Samir Mohammad

Amerigo Delicatus predicted the future with its emphasis on the pasta

Back at the start of 2013, with holiday parties and distracting indulgences of all kinds, you could easily have missed those lists of food trends likely to be hot in the new year. If so, look no further than Amerigo Delicatus Restaurant & Market, which wraps up one of the hot new trends in such a ... More >>

Best Chef: A nostalgic look back at our Best of Denver chef winners

In just a few short hours from now, the Best of Denver 2013 will start hitting the street -- and the web. This year's edition is packed with more than 400 winners (we're still counting). One of the most anticipated categories in our Food & Drink section is also one of the the most coveted: Best Chef ... More >>

Joe Freemond walks from Cellar Wine Bar, citing a "long list of problems" -- and lands as the chef of DiFranco's

The writing was on the wall, says Joe Freemond, the soon-to-be former executive chef of Cellar Wine Bar, which lost three of its kitchen staffers last week -- Freemond included -- after what the chef describes as a "long list of problems" that the owners, including Brian Delgado, refused to address. ... More >>

Trends without end: Dining insiders offer predictions for 2013

Start spreading the news: The Denver FIVE bring their Mile High culinary magic to the James Beard House in New York

"New York City is the culinary mecca of our country, if not the world," declares Hosea Rosenberg. "It's a place like no other, where ingredients and techniques of every conceivable style congregate. It's where the best chefs on the planet come to shine." See also: - The Denver FIVE culinary stars w ... More >>

Guess where I'm eating a bacon cheeseburger?

I'm on my way to the Big Apple for a few days to cover the FIVE dinner at the James Beard House, where Denver chefs Samir Mohammad, Hosea Rosenberg, Jenna Johansen, Jessica Scott and Tyler Wiard will be cooking -- but the NYC culinary cognoscenti won't be getting cheeseburgers. And while New Yorkers ... More >>

The Denver FIVE culinary stars will cook at the James Beard House on September 19

Last September, I spent a whopping 24 hours in New York City, mostly in the kitchen of the James Beard House, where the FIVE, a coterie of local chefs and cocktail kings, strutted their talents to a sold-old cognoscenti of foodniks -- one of whom claimed that it was the most fun she'd ever had at a ... More >>

The Village Cork rebounds with Pete Ryan, its new executive chef

I'll never forget the first time I came face-to-face with Pete Ryan. We were meeting at Cook Street School of Culinary Arts, where he had just become the school's executive chef/instructor, and, as usual, my watch was stuck on slow. "You're fucking late," he reprimanded me. And then, for the next se ... More >>

Samir Mohammad tapped as the new exec chef of Lala's Wine Bar Pizzeria

After getting the boot from the Village Cork three weeks ago, chef Samir Mohammad is back in the kitchen -- a real kitchen with a hood! And a stove! And brick ovens! And, he says, a "supportive environment that encourages me to be active in the community," a point of contention at the Village Cork, ... More >>

Samir Mohammad on why he got booted from the Village Cork -- and owner Lisa Lapp's plans for the future

"So, I"m officially fired," read the text from Samir Mohammad, the now former executive chef of the Village Cork, who took the job -- and a risk -- when he first stepped behind the butane burners in January of 2010. "I knew this was a job that would either make me or break me, but it was an awesome ... More >>

Photos: Famous faces, food and debauchery from the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen

We've got all sorts of takeaways from the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, which just celebrated its thirtieth year in Glitter Gulch over the weekend, and we'll be posting stories throughout the week about the new Chefs Club in the St. Regis, along with surprising observations and confessions from Gran ... More >>

Drum roll: Announcing the winner of our FIVE contest with Samir Mohammad at the Village Cork

Tomorrow night, Samir Mohammad, the exec chef of the Village Cork, is cooking a five-course French-inspired feast as part of the ongoing dinner series hosted by FIVE -- a ring of five chefs, two mixologists and a coffee roaster. And last week, we put up a contest, giving Cafe Society foodniks the ch ... More >>

Five things you'll always find in the fridges of the Denver FIVE

Like a lot of voyeurs, I'm intrigued by the contents of other people's refrigerators, especially the refrigerators of chefs. And apparently, so is Leigh Sullivan, the innovator behind FIVE -- five local chefs and their bar cohorts, all of whom cook (and pour) at various restaurants and venues around ... More >>

Contest: Win seats to the FIVE dinner with Samir Mohammad at the Village Cork

Ever since Samir Mohammad was tapped as the executive chef of the Village Cork, a lovely Washington Park wine bar, oenophiles and foodophiles alike have been clamoring for a taste, and while Mohammad's open kitchen, which squats squarely in a sea of bodies, isn't equipped with a hood or a multi-burn ... More >>

Great food, greater cause: Win tickets for two to chef Paul Reilly's Eat Drink Give event on Sunday

Paul Reilly may no longer have his own restaurant -- after a last hurrah Sunday brunch, he shuttered Encore last month when he and the landlord couldn't agree on lease terms -- but he has the support of plenty of Denver chefs, many of whom will gather on Sunday for Eat Drink Give, an annual benefit ... More >>

Round two with Joe Freemond, exec chef of the Cellar Wine Bar

Joe Freemond Cellar Wine Bar 2556 15th Street 303-455-9463 www.cwbon15th.com Read part one of my interview with Joe Freemond, exec chef of the Cellar Wine Bar. Best thing about cooking in Denver: Being a part of the culinary explosion that this city is finally experiencing. Having grown up here, I ... More >>

Joe Freemond, exec chef of the Cellar Wine Bar, on fresh blood and Denver in a nutshell

Joe Freemond Cellar Wine Bar 2556 15th Street 303-455-9463 www.cwbon15th.com This is part one of my interview with Joe Freemond, exec chef of the Cellar Wine Bar. Part two of our interview will run in this space tomorrow. Raw fish. That's what Joe Freemond gravitated toward when he was a kid. Not ... More >>

FIVE kicks off its fifth season tonight -- and tickets are still available

Earlier this year, Leigh Sullivan Enterprises -- a hospitality-industry marketing, brand-management and public-relations consulting firm helmed by Leigh Sullivan -- announced its fifth crop of chefs to fill out the ranks of the Denver FIVE, an organization that's "a culinary group whose main goal is ... More >>

Foodography: A food porn voyage of Chefs Up Front

Colorado chefs cook their asses off -- not just in their respective restaurants but at culinary events all over the city, and last night was no exception, as thirty chefs from Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs convened at the Colorado Convention Center to cook at Colorado Chefs Up Front, a benefi ... More >>

Hosea Rosenberg will kick off the fifth season of FIVE with a soiree at Balistreri Vineyards

Five years ago, Leigh Sullivan was hellbent on showcasing Denver's dining landscape -- and the chefs who define it -- to a national audience. Her determination paid off in spades when she handpicked a ring of five local chefs who would eventually become the first incarnation of FIVE, a quintet of to ... More >>

Reader: Is FIVE too much of a good thing?

Leigh Sullivan founded FIVE, a group of Denver chefs who cook across the country, back in 2008; the lineup, like Sullivan herself, has gone through some changes over the years. Sullivan recently relaunched her own marketing/public relations company, Leigh Sullivan Enterprises, and just announced the ... More >>

The 2012 crop of FIVE chefs and bar stars includes a powerhouse of big names

If you've been wondering how Leigh Sullivan, the ex-wife of Troy Guard, who owns TAG and TAG|RAW BAR, is doing since the couple split last year, the answer is "better than ever."

An underground gathering of Denver's best chefs convenes at twelve

Two years ago, when I did a Chef and Tell interview with Jeff Osaka, the owner/chef of twelve, I asked him what he'd like to see more of in Denver from a culinary standpoint. His answer was poignant, straightforward and inclusive: I want more chefs working to build camaraderie. Sure, we want to b ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes: Chimayo-chile flank steak and posole from the Village Cork

No. 44: Chimayo-chile flank steak and posole at Village Cork

Food lust from last night's Chefs Up Front Denver dinner

Lori MidsonLobster, enoki mushroom and tenderloin carpaccio hand roll from Jonesy's Eat Bar​Last night, Denver's who's who of chefs congregated at the Colorado Convention Center for Chef's Up Front Denver, a fundraiser that benefited Cooking Matters, a nonprofit that fights childhood hunger a ... More >>

New Year's resolutions from Max MacKissock, Matt Selby, Mark DeNittis, Michael Long and twenty-one more Denver/Boulder chefs

Lori MidsonBrad Rowell, chef at Colt & Gray, resolves to eat twenty percent less pork fat per day and replace that with twenty percent more Schlitz​ Haven't made your New Year's resolutions yet? That makes two of us. But instead of focusing on ourselves, we prodded more than two dozen Denver/ ... More >>

Deck the shelves with boughs of cookbooks: Local chefs sound off on their favorite culinary reads

Lori Midson​Ah, Christmas: The season of giving, receiving, in-law spats, road range, parking lot clusterfucks, check-out line massacres and cookbooks and food books -- the ones that you hope will end up wrapped under the tree, right alongside the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Over the course of the ... More >>

Girl Talk: The Village Cork, girly as it might be, will win over the most reluctant diner

The Village Cork is what a girl wants

Mark Manger​I got off to a rough start during a recent meal at the Village Cork, 1300 Pearl Street, mostly because I was having trouble integrating myself into the feminine fold. The restaurant, full of charming knickknacks and smiling women, could sell you a lifestyle with dinner. And given t ... More >>

In the kitchen with Samir Mohammad, chef of the Village Cork

A Flickr photo ​Samir Mohammad, exec chef of the Village Cork, and the mouthpiece in this week's Chef and Tell interview, has spent the last few months expanding his menu, which now includes, among other winners, a slow-cooked tomato and garlic salad with scratchmade ricotta. "It's an incredi ... More >>

Part two: Chef and Tell with Samir Mohammad

Lori Midson​ Samir Mohammad The Village Cork 1300 South Pearl Street 303-282-8399 www.villagecork.com This is part two of Lori Midson's Chef and Tell interview with Samir Mohammad. To read part one of that interview, click here.

Chef and Tell with Samir Mohammad from the Village Cork

Lori Midson ​Samir Mohammad The Village Cork 1300 South Pearl Street 303-282-8399 www.villagecork.com Long before Samir Mohammad could legally drive a car, he'd flipped burgers, rolled taquitos, tossed pizzas, blistered his hands cooking red and green chile, washed dishes, waited tables, pr ... More >>