A mild-mannered Montréal pub owner has been keeping an open secret, living a double life as a deep sea photographer and documentary filmmaker specializing in diving with sharks.

Will Allen is a partner with the Burgundy Lion group but spends weeks at a time traveling to remote locations around the world, filming sharks and myriad spectacular sights, including interactions with uncontacted tribes in the Amazon rainforest. David and Derek explore his journey from growing up on a dairy farm to routinely risking his life to capture nature scenes, for a time alongside his late mentor and 'Sharkwater' colleague Rob Stewart.

The chefs also deliver raw commentary and updates at the beginning of each Salt Lick episode on their progress with the new Grille-Nature family restaurant, and they drop more hints about one, maybe even two expansion projects.

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Salt Lick is a TNKR Media Original production.

Change is in the air for the final Salt Lick episode of the year. For starters, David has a new co-host and business partner.

Derek Dammann, renowned chef, farmer and co-owner with David of the new Grille-Nature on Montréal's West Island, joins the program and the pair will be podcasting in the new year from a studio nook in the restaurant. Just hours away from Christmas break, the chefs are admittedly exhausted and use this time to review their opening menu, describing the creative choices made, shout-out farmers and suppliers who help elevate the offerings, and describe the chaos of the first few weeks—along with touching moments, like watching their kids work together on the line.

Speaking of Montréal's most talked-about restaurant opening, the chefs aren't wasting any time to announce an expansion: a fast-casual concept attached to Grille-Nature, and details are shared later in the episode.

Special thanks to Lesley Chesterman for her contribution to Salt Lick's first year. You can follow her writing on Substack at Lick My Plate.

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Salt Lick is a TNKR Media Original production.

David invites a friend from Maine onto the podcast to explore how the scrappy chef grinded his way onto the 2025 New York Times 50 Best Restaurants list while cooking on a glass-top home stove.

Sam Richman of Sammy's Deluxe in Rockland, Maine is candid about his wildly diverse journey from washing dishes and making cheeseburgers as a teen in New Hampshire, to working pastry at The Fat Duck in the English countryside when it topped the World's 50 Best, to Manhattan's WD-50 as the (unfortunate) molecular gastronomy craze heated up, and finally landing on a quiet corner of the New England coast where he's blossomed.

As a younger chef, Sam describes a road trip-pilgrimage up to Montréal to meet David, inspired by the first Joe Beef cookbook. This conversation is a testament to the power of mentorship in cooking; if these classical bonds between chefs remain strong, mentees become peers.

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Salt Lick is a TNKR Media Original Production.