April 7, 2025 • 57 mins
🍽️ Don’t Miss This Week on The Tucson Tasty Show!
🎙️🌵We’re honored to welcome Chef Janos Wilder of Studio Janos! A true Tucson culinary legend, Chef Janos played a key role in helping Tucson earn its UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation.
🌎🍷Join us as we dive into his visionary approach to cooking, his use of heritage ingredients, and some of his favorite dishes to create!
🎧 Tune in for a must-hear episode celebrating Tucson’s rich food culture!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-tucson-tasty-show--6022348/support.
🎙️🌵We’re honored to welcome Chef Janos Wilder of Studio Janos! A true Tucson culinary legend, Chef Janos played a key role in helping Tucson earn its UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation.
🌎🍷Join us as we dive into his visionary approach to cooking, his use of heritage ingredients, and some of his favorite dishes to create!
🎧 Tune in for a must-hear episode celebrating Tucson’s rich food culture!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-tucson-tasty-show--6022348/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Amids the ancient rooms of a forgotten civilization, a mysterious temple.
Paul states with an otherworldly energy, the guardian of this
taste Define Sanctuary moves forward, a figure shrouded in enigma,
in power. He doesn't just taste food, he summons forgotten
(00:24):
flavors and awakens dormant passions. Behold the Wizard of Food,
Wesley Source in the Tucson Tasty Show.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Welcome to the Tucson Tasty Show, brought to you by SOAKA,
the Southern Arizona Art and Cultural Alliance. SOAKA is dedicated
to creating, preserving, and advancing the arts, and we are
very proud to have them as our presenting sponsor. A
huge thank you to all of our sponsors who helped
make this show possible. That It's Vera Earl, Premium Beef,
Tucson Family Food Project, Local First Arizona, Pertillo's hot Dogs,
(01:06):
and of course Soka. Before we dive in, don't forget
to visit the Tastyshow dot com. That's where you can
listen to past episodes, discover exclusive content, and best of all,
join the Tasty Show Membership program. Members unlock secret menu
items at Tucson's top restaurants, scoring exclusive rewards and even
(01:26):
getting surprise restaurant gift cards. If you love food, this
is for you. Go to the Tastyshow dot com and
sign up. Today I'm your host, Wesley Source, and today
we have a truly special guest with us. One of
the most influential chefs in the Southwest. He's a James
Beard Award winning chef, a pioneer using local ingredients, and
(01:48):
a key figure in helping Tucson earn the title of
the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in North America. Please
welcome Chef Janos Wilder. How you doing today's I'm great?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Good morning, Wesley, how are you.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm good. I'm super excited. We've been really excited all
week waiting for you to come into the show and
here it is.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well, thanks for having me here.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's our pleasure. This segment is brought to This segment
of the twosan Tasty Show is brought to you by
Viral Premium Beef, bringing you that ranch to table quality
you can taste. So let's dive into it. So we
really wanted to bring you on the show and talk
about how you became a chef. Everybody knows that you're
an incredible chef. And you originally studied political science at
(02:34):
UC Berkeley, right, yeah, and then what led you into
the culinary world.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Well long before that. You know, I started cooking when
I was fifteen or sixteen. That started my life in restaurants.
But the real story starts well before that, because cooking
with my mom, who was a great cook, but I
was a quick story. I was the youngest of three
(03:00):
other and sister were off to school, and you know,
my mom was probably twenty four twenty five at the
time and loved Frank Sinatra and she loved cooking, and
she would as she cooked, she would have Frank Sinatra
and she would dance me around her kitchen while she
(03:21):
was cooking. Just picked me up and danced me around
the kitchen. And that you know that, since then, I
equate cooking and love and the gifts that you give people.
That's how that's really the inspiration. And didn't know it
obviously at the time, and even even as I got
(03:42):
a little bit older and started cooking when I was
in pizza parlors and then moving on and on and on,
it took me a while to really discover that. Oh yeah,
that's where it all comes from.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I can imagine, and absolutely that's where the passion for
the Two Soon Tasties show comes from, because that's where
the family meets around the dinner table. Absolutely, in the kitchen.
It's the central part of our home, and everybody eats, so,
you know, everybody, even if there's something going on, everybody
gets around the table.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
To eat, right, we have no choice, we have to eat.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Was there a specific moment or experience that made you
realize the food was your true calling?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yes, sort of. So I'd been working in pizza parlors,
I worked in the TGI Fridays in Nashville prior prior
to you know, before they became the big thing. They
were just in independent restaurants and other places in Colorado
and elsewhere in California as well. And I had the opportunity.
(04:45):
I hadn't worked in great restaurants, you know, just good restaurants,
not so good restaurants. Lots of experience learning, just learning
the trade, learning how to use an EFE, learning how
to work with people, learning the cooks, dance, all of
the all of those things. But I had an opportunity
to work with a guy named Joe Bochess. He was
(05:05):
excuse me, he was a CIA trained chef, but more
than that, prior to that, he was a botanist, and
so he was a really bright guy and I learned
from him because he had diverse interest that actually by
being a chef it could It allowed me to do
(05:28):
all sorts of things that wasn't just the kitchen. There
were the connections to the community. There were all sorts
of outlets that if I was really interested in it,
I didn't have to be pigeonholed. And that was really
important to me because you know you mentioned political science
at Berkeley. That's a real interest of mine. And how
(05:49):
do we as individuals relate to the greater society, be
at our hometowns, be at our states, be at our country,
how do we relate to those of issues As a
chef and how do we This really comes from my
mom more than anything else. How do you find the
opportunities to give back to the community that nurtures you?
(06:13):
And so that that working for Joe, and not that
he was doing all those things, but I just realized
that all of that became possible, and that's when the
LSAT book it was on top of my bedstand, kept
on going deeper and deeper and down, down and down
and down, with more and more cookbooks piled above.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
It understandable. And then and with all that in mind,
you talk a lot about cooking with a sense of place. Yeah,
And can you explain what that means to you?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, So it means to me to inform your cooking
with the ingredients and the flavors and really the history
of where you are. That's what a sense of place.
It's the totality of all of that. And that became
clear to me really very early on. I was living,
(07:09):
living and working in the mountains of Colorado, and we were,
you know, way up in the mountains of dirt eighty
three hundred feet dirt roads to get us to us,
nobody wanted to deliver, right, so we we I'd go
down to Boulder and shop, but we'd also inform our
we would we weren't the foragers, but we would work
(07:30):
with with foragers, and we'd get all sorts of things
from work that were around us. Plus in the summer,
and this restaurant was pretty much open six months of
a year and otherwise it was under you know, six
feet of snow, from from from the people who were
backyard gardeners and our neighbors. We would inform our cooking
(07:52):
more than that, for practical reasons, use the things that
were around us, all right. So that was how that
began for me to France and worked in Bordeaux following,
you know, at some point after that. After that, and
every day we would go to the marketplace and the
chefs let me, would let me go with them. This
(08:14):
was Michelin, two star wars, two star restaurants, phenomenal, just phenomenal,
you know, best of the best. And every day we
would go to the marketplace, and they knew everybody at
the marketplace and they would save the best for them.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Mhm.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
We'd come back and and and the little the little
truck going back to the restaurant and the chefs. I
would not be part of this conversation the SEFs, the
chefs would would write the menus on the way back
and on the way back to the restaurant, and the
menus would change every day based on what they got
from the gardens. And and that sort of reinforced what
(08:50):
I'd been thinking about food in Colorado. So when I
came to Tucson. I'm not from here, and we started
advertising for garters before we advertised for staff. I didn't
know anything always grew here, you know, like anybody new
here and new to the desert, you realize you think, well,
(09:10):
nothing grows here. I better grow what I need, right,
So I started growing the things my gardener's growing, the
things that I'd been cooking with in France. And then
as I the dawning of recognition comes to me and
I realized, wait a minute, there's there's a lot out here.
And I started and really became aware of native seed
search and our food heritage. And this was very early on,
(09:35):
like the mid mid eighties or something like that. I
began to incorporate those products into my food and those
sorts of those sorts of ingredients into my dishes, and
what had been very French based at first, never lost
the French because that's those techniques are valid in any
(09:55):
kind of cooking, but incorporated the foods of our region
and then just continue to take a deep dive into that.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And when Yano was open in nineteen eighty three, right yeah,
and at that time, blending French techniques in Southern or
Southwestern ingredients wasn't common, and what kind of reaction did
you get from the Tucson community.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
It started slowly, and it was not a big restaurant either,
but it started slowly. But the most important thing to me,
when you think about your what's your job as a chef? Right,
cook good food, not screw it up, keep people healthy, Okay,
all of that stuff, but most importantly you had you
(10:39):
have to cook food that taste really great and people
are going to enjoy. That's how you build trust. And
so because of sort of a somewhat diverse background that
I had, I knew how to cook things, and I
knew how to combine flavors and ingredients and make dishes
I wasn't making, which is the people I heard of.
(11:01):
You know, I was always creating new things, and I
built the trust with my customers because they may not
know what this was, but when they tasted it, they
know they loved it. And that built the trust that
allowed me to continue in that and that path. And
I've always told you know, young cooks, and I was
(11:24):
still pretty fairly young cook at that time, but young
cooks try to do all sorts of offbeat things and
try combinations that do or don't work together. And if they,
and I always tell them, if you're cooking for yourself,
go home and cook, but here we're cooking for our guests.
They have to be top of mind.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Absolutely. And I'm sure you saw something that inspired you
in the food seeing it here in Tucson, and we're
going to talk about that when we get back from
this very short break. Do you want access to Tucson's
best kept food secrets, Join the Tucson Tasty Show membership
program at the tastyshow dot com. All right, coming up next,
(12:09):
we'll talk more about how Chefiano's helped Tucson on the
Global Culinaries map, and don't forget to stick around and
again check out the tastyshow dot com and as always,
stay tasty Tucson. Hello, this is Wesley's source with the
(12:48):
Tucson Tasty Show. With every Tasty bite from n E
Premiumbeef dot Com, you get premium beefflavor from the amazing
ground beef to the melt in your mouth Ribbi Steaks.
Every ounce is exceptionally aged for more than twenty one days,
giving verra or Ol Premium Beef exceptional Premium beef flavor.
Order online at Vepremiumbeef dot com. Again, that's ve premiumbef
(13:12):
dot com.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Hi, I'm Stephen Kodoroblis, founder of the Tucson Familyfood Project.
Here in Tucson, no family should have to choose between
paying bills and putting food on the table. That's why
we're here to provide healthy, home cooked meals to families
in need every single week. But we need your help.
Just one dollar can have a huge impact on a
family's nutrition and a child's educational outcome. Together, we can
(13:35):
make sure every child in our community has access to
nourishing food and a brighter future. Visit the Tucsonfamilyfoodproject dot
org to learn more and to make your donation today. Together,
we're not just helping families, We're building a stronger Tuson.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Hey, Tucson, Ready to spice up your dining experience? Join
the Tucson Tasty Show Supporter membership and unlock exclusive access
to secret menu items from our partner restaurants. What kind
dishes aren't just regular menu items crafted just for our members.
It's your backstage pass to Tucson's best kept culinary secrets.
(14:09):
Sign up today at the Tastyshow dot com. And discover
what you've been missing. Stay tasty. Tucson.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Spark Project Collective, the world's first tattoo, body piercing and
metaphysical nonprofit. We're here to inspire, uplift and give back
to Tucson. We're meaningful tattoos and unique piercings, massage therapy,
soundbed sessions, metaphysical readers, and classes for spiritual growth. Spark
Project Collective helps you express your authentic self while giving
back to your community. Rent our event space. It's perfect
(14:38):
for your next gathering or even workshop. Visits Sparkproject Collective
dot com to learn more and discover where creativity and
connection meet.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Welcome to the Tucson Tasty Show, brought to you by
SOKA Southern Arizona Art and Cultural Alliance dedicated to creating, preserving,
and advancing the arts. And now it's time for more
tasty bites with your host, Wesley Source. Welcome back to
the Tucson Tasty Show. I'm here with Chef Janos Wilder
(15:10):
and we're talking about his incredible contributions to Tucson's food culture.
One of the biggest milestones in our city's culinary history
was becoming the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the
U are in North America. UH and Chef Janos Wilder
was a driving force behind that recognition and this segment
(15:36):
or and this segment is brought to you by Tucson
Family Food Project, helping families in our community gain better
access to fresh, local food. So Chef tell us about
how Tucson was selected as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy
and what was that process like.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, so I wasn't in from the very beginning, but
I got brought on pretty pretty early. Gary knob Hand
was really the spark for this idea. Jonathan Maybury, who's
our executive director, was originally the board chair. I'm the
board chair now. He's taken over the role a few
years ago as the as the executive director, really had
(16:18):
put hatched the plan and put it together. Realized that
first of all, UNESCO is not a big thing in
the United States, but it certainly is in Europe. But
Gary knew about it, and knew that knew knew of
this of the Cities of Astronomy part of the Creative
Cities Network, and that we said we should we should apply.
We have a really if anybody knows about our gastronomic heritage.
(16:42):
It's Gary Knobhan, right right, So so we we we
should try try to do this, and so I was
brought on to help with the application processes. They told
me about this. I realized, well, oh my god, this
is kind of my my life's work. So yes, I
want to be I want to be part of that.
So we put together an application. It was very well received,
(17:02):
but we did not get that certification, that recognition. At
that point they asked us to reapply. We fine tune
the application a bit in our second Apparently nobody ever
gets around the first time. At least they're nice enough
to tell you that, And then we received that recognition
in two thy fifteen. Yeah, we're starting our tenth year.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yes, and more than I'm hoping that's there's going to
be a celebration of ten years of.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Oh, yes, we're working on it. There will be a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
And hopefully we can help with that and good, we
hope you can. But it's more than five thousand years
of agriculture and cultivating in the Tucson area, which is incredible.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, and that's the reason we've got that designation. You know,
people think, oh, your city of astronomy, you have the
best restaurants in the country. That's how you get it. Well,
we like think we have really good restaurants, and you know,
people in New York might argue with that, and people
in New Orleans and Chicago and San Francisco. You know,
that's not the reason. It's not about that. It's about
(18:14):
what makes you unique, both from a food standpoint and
a cultural standpoint. So gastronomy is sort of the intersection
of food and culture. So that's really what it's about.
What it's about. So, yes, we have five thousand years
of unique gastronomic history here. The Santa Cruz River is
(18:37):
the longest continuously cultivated region in North America. Incredible, Well,
what's that. It's not the Mississippi, it's not the Colorado,
it's not any of the great rivers of our country. No,
it's the river that doesn't flow right. But it's because
right there, right in downtown Kitchen, right where Mission Garden,
downtown Tuston, right where Mission Gardens is that people came
(19:01):
millennium after millennium, family after family because the source that
there was always some water. You might have to dig
for it, you might have to irrigate you, and they
became master gardeners. They were ingenious people on how to
use that very limited resource water and it's hugely parts,
(19:22):
horribly parts in the arid climate to grow crops that
they can eat. And they took crops from the desert,
things that were growing wild in the desert, we call
those desert adapted crops, and started cultivating those all sorts
of beans they can find. You can still find the
predecessors of these five thousand year old, still wild predecessors
(19:43):
for some of these things if you go hiking around
and you know what to look for. And they domesticated
these things and really built through their ingenuity and brains
and necessity, an agricultural heritage. And so I think of
them as the survivors. I think of the foods that
(20:06):
they created as the survivors, the people that rule those
foods with the survivors. We are the beneficiaries of five
thousand years of surviving here in this arid, parched desert.
But it doesn't stop here. We're a moment in time
right now. We're part of a continuum and it goes
(20:28):
on from here. And but this is an important time
because while we've been learned for five thousand years how
to grow things in a parched environment. The rest of
the world's going to have to figure it out too.
We have the answers, we know how to do that.
So I think the role that Tucson will take, other
(20:49):
places like us with similar sorts of climates are going
to take, is going to be leadership role worldwide. And
it's happening now, right. How do you grow in climates
that are really inhospitable. They're coming worse and worse. We
know that. It's just a matter fact. And and and
we we have some of those answers, and that's something
(21:11):
we can share with the world absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And uh and speaking about that no or international stage,
I mean, you've been a culinary ambassador for Tucson, even
representing our food scene internationally. What was it like cooking
at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris?
Speaker 3 (21:33):
It was it was fun, but it was really I've
done a lot of international a fair amount of international cooking.
It's never easy. Every everything always goes wrong at that point,
so it's it's it's kind of a good story. At
that point, I was supposed to be working with the
chefs from the from the ambassador chefs. The ambassador had
two chefs they had, you know, there there was a
(21:55):
time of political change in this country like we're having now,
and the chefs just been fired like the day before
I get there, So my support team was completely gone.
I was by myself. They helped me purchase some products
and stuff, and then they said we're out here. So
I worked at UNESCO headquarters, one hundred and fifty people
or something like that, a big cocktail party with tons
(22:19):
of different different things. All of our creative city networks
were there, and because we're a creative city of astronomy,
we were asked to do the food. It was challenging
and it was uber successful and I'm really proud of it,
but don't want to go through that again. We teach,
(22:39):
so we have we have cohorts of chef ambassadors who
we train now and so this is a good segue
to that. And we really after we didn't realize that
this was going to be a thing. You know, we
got invited here and we get invited there, and we
think that's okay, fine, and we were sort of hawk
(23:00):
about how we would choose chefs to go. But we
realized very early on that we needed a cohort of chefs,
and we wanted a cohort of chefs who looked like Tucson.
We wanted we wanted men, we wanted women, We wanted
all the ethnicities that are represented here in Tucson, chefs
of various ethnicities to represent us. And but they needed
(23:24):
to be trained. You know, by the time I got
to Paris, I'd been cooking for forty something years. I could.
I knew how to roll with the punches. I'd been
punched a lot. But these are younger chefs.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
One hundred and fifty top though. I mean, that's it's
still impressive. Yeah it was anybody, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah, but they might do that too, right, right, And
so we've been training. This is our second cohort that's
gone through the training. We just completed. Their training was
an ad hoc for a while. We did an earlier
cohort that went through the training that lashed a little
longer because that that bridged ridge COVID the pandemic, and
(24:02):
so they didn't get a chance to travel. As long
as we kept them on great chefs. And this cohort
looks more like Tucson than any of our The most
that looks like Tusson. I'm really proud of that because
that's important both to me personally that we share that,
but I think it will make a huge difference in
(24:24):
these chefs lives moving forward. And so we train them
and all sorts of things, and then as it will
pair them up as needs are for the very things.
And they also of areur ambassadors not only around the world,
but they will go around the world sister cities of astronomy,
but here in Tucson, here in Pima County, they will
(24:44):
also they're also spreading the word. They will be doing
all sorts of events around.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Here and culinary leaders in the community and mentorships. Absolutely
incredible and definitely something that is if you're not learning,
you're not growing, that's not growing, then you know, we'll
leave it there. But you know, at the onset of this,
you know, what has been one of your favorite places
(25:12):
other than Tucson, Because I'm sure you stayed here for
as long as you have because you love cooking in Tucson,
But what is one of your favorite places that you've
been and region wise to cook with the UNESCO program.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
So I haven't traveled though much. I've only as a
union since we've got this designation. I didn't want to
be the guy going out. I wanted my job is
to train others. The only one that I did was Paris,
and I'm really glad I did. It. Was a good
thing that I that I did that. But I have
not visited any of other sister sister cities. I have
(25:47):
plenty of opportunity to do that. But this part of
my life is about really teaching younger people how to
do that sharing that. I've had opportunities my whole life.
They came from different who knows how they how you
get them, but you get them right. And now I'm
really really focusing on on sharing, on sharing that mentoring
(26:09):
and teaching other people to do that. Places that I've
loved to go cook, you know, so I so we
talked a little bit about Singapore and Hong Kong. I
did a thing in Singapore several years ago. That was
another really difficult thing. Everything goes wrong when you take
it on the road, but everything goes right too because
you fit because you fix it. That was super interesting.
(26:32):
I love I love that food, but I I love
food right, So I could go anywhere and say, oh
my god, what do you got here, what's going on?
Let's let's let's take a deep dive and and and
I get to travel a bit. So when I do that, Yeah,
what what do you like to cook? What I'm cooking? Now?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Fair enough? And uh, and we'll be right back after
this short break. Uh. Do you know about our membership exclusives?
Go check out the Tastyshow dot com and we'll be
right back to Stay tasty Tucson. Hello, this is Wesley's
(27:15):
source with the Tucson Tasty Show. With every tasty bite
from veepremiumbef dot com, you get premiumbefflavor from the amazing
ground beef to the melt in your mouth Ribbi steaks.
Every ounce is exceptionally aged for more than twenty one days,
giving Verra Earl Premium Beef exceptional Premium Beef flavor. Order
online at vee premiumbef dot com. Again, that's ve Premiumbeef
(27:40):
dot Com.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Hi. I'm Stephen Kodoroblis, founder of the Tucson Familyfood Project.
Here in Tucson, no family should have to choose between
paying bills and putting food on the table. That's why
we're here to provide healthy, home cooked meals. To families
in need every single week, but we need your help.
Just one dollar can have a huge impact on a face,
family's nutrition, and a child's educational outcome. Together, we can
(28:03):
make sure every child in our community has access to
nourishing food and a brighter future. Visit the Tucsonfamilyfoodproject dot
org to learn more and to make your donation today. Together,
we're not just helping families, We're building a stronger Tuson.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Hey, Tucson, Ready to spice up your dining experience? Join
the Tucson Tasty Show Supporter membership and unlock exclusive access
to secret menu items from our partner restaurants. These one
of a kind dishes aren't just regular menu items crafted
just for our members. It's your backstage pass to Tucson's
best kept culinary secrets. Sign up today at the Tastyshow
(28:39):
dot com and discover what you've been missing. Stay Tasty. Tucson.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Spark Project Collective the world's first tattoo, body piercing and
metaphysical nonprofit. We're here to inspire, uplift and give back
a Tucson. We're meaningful tattoos and unique piercings. Massage therapy
soundbed sessions, metaphysical readers, and classes for spiritual growth. Spark
Project Collective helps you express your authentic self while giving
back to your community. Rent our event space. It's perfect
(29:06):
for your next gathering or your workshop. Visits Spark Project
Collective dot com to learn more and discover where creativity
and connection meet.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Welcome to the Tucson Tasties Show, brought to you by
Sokka Southern Arizona Art and Cultural Alliance dedicated to creating,
preserving and advancing the arts. And now it's time for
more tasty bites with your host, Wesley Source. Welcome back
to the Tucson Tasty Show. I'm your host, Wesley Source,
(29:42):
and we're sitting down with Chef Yanos Wilder. We're talking
about his journey and Tucson's global recognition, but now I
want to focus on how he's always stayed ahead of
the curve, especially when it comes to the latest project,
Studio Yanos. And this segment is brought to you by
(30:03):
Local First Arizona, supporting small businesses and the incredible food
scene right here in our states. So tell us what
inspired you to transition from downtown kitchen and cocktails to
studio enos.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Well, this all took place during during the pandemic, and
we were forced to shut down Downtown Kitchen and Cocktails.
You know, we pivot and you pivot, and you pivot
and you pivot and you realize we can't pivot any longer.
And we didn't close the restaurant. We just shut down.
We're renegotiating at least ended up not renegotiating. At least
(30:46):
we were still at the at the carriage house. Pivot
and pivot and pivot, and some I got in a
bad car accident, couldn't do it any longer. So it
wasn't the pandemic so much, but it created an opportunity
to say, wait a minute. My son asked me, how
along hike? He said, Dad, what's your exit strategy? Said?
(31:09):
What's that? You know? I don't have an exit strategies. Well,
maybe maybe this could be it. Just keep your mind
open to it. And I did. And when these things
were happening, I couldn't work any longer for a while,
and so we ended up closing everything. But during that
year I realized I love what I do now more
(31:32):
than I ever loved it before. I wanted to distill
it down just to the things that make me really happy.
And that's two things, actually hands on cooking, A and
B working directly with my guests. And so we created
(31:53):
Studio Yanos in the middle of downtown and one twenty
four East Broadway. It's six hundred square feet. I have
a little kitchen which is totally outfitted with everything that
I need. One table that we built many many years,
gorgeous table, beautiful. The room is just gorgeous. It's got
great art. It feels feels like home in many in
(32:16):
many ways, and a space where I can do my
best work. I cook every single thing that my guests
are going to eat, and I bring in a team
the night of our dinners. We don't sell Wednesdays and Tuesdays.
You can't call up and make a reservation for yourself
and your girlfriend or your wife. You book the room
(32:39):
and bring in a team. That's fantastic, that really works.
We work as a team in harmony and so fantastic service,
but also a place where people can cut loose. It's
their own space. We only do it one a night,
and only two or three the most the very most
three in a week, and rarely will I do That's
(33:00):
a lot that's that's a little more than I want
to do. But so we really can focus entirely on
those guests that menu, and I can cook everything, and
I'm cooking right in front of them. Their meal is
from me to them.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Incredible.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, it's it's like this is the perfect job.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
And it's a really cool environment as well, because not
only can you see everything that's happening and you can
interact with that, and you know, you're pulling back the
curtain quite a bit completely.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
There's no curtain. There's no curtain to pull back.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
So you're not in the kitchen and coming out and
it's all it's all happening right there. Uh. And you
know to that, you know it's not a traditional restaurant.
It's an intimate, experience based dining. Uh. And so what
can people expect when they come there as far as
you're doing every are you cooking everything in front of them?
(33:57):
You have a lot of prep work already done?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Yeah, I will have. I'll have been working for several
days on their menu, so that that's building blocks and
then putting it all together and finishing it all. And
I'll have one person in the kitchen with me who's
these guys are men and women are fantastic, So they
can finish my sentences and they'll help me play it
(34:21):
and they'll do their part. I'll do my part, and
a couple of people helping to serve their You know,
it's just it's seamless. It is seamless. But what we found,
and you don't know when you're you know, you plan
these things. You don't know is that people how conducive
that is for people's conversations. We can be part of
(34:45):
that or less of that to the extent that they want.
I'll talk about the foods, and most of the foods
we do our heritage foods. Who I tell that story
and talk about each of the dishes. They've never had
these dishes before. They don't know anything about them, but
they trust me, and thank god they do, because they
get a great meal out if they should trust me,
and and but have they never want to leave. They
(35:07):
have so much fun. And because their groups they all
know each other, so their interactions amongst families, amongst friends,
sometimes they don't know each other. Sometimes they need business things.
But food's a great ice it's a great ice breaker
and a great unifier. And so the sort of really
over the top, fun and interesting dinners that happened, that
(35:31):
happened there that you can't really have. Maybe you can
have in your home, but you're you're doing too much
of the work yourself, and you can't have in a
restaurant because you're surrounded by other people. So it's not
even it's better than a private dining room. In a restaurant,
you have an absolute, one undivided attention.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Do you see a shift towards more experienced space dining
as the future of restaurants.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
I don't think I'm prepared to answer that. I don't.
I hadn't thought about that that question. I think that
I'm I'm more focused at this point on what I'm doing,
and I'm not looking for the next thing for me.
I'm not, you know, I don't. I don't really care. Honestly,
I don't. I don't really care on on on a
(36:21):
personal level. All I care about is I'm creating a great,
fabulous experience for my guest, and I imagine that might
have some trickle down of fat I understand that people
try to do similar things. Are other things that are experiential,
I don't.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I understand. Yeah, so sourcing local ingredients has always been
a big part of your approach. Why is that so
important to you?
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Well, because I think that that we talked about a
sense of place. That's what makes when you go someplace,
whether it's in your home or when you visit at
some place. I don't want to have the same thing
when I go to Chicago that I'm going to eat Tucson,
and vice versa. I don't want to have the same
thing in Tucson that'll have in Chicago, name any other city,
(37:09):
any country in the world. I want to have what's
unique about that place, what makes them special that I
can only only get there just as an aside. So
what we do is ultimately find dining on a very
personal level without any of the boloney that goes along
with it. But fine dining has become has taken on
(37:33):
a real sameness. It's international cooking. And you could close
your eyes and be in New York City, or you
could be in Paris, or you could be in Beijing,
or you could be in Buenos Aires, and you might
get you might and if the room didn't didn't give
it away, you know, somehow you were transported, you wouldn't
know where you were right through the food and to
(37:56):
have that sense of place, to know where you are,
to know why why you're there, why, what how that
food comes to you. That's that's what I've done. That's
it's that's it's enjoyable for me, and it's super enjoyable
for me. And when I get those experiences.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Elsewhere, absolutely, and uh so not just another steakhouse.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
No, no, not not that I don't like steaks.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
I do, absolutely, and I agree. But you can go
to any city and you walk into a steakhouse and
you're like, Okay, I've been here before.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah, And so that works too because there's a familiarity
and there's a comfort zone. I get that.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
But the flavors of Tucson.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
Are unique, very absolutely unique. You can't get them anywhere else.
And in our dishes that focus on the heritage foods,
each we just take such a deep dive and one
of the things always hear from our guess is, oh
my god, these flavors. Oh these flavors. And each course
(38:56):
is very different, but flavor is everything to me. My
job as a chef is to bring out flavors or
get out of their way, not to hide them, to
bring them out. That doesn't mean I want things to
be super spicy. I don't because that hides everything else.
But that has a place in things, but to really
(39:19):
accent flavors, right, and that so from the first course,
then these are seven courses, from the first one to
the last, it's flavor, flavor.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Flavor, absolutely, And you know with that in mind, you
know you talk about local flavors and local ingredients. That
ties into sustainability as well. And how do you see
sustainability playing a bigger role in the future of food.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Well, I think it has to play a bigger role
because we can't be transporting things from long, long distances.
For a while, there was a thing called FedEx food, right,
and chefs were getting stuff from all all over the world.
What's kind of cool, right, You could do that, but
that's unsustainable. So you want the closer you grow, you
(40:06):
get the foods to your home, the better it is
from a sustainable standpoint. The less water that you're in
an era of climates that we talked about that that's
going to be all over the place, the less water
it takes to grow those things, the better off you're
going to be. The more sustainable you are. The practices
that you have in your restaurant. And really that's something
(40:27):
we really strive and is a priority for us in
our restaurant certification program through the City of Astronomy. Is
sustainability is a big part of getting that certification.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
And then would you say there's one specific ingredients that
the local chefs should be paying attention to more.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
I'm not so concerned that it's local ingredients. I'm concerned
I want our local chefs to have the confidence not
to feel like they got to serve Italian food, not
to that they have to serve French food, not to
feel that they have to serve any other kind of food,
but have the confidence that our food resonates. And when
(41:09):
you go to Gut Dinners, you see the best of
the best. I want those chefs to do that food
in their own restaurants, not only at Gut Dinners.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Absolutely so. Do you want to try exclusive off the
menu items at some of Tucson's best restaurants, Join the
Tucson Tasty Show membership program at the Tastyshow dot com
and unlock those are the secret password to dishes you
won't find anywhere else. And as always, day Tasty Tucson Hello,
(41:42):
this is Wesley's source with the Tucson Tasty Show. With
every tasty bite from Veepremiumbeef dot com, you get premium
beef flavor from the amazing ground beef to the melt
in your mouth Ribbi steaks. Every ounce is exceptionally aged
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(42:03):
premiumbef dot com. Again, that's ve Premiumbeef dot com.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Hi. I'm Stephen Kodoroblis, founder of the Tucson Familyfood Project.
Here in Tucson, no family should have to choose between
paying bills and putting food on the table. That's why
we're here to provide healthy, home cooked meals to families
in need every single week. But we need your help.
Just one dollar can have a huge impact on a
family's nutrition and a child's educational outcome. Together, we can
(42:31):
make sure every child in our community has access to
nourishing food and a brighter future. Visit the Tucsonfamilyfoodproject dot
org to learn more and to make your donation today. Together,
we're not just helping families, we're building a stronger tuson
Ey Tucson.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Ready to spice up your dining experience, Join the Tucson
Tasty Show Supporter membership and unlock exclusive access to secret
menu items from our partner restaurants. These one of a
kind dishes aren't just regular menu items, crafted just for
our members. It's your backstage pass to Tucson's best kept
culinary secrets. Sign up today at the Tastyshow dot com
(43:07):
and discover what you've been missing. Stay tasty Tucson.
Speaker 5 (43:11):
Spark Project Collective the world's first tattoo, body piercing and
metaphysical nonprofit. We're here to inspire, uplift and give back
a Tucson. We're meaningful tattoos and unique piercings, massage therapy,
soundbed sessions, metaphysical readers, and classes for spiritual growth. Spark
Project Collective helps you express your authentic self while giving
back to your community. Rent our event space. It's perfect
(43:34):
for your next gathering or your workshop. Visits Sparkproject Collective
dot com to learn more and discover where creativity and
connection meet.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
This is the Tucson Tasty Show and I am your host,
Wesley Source. We're in the final segment of our conversation
with Chef Giano Swilder, and now I want to take
a moment and reflect on what you're doing in the
Studio Yanos and talk about some of the are some
of the things that you do a lot of the
(44:09):
time when you're mentoring some of these young chefs.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Yeah, well, so what I'm doing really with food. So
what Studio Yanos does. What we do is we do
these small private dinners and I create seasonal menus for
those dinners. And I've been focusing since we opened on
really the heritage, heritage foods which you can I love
(44:34):
and will never go away. But we also have a
repertoire of what I'm calling now Yano's favorites. Those are
the things that from the very beginning for Halloween nineteen
eighty three, which was our opening day two when we
closed at the Western Law Ploma, we had so for
(44:56):
thirty year run of Yanos, and so taking for opening
the vault and pulling out dishes our favorites and our
guest favorites from those years. So for the first time,
I'm really offering two menus that people can choose to
have with their group. One would be the heritage menu,
(45:17):
the deep dive into the products and the flavors and
the taste of Tucson, which we've been talking so much about.
But the other one is is our favorites, my favorites
from my career in Yano. So these are the super lux,
high end, you know, crazy beautiful foods that really I
(45:40):
built my reputation on, which gave me the entree to
take to take a deeper dive into it to what
we do here. So now people can go to my
website Studio Yanos dot com see those menus and choose
from either of those. So we have an opening night
(46:00):
lobster with papaya and champagne sauce dish that I a
version of a dish that I learned in Paris when
I was working in France. That changed it to a
degree to make it more regional to where we were.
So actually this time of year it's papaya mango rather
(46:21):
than papaya. Can still get these beautiful mangos, but the
papayas aren't quite right. And things that were flights of
fancy for me that just turned out to be amazing.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
A Number one sushi Gray, the best sushi you can buy.
It came in to me comes in to be so
red and gorgeous. And I did a dish many years
ago called it shrimp takashimi. I never used shrimp anymore
because it's the sourceing of it's is really unreliable and
not necessarily sustainable. But the idea was flight of fancy.
(46:57):
What if I walk down the ginza in Tokyo and
wanted to order a taco? What would I get? Interesting?
So what what what I imagined? And what we are serving
on this menu and what we served at our menus
at various times at yanos, we would make a taco
shell out of an egg roll wrapper.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Okay, well we're.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Not going to do beans, so we do stir fried
lo maine. We're going to we're not going to do
carne as sada. So in this case we're doing this
absolutely raw, beautiful number one sashimi, great ahi tuna, a
seaweed salad, pickled ginger, kobiaki sauce, which is the sauce
(47:46):
that you would put on your ruinagi at the sushi bar,
a little sesame, and just awesome, great flavors and just
not in our vernacular for two on, but really in
the innocular my of my history. We do a puff
pastry bisc which is totally French concoction where you actually
(48:09):
make a soup and you chill the soup and you
put in these special bowls this, that, that that, and
you put puff past cold puff pastry over the top
so it's cold, and you refrigerate that thing so so
so cold, and you put in the oven right before service,
and the puff pastry as the soup heats up, the
puff pastry, which is just tightly adhere to the bowl,
(48:31):
rises and puffs up and makes this beautiful dome. And
as you break into the soup, all the aromas of
the soup. And this is this is we do a madeira,
madeira and mushroom bisc That's the soup that we're that
we're doing that we're doing right now. I'm doing green
(48:52):
tea smoked duck, which I'd forgotten. Actually, I'll put green
tea smoke duck. That was always one of the one
of our favorites. That is the most complex recipe. I'd
forgotten all the steps that went into probably shouldn't have
done that, but so we dry the duck, we smoke
it over, we cure it in in a dry cure
(49:13):
and then a wet rub and smoke it over green
tea leaves. It's served with this time of year. We
don't we don't do plums. We do we do cinnamon
poach plums in in in rice wine and in in
rice plum wine. And uh this beautiful and delicious, just
(49:33):
crazy crazy good flavors. So these sort of out of
the box flavors. And then we end up really back
in a slightly different box with an eight hour raised
short rib with a dish. I call the truth about potatoes.
This is a recipe from one of the great French chefs,
(49:54):
Joel Robashone. When the first first time I made this
recipe for potatoes, those potatoes, Oh my god, this is
the truth about potatoes. This is what every potato should
taste like. And so that becomes the ba.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
Tell me more, tell me more.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
I'll tell you more.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
You're making me really really hungry, and I can't imagine.
Speaker 3 (50:17):
So you slice the potatoes really quite quite thin, not
super super thin, and with a little bit of thyme,
some garlic, some grew yere cheese, and you and you
make a graton with just enough cream to just float
the top of the potatoes. Cook them for about forty
(50:37):
five minutes. First you poach the potatoes in milk, take
them out of the milk, then you save the milk
for if you're going to make them again. Then the
cream goes over the top and you've got all that
grew yere cheese and it's all everything accentuates the flavor
of the potato itself without getting in its weight. That's
that dish. That is the truth about potato doing for
(51:00):
ressert for dessert, A dish that we created, I don't know,
in the mid in the mid eighties. So we're really
going to take it going going to the way back
machine here, Dark Chocolate Jlopeno ice Cream Sunday, which was
people are still claiming for it's additional Ever thought if
I had a product I would make that would probably
(51:22):
be it.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
That's incredible. No, I mean that's uh, that's it sounds incredible. Yes,
I definitely need to we definitely need to do something
more together at the studio and h but how can
everybody get a hold of you? What's the website?
Speaker 3 (51:37):
Yeah, the website is studio Yanos dot com. So just
go to the website and there you hit hit private parties.
If that's what you're interested. I do consulting to all
sorts of other stuff, So you see all sorts of
options for you to do. But go to the private
parties and you can. There's a place for you to
give us your information and tell us what you want.
And then there's nobody between me and you, which I
(52:00):
will be calling you on the phone.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
How many years are you booked out?
Speaker 3 (52:05):
Somebody somebody said this is the hardest sticking in town.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
Yes, and then uh so that's and I can't wait
to experience that in the kitchen with you. And I'm
really hoping that we can we can get a TV
episode with you as well, and I'm sure we'll talk
about that off air. But let's talk up a little
bit about your uh your cooking. You also do consulting
(52:32):
and everything else. So after all these years, how do
you keep passionate about it?
Speaker 3 (52:37):
It's the food speaks to me.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
You.
Speaker 3 (52:43):
I get excited as excited when I make that potato dishes.
You just got right. I still do. The food speaks
to me, The people speak to me, and I I
just it's my happy space. What can I say? It's
just my happy space. The whole thing I have more
fun when we do these dinners and that interaction with
(53:03):
our guests and have the primacy with them and that
feedback that they am able to get and we can
you know, it's just it's yeah, it doesn't get any better.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
Absolutely, And so I've got to ask for the young
chefs or anyone out there that dreams of opening a
restaurant or getting into the hospitality industry, what's the best
advice you can give.
Speaker 3 (53:25):
Get a job. Get a job, and get a hard job.
Start washing dishes is fine, work your way up. And
you know, so many people go to culinary schools and
they still do. I did not, and I'm not saying
that's a bad thing. I've hired a lot of really
great chefs from culinary schools, but it's very expensive, or
(53:45):
unless you go to PIMOT, which is a fantastic program. Absolutely,
but make sure it's what you love. It's a hard life.
It's tough on a family. You're away from your family,
from your family a lot. You get. It's not an
abusive situation in most kitchens, like in many ways it
was when I when when I grow up. But it's hard,
(54:06):
it's long hours, it's it's you do a lot of
grunt work. You've got to if that. If you don't
love that, don't do it. You got to find you know,
it's romanticized now. It's romanticized on TV, it's romanticized in magazines,
it's romanticized all through our culture. But it's not romantic
(54:28):
doing it because I found this perfect little path for myself.
It's romantic to me. I got to tell you that.
But but, but make but I I've been doing it
for my whole life. I've been doing it for fifty years.
You know, I knew from the begin maybe not from
the begin quickly realized, oh yeah, oh you're yelling at
(54:50):
me because I made that dish wrong. Bring it on.
I want to learn how to do it right. I
don't I ignore the yelling. I just hearing the message.
And if that's not for you, if you don't want
to be great at it, don't get in the cook
cooking not to be great at a lot of better
ways to make a living.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
Yeah, I heard, definitely, And thank you for all of
your incredible experience. Thank you for being on the show today.
Visit the tucsontastyshow dot com. Join our membership program in
unlock secret menu items, VIP tastings, and more. Don't forget
you can bring home the best in the local beef
with Viral Premium Beef Tasty Show Box delivering high quality
(55:30):
ranch to table flavor. Thank you for joining us on
the Tucson Tasty Show. Savor every delicious bite and we'll
see you next week. Stay Tasty, Tucson. Hello, this is
(55:50):
Wesley Source with the Tucson Tasty Show. With every Tasty
bite from me Premiumbeef dot Com, you get premium beef
flavor from the amazing ground Beef, the melt in your
mouth Ribi Steaks. Every ounce is exceptionally aged for more
than twenty one days, giving verra or Ol Premium Beef
exceptional Premium beef flavor. Order online at VE Premiumbeef dot Com. Again,
(56:13):
that's VE Premiumbef dot Com.
Speaker 4 (56:18):
Hi. I'm Stephen Coodoroblis, founder of the Tucson Familyfood Project.
Here in Tucson, no family should have to choose between
paying bills and putting food on the table. That's why
we're here to provide healthy, home cooked meals to families
in need every single week. But we need your help.
Just one dollar can have a huge impact on a
family's nutrition and a child's educational outcome. Together, we can
(56:38):
make sure every child in our community has access to
nourishing food and a brighter future. Visit the Tucsonfamilyfoodproject dot
org to learn more and to make your donation today. Together,
we're not just helping families, We're building a stronger tuson
Ey Tucson.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
Ready to spice up your dining experience, Join the Tucson
Tasty Show Supporter membership and unlock exclusive access to secret
menu items from our partner restaurants. These one of a
kind dishes aren't just regular menu items crafted just for
our members. It's your backstage pass to Tucson's best kept
culinary secrets. Sign up today at the Tastyshow dot com
(57:15):
and discover what you've been missing. Stay Tasty. Tucson.
Speaker 5 (57:18):
Spark Project Collective the world's first tattoo, body piercing and
metaphysical nonprofit. We're here to inspire, uplift and give back
a Tucson. We're meaningful tattoos and unique piercings, massage therapy,
soundbed sessions, metaphysical readers, and classes for spiritual growth. Spark
Project Collective helps you express your authentic self while giving
back to your community. Rent our event space. It's perfect
(57:41):
for your next gathering or even workshop. Visits sparkproject collective
dot com to learn more and discover where creativity and
connection meet
Amids the ancient rooms of a forgotten civilization, a mysterious temple.
Paul states with an otherworldly energy, the guardian of this
taste Define Sanctuary moves forward, a figure shrouded in enigma,
in power. He doesn't just taste food, he summons forgotten
(00:24):
flavors and awakens dormant passions. Behold the Wizard of Food,
Wesley Source in the Tucson Tasty Show.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Welcome to the Tucson Tasty Show, brought to you by SOAKA,
the Southern Arizona Art and Cultural Alliance. SOAKA is dedicated
to creating, preserving, and advancing the arts, and we are
very proud to have them as our presenting sponsor. A
huge thank you to all of our sponsors who helped
make this show possible. That It's Vera Earl, Premium Beef,
Tucson Family Food Project, Local First Arizona, Pertillo's hot Dogs,
(01:06):
and of course Soka. Before we dive in, don't forget
to visit the Tastyshow dot com. That's where you can
listen to past episodes, discover exclusive content, and best of all,
join the Tasty Show Membership program. Members unlock secret menu
items at Tucson's top restaurants, scoring exclusive rewards and even
(01:26):
getting surprise restaurant gift cards. If you love food, this
is for you. Go to the Tastyshow dot com and
sign up. Today I'm your host, Wesley Source, and today
we have a truly special guest with us. One of
the most influential chefs in the Southwest. He's a James
Beard Award winning chef, a pioneer using local ingredients, and
(01:48):
a key figure in helping Tucson earn the title of
the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in North America. Please
welcome Chef Janos Wilder. How you doing today's I'm great?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Good morning, Wesley, how are you.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm good. I'm super excited. We've been really excited all
week waiting for you to come into the show and
here it is.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Well, thanks for having me here.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's our pleasure. This segment is brought to This segment
of the twosan Tasty Show is brought to you by
Viral Premium Beef, bringing you that ranch to table quality
you can taste. So let's dive into it. So we
really wanted to bring you on the show and talk
about how you became a chef. Everybody knows that you're
an incredible chef. And you originally studied political science at
(02:34):
UC Berkeley, right, yeah, and then what led you into
the culinary world.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Well long before that. You know, I started cooking when
I was fifteen or sixteen. That started my life in restaurants.
But the real story starts well before that, because cooking
with my mom, who was a great cook, but I
was a quick story. I was the youngest of three
(03:00):
other and sister were off to school, and you know,
my mom was probably twenty four twenty five at the
time and loved Frank Sinatra and she loved cooking, and
she would as she cooked, she would have Frank Sinatra
and she would dance me around her kitchen while she
(03:21):
was cooking. Just picked me up and danced me around
the kitchen. And that you know that, since then, I
equate cooking and love and the gifts that you give people.
That's how that's really the inspiration. And didn't know it
obviously at the time, and even even as I got
(03:42):
a little bit older and started cooking when I was
in pizza parlors and then moving on and on and on,
it took me a while to really discover that. Oh yeah,
that's where it all comes from.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I can imagine, and absolutely that's where the passion for
the Two Soon Tasties show comes from, because that's where
the family meets around the dinner table. Absolutely, in the kitchen.
It's the central part of our home, and everybody eats, so,
you know, everybody, even if there's something going on, everybody
gets around the table.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
To eat, right, we have no choice, we have to eat.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Was there a specific moment or experience that made you
realize the food was your true calling?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yes, sort of. So I'd been working in pizza parlors,
I worked in the TGI Fridays in Nashville prior prior
to you know, before they became the big thing. They
were just in independent restaurants and other places in Colorado
and elsewhere in California as well. And I had the opportunity.
(04:45):
I hadn't worked in great restaurants, you know, just good restaurants,
not so good restaurants. Lots of experience learning, just learning
the trade, learning how to use an EFE, learning how
to work with people, learning the cooks, dance, all of
the all of those things. But I had an opportunity
to work with a guy named Joe Bochess. He was
(05:05):
excuse me, he was a CIA trained chef, but more
than that, prior to that, he was a botanist, and
so he was a really bright guy and I learned
from him because he had diverse interest that actually by
being a chef it could It allowed me to do
(05:28):
all sorts of things that wasn't just the kitchen. There
were the connections to the community. There were all sorts
of outlets that if I was really interested in it,
I didn't have to be pigeonholed. And that was really
important to me because you know you mentioned political science
at Berkeley. That's a real interest of mine. And how
(05:49):
do we as individuals relate to the greater society, be
at our hometowns, be at our states, be at our country,
how do we relate to those of issues As a
chef and how do we This really comes from my
mom more than anything else. How do you find the
opportunities to give back to the community that nurtures you?
(06:13):
And so that that working for Joe, and not that
he was doing all those things, but I just realized
that all of that became possible, and that's when the
LSAT book it was on top of my bedstand, kept
on going deeper and deeper and down, down and down
and down, with more and more cookbooks piled above.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
It understandable. And then and with all that in mind,
you talk a lot about cooking with a sense of place. Yeah,
And can you explain what that means to you?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, So it means to me to inform your cooking
with the ingredients and the flavors and really the history
of where you are. That's what a sense of place.
It's the totality of all of that. And that became
clear to me really very early on. I was living,
(07:09):
living and working in the mountains of Colorado, and we were,
you know, way up in the mountains of dirt eighty
three hundred feet dirt roads to get us to us,
nobody wanted to deliver, right, so we we I'd go
down to Boulder and shop, but we'd also inform our
we would we weren't the foragers, but we would work
(07:30):
with with foragers, and we'd get all sorts of things
from work that were around us. Plus in the summer,
and this restaurant was pretty much open six months of
a year and otherwise it was under you know, six
feet of snow, from from from the people who were
backyard gardeners and our neighbors. We would inform our cooking
(07:52):
more than that, for practical reasons, use the things that
were around us, all right. So that was how that
began for me to France and worked in Bordeaux following,
you know, at some point after that. After that, and
every day we would go to the marketplace and the
chefs let me, would let me go with them. This
(08:14):
was Michelin, two star wars, two star restaurants, phenomenal, just phenomenal,
you know, best of the best. And every day we
would go to the marketplace, and they knew everybody at
the marketplace and they would save the best for them.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Mhm.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
We'd come back and and and the little the little
truck going back to the restaurant and the chefs. I
would not be part of this conversation the SEFs, the
chefs would would write the menus on the way back
and on the way back to the restaurant, and the
menus would change every day based on what they got
from the gardens. And and that sort of reinforced what
(08:50):
I'd been thinking about food in Colorado. So when I
came to Tucson. I'm not from here, and we started
advertising for garters before we advertised for staff. I didn't
know anything always grew here, you know, like anybody new
here and new to the desert, you realize you think, well,
(09:10):
nothing grows here. I better grow what I need, right,
So I started growing the things my gardener's growing, the
things that I'd been cooking with in France. And then
as I the dawning of recognition comes to me and
I realized, wait a minute, there's there's a lot out here.
And I started and really became aware of native seed
search and our food heritage. And this was very early on,
(09:35):
like the mid mid eighties or something like that. I
began to incorporate those products into my food and those
sorts of those sorts of ingredients into my dishes, and
what had been very French based at first, never lost
the French because that's those techniques are valid in any
(09:55):
kind of cooking, but incorporated the foods of our region
and then just continue to take a deep dive into that.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And when Yano was open in nineteen eighty three, right yeah,
and at that time, blending French techniques in Southern or
Southwestern ingredients wasn't common, and what kind of reaction did
you get from the Tucson community.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
It started slowly, and it was not a big restaurant either,
but it started slowly. But the most important thing to me,
when you think about your what's your job as a chef? Right,
cook good food, not screw it up, keep people healthy, Okay,
all of that stuff, but most importantly you had you
(10:39):
have to cook food that taste really great and people
are going to enjoy. That's how you build trust. And
so because of sort of a somewhat diverse background that
I had, I knew how to cook things, and I
knew how to combine flavors and ingredients and make dishes
I wasn't making, which is the people I heard of.
(11:01):
You know, I was always creating new things, and I
built the trust with my customers because they may not
know what this was, but when they tasted it, they
know they loved it. And that built the trust that
allowed me to continue in that and that path. And
I've always told you know, young cooks, and I was
(11:24):
still pretty fairly young cook at that time, but young
cooks try to do all sorts of offbeat things and
try combinations that do or don't work together. And if they,
and I always tell them, if you're cooking for yourself,
go home and cook, but here we're cooking for our guests.
They have to be top of mind.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Absolutely. And I'm sure you saw something that inspired you
in the food seeing it here in Tucson, and we're
going to talk about that when we get back from
this very short break. Do you want access to Tucson's
best kept food secrets, Join the Tucson Tasty Show membership
program at the tastyshow dot com. All right, coming up next,
(12:09):
we'll talk more about how Chefiano's helped Tucson on the
Global Culinaries map, and don't forget to stick around and
again check out the tastyshow dot com and as always,
stay tasty Tucson. Hello, this is Wesley's source with the
(12:48):
Tucson Tasty Show. With every Tasty bite from n E
Premiumbeef dot Com, you get premium beefflavor from the amazing
ground beef to the melt in your mouth Ribbi Steaks.
Every ounce is exceptionally aged for more than twenty one days,
giving verra or Ol Premium Beef exceptional Premium beef flavor.
Order online at Vepremiumbeef dot com. Again, that's ve premiumbef
(13:12):
dot com.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Hi, I'm Stephen Kodoroblis, founder of the Tucson Familyfood Project.
Here in Tucson, no family should have to choose between
paying bills and putting food on the table. That's why
we're here to provide healthy, home cooked meals to families
in need every single week. But we need your help.
Just one dollar can have a huge impact on a
family's nutrition and a child's educational outcome. Together, we can
(13:35):
make sure every child in our community has access to
nourishing food and a brighter future. Visit the Tucsonfamilyfoodproject dot
org to learn more and to make your donation today. Together,
we're not just helping families, We're building a stronger Tuson.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Hey, Tucson, Ready to spice up your dining experience? Join
the Tucson Tasty Show Supporter membership and unlock exclusive access
to secret menu items from our partner restaurants. What kind
dishes aren't just regular menu items crafted just for our members.
It's your backstage pass to Tucson's best kept culinary secrets.
(14:09):
Sign up today at the Tastyshow dot com. And discover
what you've been missing. Stay tasty. Tucson.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Spark Project Collective, the world's first tattoo, body piercing and
metaphysical nonprofit. We're here to inspire, uplift and give back
to Tucson. We're meaningful tattoos and unique piercings, massage therapy,
soundbed sessions, metaphysical readers, and classes for spiritual growth. Spark
Project Collective helps you express your authentic self while giving
back to your community. Rent our event space. It's perfect
(14:38):
for your next gathering or even workshop. Visits Sparkproject Collective
dot com to learn more and discover where creativity and
connection meet.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Welcome to the Tucson Tasty Show, brought to you by
SOKA Southern Arizona Art and Cultural Alliance dedicated to creating, preserving,
and advancing the arts. And now it's time for more
tasty bites with your host, Wesley Source. Welcome back to
the Tucson Tasty Show. I'm here with Chef Janos Wilder
(15:10):
and we're talking about his incredible contributions to Tucson's food culture.
One of the biggest milestones in our city's culinary history
was becoming the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the
U are in North America. UH and Chef Janos Wilder
was a driving force behind that recognition and this segment
(15:36):
or and this segment is brought to you by Tucson
Family Food Project, helping families in our community gain better
access to fresh, local food. So Chef tell us about
how Tucson was selected as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy
and what was that process like.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, so I wasn't in from the very beginning, but
I got brought on pretty pretty early. Gary knob Hand
was really the spark for this idea. Jonathan Maybury, who's
our executive director, was originally the board chair. I'm the
board chair now. He's taken over the role a few
years ago as the as the executive director, really had
(16:18):
put hatched the plan and put it together. Realized that
first of all, UNESCO is not a big thing in
the United States, but it certainly is in Europe. But
Gary knew about it, and knew that knew knew of
this of the Cities of Astronomy part of the Creative
Cities Network, and that we said we should we should apply.
We have a really if anybody knows about our gastronomic heritage.
(16:42):
It's Gary Knobhan, right right, So so we we we
should try try to do this, and so I was
brought on to help with the application processes. They told
me about this. I realized, well, oh my god, this
is kind of my my life's work. So yes, I
want to be I want to be part of that.
So we put together an application. It was very well received,
(17:02):
but we did not get that certification, that recognition. At
that point they asked us to reapply. We fine tune
the application a bit in our second Apparently nobody ever
gets around the first time. At least they're nice enough
to tell you that, And then we received that recognition
in two thy fifteen. Yeah, we're starting our tenth year.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yes, and more than I'm hoping that's there's going to
be a celebration of ten years of.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Oh, yes, we're working on it. There will be a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
And hopefully we can help with that and good, we
hope you can. But it's more than five thousand years
of agriculture and cultivating in the Tucson area, which is incredible.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, and that's the reason we've got that designation. You know,
people think, oh, your city of astronomy, you have the
best restaurants in the country. That's how you get it. Well,
we like think we have really good restaurants, and you know,
people in New York might argue with that, and people
in New Orleans and Chicago and San Francisco. You know,
that's not the reason. It's not about that. It's about
(18:14):
what makes you unique, both from a food standpoint and
a cultural standpoint. So gastronomy is sort of the intersection
of food and culture. So that's really what it's about.
What it's about. So, yes, we have five thousand years
of unique gastronomic history here. The Santa Cruz River is
(18:37):
the longest continuously cultivated region in North America. Incredible, Well,
what's that. It's not the Mississippi, it's not the Colorado,
it's not any of the great rivers of our country. No,
it's the river that doesn't flow right. But it's because
right there, right in downtown Kitchen, right where Mission Garden,
downtown Tuston, right where Mission Gardens is that people came
(19:01):
millennium after millennium, family after family because the source that
there was always some water. You might have to dig
for it, you might have to irrigate you, and they
became master gardeners. They were ingenious people on how to
use that very limited resource water and it's hugely parts,
(19:22):
horribly parts in the arid climate to grow crops that
they can eat. And they took crops from the desert,
things that were growing wild in the desert, we call
those desert adapted crops, and started cultivating those all sorts
of beans they can find. You can still find the
predecessors of these five thousand year old, still wild predecessors
(19:43):
for some of these things if you go hiking around
and you know what to look for. And they domesticated
these things and really built through their ingenuity and brains
and necessity, an agricultural heritage. And so I think of
them as the survivors. I think of the foods that
(20:06):
they created as the survivors, the people that rule those
foods with the survivors. We are the beneficiaries of five
thousand years of surviving here in this arid, parched desert.
But it doesn't stop here. We're a moment in time
right now. We're part of a continuum and it goes
(20:28):
on from here. And but this is an important time
because while we've been learned for five thousand years how
to grow things in a parched environment. The rest of
the world's going to have to figure it out too.
We have the answers, we know how to do that.
So I think the role that Tucson will take, other
(20:49):
places like us with similar sorts of climates are going
to take, is going to be leadership role worldwide. And
it's happening now, right. How do you grow in climates
that are really inhospitable. They're coming worse and worse. We
know that. It's just a matter fact. And and and
we we have some of those answers, and that's something
(21:11):
we can share with the world absolutely.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And uh and speaking about that no or international stage,
I mean, you've been a culinary ambassador for Tucson, even
representing our food scene internationally. What was it like cooking
at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris?
Speaker 3 (21:33):
It was it was fun, but it was really I've
done a lot of international a fair amount of international cooking.
It's never easy. Every everything always goes wrong at that point,
so it's it's it's kind of a good story. At
that point, I was supposed to be working with the
chefs from the from the ambassador chefs. The ambassador had
two chefs they had, you know, there there was a
(21:55):
time of political change in this country like we're having now,
and the chefs just been fired like the day before
I get there, So my support team was completely gone.
I was by myself. They helped me purchase some products
and stuff, and then they said we're out here. So
I worked at UNESCO headquarters, one hundred and fifty people
or something like that, a big cocktail party with tons
(22:19):
of different different things. All of our creative city networks
were there, and because we're a creative city of astronomy,
we were asked to do the food. It was challenging
and it was uber successful and I'm really proud of it,
but don't want to go through that again. We teach,
(22:39):
so we have we have cohorts of chef ambassadors who
we train now and so this is a good segue
to that. And we really after we didn't realize that
this was going to be a thing. You know, we
got invited here and we get invited there, and we
think that's okay, fine, and we were sort of hawk
(23:00):
about how we would choose chefs to go. But we
realized very early on that we needed a cohort of chefs,
and we wanted a cohort of chefs who looked like Tucson.
We wanted we wanted men, we wanted women, We wanted
all the ethnicities that are represented here in Tucson, chefs
of various ethnicities to represent us. And but they needed
(23:24):
to be trained. You know, by the time I got
to Paris, I'd been cooking for forty something years. I could.
I knew how to roll with the punches. I'd been
punched a lot. But these are younger chefs.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
One hundred and fifty top though. I mean, that's it's
still impressive. Yeah it was anybody, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah, but they might do that too, right, right, And
so we've been training. This is our second cohort that's
gone through the training. We just completed. Their training was
an ad hoc for a while. We did an earlier
cohort that went through the training that lashed a little
longer because that that bridged ridge COVID the pandemic, and
(24:02):
so they didn't get a chance to travel. As long
as we kept them on great chefs. And this cohort
looks more like Tucson than any of our The most
that looks like Tusson. I'm really proud of that because
that's important both to me personally that we share that,
but I think it will make a huge difference in
(24:24):
these chefs lives moving forward. And so we train them
and all sorts of things, and then as it will
pair them up as needs are for the very things.
And they also of areur ambassadors not only around the world,
but they will go around the world sister cities of astronomy,
but here in Tucson, here in Pima County, they will
(24:44):
also they're also spreading the word. They will be doing
all sorts of events around.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Here and culinary leaders in the community and mentorships. Absolutely
incredible and definitely something that is if you're not learning,
you're not growing, that's not growing, then you know, we'll
leave it there. But you know, at the onset of this,
you know, what has been one of your favorite places
(25:12):
other than Tucson, Because I'm sure you stayed here for
as long as you have because you love cooking in Tucson,
But what is one of your favorite places that you've
been and region wise to cook with the UNESCO program.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
So I haven't traveled though much. I've only as a
union since we've got this designation. I didn't want to
be the guy going out. I wanted my job is
to train others. The only one that I did was Paris,
and I'm really glad I did. It. Was a good
thing that I that I did that. But I have
not visited any of other sister sister cities. I have
(25:47):
plenty of opportunity to do that. But this part of
my life is about really teaching younger people how to
do that sharing that. I've had opportunities my whole life.
They came from different who knows how they how you
get them, but you get them right. And now I'm
really really focusing on on sharing, on sharing that mentoring
(26:09):
and teaching other people to do that. Places that I've
loved to go cook, you know, so I so we
talked a little bit about Singapore and Hong Kong. I
did a thing in Singapore several years ago. That was
another really difficult thing. Everything goes wrong when you take
it on the road, but everything goes right too because
you fit because you fix it. That was super interesting.
(26:32):
I love I love that food, but I I love
food right, So I could go anywhere and say, oh
my god, what do you got here, what's going on?
Let's let's let's take a deep dive and and and
I get to travel a bit. So when I do that, Yeah,
what what do you like to cook? What I'm cooking? Now?
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Fair enough? And uh, and we'll be right back after
this short break. Uh. Do you know about our membership exclusives?
Go check out the Tastyshow dot com and we'll be
right back to Stay tasty Tucson. Hello, this is Wesley's
(27:15):
source with the Tucson Tasty Show. With every tasty bite
from veepremiumbef dot com, you get premiumbefflavor from the amazing
ground beef to the melt in your mouth Ribbi steaks.
Every ounce is exceptionally aged for more than twenty one days,
giving Verra Earl Premium Beef exceptional Premium Beef flavor. Order
online at vee premiumbef dot com. Again, that's ve Premiumbeef
(27:40):
dot Com.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Hi. I'm Stephen Kodoroblis, founder of the Tucson Familyfood Project.
Here in Tucson, no family should have to choose between
paying bills and putting food on the table. That's why
we're here to provide healthy, home cooked meals. To families
in need every single week, but we need your help.
Just one dollar can have a huge impact on a face,
family's nutrition, and a child's educational outcome. Together, we can
(28:03):
make sure every child in our community has access to
nourishing food and a brighter future. Visit the Tucsonfamilyfoodproject dot
org to learn more and to make your donation today. Together,
we're not just helping families, We're building a stronger Tuson.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Hey, Tucson, Ready to spice up your dining experience? Join
the Tucson Tasty Show Supporter membership and unlock exclusive access
to secret menu items from our partner restaurants. These one
of a kind dishes aren't just regular menu items crafted
just for our members. It's your backstage pass to Tucson's
best kept culinary secrets. Sign up today at the Tastyshow
(28:39):
dot com and discover what you've been missing. Stay Tasty. Tucson.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Spark Project Collective the world's first tattoo, body piercing and
metaphysical nonprofit. We're here to inspire, uplift and give back
a Tucson. We're meaningful tattoos and unique piercings. Massage therapy
soundbed sessions, metaphysical readers, and classes for spiritual growth. Spark
Project Collective helps you express your authentic self while giving
back to your community. Rent our event space. It's perfect
(29:06):
for your next gathering or your workshop. Visits Spark Project
Collective dot com to learn more and discover where creativity
and connection meet.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Welcome to the Tucson Tasties Show, brought to you by
Sokka Southern Arizona Art and Cultural Alliance dedicated to creating,
preserving and advancing the arts. And now it's time for
more tasty bites with your host, Wesley Source. Welcome back
to the Tucson Tasty Show. I'm your host, Wesley Source,
(29:42):
and we're sitting down with Chef Yanos Wilder. We're talking
about his journey and Tucson's global recognition, but now I
want to focus on how he's always stayed ahead of
the curve, especially when it comes to the latest project,
Studio Yanos. And this segment is brought to you by
(30:03):
Local First Arizona, supporting small businesses and the incredible food
scene right here in our states. So tell us what
inspired you to transition from downtown kitchen and cocktails to
studio enos.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Well, this all took place during during the pandemic, and
we were forced to shut down Downtown Kitchen and Cocktails.
You know, we pivot and you pivot, and you pivot
and you pivot and you realize we can't pivot any longer.
And we didn't close the restaurant. We just shut down.
We're renegotiating at least ended up not renegotiating. At least
(30:46):
we were still at the at the carriage house. Pivot
and pivot and pivot, and some I got in a
bad car accident, couldn't do it any longer. So it
wasn't the pandemic so much, but it created an opportunity
to say, wait a minute. My son asked me, how
along hike? He said, Dad, what's your exit strategy? Said?
(31:09):
What's that? You know? I don't have an exit strategies. Well,
maybe maybe this could be it. Just keep your mind
open to it. And I did. And when these things
were happening, I couldn't work any longer for a while,
and so we ended up closing everything. But during that
year I realized I love what I do now more
(31:32):
than I ever loved it before. I wanted to distill
it down just to the things that make me really happy.
And that's two things, actually hands on cooking, A and
B working directly with my guests. And so we created
(31:53):
Studio Yanos in the middle of downtown and one twenty
four East Broadway. It's six hundred square feet. I have
a little kitchen which is totally outfitted with everything that
I need. One table that we built many many years,
gorgeous table, beautiful. The room is just gorgeous. It's got
great art. It feels feels like home in many in
(32:16):
many ways, and a space where I can do my
best work. I cook every single thing that my guests
are going to eat, and I bring in a team
the night of our dinners. We don't sell Wednesdays and Tuesdays.
You can't call up and make a reservation for yourself
and your girlfriend or your wife. You book the room
(32:39):
and bring in a team. That's fantastic, that really works.
We work as a team in harmony and so fantastic service,
but also a place where people can cut loose. It's
their own space. We only do it one a night,
and only two or three the most the very most
three in a week, and rarely will I do That's
(33:00):
a lot that's that's a little more than I want
to do. But so we really can focus entirely on
those guests that menu, and I can cook everything, and
I'm cooking right in front of them. Their meal is
from me to them.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Incredible.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, it's it's like this is the perfect job.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
And it's a really cool environment as well, because not
only can you see everything that's happening and you can
interact with that, and you know, you're pulling back the
curtain quite a bit completely.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
There's no curtain. There's no curtain to pull back.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
So you're not in the kitchen and coming out and
it's all it's all happening right there. Uh. And you
know to that, you know it's not a traditional restaurant.
It's an intimate, experience based dining. Uh. And so what
can people expect when they come there as far as
you're doing every are you cooking everything in front of them?
(33:57):
You have a lot of prep work already done?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Yeah, I will have. I'll have been working for several
days on their menu, so that that's building blocks and
then putting it all together and finishing it all. And
I'll have one person in the kitchen with me who's
these guys are men and women are fantastic, So they
can finish my sentences and they'll help me play it
(34:21):
and they'll do their part. I'll do my part, and
a couple of people helping to serve their You know,
it's just it's seamless. It is seamless. But what we found,
and you don't know when you're you know, you plan
these things. You don't know is that people how conducive
that is for people's conversations. We can be part of
(34:45):
that or less of that to the extent that they want.
I'll talk about the foods, and most of the foods
we do our heritage foods. Who I tell that story
and talk about each of the dishes. They've never had
these dishes before. They don't know anything about them, but
they trust me, and thank god they do, because they
get a great meal out if they should trust me,
and and but have they never want to leave. They
(35:07):
have so much fun. And because their groups they all
know each other, so their interactions amongst families, amongst friends,
sometimes they don't know each other. Sometimes they need business things.
But food's a great ice it's a great ice breaker
and a great unifier. And so the sort of really
over the top, fun and interesting dinners that happened, that
(35:31):
happened there that you can't really have. Maybe you can
have in your home, but you're you're doing too much
of the work yourself, and you can't have in a
restaurant because you're surrounded by other people. So it's not
even it's better than a private dining room. In a restaurant,
you have an absolute, one undivided attention.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Do you see a shift towards more experienced space dining
as the future of restaurants.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
I don't think I'm prepared to answer that. I don't.
I hadn't thought about that that question. I think that
I'm I'm more focused at this point on what I'm doing,
and I'm not looking for the next thing for me.
I'm not, you know, I don't. I don't really care. Honestly,
I don't. I don't really care on on on a
(36:21):
personal level. All I care about is I'm creating a great,
fabulous experience for my guest, and I imagine that might
have some trickle down of fat I understand that people
try to do similar things. Are other things that are experiential,
I don't.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I understand. Yeah, so sourcing local ingredients has always been
a big part of your approach. Why is that so
important to you?
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Well, because I think that that we talked about a
sense of place. That's what makes when you go someplace,
whether it's in your home or when you visit at
some place. I don't want to have the same thing
when I go to Chicago that I'm going to eat Tucson,
and vice versa. I don't want to have the same
thing in Tucson that'll have in Chicago, name any other city,
(37:09):
any country in the world. I want to have what's
unique about that place, what makes them special that I
can only only get there just as an aside. So
what we do is ultimately find dining on a very
personal level without any of the boloney that goes along
with it. But fine dining has become has taken on
(37:33):
a real sameness. It's international cooking. And you could close
your eyes and be in New York City, or you
could be in Paris, or you could be in Beijing,
or you could be in Buenos Aires, and you might
get you might and if the room didn't didn't give
it away, you know, somehow you were transported, you wouldn't
know where you were right through the food and to
(37:56):
have that sense of place, to know where you are,
to know why why you're there, why, what how that
food comes to you. That's that's what I've done. That's
it's that's it's enjoyable for me, and it's super enjoyable
for me. And when I get those experiences.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Elsewhere, absolutely, and uh so not just another steakhouse.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
No, no, not not that I don't like steaks.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
I do, absolutely, and I agree. But you can go
to any city and you walk into a steakhouse and
you're like, Okay, I've been here before.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Yeah, And so that works too because there's a familiarity
and there's a comfort zone. I get that.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
But the flavors of Tucson.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
Are unique, very absolutely unique. You can't get them anywhere else.
And in our dishes that focus on the heritage foods,
each we just take such a deep dive and one
of the things always hear from our guess is, oh
my god, these flavors. Oh these flavors. And each course
(38:56):
is very different, but flavor is everything to me. My
job as a chef is to bring out flavors or
get out of their way, not to hide them, to
bring them out. That doesn't mean I want things to
be super spicy. I don't because that hides everything else.
But that has a place in things, but to really
(39:19):
accent flavors, right, and that so from the first course,
then these are seven courses, from the first one to
the last, it's flavor, flavor.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Flavor, absolutely, And you know with that in mind, you
know you talk about local flavors and local ingredients. That
ties into sustainability as well. And how do you see
sustainability playing a bigger role in the future of food.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Well, I think it has to play a bigger role
because we can't be transporting things from long, long distances.
For a while, there was a thing called FedEx food, right,
and chefs were getting stuff from all all over the world.
What's kind of cool, right, You could do that, but
that's unsustainable. So you want the closer you grow, you
(40:06):
get the foods to your home, the better it is
from a sustainable standpoint. The less water that you're in
an era of climates that we talked about that that's
going to be all over the place, the less water
it takes to grow those things, the better off you're
going to be. The more sustainable you are. The practices
that you have in your restaurant. And really that's something
(40:27):
we really strive and is a priority for us in
our restaurant certification program through the City of Astronomy. Is
sustainability is a big part of getting that certification.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
And then would you say there's one specific ingredients that
the local chefs should be paying attention to more.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
I'm not so concerned that it's local ingredients. I'm concerned
I want our local chefs to have the confidence not
to feel like they got to serve Italian food, not
to that they have to serve French food, not to
feel that they have to serve any other kind of food,
but have the confidence that our food resonates. And when
(41:09):
you go to Gut Dinners, you see the best of
the best. I want those chefs to do that food
in their own restaurants, not only at Gut Dinners.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Absolutely so. Do you want to try exclusive off the
menu items at some of Tucson's best restaurants, Join the
Tucson Tasty Show membership program at the Tastyshow dot com
and unlock those are the secret password to dishes you
won't find anywhere else. And as always, day Tasty Tucson Hello,
(41:42):
this is Wesley's source with the Tucson Tasty Show. With
every tasty bite from Veepremiumbeef dot com, you get premium
beef flavor from the amazing ground beef to the melt
in your mouth Ribbi steaks. Every ounce is exceptionally aged
for more than twenty one days, giving vera or ol
Premium Beef exceptional premium beef flavor. Order online at ve
(42:03):
premiumbef dot com. Again, that's ve Premiumbeef dot com.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Hi. I'm Stephen Kodoroblis, founder of the Tucson Familyfood Project.
Here in Tucson, no family should have to choose between
paying bills and putting food on the table. That's why
we're here to provide healthy, home cooked meals to families
in need every single week. But we need your help.
Just one dollar can have a huge impact on a
family's nutrition and a child's educational outcome. Together, we can
(42:31):
make sure every child in our community has access to
nourishing food and a brighter future. Visit the Tucsonfamilyfoodproject dot
org to learn more and to make your donation today. Together,
we're not just helping families, we're building a stronger tuson
Ey Tucson.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
Ready to spice up your dining experience, Join the Tucson
Tasty Show Supporter membership and unlock exclusive access to secret
menu items from our partner restaurants. These one of a
kind dishes aren't just regular menu items, crafted just for
our members. It's your backstage pass to Tucson's best kept
culinary secrets. Sign up today at the Tastyshow dot com
(43:07):
and discover what you've been missing. Stay tasty Tucson.
Speaker 5 (43:11):
Spark Project Collective the world's first tattoo, body piercing and
metaphysical nonprofit. We're here to inspire, uplift and give back
a Tucson. We're meaningful tattoos and unique piercings, massage therapy,
soundbed sessions, metaphysical readers, and classes for spiritual growth. Spark
Project Collective helps you express your authentic self while giving
back to your community. Rent our event space. It's perfect
(43:34):
for your next gathering or your workshop. Visits Sparkproject Collective
dot com to learn more and discover where creativity and
connection meet.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
This is the Tucson Tasty Show and I am your host,
Wesley Source. We're in the final segment of our conversation
with Chef Giano Swilder, and now I want to take
a moment and reflect on what you're doing in the
Studio Yanos and talk about some of the are some
of the things that you do a lot of the
(44:09):
time when you're mentoring some of these young chefs.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
Yeah, well, so what I'm doing really with food. So
what Studio Yanos does. What we do is we do
these small private dinners and I create seasonal menus for
those dinners. And I've been focusing since we opened on
really the heritage, heritage foods which you can I love
(44:34):
and will never go away. But we also have a
repertoire of what I'm calling now Yano's favorites. Those are
the things that from the very beginning for Halloween nineteen
eighty three, which was our opening day two when we
closed at the Western Law Ploma, we had so for
(44:56):
thirty year run of Yanos, and so taking for opening
the vault and pulling out dishes our favorites and our
guest favorites from those years. So for the first time,
I'm really offering two menus that people can choose to
have with their group. One would be the heritage menu,
(45:17):
the deep dive into the products and the flavors and
the taste of Tucson, which we've been talking so much about.
But the other one is is our favorites, my favorites
from my career in Yano. So these are the super lux,
high end, you know, crazy beautiful foods that really I
(45:40):
built my reputation on, which gave me the entree to
take to take a deeper dive into it to what
we do here. So now people can go to my
website Studio Yanos dot com see those menus and choose
from either of those. So we have an opening night
(46:00):
lobster with papaya and champagne sauce dish that I a
version of a dish that I learned in Paris when
I was working in France. That changed it to a
degree to make it more regional to where we were.
So actually this time of year it's papaya mango rather
(46:21):
than papaya. Can still get these beautiful mangos, but the
papayas aren't quite right. And things that were flights of
fancy for me that just turned out to be amazing.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
A Number one sushi Gray, the best sushi you can buy.
It came in to me comes in to be so
red and gorgeous. And I did a dish many years
ago called it shrimp takashimi. I never used shrimp anymore
because it's the sourceing of it's is really unreliable and
not necessarily sustainable. But the idea was flight of fancy.
(46:57):
What if I walk down the ginza in Tokyo and
wanted to order a taco? What would I get? Interesting?
So what what what I imagined? And what we are serving
on this menu and what we served at our menus
at various times at yanos, we would make a taco
shell out of an egg roll wrapper.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Okay, well we're.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Not going to do beans, so we do stir fried
lo maine. We're going to we're not going to do
carne as sada. So in this case we're doing this
absolutely raw, beautiful number one sashimi, great ahi tuna, a
seaweed salad, pickled ginger, kobiaki sauce, which is the sauce
(47:46):
that you would put on your ruinagi at the sushi bar,
a little sesame, and just awesome, great flavors and just
not in our vernacular for two on, but really in
the innocular my of my history. We do a puff
pastry bisc which is totally French concoction where you actually
(48:09):
make a soup and you chill the soup and you
put in these special bowls this, that, that that, and
you put puff past cold puff pastry over the top
so it's cold, and you refrigerate that thing so so
so cold, and you put in the oven right before service,
and the puff pastry as the soup heats up, the
puff pastry, which is just tightly adhere to the bowl,
(48:31):
rises and puffs up and makes this beautiful dome. And
as you break into the soup, all the aromas of
the soup. And this is this is we do a madeira,
madeira and mushroom bisc That's the soup that we're that
we're doing that we're doing right now. I'm doing green
(48:52):
tea smoked duck, which I'd forgotten. Actually, I'll put green
tea smoke duck. That was always one of the one
of our favorites. That is the most complex recipe. I'd
forgotten all the steps that went into probably shouldn't have
done that, but so we dry the duck, we smoke
it over, we cure it in in a dry cure
(49:13):
and then a wet rub and smoke it over green
tea leaves. It's served with this time of year. We
don't we don't do plums. We do we do cinnamon
poach plums in in in rice wine and in in
rice plum wine. And uh this beautiful and delicious, just
(49:33):
crazy crazy good flavors. So these sort of out of
the box flavors. And then we end up really back
in a slightly different box with an eight hour raised
short rib with a dish. I call the truth about potatoes.
This is a recipe from one of the great French chefs,
(49:54):
Joel Robashone. When the first first time I made this
recipe for potatoes, those potatoes, Oh my god, this is
the truth about potatoes. This is what every potato should
taste like. And so that becomes the ba.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
Tell me more, tell me more.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
I'll tell you more.
Speaker 2 (50:13):
You're making me really really hungry, and I can't imagine.
Speaker 3 (50:17):
So you slice the potatoes really quite quite thin, not
super super thin, and with a little bit of thyme,
some garlic, some grew yere cheese, and you and you
make a graton with just enough cream to just float
the top of the potatoes. Cook them for about forty
(50:37):
five minutes. First you poach the potatoes in milk, take
them out of the milk, then you save the milk
for if you're going to make them again. Then the
cream goes over the top and you've got all that
grew yere cheese and it's all everything accentuates the flavor
of the potato itself without getting in its weight. That's
that dish. That is the truth about potato doing for
(51:00):
ressert for dessert, A dish that we created, I don't know,
in the mid in the mid eighties. So we're really
going to take it going going to the way back
machine here, Dark Chocolate Jlopeno ice Cream Sunday, which was
people are still claiming for it's additional Ever thought if
I had a product I would make that would probably
(51:22):
be it.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
That's incredible. No, I mean that's uh, that's it sounds incredible. Yes,
I definitely need to we definitely need to do something
more together at the studio and h but how can
everybody get a hold of you? What's the website?
Speaker 3 (51:37):
Yeah, the website is studio Yanos dot com. So just
go to the website and there you hit hit private parties.
If that's what you're interested. I do consulting to all
sorts of other stuff, So you see all sorts of
options for you to do. But go to the private
parties and you can. There's a place for you to
give us your information and tell us what you want.
And then there's nobody between me and you, which I
(52:00):
will be calling you on the phone.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
How many years are you booked out?
Speaker 3 (52:05):
Somebody somebody said this is the hardest sticking in town.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
Yes, and then uh so that's and I can't wait
to experience that in the kitchen with you. And I'm
really hoping that we can we can get a TV
episode with you as well, and I'm sure we'll talk
about that off air. But let's talk up a little
bit about your uh your cooking. You also do consulting
(52:32):
and everything else. So after all these years, how do
you keep passionate about it?
Speaker 3 (52:37):
It's the food speaks to me.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
You.
Speaker 3 (52:43):
I get excited as excited when I make that potato dishes.
You just got right. I still do. The food speaks
to me, The people speak to me, and I I
just it's my happy space. What can I say? It's
just my happy space. The whole thing I have more
fun when we do these dinners and that interaction with
(53:03):
our guests and have the primacy with them and that
feedback that they am able to get and we can
you know, it's just it's yeah, it doesn't get any better.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
Absolutely, And so I've got to ask for the young
chefs or anyone out there that dreams of opening a
restaurant or getting into the hospitality industry, what's the best
advice you can give.
Speaker 3 (53:25):
Get a job. Get a job, and get a hard job.
Start washing dishes is fine, work your way up. And
you know, so many people go to culinary schools and
they still do. I did not, and I'm not saying
that's a bad thing. I've hired a lot of really
great chefs from culinary schools, but it's very expensive, or
(53:45):
unless you go to PIMOT, which is a fantastic program. Absolutely,
but make sure it's what you love. It's a hard life.
It's tough on a family. You're away from your family,
from your family a lot. You get. It's not an
abusive situation in most kitchens, like in many ways it
was when I when when I grow up. But it's hard,
(54:06):
it's long hours, it's it's you do a lot of
grunt work. You've got to if that. If you don't
love that, don't do it. You got to find you know,
it's romanticized now. It's romanticized on TV, it's romanticized in magazines,
it's romanticized all through our culture. But it's not romantic
(54:28):
doing it because I found this perfect little path for myself.
It's romantic to me. I got to tell you that.
But but, but make but I I've been doing it
for my whole life. I've been doing it for fifty years.
You know, I knew from the begin maybe not from
the begin quickly realized, oh yeah, oh you're yelling at
(54:50):
me because I made that dish wrong. Bring it on.
I want to learn how to do it right. I
don't I ignore the yelling. I just hearing the message.
And if that's not for you, if you don't want
to be great at it, don't get in the cook
cooking not to be great at a lot of better
ways to make a living.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
Yeah, I heard, definitely, And thank you for all of
your incredible experience. Thank you for being on the show today.
Visit the tucsontastyshow dot com. Join our membership program in
unlock secret menu items, VIP tastings, and more. Don't forget
you can bring home the best in the local beef
with Viral Premium Beef Tasty Show Box delivering high quality
(55:30):
ranch to table flavor. Thank you for joining us on
the Tucson Tasty Show. Savor every delicious bite and we'll
see you next week. Stay Tasty, Tucson. Hello, this is
(55:50):
Wesley Source with the Tucson Tasty Show. With every Tasty
bite from me Premiumbeef dot Com, you get premium beef
flavor from the amazing ground Beef, the melt in your
mouth Ribi Steaks. Every ounce is exceptionally aged for more
than twenty one days, giving verra or Ol Premium Beef
exceptional Premium beef flavor. Order online at VE Premiumbeef dot Com. Again,
(56:13):
that's VE Premiumbef dot Com.
Speaker 4 (56:18):
Hi. I'm Stephen Coodoroblis, founder of the Tucson Familyfood Project.
Here in Tucson, no family should have to choose between
paying bills and putting food on the table. That's why
we're here to provide healthy, home cooked meals to families
in need every single week. But we need your help.
Just one dollar can have a huge impact on a
family's nutrition and a child's educational outcome. Together, we can
(56:38):
make sure every child in our community has access to
nourishing food and a brighter future. Visit the Tucsonfamilyfoodproject dot
org to learn more and to make your donation today. Together,
we're not just helping families, We're building a stronger tuson
Ey Tucson.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
Ready to spice up your dining experience, Join the Tucson
Tasty Show Supporter membership and unlock exclusive access to secret
menu items from our partner restaurants. These one of a
kind dishes aren't just regular menu items crafted just for
our members. It's your backstage pass to Tucson's best kept
culinary secrets. Sign up today at the Tastyshow dot com
(57:15):
and discover what you've been missing. Stay Tasty. Tucson.
Speaker 5 (57:18):
Spark Project Collective the world's first tattoo, body piercing and
metaphysical nonprofit. We're here to inspire, uplift and give back
a Tucson. We're meaningful tattoos and unique piercings, massage therapy,
soundbed sessions, metaphysical readers, and classes for spiritual growth. Spark
Project Collective helps you express your authentic self while giving
back to your community. Rent our event space. It's perfect
(57:41):
for your next gathering or even workshop. Visits sparkproject collective
dot com to learn more and discover where creativity and
connection meet
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