I love speaking with Scotty Dicks.

In Season One of YXE Underground, Scotty appeared on the podcast to talk about his work in growing Saskatoon's culinary scene. A wonderful chef who loves collaborating, Scotty worked with different restaurants and pubs in the city developing their menus while teaching classes at The Local Kitchen and running his own catering company. He was influential in educating our community where our food was coming from and why that was important to know. 

At the end of that episode, Scotty revealed he was ready to get back in the kitchen and was set to open a new restaurant called Odla. In the span of a few years, it has become a staple in Saskatoon's culinary scene and has garnered national attention. 

Scotty and his team were really hitting their stride when Covid-19 arrived in Saskatoon. In the span of a few days, everything at the restaurant changed. The menu was revamped, a website was created and Scotty was suddenly left wondering what the future had in store.

What you will hear in this episode is Scotty telling the story of the last ten months at Odla, and what I really love about our conversation is how his leadership style and character comes through as clear as the distinct flavours in his cooking. 

I was expecting a bit of doom and gloom from Scotty when recapping his pandemic experience. Instead, I left our conversation inspired and thinking that his leadership style could be applied to so many different businesses and organizations.

What you will also hear are some wonderful sounds from Odla's kitchen on a  Saturday night. Seriously, it was so much fun spending an hour with Scotty and his team gathering sound and watching them in action. I was so pumped up after my time in the kitchen and all I did was hold a microphone!

I want to thank Scotty, Lacey Sellinger and the entire Odla team for allowing me some really great access to produce this episode. I hope you can hear the joy because it was so much to make.

A big thank you to Rob Rongve and his team at Rongve Wealth Management Group at RBC Dominion Securities in North Battleford for sponsoring this episode. Rob and his team have been managing my money for nearly a decade and they are wonderful to work with! Thanks for believing in the podcast, Rob. 

Thank you for supporting YXE Underground and for supporting local restaurants like Odla. Stay safe and keep washing your hands!

Cheers...Eric 

• Host, Producer, Editor: Eric Anderson
• Theme Music: Andrew Dickson
• Website: https://www.yxeunderground.com
• Recorded: On Treaty 6 Territory and the traditional homeland of the Metis