Read the MAY ISSUE #101 of Athleisure Mag and see AVOCADO BEAUTY in mag.
This month, our cover is Tomorrowland artist, EDM DJ/Producer, Singer/Songwriter and Composer, John Newman. Coming off of his recent Tomorrowland Winter performance when he debuted his latest song, Hold On To My Love which has been added to our playlist, we wanted to know more about how he came to the music industry, his sound, how he approaches his projects, his collaborations and of course what we can keep on eye out for as we continue into the Spring and the Summer.
ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you first fall in love with music?
JOHN NEWMAN: I grew up with music around me as a kid. I was introduced to Motown and soul by my family and once I hit my teens I was obsessed with hard-hitting house and Clubland productions.
AM: When did you realize that you wanted to work in the industry?
JN: I had a pretty tough upbringing to be honest mainly from social issues and fitting in and being totally different to others in the town I grew up in. I didn’t come from money in any way at all either so, yeah, music was my escape, creativity was a way of releasing everything.
AM: You have an amazing background as you are a singer/songwriter, composer, DJ and producer! Musically, where do your inspirations come from and how did you hone your skills for each one?
JN: Thanks! DJing and producing dance music was something that I had spent a lot of time practicing as a teenager, so it was almost like revisiting that younger version of myself and just brushing up on my skills.
Inspiration varies, but I’ve always admired the 90s rave sound, with a touch of soul, which I think came through on Holy Love.
AM: How would you describe the John Newman sound?
JN: My sound is always evolving but, right now, I want creative emotively charged dance bangers. I want people to hear a track and feel a surge of energy and euphoria where they can’t help but move their body.
AM: How do you approach your projects in terms of seeking inspiration for your solo projects?
JN: These days I have a new set up, my at-home studio is tailored to electronic music production and it’s somewhere I can lock myself away to for hours kinda just see what happens. Inspiration can hit anywhere really. I try not to stick to the sitting at a piano vibe, funny fact I wrote Love Me Again and If You Really Love Me both whilst having a shower.
AM: You have collaborated with Calvin Harris, Kygo, David Guetta, Nile Rodgers, and more, how do you approach collaborations?
JN: Each collaboration comes about differently. The link-up with David Guetta and MistaJam on If You Really Love Me (How Will I Know) was particularly crazy as Guetta himself reached out to make the first move for us to work together, I had been a fan of his work since being a little kid! He’d wanted to collaborate on something for a while, so I sent him the early version of the track, he loved it, and the rest is history.
AM: You just performed and released your latest single, Hold On To My Love at Tomorrowland Winter where you DJ and have live vocals. Tell me about this song and what was it like to perform there?
JN: Hold On To My Love came about backstage at Ushuaïa Ibiza. I sang the melody and some lyrics into a voice note on my phone as a rough idea, so to see the track go full circle and perform the final version at Tomorrowland Winter was incredible. It was an unforgettable weekend.
AM: This song was released on Tomorrowland Music and you have already confirmed that you will be at Tomorrowland Brasil later this year on the mainstage. What does this mean to you to be on such a platform?
JN: I’m incredibly grateful to be starting this journey with the Tomorrowland Music team. They have so many talented DJs and producers on the roster so I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
To then also have the opportunity to perform at their world-renowned events is huge.
AM: With the summer around the corner, what other festivals or clubs are you excited to be performing?
JN: This summer is going to be so much fun. In July, I make my Tomorrowland mainstage debut in Belgium alongside the biggest names in dance music which is surreal but very exciting. It’s the holy-grail of festivals so I plan on bringing my absolute A-game to the stage.
AM: We’re based in NY, but will you be performing in the US this year?
JN: You’ll have to stay tuned for that one! I really do love the US and the amazing crowds over there so hopefully I’ll be back soon.
AM: When it comes to touring and being on the road, are there any routines that you do prior to a show when you’re a few hours or moments ahead of hitting the stage?
JN: There is a routine, I don’t eat one and a half hours previous to a show so that I don’t throw up whilst on stage, hah! The next big one is I generally like to chill and stretch and listen to classical music, then get hyped to Limp Bizkit and Rage Against the Machine about 15 minutes before show time.
AM: When you have finished your set, are there any routines that you do to come down from all of the energy and adrenaline from performing?
JN: Hmmm not really, I do struggle with the silence after being full of that adrenaline, usually a beer takes the edge off.
AM: Are there additional projects that you have that we should keep an eye out for?
JN: My focus right now is on really immersing myself in the dance music sphere, continuing to work on new tunes and honing my live hybrid set of DJing and vocals to make it bigger and better with every show.
AM: Are there 3 artists on your bucket list that you are interested in collaborating with that you can share?
JN: Honestly my interest is totally varied, Florence Welch would be amazing, Fred Again, Swedish House Mafia, another Calvin Harris collar, just throwing ideas out there really.
AM: What do you want your legacy to be in the industry?
JN: I guess, as an artist who made music on my own terms. For the pure joy of making people feel good, feel elevated, and be able to escape reality for just a moment. Whether that’s through my tracks, or the energy people absorb at a live show.
AM: When you’re not on stage or in the studio, what do you do to take time for yourself as self-care and mental health is something that we prioritize here at Athleisure Mag?
JN: It’s different for everyone, but I find taking a break from social media to be a big help for mental wellness. We consume so much information, a lot of it pointless, so it’s no wonder it can leave you feeling overwhelmed.
I now work closely with a therapist on a weekly basis which I cannot recommend enough and my main thing is getting in cold water.
Also spending time with my wife and family helps to keep me grounded and makes it all worthwhile.
AM: In terms of working out, what are 3 workouts that you do that we can consider to include in our routines?
JN: Each to their own I guess and I’m not really the picture of the pinnacle of fitness, however, for me personally I like to get out with music in my ears and do whatever I can. Whether that be hiking, running or cycling. I also used to love that Shaun T exercise video, I used to do it before every show!
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | COVERS Front/Back, INTERVIEW + PG PG 26 9DRIP Tomorrowland
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see FEEL THE MUSIC | John Newman in mag.
There is something about a great meal that allows you to enjoy the flavors, the ambiance and so much more. When the food becomes a gateway to a deeper understanding about the people and culture, it's truly an immersive experience that leaves you with a bigger takeaway.
This month, we're pleased to sit down and chat with Chef Yia Vang, who infuses his passion for food by sharing his love for Hmong food, his parents as well as the people that it comes from. This multi-nominated James Beard Award chef whose restaurant is up for Best Chef: Midwest for a 2nd year in a row, has two restaurants in Minnesota, Union Hmong Kitchen and Vinai. He is also the host of Feral, competed on Iron Chef: Quest for An Iron Legend, hosts his podcast Hmonglish and more. He tells us about the food, his philosphy and the importance of representation.
ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you first fall in love with food?
CHEF YIA VANG: You know, food and I have a really weird relationship. If you say food in terms of kitchen cooking, I would say that kind of for me, it’s kind of like that high school sweetheart that you started dating and then said, “I don’t know man, I’m going to college and we’re kind of like different people right now.” So I did some other things and then we went through this really weird break up thing where we were together, broke up, and got back together and then like 15 years into it, I said, “I think that I kind of love you!” I might as well put a ring on it! Then, when I got into that mode where it’s like, “hey man, we’re each other’s kind of ride or die right now, huh?”
I always say that about 10 years ago, what happened for me was that I re-fell in love with my first love. I always knew that there was something about working in kitchens. It made sense to me and there was this thing inside of me that it made sense, I just didn’t know why. It took me awhile to figure out my why and once I figured out my why, everything connected and through the hard, the bad, the good, the ugly, and whatever, I knew that this thing made sense.
AM: At what point did you realize that you wanted to be a chef?
CHEF YV: I never – I don’t think that, see I was the dude that grew up saying, I don’t want to do this. I’m not trying to be you the guy who says, don’t give me that title. I really believe that titles are something that you earn and it’s something that is given to you, so I never went out claiming that I wanted to be a chef you know? I knew that I loved to cook, but again, it had to be more than just food and cooking for me. So for me, it was this idea of storytelling. My father is a great storyteller. We always as kids growing up – when he put us to bed or you know, when we would sit down, he would tell us Hmong legends and myths and he was really good at telling stories. So, I found myself as a kid, have you ever seen the movie Big Fish?
AM: I have!
CHEF YV: Yeah, you know how the whole movie, Billy Crudup’s (Jackie, Watchman, Almost Famous) character has weird issues with his father because of the stories that he tells and he doesn’t understand him. That was me growing up because I didn’t understand my father. As I got older, I realized that I am my father and as much as he is a primal storyteller, he can captivate an audience, that was also a part of me. Instead of using pen and paper, a typewriter or a computer, we get to use food as a canvas to tell stories.
AM: What was your journey in terms of where you trained or kitchens that you came up in to get to where you are today?
CHEF YV: I never knew that culinary school was a thing. I didn’t do that and I’m so glad that I didn’t do that. For some people it works! We have chefs that work with us who came from culinary school and they’re incredible you know? I’m one of those people that if my hand touches it, then I can understand it. If I understand how the concept works, then I will be able to do it. My dad, he doesn’t understand English but if you give him a table, he can look at it and reverse engineer it in his brain and he can build it. So for me, that's how I work also. It was just me working in kitchens and I was so young when I started that I was too dumb to realize that what I was doing here, that was very hard. I was just working on my feet for 12 hours and felt that that was what everyone did. I know that I had a sense of what was “kitchen culture,” when I first started, 20 years ago it was like, “hey kid, you just go and you just earn your spot.” Because, that’s just what you do. Don’t try to talk about how you feel. I worked in a lot of kitchens and again, while I was doing it, I never thought that I would actually be doing this. I felt that that was a job, I was doing it at that point to get to the next bigger and better thing.
AM: In preparation in speaking with you, I like reading that you said, that for you, cooking is about intention and interpretation and that that came from your background as a communications major at University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. That struck a chord with me as I was a Telecommunications major at Indiana University and I got that! Can you tell me what you meant by that?
CHEF YV: Again, my first goal in college when I got in, all I cared about and I was kind of a gym rat. I wanted to play football and I wanted to play college football. That meant that you had to be an Exercise & Sports major or you had to be a Science Teacher. Right when I got into Biochem, I was like, “dang this is too hard!” So, I literally changed majors a couple of times and I ended up with communications. In my first class, the professor asked, “what is more important? The interpretation of the message or the intention of the message?” We had this big discussion and she gave us this study and we read that 70% of the people based on this qualitative and quantitative study said that the interpretation of the message is more important than the intention of the message. So as cooks, when we’re cooking food, I can say, “oh yeah, this is what my intention is and this and this.” I want to do it this way, because it should be eaten this way. But if the interpretation of the message isn’t interpreted like that, I think that as cooks, we need to readjust ourselves. That doesn’t mean that we’re changing our values and beliefs in what we’re doing, but we have to say, how do we get the message across? In communication, communication is not a monologue. It's a dialogue between 2 people. So, if I am trying to explain something to someone and they’re not getting it. I have to ask myself, “what do I need to adjust on my end?” I think that we live now and the pendulum swings right? It started with the customer is always right. I think that the pendulum swung to that side and then there’s a whole group of chefs who are like, “F- you! The customer is not always right, and we need to explain our intentionality.” Now, it has swung to the other side and what we’re doing is we’re having guests who are dining with us and they don’t get the food. They pretend that they do because you have to look good in social media. So that’s why for us, that’s why I say, “hey, there’s a happy medium over here.” I want to talk about Hmong food. What makes Hmong food, Hmong food? Even Hmong people, we can’t make a decision and be consistent on what is Hmong food. If our own people can’t figure out what it is, how are cultures from the outside going to be able to figure it out? So for the last 7 years, we have had the pleasure – I call it the pleasure, the pain, and the everything to try to say how do we create guard rails, not rules and guidelines around Hmong food. So yeah, it’s been a pleasure in being able to do that.
AM: It’s great that you said it like that because when I interview chefs that are known for Mediterranean cuisine, Italian, French etc. I will ask questions that focus on foods, ingredients and tastes that are indicative of those culinary styles. But again, in watching your videos and hearing you talk about this food and how you see it, you say that Hmong food is a philosophy, and it involves the people that are woven into the food. That is such a great concept. How important are the people to the food in your opinion?
CHEF YV: It is the most important thing. Our food is our people and our people is our food! When you get a group of people that doesn’t have a home and doesn’t have a country of their own, and they don’t have any kind of “marks of identity,” what they do is gather around food.
Because if you think about food, food is so core to survival right? It’s that thing that keeps us alive. Well of course what keeps us alive and is so core to our survival is the closest things to our hearts. It is for us, the way that we think about food, it’s the same way that some people think about their family. They think about the people that are the closest to them.
You know, when my parents came to America, they had to change the way that they cooked because cooking in the mountains of Laos over woodfire, pots and pans in huts made out of tree barks and bamboo, is different than cooking in a duplex apartment in Wisconsin, you know?
AM: Right!
CHEF YV: They had to change and they had to adapt and to survive the way they did things. The reason why is that they had to raise and take care of their kids! As a kid who’s 5 years old who comes to America and then I eat the food that my mom and dad cooks here in the United States and of course it’s going to be different than where they’re from and have a different flavor and taste! But the heart of it is still the same! What we love talking about is the food that we grew up with is Hmong food because it’s made by Hmong people. It’s Hmong food because it’s touched by Hmong hands. Our people if you can see back from generation to generation, it’s about survival and for the first time, my generation, my group of people as I’m 38, those of us that are here now, all the millennials that are the Hmong kids, this is the first time in a long long time in our history, that we don’t have to worry about uprooting and constantly having to move. We don’t have to worry about war and we don’t have to worry about death. When you have a civilization that doesn’t have to worry about that, they have the ability to grow, to dream and to imagine. They have the ability to wonder. I was just joking with a friend this morning and I told him that I felt like Moana from Disney! I can wonder beyond the reef! I feel like I can ask those questions like mom and dad, what’s beyond the reef? Because everything that I have known is in the reef, but now we’re one of the first generations like myself and my nieces and nephews and those that are younger, they can wonder and talk to themselves and think about this idea of wanting to be an architect – what’s an architect? I want to go into finance, what's finance? All of these things are completely different and it's a whole new world! The reason that we can do that is off the backs of mom and dad who cooked this food for us. I’ll be damned if I look at that and say, “well, I’m going to make a twist on it.” How dare I make a twist on anything? I get to add on to what they do. So that’s the way that I think of Hmong food and that’s the way that we can challenge the way that people think of it. We get a lot of push back here and there. But the truth of the matter is, I think that that is food generally. Isn’t that what it’s about?
We have a big family! So there is that thing of wanting to have something better and being able to sacrifice for it. It’s the same thing that our parents did for us. It’s great that we pay an homage to the old school stuff. I think it’s amazing and I do that all of the time. But to say that this is how we have to be – no, that’s how a civilization or a group of people remain stagnant. We live in a world of advancing forward. For our food company, we always say that our core DNA, our core functional values are 3 words are “moving forward together.”
We got those words and are inspired by them because of my mom and dad’s journey escaping Laos after the war.
My dad always said that as a group of people that lived in the jungle for months and months to escape the murders, the genocide as a group, we always had to keep moving forward together. Move forward together.
The question of why are there melting pots all through the Midwest?
AM: Yup!
CHEF YV: Like go to Dearborn, Michigan. There is a huge Muslim population there. Like Dearborn? Dude, they didn’t go to Dearborn, Michigan because of the weather. St. Paul, Minneapolis, has the largest Hmong population. We didn’t come here because we love the winter. We’re from the hills where it’s sunny and muggy, here it’s -30˚ for 5 months!
We didn’t do that, it was survival! In that connection of survival, especially with food, it connects our humanity together. As much as we are different, we’re not that different. That’s what we choose to tap into. In a society and a world that’s all about the pendulum’s swing where it’s let’s all the be the same or we can’t all be the same – that pendulum continues to swing back and forth to create that dichotomy in this country. I say, “hey, we are different, but we’re not that different.” We can share that with Hmong food. We don’t have to wait for a culture to dub us worthy or to hear our stories. No, we have our stories and if you allow us a little corner of the stage, allow us a little corner of a soapbox, we want to tell you that story.
AM: We have spent the last 2 years trying to get an interview with you because of everything we've seen about you on TV and although we have yet to go to your corner of the world to eat at your restaurants personally, We love the messaging and awareness that you do through your food. It’s an honor to be talking with you right now.
CHEF YV: Thank you so much! That means so much! At the end of the day, I have these college buddies of mine and we’re so tight and they always ask, how do you keep it together and I’m like, “I don’t know, I hang out with you idiots!” I tell them that they keep reminding me that I’m just a Wisconsin boy that still doesn’t really know what he’s doing. I love that you know? I love going home and my mom – I remember the first year that we got our first James Beard Award nomination and I was so excited and told her. She was like, “that’s nice honey. Just take the trash out when you leave.”
AM: Haha well that’s the Midwest in us!
CHEF YV: Oh yeah, that is! I remember last year when we were finalists and I was explaining to my mom what it is and she was like, “oh, does everyone in Minnesota get one of these?” And I’m like, yeah, yeah mom sure haha! It’s like bless her heart you know? I feel very very honored to be here and to be able to do all of these things, the TV and it’s such an honor to be part of all of these things.
AM: You’re the chef/owner of Union Hmong Kitchen. Like you said, it was a James Beard Award nominated semifinalist, tell me about this restaurant and what are 3 dishes that we should try on our next visit?
CHEF YV: For sure, we have all of these things going on and we’re very blessed that Union Hmong Kitchen started as this tiny little pop up tent thing at Farmer’s Markets. We always say that Hmong food consists of 4 elements. We don’t say that Union Hmong Kitchen is authentic Hmong food. We don’t say that. It’s a gateway to understanding our people and our food. So we always have the following. Think of meats and three. We always talk about that. It’s the best way to communicate with people especially Southerners when you’re talking about meats and three.
So Hmong food consists of 4 elements. There’s a protein, there’s some kind of rice – it’s either jasmine rice, sticky rice and then you have some kind of vegetable. Sometimes our vegetable is in a broth or sometimes it’s just a vegetable. The 4th element is a hot sauce and there has to be a hot sauce. So when you come to Union Hmong Kitchen, that’s what you’re going to get. You get to pick your meat – your protein and you have your sticky rice – we have purple sticky rice which is historically connected to Hmong people and then you pick a vegetable side. Sometimes it’s a noodle or straight up right now it’s Brussel Sprouts or something and we’ll change it up since Spring is coming. Then we have a couple of different hot sauces that we traditionally grew up eating. So it’s meat and threes, it’s dealers choice.
What we’re very proud of is the Hmong sausage that we created. It is a recipe that my dad showed me growing up. It wasn’t like he taught it to me. He made it and I watched. As I grew older, I would say, “hey dad, can we try that?” We won a couple of awards with it and it’s funny. Again, I told my dad, I mean we’re from the Midwest so you have all of these sausages since it’s sausage central and I said we won it with the Hmong sausage that he created. I brought the trophy to my dad and he was like, “really they liked that silly recipe?” I was like, well this is in your honor I guess! To me, that’s a very very special thing. It’s part of dad’s legacy. We’re to the point with that where a really great Eastern European sausage company, they now make this for us with our recipe. It’s the coolest thing ever to see a Hmong recipe being made in a Ukrainian family which is almost a 70 years old company here.
AM: Oh wow!
CHEF YV: Yeah, you know what I’m saying? How amazing is that?
Nick, the son who is the owner, he’s just like, this is one of our best sellers here. A Ukrainian family making a Hmong sausage which they love themselves using and now it’s in Twin Stadium and now we’re trying to get it out to local shops and stuff like that.
AM: That’s really cool.
CHEF YV: Exactly, so me and Nick are talking together and with everything going on in Ukraine – all the refugees in Ukraine and all the war in Ukraine. I’m talking to him and I understand that as a kid who is a refugee and comes from war too. It’s different parts of the world and yet again, we’re very different, but we’re not different.
That was a tangent but yes, we have Hmong sausage and we worked very hard on our pork belly. Obviously, we have the chicken, and our tofu is good as well! Again, I don’t want to say, these are our 3 dishes, just come in – but we do have what we call the Graze Feast! For me, it came from when we were very poor in college. But when all of the dudes scraped all of our money together, we would pitch in and we would go to Famous Dave’s and we would get the Trash Can Lid BBQ. Do you know what I’m talking about?
AM: Yeah I have had friends who went there!
CHEF YV: Yeah so basically, you get the highlights of the menu on a trash can lid and Famous Dave’s still has that. So this is an homage to that and we call it the Graze Feast. It’s served on a bamboo rice basket. We lay it out on a banana leaf and we put everything on it and it’s like the best of both worlds. If you’re 4 people, I tell them to get it because it is the bang for the buck. You get the whole tour and secondly, you also get a whole fried fish on there too. We have a fried Bronzino fish that we throw on there and that’s another mom and dad classic. My mom loves cooking a whole fish and deep frying and grilling it for dad. Dad just sits there and lives his best life now. His favorite thing that he loves to do when he has the whole fish and all of the sauces on it, if his grandkids are around, he likes to pick off all the meat and to put it on their plates so that they don’t have to fuss with it.
AM: That’s really cute!
CHEF YV: It is. Apparently for King Crab as my nieces and nephews love it, he takes them out of their shell and for shrimp, he peels it for them. I look at them and I stare at them in their eyes and I say, “you don’t know what struggle is kid!” We used to have to pick our own meat and now they’re living it up, those Gen Z kids!
AM: True, but that’s a food memory! They’ll be 20/30 years old and every time they eat that, they will remember what their grandfather would do for them.
CHEF YV: Yup and Kimmie, they’re going to all be soft! They’ll complain that they have to pick it off themselves.
AM: You also opened up Vinai. What does that name mean and I love this residency concept and we’d love to know more about it.
CHEF YV: Over the last summer, we had the chance to run this residency. Vinai again has been that problem child. I love it so much, but they don’t sleep and it cries all of the time. We struggled a lot with the financing to get that building going. So the last 6 months has been an exciting time for us as we can now visually see that this is coming together the way that we thought. My parents always taught me this idea. You don’t just sit there and sulk when there is a problem. My dad always says that you work the problem and you keep moving forward. My mom said that when they were in the refugee camp, it wasn't with us. They had to live everyday and just continue to move forward.
So we said that Vinai wasn’t really about a building. It’s about the people, it’s about the food. So what we have been able to do with Vinai, is to do this residency. After COVID, there were spaces that were open and they were looking for partnerships – a lot of bars, cocktail rooms, etc. They were like, frick, we have to figure something out to get people back and to get butts in seats. So we connected with some of our friends that had these places and partnered up. So we started these residencies so that we could give people a glimmer of what Vinai would be.
Vinai Is the name of the refugee camp that my parents met in ’77, they got married in ’78, I was born in ’84 and as a family, we left there in ’88.
AM: Oh wow!
CHEF YV: Oh yeah, they were there for 10 years. So Vinai from 1975 to 1992, hosted about 90,000 refugees. Out of those 90,000 refugees, 90% of them were Hmong people. And all of those Hmong people who came through Vinai, ended up in the Midwest – all over from Ohio to Wisconsin, Kansas City and Minnesota. So mom said to us, Vinai is not where our story ended, but is where our story started.
So Vinai, the current brick and mortar that we are working on right now, is a love letter to my mom and dad. It is their legacy captivated in a menu, in a building that has a specific design. Vinai is also one of those things that as we were growing up, as Hmong kids, we would talk to each other and ask which camp you were in. It was a way that we would identify with each other. To the white kids that heard us, they didn’t get it that we were born in a camp somewhere that was a summer camp. We’re like, “yeah it’s a summer camp, but not really – you don’t know when you’re going and you don’t get letters.” I just wanted to be able to make these names that we grew up with to become very normal just like if someone says Washington, D.C., Seattle, and NYC. In American culture, we know those names. I wanted to take the name Vinai outside of the Hmong vernacular and conversation so that it becomes part of majority culture. So when people talk about Vinai, I get to talk about mom and dad. I get to talk about the war and how they suffered for 10 years and not knowing as it was a stop gap for all of these Hmong people – 90,000 refugees. The Thai government didn’t want anything to do with them. The US government didn’t want them to come in because of issues regarding refugees. To claim these refugees would be claiming that the US was at war and there was a secret war in Laos that the US had won, but people didn’t know and there was a deal that was made with all of the people that fought. Fought like my father that regardless of what happened, that he would be able to come to America and get free citizenship because he fought for the US government. Then that conversation became one that people said that that didn't happen.
So there was denial in that. So all of that was going on during those years and just a little name, we can talk about that.
So that’s what it means and the dishes that we get to do in there, it comes from mom and dad’s table. Now is it going to be exactly like there’s? Absolutely not. I don’t think that our mom and dad would want us to do that. I know that they don’t want us to do that. My mom has said don’t make it like this, add your touch to it, but this will always be a part of you. We get to showcase our chefs and we have some incredible chefs. The majority of our chefs aren’t Hmong. We always talk about that and I’m very clear. Hilltribe, our mother company, is not about Hmong people just for Hmong people. If you look at the history of the word Hilltribe, those were the tribes of the people that lived in the mountains. It was the people that nobody wanted, the people that they said were the low people and they were not wanted by others. I couldn’t imagine living off of the mountains. I told all of our staff that we were the people that when people said that we were cooks or working in kitchens that we weren’t going to amount to much. It’s where a lot of the troubled kids go to right? It’s that culture mentality, the never will – so I tell them, we need to prove them wrong. What happens when a group of people come together and say we’re going to change the way that we live. We're going to deal with mental health issues, we’re going to deal with substance abuse and deal with all of this stuff. We’re not going to run away anymore from this. That’s why our company is called Hilltribe and we always say, cook from who you are. I don't expect you to be a Hmong cook. But I do want you to love your background, your culture and to love all of that as much as I love being Hmong. To my Mexican brothers and sisters who work with us, I want them to dig into that. To my Ecuadorian brothers and sisters, I want you to dig into that. To Tony who is Chinese, I want you to dig into that Tony. So Hilltribe isn’t just Hmong for everyone, it’s a place where the people can come – the outcasts and the broken can come in and show people what a group of broken people as they come together can go and reach out for more broken people and to create a place of refuge.
That’s why at Hilltribe, our restaurants have to be out more than just the food. If we're only all about food, then all we're going to do is just have pats on the back and accolades so that magazines can write about us. But it has to be more than just that.
So that’s the culture of what we’re driving, but everything comes from mom and dad. Our kitchen table was always open to anybody. If mom was making dinner, she didn’t care what color you were, what you were socioeconomically, or your background. You always had a place at that table. I learned that watching them. I want to be able to continue to do that for all of our restaurants.
AM: That sounds amazing and just doing that is a lot. Yet, you are constantly on so many different TV shows. You have Relish the PBS show which is a great look at the culinary cultural heritage of a number of people who are in the Twin Cities. Such a great concept and are you working on another season of this?
CHEF YV: Yeah we actually are next week! This time instead of doing these 10mins vignettes where we stitch together all of those 10 mins to create an entire show, we’re going to do full episodes. So we’re starting on Mon and it’s Relish but they call it a Relish 2.0. I think that the show is so much fun especially being in the Twin Cities. It's great to engage with people and the show is so much fun. We’ve been super blessed to be on so many different media outlets and many different shows.
I can always tell because I will get stopped you know in public once in awhile and they’ll say, “I love your show!” I can always tell by the age of the person who’s saying it, what show they are talking about. It’s like, are you talking about the Outdoor one, are you talking about Netflix or our feature on Bon Appetit or whatever? It’s always that age group that’s at 62 or above you know it – it’s PBS, public television. Prime time on public television is Sun at 2pm. So when they’re saying it, I know you’re talking about Relish. They’re so funny. They always think that we filmed it last week and we just put it on. So they’ll say, that I was talking about a certain restaurant and they’ll describe it to me and I know it was 2 years ago. They'll say that it sounds good and they should go visit it and I have to tell them that with the pandemic, they had to close.
AM: Right!
CHEF YV: Yeah and they’re like, “but the episode was last week!” So I have to explain to them how TV works and how production works. It’s always fun and that one I really love. My agent is always really funny about it. She’s LA and she’s always focused on getting the best deal. I love her and I get what her job is. She’s like, there’s no pay in that and she doesn’t want me to do things where she feels that I am not getting my worth. I’m like, Lauren, I love this and the producers Amy and Brittany they’re always great to work with and initially the concept was that my mom and I would cook together, but when the idea was pitched, they let me know that they wanted me to host this show for 6 episodes. People ask me where I went for my media training and I tell them that I learned at PBS. I was very blessed and the producers and directors are amazing. I love them and now with this other season coming up, we’re growing it and it’s going to be really big.
AM: That’s awesome! Last summer I enjoyed seeing you on Netflix’s Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. I’m a huge Iron Chef fan so seeing you on Quest, I was like, what?
CHEF YV: That show was incredible!
You know, first of all, I was just dumbfounded that Gabriela Cámara was standing next to me. Dude, in my mind, I was like, don’t fanboy man. Act like you have been here before, be professional. In my head, I was like, “I love you!” She’s the sweetest lady ever. Very small and petit, but huge personality! She gives me a big hug and after we were done, she hugs me and whispers in my ear, “yeah, I didn’t want to cook against you, I wanted to cook with you.”
AM: Nice!
CHEF YV: I thought oh wow, could we record that for everyone so that everyone can understand that she said that to me and I didn’t make it up? It was amazing and it was a great time! We filmed it in the midst of the pandemic.
So as a group, and as a restaurant, we were like, we need this win. Not like to actually win it, but to be there and to do this for fun and to celebrate together. It was incredible and the response from it globally, was incredible. Hmong people from all over the country and there’s a group of Hmong people that ended up in France because of French colonization in Southeast Asia. One of my favorite things is that I got a DM from a young Hmong lady who lives outside of Paris.
She said, “hi I want you to know that I’m Hmong. We watched the show because my boyfriend is a huge Dominique Crenn fan and she was on there. When I was scrolling through there, I saw you and your name and I thought to myself, I think he’s Hmong. When I watched that episode and that first introduction, by no means of me doing anything, I cried because it was the first time that I saw our people on this global level.” She continued by saying, “my boyfriend’s French, I’m disconnected from my culture and I felt so proud being Hmong at that time. I looked at my boyfriend and I said to him that’s our people, that’s our story. She told me that being in France, they don’t talk about Hmong people.”
It was a global thing. There were Hmong people in Australia that DM’d us letting us know that they loved sharing the episode with their friends to let them know about our people. That to me, I’m not a huge competition TV person. I knew that when Netflix came and they had that offer, we had to do it and we were doing it, we would do it the Hmong way. We were going to do Hmong food on there. Even though some of the producers wanted us to be more global, we told them that we were sticking with Hmong food. I knew going in that we probably wouldn’t win. I didn’t care, just being on there was a win for us! As chefs, we were like, “dude, if we beat Gabriela Cámara then we know that this was rigged!” That was amazing and it was fun to be part of that and to be in that Iron Chef family.
AM: You also have Feral! Congratulations on the 1st season and I know you’re renewed for the 2nd season as well which drops later this year.
CHEF YV: I don’t mean to interject, but we’re actually just shooting season 3.
AM: What?
CHEF YV: Yeah, I leave in 10 days to start shooting season 3!
Season 2 was all filmed this fall right before the beginning of winter. But I’m leaving in a couple of weeks here to shoot season 3. The 3rd season was renewed about a month and a half ago. I think that they have all the creatures down and the locations down. They just need to clear up a couple of them. I’m really excited about that.
I tell my team that filming wise, I need about 8 weeks a year to do filming projects. 10 months out of the year, I’m there, I’m a restaurant guy. We train and we have an incredible team that takes care of business. They take care of everything while I’m gone which is the equivalent of 8 or 9 weeks.
There are some creatures coming up where I’m like, ok holy crap. I have no idea how I’m going to handle that, but I will just have to get it done. There’s some freaky stuff where I’m like – frick!!! Season 2 was pretty crazy, we had some freaky moments where I was like, what the hell am I doing here? It was amazing and season 1 was awesome. I learned a lot from season 1 to season 2 and heading into season 3. Sometimes you learn that nature doesn’t go along with filming production crews. You just have to say, ok, I'm trapping a beaver right now. The beaver literally looks like an overgrown rat and I have to skin and cook it up. It has some weird teeth looking at me, it’s 40lbs and it’s heavy, and it smells like wet dog. You gotta do it!
AM: What drew you to the show? It’s an interesting concept, you have these animals that are invasive in the environments that they are in. You learn how to trap them and then you cook them. What was it about this that made you want to host this show for all these seasons?
CHEF YV: So, here’s a couple of things. Before I get into anything, I always ask myself, what am I doing? First of all, I will be very very honest. I have been very honest about this. When you think of Outdoor, you think of white dudes, hillbilly hicks, hunters that lean towards the right. When you think of the Outdoor Channel, you know the persons that you’re thinking of, right?
AM: Yes.
CHEF YV: I get that. To be completely honest, some of the media stuff that we did for Outdoor - this is a media outlet. We live in a world and a country where it’s ok to have different perspectives. Right away I knew that this was different. Most of them have never heard of Hmong people. They have never heard of the Hmong story. They never heard about the fact that if you want to talk about patriotism, the Hmong people like my dad at a young age, was contracted out by the US government and trained by the CIA and Special Forces to fight in the mountains of Laos for American interests. They were patriots before ever being guaranteed any citizenship to the US. So when you have people who are saying, true citizenship and patriotism, my father is one of those. He loved America so much that he risked his life to fight for America not even knowing if he would ever come to America. I get to talk about that, the whole intro of our show is about that.
At the end of the day, the idea that going out into the woods, the jungle to some waterway and finding whatever invasive creature is out there to harvest and to hunt them, and cooking them – that is what they do in the mountains of Laos. Lizards, bats, sparrows, weird looking eels, and fish. That’s what my parents did. That’s what my dad did as a boy. I get to do what our people have been doing for thousands and thousands of years. I get to do that and there is a show about it. While others might think that it’s weird or gross, eating an iguana or a lizard for Hmong people in the mountains of Laos, it’s not eww or gross, it’s actually a Tuesday. That’s the protein that they can get. Having pork and beef, that’s a luxury. Saying you have pork to us, that’s amazing that’s a celebration!
AM: Like you said, it’s about survival and what you have that is in abundance to you. There are dishes that can support this if this is what you have in order to nourish your body. It’s important to juxtapose that and let people know that this is not just something that happens in other parts of the world, but in various parts of the US as well. Either by necessity or people simply enjoying it.
CHEF YV: I also think that what I am trying to say to the audience is this, look at home, you may make Chicken Dumpling Soup, but now, we’re making Squirrel Dumpling Soup. You’re just changing the protein out. Again, we’re different, but we’re not that different. Because the base to both of these things is still the base. The reason why you use chicken is because it’s easier to get chicken at your store. Why is Darrel from Southern Illinois using squirrels? Because that is in his backyard and the closest grocery store is an hour away. This isn’t him trying to be cool and to use it as a shock factor, he’s using that squirrel because there are plenty of squirrels that have been gnawing on those frickin’ acorns and they have that extra thick hind quarters, you know what I’m talking about? Like 3c’s kind of thick.
AM: Squirrels are vicious!
CHEF YV: Yeah like if that squirrel had yoga pants on its ass would be turning heads kind of thing. That’s delicious! We’re still talking about squirrels right?
AM: So in addition to your work in TV, you also have your podcast Hmonglish. It focuses on people, culture and Asian excellence. How does it feel to use your platform in this way, but also to talk about people that you also want to highlight?
CHEF YV: Prior to Hmonglish, we had this little podcast called White on Rice. We were interviewing all these people from Minneapolis and it was kind of our way to counter not being able to hang out and be with people during COVID. So, we thought, we’d bring people in a room that were 6' away from us so that people could hear what they were doing. It was cool because people enjoyed and felt that they were getting to meet all all of these people because of our longform podcast. We weren’t really smart about anything. But then when we really started thinking about it, Hmonglish came from when we were growing up, we would speak to our parents in Hmong but then there would be these English words. So if I was asking for a computer, I would say it in Hmong but then would say computer in English. So the Hmong kids, we just started calling in Hmonglish. I noticed that what Hmonglish really meant was this beautiful collision of 2 cultures. When you have 2 cultures collide, you’ve created a 3rd culture and in that culture, you’re trying to make sense of what it means. When you create a new culture, you’re trying to figure out what the norms are. You’re trying to figure out how to speak another language like for example you do fashion and all of that stuff, so when like Hip-Hop culture struck mainstream culture, there was this 3rd culture that was created right? Because mainstream had this culture where everything was formal and you enunciate very clearly and then you have Hip-Hop culture that hit it and that was more of a go with the flow and you had this different flowage and then it’s like does mainstream culture become Hip-Hop culture? Is Hip-Hop culture mainstream culture? Or how does mainstream culture affect Hip-Hop culture or does Hip-Hop culture become more diluted? There’s all these questions and all of these conversations.
The same thing with Hmong people or Hmong Millennials who either came to this country really young like I did or was born in this country. The Hmong Gen Z. I was born, I’m an American, but man, I’m still Hmong. How does this work? So we just had all of these Hmong guests come in who straddle these different cultures and who talk about their experiences.
Like Xee Reiter is a good friend of mine and is an incredible, incredible artist. Water painting, water color – all of that stuff. Her husband is white and they have been married for 15 years and she’s talking through that. We’re talking to another friend of mine, Pahoua Yang Hoffman who is the Senior Vice President of Government & Community Relations of one of the largest healthcare provider here. She’s an executive and she's Hmong. What does it mean to be an executive and you're rolling with all of the big boys that make the decisions that are billions of dollars. How do you do that not only as a woman but as Hmong? There are all of these expectations like Hmong women are docile and submissive – how do you navigate that? It’s such an incredible podcast and we dig deep into that.
We have these incredible guests such as Lee Pao Xiong who is the foremost and knowledgeable Hmong historian of our people. He traced our people back to 7,000 years in China. So, talking to him and listening to what he has to talk about in the Hmong stories and in our culture. It helped me understand that this is where we come from. We get to share that with a huge audience group. And again, we have gotten some really incredible responses. People DM our producer and it’s one of those things that I want to be able to put some really good production value on it so we spent a few good pennies on it to make the production value really well. We believe that in doing something beautiful, we want to make it great. We also know that for Hmong people sometimes, it’s just about getting the product out there, it’ll be good. We were like, no, we’re in a world where looks matter, the way it sounds and how it’s put together strategically – it’s been really cool!
AM: That is amazing and just looking at the accolades, the restaurants, the awards, being a TV personality, being a host, having your podcast and I’m sure you have a ton of other things that you have coming up as well, what do you want your legacy to be seen as?
CHEF YV: Honestly and I mean this with all of my heart, I actually don’t want to be seen in terms of a legacy. There is no legacy here. It’s mom and dad’s legacy. I am merely a mirror that reflects them. I want people to look at what we do and then I want them to be driven by these 2 people. My mom and my dad who are in their 70s, who are grandparents, who live in the suburbs, they have a little plot of land where they have a small farm where all of their produce comes to our restaurant – no money asked, no money put down.
AM: Wow!
CHEF YV: All they want to do is that they want us to live a life where they knew that they could never have. But they want us want us to live it. So that’s all it is. I want people to look at what we do and I want to direct them back to my mom and dad.
So the reason why is this. Last year I won when I was a nominee and then a finalist, my sister is a therapist. She’s the family therapist. But she always therapizes the whole family and I don’t even know if that’s a real word, but I always say that. I’m pretty sure she called my mom and explained to her what the James Beard is and what that honor meant. Because my mom wouldn’t know that by herself. When mom called me randomly that night after it was announced, to say that I was so proud of you, I was like, oh my sister called you.
I’m driving home from work and I’m pretty drained and tired. She congratulated me and said that she was so proud of me. She told me that she wanted to tell me a story that she felt a little ashamed to tell me. She said her plan was not to tell us kids about it until she was on her death bed as she felt ashamed about it. She said that when she was younger, she was caught and put in this war prison. She said that they were in there for a year. It was the worst time ever. There was no food. Communist propaganda would come in and say, just leave your family and marry a Communist man and forget your life. There was not enough food for the children, kids were dying and her first husband was killed. Her babies were all taken away and she said that it was the worst thing possible. We grew up in a Christian household, so when she was there, she told me that every morning she woke up in that camp and she would pray to God that he would let her die as an act of mercy. She felt that life was so tough, that the only way that she thought that she could escape is to die. She wanted to die, every morning she wanted to die. She said that one morning she woke up and she had that same prayer asking for God to let her die that day. She said that what was different in that morning was that there was a voice inside her heart and that that little voice said to her that, “I’m not going to let you die, because I have great plans for your children. They are going to change the world. They will do big things so I’m going to need you to survive a little longer and I’m going to need you to push forward a little longer.” She said that when she heard that my name is among the names of all of these great people in the country and you were one of the best, and they were looking to you for leadership, “I knew in that moment that it made sense. That moment 50 years ago made sense. That’s why God didn’t let me die in that camp and I can hear that today.”
I don’t know Kimmie, when you hear things like that, for me, everything changed. For me, it was no longer about this legacy that I was going to leave, it’s them. Somebody suffered, somebody went through pain, somebody went through a war camp – talk about trauma. To live on a glimmer of a hope that one day your children, to know that there is a special plan for your children and I need you to go through all of this to take all of this and one day you’re going to see it.
AM: Wow.
CHEF YV: That’s it, I don’t give a shit about my legacy. I don’t want to be known. I love these interviews. I get to talk about them. Do you know why I do this TV stuff? I don’t want to be a TV star, it’s too much bullshit in it. I do that so that people can look at it and say wow, we have to go to this restaurant, wow we want to know more about his mom and dad, we want to know more about their story. I’m just an echo. If there is a word about legacy, I want to be an echo of them. That’s it, hands down. The rest of the stuff is just little details.
AM: I have never talked to someone where in every facet of everything that you do, is paying homage to your parents, your people and how it is ingrained in every single thing. I’ve never talked to someone who has just been so authentically that.
“That’s it, I don’t give a shit about my legacy. I don’t want to be known. I love these interviews. I do that so that people can look at it and say wow, we have to go to this restaurant, wow we want to know more about his mom and dad, we want to know more about their story. I’m just an echo. If there is a word about legacy, I want to be an echo of them.”
CHEF YV: We were interviewing PR groups and one of them said, “yeah the whole family thing and culture – that’s your schtick.” I was very angry and I wanted to say F- you dude. If you think that this is a schtick, I don’t think that you're the right people for me to work with. This isn’t a schtick man, this is life. There’s going to be chefs that come out and out cook us, great - awesome - good for you. But they’re not going to tell our story better then us. I live this and I will die this, you know? I don’t give a crap. I will live in the basement of wherever to keep everything at low cost so that we can put all of our funding into making this work. I want you to know that I am the first to make all of the sacrifices. I’m the first to inject my own personal money when we can’t get payroll going for last month. We’re going to do that and there’s no amount of cost that I wouldn’t do and we’re going to do this.
That’s the thing that I want to be able to teach our chefs on our team. Find something in your life that you’re that passionate about. I don’t care what it is. Find it and work for it, fight for it in the same way just like mom and dad. To this day, they still do that. They’re retired, we’re all adults. They don’t have to do that. We have our own lives and we do our own thing. They still on my frickin’ birthday gives me $100 and he’s like, this is for gas. I’m like, what and he tells me that he wants to make sure I have enough in my car. They’re still warring for us! It never stops and I think that they’re heart has this go go nature. I look at my father and I don’t give a crap, I had a great example of what a man is, what a good father is, what a good man is and I tell people.
How do you know what it means to be a good man? Look at my father. If I can be quarter of who he is, how he takes care of us, how he loves us, how he fought a war to get us here – if I can be a quarter of that, if I can be a good husband one day and hopefully to be a good dad one day – that’s who I’m looking to!
My mom ferociously loves us. She never gives up on us. When I visit her, she always tells me that she’s praying for me and the restaurant. She says it constantly and even when I want to give up on myself and say that I’m done, she’ll pull me aside and say, “hey, this too shall pass. It’s ok.” This is coming from someone who sat in a war camp as prisoners and tells me that it will pass. She has seen it all, she has seen hell, she has seen evil. She still says that it will will pass. In COVID, they looked at us and said it was ok and it would pass. She said that they had been through things like this before. They never panicked about COVID. I love it, that’s my parents. Like I said before, the food is just the tip of the iceberg. There is something deeper and richer here.
I really appreciate media outlets like yours that want to dig into that. Like we have the easy and low hanging fruit like culture, being all about family and if you want to do a 500 word piece on that, that’s great and we can do that too. But for those that sit there and say that they’re going to sit down for 2 hours and hear about this, I’ll go deep man! I’ll go deep deep into this!
AM: We have a lot of stories and we love sharing them!
CHEF YV: It’s awesome to see the different kinds of groups of people that are there. There’s also people there that I admire myself and I’m like oh that’s awesome! So I felt all fanboy like yeah!
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PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 30, 52, 55, 56 + PG 132 63MIX ROUTIN3S Eliesa Johnson | PG 33 - 34 + PG 132 3MIX ROUTIN3S Courtesy of Chef Yia Vang | PG 38 - 44 Netflix | PG 48 Outdoor Channel/Feral | PG 51 TJ Turner Photograpahy PG 58 Emilie Ann Szabo |
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see BEING THE ECHO | Chef Yia Vang in mag.
This month, we caught up with Japanese-American rock and Hip-Hop singer/songwriter, rapper, guitarist, philanthropist and entreprenuer, Jesse McFaddin. In addition to his solo career, he is also in RIZE as well as The BONEZ which have been bands that he has been in for a number of years and he recently started another band, E.D.O. For Jesse, music is the way that he communicates and shares his message as well as his love for fashion which includes a number of brands that he has created. We take a moment to talk with him about how he started in the industry as his father Char is a known rock legend, how Jesse made his music and journey his own, how he creates new music whether solo or collaboratively and his latest album with The Bonez - Yours.
ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you fall in love with music?
JESSE MCFADDIN: As long as I can remember, since I was born quite naturally. Some examples include my mother singing her favorite tunes, such as Lovin’ You by Minnie Riperton, every night as a sort of lullaby. My father is a professional rock guitarist, my mother creates lyrics for his songs, so I had frequently sung those songs under these circumstance, such as Rock Band Way, I have been falling love with music for m entire life.
AM: When did you realize that you wanted to make music?
JM: Pretty late, I guess. It was probably around 15, 16 years old, when I realized it. Until then, Hip-Hop was my first influence, records included both acappella & instrumentals, so using those materials, I had created my original lyrics of some songs, singing on top of those. Gradually, I noticed, that I could make a track with my guitar phrases!
AM: How has your father influenced you in your music career?
JM: I have been realizing more these days, as I grow older and have matured. But when I started in music, my direction was quite the opposite of my father's music genre, because I didn’t want to be in his shadow. So, I became more Hip-Hop centric rather than Rock Music. However, I have 2 rock bands now. One band is RIZE. Last year marked the 25th anniversary after our debut. The other band, The BONEZ, has our 10th anniversary this year. By continuing to do what we started and then increasing a little by little, I see what we have created for the past 26 years! I have to say that my father has influenced me a lot. This is why I am able to make a living with music.
AM: At what point did you realize that this was something that you wanted to do as a career?
JM: It was during my high school days when Sony Music asked us for our contract, I was 18, my partner Nobuaki Kaneko, drummer of RIZE was 17. But we replied to Sony saying, “Can you wait until we graduate from high school? And if you still want us, let’s sign our contract.” Signing a contract wasn’t our goal. Rather, our goal was just to have fun - just like going to a skatepark. But we finally reached the deal, even though we were sort of a jerk (lol) at that time! We wondered why they wanted us but Sony emphasized that wanted to be part of us.
AM: When you're creating new music whether solo or your groups, how do you get inspiration for your next project?
JM: It is very hard to find out the root of art, or seeds in any types of projects. I get my influences through my personal stories, my friend's episodes, bumping into some news info, although that is fake or true, those are my triggers to plan for new projects or creating new songs. I guess, this is the hardest aspect for us as artists. For me, creating from 0 to 1 is totally harder than from 1 to 10. But the bottom line is, believing in myself is a crucial part for any creation, I guess.
AM: You're a singer, rapper, guitarist, music producer and composer how do you juggle all of these roles and do you have a preference of one over others?
JM: In thinking about this, my theory is the same. I mean, having same stances, or attitude to various things, not only in music, but when communicating, either with my wife, with my kids, with my friends, you, and others - this is important. But surely as a member in a band, or solo, the reactions are slightly different. The only way to express oneself is just to be naturally aligned, I guess. I used to draw boundaries around those, but I finally realized that simplicity is best.
AM: Tell me about RIZE. How did this group come together and what are you working on now in terms of new music, tours etc?
JM: We are friends from our childhoods. We have our own pace. We feel that when the time is ripe, we're gonna restart again.
AM: You're also in The BONEZ. How is this group different than RIZE and what are working on with them musically and are you touring?
JM: Forming this band is very different from RIZE. Quite accidentally, The BONEZ was born, I guess. That was 12 years ago. I initiated the launch of this new project with COZY, on 11th, Nov, 2011 = 2011/11/11, as a new type of project where we had a series of opportunities for my fans to participate in, by creating with this project. We were prioritizing Mash Up with my fan. Through those processes, the album called Stand Up was released on 11th, Nov, 2012 as the credit JESSE & The BONEZ. Along that flow, we organized The 1st and The Final Gig as sort of a memorable liveon 11th, Jan, Nov. In order to do this show, I needed band members so I asked T$UYO$Hito to play bass and ZAX from Pay Money to My Pain (PTP) to play drums. They were meant to be supporting members. Unfortunately, due to a tragedy of one of my closest friends and amazing singer, K who was the vocalist of PTP, he passed away suddenly. So even looking back, The BONEZ was fortuitously formed.
AM: It's interesting how you enjoy various genres of music and you have another group that you created, E.D.O. - tell me about this group and why you wanted to create it?
JM: These members are also high school friends, like RIZE. Just keep on doing, that’s what I want to.
AM: You also have solo projects musically, is there anything that you can share with us?
JM: Quite randomly, upon some timing. Sure, I am always writing songs. But, one epic thing I can share here, is I am planning for releasing a new solo single, title called Never Mind. This song is so dope! Once I can disclose, for sure, sharing immediately. Looking forward to it!!
AM: You're known for your fashion sense and even have your own line, S&Co's and Cloudland 33. Why is it important to you to have this in your portfolio and are there any interesting collaborations and projects that we should keep an eye out for?
JM: I love clothes, including vintage, but Price doesn’t matter. Individuality, Identity matter. Fashion is the sure way to express who you are. I love T-shirts. It is the reason why I own my clothing fabric printing company called JESSE’s Shop & Factory.
AM: As a philanthropist, you created Bring the Hope. Tell me about this organization and what it does.
JM: I launched my philanthropic activity due to the natural disaster that happened in Haiti in 2010. My local hometown, TOGOSHI, in Japanese pronunciation, “TO” same pronunciation with 10, “GO” = 5, “SHI” = 4. Based upon some instinctive inspiration from here, I decided to start our free concert at the park in Togoshi, in 20”10”/”5”/”4”. 1 year after Haiti's disaster, we had another big earthquake in Tohoku, Japan on Mar, 2011. Since then, I have organized these free concerts with a number of my musical friends at the same park in Togoshi, every 4th, May. During COVID-19, I organized these events online. Through our free lives where anyone can join without fees, I want attendants to feel happy, gratefulness for our ordinal life, peace, and hope.
AM: As someone who is involved in a number of projects what are you working on that you would like to share that we should keep an eye out for?
JM: As I initially mentioned, This year in 2023 is The BONEZ’s 10th anniversary after we officially formed. We are gonna kick off our nationwide live tour this May, where we will visit 47 prefectures with our new album, Yours which has been our first release in 5 years. I'm looking forward to meeting with our fans “BONER” all over Japan. I surely promise, we will pump you up! Please check out our tour info.
AM: Because of the work that you do, what is your process when you decide whether you're partnering with someone or doing a collaboration? Are there certain things that you look for in deciding to go forward on those?
JM: Every time I collaborate with other artists, and/or create songs with others, I often try to explore their ideas at first. If they don’t have ideas, or imagination out of stocks, then I give them my ideas. I tend to prioritize opportunities for my collaborative partners to expand their creativity.
AM: How do you take time for yourself so when you're not on stage or working on your next project?
JM: Mostly spending time with wonderful, beautiful family.
AM: You're in great shape, what are 3 workouts that you do that we should consider adding to our routines?
JM: Ab Roller - Squat - SEX
AM: With the summer around the corner, what are your looking forward to personally and/or professionally?
JM: Personally: Going to beach resort with my family. Professionally: Joining in the following major Rock Fes.
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT | INTERVIEW + PG 106 9PLAYLIST Yoshifumi Shimizu
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see THE IMPACT | Jesse McFaddin in mag.
In this month's The Art of the Snack, we're heading down to NYC's LES for an epic meal! We had the opportunity to sit down with Chef/Founder Nahid Ahmed and Chef/Partner Arjuna Bull of Luthun. Both of these founders have been friends and clearly have a passion to bring a culinary experience to each plate that is served to you! We also talk about the beverage program with Sommelier Jahdea Gildin. We talk with this team to find out about their backgrounds, how they came together and what we can expect when dining there. With an open kitchen as well as tasting menus, we know that this is going to be a restaurant that we will find ourselves coming back to again and again!
ATHLEISURE MAG: When did Luthun open?
CHEF NAHID AHMED: Luthun opened on July 25th, 2019 in the East Village.
AM: Chef Nahid Ahmed and Chef Arjuna Bull, please share your backgrounds and culinary journeys that brought you to Luthun?
CHEF NA: My culinary journey began when I studied at a culinary school in Lausanne, Switzerland in the early 90s. During the program, I had an internship with Chef Gray Kunz, who became one of my mentors, at Lespinasse in New York City. After returning to Europe to finish my school, I worked for another mentor of mine, Swiss Chef Philippe Rochat at his Restaurant de L'Hôtel de Ville in Crissier, Switzerland. I came back to Lespinasse, where I worked for a few years under Gray Kunz and left around the same time he did. He connected me with Thomas Keller at The French Laundry where I worked for a while but not being a big fan of Napa Valley at the time, I went back to Europe and Philippe Rochat’s restaurant again, which has held 3 Michelin stars for over 50 years. After that, I had a chance to work at El Bulli in Spain for some time, then at The Fat Duck in London where I moved to be closer to my family. While there, Gray Kunz calledme and said he was opening Café Gray in New York so I went to help him and met chef Arjuna ‘AJ’ Bull who also worked there. I worked there with Gray until it closed, then at the Plaza Hotel for the reopening of the Oak Room but it was not a fit for me and I started thinking about opening my own place. Then in 2011, I got a chance to open Respite in Midtown. I brought in Chef AJ and the two of us helped open this little place. It was not ours, but we ran everything. It was a hole in the wall and we had so much fun there. That’s where the whole idea of Luthun came to my mind. I wanted to open my own restaurant, to do my own things, to cook and create my own cuisine. So, after that, I worked at bunch of other places, I did pop-up dinners all over, while working on funding. And then I finally opened Luthun in 2019, my long awaited dream: Luthun restaurant in New York City.
CHEF ARJUNA ‘AJ’ BULL: I went to culinary school in Miami and graduated from Johnson & Wales in 2000. I did my externship at The Fontainebleau Hilton Resort; it was good experience working in all different departments. But then I took a quick vacation to New York and I fell in love with the industry, so right away I moved here and started working at a lot of different places. One of the biggest highlights was when I got to work with Chef Nahid at Café Gray, where I worked for a couple years with him. It took me to the next level; experiencing Michelin food changed my whole vision and goals. I did a bunch of pop-up restaurants with Chef Nahid. In the meantime, I had a couple other executive chef jobs, just to get some British experience since I was born in England. It's been a crazy journey here in New York, but so much experience. And finally, we had the opportunity and found an investor. We found a cool space in the East Village and here we are at Luthun.
AM: Why did both of you want to come together to create Luthun?
CHEF NA: When I decided to open my restaurant Luthun, it was because I'm very picky about my food. I didn’t want to cook food like that of my mentors or restaurants I’d worked at. So when I set out to create my cuisine, I asked myself what kind of cuisine? It had to come from me and who I am, what I came from, where my parents came from, where I was born and grew up, from my philosophy behind the food and also from my memory of the many places where I worked, the people I met, and the many different things I have eaten. I brought it all together and made my own cuisine. And then my idea came to me as to what kind of restaurant I wanted, and I wanted this kind of restaurant that Luthun is. I also wanted someone working next to me. Someone who I can say is my friend, my chef, my business partner. Although there are many people and friends I have in this industry, but in that moment, I could only think of one person, Chef Arjuna Bull. I knew him a long time before this restaurant, and we have this connection. He understands me very well, more than anyone else in any kitchen I have worked in. He understands the food I want to cook. He understands what kind of flavor I'm looking for. So, I didn’t think about anybody else, and I offered him to be a business partner to open Luthun together.
CHEF AB: There's only one answer for that, I was super excited. We've been friends for 20 years and I never actually knew the potential that Chef Nahid had until we did some pop-up restaurants. And from then on, I was just blown away at how many different recipes and the creativity that was in his head. I was honored to have this opportunity to work with him.
AM: What is the meaning behind the name?
CHEF NA: The meaning behind the name is my mom's nickname. I lost my parents at a very young age, and I had heard my mom was an amazing cook; she loved food and she was a very adventurous eater. When I wanted to open something very personal, and the cuisine is very personal from my background and where I came from, there was nothing I could think of other than my mom’s nickname. So I put her name on my restaurant.
CHEF AB: The meaning of the chef's mom's nickname, Luthun also means something new and unexpected. So, in the East Village walking by there's brick walls and wood floors. But we beat everybody's expectations and, following the name, offer something new and unexpected.
AM: Tell us about the design and aesthetic of the restaurant for those that will come by for dinner.
CHEF NA: We are in the East Village in New York City, where every neighborhood is so different to me. Midtown, Downtown, East or West Village, everywhere is different. When I first came to New York, I lived down the block from Luthun’s location on East 7th Street between First and Second Avenues for almost a year. I didn’t know a lot about other parts of the city, so this area was to me the real New York. I'm talking about early 90s, punk rock, and all these little bars and shops, I had never seen anything like that and to me this is New York. When we decided to open a restaurant, we both agreed it has to be somewhere we know very well and we knew this area very well. We also wanted to surprise people with the food, wine and service they wouldn’t expect in the East Village, and create something very comfortable that doesn’t feel like a restaurant when they come downtown.
So we don't call Luthun a restaurant, we call this our home and if people come to your home, what do you do? You provide your best hospitality, and that’s what we try to do here. The whole team is not just front of the house or back of the house. We work together very well and we want people to come here and feel like they are in someone's home, not a restaurant.
CHEF AB: It's an open kitchen experience. As soon as you walk in, it's like you're walking into somebody's house so we give a welcoming greeting, basically, hugs and kisses. Again, it's more of our living room than a restaurant.
AM: What seatings are offered for those that are coming in for dinner?
CHEF NA: We have three seatings in the dining room at 5:30pm, 7:30pm and 9:30pm. And at the chef's counter we seat at 6:00pm and 8:30pm.
AM: Luthun's cuisine is defined as Progressive American with a focus on hyper-seasonal tasting menu with a Global Perspective? What does that mean?
CHEF NA: We don't have any boundaries at Luthun, we cook what we love to eat. We challenge ourselves by using a lot of ingredients that other restaurants don’t serve on their tasting menus, many techniques, and developing recipes to present food in a way you’ve never seen. And our goal is to introduce people to many different flavors from all over the world: Chinese, French, Mexican. As a chef, it is a challenge to cook with so many different flavors and ingredients, but we like to do that because this is a way to give our guests a new experience. That's why we call our food global and progressive, and also hyper-seasonal because we go to the local farmer’s market 3-4 times a week and talk with the farmers and fishermen about what is and isn’t coming.
AM: Each dinner service, you have a 9 course tasting meal which takes place at the counter and then a 6 course tasting meal that takes place in the dining room. Can you tell us more about that?
CHEF NA: At the kitchen counter, we serve 9 courses. In the dining room, there are 6 courses. The full tasting starts with something very flavorful, the next step adds a bit of tartness, then oceanic flavors, followed by something more French like a custard or foie gras. Right now, we have this white asparagus with uni and bottarga that is very French and Japanese. Before the last course and dessert, we go to Southeast Asian flavors we love. We serve a meat course at the end, we always try to do some kind of barbecue because this is to me America, it has to be barbecue. We keep the dessert very simple, very seasonal and very light. We don't believe in heavy desserts after so many courses and we want people to finish everything so we serve something fruity, light and chilled, not heavy.
AM: How do you approach what will be on the tasting menu?
CHEF NA: We have our one signature dish, which is inspired by fushka, a famous Indian street food that we start the tasting with. It is vegan and very refreshing with citrus and lots of flavor to introduce people to the next courses. We start with vegetables then move on to shellfish like oysters or scallops, followed by mushrooms, then some kind of custard. After that, more substantial seafood and then light meat. Generally, there are between five and six seafood courses, one or two vegetable courses and one meat course.
AM: What spices, herbs and ingredients do you gravitate towards in general.
CHEF NA: We like spices from all over the world. I’ll go to any store and get anything I see. Our sommelier is going to Armenia and I'm going to ask him if he can bring back a spice book. I want to know about every spice. I'm Indian and I like Indian spices, there are so many different spices. I have no boundaries we use spices from all over the world, whatever we feel we can make something amazing with it.
AM: Can you share 3 dishes that tend to be offered that are your favorites?
CHEF AB: The fushka is so exciting because it has so many different textures. There are raw, and blanched vegetables, acid from citrus, a little bit of heat and spice, and fresh garnishes on top. That one is mouth-watering just talking about it. Because of all the textures and the freshness, the fushka is a total go-to. I like all the seafood dishes, we have amazing vendors so the scallop dish right now is phenomenal and also one other kind of signature on the menu is a shrimp dish. The ingredients kind of stay the same but the dish has evolved since we've opened. Nuoc cham, the Vietnamese fermented fish sauce, is something Chef Nahid has created many dishes around. Right now, the dish has nuoc cham emulsion foam and foie gras sauce on the bottom, potatoes, Thai basil and grilled and smoked fresh shrimp. This is definitely one of my favorites too.
AM: Are there types of dishes or flavors that tend to be a part of the 9-course tasting menu, regardless of the season that you may be in?
CHEF NA: Everything changes. There is only one dish that we always keep, the nuoc cham shrimp dish. The flavor is very Vietnamese and Thai. Everything else comes and goes but we do love Southeast Asian flavors with a twist, say a little Japanese, and also influences from every part of India.
AM: Jahdea Gildin, you are the Sommelier at Luthun, tell me about your journey prior to coming here?
JAHDEA GILDIN: I've worked in hospitality since I was about 15 years old, my first job was at a bagel shop. And from there, I've always loved the industry, even though I took a detour. Five years ago, I jumped back into hospitality at Casa Mono, the Michelin-starred restaurant in Grammercy, as a manager while I was getting my sommelier certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers. After being part of a team that won awards and Michelin stars, I was looking for the opportunity to do something a little different. At Casa Mono, everything was from Spain so it's refreshing to be able to do something different at Luthun.
AM: Tell us about the wine list that is offered?
JG: We're trying to make Luthun’s wine list similar to the food, which is very unique in itself. It's rooted in tradition but has its own identity. Chef Nahid is classically French trained so while we honor tradition, we want to expand on it and offer wines that are less expected, from lesser known regions. We want to showcase the New World and producers or regions that are worthy of exploration rather than predictable choices. We have a very small space and with the constantly changing menu, we want to make sure that our beverage options are in line with that. Our beverage pairing, which is very popular, enables us to showcase what we think people should be drinking with these dishes. Since Luthun serves a tasting menu, guests come here for an experience and we want to provide something special.
AM: What are three wines that you often suggest?
JG: I really enjoy wine from Zuccardi in Mendoza, Argentina. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, they were the number one vineyard in the world. They make these stellar chardonnays and malbecs, that see time in concrete because to the winemakers it shows the real terroir, as opposed to using oak, which can mask some characteristics. Their Fosil Chardonnay is absolutely stunning. It has this nice little bit of roundness and is kind of white Burgundy-esque. What I like to share with people the most is that while we're all familiar with French chardonnay, it's great to explore other options. The Fosil Chardonnay is similar to some of the top white Burgundies but costs a fraction of the price. It's not necessarily a cheap wine but in comparison with the quality level, it stands with some of the best.
Another wine I'm a huge fan of is saperavi from Anapea Village in Georgia. Georgia and Armenia are both the cradle of wine civilization with sixty eight thousand years’ history. The saperavi that they make is fascinating because they ferment it on the skins of mtsvane, a white grape, in the traditional Georgian qvevri terracotta vessels. It makes a really beautiful medium bodied, fresh red with light spice, fresh flowers and some nice umami. We were pouring that on our Reserve Pairing with a Mongolian beef.
We just got a couple of labels of Gut Oggau from Austria, husband and wife winemakers that make beautiful field blends. Oftentimes they don't even list the grapes on the bottle because they had taken over this abandoned vineyard that they were able to work with biodynamic practices from day one. Each of their wines has on the label a hand-drawn picture of a family member or friend. We have the Matilda gruner veltliner, named after a grandmother, on the list right now.
AM: You also have kombucha, can you tell us more about this?
JG: Most of our non-alcoholic beverages we make in-house with a tea base similar to how kombucha is made, but we don't do the whole fermentation process. We source kombucha from Unified Ferments in Brooklyn. The difference between what they create and what’s at the grocery store is the quality. The teas they use are from different areas of Taiwan or China. They also created two different labels that come from opposite sides of one mountain in India, so they're really digging into the terroir of teas. One of my favorites is the Qi Dan oolong tea that has a touch of effervescence that gives it a really nice freshness and notes of bay leaf and citrus.
IG @luthunnyc
PHOTOS COURTESY | Michael Tulipan
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see THE ART OF THE SNACK | Luthun in mag.
When it comes to comfort food, you want to feel cozy and to have all the flavors possible - we want those. In addition to having your favorite neighborhood spot, we also love knowing that our freezer is always stocked with our favorites. We're talking about MìLà which is known for savory soup dumplings and amazing sauces. In addition, they also have a number of friendly freezer options that you can enjoy with your dumplings and of course, make it an epic mouth journey by pairing it with your favorite wine and spirits.
We became fans of this brand during the pandemic. There was something about eating these dumplings that reminded us of our favorite restaurants with each spoonful! So we took some time to chat with Jen Liao and Caleb Wang on how they started as a restaurant in Belleue, WA, to savory items in your freezer and their partnership with action star, Simu Liu!
ATHLEISURE MAG: We have been fans of your brand for a few years. During the pandemic, we started purchasing your soup dumplings. Tell me about your backgrounds and how you came together to launch this food brand?
MìLà: MìLà first began in 2018 as a restaurant by the brand’s previous name, Xiao Chi Jie. We opened the restaurant because, selfishly, we wanted to enjoy the Chinese street food we loved here in the States. During the pandemic in 2020, we sought to find a way to keep our employees working with us so introduced frozen dumpling delivery. People loved them and we quickly grew from just doing door-to-door deliveries with our small team in Washington to delivering along the West Coast and shortly after, delivering DTC products nationwide. The response has been incredible; people are very excited about the quality and taste of the products, which is extremely important to us.
AM: You started with a brick-and-mortar in Bellevue, Xiao Chi Jie, can you tell me about this restaurant as well as what people can enjoy there?
M: Our restaurant in Bellevue, Washington is a modern interpretation of Chinese street food bings, bowls, baos, & drinks - you can find our signature soup dumplings there as well! When we first opened the restaurant we sold out everyday for three months so, growing the offerings and bringing them into more homes across the country has been amazing.
AM: For those that are in the neighborhood, what are 3 items that you suggest that we should try from this menu?
M: Our Sheng Jian Bao is our beloved pork soup dumpling. These paired with any of the side dishes like our garlic cucumber or sichuan cabbage cannot be missed.
AM: How is it to have a brand that has a physical neighborhood presence as well as one that has a national footprint via shipping your products?
M: It all happened very naturally and quickly. What originally started as a pivot in response to the pandemic quickly grew into something larger than we would have ever imagined at the beginning. The local community in the Seattle region has been incredibly supportive since the beginning. Seeing new customers try the products and their responses to the taste is incredibly rewarding. It’s very important for us to be spreading our mission of demystifying and growing awareness of Chinese cuisine and what it means to us as “third culture kids” so, bringing this message anywhere, whether it be our home community in Bellevue or across the country in New York, is extremely fulfilling.
AM: What is your process in terms of deciding what you offer in terms of your frozen treats?
M: A lot of the flavors are inspired by how we ate them as kids. They’re our personal favorite dishes and ice cream flavors. It was really important to us to maintain the same restaurant quality for our frozen offerings, and the quality taste and ingredients in the ice cream. We’ve really geeked out on aspects like the dough-to-filling ratio, the number of dumplings with cracks, and the variance in grams of soup dumplings, which we think all make a huge difference.
AM: In addition to the classic soup dumplings that are always available, we also tried the spicy beef which was tasty. Will you add additional flavors?
M: We have offered limited edition drops in the past and will continue to release them! These one-off launches come from an intention of being super excited about a dish that’s not one of our evergreen offerings, but we still want to give people the chance to try it. We’re also working to develop other options of our hero products to provide more options for consumers.
AM: For our readers that have yet to order their soup dumplings from you, how can they correctly steam your dumplings?
M: Our dumplings are designed and packaged specifically to be cooked straight from the freezer. In a large wok or pan, and make sure to bring 2-3 inches of water to a rolling boil and place the dumplings in a lined steamer basket. Don’t forget to leave a 1 inch gap between dumplings. Our go-to tip for people is to not over-crowd your dumplings for the best results! Then, you will steam your dumplings for 11 minutes (until internal temp. reaches 165°F) and they’ll be ready to go!
AM: I love having the Umami sauce with my dumplings and I even add in some pickled veggies - how do you enjoy your dumplings?
M: We both love our classic vinegar sauce with the soup dumplings!
AM: Although we can certainly eat the dumplings alone, what is the perfect beverage and sides to have when you want to eat your dumplings while catching up on your favorite streamed shows?
M: The dumplings are delicious with any of the sauces (and followed by a pint of our ice cream, of course). We love a can of Sanzo poured over ice next to our plate. For those who are 21+, they also pair very well with a new age chardonnay. We love Jumbo Time Wines’ ‘Problem Child’ which is a 50/50 co-ferment of Pinot Noir & California Chardonnay.
AM: We loved the lamb skewers as well as the chicken skewers, do you think that you will continue to rotate seasonal or limited-time offerings as you continue to grow?
M: Yes, we will continue to do seasonal and limited-time offerings of products! Our community loves when these come around and it’s really fun for us, to dive into the process of creating the new recipes.
AM: Where do you get inspiration from when you are building product offerings for MiLa?
M: Being third culture Chinese-American, a lot of the inspiration for MìLà stems from our childhood meals and wanting to honor the cuisine while helping other people experience them as well. The same reason we initially opened the restaurant, really drives our product creation for MìLà…we want to create dishes we love and want to eat ourselves! Alongside that comes the telling of our story and mission. When we create a product we love, that mission becomes fulfilled when people try them and love them too.
AM: You recently rebranded to MiLa, why did you want to change the name and can you tell us about the meaning?
M: MìLà means honey (mi) and spice (la) in Chinese mi-, la-. Being both Chinese and American, the story behind MìLà comes to honor our traditions and add our personal touch. The name MìLà is representative of our evolution from a singular focus on street food to a national food brand that is on a mission to serve the highest quality authentic Chinese cuisine in freezers nationwide. MìLà is a way of connecting with our family’s history and using this opportunity as a reminder that the Chinese identity is constantly evolving. It is on us and our communities to create new, multidimensional representations of what it means to be our own brand of Asian American and create a cuisine that deserves a place in the American food ecosystem.
AM: We had the Jasmine Green Tea ice cream which is another favorite. Are there any new products that are coming out that we should keep an eye out for?
M: Yes, we’re planning to launch some more limited edition flavors this year. More to come soon!
AM: Simu Liu (Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Rings franchise, Kim's Convenience, Barbie) is your Chief Content Officer! How did this partnership come about and what will he be doing with the brand?
M: We’re very excited to have Simu joining us as Chief Content Officer. A year ago, through a friend of a friend, we were connected to Simu and sent him some products. His parents intercepted the delivery while he was traveling and, by the time he got back, they’d eaten all the soup dumplings and given them their stamp of approval. We sent more over for him to try and, when he loved the products, we continued talking more with him about our mission. We all had similar experiences and a shared passion for bringing Chinese food to wider audiences so we began speaking with him about getting more involved. Now, here we are working together! Simu will be advising the company on marketing strategy and communications and will play a larger role in representing the brand across marketing channels. He'll be working with us on crafting our storytelling, shaping upcoming initiatives and driving creative activations.
AM: You have been doing a number of events to give exposure to the brand, as we continue to navigate the Spring and the Summer, are there events/festivals/tradeshows that we should keep an eye out for and will you be coming to NY?
M: Since we are currently in California and in the Pacific Northwest and working on hitting shelves in Town & Country, Metropolitan Market and QFC stores in the Washington and Oregon areas in April, we are heavily focused there. We’ll be bringing some new, fun ways for people to try the products to various markets as well as looking to expand into new markets throughout 2023.
IG @eat.mila
PHOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 84 + 88 MìLà | PG 87 The Creator and Blake Silva |
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see COMFORT IN FOOD in mag.
It's always great to enjoy something that has added benefits to help others! With Earth Day being this month and an ongoing focus on sustainability, we connected with Danielle Lombard who we were first introduced to on the 21st season of The Bachelor and again when she was on season 4 and 5 of Bachelor in Paradise. In addition to being on the show, Danielle is focused on sustainability and doing what is necessary to benefit the Earth in a number of ways. We talk about how we can be sustainable in a number of ways as well as her partnership with Astral Tequila through their This Round's For The House which supports the Adobe Brick Project. She shares how we can participate and how it benefits Jalisco, Mexico.
ATHLEISURE MAG: You’re very passionate about sustainability. How have you incorporated that into your life and why is that so important to you?
DANIELLE LOMBARD: I’m really passionate about sustainability just because, I have a very deep appreciation for nature and I think that over the last few years, I have become really aware of the negative impact that we have on it. Especially during the lockdown and COVID, I bought a National Park pass and I was driving around to all of the National Parks. I just realized that this is something that I love so much and that I don’t want to lose it. So what are the things that I could do at home to help diminish my footprint. I think that I do that because I compost all my food waste now, I shop consignment and vintage as much as possible, I upcycle when I can and I just try to join a lot of neighborhood recycling programs – recycling my empty beauty products and supporting sustainable brands such as Astral.
AM: We love that. For someone who has not started their journey and maybe overwhelmed as there are so many things to do and ways to go about it, they may be looking for easy or simple ways that they can get to the starting line. What would you suggest to them?
DL: I mean I always tell my friends just "re" as much as you can in recycle as possible – as much as you can! I mean, I bring my reusable bags to the grocery store as opposed to getting a plastic bag. I can just use my reusable shopping totes. I always carry around my refillable water bottle instead of buying a plastic water bottle. And if you’re out and about, you can always ask for your bartender to make you a cocktail with Astral so that you’re supporting a good cause.
AM: Tell us about the Adobe Brick Project. I think that it’s really interesting and that they are building homes in Jalisco, Mexico. In addition to tell us about this, why did you want to partner on this with them?
DL: As you know, I love sustainability and I try to implement those practices as much as possible. Astral asked me to be part of their Earth Day initiative which is promoting the This Round's For The House, which is all the bottles that are being purchased are going towards the Adobe Brick Project. With that, they are using all of the upcycled adobe bricks to create homes is Jalisco, Mexico which is where their tequila is produced. So, I like that they are giving back to their community. This Earth Day, Astral is going to announce that they have 10 homes being built right now.
AM: That’s amazing and it’s really cool to see that by enjoying your favorite tequila shot or cocktail you can assist in this initiative. I’m assuming that you have a favorite recipe as well!
DL: I do! I did a trip with them in Joshua Tree which was wonderful! We had a mixologist help us create cocktails based on our signs. So, I’m a Capricorn and I’ve been addicted to this cocktail ever since. It’s called the Saturn Moon. It’s with Astral Tequila Blanco, fresh lime juice, agave, ginger beer which is one of my favorite mixers and then we also muddled a handful of fresh blueberries!
AM: That sounds really refreshing!
DL: It’s amazing and one of the favorite drinks that we had!
AM: I’m a Virgo and even I would want to drink that one!
DL: Ok, I’m a Virgo Moon! The blueberries were really a nice touch.
AM: We enjoyed seeing you on The Bachelor and The Bachelor in Paradise. What was your biggest takeaway from your time on the show?
DL: Oh wow, I think that for me, going into it, I had recently gotten out of a very unhealthy relationship where I was very codependent on this person and spent several years building up their career and life. When I left, it was just this process of rediscovering myself. I validated the fact that I was glad to leave the relationship and that it was a good decision. I left with a new sense of independence and who I was as a person and what my values were. I also left with some of the most amazing friends that I now talk to every single day!
AM: That’s amazing. We always love when we interview people whether they were competing or they were The Bachelor/Bachelorette, we just had Michelle Young a few months ago and we always like talking about the group chats and who’s in it. Who are the people you talk to?
DL: Oh yeah! It’s pretty wild because after you get off this show, it’s such a unique experience. It’s really nice to have those group chats to share what you’re going through right now, because no one else really knows. Even in past seasons, everything from each house there is always some tea that happens, but I talk to Raven, Alexis and Jasmine. Those are my core girls that I’m still friends with every day. I just had a canceled flight in Dallas and I went over to Alexis’ house and spent the night.
We're always on a mission to find our next favorite cocktail and Danielle's Saturn Moon, sounded refreshing. We're going to share with you the recipe for Saturn Moon and whatever your horiscope is, Astral has a series of Astralogical recipes for you that's in line with your sign or your tastebuds.
SATURN MOON
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
1.5oz Astral Tequila Blanco
.5oz Fresh Lime Juice
.5oz Agave Nectar
A Handful of Blueberries
Ginger Beer
HOW TO MAKE IT
Combine first three ingredients into a cocktail shaker and muddle lightly. Add ice, shake and strain into an ice filled glass and top with Ginger Beer.
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Andrew Ho
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see SUSTAINABILITY IS KEY | Danielle Lombard in mag,
We always like to find out more about those on our favorite shows! For fans of HBO Max's The Other Two, you know that this show is about siblings Cary Dubek (Drew Tarver) who is trying to obtain better auditions and Brooke (Heléne York) who is trying to get her life together in general! Their brother, Chase, known as Chase Dreams (Case Walker), becomes an internet senation overnight. The show illustrates how they navigate their realities!
In this month's issue, we sit down with Case to talk about his character who will be back for it's 3rd season on May 4th on the streaming platform. He shares similarities and differences between himself and this character, how he became attached to the show and how he has enjoyed the process. He also talks about Monster High which will be out this fall.
In addition to his love for acting, he is also an avid rock climber and talks about how he is just as passionate about doing this sport, taking on the challenges that come along with it as well as a bucket list of locales that he would like to go to in his travels to do this activity that he is so proud of.
ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you realize that you wanted to be an actor?
CASE WALKER: I realized that I wanted to be an actor, probably when I was 8 years old and I realized that I could play characters and that that would entertain people. It got me hooked!
AM: How did The Other Two Come about? I’ve enjoyed watching this show, but for our readers that aren’t familiar, tell us about this.
CW: The Other Two was a project that I went out for I think 7 years ago now, maybe longer or earlier. I just went out for an audition, my dad took me out across LA and we went in like the usual kid actor would and it just really worked out! I connected with the casting director and I connected with Chris Kelly (Saturday Night Live, Crashing, Broad City) and Sarah Schneider (Saturday Night Live, Master of None, Goodnight, Sweet Prince) in the last audition. It worked out and it’s been amazing ever since.
AM: That’s amazing! You play Chase Dreams. Who is he and are there similarities and differences between yourself and the character that you play?
CW: Chase Dreams, well, he has grown a lot over the show. Early on, we were very similar in the 1st and the 2nd season. It paralleled a little bit to my life as a child actor in LA and going through the motions of the industry. This season, Chase gets to mature quite a bit. We jump a little bit into the future and Chase is older going through what I would say are adult challenges than he has ever gone through. Which is very similar to what I have gone through as well even in this season which is really fun!
AM: That’s great! The show obviously has an incredible cast with yourself, Molly Shannon (Saturday Night Live, White Lotus, Divorce), Ken Marino (Party Down, Black Monday, Veronica Mars), Wanda Sykes (Black-ish, Bad Moms, Curb Your Enthusiasm) along with former SNL writers Chris and Sarah. What is it like being on this show and what have you learned?
CW: Yeah, I’ve learned so much working on this show. All my co-stars have not only been friends and companions to me, but also talking to me so much about acting and especially how to operate on set and how to be on a television show to work together to produce art. I’ve also learned so much from them on the comedy side as well. They’ve just been amazing mentors, friends, and co-workers - all of the above.
AM: It’s always great when you have that dynamic in the chemistry. Are you able to tell us about the upcoming 3rd season and what we can expect?
CW: I can share a little bit. This season is a big jump from where we last were. It’s totally different and it’s bigger. I would say that it’s a lot bigger if you can believe it. Everyone, I would say this season – every character is kind of going through their own challenge. We’re a little bit more separate and individual this season and of course, as we always do, we end up back together as a family through all of our conflicts and challenges in the industry. It’s really fun to see how we all get through this season! There are some crazy things that happen and Chase goes through a lot of stuff! I personally felt that I was going through a lot of different sketches this season a little bit because you’ll see that Chase has a few things that are going on this season to solve his situations. It will be really fun to watch for sure.
AM: Looking forward to catch that! Are there other projects that we should keep an eye out for that you’re involved in?
CW: I worked on another project that’s a live action musical, the 2nd version of it called Monster High. It’s totally different than The Other Two which is going to be a blast and it will be out this fall!
AM: It’s always exciting to have something that’s ahead of you!
When you’re not on set, we know that you’re an avid rock climber. How did you get into this sport?
CW: Rock climbing, I got into it because my big brother was really into it. He had been doing it for a few years and as a little bro does, I kind of followed him into it. Then I stopped for a few years and then around COVID, I completely fell in love with it – especially outdoor bouldering. I’ve kind of run with it since then.
AM: You mentioned that your brother was a huge influence, but there are so many outdoor sports that you could have done, what is it about this specifically that you really love about it?
CW: I would describe bouldering and rock climbing as probably one of the most full value sports. While I’m in NY, I can train at the climbing gym nearby and find a community there and then when I’m home in Colorado, I can do a lot of outdoor bouldering. I can go to the Alpine or the Front Range. When I was in Canada filming, there was climbing everywhere. It’s a beautiful sport where you can do it a little bit, you could do it a lot, you can go outside and you can be inside and there's just this awesome community behind it. I find it to be one of the best sports in the world, it’s my favorite.
AM: Do you have a bucket list of locations that you would go to specifically around the world to continue to boulder or rock climb out there?
CW: Totally, yeah! There’s a bunch. There’s a place called Rocklands in South Africa that’s incredible, there’s a place called Fontainebleau in France which is amazing and it has a fun name – these are all just obviously legendary international bouldering spots. Where I’m at in Colorado, it’s a bucket list for a lot of people! So I just got to get a lot more boulders on my checklist here and I’ll definitely make my way to Spain and France and all of the above!
AM: When you’re climbing, how do you prepare? What are the things that you’re looking for to ensure that you’re having a good climb?
CW: To prepare for climbing, especially when you’re taking it to a whole other level, you really have to invest a lot more than you expected to it. So, it’s really mental, it’s emotional sometimes and obviously, it’s physical. A lot of people don’t grasp the mental aspect of it often times when you’ve spent a lot of time on a project which is what we call it. Like spending multiple days. It really does take a lot of mental focus and figuring out data. When I’m climbing, I just really try to be present because sometimes you can think about getting the route done or just overthinking it. At the end of the day, it’s really just about getting outside, climbing and having a great experience. When you do what we call a complete boulder or a complete climb, it’s a reward and it’s really fun. Really, climbing is just about climbing and being able to get out there and to challenge yourself.
AM: Have you ever done it competitively? Will we see you trying to go to the Olympics?
CW: You know, I have a friend who’s in the Olympics and he was one of our Olympians and I have a ton of friends in Colorado who obviously go to the National Team Trials. There’s actually a pretty big separation between outdoor bouldering and what we call comp style or competition style climbing. They kind of have a middle ground, but you end up training one or the other. I’ve been pretty focused on the outdoor stuff, but I also do a few competitions here and there! Just not maybe on the Olympic level!
IG @casewalker
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 92 -94 HBO Max/The Other Two | PG 97 Rocky Holloway | PG 98 Cooper Doe |
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see THE CLIMB | Case Walker in mag.
BEEF is a must-binge that's perfect to enjoy over the weekend. All 10 episodes of this dark comedy starring Steven Yeun (Nope, Everything All at Once, Okja) and Ali Wong (Birds of Prey, American Housewife, Love, Victor) shows us what happens when a beef takes over your life and how it can completely change everything that you thought you knew about yourself and those around you! It even looks at how a beef can cross gender, class, and other demographics.
When you've gotten through a number of series on a designated streaming platform, you're always looking for the next item that you'll want to watch. We just found out about Fired on Mars, an animated workplace comedy on a Martian tech company which focuses on a guy who leaves Earth to work on Mars with a number of his colleagues from his office as well as others who are there to populate the planet. We watch him go about his job as a Graphic Designer and how he spends his days there while communicating with his girlfriend who works at the same company who is back on Earth. We can see that she is slated to be there at some point down the road.
As he navigates his days and nights, we also see that a new planet doesn't change the state of office politics, interesting coworkers and the need to fit in. One day, the world that he continues to adjust to is drastically altered and he is forced to try to find a new way to be involved in this new environment as well as to stay connected to the love of his life on Earth.
There's nothing like a classic retold and when it comes to FX and the way that they retell Charles Dickens pieces, we couldn't wait to see how this would be done with Great Expectations a 6-episode limited series.
The adaptation is written by Steven Knight (Spencer, See, Peaky Blinders) who is also an Executive Producer alongside Tom Hardy (Venom franchise, Legend, Inception), Ridley Scott (Kaleidoscope, House of Gucci, The Last Duel), Dean Baker (A Christmas Carol, Taboo, Driven to Extremes), David W. Zucker (Still Missing Morgan, Kaleidoscope, The Good Fight) and Kate Crowe (The Third Day, A Christmas Carol, Taboo).
This new look at this beloved classic brings us an orphan named Pip (Fionn Whitehead) who grew up as a blacksmith's apprentice. Suddenly, he receives a windfall from an unknown benefactor that allows him to travel to London and enter high society. His journey includes love, Miss Havisham (Olivia Colman) and more!
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see Bingely Streaming in mag.
There is nothing like a bowl of ramen and since it is so versatile, we always want to try a new version! If you've ever purchased ramen noodle packets or have them in your pantry, have you ever thought about how you can breathe new life into it, we have some ideas. This month, 101 Things to Do With Ramen Noodles is the perfect cookbook to have on hand when cravings hit.
You'll find out how they can be made into Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup, Summer Garden Soup, Zucchini Salad, Ham and Cheese Ramen Omelets, Ramen Nachos, and Ramen Burgers.
As we get closer to the summer, we need one of those escapist reads that takes us away on a bit of a saga. We get introduced to the Stockton family a well-connected old-money family. We meet Darley the eldest daughter who traded her comforts, followed her heart, and exchanged her inheritance for motherhood. We also meet Sasha who is a middle-class New England girl who marries into the Brooklyn Heights family. Obviously, she is an outsider. Then, there's Georgiana who is the baby of the family and has fallen madly in love with someone that she can't have. Now, she decides what kind of a person does she want to be ultimately.
Pineapple Street is an indulgent read that connects us to the one-percenters and shares the lives of these characters as they navigate their lives and learn what it is in life that they really want to be involved in.
Another cuisine that's a long-time favorite is Korean! We love the spices, sauces, and more. In Learning Korean: Recipes for Home Cooking, we focus on the key elements of this cuisine: kimchi and white rice, and how it unlocks flavors as well as vegetable-centric cooking which allows for healthy eating. This cookbook presents new flavors, techniques, and ways to enjoy this food by Chef Peter Serpico.
This cookbook shares his favorite dishes that he has made over the years as well as those that he grew up eating. With over 100 recipes, and his thoughts on philosophically eating, and his connection to food, it's an immersive experience.
We're looking forward to making Spicy Pork Rib Stew, classic noodle and rice cake dishes as well as Korea-fied roast chicken and a sweet-and-spicy grilled cauliflower. In addition, to beautiful images, you will learn various techniques, you'll learn about condiments to elevate your desired dish, desserts, drinks and tricks and tips to create your healthy meals each week.
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see Bingely Books in mag.
Mimi Cheng's is founded by Hannah and Marian Cheng. The two sisters were inspired by the hundreds of homemade dumplings and jars of secret sauce their mother, Mimi, made for them throughout their lives, and in 2014, they took the leap into the hospitality industry to introduce their family recipes and culinary heritage to New York City and opened their first location. Since then, it has expanded to 3 locations on the Upper West Side, East Village and Brooklyn.
We suggest that when you swing by for dumplings, you should try their Signature Dumpling (organic chicken, farm zucchini, scallions, grated ginger), Pork & Chive Dumplings (pasture-raised heritage pork + garlicky chives) and any of their upcoming Limited Edition Brooklyn Series Dumplings. Mimi Cheng’s will be collaborating with other beloved iconic BK restaurants to create a special dumpling every month. Keep an eye on their social feed to see the next collaboration that they will do for other restaurants in the area! For April, they partnered with Hometown BBQ, which will be an interesting twist on these savory classics. If you visit their IG, you'll see that they mentioned a Pepper-Caramelized Beef Brisket Dumplings with Swiss cheese, housemade Russian dressing, and slaw which seems like something that we would want to try for sure!
3 main dishes that we should try are Spicy Dan Dan Noodles, 12-Hour Organic Chicken Bone Broth Noodle Soup and Chicken + Rice. When it comes to sides, you should have their Crushed Garlic Cucumber Salad, Scallion Pancakes and Scallion Ginger Rice.
Regardless of which location you go to, you'll find that all the menus are the same for each one.
224 Atlantic Ave
BK, NY 11201
309 Amsterdam Ave
NY, NY 10023
179 2nd Ave
NY, NY 10003
IG @mimichengs
PHOTO CREDITS | Mimi Cheng's
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | Mimi Cheng’s in mag.
The Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure exhibit moved from here in NY to LA. We talked with Ileen Galllagher to find out more about this exhibit. There are close to 200 works including never before seen paintings, drawings, ephemera, and objects owned by Jean-Michel. This exhibit also includes immersive environments of his childhood home, studio, and Palladium nightclub.
This exhibit is possible due to his sisters who run the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. In their possession are many works that have never been seen before, and they wanted to share them with the public. Additionally, they wanted to create an exhibition that told the story of their brother from their unique point of view.
He was known for his Neo-Expressionism and was very expressive in his use of color, imagery, and language. His work combines all three and often contains elements from history, art history, culture, and social and political commentary.
King Pleasure, the name of the exhibit, comes from a painting by the artists in 1987 referencing the name of a bebop-loving bartender turned jazz vocalist, whose first hit in 1952, Moody’s Mood For Love, catapulted him to fame. Frankie Crocker, a WBLS disc jockey played it at the close of his show every night in the early 1970s. Gerard, Jean-Michel’s father, liked the song and often listened to Crocker’s show. Jean-Michel created a painting by this name but it is not included in this exhibition.
It's important to note that his legacy has grown exponentially since the time of his passing and many in the art world who didn’t recognize his talent and genius during his lifetime have come around to truly appreciate his unique talent. His art resonates with all sorts of audiences because so many people can identify with what he is saying in his work, and his messages continue to resonate to this day. Since his death he has been included in hundreds of exhibitions and his fame is truly worldwide.
The Grand LA
100 S Grand Ave
LA, CA 90012
PHOTO CREDITS | Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | Jean Michel-Basquiat King Pleasure in mag.
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see #TRIBEGOALS in mag.
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see 9LOOKS | Sergio Hudson in mag.
Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see THE PICK ME UP in mag.
