“We Asked Chefs” is a regular feature in which we ask local Tucson chefs a range of questions about chef life and food. Read their responses to the latest: “what is your favorite thing about Tucson’s culinary scene?”
Ryan Clark
Casino Del Sol Resort
“Without a doubt the amazing Sonoran food culture — a staple that may be overshadowed at times by a growing city and burgeoning downtown.
Not to be forgotten are the tortilla makers, mesquite grillers of carne asada, and the harvesters of indigenous ingredients like nopales, prickly pear fruit and cholla buds.
Being a native Tucsonan has given me culinary ‘noshing’ advantages. I remember eating at Club 21 as a kid after soccer games and I still go there today nearly 30 years later. Same owner with great hospitality and I am able to relive all those captured food memories.
Being surrounded by different, yet familiar recipes of salsas, tacos, margaritas, and Sonoran hot dogs is what makes Tucson delicious and unique. It is rooted in locally owned, mom-and-pop start-ups, like Sonoran hot dog carts, food trucks, small businesses, and the door-to-door tamale vendors. These are the distinctive flavors of Tucson that to me, make it such a great food town.”
View our September 2016 Tools They Use with Ryan Clark.
Michael Elefante
Mama Louisa’s
“KNIFE FIGHT KNIFE FIGHT KNIFE FIGHT!!!
I’m so happy and proud of what chef Gary Hickey and I have accomplished in just two years of this cooking competition. The support from Tucson’s hospitality industry and others has turned this event into such a beautiful thing.
This year we have some exciting news coming up and are right around the corner from sign-ups for season three. We love helping our own, and this is our chance to show it and make a difference is some people’s lives.
I believe it is the only 100% skill cooking competition.
There’s about to be a what? KNIFE FIGHT!”
View our November 2016 Tools They Use with Michael Elefante.
Aiden Gould
Sky Islands Public High School
“I think the tight-knit community and chefs here that want to teach the next generation.”
View our April 2019 Nine on the Line with Aidan Gould.
C.J. Hamm
Saguaro Corners • Mulligan’s
“What is NOT to love about Tucson’s culinary scene today?
We have amazing owners, chefs, and teams giving us amazing cuisine in our locally owned and operated restaurants all over the city limits and beyond.
We have the Gastronomic Union of Tucson being the avengers of dope food and kitchen gangsterdom slaying in the name of the city.
We have local talent, homegrown culinary competitions, helping local charities… and in turn, that commercialized fix-fest Iron Chef Tucson has jumped the shark.
We have the great people of Tucson Foodie, Andi Berlin, Metal Mark, Matt Russell, Chris DeSimone and the like, covering and spotlighting our local food scene in an honest but great way.
We have Janos, Doug Levy, Danny Scordato, Flores family, and Jim Murphy still in the game strong as OGs.
We have chefs and restaurants staying in the national spotlight, showcasing our city, and rappin’ hard AF.
We have culinary d-swinging, camaraderie, shit talking, ball busting, secret chef threads, terrible chef threads. Oh man… so much goodness… dude the goose? Bowld? Yes, please!
We got one Don making the sickest knives and another Don making the sickest bread.
Plus, in the great words of Nate Dogg, “it ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none.”
I love my city. In fact…
“I put on for my city, on-on for my city
I put on for my city, on-on for my city.”
View our March 2017 Nine on the Line with C.J. Hamm.
Gary Hickey
Flores Concepts
“Aw man, it is springtime in the Old Pueblo. Things are getting ho.
I just returned from the Restaurant Leadership Conference (RLC) last week and the overwhelming consensus is that we are heading for a recession, but the underlying message was watch out for the independents. Please understand these are operators that have a minimum of 100-200 units and they are nervous about independent restaurant groups heading into 2020.
I am super stoked that my friends, chefs, and hotel operators got to travel south to represent my home town. Super cool to see my friends on the global stage. Let’s get that tourism, Tucson.
Coming up this summer
With spring, brings summer and with summer in the Dirty T comes the wine dinners, the beer dinners, and of course the Gastronomic Union of Tucson summer series; what will it be this year?
With summer brings Knife Fight Tucson season 3. Tucson’s only true culinary competition with a cause. This year we have started a new charity Connors’ Cooks will be our 501(c)(3) organization that will carry on Pat Connors’ vision of community and support. Michael and I are truly blessed to partner with Julie Connors to bring this charity to life.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Flores concepts newest lifestyle brand Charro Vida. Our adventure into the past to bring healing foods with Sonoran flavors to Tucson.”
View our November 2016 Tools They Use with Gary Hickey.
Doug Levy
Feast
“My favorite thing about Tucson’s culinary scene is that chefs here regard each other as colleagues more than they do as competitors; I’m grateful that we promote each other, we help each other out in a pinch, and we’re kind and neighborly.
We’re lucky here.”
View our September 2017 Nine on the Line with Doug Levy.
Travis Peters
The Parish
“Just a few years ago, you saw pre-made products all over menus, cooks were forced to cook them in restaurants — ranch dressing and boneless chicken breast dishes reigned supreme — but for the most part, I think those days are over.
‘Tucson Chefs’ was born
Knife Fight
Devon Sanner
The Carriage House
“What I love most about Tucson’s culinary scene now is the collaboration and camaraderie among Tucson chefs. I think a growing number of Tucson chefs have begun to embrace our designation as a UNESCO World City of Gastronomy and are really trying to push forward in the spirit of creative exchange.
The Tucson culinary giants on whose shoulders we stand — Donna Nordin, Jonathan Landeen, Jim Murphy, Alan Zeman, Janos Wilder, et al… when we’ve gotten those folks in for celebrity chef cooking classes or a special dinner to celebrate Rita Connelly’s book Historic Restaurants of Tucson, it’s clear that they have friendship, mutual respect, and a continuing passion for Tucson cuisine. What I think is new with the younger cadre of chefs coming up today, however, is deeper collegiality and community.
GUT
One can see this sense of chef community and creative exchange in myriad facets of Tucson’s food scene. It’s perhaps most readily visible in the Gastronomic Union of Tucson (GUT) dinner series and special events, where teams of chefs collaborate, learn from each other, and have an amazing, convivial time.
Community and collegiality
The community and collegiality of our Tucson’s chefs also (perhaps contrary to expectations) comes to the fore in competition. Chefs Gary Hickey (Flores Restaurant Concepts – the Charro Empire) and Michael Elefante (Mama Louisa’s Italian Restaurant) launched Tucson Knife Fight a couple of years ago as a way to get chef-driven, food-first, head-to-head battles free from politics, campaigning, and balloting. Just chefs squaring off and the best dishes win the night. Chefs and cooks fill the audience every time, and the brotherly and sisterly love is overwhelming.
I am also encouraged by a trend I see among chefs who are eager to share sources, farm out their cooks to do stagiaire stints (mini-internships/continuing education in other chefs’ kitchens), and seek to improve the culinary community as a whole. Sure, we all want our restaurants to be the best, but we want other restaurants to be great, too.
It’s truly inspiring to see so many chefs not just pursuing individual excellence, but garnering international attention for Tucson as a world-class culinary destination.”
View our September 2015 Nine on the Line with Devon Sanner.
Fulvia Steffenone
Caffe Milano
“More than a thing, I am favorably struck by a tendency of both restaurateurs and customers. More and more frequently, restaurants are appearing on the Tucson culinary scene that are ‘swimming against the current’ and are putting a lot of attention to local producers and eco-sustainable foods; to the documented and proven absence of GMOs, pesticides and preservatives.
It is challenging the international giants that produce junk food (or ingredients that will end up in junk food), and it is an attitude that inspires me and drives my professional choices, day after day.”
View our November 2018 Nine on the Line: Chef “La Fufi” Fulvia Steffenone from Caffe Milano.
Stay in the Tucson Foodie Loop
Weekly digest of new openings, events, and guides. No spam.
Article written by:
Jackie Tran
More about JackieJackie Tran is a Tucson-based food writer, photographer, culinary educator, and owner-chef of the now-closed food truck Tran’s Fats. Although he is best known locally for his work for Tucson Foodie, his work has also appeared in publications such as Bon Appétit, National Geographic, and the New York Times.
An adventurous foodie, he enjoys culinary experiences ranging from seasonal omakase to sloppily devouring green chili patty melts in his car afterhours. His favorite foods include aguachile, garlic noodles, and leftover fried chicken illuminated by the fridge light. His favorite drinks include morning micheladas, fireside imperial stouts, candle-lit negroni, and grassy mezcales.
Outside of food, he also loves playing musical instruments, karaoke, Tetris, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and petting Addie’s dog Spaghetti.
If you’d like to stalk him, visit his Instagram @jackie_tran_ or jackietran.com.
