Rockers we have known.

Toscanini’s has had all sorts of workers from all sorts of places. A persistent group of scoopers have been musicians, and usually rockers. Early in our history there was a glorious moment when we had lots of oversized women rowers from Boston University but every year we have a scrawny popstar in the waiting.

Matt Henderson was in two famous hardcore bands: Agnostic Front and Madball. He played for half a million people in Holland and did a tour of South American soccer stadiums. At age twenty-five he told me that he thought he was getting too old for the hardcore scene. I was walking through Berlin when I peeled a poster off the Berlin Wall for his band. They were appearing at a German club called The Bronx. Madball couldn’t tour when their lead singer was in jail.

Brian Fair was also in two bands: Shadows Fall and Overcast. I think Brian was president of his high school class but he had shoulder length hair and a voice from the worst part of hell. He used to do telephone interviews with Japanese magazines while he was making ice cream. He was a good ice cream maker. He had the phone cradled between his cheek and shoulder while he reeled off cliches, “We miss Japan and can’t wait to get back and see our fans. We’re keepin’ it real.”

One worker was in a sort of hardcore punk band. He may have previously been a paratrooper. Sadly he died when the police pulled him over. He had just bought a lot of drugs and swallowed them. He died in jail.

One employee looked a lot like Billie Joe of Green Day, but actually seemed like the pudgy guy from The Clash. Of course The Clash did not have a pudgy guy but this musician was waiting for the band’s reunion tour.

Both halves of The Dresden Dolls worked at the store. Vocalist Amanda Palmer has always been a star in her own head and Brian Viglione, the band’s drummer was not well-suited for everyday life. He listened to more varied music than anyone who ever worked in the store.
Mike from The Dead Trees, who describe their music as Folk/Rock/Grime/Americana, had the most mature take on the music business. He was also the best pint packer who ever worked in the store. His band moved to Portland, OR to facilitate their rise to stardom.

Nick Brannigan is a quiet redhead, who made ice cream and also drummed for the band Bain. I was watching a high school film noir about drug dealing in California when one of the characters came onscreen wearing a Bain t shirt.

Right now we have our own American Idol grouping. Martin Gonzalez knows something about all music. Michigan’s Andy Burri makes ice cream and won the recent Rock and Roll Ruckus. You can read about him on rollingstone.com. Jarrod Annis and Nick Maestri lead Electric Music.

This year Nick Maestri surprised everyone by selling two songs to television, largely based on Facebook exposure. One was sold to the cable show “Weeds” and was about driving around the suburbs, stoned. The other song was about child molesting.

Nick has been a source of youthful wisdom. When he was negotiating for the sale of his song he said, “Don’t fuck with me. I’m a music business major.”

He also told 17 year old Rauol Robert that “there is no future in metal music.” Rauol hung his head and said, “But I love metal.” Nick simply shook his head and repeated that “There is no future for metal.”

Toscanini’s greatest rock star was Amy Carpenter, who was an occasional member of Toxic Narcotic. TN, as the group’s fans called it, had a big hit with “If Silence Equals Death, Shut up and Die.” But they stopped playing the song when they realized their fans thought it was a homophobic anthem. It was not. Amy looked like the comic book character, Tank Girl, or Tank Girl looked like Amy Carpenter.

We don’t throw away much ice cream. The other day I found a bad batch of Strawberry Sorbet and a bad batch of Raspberry-Blueberry. A batch equals four 3-gallon tubs. The Strawberry Sorbet was coarse in texture and I thought easy to fix. It is easy to melt and refreeze sorbets. Ice creams are usually impossible to refreeze although some expensive restaurants claim to melt and refreeze ice cream every day.

After melting the four tubs of Strawberry Sorbet I put them all together in a big tub and used a scary kitchen tool to further puree the berries. A burr blender looks like something from a slasher movie or a very adolescent sex movie. It enables cooks to puree large quantities of food in a big container instead of subdividing into batches. I pureed the now melted strawberries a lot and added more sugar in order to improve the texture of the sorbet. Using leftover orange juice and sugar I made an Orange Syrup that also changed the flavor from Strawberry Sorbet to Strawberry-Orange Sorbet. Everything worked and after freezing in the ice cream machine the sorbet was excellent.

The ice cream had been made by simply adding frozen blueberries to a pretty good Raspberry ice cream. Simply adding frozen blueberries to an ice cream results in an unfortunate texture that makes one think of Macadam roads and glacial till. This flavor was beyond repair. Saved one and failed with another. Probably gained a new sorbet flavor and lost $100 on the bad ice cream.

A big fat attachment arrived today, listing all the nominees for James Beard Awards. These awards are important to foodservice professionals. The nominees for Best Northeast Regional Chef included Tony Maws from Craigie on Main, Michael Leviton of Lumiere in Newton, Marc Orfaly of Pigalle in Bay Village and the chefs at Hugo’s in Portlant, Maine and Arrows in Ogunquit, Maine. Corby Kummer was nominated for his food columns in The Atlantic. Three former Bostonians were nominated: Suzanne Goins now cooks in LA, writer Alan Richman once worked at The Globe but now types for GQ, and artist/designer Steve Solomon, formerly of Pizzeria Regina, Michela’s and Rialto. Solomon was nominated for his graphic work at Terroir wine bar.