33. Josh Moore – Louisville's Volare Restaurant and Chopped Champion

a little hotter, a little more intense. It's a little fire there. It is, it is. I tell people the first time they taste it, I'm like, you're gonna get that punch, that heat up front, but the complexity of the flavors that are in that bourbon, just with the age and the proof, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, and you can always add a little water if you need to. Oh yeah, absolutely.

Who does that?

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Log Heads Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Find out more about their fine rustic furniture at logheadshomecenter.com. As you know, Mike and I like to mix it up a little bit, and today we have a real treat for you. We head into Louisville to sit down with Chef Joshua Moore. Josh is the executive chef and managing partner at Villari Italian Restaurant. My mouth is just watered thinking about this place. If you're in Louisville or have plans to visit the Bourbon Trail, I would highly recommend a meal at Villari. Their menu is to die for. and it offered something for everybody. They also have over a hundred fine bourbons to choose from at their bar. Now Josh, he plates some pretty amazing food and you would expect that from a Chopped Champion. He was able to out cook his competitors and bring the trophy back to Lule. He even managed to sneak a little bourbon into one of his dishes to snatch the win. And why don't you guys just join Mike and I as we sit down with Josh to sip a little bourbon, chat about his success at Valarie, the farming life and his love for that good brown water. Hello everyone, I'm Jim Shannon. I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, where are we? Valarie Restaurant. What do we have with us?

We got Josh Moore, the famous chef here in Louisville, right? Probably world famous now, right?

I don't know about that. Well, Joss, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's good to have you here. So we're going to get straight to the whiskey, if that's okay with you. Absolutely. All right. So what we brought today for our first pour is something special that was just released by Woodford Reserve. It's their Masters Collection Chocolate Malted Rye. Have you had this before?

I have not. This is a new one. Okay. So everybody, that's a, it is a bourbon. You know, they make it sound like it's a rye whiskey, but it's a bourbon.

It is a bourbon. It is a bourbon that has 15% rye in the mash bill that has been toasted extensively, I guess is the best way to say it, to a point where it gives off kind of a chocolate-malted flavor.

It's 90.4 proof. This bottle runs

at the gift shop, about $130. So it's not a cheap bottle, but it's definitely a special pour. So why don't we check it out?

Awesome. Sounds good. All right. Cheers.

Cheers. I tell you what, that chocolate is absolutely present, isn't it?

It is. Wow.

You pick it up right away and that almost coffee, caramel, you know, toffee just hits your tongue and man.

Yeah. I think, you know, I was, I was surprised when I, when I noticed it the first time the, the cocoa was kind of prevalent. Definitely could, could pick it up. But man, when it hits the pallet, pow, it's right there.

Yeah. It's first thing you take. Unmistakable. Yeah.

Not a whole lot of rye on that back end, no pepper, not a whole lot.

Not real peppery. I mean, you do get the typical caramel of a bourbon, I think. You get a little bit of fruit in there.

And you get a little spice on the back, but you're right, not that peppery hot bite that you normally get with a rye. Not that punch in the mouth.

Yeah. But the toasted oak is there.

They definitely did an excellent job over there at Woodford with this. I always look forward to their releases and they make it a pretty exciting time of year when they put these things out.

Yeah, I had an opportunity to visit Woodford, and I was with Elizabeth Bacall. We were out climbing through the rick house, drilling barrels, and she drilled into one of these, said, hey, I want you to try something special. Of course, we didn't know it was going to come out as a master's collection. We just thought, wow, that was interesting.

Woodford does some really neat stuff, some of their master's collection, some of the finishes.

Yeah, they've had some pretty interesting stuff. I don't know how often they release those. I guess there's a schedule to it, but maybe at least every fall, right?

Yeah.

Well, anyway, so what do you think? That's a home run. That's a home run right there. I mean, when would you drink this and what would you pair it with?

I'm kind of a purist with my bourbon, especially something like this. You know, I mean, something like this, I'd like just standalone on its own, just maybe as dessert. With a dessert course at the end of a meal, just neat. If you did anything, maybe just like one cube in it, just to open it up a little bit more. But I mean, it's definitely a standalone bourbon.

Yeah, I know they're double-oaked is kind of a...

Kind of a deserty kind of bird. I've always loved the double oak. Yeah.

It's really good. Well, Josh, are you originally from Kentucky?

I am. Yes. I grew up in, uh, grew up in Louisville. Um, started in restaurants here at 14 and been in the restaurant biz ever since.

So how long have you known that's what you wanted to do?

Gosh, you know, I get asked that a lot. And from the time I could climb up in a chair beside the stove with my grandmother, I was cooking. Just loved it. You know, my mom said she'd bring me home from preschool and set me down in front of cartoons. She'd come back in the room later on and I'd be watching a cooking show. So I just was always mesmerized by it. Um, always wanted to be a chef. Um, you know, my, both, both of my grandmother's dad and mom side, you know, cooked constantly. They both baked a lot. Um, so that's kind of how I started in the, in the business was really pastries. Um, you know, always loved, especially holiday time, holiday baking.

So you started as a pastry chef?

I did. I started at Vincenzo's downtown at 14. I actually started busing and working catering events. My mom worked there on catering, so I was able to get a foot in the door early. I told the chef, Augustine, I'm like, I really want to be a chef. I love to cook. I love to bake. I started coming in after school, I'd catch the bus to Vicenzo's and did a lot of the grunt work in the pastry area, you know, chopping, you know, 11 pound blocks of chocolate and slicing cakes and whipping butter and doing a lot of the prep kind of stuff.

So how long did it take before you kind of took on that role?

Um, so I, um, I was at Vincenzo's for a while, about about a year and a half from there. I worked at a few other smaller restaurants in town. Um, one, the former pastry chef of Vincenzo's open. Um, and then Porcini's, you know, that, that was a big step in my career. Um, started there at 16 and, um, at, at 18, I was the sous chef pastry chef. So, you know, just fresh out of high school, nice, um, you know, salary position for my age, you know, go in during the daytime and do the pastries and work the line at night, expedite workstations, whatever, whatever needed to be done.

Yeah. So, so 18 years old chef at a pretty prominent restaurant in Louisville. That's pretty good.

A lot of people don't get that, that kind of opportunity. No. So you took on that title of chef at that time? Is that when they staged?

Yeah. Yeah. So it did. Yeah. And, and, and while I was at, uh, my early years at Porcini's around 16, 17, I was also working at Wildwood country club. Uh, I was pastry chef there at that young of an age. Um, and you know, the, the thing about Wildwood is I would just go in and do the pastries and then I could leave. So then I would work Porcini's in the evenings. But yeah, at 18 I had the title opportunities of sous chef pastry chef. Wow. Now when, when did you, what was your first job where you were the head chef? First job as executive chef was Cafe Emily in St. Matthews. How old were you then? 2002, 2003 around that area. So I was 22.

22 years old and you were the executive chef. That's pretty amazing.

Yeah. And you know, I get asked all the time, you know, what, what culinary school I want to, what formal training I have and you know, school of hard knocks. I just got into it early. You know, by, by my senior year of high school, I looked at culinary school. I looked at JCC in town and Sullivan, and I just felt like I already, you know, was what was into my career and had a great thing going and just decided, decided not to do it.

Do you feel like you missed anything?

Um, I don't, you know, sometimes I regret it. Um, but, but overall it hasn't, it hasn't hindered my career. Um, you know, I, um, I think I would have gotten a lot more of like international cuisine and, you know, learned a lot of other things. Um, and you know, I've, I've really stuck to my Italian roots and done Italian food for 26 years. Um, And you know, had I gone to school, I may have branched out a little bit more. But yeah, I definitely don't regret it.

Now you're hanging out in the back of them houses and stuff, you know, back of house, the restaurants and stuff, and you're a young man back there in that kitchen. When was your first taste of bourbon? You're from Kentucky, so had to be pretty early.

Yeah, definitely early. You know, like you said, being in the kitchen and, you know, always being one of the youngest ones in the kitchen, definitely had my first taste of bourbon, you know, late teens. You remember what that was? Oh, gosh. No, I can't remember what my first bourbon tastes were. But you know, doing a lot of events in the industry. You know, some of my more memorable early, you know, I've always loved Old Forrester. Always kind of been one of my go-tos. You know, and then Buffalo Trace. I like a lot of what Buffalo Trace does. You know, a lot of their different brands. Those are definitely two that always stood out to me. One of my first distillery tours ever was Maker's Mark. That definitely left an impression. Just such a beautiful property and the history that goes behind it. Dipping that first bottle, that's something you always remember. You just went back there not too long ago, didn't you? Yeah, at least once a year we do a big dinner there. And it's always fun. Makers is a great partner. We did a couple barrel picks last year here at the restaurant with their new private selection program. And that was really awesome.

So the restaurant here has quite an extensive bar. But in addition to that, do you have the ability to sell bottles directly as well?

We do not. We don't sell bottles directly, but we do have a large bar and great selection of bourbon. You get a number of cases here. You can still go through them. Absolutely. We were on the bourbon trail back in the early days of that, when there weren't a lot of restaurants that had that caliber of a bourbon bar. We've been doing it a long time.

How many bourbons do you have on your bar?

I would say all in total. We're in the triple digits, in the 100 plus range. Have to check that out, absolutely.

How long have you been here as the executive chef?

I started here in 2005, so going on 14 and a half years. The restaurant opened about a year before I came on board. And I came on board July of 05, and I came on as a sous chef, pastry chef. And within about a year, I came into the role of executive chef. And I've always overseen the pastries. Pastries are kind of my passion. I love the exactness of pastries. You can always say, cooking's an art, baking's a science. And it really is. You know, pastries has always kind of played into my nature, you know, being, you know, exact with things and little OCD. So I've always enjoyed the pastries and I became a partner in the restaurant in 2009 and been doing it ever since.

So what kind of a, what's the size of the kitchen staff here? How big of an operation is this? I mean, it's a big restaurant.

It is big, big restaurant. You know, we see it about 250, um, on the weekends, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll do, you know, a couple of turns, a lot, a lot of private dining, um, in our private dining room, private patio. We also have that blocked off and enclosed in the winter. as well as a lot of catering. We do a lot of catering out of the restaurant. Staff-wise, it depends on the season and time of year, but we're going into the holidays right now, so I'll be eight to 10 cooks in the kitchen during the week and 10 to 14 on the weekend. Plus, like I said, with the outside catering going on, I'll bring in extra help for that.

You're a busy man, though.

It's very busy. And then you throw the farm into the mix of everything else we have going on, and it keeps me busy.

You live out there on your farm, out there by me and Jim, in Spencer County, right? Yes. Right across the Spencer County line from Shelbyville.

Right across Spencer line from Shelbyville on 44. I moved out there the same year I started at the restaurant. I didn't plan on farming when I bought the property. I really bought it for the old farmhouse. The farmhouse was built in 1905. I just fell in love with it. It needed a whole lot of work. We have nicknamed it the Money Pit. Fittingly and You know the house is on 10 acres of land first year we were there planted a dozen tomato plants really just for more for home than anything and Brought the extra tomatoes to the restaurant served with some of the regular guys that I knew and they just loved it They thought it was so cool. They were like so you know the fact that you as the chef You know grew this and brought it in and you're cooking it and serving it. It's just so neat so I thought I could I could grow this a little bit and So in 15 years time, it's grown from those dozen tomato plants to about two and a half to three acres, depending on the season. It's quite the operation now. We've invested more into equipment over time and do things with irrigation now and with plastic culture for weeds. And back in the old time, we made tomato cages for all the tomatoes. Now we do a Florida weave system with twine. So it's grown a lot. Last year alone, heirloom tomatoes, We planted 1,300 plants, 60 varieties. And it's as much work as it sounds like. It's pretty intense.

That's a lot. So that all feeds this restaurant.

Yes. Everything we grow comes to Valaria. We don't do farmers markets or anything like that. We give away produce to neighbors and friends, that kind of thing. But other than that, everything we grow comes here.

So you love the farming life?

I do. I don't always love the early mornings after working at the restaurant at night, but I do enjoy, you know, just getting outside and, you know, hands in the dirt and just that sense of accomplishment you have from it.

Well, you always hear in the bourbon world and, well, in the bourbon and whiskey world, you always hear about terroir. Is it the same thing in the food world with your vegetables and all the things that come from the farm? You've got that special flavor that just kind of, it's from this area?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Beautiful thing about Kentucky tomatoes here tastes better than they do from anywhere I swear the the flavor you get from tomatoes here is just amazing Now you do have a short short season You don't have the long kind of season you have in hotter climates, but that short season, just the intense flavors and the limestone on the ground, just like what it does for the bourbon, it does that for vegetables. There's just nothing like a homegrown Kentucky tomato ripe right off the vine.

What kind of a commitment is that in time to have a farm like that in addition to what you're doing here?

It depends on the season. Tomato season is our hardest season. Tomatoes need a lot. We're out there every single day, seven days a week. You're picking daily, you're tying, you're watering, you're spraying. There's a lot that goes into the tomatoes. Spring and fall when we're doing our coal crops, cabbage and cauliflower and lettuces and greens and kale, you know, that kind of stuff doesn't need the constant attention. Um, so it's more, you know, planting and, you know, fertilizing and, um, harvesting, you know, there's not the daily need like the tomatoes have. Um, so in the, in the spring and fall, I'd say, 10-15 hours a week is probably about average. In the summer, in the heat of herbs and peppers and eggplant and squash and tomatoes, all those things grow so fast and need daily attention. I'd say probably 30-40 hours a week on the farm. My wife, the farm's her full-time gig, so she's always out there working.

Is it a family affair?

It is. Everybody asks all the time, they're like, how many employees do you have on the farm? And I laugh. I'm like, it's just us. People have a hard time grasping that with the restaurant and everything else going on. You know, our son Gibson, you know, he's, he's 10 now and he actually, he gets out there and he helps like the cherry tomato picking. That's his job. You know, it's tough on us. All that bending over picking those little bitty tomatoes. That's, that's one of his big things. But yeah, Lindsay's working on the farm seven days a week. It's a lot of work, but it's, it's like anything. It's like, you know, it's just like being in the restaurant business. If you're not passionate about it and don't love what you do, you know, it'd be miserable. But if, if you love it and enjoy it, you know, the, the hours they, they go by quick.

So in addition to vegetables and those kind of things, do you also have animals on your farm?

No, no livestock on the farm. You know, we've talked about it down the road and you know, who knows long term. I do a lot with Certified Angus Beef. I'm a brand ambassador for them. You see by the cow tattoo on my forearm with the butcher chart, I'm pretty dedicated to the beef world. We've said long term, I would love to get in some Certified Angus Beef stock and work more on the breeding and genetic side of it. Who knows in the future.

How many hours totally between the restaurant and the farm are you putting in a day?

Um, I mean, my, my typical day during, during the peak and tomato season, I mean, I'm, I'm out there in the garden by seven 30 or eight and I get home from the restaurant by, you know, anywhere from 10 30 to midnight.

So that's a good 15, 16 hour day. Now that'll make you want to grab a glass of bourbon and relax.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And what do you, what do you usually, what's your couple bourbons you'd like to drink on?

You know a couple of my go-to's, you know, just just original 86 proof old Forester I think for something that you can buy anywhere anytime easy to get I just I think it's got an amazing flavor Price points great on it a few more of my go-to's Makers cask strength. I love the cask, you know to me that's that that's that's Makers I'd pick up a bottle of cask over over regular 46, just personally love them all, but I love the cast strength. A few of my absolute favorites. A few of my favorites actually come out of Buffalo Trace, Rockhill Farms. That's one of my, one of my favorite bourbons. I tend to like a little sweeter, smoother profile and the Rockhill is phenomenal. George T. Stagg on the opposite end, something a little hotter, a little more intense. That's a little fire there. It is. I tell people the first time they taste it, I'm like, you're going to get that punch, that heat up front. But the complexity of the flavors that are in that bourbon, just with the age and the proof, it's pretty amazing. Yeah. And you can always add a little water if you need to. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Who does that? This has been a really big year for you. Is that right? It has been. It has. Yes. So you won Chopped. Yes. And you probably talked a lot about that. So we won't go too much into that. But that brought a lot of fame to you.

Is that correct? Chopped's been great for business, no doubt. I mean, it has brought in people from all over the country into the restaurant. It's pretty crazy, the impact it has. I'll go out into the dining room just to talk to tables. A lot of people are in town for tourism now with Louisville, especially with the whole bourbon thing. I've told people from out of town, bourbon has become for Kentucky what wine is for Napa Valley. It's amazing the impact it's had on tourism, bringing people into the state. As the bourbon industry's grown, the restaurant industry's grown too. They go hand in hand. Now, we have as much of a broad customer base as we have. I hear people constantly say, they're here in town for the bourbon tour, they're here in town for a convention, and they watch Chopped, and that's why they're here. We've had a ton of new guests in this year because of it. Definitely been great for business. It's crazy thinking back to the CHOP thing. It seems like it's been so long now, but I guess it really hasn't. But for me, it was filmed in January of 2018 and aired January of 2019, so I had to keep that secret a whole year. Um, so, you know, for me, it seems like it happened forever ago. Um, but yeah, it was pretty, pretty wild.

I guess that's a, that's an absolute secret you have to keep.

It is, um, something like a million dollar nondisclosure agreement. Yeah. Help. So help you to be quiet. Exactly.

So do they allow you to tell your spouse?

I did tell my wife, but she's literally the only person that knew. I joke, we took our son to New York with us for that trip. When I got done with the chop filming that day, we waited for him to go to bed and we popped a bottle of VUV and celebrated. Yeah, pretty awesome. But yeah, I mean, I didn't even tell my mom. She had to wait and find out a whole year later.

So you're also honored this year as the Chef of the Year for the certified Angus.

Yeah, that was just recently. They had their annual convention in Asheville, a city I love, great town. Yeah, they honored me as chef of the year and it was on like a, you know, CAB, you know, it's on an international level and honored me as the chef of the year. Great, great honor. You know, as I said, they're a great brand partner, been a proud certified Angus beef ambassador for About 10 years now.

You've got four stars on your arm. What are those four stars for?

The four stars are from a career journal write-up many years ago. That was probably about 11 years ago. When the restaurant first opened, I believe we had a three-star review. The next one that came around, we got our four stars. You know myself and like five of my line cooks went that night and we all got four stars You know everybody designed them a little different got them in a different place and it was it was pretty cool.

That's awesome That's great. Well, I tell you what Josh what we'd like to do here is just keep sipping on our Woodford We're gonna take a quick break and when we come back we want to see what you brought for us to drink All right We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Loghead's Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Loghead's Home Center, nestled in the hills of Kentucky, is an industry leader in building handcrafted rustic furniture. Family-owned and operated, they take pride in offering only the very best for their customers. The Logheads, and that's what they like to call themselves, are skilled woodcrafters who are passionate about creating rustic furniture for people who appreciate the beauty of natural wood. Owners Tommy and Gwen don't just sell the rustic lifestyle, they live it. And you can be sure that Loghead's furniture will always be handcrafted in Kentucky by artisans who embrace the simple way of life. Loghead's rustic furniture is made from northern white cedar, a sustainable wood that's naturally rot and termite resistant. Its beauty and quality will add warmth to your earthy lifestyle for generations to come. Be sure to check out everything they have to offer at LogHeadsHomeCenter.com. And while you're at it, give Tommy and Gwen a shout on Facebook or Instagram at LogHeads Home Center.

So Josh, we're back. What'd you bring us to drink? All right. So it's one of my new favorites, Old Forester 1910. You know, I describe it as dessert in a glass. I mean, it is just phenomenal. The, you know, toasted marshmallow and caramel and butterscotch you get when you drink this bourbon. definitely something to be enjoyed on its own. Um, you know, we've got two, two really, you know, deserty, sweet side, uh, bourbons today on the show.

Yeah, absolutely. So do you know some of the backstory to the 1910?

Not a lot. I know, you know, they released, um, the series of different bourbons from different times that they've done and this was my favorite when I went down there and did a tasting of them.

This would be their almost a double oat is when their bottling line in 1910 caught on fire. They had all that stuff ready to put in bottles. and they had to put it back in the barrels. And so when they brought it back out, they're like, well, this is really good.

So, you know, with everybody coming out with these barrel-finished whiskies, right, they're kind of standing up and saying, hey, we were kind of the first to hit that second barrel, you know, way back then. Now it was because of a disaster that it happened.

Yeah, it was a fire, bottom-line burn-up.

But I guess the second barrel is a little different than the first barrel, and it just picks up those caramelized sugars.

It's amazing. You hit all the notes on the head on this thing. I tell you, me and Jim, we've drank this several times on the show. And personally, we both got bottles of it. And if I see a bottle, I try not to pass it up. I usually have to reach out and grab that thing. But I got to take that home with me. But it never fails to please you, right?

That's right. I know Campbell Brown, he had talked about when he released, when they released the first release of the 1910, that they had no idea what the market would be on it. And they sold out. They emptied the shelves in a very little. So this year, I guess, was their second time releasing. And there's a little bit more out there now.

Yeah, they were out of it for a while. I did a few events down at the downtown distillery. You know, it's something I always liked to feature for like a dessert pairing and they were out of it for a bit.

Yeah. It's a dark whiskey. I mean, it's, it's a very dark whiskey. It definitely picks up a lot of color in that second barrel. It does.

It does.

That's sweet.

I definitely get the marshmallow on there. Yeah.

Toasted, toasted, but not burnt.

Yeah. Yeah. I always think a cream brulee with this. Oh yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I get that in there and it's, I tell that to people and they're like, what, what are you talking about?

Vanilla and caramelized sugar. I mean, it's, it's all of that.

I guess you gotta be a big guy to understand that. If I say something tastes like banana pudding, people are like banana pudding. You know, I'm like, it does. And that's what it tastes like. That's good stuff. So Josh, you're doing farm-to-table too. You do a couple of those a year. Yeah.

Yeah, a few farm-to-table dinners at Jep the Crete a year. It's been a lot of fun. It kind of has grown into almost every other month during the farming season type thing. I think we have five on the calendar for next year. And the heirloom tomato was probably my favorite. I'm partial to the heirloom tomatoes. You put so much work into something to see the finished product. It's really awesome. But they've been great dinners. And I've been able to feature stuff from all over the state in the dinners. Catfish from around the state, and shrimp from Kentucky State University's aquaculture program. The last one, we did a lot of pawpaw in the dinner.

So can we, can we tell everybody what a pawpaw is?

Yeah. So, you know, they, they, they kind of call it the Kentucky banana. It almost has like a, a banana flavor and pulp to it. Um, the fruit it's, um, it's kind of like a, it looks almost like a mango from the outside. Um, you know, dark green color, you crack them open, they have some big black seeds in them, and then the pulp is the part that you eat. But they're just amazing when they're ripe. Just phenomenal flavor, they're great in ice cream, sauces. And if you're not from the area, a lot of people just don't know about it. Yeah, yeah, people don't. And even people from the area, I feel like pawpaws are making a comeback in the area. I feel like for a lot of years there, you never saw them on menus or heard people talk about them. But yeah, to be something from Kentucky that almost has that tropical fruit flavor to it, it's pretty amazing. I even heard Jeff the Creed was making a spirit. They do. They do a pawpaw brandy, and it's actually one of my favorite spirits they do. It's not an overly sweet brandy, and the pawpaw flavor is just phenomenal. It's so pronounced. And I've used it in a flambé before. I've soaked a cake with it like a rum cake, but more of a pawpaw brandy cake. And it's just great, great spirit.

So if you had to describe your style of cooking, would it be a southern style?

Even here at the restaurant, we're Italian food, but there's a little southern influence to it. End of tomato season, we were featuring fried green tomatoes all fall this year, which everybody just loves. But I like to use local ingredients, not just from our farm, but from a lot of other farms across the state. So a little Southern flair to a traditional Italian menu.

Do you feel like those of us in Kentucky are kind of Southern folk a little bit?

I do, I do. You know, my wife's family's from southern Maryland and even though they're not that much more north than us, you know, we're definitely more southern here. Right.

Yeah. I think we're kind of close enough to that border where everybody's like, eh.

Till you get off the interstate. Yeah. And that, that country comes out. Yeah. Whenever I think of, I always think it's funny that so many Italian dishes have tomatoes in them and stuff. And tomatoes aren't, they're a native to the Americas and not native to Europe. I always find that very interesting that how the Italians took the tomato and almost made it their own.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Something I loved when we were in, we were in Italy a little over three years ago on our honeymoon now. you know, every single, you know, even in the cities, everybody had their own little backyard garden. I mean, it was, it was, it was so cool that, you know, every home cook, one of their own herbs at home and their own tomatoes at home.

And it's pretty neat. Isn't it weird how Americans, I think sometimes Americans so fast paced life, they don't feel like they have time for it. And people, my work are like, I can't believe you and your wife put all that effort into having a garden. How do you have time to do that? And I'm just like, it tastes so much better. Oh, it does.

And you guys have a big garden just for home for yourselves. But I tell people, it's amazing the difference in taste. Even something as simple as a potato. As much work as they are to dig up, a fresh potato versus one that's been sitting in storage for months and months and months, it's unbelievable, the difference.

Yeah, I think it's a great thing to have, even if you have a small townhouse or something or just a patio to have some patio tomatoes.

At least if nothing else, have a couple of tomato plants and fresh herbs. Herbs don't take up a lot of room. They grow easily.

We thought we were going to have too much basil this year, but we never seem to run out of it. That's the great thing. We always love to have that tomatoes, basil, and some mozzarella, a little olive oil, pepper, salt, pepper, man it. There's nothing better than the summertime.

I tell people that's all we eat at home, either caprese salad or a BOT. It's one of those two about every day.

Chef, why don't you tell us a little bit about the menu here at the restaurant.

Menu here at the restaurant, it's a big menu and a lot of options. I try to have something for everyone. Whether you want to come in and have a lasagna or a chicken parmesan, some very just traditional Northern Italian food, you can come in and have that. You can have a lot of different veal dishes. The veal salt and bokeh is one of my favorite things on the menu. I do a roasted duck from Maple Leaf Farms from Indiana. Phenomenal roasted duck. steaks and seafood as well. Every Friday I do this fun thing. I bring in fish from somewhere in the world, post it on Facebook and Instagram, and people love it. I have people tell me they wait all week to see what the Friday fish is going to be. So that's been a fun thing. And being a landlocked state, we've got great access to seafood here. Why is that? The UPS hub's a big part of it. We can get stuff flowing in from anywhere in the world overnight. So that definitely helps us be able to source things from everywhere. But, you know, the fresh seafood here, the steak program, you know, like I said, Sir, if at Angus Beef, we're big on that, you know, you can come in here and get a ribeye, which is always my go-to choice. I run those Tomahawk steaks as a special often, big 32-ounce, 2-pound ribeyes. Did you have that last night? I did.

No, my wife, she was like, Man, he's got those Tomahawks.

I know you want one of those things. I'll have those from now until the end of the year. You know, holiday season is just a thing to have. But then also on the menu, pastas. We make a ton of fresh pasta in-house. I've got one guy that comes in six days a week, and he makes pasta and pastries all day long. And those fresh pastas, there's just nothing like a fresh pasta.

And that's what he was back there making right now is some kind of maybe a pumpkin pasta.

It was oranges looking, so I was... Yeah, we've had a lot of pastas for specials lately. We've been doing a lot with butternut squash and pumpkin. different things like that. That's nice to see that.

I walked back there today and there is real homemade pasta being back there.

Yeah, and it's, like I said, it's every day. I mean, it's a big part of our menu, a big part of what guests come here for. You know, we make everything from scratch in the kitchen and we still cook everything a la minute, which means in the minute. So, you know, you come in here, you get a chicken marsala or a veal limone. You know, it's not some big batch of sauce we pre-made. It's made right there in that saute pan. You know, it takes a little longer. It's a little more work, but gives you a way better finished product.

You made a ravioli one time and I think it had a quail egg inside there.

Oh yeah. The duck egg, duck egg ravioli.

I was like, how did he get that not to cook that entire? Cause it was runny, you know, and I was still made, you know, I still talk about, you got that egg in there to not, you know, cook up.

Yeah. I do those especially once in a while. I just, I love them. You know, it's just so rich that that egg yolk and that sage brown butter. It's delicious.

So when you have family coming in from out of town or friends coming in from out of town and they're here for a day or so and you want to take them out and show them Louisville, where do you guys go?

So, you know, a couple of my go-tos on the fine dining side, you know, Jack Fries has been one of my favorites for years and years and years. Just consistent. They do a great job. I love the atmosphere. You know, it's a small quaint little restaurant. I love the history of it. Um, other than that, you know, lunch wise, you know, we, we love, um, we love like taco luchador, um, just, you know, great couple street tacos and some corn and, you know, great, quick lunch. Um, you know, big, big sushi fan. So we, we do the sushi restaurants in town quite a bit.

You're a museum fan or, uh, you're like, uh, going to see the shows in downtown or.

Um, you know, being in the restaurant business, you don't get a lot of time to do much. Um, you know, when we, when we travel, I'm a big, big antique guy. Um, yeah, it's one of the things about the old farmhouse, you know, just the, the history and the, the character of it. Um, so it's, it's all full of antiques. So I have fun with that. Are you a picker?

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Yeah. My wife would call me a hoarder, but, um, but I'm a picker.

Yeah. And do you guys ever go over to Caris's grocery right there by your guys?

Oh yeah. Yeah. They, they, they do a great job. Love them. Um, awesome family. Great, great burger. You know, we'll go there and grab a, grab a burger. Um, I dropped them off some tomatoes this summer, uh, when we were, you know, right in the, in the thick of tomato season.

Yeah, that's a character's grocery. If people don't know, it's outside of Shelbyville, about halfway between Shelbyville and, I guess, Taylorsville. And it's just a step back into the 50s.

It is. It is. And it's like four miles from our house. The grocery store was originally owned by the same people that own our old farmhouse.

Wow. So you got a tie to that. Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow. That's amazing. It's just out there in no nowhere.

It is. It is.

Yeah.

So what's your ideal comfort food?

Uh, you know, I would say like on the comfort food side, you know, like, like Thanksgiving dinner, you know, I'm a, I'm a turkey dressing gravy kind of guy. Um, you know, I get asked a lot of times, like what my last meal would be. And it's always a ribeye steak, you know, nice, nice, heavy char, rare, mid rare ribeye. Um, you know, just nothing, nothing better than that to me.

You like beer? You drink beer? Not a big beer drinker.

If I drink a beer, I want a beer you can kind of chew. I want something thick, a stout. I'll have a Guinness. Love that Guinness. I'm a red wine with dinner guy. Bourbon bourbon anytime.

Yeah, you've you've spread love with the bourbon because you've did something makers mark, right? Yeah, you did something with old forestry. You done some stuff charity work with angels envy You've been around a lot. You want to jump the Creed and do stuff with them You know, you've got a pretty good tie in with everybody in the bourbon community. How'd that how that come about? I

Um, you know, I guess just, just like I was saying, as, as the bourbon world's grown, you know, the restaurant business has kind of grown with it. Um, and you know, we, we have such great partners from all the distilleries that, that work with the restaurant and do dinners here and bring people in when they're out of town. And, um, so yeah, we, we definitely, you know, work with everybody a little bit.

And most of it's for charity stuff, right? Like March of dimes.

Yeah, so the March of Dimes event, we just had that for this year. You know, great event. Raised over $300,000 for March of Dimes in one night. It's called the signature chef's auction. And this was my 12th year as lead chef. Lead chef really just means I kind of coordinate the restaurants that are common. And we had 33 this year. You know, all independent restaurants in town, everybody brought a tasting out of some kind of dish on their menu or not on their menu. We auctioned a big dinner at the event with Rabbit Hole Distillery. So that was pretty fun. Just did a big piece with Rabbit Hole and James Beard Foundation. So we partnered up on that, donated a dinner for 20 at the distillery, six course sit down with cocktail pairings. So that'd be a fun thing to do.

You always do something. You did something for restaurant workers out of work too, right?

For apron, yeah. We do a big apron fundraiser at Maker's Mark every year. And I think, gosh, we have like 220 people this year come through for that. I took the dessert course, which, like I said, pastry background. A lot of chefs either love or hate doing pastries. Since I love it, I normally volunteer for that. It's always in the, uh, Chihuly room too, at the distillery, which is one of my favorite spots I have makers.

So that chopped experience, um, I'm sure that was pretty stressful and is chopped. If people don't know, they, they give you some weird ingredients, right?

Uh, absolutely. Um, you know, it was, uh, I've told people it was one of the most challenging, stressful things I've done in my 26 year career, but it was also a lot of fun. Uh, you know, what, what you don't really see from watching the show is the camaraderie that goes on between the chefs. I've made lifelong friends with the other chefs that did the show with me. And you don't really understand how stressful and strenuous the day is. So as you get chopped, you get some home for the day. So being there till the end, it was a 15-hour day. So a long day in the studio. There's no smoke and mirrors when it comes to the baskets and the ingredients and the time limit. It really is, you open that basket and that clock starts. So you didn't know what was inside that basket? No, they really tell you nothing. You don't even know the theme of the show until you do that first basket and they announce it.

And what was the weirdest thing that you had to cook with?

I'd say the weirdest was my dessert basket. Sea urchin in a dessert, pretty crazy thing to have to do. But the judges loved it. I did a sea urchin ice cream. I had never used a commercial ice cream machine like that before, so that was stressful on top of making something that I'd never made. But it was, you know, it was just crazy, crazy experience, you know, a lot of, a lot of fun, a lot of stress, but, but, but awesome, awesome to do.

We actually watched that last night. I don't know why we were watching. I got home and my wife's watch. That's what she had TV. Oh yeah. But it was chopped junior. And they had a girl had a, they had, um, ketchup soda and they had a cotton candy hot dog that they had to cook with. And I was like, that is so gross. She made a burrito out of the, her ingredients for that age. I think she was like 12 to, uh, I think they had like 30 minutes to make that. And I was amazed. I was like, you know, I always think I'm a pretty good cook, but if you did that to me, I don't think I could come up with something that tasted good.

Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. You know, my appetizer basket was pretty easy. The ingredients I had, it was a pretty nice basket, I would say. And that 20 minutes for that appetizer round, I mean, 20 minutes goes by so fast. I mean, you feel like you look up and the clock's just done. I go into that appetizer round, you don't know where anything is in the kitchen. It's just nuts. And then even 30 minutes for entree and dessert. I mean, it's a very little time to open a basket of ingredients that some of them you've never even seen or used in your whole career. and I have to come up with something.

If they called you up and said, come on back?

I'd probably say yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

So it's pretty enjoyable for you to compete like that. Yeah. And it was a great thing for the restaurant, a great thing personally, and then great for the state. I was real proud to represent Kentucky on the show.

Absolutely. So you're doing those fish every Friday, right? And I'm sure some of our listeners want to know, they see those Facebook pictures of you holding up these gigantic fish. You're a rather large man, right? Yeah. But some of those fish got away somewhere in the 50 to 100 pound range.

Oh yeah, yeah. You know, I think the biggest one I've ever brought in was 134 pound tuna from California. Um, and, and, you know, I, I tell people, you know, I'm, I'm a power lifter. I lift weights every day before work. You know, a hundred pound dumbbell is real easy to move around. A hundred pound fish is very awkward and hard to hold up. Um, so, you know, sometimes those hundred, 120 pound fish, I mean, it's, it's a, it's a job just getting them up there for a picture and then, you know, breaking them down, flipping around on cutting boards. Um, it's, it's, it's a, it's a workout.

Josh, where can we find you on social media?

So on on Facebook, I have a chef page chef Josh Moore and on Instagram It's Joshua D Moore and for the restaurant and then the restaurant on Instagram is Volari underscore Italian underscore restaurant

Also, if you're in Louisville, don't miss out. I know we've come down here, it's my wife's birthday, and you came out and brought her dessert out and stuff, and she just thought it was the most amazing thing. And I'm sure you make all the guests feel that way. So we appreciate you coming on. Absolutely.

Don't forget the extensive bourbon menu they have here, right?

Yes, yes. I appreciate you guys having me on and appreciate the tasting of a new delicious bourbon from Woodford.

Very interesting, wasn't it?

It was. It was. I'm going to have to get a bottle of that for home.

Yeah. Well, we really enjoyed what you brought as well. It's one of our favorites. Absolutely. Awesome. Thank you, Josh. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you all. Thanks. We do appreciate all of our listeners, and we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with us here on the Bourbon Road. We hope you enjoyed today's show, and if so, we would appreciate it if you'd subscribe and rate us a five star with a review on iTunes. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, at The Bourbon Road. That way you'll be kept in the loop on all the Bourbon Road happenings. You can also visit our website at thebourbonroad.com to read our blog, listen to the show, or reach out to us directly. We always welcome comments or suggestions. And if you have an idea for a particular guest or topic, be sure to let us know. And again, thanks for hanging out with us.