by Elizabeth Chorney-Booth
Gregory Macdonald is a familiar face to many Sloan fans — as the band’s longstanding keyboard player, he’s known by many as Sloan’s “unofficial fifth member.” Gregory has been hitting the stage with Sloan since 2006 when the band started touring their Never Hear the End of It album and been an valued part of the Sloan live show since, most recently touring with them on their amazingly successful (and sweetly nostalgic) Twice Removed 2012 tour.
Gregory is a busy guy music-wise — he also plays with Toronto-based singer-songwriter Thomas D’Arcy and another enduring Canadian favourite, Vancouver’s Limblifter. On top of that, he likes to spend some time behind the board producing bands and is getting ready to work on a new album with Vancouver’s Luck Commander. But before all of this music business, Gregory was a food guy. We caught up to him to talk about his past life as a chef and what he likes to eat and cook.
Key Lime Pie RS
I heard a rumour that you went to culinary school. What made you decide to go for music as a career instead of focusing on being a chef?
I did work in professional kitchens for about 10 years in Vancouver. I completed my apprenticeship at Monk McQueen’s under legendary west coast chef Gregory Walsh, who founded the enduring Raincity Grill. He was most famous for inventing the grilled Caesar salad, which is now a standard on so many restaurants out there.
I knew I wanted to take a break from cooking and focus on music a bit more seriously, so I waited until I had my papers because it’s a lot easier to get back into the industry if you’ve been to school. Plus, late boozy nights don’t really get along with early mornings involving knives and deep fryers.
I’m guessing that if you love to cook, you also like to go out to eat in restaurants. What are some of your favorite restaurants in Toronto?
Toronto is absolutely exploding with amazing new (and old) restaurants. I’m going to try to keep this short: Caplansky’s. La Carnita. Parts & Labour. Chantecler. Momofuku. 416 Snack Bar. Beast. Barberian’s. Banh Mi Boys. Odd Seoul. Salad King. The Ace. Hey Meatball.
That is just to name a few. There’s new places opening every day and people are going to them. I have trouble keeping up!
If someone was coming over to your house tonight to eat, what would you make?
Well it’s spring finally, so that means the BBQ is in full effect. I would probably bike up to Sanagan’s Meat Locker in the market and grab a couple nice thick beef tenderloin steaks. My favorite thing to do lately is get that grill real hot and I mix up some Maldon salt and chopped parsley with a little peanut oil and rub that on one side of the steak and grill it like that. The parsley side is your “presentation” side. Serve it with something green, whatever looks good in the market today. It’s pretty hard to beat asparagus this time of year. You know what you won’t find in my kitchen though are ramps. I get so sick of ramps every May — you can’t get away from them!
Are you the kind of guy who takes pictures of your food?
You know, I must admit I’ve kind of gotten sick of that. I used to, just to make my (ex) girlfriend jealous. But now I kind of make fun of people for it. Remember back in the day when we would wait to get our film developed and then take the prints over to our friends houses to show off what we ate the other day? Yeah, me neither.
As a guy who likes food, is it difficult to eat well while on tour?
Not if you do your research in advance. I have a pretty good list of places I like to hit on the road and the rest of the guys are always asking me where to eat. I used to take it a bit more seriously, lately I’ve gotten lazy. Our lighting guy Kevin has implemented a “one salad a day” rule and that’s becoming more and more standard. It’s not hard to eat “well” but it can be hard to eat “wisely,” especially in smaller towns. The only place I refuse to go is Tim Hortons.
What is your favorite kind of pie?
That’s easy. Key lime.
Do you have any quick magical chef’s tips or tricks you’d like to share with us?
Hmm. I can skin a whole side of a salmon in one piece. It’s easier than it looks — just try it. Start at the tail and grab it with a paper towel, because it’s slippery! Also if you’re preparing whole racks of ribs, make sure you take off that thin membrane on the underside first. I also really like grilling on cedar planks, but make sure you really soak it in advance and place it over low or indirect heat. Play around with what you soak the plank in, it doesn’t have to be just water! Throw some tequila or black tea in there. And season the board too!
Stay tuned for an exclusive recipe from Gregory, coming up in a couple of weeks. Until then, here’s what Sloan’s Chris Murphy has to say about Gregory and his contribution to Sloan’s last studio album, The Double Cross. For more info on Sloan, visit SloanMusic.com
--taken from: Rolling Spoon
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