Ivy Knight

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Episode Transcript

(00:13):
Hello, late night with chefThank you guys so much for
tuning into another episode ofThe Late Night with Chef Show.
I am your host, Doug Cox, and Ihave the pleasure of being
joined by Ivy Knight.
Ivy Knight comes to us fromToronto.
She is a writer, industryadvocate, and memes Sivan Ivy.
Without further ado, how are youdoing today?

(00:33):
I'm good.
Thanks for having me on.
You are very welcome.
Thank you for spending some timewith us.
we don't typically shoot onSundays it's, you know, rest and
relaxation day.
So I thank you for taking alittle bit of time to share your
story with our followers as wellas yours.
Of course.
So, Ivy, tell us, where doesyour story within the industry

(00:58):
start?
My story starts when I, got ajob in BC working at a Fish and
Shockney Kings.
Oh wow.
So in the British of Columbia?
Yeah, British Columbia.
outside of Vancouver.

(01:20):
And what was some of your like,roles and responsibilities Well,
I was hired as a dishwasher toshort to fulfill the dishwasher.
I couldn't, I could barely liftthe racks and I couldn't reach a
lot of the places where thedishes had to go.
So they moved me Working as afry cook in this case.

(01:44):
Mm-hmm.
literally a fry cook, deep fryfry the size of a bathtub,
goodness.
You're doing some massiveamounts of fried chicken tenders
and french fries and fish andchips and that it was just fish
and chips.
Hmm.
Yeah, so it was just likehaddock over and over.
Until the end of time, and thatwas an experience and it was a

(02:10):
lot of fun.
The actual work, not super fun,but it was in the rush of
service.
mostly the, The thing that Iloved about it was, was the
comradery and working with theteam teams and it just like
really, To me.
Hmm.
Yeah, I think that, just thatalone is so many people's

(02:36):
passion in this industry, sobeing able to see that in the
beginning is very important.
So transitioning from that, youhave a role as a food writer for
this industry.
You know, being in such aposition where you know your
voice and your words are heardby so many, and this industry, a
lot of times the voices of theline cooks and the dishwashers

(03:00):
aren't heard, how do you kind ofevoke that within your writing
to make sure their reality is apart of that?
Hmm.
Well, let's put it this way.
So, Started cooking when I was19, like I said.
And then I moved to Texas and Iwas, I was a PLO in not to

(03:21):
Toronto and worked at a numberof restaurants here, here.
And while I was working on theline, I wrote my first article
for The Globe and Mail andcalled, I think it was just
called, We Hate Brian.
An insider expose about how muchpeople who work brunch hate it.

(03:46):
It was like, like it was honest.
It wasn't, but it was sort oftold in irreverent way and I
don't know, I was kind of youngand dumb and I didn't think that
the place with Article, but wedid have a lot of custom

(04:08):
customers, colleagues cancelingtheir resume reservations and
kind of pissed off that one ofthe cooks was paper about how
much they had a brunch.
But Lucki, I didn't get fired,get a little bit of trouble, and
then I started writing for theToronto Star.
took off from there writing andnow I.

(04:32):
You know, for a few more yearsand I spent a total of 10 years
on the line.
Now I'm a writer full time andhave been for quite a long time
writing for like the New Yorkteam, the New York, et cetera.
Hmm.
So you feel like having thatexperience kind of gives you

(04:55):
that perspective that's needed.
I don't know.
I think that I was gonna be, bea writer no matter what.
I didn't know that I would rudewriter, but that's where I began
cuz that's what I knew best,what I was reading the most of
while I was cooking in theearly, early days.

(05:17):
I started writing about foodfrom.
Brook's perspective becausethat's all I knew.
There wasn't anyone that I knewof that was about food.
Food from that perspective atthat time in this city.
And that's changed over theyears.

(05:39):
Happily, there are a lot morepeople who are writing about
the, but my inspiration when Istarted was of course Anthony
Bourdain, and that was.
Read something that's, thattalked about what my like, and
it really struck a chord, so Iwanted to be able to write about

(06:02):
in the same way.
Hmm.
I think his words were verypowerful and the way that he was
able to kind of put you.
In this situation.
A lot of stuff that I've readfrom him is it, you know, you,
you feel it to your core and Ithink that's really powerful as
a writer being able to do thatfor your readers.

(06:25):
Yeah, him that he was an,incredible writer and I think
over the years, cuz he was, youknow, he was mostly.
Known for TV over the last, buthis writing was, was really
incredible and that's, it's sucha loss and that we'll never read

(06:47):
anything from him ever again.
Hmm.
Most definitely.
You know, transitioning fromwriter I found who you were
through your meme page that youcreated about the food and
beverage industry know, wheredid the inspiration to create
this page come about?

(07:08):
Dark place?
I was, was leaving in male atthe height.
Of me too.
Hmm.
Into in Canada's f and b worldand, and that world and knew
everyone within it.
It was really hard to beinvestigation into it.

(07:33):
I wasn't, wasn't conducting aninvestigation into a world that
I was, I was living and working.
In it.
investigation took six months.
I couldn't talk to anybody if itwas top C and it was upsetting
and depressing and, and I didn'tknow how to release the stress

(07:58):
making jokes.
The restaurant industry, just onmy Instagram stories, and I was,
I was a fan of memes.
I befriended a meme creator, theus and he was the one, he was

(08:20):
the one who sort of got using ameme template so that the stuff
I was putting out was in theright format.
I.
Had I had an an Instagram namedLa Celine and sort of took off
from there.
Hmm.
And, you know, speaking of thename, La Celine I did a little

(08:43):
bit of research and so LA'smeans like come on, like an
interjection.
So can you tell us a little bit.
That meaning behind theInstagram handle?
Well, it's simple.
I'm a big fan of Selin.
I'm a French Canadian.
I love her for real, Not, notironically.

(09:06):
I love, love how weird and howtalented, and I love her regs to
story and how ly French Canadianshe is.
I wanna do something withCeline, but I just recalled the
chair airman's.
Shout on where he starts offyelling cuisine off the top of

(09:30):
the show, La Laine.
So that's where it.
Okay.
I love that I've recentlystarted watching the new one on
Netflix, though it's not thesame.
That phrase lives on in theshow, which I think is a, a nice
little memento.
Mm-hmm.
one thing that is very apparentabout your meme page Is that it

(09:53):
is very on trend very current.
How do you stay so current onindustry news?
Oh, I don't mean to be, I don'ttry to be.
It's just just immersed ineverything to do with
restaurants.
That's for the large part of myjournalistic career.
Career.

(10:13):
That's all I wrote about it.
Has been in the last writingabout things other than re
restaurant culture.
Media feeds are all, it's allchefs in restaurants in f and b
in North America.
Is there specific websites or.
Magazines or publications thatyou'd be willing to share that

(10:35):
you like to, know, get yourindustry news from?
Oh, I don't think there's anyflick.
I mean, I, I guess all of theusual places, you know, I, I
never miss a Helen Rosner andthen New Yorker Actually all of
New Yorker I love and I'm allover it.

(10:57):
I write for food and wine, so Ifood and wine, and I write for
the New York Times.
So I, and I also read a, I mean,anything Julia Moskin does.
I, I wanna be first in line.
I love her work and she's such ahero and she's like changing.

(11:20):
Industry for the better.
I don't know.
I guess I don't really gravitybased content.
It's mostly like pop called foodculture and you know what chefs
are up to Well, Ivy, I want tothank you for your time so far.
And as soon as we get back fromthis commercial break, let's

(11:43):
dive into your creative processfor your memes.

(12:13):
when you are creating a newmeme, how do you go through the
creative process?
What's your creative secret?
Well, I think the secret is ifI'm writing an article, I am
very much the work with my braingeared toward, toward where if

(12:34):
I'm gonna make a meme, I can'tgo, go in with my brain geared
to, Cause it never turns out.
It's sort of just, I'll seepictures or image images, I just
get inspired.
Inspired, and I make a meme or,or I throw an idea down.

(12:55):
Often it gets reworked later on.
It's really, really happens ouand a lot of the memes I make
that I think and aren't gonnafly are often the ones that
people.
That for.
So I just have fun with it.

(13:15):
I don't, I try not to thinkabout it too much that I over
work or edit too much.
Never works.
which is why me so much in theearly days cuz I was able to
make fun that.
That in a lot of ways is areally painful industry to be
involved in as a, as a woman,but I think anybody who works in

(13:40):
this business is painful.
It's painful for white guys too.
That's why so many of them turninto, we kind of have hit on
this a little bit about thatkind of like safe place and a
little bit of respite and beingable to like poke fun of, things
that we kind of just accept asfact in our industry and don't

(14:01):
really question what do you hopepeople get out of your work?
Oh, I don't really have.
Feels it's really just for fun,you know I like being able is
that I hate about this industry.
There are a lot of business and,and instead of screaming about

(14:24):
them I make jokes about them.
I, I think people are morereceptive when you're making a
joke than when your scream tendto turn you off.
it's changed.
Changed, but if it gives someonea laugh before they, they have
to go in and do service, Thereyou go.
That's what it's all about.
I know during my time at per se,it was always a.

(14:44):
great little interjection myselfand some of the other CDPs,
right before one o'clock clockin, we'd always laugh at a few
of the memes.
I think what you're trying to dois working and I think that it
is appreciated by a lot of theindustry folk out there.
Well, I hear from a lot of Yeah,I mean, I think the.

(15:04):
Just respond and have gottenover the years that I've been
doing this.
Whenever I make fun of my dmsblow up from people who have
worked for him or this is wellbefore the biggest investigation
earlier this year.
It was always fun to hear fromso many, many people to hear

(15:25):
from so many people.
Think about how terrible theirexperiences were there.
do you have any advice for thosewho want to transition into this
writer role?
We talked a little bit earlierabout how it seems a lot of line
cooks and chefs are now, know,speaking their words and they're
coming out with.

(15:46):
Books and these short storiesand there's blogs and websites
for those that want to do that,what advice would you give them?
just, just to start writing.
Writing, because you can talkabout writing all day long, but
you have to, no matter how goodyou are, you're not not going to
be great when you begin while toget your voice down on the.

(16:11):
so start writing as soon aspossible, even if it's just for
yourself, service, and you can'tsleep cuz you're still up.
Just, just like, oh, I don'tknow.
Just start getting words down onpaper so that your voice, voice
can emerge.
Hear from more people, peoplefrom within the industry.

(16:32):
And that's gonna be a.
And it is changing.
We've all seen change happeningover the last couple of years
and more as this generation ofChef Bro's ages out, aids into
the distance and new generationcomes up into dominance.
So if anybody is, working theline and thinking that they

(16:54):
weren't writing, it doesn't costanything.
Easiest art form in the worlddoesn't cost anything.
That's beautiful.
Ivy, if our followers andlisteners want to check out
these memes that you're creatingor the work that you're doing,
where is a great place to followyou?

(17:15):
just follow Laine.
Yeah, she's posting memes about,the restaurant world I would
just want to thank all of ourlate night with chef guests for
tuning in and our otherlisteners.
I have the pleasure again ofspeaking with.
Writer, industry advocate andmeme Savan, Ivy Knight out of

(17:35):
Toronto, Thank you everybody forlistening to this episode, and
as Ivy said it, goodbye ChefBros and starts writing.