SAM TALBOT

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Originally published in the Fall 2008 issue.

I’d never seen the tv show Top Chef, but when The Last Magazine asked me if I’d like to go out to the surf lodge in Montauk, all expenses paid, and interview celebrity chef Sam Talbot, of top chef fans, I lunged at the opportunity like a man who likes being put up in nice hotel rooms for free. “I’ll do it!” I said, and high-fived a passing stranger.

Early the next day I boarded the Hampton Jitney with all the other disgruntled rich folks, collected my complimentary newspaper, soda, party mix, and was spirited away to the far end of Long Island. Hours later I arrived at the surf lodge and was shown my room, one of 32 crisp white, strategically sea-shelled, sun-bleached rooms, replete with surf photography books, hanging wicker chair and presumptuous ‘Mr. Zogs Surf Wax’ on the pillow. I immediately coined the term: ‘Surf Shack Chic’ and said ‘Shaka.’ Then I wondered what Carol Channing was up to. After a quick nap I wandered over to the bar. Vogue was already there, so was Women’s Wear Daily and a few random press pilot fish like myself. Naturally, I eyed them all with suspicion and ordered what would be the first of many Montauk Storms (the lodge’s signature cocktail), then I slid down into my chair and inspected the surfboard fretted rafters above me. Man, they’ve thought of everything! I said to myself, and then I said Shaka! again.

My meeting with the chef was tentatively scheduled around 10:30 p.m. It was only 7:30 so I ordered some dinner and waited to see who I’d make friends with once my blood was sufficiently thinned with rum. By 8:30 my blood was a clear, yellow liquid with a pink tinge and I’d made an alliance with a nice couple from Jersey. By 9:30 I’d been invited to a wedding in Hoboken and by 10:30 the invitation had been retracted. But it didn’t matter! Because by then The Chef and his motley entourage of models and kitchen folk had materialized and were waving at me from the end of the bar! I made my farewells, pressed REC on my trusty tape-recorder and stumbled away to meet the man himself—Sam Talbot.

JASON CROMBIE: How was your shift tonight?

SAM TALBOT: It was good man, especially for a night like tonight…

With the storm and everything?
Yeah, it was solid, it was a good night.

So what’s your deal? You were on Top Chef, you had two years off, and now your heading up the kitchen at this place?
Yeah, I haven’t worked in a kitchen in two years, I’ve been doing a lot of consulting, I’ve had a lot of private clients, done parties for Cadillac, Givenchy…you know, those type of things. But this is my first restaurant in two years and it’s going good.
JC: I like it. ST: Have you eaten the food?

Yeah, I had the lobster salad sandwich.
You like it?

Yeah, it was really good.

Excellent.

Is it good to be back in the kitchen again?
It’s amazing, man.

How many people you got back there?

Cooking?

Yeah.
It’s myself and five.

That’s a pretty big kitchen.
No. It’s tiny.


Right on.
The kitchen is so compact.

What’s the vibe like in there? You guys must be hating each other. Are you the aggro chef dude?
No man, there’s a whole lot of camaraderie and I like to think of myself as a pretty good boss, y’know?

Right on.

Sure everyone gets stressed, everyone gets in the weeds, but my guys work really hard, man, we all work really hard. Like, on Saturday, we do brunch, then we do dinner, and that’s a huge day y’know? We work from 8am till 12 o’clock at night.

That sounds like a nightmare.
Yeah, but everybody’s happy. Sure, they’re tired and sweaty and miserable…but they know we’re in the same patch, we all have the same view.

So you never yell at anyone?
I’ve had my fair share of being annoyed but…

You need to be terse sometimes.
Yeah, you need to be firm, but at the end of the night I look to all my guys and I’m like, Man, you did a great job tonight. I’m sorry I screamed at you.

That’s awesome.
Yeah, at the end of the night everybody’s cool.

Hey, I never actually saw Top Chef. Sorry…
You didn’t miss much man, it’s all good.

So you were on that show and now you’re kind of a celebrity chef if there’s such a thing?
If there is such a thing, sure.

Well, there is right? Like, there’s Anthony Bourdain, and there’s that guy on TV who’s always flipping out over shit…

Gordon Ramsay.

Yeah, yeah. Is it good to be a celebrity chef though? I mean do other chefs think it’s lame?
Well, in my opinion…there are haters in every field.

It’s jealousy?
It’s jealousy.

It’s like if a band gets some big deal…
Like they do a movie sound track or something, and everyone’s like “Oh man they sold out.”

Right.

But you know, everybody needs a break.

Totally.
Whether it’s who you know or how you got there, everybody needs some sort of a break to get their foot in the door.

And you’ve been banging away for how long? How did you get into this whole thing?
You mean this restaurant?

No, like, how did you get into cooking?
Oh, I was mesmerized by it, man! When I was 16 I got a job at Dean & Deluca as a prep cook. I was just doing it to have a job, appease my parents, y’know? I was getting six dollars an hour and I thought that was the best thing since sliced bread!

Were you still in school?
Yeah, I was in high school, I worked on the weekends and at night. Anyway, there was this one cook at Dean & Deluca who always had this massive book with him, and I was like, Why are you constantly flipping through that thing? And he said, “You wanna be a cook?” I said sure. He said, “Any serious cook knows what this book is.” It was Larousse Gastronomique. “Every good cook has this book.” So that week I got my paycheck and went out and bought a copy. It’s a bible, you know? It’s huge, and I started flipping through it. It’s incredible! It’s centuries old! I was amazed, and that’s what changed my life. I read it and from then on I was obsessed.

Really?
Yeah. True story, man.

And now you’re here, turning out some great seafood.

Yeah, well, I’m from the ocean, I love the ocean, I love seafood so…

Where are you from?
Charlotte, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina. So, summers on the beach, I fish…

Lotta fish out here.
Yeah, yeah, well, that’s my thing— seafood. So when this opportunity came about…

You were in.
Yeah, tell you what though, man, the first night we opened I was so scared, I hadn’t been in a kitchen in two years!

You must have been shitting bricks.
I was, man, I was fucking freaking out.

I’ll bet. Plus the added pressure of being a celebrity chef?

Oh yeah, that adds a little more scrutiny for sure, lot of pressure.

There sure are a ton of chicks out here!
You have no idea.

What’s happening? There’s like, models everywhere.

Vogue.

Vogue is doing a story?
Yeah.


Lot of press. How many interviews have you done lately?
This is my third one today.

Fuck off! No way!
Yup.


Jesus. Better make this one interesting then… You ever see someone get stabbed in the kitchen?
I’ve seen knife fight break out, yeah. I saw a prep cook loose her fingers once too.
JC: In a fight? ST: No, by accident.

How many fingers we talkin’?
Tops of three.

Three?
Yeah.

Just the tips though? Above the first joint?
Yeah, but man, it is the tips of your fingers. You’re like, “Just the tips? What are you? A fuckin’ pussy?”


No! That must’ve hurt! Tell me about the knife fight? Was it a proper knife fight with stabbing and shit?
Yeah, stabbing, it was Malaysians and Mexicans.

No shit.
Yeah, I went downstairs and then I heard all this screaming so I ran back up and ah… it was out of control. Pretty crazy.


Did you ever bang a waitress in the walk-in refrigerator?
Jesus.

What? That’s a fair question.

No. Never. Next question.

You ever punch someone’s neck in a kitchen, not necessarily a waitress?
No. I’ve never punched anyone in the kitchen.

You’re pretty mellow for a chef.

Yeah.

Is it because, like most chefs, you’re on drugs?
Next question. Jeez!

Any truth in the rumor that you get flown back and forth between Manhattan and Montauk via helicopter?
It’s a seaplane.

Really?
Yeah.


Man, what’s up with that? I mean, what’s up with the whole rock star chef thing? People are coming all the way out to Montauk to see you!
Well, they’re coming out here for the surf lodge.

Yeah, the surf lodge is great, but lets face it, you’re the draw card.
Man, I don’t know…the rock star thing…


Do you have groupies? Foodie groupies?
Well not personally but I know of other chefs who do.

Riiiiight…so, you don’t have them but they’re out there?
Yeah, let’s say that.

It’s amazing to think that one day they’ll make a plaster cast of your pecker because you make a mean paella.
I don’t know about that, man.

Last question: you got a book in the works?
Ah, not yet. I haven’t lived long enough.

How old are you?
30.

30 on the record or off the record?
30 on the record.

So far so good!
Yeah, man! So far so good!