Hello, late night with chef Thank you guys so much for tuning into another episode of The Late Night with Chef Show. I am your host, Doug Cox, and I have the pleasure of being joined by Ivy Knight. Ivy Knight comes to us from Toronto. She is a writer, industry advocate, and memes Sivan Ivy. Without further ado, how are you doing today? I'm good. Thanks for having me on. You are very welcome. Thank you for spending some time with us. we don't typically shoot on Sundays it's, you know, rest and relaxation day. So I thank you for taking a little bit of time to share your story with our followers as well as yours. Of course. So, Ivy, tell us, where does your story within the industry start? My story starts when I, got a job in BC working at a Fish and Shockney Kings. Oh wow. So in the British of Columbia? Yeah, British Columbia. outside of Vancouver. And what was some of your like, roles and responsibilities Well, I was hired as a dishwasher to short to fulfill the dishwasher. I couldn't, I could barely lift the racks and I couldn't reach a lot of the places where the dishes had to go. So they moved me Working as a fry cook in this case. Mm-hmm. literally a fry cook, deep fry fry the size of a bathtub, goodness. You're doing some massive amounts of fried chicken tenders and french fries and fish and chips and that it was just fish and chips. Hmm. Yeah, so it was just like haddock over and over. Until the end of time, and that was an experience and it was a lot of fun. The actual work, not super fun, but it was in the rush of service. mostly the, The thing that I loved about it was, was the comradery and working with the team teams and it just like really, To me. Hmm. Yeah, I think that, just that alone is so many people's passion in this industry, so being able to see that in the beginning is very important. So transitioning from that, you have a role as a food writer for this industry. You know, being in such a position where you know your voice and your words are heard by so many, and this industry, a lot of times the voices of the line cooks and the dishwashers aren't heard, how do you kind of evoke that within your writing to make sure their reality is a part of that? Hmm. Well, let's put it this way. So, Started cooking when I was 19, like I said. And then I moved to Texas and I was, I was a PLO in not to Toronto and worked at a number of restaurants here, here. And while I was working on the line, I wrote my first article for The Globe and Mail and called, I think it was just called, We Hate Brian. An insider expose about how much people who work brunch hate it. It was like, like it was honest. It wasn't, but it was sort of told in irreverent way and I don't know, I was kind of young and dumb and I didn't think that the place with Article, but we did have a lot of custom customers, colleagues canceling their resume reservations and kind of pissed off that one of the 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 the Toronto Star. took off from there writing and now I. You know, for a few more years and I spent a total of 10 years on the line. Now I'm a writer full time and have been for quite a long time writing for like the New York team, the New York, et cetera. Hmm. So you feel like having that experience kind of gives you that perspective that's needed. I don't know. I think that I was gonna be, be a writer no matter what. I didn't know that I would rude writer, 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 the early, early days. I started writing about food from. Brook's perspective because that's all I knew. There wasn't anyone that I knew of that was about food. Food from that perspective at that time in this city. And that's changed over the years. Happily, there are a lot more people who are writing about the, but my inspiration when I started was of course Anthony Bourdain, and that was. Read something that's, that talked about what my like, and it really struck a chord, so I wanted to be able to write about in the same way. Hmm. I think his words were very powerful and the way that he was able to kind of put you. In this situation. A lot of stuff that I've read from him is it, you know, you, you feel it to your core and I think that's really powerful as a writer being able to do that for your readers. Yeah, him that he was an, incredible writer and I think over the years, cuz he was, you know, he was mostly. Known for TV over the last, but his writing was, was really incredible and that's, it's such a loss and that we'll never read anything from him ever again. Hmm. Most definitely. You know, transitioning from writer I found who you were through your meme page that you created about the food and beverage industry know, where did the inspiration to create this page come about? Dark place? I was, was leaving in male at the height. Of me too. Hmm. Into in Canada's f and b world and, and that world and knew everyone within it. It was really hard to be investigation into it. I wasn't, wasn't conducting an investigation into a world that I was, I was living and working. In it. investigation took six months. I couldn't talk to anybody if it was top C and it was upsetting and depressing and, and I didn't know how to release the stress making jokes. The restaurant industry, just on my Instagram stories, and I was, I was a fan of memes. I befriended a meme creator, the us and he was the one, he was the one who sort of got using a meme template so that the stuff I was putting out was in the right format. I. Had I had an an Instagram named La Celine and sort of took off from there. Hmm. And, you know, speaking of the name, La Celine I did a little bit of research and so LA's means like come on, like an interjection. So can you tell us a little bit. That meaning behind the Instagram handle? Well, it's simple. I'm a big fan of Selin. I'm a French Canadian. I love her for real, Not, not ironically. I love, love how weird and how talented, and I love her regs to story and how ly French Canadian she is. I wanna do something with Celine, but I just recalled the chair airman's. Shout on where he starts off yelling cuisine off the top of the show, La Laine. So that's where it. Okay. I love that I've recently started watching the new one on Netflix, though it's not the same. That phrase lives on in the show, which I think is a, a nice little memento. Mm-hmm. one thing that is very apparent about your meme page Is that it is very on trend very current. How do you stay so current on industry news? Oh, I don't mean to be, I don't try to be. It's just just immersed in everything to do with restaurants. That's for the large part of my journalistic career. Career. That's all I wrote about it. Has been in the last writing about things other than re restaurant culture. Media feeds are all, it's all chefs in restaurants in f and b in North America. Is there specific websites or. Magazines or publications that you'd be willing to share that you like to, know, get your industry news from? Oh, I don't think there's any flick. I mean, I, I guess all of the usual places, you know, I, I never miss a Helen Rosner and then New Yorker Actually all of New Yorker I love and I'm all over it. I write for food and wine, so I food 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 a hero and she's like changing. Industry for the better. I don't know. I guess I don't really gravity based content. It's mostly like pop called food culture and you know what chefs are up to Well, Ivy, I want to thank you for your time so far. And as soon as we get back from this commercial break, let's dive into your creative process for your memes. when you are creating a new meme, how do you go through the creative process? What's your creative secret? Well, I think the secret is if I'm writing an article, I am very much the work with my brain geared toward, toward where if I'm gonna make a meme, I can't go, go in with my brain geared to, Cause it never turns out. It's sort of just, I'll see pictures or image images, I just get inspired. Inspired, and I make a meme or, or I throw an idea down. Often it gets reworked later on. It's really, really happens ou and a lot of the memes I make that I think and aren't gonna fly are often the ones that people. That for. So I just have fun with it. I don't, I try not to think about it too much that I over work or edit too much. Never works. which is why me so much in the early days cuz I was able to make fun that. That in a lot of ways is a really painful industry to be involved in as a, as a woman, but I think anybody who works in this business is painful. It's painful for white guys too. That's why so many of them turn into, we kind of have hit on this a little bit about that kind of like safe place and a little bit of respite and being able to like poke fun of, things that we kind of just accept as fact in our industry and don't really question what do you hope people 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 them I make jokes about them. I, I think people are more receptive when you're making a joke than when your scream tend to turn you off. it's changed. Changed, but if it gives someone a laugh before they, they have to go in and do service, There you go. That's what it's all about. I know during my time at per se, it was always a. great little interjection myself and some of the other CDPs, right before one o'clock clock in, we'd always laugh at a few of the memes. I think what you're trying to do is working and I think that it is appreciated by a lot of the industry folk out there. Well, I hear from a lot of Yeah, I mean, I think the. Just respond and have gotten over the years that I've been doing this. Whenever I make fun of my dms blow up from people who have worked for him or this is well before the biggest investigation earlier this year. It was always fun to hear from so many, many people to hear from so many people. Think about how terrible their experiences were there. do you have any advice for those who want to transition into this writer role? We talked a little bit earlier about how it seems a lot of line cooks and chefs are now, know, speaking their words and they're coming out with. Books and these short stories and 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 talk about writing all day long, but you have to, no matter how good you are, you're not not going to be great when you begin while to get your voice down on the. so start writing as soon as possible, even if it's just for yourself, service, and you can't sleep cuz you're still up. Just, just like, oh, I don't know. Just start getting words down on paper so that your voice, voice can emerge. Hear from more people, people from within the industry. And that's gonna be a. And it is changing. We've all seen change happening over the last couple of years and more as this generation of Chef Bro's ages out, aids into the distance and new generation comes up into dominance. So if anybody is, working the line and thinking that they weren't writing, it doesn't cost anything. Easiest art form in the world doesn't cost anything. That's beautiful. Ivy, if our followers and listeners want to check out these memes that you're creating or the work that you're doing, where is a great place to follow you? just follow Laine. Yeah, she's posting memes about, the restaurant world I would just want to thank all of our late night with chef guests for tuning in and our other listeners. I have the pleasure again of speaking with. Writer, industry advocate and meme Savan, Ivy Knight out of Toronto, Thank you everybody for listening to this episode, and as Ivy said it, goodbye Chef Bros and starts writing.