Luke’s Diner: You Are Top Chef

lifestyle innovation. He has co founded Volcania, an Alpine Italian an Alpine Italian. Listen to that, an Alpine Italian American restaurant at Mammoth Mountain Resort. The resume is so long, you know, let's get into the Mercado twenty eight, which you sent me a couple bottles of. You know, I've got maybe a couple of shots left on the Blanco. But man, we had a time, buddy. Thank you for the course, of course, and it mixes beautifully with everything. You can do it straight, you can do it all

the rocks. You can mix it. Oh, it's just beautiful stuff. Man, thank you for that much.

and by default ended up in the kitchen. I needed a job, and then I just I didn't realize that like thirty years would go by and I still have the same job. So I guess it was all worth it for sure. But yeah, sometimes you just get that little bit of motivation to go figure out what you want to be when you grow up, and you don't realize that you're already doing it at such a young age.

So it's just another extension of our story. I mean Anya when we were going to name that restaurant, Volcanyo was the name of the ship that brought the Voltagios, the first Voltagios allegedly to the US and so, and it also means volcano and mammoth actually sits an a dormant volcano. And so I came up with that whole narrative in my head and then we just my brother and I knew that it was going to be challenging to get food up to the mountain given its location

in the terrain. So as long as we had flour and water, we could open the restaurant. And so we make all of our pasta and we make all of our pizza do there. So with those two ingredients we can do we can feed people. And then it just became sort of a solution. I think there's a built in audience obviously, but there are the challenges of the elements, and so for us, it was how do you satisfy that with hospitality, And that was making sure that we always had food to serve people.

it's just, yeah, we're super stoked. A lot of people from LA that missed the restaurants that I had here drive up there and are sort of stoked because I'm not currently operating a restaurant in Los Angeles.

food up there. We want to give people their carbs during a time when I think they feel like they're allowed to eat them, which is extreme sports all day, carb overload at night. And then we've got meat, fish, salads, things like that. But we make everything in the house and it was important for us to be able to do that beautiful.

sleep on my brother's couch. So there's a hotel attached to the restaurant. And then Voltajio Brothers Steakhouse MGM has been a partner, a great partner to us for the past over eight years now. And so that restaurant, which sits on National Harbor right across the bridge from Washington, DC, right on the Potomac River, that's like a steakhouse. We built it to look like a house, so living room, a dining room, kitchen, it's a steakhouse, like a like pun intended steakhouse.

a great review from the San Francisco Chronicle. There was this surprise that the Michelin Guide was coming out and we received a star, and I did what anyone else probably shouldn't do, And at that time I sort of transitioned out and went back east. I was like, well, there's only one way to go from here, So I thank you for this, and I was just I knew in that moment that I was going to be looking for opportunities to sort of control and drive my own

narrative from there. And so for me when I received, when we received that, as a team, I felt a responsibility to then go out. And anytime you get recognition, you have this pressure, this accountability to maintain whatever standard the public has created for you. And so oftentimes that happens to me annually, like something will happen where now I get sort of self conscious and I have to

go back and prove something. And so for thirty two years I've been cooking, I just have this innate pressure on myself to do better. And so when that happened, it wasn't like, hey, great job, Michelin star. It was like now what okay, Now what are you going to do to get better and to do better and provide

more hospitality and so. And I know that sounds kind of sales pitchy, but some of us got into this industry long before social media and any of that stuff, and it wasn't about We weren't even talking really about celebrity chefs when I started cooking. And so for me, it was a job, it was a craft, it was a it was a trade that I learned to support myself. And every time you get those nods, it's like, oh, wow, Okay, this is really super cool that I get these opportunities.

But I get that recognition and it makes me just want to work.

the more recognized ones. When that show was started out, Like in the beginning, Marcel was like, I'm like, this guy's famous. He applied for a job as a soue chef when I was sous chef when I was opening the Bazaar with Jseandres in La and I was to be the executive chef of the hotel. And I was like, wow, this is random. This guy just came off of the show. He's applying for a sue chef job. What's the deal? Interviewed them, and similar vibes to what I'm saying now.

He felt that same pressure to go back and like okay, now prove all the hype. And so he came to work with us, and one day we were joking around and I was like, a haha, top chef that I could have won that, and he's like, well, if you think it's so easy, why don't you go do it?

And I'm like, fine, I will, And so I applied, got on the show and competed and won and so from there, anytime you get a little piece of show business, I would say there's a sort of addiction attached to that, like you get a taste for it and you're like, wait, this is really neat, this is cool. I can't believe I get to do this, because not many people do

in the world. And now they can, obviously with these things, but to be able to get pooled from society and go do something like that and get recognized like that, and then the opportunity is to sort of share that part of yourself with people that aren't necessarily eating in the restaurants, but then drive them back to your restaurants. And so now I looked at it, or now I look at it as and I think back then even more so as another discipline, another thing I could learn

how to do. I was this introverted like I'm a serious chef and I'm going to keep my head down and no one needs to talk to me and I'm so cool and blah blah blah. To like, wait a second, that's not hospitality, And I think food television actually became a conduit to extend more hospitality to more people. So then I was like, Okay, I want to do more

of this, and I mean, who doesn't. Food network is ultimately the goal for every I feel like it's called the Food Network, Like what do people watch that to see? They seek food and cooking. So my goal was to get onto the Food Network. And They've been so good to me over the years, and I've gotten to get mentored by the best I mean from Bobby to Guy to I mean everyone to Amberell who we just lost yesterday, and the list goes on and on and on of

the people that within that network. I got to learn under no different than I learned under a lot of the executive chefs and chefs that I worked for, just learning how to cook, and so it was another skill set.

was nothing produced about it. We just both you know, sort of fought our way through that entire competition, and then when it came down to the two of us and a third Kevin Billss there my boss Sam and Azarian who owned the SLS Hotel that I had left to go to top chef to do uh. He was sitting at the table while I was cooking. So there

was a lot of pressure. And did it divided? I did us for a long time that it sort of inspired this separation where my brother and I ran different professional directions I would say secretly, like rooting for each other, but not publicly and not to each other. To fast forward to today, that was the dumbest thing we could have done. We immediately realized, I think immediately a few years later, we should be partners and we should do this together, and wouldn't it be cool if we could?

You know, some people would look at this as an opportunity to work half as hard. We saw it as an opportunity to accomplish twice as much, and so we became business partners. And as much as people like to see us go against each other, that's not real for us now, like where we share our recipes, we collaborate, we cook together. We support our families by doing this and so he's my family, so I'm indirectly and vice versa, we're supporting each other's families.

and telling their stories through these different spirits. So when I met with them to potentially be their their partner in Marcato twenty eight, which means Marcato means mark, So Marcato twenty eight. The twenty eight refers to Leviticus twenty eight, which is a Bible verse that says don't basically, don't mark your body too late for that so too like you're in the club and you drank the tequila already.

So it started as this brand narrative about defiance, and I said, well, if we're going to be defiant in this industry, and you know, I'm sort of a public face in my own right, I guess some people would say that, what if we made a really good tequila and didn't charge a lot of money for it, and I was given the opportunity to go to Mexico so meet the people that were growing the agave, go through the process with the family that's going to make it,

and we make something really good so that it doesn't come out like, oh, here's this tequila and there's this chef guy that's involved in it, but it's probably not any good. What if we were like, well, yeah, but this is really really good tequila, and I can tell you who made it, and I can tell you about the family's lineage and I can tell you about every part of it, down to I was involved in the

process of making it. What if we did that? And then fast forward to today our scores from wine enthusiasts, we got ninety four on the Blanco and a ninety three on a Repisodo, and we continue to sort of get decent scores within our category, and we've managed to keep our price point down low enough for everyone that wants to feel like a little bit defiant when they're shopping and making their decisions, like get behind a brand where I can tell you every single person involved in

the process. And so we collectively as a group decided to maintain that discipline, to have a family sort of environment behind this brand, and ultimately down to even like the tattoo artists that did the labels. I know Billy Baka and I know Elsando. I've been tattooed by both of them, and they gave they were given the opportunity to tell their stories through the art that's on the label.

So it was less about a quick like oh, let's started to kill a brand, and more about again every part everything that I do in my life, like I feel like I'm held accountable to be able to tell that story. And if there's such thing as legacy, you know, I feel like my legacy one day could be that I was somebody who had a trade, but that I was a storyteller through my craft and through my trade, and I was willing and able to sort of emotionally share that part of myself along with the physical acts

of what I was doing. And so everything that I do, I try to make sure that there's a story of authenticity that's linked to it, because I think enough there's enough bullshit out there right now that I don't need to jump into that, right.

not tequila, but it's an agave spirit. Obviously, to swap out any sort of spirit in any classic cocktail with inappropriate toe quill it. Now, what does that mean? Reposado would lean more towards Scotch and things like that, I would say, and yahoe would lean more towards bourbons, and the blanco could replace any sort of gin in vodka.

So I feel like, if you're able to have one spirit behind your bar, let's say you live in a two hundred square foot apartment with a two foot little corner for your bar, tequilo would be a great spirit to always have. In having those three, with the various ages levels of age, you could almost make any classic cocktail just by having tequila or a gave spirit. So I would say, try anything at all. I mean, even in the groni if you have a little kompari and

some vermouth. Now I know, I just added two more bottles to your bar at home, But tequila and Negroni and mezcal and negroni, you know those It works basically in any sort of cocktail.

start asking questions. Also, bottleneckers are a good sort of indication as to whether or not you're getting something good. We did wine enthusiasts gave us that those ratings, but we didn't know we were going to get those ratings. Well, now that we have those ratings, we have those those neckers that we can go and put on the bottles that say And I was at at Albertson's grocery store two days ago. We were having people over. I needed

a bottle of piano Nora. I didn't want to spend a ton of money, and so I just looked for those neckers and I used wine enthusiasts as my as my guide to Like, I don't know if I'm answering the question, but I feel like asking questions and doing research on what you're buying as opposed to like what's hype out in the marketplace right now. It was very easy for everyone to be like costam Egos. That's because

they did a great job putting it everywhere. I mean, I feel like when costam Egos came to market, every like LA party that I went to was sponsored by costam Egos and we were all drinking it. We all thought like, oh, that's the tequila that everyone needs to drink right now and right now. Their stories being told a little bit differently these days, and I think.

So to be able to tell that part of your I would start there. Kasamilos managed to put together something that was drinkable, smooth, approachable, and I feel like they're responsible for bringing a lot of people back to tequila. And I feel like this sort of tequila drive that's happening in the world right now where everyone wants it. This trend. I'd hate to say trend, but I think that Costamigo's really made tequila a little bit more approachable

for everyone. And then now we use that to inspire our flavor profiles. But we did it naturally, We didn't add anything to it.

we did when we made the tequila. We call everyone ourselves and we have conversations and we want them to buy into not just our brand, but our story and get behind it because ultimately they're going to be asked the same questions you're asking me right now. So it

starts with phone calls and relationships. And we've got a really good team behind us of people that have been doing this for a lot of years and have built these relationships, and so a lot of it is I mean, they can tell your excitement when you make the call. You know, are you just trying to sell me something or are you showing up to my office and you're here in person to talk about it, which I've done

on several occasions. I've even driven to the Total Whining More on Librea in West Hollywood and just walked in with a sharpie in my end and signed the B and asked for the manager and said like, Hey, can I talk to you about this tequila. I'm one of the people behind it, and I'd really love to share my experience with you. And I think that that goes a long way. ABC Down in Florida, they they're like a massive family owned operation, but they were interested in

hearing that story. And I think for us, it's about not just who can we sell our story to, but who wants to hear our story? And I think that that goes a long way. I mean, we're all sold. I get got on Instagram. I tell my wife, I got got today on Instagram. I bought a furry green Oscar the Grouch Sesame street hat the other day because it popped up on my Instagram feed and I had this memory of somebody calling the Oscar the Grouch one day because I was grouchy, and I'm like, I need

that hat. Now. I have this green furry hat sitting on my kitchen counter right now that I haven't worn yet. But I got got. I got got on Instagram. So I got an ad hit me, and I'm like, if our ads are going to hit people, then let's hit them emotionally. And I think let's hit him authentically, and let's hit them with a story that we can stand behind.

And I think that whether it's in our restaurants or if I'm cooking, working with Food Network, anywhere, with anywhere in my world, that I have an opportunity to be myself and communicate that part of myself, I'm going to take it because I spent a lot of years of my life and I think you could probably say the same thing about yourself trying to figure out who that is.

And I think once you get to a level in life where you're comfortable with who you are in your own sort of my Soubinge package of myself, I feel confident enough to go out and talk. I feel like, you know, I was thinking, I told my wife before we got on the podcast today. I was like, Wow, podcasts are really wild because you have to like think about what if you're answering the same question you were asked before, do you have to answer it the same way or do you change your answer based on how

you feel today? Or will people judge you for the inconsistent or the consistencies. I mean, you see it in politics every day right now, So it's like, how do you? And my answer to that is I'm just going to be myself and I think all of us need to do that, and I get to do that as an artist and I call myself that because I create things. As as a person who works in a trade in hospitality. My job is to take care of people, and if

I can't do that, then I'm a fraud. And so every opportunity that I have to do that professionally and personally, I take advantage of that opportunity and I do it beautiful.