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Love for Popcorn: A Heartfelt Tribute to a Beloved Chef · Family Tree Food Stories

• 0:00
  Sylvia Lovely: Popcorn, chef coat, and butterscotch pie.
• 0:04
  I am in the restaurant business because of its humanness.
• 0:07
  It's like your family.
• 0:09
  An assortment of crazy Uncle Bills and Aunt Sues, but on steroids.
• 0:13
  The customers come in all sizes and persuasions, but often with
• 0:17
  the drama that brought them into the restaurant to begin with.
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  They, too, are family, and with any family tragedy, a life
• 0:24
  affirming story often emerges.
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  Bernie, my husband, began his birthday weekend with his foot slipping off
• 0:30
  the brake, his car careening into the garage steps, and ultimately, into the
• 0:35
  garage wall before it came to a stop.
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  The weekend was to get profoundly worse.
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  Devastating news.
• 0:43
  Popcorn Our beloved 30 year old sous chef at our Azure restaurant
• 0:47
  and patio had passed away in his sleep at his grandparents house.
• 0:53
  Bernie found great pleasure in engaging with the Azure staff, which included
• 0:57
  Popcorn, beginning in 2015, just after he graduated from Sullivan Culinary School.
• 1:03
  Austin, Popcorn Popplewell, Got his nickname when, because of his soft
• 1:08
  voice, his fellow kitchen staffers could not understand the name.
• 1:13
  They settled on popcorn, and it stuck.
• 1:16
  Our tight knit service and kitchen crew gathered nearly every night to deliver
• 1:20
  delicious meals at a restaurant that had grown popular from its launch In 2005,
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  Popcorn thrived.
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  He brought his grandmother's timeless traditional recipes,
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  adding his own creative flair.
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  For He would sometimes bring homemade warm biscuits and butter to diners
• 1:37
  as they arrived at Sunday brunch.
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  He would visit others when the kitchen slowed down.
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  One special recipe was for butterscotch pie, Bernie's favorite.
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  In years past, Bernie, not so subtly, would just happen on purpose
• 1:50
  to say in front of the staff how much he loved butterscotch pie.
• 1:54
  Chef Jeremy Ashby, our executive chef, would have a fresh one at Bernie's
• 1:58
  birthday evening dinner at the restaurant.
• 2:01
  This being a particularly challenging year, Bernie never mentioned
• 2:04
  the pie, and neither did I.
• 2:07
  But, Popcorn, remembered.
• 2:09
  In the chatter that comes with a passing, his grandmother shared, That
• 2:13
  he asked her to whip up her special butterscotch filling and he would
• 2:16
  complete the pie upon arriving at the restaurant and present it to Bernie.
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  He never made it.
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  Popcorn didn't complain about the long hours in a hot kitchen,
• 2:26
  often at night when others were with family and he was not.
• 2:30
  He was a simple person, prominently stated in his obituary.
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  He loved his job.
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  His grandmother reminded us at his visitation that Azure, his family,
• 2:41
  and cooking were his passions.
• 2:44
  Popcorn's chef coat was his favorite suit, she said through tears, and
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  so it is only fitting that it was in his beloved chef's coat that
• 2:54
  Popcorn was laid to his eternal rest.