Remembrances & Musings
I FIRST MET THE GERMANOTTAS when Gaga appeared on Oprah in early 2010. She was on tour and had just performed at the Rosemont Theater, just outside of Chicago. When I heard she was going to be on the show, I stayed up all night and cooked. I decided to make something healthy and something comforting. When she tried my fried chicken and waffles she said to Oprah, “You sent this master chef to make comfort food for me when I needed comforting.” It was the first time she had tried fried chicken and waffles.
Someone from Oprah hooked us up with tickets, so we went to watch Gaga perform that night. My husband, Jesus, and I met Joe and Cynthia for the first time backstage. I was immediately struck by what a supportive and loving family they are. What I love most about Gaga is how close she is with her father. Joe is the greatest stage-father that ever lived. He will always protect her.
In May 2011, Gaga appeared on Oprah’s last show and we had dinner with Joe and Cynthia at my restaurant, Table 52. Shortly after, Gaga invited me to appear in a cooking segment for her television special, A Very Gaga Thanksgiving, which was filmed at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, her former high school on the Upper East Side. Initially I had wanted to do my fried chicken and waffles, but she said, “It’s Thanksgiving; we need to do turkey.” So I took her grandmother’s recipe for Italian stuffing and infused my waffle recipe with crispy salami and pecorino cheese and served it with fried turkey.
~Chef Art Smith
WE MET CHEF ART THROUGH Stefani. He’s cooked for President Obama and Jeb Bush, and he was Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef for years. He was instrumental in helping us get the restaurant up and running. He spent a fair amount of time here after the renovations were done, getting us organized, and hiring staff. He told us what equipment to buy and hooked us up with vendors. We couldn’t have opened without him.
~ Joe Germanotta
JOE IS THE MOST GENEROUS man I have ever met. Any time Stefani has a concert or an event, he’ll always get tickets for all the staff. There have been so many times when he’s paid medical bills for members of the staff, myself included. When I had a herniated disc and it was getting to the point where I couldn’t even move my neck, the VA wanted to operate. Joe was skeptical about the surgery, so he sent me to his chiropractor for four months and paid for the whole thing.
~Travis Jones
AROUND THE TIME WE WERE working on the Thanksgiving special with Gaga, Jesus and I had dinner at the Columbus Citizens Foundation. Joe mentioned he was opening a restaurant and we decided to partner up. Shortly after we opened, Joe Manganiello held his after-party for Magic Mike at Joanne. It was a star-studded affair. I remember late into the evening, Joe sat with me on the stoop outside the restaurant and we shared a cigar. I said to him, “You’re a beautiful man, why don’t you have a girlfriend?” He confided to me that he had just met a woman named Sophia and he had fallen madly in love with her. Two years later he married Sofía Vergara.
~Chef Art Smith
I WORKED AT THE RESTAURANT the first summer after we opened. I started off as a hostess and then my dad was looking to add a bartender for brunch so I started working behind the bar as well. My boyfriend, Alex, is house photographer for private events and works here as a server. He revamped the website and takes all the photographs of the food.
All the staff at Joanne are super-talented. One of the waitresses who used to work here, Meaghan, was an opera singer, so when we’d sing happy birthday it always sounded amazing. Elise, who is a server, is one of my closest friends. She is very dear to our family. My dad treats her like she’s one of his own. She’s been with us almost from the beginning. She’s such an inspiring person who puts action to her beliefs. She volunteers for Born This Way Foundation, which was founded by my mother and sister and focuses on youth empowerment and issues like self-confidence and anti-bullying. Elise is always the first person to volunteer when the foundation teams up with the restaurant because she is a very passionate person.
~Natali Germanotta
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Travis Jones and Art Smith.
IN 2009 I INTERNED WITH CHEF Art Smith in Chicago at his now renovated and renamed former Table 52. I had been working while going to school at my friend’s store in Newport, Rhode Island and Chef Art came in to buy a shirt for his husband, Jesus. A friend of mine immediately recognized him from Top Chef and Top Chef Masters and told him that I was going to culinary school. We got to talking and after a while he said, “I can teach anyone how to cook, but I can’t teach you how to be a good person. I can tell you have a big heart. Let me know when you have an internship and you can come work for me in Chicago.” When I told him that I actually had an internship coming up and hadn’t found a place yet, he immediately said, “Come to Chicago. You will intern for me and stay in my house.”
So I moved to Chicago and stayed in their spare room for three months. I couldn’t believe my good fortune. Here I was, a newbie in culinary school, cooking for donors attending big charity dinners for Common Threads, Chef Art’s charity that teaches underprivileged children about nutrition and how to cook. I prepped, I cooked, I made staff smoothies every night and I hated leaving because they became like family.
When Chef Art and Jesus got married, they asked if I would help cook for the reception, so I flew to Washington DC and fried a TON of chicken. Chef Art and Jesus truly welcomed me with open arms like a son. They took a chance on a squid who was going to culinary school and working in a shoe store part-time, all because they could tell I had a good heart.
~Travis Jones
MY DAD THREW A BIG DINNER for the entire staff on one of the first Thanksgivings after we opened. We got to invite everyone that was involved in getting the restaurant together. We set up tables in the back and we all sat down and had a giant family meal.
We’ve definitely gotten creative on Thanksgiving over the years. One year, my dad made “Chef Emeril Lagasse’s Turduckin,” which is a chicken, inside a duck, inside a turkey. On another Thanksgiving we made Chef Art’s Fried Turkey and my sister made two Peking ducks.
~Natali Germanotta