Growing up, Antoni Porowski would watch the PBS present Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home on Saturday mornings as an alternative of cartoons. He cherished how the 2 would have enjoyable with meals, “[they taught me] it doesn’t have to be this pretentious, stuffy thing,” and says he was instantly impressed.
Now, Porowski, 30, is named the meals and wine knowledgeable on Netflix’s Queer Eye, however he’s additionally one thing of a music authority. The Canadian character, who’s filming the present’s third season in Kansas City, Mo., shows his love of bands like The Strokes and The National onscreen by sporting their tees. As for what he is into at the moment? Everything from newcomers like LANY and lovelytheband, to Childish Gambino, Robyn and Troye Sivan.
Ahead of opening his health-conscious, comfort-food-inspired eatery, Village Den, this month in his adopted dwelling of New York, Porowski’s ardour for music helped him curate a particular soundtrack. He explains methods to set the fitting temper with music.
RESPECT YOUR CITY
“My first waitering job was at a restaurant opened by chef Chuck Hughes — he’s an enormous punk-rock fan. They at all times performed loads of Wolf Parade, Kasabian, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. It was this badass expertise. I need to try this in our personal, very New York-focused method. I positively need to have Blondie [on the playlist]; The Strokes, whom I really like a lot; The National.”
FOSTER COMMUNITY
“Sometimes you want to listen to Joni Mitchell on a rainy day when you’re sitting and having a meatloaf with a ketchup-brown mustard crust. But I don’t want the music we play to be too much of one thing, like the way that our menu isn’t kept too paleo, vegan, pescatarian. It’s for everyone.”
TAP INTO NOSTALGIA
“I keep in mind precisely the place I used to be after I first heard ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ by Oasis — at my household’s Polish camp as a child, and I used to be crying. Music creates this all-encompassing expertise that’s simply as vital as meals. It needs to be loud sufficient for individuals to listen to and keep in mind the songs, however not be overwhelming.”
DON’T COME IN TOO HOT
“We have a surround speaker system, but I don’t want it to be massive, woofer-heavy bass. I want the music to be something that hits you the way that, for example, an Aleppo pepper does, where it’s not super intense, but it’s part of the whole flavor profile.”
This article originally appeared in the Sept. 15 issue of Billboard.
