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With Shuttered Restaurants, Several Nashville Chefs Go Online to Inspire Home Cooks

The value of social media as a sense of community during social distancing and safer-at-home measures

While the continuing coronavirus crisis keeps customers out of restaurants and bars for the near future, antsy and idle chefs, bartenders, and business owners around the country are translating their talents online. Several chefs in Nashville have taken to social media to share their talents with those cooks now forced to struggle at home.

Webinars, Zoom hangouts, and IG Live streaming services are designed for those isolated eaters and drinkers yearning for face time with their favorite local chefs and bartenders (and maybe to learn a thing or two along the way).

Here are a few cooking e-events with Nashville chefs to look for online:


Italian Comfort Cooking With Chef Tony Galzin of Nicky’s Coal Fired

Chef Tony Galzin, of coal-fired pizza and pasta restaurant Nicky’s Coal-Fired, is launching a new weekly online cooking demo on Instagram Live. Every Friday (beginning March 27) at 5:30 p.m., chef Tony will showcase a variety of recipes — including everything from Nicky’s favorites to what he and wife Caroline enjoy eating at home. In hopes you’ll join in and cook along, the restaurant’s social media will host a Q&A every Monday to answer questions and announce the next recipe, so interested home cooks can get ingredients ahead of time. Look for more information on their website here.

Cooking Online With Gray & Dudley’s Matthew Bell

Chef Matthew Bell recently relocated with his wife, Amy to Nashville from Little Rock, where he was beloved for their popular restaurant South on Main. Chef Matt just started at the 21C’s restaurant when the double-whammy of tornado plus COVID-19 wreaked havoc on Nashville restaurants, but he’s making the best of it, taking to his personal Instagram to host cooking demos of his signature recipes, plus nostalgic favorites — including the first meal his wife cooked for him when they started dating (chicken spaghetti, finished with extra cheese). Check his Instagram posts to see everything from his Mom’s chicken curry to lentil sloppy joes.

Sean Brock’s Personalized FaceTime Cooking Classes

Chef Sean Brock has a lot on his plate, balancing opening a handful of new restaurants, fatherhood, and writing cookbooks, but he’s doing everything he can to keep his Audrey and Joyland staffs supported. Last weekend, the Nashville-based celebrity chef and Southern cooking expert added personalized FaceTime cooking classes to the table — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where home cooks can learn to cook whatever they want, directly from Brock himself. The best part? He’s donating all funds raised to maintain his Audrey staff.

Cooking & Cocktails with Corona (by Alex Belew)

One of the first in the Nashville area to take to online cooking demos after a forced coronavirus-related closure, the chef/owner of Dallas & Jane is now making the lessons a frequent occurrence. He’s even taken the show on the road, making pizzas with Trey Cioccia at Black Rabbit, and welcomed celebrity Maneet Chauhan to his Murfreesboro kitchen too. Watch their social media for future featured guests and recipes.

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