What Chef Aaron Elliott Listens to When He Cooks for the Barker-Kardashians & James Cameron

If music be the food of love, then Aaron Elliott’s love of food would be soundtracked by King Tubby and Scratch Perry.

The punk-drummer-turned-chef and the founder of Meal Ticket — a perpetually-sold-out delivery service in L.A. — tells ShelfMAG that he prefers cooking to reggae and dub supplied by the NTS Radio show Blood & Fire. But on the days he’s operating out of a shared kitchen, there’s only one rule: “no dance, no techno, and no house music.”

Elsewhere on Elliott’s Shelf, the theme of self-discipline runs through both his book pick and a film so intense he can only watch it sporadically. (Hint: He does liken learning jazz as a punk drummer to staging at Noma as a vegan chef.) Below, he also shares the retro cookbook his wife found at an estate sale, the show that inspired a restaurant concept, and a beloved podcast episode in which a culinary legend reminisces on bartering a coffee machine for a controlled substance.

Whiplash

“I remember seeing it, and as soon as we got out, I was like, ‘That's my No. 1 favorite movie.’ It's such a stressful movie that it's not something I can watch [more than] once a year. I hear a lot of chefs compare coming up in kitchens to that sort of toxic relationship with the conductor; luckily, I dodged that on both ends. But Miles Teller’s work ethic was so cool and how he became like, ‘nothing else matters other than perfecting the craft.’ I can definitely relate to that. I remember when I first started, I was working two jobs, and I really wanted to learn how to bake, so I took the graveyard shift at a bakery. And I just remember thinking — I'm not proud of this — ‘Oh, I can't have a relationship right now. I need to get better, and nothing can get in the way.’ But now I'm all about balance.”

“This Is My Dinner” by Sun Kil Moon

“I used to have a Spotify playlist called ‘12-minute songs I wish were 13 minutes.’ There was a Kamasi Washington, a War on Drugs song, and that Sun Kil Moon song. Every December, my wife and I go really hard on Christmas movies and music, and that song references Christmas. So it's not something I listen to year-round, but it has the energy of the weather right now.”

Zen Macrobiotic Cooking by Michel Abehsera

“I've always been obsessed with macrobiotic food and that lifestyle. And I feel like whenever I look through the book, I think I should modernize macrobiotic cooking. And then the more I think about that, the more I'm like, ‘Oh, that is how I cook.’ It didn't really have anything to do with clients — it just fell more into ‘This is how I want to eat.’ It gets a bad rap of being bland and too simple, but as far as the seasonality and cooking with a lot of sea vegetables goes, that's why I compare what I'm doing to a modernized version of that.”

How Long Gone

“[Nancy Silverton] is my favorite chef, so that's why I was drawn towards that episode. Clearly, she's worked in restaurants for decades because you can tell she can hang with anybody. She tells a story about how, in her early days of cooking, she traded a coffee machine for cocaine. And hearing her — I think she's in her 70s now — tell this story is just so funny. [If I had to cook for her], for Meal Ticket, I've been making a a Job's tears salad lately. It was all summer veg, and now it's pumpkin and sunchokes. The salad showcases what's best at the farmers market. And it has a mint yogurt dressing. I think that would be it.”

Stay Fanatic!!! Vol. 4 by Henry Rollins

“Henry Rollins is one of my idols, and he’s an obsessive record collector. It's basically journal entries of his journey through collecting vinyl. And in that, he talks about his work. His work ethic is very inspiring — he’s one of those people that, no matter how hard you're working, makes you feel like you're not doing enough. I've been reading the fourth book slowly for months because I [thought] there wasn’t anything after this. But now that there's a fifth one, I have no problem finishing it. But I'm very, when a show comes out, even if this show releases all the episodes, I have a rule that I'm only watching one a week. It drives my wife insane.”

Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories

“I think a lot of chefs romanticize having a 10-seat restaurant and being the only one that works there, so I have it in my head that I want to do a Midnight Diner-style restaurant. There’s a huge parallel [between the show and what I do]. I don't submit menus to my clients; I've been with them for so long that I know. But they'll come home at 4:30 p.m. and say they want something. And I always love that challenge of having an hour and a half before dinner and trying to pull it off. Because I only cook vegan, around Thanksgiving or Christmas, someone will say, ‘This is a cake my mom used to make. Can you make a vegan version?’ That's always really high-pressure but also a lot of fun. It just feels really cool to to be asked to do that.”

What else is Aaron Elliott into? Get real-time updates at shelf.im/aaronelliott.