Denver Band Identifies the Best Chef in the City...but It's Not Who You Think

Jason Edelstein is passionate about food.

The Denver musician may be known for fronting the band Sponsored Content and co-founding recording studio/creative agency Salt Lick Denver, but the kitchen is a creative space for him, too. He finds himself in there often, whipping up tomato pie, a nod to his Philadelphia roots, and mulling over new recipes. He and his fiancée, fellow Salt Lick founder Andrea Hoang, even cook up bountiful batches of food for their annual DIY music festival, Cornhub, to supplement the affair's house-party vibe.

But there's someone in their household who loves food even more than they do.

It's their dog, Shelbi Hoang.

"One of our nicknames for her was always 'Chef,'" Edelstein says fondly.
Like the majority of pet owners, Edelstein has a penchant for anthropomorphizing his pup, wondering what her human personality would be. Where would she work? What would her voice sound like? What would her hobbies be?

"I kind of just started singing about her as if she was a Michelin star chef, because she loves food, obviously," he explains.

He knew he had a song on his hands when the lyrics didn't stop flowing. With a muse such as Shelbi, how could the creative forces resist?

"And then it turned into kind of a Ratatouille diss track on a verse," Edelstein admits, referencing the Pixar hit in which a rat, Remy, becomes a chef in Paris. Remy also uses his newfound career to open a restaurant for his rodent friends, employing his massive family to make Pixar's first reference to nepotism.
"Shelbi's like, 'Why does Remy from Ratatouille get all this credit? You know, I'm way better than him. He's not even a chef,'" Edelstein asserts.

According to the song, Shelbi isn't just any old animal cut from a culinary cloth. She's interned at Noma, the world-famous Nordic restaurant that won three Michelin stars. To her, fine dining isn't about being fancy: It's about cooking with love and authentic, in-season ingredients.

The song, "She Don't Care About Find Dining," was released in June along with a music video that evokes only the best Adult Swim shorts. (Anyone remember "Too Many Cooks"?) The video shows an Iron Chef cooking competition between Chef Hoang (Shelbi), who chooses to make tomato pie, and Rigatoni Aubergine, the "steel chef" from Italy who has decided on a layered ratatouille, with three judges deciding the winner. Which, obviously, is Shelbi. She didn't need a sous chef like Aubergine, who also had a rat under his hat.
Sponsored Content debuted the song and video with a show at Two Moons Music Hall, performing the single while the video played on a large TV. "When we finished the song, we removed the TV and revealed the two chefs that Shelbi battled against," Edelstein says. "We revealed them in character, and basically what happened to them was, after the whole rat incident, they weren't allowed to work on Iron Chef anymore. So now they're going around town hosting bingo games."

Naturally, that meant the Sponsored Content concert also involved bingo. But, Hoang adds, they also told the audience there weren't any rules. "There was a lot of relying on the honor system as to who won," she says. "But we gave away a lot of prizes."

"People came up to me afterwards and were telling me how surprised they were at how committed we were to the bit," Edelstein recalls. "We just commit really hard to whatever the idea is about the show, and there's just going to be different twists and turns at every moment. We want every show to feel like a party, too."
Sponsored Content is keeping the party rolling with new drummer Bradley Hildwein, who just joined the trio alongside Edelstein (vocals/guitar) and Chris Voss (bass). Edelstein is excited to work on new music with the addition while maintaining the band's idiosyncratic, catchy sound. But one thing's for sure: The band will definitely play "She Don't Care About Fine Dining" at Cornhub, which returns to the Salt Lick on Saturday, August 17, with a lineup that includes local bands iies., Dialup and Keddjra.

"Everyone that does show up to Cornhub is a member of the music community in some way," Edelstein says. "It's a big party for all of us."

A big party with lots of food, of course, all under the purview of Denver's best chef, Shelbi Hoang.

"She Don't Care About Fine Dining" is available on all streaming platforms. Find more information about Cornhub on the Salt Lick's Instagram.