On Broadway - Rachel Lipsky & French Toast
On Broadway is a bi-monthly web series that delves into the food memories of the talented musicians of Broadway in downtown Nashville. Every other week, we’ll pair those memories with a relevant recipe and information on how to listen to each musician’s material. Our aim is to connect the passion of food to the passion of music—two mediums that evoke instant reactions and memories, and remind us of the incredible people that pour their heart out every day to make their living in our backyard.
Rachel Lipsky’s dinner often went cold. This wasn’t because she lived in Denver, Colorado and her parents were trying to save money on the heat bill. No, it was because Rachel was interested in one thing and one thing only: singing. “I would excuse myself from the dinner table and go lock myself in the bathroom when I was really young and sing in the mirror for hours. My parents would have to come and try to get me out to finish dinner with the family.” As the middle child of three girls, all a mere 16 months apart, Rachel’s gift certainly didn’t go without notice.
Mr. and Mrs. Lipsky both worked for the government for many years, with her mother opting to stay home after the kids were born. They fully supported their daughter’s dream, but didn’t know how to go about helping her accomplish it. So, Rachel began sharing her talent the logical way – in school and church choirs – before moving on to karaoke contests, stages in the honky tonks of San Diego, Temecula, and Orange County, and singing with whatever bands would let her get up with them in bars.
Growing restless of the same-old routine, Rachel started her first band at 16, which quickly got off on the right foot, thanks to opportunities through her high school that allowed her to open for Toto and Chely Wright. After a few years of honing her sound, “it became apparent that [Nashville is] where I needed to be.” Once here, The Rachel Lipsky band competed against 6,000 bands to win the Pepsi Southern Original competition and open for Blake Shelton. Last year, they won the Nashville Hard Rock Rising competition. With her upbeat melodies, feel-good vibes, and authentic, almost old-country voice, it’s no wonder Rachel hasn’t had a problem breaking into the Nashville music scene. “We grew up listening to – my dad loved Blondie and Pat Benatar and all these amazing rock women, and so my sets are upbeat, more country-rock than your typical country.”
Her dad’s stellar musical choices weren’t the only things shaping Rachel’s childhood. “My dad would make us French toast every Saturday morning and he got the recipe from a MASH episode. They just named the ingredients and he figured out proportions for everything. It is literally the best French toast I’ve ever had in my life and now I’m such a snob because I can’t have anybody else’s… cuz it’s not my dad’s… My parents would have date night Friday night so we’d have pizza with a babysitter and then French toast [in the morning]. He called it trench toast cuz of the MASH episode. It was so cute! Isn’t that such a dad joke?” Ummm…. Excuse me? That’s the greatest thing I’ve heard about a breakfast food in a hot minute. How exactly is “Trench Toast” (sorry, I giggle every time) made? “He likes the potato bread… dips it in the egg and vanilla mixture, and then sprinkles on a cinnamon and sugar mixture… tons of butter on the skillet – cook one side, more cinnamon sugar… and then we’d eat it with more butter and white karo syrup.” Almost like a bruleed french toast with the sugar caramelizing as it cooks. I feel like I’m drooling all over myself as I write this, and I’d like to make it immediately with reckless abandon over what it might do to my teeth. Sharing this thought with Rachel, she laughs, “I’m a huge sweet-tooth; sugar freak. I was always the girl that would go underneath the table with the sugar bowl and just spoon it into my mouth.”
As we keep talking, she muses “[I was going to use my mom’s] caramel apple dip [because it’s] really good for fall right now.” Well, it’s been rainy recently and I busted out a comfy cozy bourbon French toast recipe myself, so I think it’s perfect. Sweet, warm, insatiably pleasant, and welcoming, her dad’s French toast shares all the same adjectives as Rachel herself.
And her warmth trickles down into everything she does. One of her favorite things about playing in her band is the opportunity to perform in the Armed Forces Entertainment Tour. Beginning in 2013, she has participated five times, traveling to places such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Djibouti, Africa, Afghanistan, Spain, and Portugal. “That was a life-long dream of mine that I can’t believe we’ve been able to go and do it as many times as we have. I love our military and we always want to give back to them and that’s our calling in life, I feel like, to do that for them.”
Rachel plays sporadically on Broadway at The Hard Rock Café. To find out where she and her band are playing next (or to beg her for her father’s recipe) check out @RachelLipsky on Twitter and Instagram, RachelLipsky.com, or Rachel Lipsky Music on Facebook. In the meantime, perhaps this recipe for fall-festive apple French toast will tide you over.
