at your bar. And even though we had no plans, it just, it wound up being such a special, memorable evening. You know, it was just, it was great. So. That's awesome. Yeah. I don't know a lot about the pastry chef world. I'm new, I mean, I've never been a pastry chef. You're new to pastry shopping? Yeah. I mean, I've never really worked in a restaurant that had a pastry chef in all honesty. I mean. That's so sad. I know, right? I've been to a lot of places that have had pastry chefs. I've eaten at places like the places I've worked or that I've operated. I mean, I've worked with them at US Foods and things but like not this much. What's the biggest misconception about being a pastry chef? What do people, what's the biggest misconception people think about? Is it that they also do, is it that it's just cakes or that it's just one thing or the other? Maybe. You know, I don't know, and this isn't a misconception but this is kind of one of those, I guess the word on the block but is probably pretty true is that most pastry chefs are very structured and very, I'm an only child.

45:15So if I put something somewhere, it's gonna stay there and that's also the same in the pastry kitchen which obviously culinarians just really struggle with. We're very structured and recipe oriented and measure and scale where the food world is just a dash of this and a dash of that. But I would say that's not even a misconception. That's the utter truth about all of this. It has to be perfect. Yes, it has to be perfect. Very strategic. Yes, I've met barely any pastry chefs in my lifetime that are not perfectionists and not just eye for detail and a little bit OCD and crazy. We're all a little crazy but. I know, I sure as hell am. Misconception though, yeah, I'd say that we bake cupcakes and while there's a lot of pastry chefs that do do that, that's not every person that is in the pastry world or in the baking world even. What's the question you really want me to ask you?

46:18Is there something that you're like, I hope you ask me about this because I wanna talk about it. Because I don't know the right question to ask. I don't know, I think just like, maybe it leads back to kind of what's the difference between everybody is just that you can kind of source out your talent to be good at everything. We have a coffee bar, we have denim, we have the rooftop bar, we have amenities and hotel banquets and functions and special dinners and we go to festivals and we go to wine events with Tony and Cathy and prepare plated desserts there and it's just, I guess, how different and kind of varied pastry can be and then how much your team kind of loads into that. That's my soap box that I stand on. I like that. Tell me about the, is it nine people on your team? Yes. Because we got like, little bit less than 10 minutes, right?

47:20Let's give a shout out to some of the people. Can you tell me about some of the people on your team and kind of what makes them special? Totally. Let's give a shout out to some of your folks. So Abby Wells, she's my sous chef. She actually worked with me in Charlotte at the Ballantine and then when COVID hit and we decided to move here, I somehow convinced her and dragged her with me. Nice. And she's from the Charlotte area, lived there her whole life and kind of dug her heels in the ground and then decided that she would come with. So, but she's kind of like my standing stone and the person I bounce everything off of and the person that tells me that I'm crazy and that that's not gonna work or the person that inspires me. So yes, she's my sous chef. And then I have three CDPs, which are Liz Meyer, Sarah Buchanan and Nathaniel West. Liz and Sarah kind of man our night crew. So they're there behind the scenes when you're getting those plated desserts, making sure everything is perfect, helping with our high-end production, our chocolate work and really overseeing everything when Abby and I's eyes can't be on everything.

48:30And then Nathaniel is up when you are still asleep. And he's at work by 5 a.m. baking all of these beautiful croissants and scones and danishes and pastries. And Celine Croft, she is Nathaniel's kind of right hand, also does all these amazing ideas. I let them pretty much run with everything as far as flavor concepts and scoring and focaccia flavors and they do not disappoint. The coffee bar is the most decadent pastries you will find around and that's for sure. And then I have Elaine King, Codelia Joseph and Bailey Mason and they are kind of our structure of production and they kind of help with anything that we need help with as far as plating, production goes, banquets and just anything we need, they're there. Their hands are there, they're all in it and ready to just kind of jump in and help.

49:32So yeah, what else am I missing? The thing you can't see listening to this through the car or wherever you're listening to this is that we can talk all day long about what you're doing and what it is to be a pastry chef. But when you talk about the people that you work with, look at the grin on her face right now. She lights up. Like you can talk about it now, you talked about the people you work with and you lit up. Yeah, they're great. Like these people are really important to you. Yes. I mean you can tell how much you genuinely care about them. Yes, absolutely. That was really cool to see. Number one, that's my team. And we all, they'd probably go into battle for me and I would do the same. It's the best. What's the most important leadership advice you ever got or that you could give? Maybe one and the other. I think it just goes with also life advice. Just treat somebody how you wanna be treated. I remember being that pastry cook that didn't get credit for anything that was kind of not pushed to the wayside, but you're doing somebody else's recipes and vision and you might have a great idea and you're not heard.

50:44So I think I really learned a lot of that in the beginning of my career of what I didn't want to be and what kind of chef. I don't yell. I don't, there's no belittling. There's no, all these things you see. Passive aggression, sarcasm, yelling. All these things you see on a TV show or something like that. These are the people that are gonna help you and build you up and I wanna build them up as much as they build me up. I think they're rock stars just as they think I'm a rock star. So really it's just all about mutual respect and having people behind you that are in your corner. I love that. Are you a part of La Dom? I just applied, yes. Oh good. I was gonna say, you should be in La Dom. You're the kind of leader I think that they're like, we want you to be part of this. Yes, just applied. So they assured me I'm a shoe-in. You are for sure. You'll be in, I'm sure you'll get in there. That's great. You're a, you're La Dom.

51:45I am. Are you? I am, yes. She's a Dom. Awesome, awesome. I'm a very bad member who's not as engaged as I should be in everything. But were you at the Hawthorne event? Oh, okay, sorry. No, sorry. I just, you know what it is. It's just so hard sometimes. We have such busy schedules and you go with the best of intentions of I'm gonna do this thing or I'm gonna go to this thing and then sometimes the day gets there and you have to go do something else. Absolutely. You just described the story of my life. I'm like, you have all these plans and you wanna do this thing and then you get to the thing and you're like, I had to do something else. They're just like. Yes, this is every day of my life. I had to do something else. I had to do something else. Mean calendar of mine said, nope, you gotta be here. You didn't put that thing in front of this thing and now you gotta go do this thing. That's like when we're trying to schedule these interviews. I tell Brandon my availability and then there's basically like a six hour window of like you have six hours to schedule everything before these dates. I'm not available anymore.

52:46Oh, yeah. Sorry. Scheduling this interview today, I was like, here's 12 days, here's 12 different dates. Pick one, but do it quick because I sent this to nine people. That is how it goes, isn't it? June 1st at 10.30, I'm like, no, it's already gone. It's like bidding. Can you do nine? Nope, all right, we'll pick a different day. May 30th, that day's done too. Let's try June 6th between the hours of nine and 9.15. Yeah. How does that sound? I'm like, oh, we'll take it. Okay, got it. And you better be right in this window. It gets crazy sometimes. It's fun though. That's all right. You know what? That's a little bit like pastry too. The bread's gotta go in the oven at exactly a certain time and that oven's gonna be free because I'm gonna make it be free. That's right. It will be free. It will be free. What happens if it's not free? What kind of noel do we get to know? A culinarian might catch a little bit of a wrath. Yeah. It's always a culinarian. It's never a pastry person. So the delineation between a culinarian and a pastry person. It's that chaos.

53:47Do you wear like a pink chef coat and they wear like a black chef coat? No. She's wearing a black chef coat right now. Why do you assume she'd wear the pink one? It was hypothetical. I don't know. I was just in my brain thinking of two different colors. Why wouldn't they wear the pink one? Do the, you wear the black and they wear pink. A pink may be bad. Blue, white, I don't know. Pick a different color. It's not like Hell's Kitchen. One last time, a word from our sponsors. We are supported by Robins Insurance, a local insurance agency providing customized insurance policies, sound guidance, and attentive service. Robins Insurance is the go-to agency for hospitality professionals in Nashville. Listen, Robins knows how hard industry professionals work every single day. They also know how devastating accidents can be. Be it a grease fire that damages the kitchen, a severe storm that cuts off power, or a customer slip and fall incident. Both the extensive experience and the savvy to create a policy that protects your business from accidents like those, you can rest easy knowing that the work you've put in will not be for nothing.

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56:57Trust people who understand the needs of hospitality workers. A team who is non-judgmental and is flexible enough to accommodate any hospitality schedule. And for you managers and executives listening out there, reach out to them to inquire for free information you can pass along to your staff. Contact them today to start your home buying journey with the right team. John Ho at 615-483-0315. Or you can follow him on Instagram at HousePotality. Amanda Gardner with Foundation Mortgage is 865-230-1031. Find her on Instagram at mortgageamanda. No, we have no definitive, you know. But they have different names. Well, they specialize in, I could never be on the hotline. I could never cook you a burger. I could never cook you a pasta. That's why my respect, you know, I could never break down a pig. That I do not know how to do that. That is not my talent. And I have so much respect for that. You know, I will say for what it's worth though, I think that because what you do is so scientific and so technical in that way that sometimes, you know, like you said, cooking a pasta is not necessarily the same.

58:08But butchering and like curing meats is, I feel like oddly that same type of skill sets, that same type of mindset. Yeah. I don't know if I could wrap my head around it. I'm not. Because it's a living organism? No, just because I don't know where I'd begin. I mean, I'm not. It was a living organism. Right. I'm not trained in it. I don't pretend to, that I can cook. That's for sure. But you also, it sounds like you have no desire to. Yeah, no. But if you, she's saying the style of brain of that level of detail to open up a pig and cut out little things like just that level, that brain, the mindset. I haven't heard that before. So that's pretty interesting. Yeah, I think, well, and it's because it's like, you know, if you're like dry curing something, it's all the weights and science and timing and, you know, it's that same, I think it's, you know, that same type of skill set. No, much respect for all, you know, I say culinarians, but anything, anybody that's, you know, cooking that pasta or breaking down that pig or any, you know, making that hamburger, I am not good at that.

59:15I will give you a hockey puck on a bun. I'm, you know, I can cook at home a bit, but I am not a restaurant chef in the culinary world. I'd much rather deal with the mousse and the buttercream. And I wanna know that any dish that I wash isn't gonna smell like an onion. There you go. That's it. I didn't know the culinarians versus the pastries. I'm like, oh, is this like the Bloods and the Crips back there? Are you guys like battling back and forth? Yeah, kind of. If one of the, you know, greasers has a, my oven's not available. Oh, definitely. They're gonna know. No, that definitely is it. And then I'll come out there and say, who's in the oven? And that's the only time you'll hear me yell and then me, you'll see a hand go up. I'll be right out, chef. And then they take out their Parmesan cheese and we steal it for bread. Love it. Okay. We've got to wrap it up here today. But this has been a lot of fun. Yes. And we've got to do this again. I love having pastry chefs like this.

01:00:16I'm learning so much about what you guys do. Thank you for just coming in and telling us what you do. And I find these interviews fascinating. Congratulations on the, all of your success, but especially being recognized by the Beard Foundation. What does that feel like? Does that just like, what, that moment that you heard that you were a semi-finalist for the James Beard? This is your first time. Yes. What was that? Was that like all the hard work and dedication? Did it just feel like validation for you? Like, what was that like? Totally surreal. I mean, like you know of this amazing kind of organization and you know the chefs that belong to this. And obviously like Tony and all these other amazing people, even in Nashville and outside of Nashville that have been recognized by them. And it almost feels like, I'm not supposed to be in that same category. You know, it's, I'm just making desserts. What are you talking about? But it was absolutely amazing that they, you know, also look at pastry work in the same way of what we're trying to do and what we're trying to accomplish and make guests have that kind of feeling of, like you said, artwork and wow.

01:01:30And that they're just all behind that because pastry is, it's not a dying art, but there are not as many people that function like that and produce products like that. So it was amazing. And I will mention too, when chefs get James Beard nominations, it goes by region. But when pastry chefs get a nomination, it is not regional. It is for the entire country. So an even bigger, you know, congrats to you. Thank you. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, so it was 20 of the US. Whereas when a chef gets a nomination, It's like best southeast. Yeah, right. Midwest, like, yeah. Right, yes. So that was, yeah, crazy, absolutely insane. Wow, that does make it even more special. Yeah, and it's awesome to see who's on the semi-finalist list or who's what makes the nomination list and also to learn from them as well and to kind of, you know, you stalk everybody's Instagram and their social media and their restaurants and then you're inspired by them as well.

01:02:32So it's just a hand-in-hand kind of connection, which is really awesome. All right, we do one final thing here. It is called the Gordon Food Service Final Thought. Where the people at Gordon Food Service, the good, amazing people at Gordon Food Service, sponsor this segment. It's the final segment of the show. All you gotta do is you get to take us out. So you're gonna finish the show up. You're gonna tell us whatever you wanna say. As long as you wanna say it, you're talking to the entire world. The entire world is listening right now. So this is- Oh, Brandon, come on. Very, 32 countries are listening to this right now. So this is very important. And people have said everything from like a deep thought about the industry to what's their favorite sports team. So it can be really as heavy or as light as you want it to be. Very loose, very loose. It doesn't- Anything you wanna say. You could say, I've had a lot of fun, you know, peace out guys, I gotta go. Like that could be it. You could say anything, anything you want.

01:03:33Well, first I have to say thank you for having me because this was amazing. And I've never been on a podcast before like we mentioned earlier. You've been on TV or the news or things like that. And this has been super fun and cool to see how you guys kind of operate in the podcast world. It's an honor to have you here. And then, I don't know, just keep it sweet. Keep it sweet, I love that. That's it. So you're gonna have to sign that on the door to keep it sweet. That's a good one. Noelle Marchetti, thank you for joining us on Nashville Restaurant Radio. Thank you so much. Thank you. Big thank you to Noelle Marchetti for joining us on Nashville Restaurant Radio. I did a whole other intro where I introduced her and I think I said Nicole Marchetti. So when I came to the beginning, I said, let's try this for a third time. Literally, there's three intros that I had to do. That's what happens when you record early in the morning and you have lost your voice because of the Nashville SC game. That is what happens. So thank you guys for listening.

01:04:33Want to again tell you, Ben Whitlock, this Friday, new episode, Father's Day coming up. Please do something special for your husbands, your dads, your brothers, anybody who's a dad. Give them the day to do whatever they want. And I know I'm gonna be, I've done some trips with my kids and you'll hear more about it on Friday when we talk with Ben. But thank you again for listening and I hope that you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys, bye.