When it came to recreating cuisine from the recent Indie Memphis Film Festival showing of The Taste of Things, Dan Kopera was a perfect fit.
Or, as they say in the movies, he was typecast.
In addition to being a chef, Kopera, 49, is an actor, who has appeared on stage in local productions.
He put his take on dishes shown in the movie for a tasting October 28th at the old Pantà restaurant after the movie aired at Playhouse on the Square.
Growing up in Michigan, Kopera liked to sing and draw, but he also was intrigued with cooking. “Both my parents were home cooks, but my grandmother was a classically trained chef. She was the home editor for The Detroit News. Kay Kopera.
“One of my earliest memories was standing on the step stool cooking bacon for her when I was about 6.”
His grandmother made cooking fun. “She would explain where things came from. Some of the science behind cooking. And how to taste things along the way while you’re in the midst of making a dish.”
Kopera decided to become a chef. “When I was about 10, 12, that’s what I wanted to do. But my life took a change of direction. I ended up going into college for theater.”
Kopera played Alfred P. Doolittle in Northern Michigan University’s production of My Fair Lady. “But shortly after that, I switched over to the technical side and became a technical director and designer.”
Kopera moved to Memphis in 2001 for graduate school at University of Memphis. “That didn’t work out. I dropped out and got my job at Theatre Memphis.”
He continued to work in the technical side at Theatre Memphis for 14 years. He also spent five years at Germantown Community Theatre.
“I still did some acting here and there throughout the years. In 2019, I won an Ostrander Award for ‘Best Featured Performer in a Musical.’”
He won for his portrayal of Caiaphas, the head priest in Jesus Christ Superstar at The Harrell Performing Arts Theatre in Collierville.
Kopera was working at Germantown when Covid hit. “They kept me on salary until the end of August that year, at which time they furloughed me.”
During Covid, his wife, costume designer Ashley Whitten, began creating and sewing novelty pandemic masks.
In 2021, Kopera got a job as line cook and later rose to kitchen manager at Cafe Ole. He then got a call from Germantown Community Theatre’s executive producer. “He told me, ‘The job is still yours if you want it, but it sounds like you found a new career path.’”
Kopera began working at Pantà in November 2021. “I went with Kelly [English] to Restaurant Iris when it opened [in Laurelwood] for about nine months. And then I moved back to Pantà and became a chef over there in June.
“When they decided it was time to shut down Pantà, I just moved over to The Second Line.”
The old Pantà site is now being used as an event rental space, but Kopera and chef Derk Meitzler currently are “working on a new menu for that place. It will be under the umbrella of The Second Line: The Swamp Bar.”
“It’ll be part of Second Line, but Derk and I are kind of tag-teaming the chef responsibilities of both. Derk is the one that came up with most of the menu for both sides other than Kelly English classics like we’ll always have. I’m working on specials. And I’m working on a lot of the rentals, wine dinners, and those menus.”
Kopera can’t reveal much about The Swamp Bar, but, he says, “We are keeping the David Quarles interior design. That will remain the same.”
Kopera, who originally interviewed with New York grad schools, is glad he chose Memphis. “You can go out and do something any time of the day or night pretty much.”
And, he says, “The theater community is amazing here. The food scene is so good. There are influences from around the world here I can experience without having the stress of living in a city like New York.”
