“I swear music and sports are so synonymous / ‘Cause we want to be them and they want to be us,” Drake raps on one of his many platinum hits ” Thank Me Now .” If Drizzy was just a bit more prescient, he may have foreseen the crossover between music and the chef world, an ever-evolving mix tape on which Chef Chris Santos is the latest crossover hit.
Although he’s known for his restaurants The Stanton Social and Beauty & Essex , Santos’ passions and projects are wide-ranging. He’s hosted “Chopped” for nine years, long held dreams of opening his own boxing ring , and is now venturing into the mosh pit by launching Blacklight Media , a metal and hard rock music label.
Blacklight Media officially launched this month with a party at The Stanton Social, which doubled as a tour kick-off party for their debut band, Good Tiger . Over a specially tailored menu—which found guests holding a Jager cocktail in one hand and an authentic Kobe slider in the other—Santos noted that what attracted him to Good Tiger’s music was a diverse sound that he describes as anything but cookie cutter.
“Similar to my cooking, I hope the music our artists create will be engaging, well-rounded, and sometimes whimsical,” he said.
Santos’ connection to the world of metal and rock goes much deeper than his hardcore, lifelong fandom and now, Blacklight. It all started with his longtime friendship with Brian Slagel, the owner and CEO of Metal Blade Records . Slagel, who is best known for giving bands like Metallica, Slayer, and Gnar their break into the industry, was Santos’s inspiration for creating a label that would support similar bands seeking representation.
Chef Chris Santos and Stanton Social Chef Jonathan Kavourakis. Photo via Blacklight Media
“[Chris] has turned me onto four bands who eventually signed to Metal Blade,” said Slagel, experience that had Santos planting seeds in the world of metal and working toward his own dream of growing his own label. When Santos discovered Good Tiger, he brought them to Slagel and they decided to launch a whole new label together.
Good Tiger’s two-month-long tour will cap off with the release of their first full-length album “A Head Full of Moonlight” this April, but Santos has no plans of letting the dust settle: he’s opening two restaurants on the West Coast in 2016 and releasing his first cookbook in 2017.
Lucky for the worlds of food and music, more innovative musicians and chefs are moving seamlessly between the kitchen and the stage. With Santos officially on Metal Blade’s side, their artists are about to get the best of both worlds.
