What we covered in this episode
- Chef Matt Bolus describes his locations in Nashville, TN: The 404 Kitchen and Gertie's Bar. All lot of global flavors and bourbon!
- He talks about the types of dishes that bring him comfort.
- Chef Matt Bolus shares how he navigated through the pandemic situation
- He talks about the relationship he built with purveyors and with some of Kentucky’s top distillers, allowing him to buy exclusive single barrels to be sold exclusively at Gertie’s.
- During the pandemic, Chef Matt Bolus started his Culinary Passport Staycation Dinner series in collaboration with people like Chef Chef Andrew Zimmern, Chef Marcus Samuelsson, Chef Carla Hall.
- Chef Matt Bolus has a passion for Whiskey, specifically Bourbon and Rye.
- He gives examples about food and whiskey pairings.
- Chef Matt Bolus wants to try and taste everything. He uses his tasting experience and music as sources of inspiration.
- For the best Chicken wings he suggests to “cheat” and start by pre-cooking your wings in an oven or on the grill, or on a smoker.
- Discover the three cookbooks that inspired Chef Matt Bolus the most and his guilty pleasure food.
- Series of rapid-fire questions.
- Link to the podcast episode on Apple Podcast
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- Pork TBone The 404 Kitchen_photo credit Andrea Behrends
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- Chef Matt Bolus – Fresh Burrata – The 404Kitchen
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- Scallop Toast – The 404 Kitchen
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- Butterbeans – The 404 Kitchen
Submitted questions from podcast listeners
What food goes well with bourbon?
You get the pork and rye roasted pork chop, blast of rye whiskey. I always loved the poached pears that we did at Le Cordon Bleu. Old school French dessert, most people don't get excited about. I can understand why, because it's a pear and people are thinking about it, but a good friend of mine, Scott Crawford out of Raleigh, North Carolina, came up and did a dinner with Kavalan whiskey, actually Taiwanese. They had a Sherry cask finish. So, Sherry – pears, okay. Those go together. Smokey – pear, that goes together as well. We took this Manzanilla cask finished Taiwanese whiskey, and added a little bit of butter and some sorghum. And we gently poached these pears. Just mind blowing the flavor that came off of it. It was the perfect marriage of flavors.
I love apples and bourbon in many forms, from apple pie to using apples with roasted butternut squash. It was with a pork Tenderloin on the Big Green Egg. I put this fat cap on Tenderloin on the top rack. And underneath that, I built a little boat of aluminum foil with butternut squash, garlic, herbs and gold rush apples and drizzled bourbon all over it. Buffalo Trace bourbon all over it and just let it slow cook. You get these crispy apples with this bright, oaky, woody, and earthy flavor.