Nissue #12: Kyle Connaughton, Owner-Chef at SingleThread Farm.
SingleThread. If you know food, then you’ve either heard about this legendary destination or been one of the lucky few to have visited. Most obviously, it’s a culinary experience that draws heavily from Japanese influences and then transforms them into something else entirely original.
Kyle Connaughton and his wife Katina, who are partners in the truest sense, worked for over two years to cultivate the nearby farm's vegetables and flowers, fruit orchards, olive trees, and beehives, complete with chicken coop and cattle paddock.
The third component, a zen-like Inn with breakfast included, shows the amount of detail and effort the entire SingleThread team believes is worth creating to give their guests something unforgettable at every step of the way.
I got to meet Kyle a year or so before the duo opened their doors. He was humble and funny back then, but more impressively remains that way even now.
Nish: What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Kyle: For me being in the mountains, backcountry snowboarding with my wife and friends. Being in that mountain environment and tuning into nature and enjoying the day, snowboarding in powder, hiking, and shutting off connectivity to the outside world.
Nish: What was your worst job ever?
Kyle: I've never had a bad job, I've only ever worked in restaurants and each one has been a learning experience and was something I chose in order to learn. There have been difficult and lots of great, humbling, and even humiliating moments but they've all thankfully been good even if times were hard.
Nish: What was your first job ever?
Kyle: Working as a busboy at a sushi bar. I just wanted to be where Japanese food was being made to start to learn about it.
Nish: What was your best job ever?
Kyle: Wow, they've all been good. Working in Japan was life-altering and what I always wanted. My best job though was being the Head Chef of Research and Development for Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck. Those years (2006-2011) the whole world of the "Modernist Cuisine" movement was taking off and what we were doing was at the epicenter. It was being a part of history in the making.
Nish: What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Kyle: Getting really down on myself for mistakes, not being able to let that go internally.
Nish: What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Kyle: Projecting a certain image without really having the skills or experience to back it up. Focusing too much on their persona or brand without taking the time to really deliver on the goods themselves.
Nish: What’s some advice you’d give to yourself at 23?
Kyle: Wow, I had my head down so much at that age. I was married with one daughter and another on the way. It was a time of multiple jobs and school/training and just struggling to make it. We had big dreams and quite a bit at stake for such a young couple. Had to work so much and was such a young parent that I missed some moments of my daughter's young lives. I'd advise myself to remember that they won't be little ones forever.
Nish: What is your greatest extravagance?
Kyle: Travel, getting all over the world to eat and explore and learn about other cultures.
Nish: You have dinner reservations for 4 at Noma, excluding family and close friends, who are the three people (alive, dead or imaginary) you’d invite?
Kyle: Sen no Rikyū, Jake Burton, Basho, and Antonin Carême.
Nish: What is the theme song of your professional life?
Kyle: Slow Down by Pennywise. I love it for what I do because while I take what I do really seriously, I don't take myself too seriously. Katina and I actually met at a punk show in L.A. when we were 15 years old, and have been together since then!
Nish: What is your motto?
Kyle: A chef's role is to transfer energy from one living thing to another, nothing more.
Nish: What is something you’re really excited about right now?
Kyle: Our new outdoor dining program called "Usu-Zan" which is a homage to Hokkaido in the wintertime.
End Interview.
Kyle had so much more to say, and even included the lyrics to his favorite song, which I’ve pasted below:
Responsibility is a foreign word to me
It's time to buckle down
It's time to stand your ground
Standard ways of life for which you abide by
Are not always the ways to take
Slow before you make a mistake
Open your eyes and see
I've got too much fun ahead of me
I've got too much fun ahead of me
Reality doesn't, it doesn't refer to me
The real world's no big deal man
What's real is what you feel
So tell me now buddy: what are you gonna do?
Will you take advice from me?
Will you be who you wanna be?
Cause if you don't I have no sympathy for thee
I've got too much fun ahead of me
I've got too much fun ahead of me
Reality doesn't, it doesn't refer to me
The real world's no big deal man
What's real is what you feel
So tell me now buddy: what are you gonna do?
Will you take advice from me?
Will you be who you wanna be?
Cause if you don't I have no sympathy for thee
I've got too much fun ahead of me
I've got too much fun ahead of me