Thomas Keller

Round two with Nate Bychinski, exec chef of Mateo

Nate Bychinski Mateo 1837 Pearl Street, Boulder 303-443-7766 mateorestaurant.com This is part two of my interview with Nate Bychinski, exec chef of Mateo; part one of my interview with Bychinski ran yesterday. Most memorable meal you've ever had in Denver: Although it wasn't a traditional meal, l ... More >>

Round two with Tommy Lee, exec chef of Uncle

Tommy Lee Uncle 2215 West 32nd Avenue 303-433-3263 uncledenver.tumblr.com This is part two of my interview with Tommy Lee, exec chef of Uncle; part one of our chat ran yesterday. What do you enjoy most about your craft? Like most cooks, I enjoy the creativity of coming up with new dishes, but the ... More >>

Round two with Jose Guerrero, exec chef of ViewHouse

Jose Guerrero ViewHouse Eatery, Bar & Rooftop 2015 Market Street 720-878-2015 viewhouseco.com This is part two of my interview with Jose Guerrero, exec chef of ViewHouse Eatery, Bar & Rooftop; part one of our chat ran yesterday. Favorite Denver/Boulder restaurant(s) other than your own: Oak at Fo ... More >>

Get a gluten-free education at Johnson & Wales today

Johnson & Wales University, 7150 Montview Boulevard, is welcoming chef Lena Kwak for a cooking demonstration and tasting featuring her gluten-free flour: Cup4cup, which she co-developed during her time with Thomas Keller at the French Laundry in California. See also: - Reader: Gluten-free diets are ... More >>

Round two with TJ Hobbs, chef of Ghost Plate & Tap

TJ Hobbs Ghost Plate & Tap 800 18th Street 303-297-1738 www.ghostdenver.com This is part two of my interview with TJ Hobbs, chef of Ghost Plate & Tap; part one of our interview ran yesterday. Favorite Denver/Boulder restaurant(s) other than your own: I'm a fan of Bittersweet. Chef Olaf has such i ... More >>

Round two with Patxi Azpiroz, exec chef of Patxi's Pizza

Patxi Azpiroz Patxi's Pizza 3455 South University Boulevard, Englewood; 303-783-2000 185 Steele Street; 303-331-1000 www.patxispizza.com This is part two of my interview with Patxi Azpiroz, exec chef/owner of Patxi's Pizza; part one of our conversation ran yesterday. Favorite Denver restaurant(s) ... More >>

Shaun Motoda, chef of TAG|RAW BAR, on the perfect bite and his obsession with Taco Bell

Shaun Motoda TAG|RAW BAR 1423 Larimer Street 303-996-2685 tagrawbar.com This is part one of my interview with Shaun Motoda, chef de cuisine of TAG|RAW BAR; part two of our conversation will run tomorrow. Shaun Motoda, the chef de cuisine at TAG|RAW BAR, grew up wanting to be an architect. But the ... More >>

Round two with Ed Kammerer, exec chef of Highland Pacific

Ed Kammerer Highland Pacific Restaurant & Oyster Bar 3934 West 32nd Avenue 303-477-6644 www.highlandpacific.net Part one of my interview with Ed Kammerer, exec chef-owner of Highland Pacific Restaurant & Oyster Bar, ran yesterday; this is part two of our chat. Rules of conduct in your kitchen: We ... More >>

Squeaky Bean could write the book on innovative handling

Slide show: Inspired Eats at Squeaky Bean

Round two with Wade Kirwan, exec chef of Adrift

Wade Kirwan Adrift 218 South Broadway 303-862-5749 www.facebook.com/adriftbar Part one of my interview with Wade Kirwan, executive chef of Adrift, ran yesterday; this is part two of our chat. Favorite restaurant in America: This is a tough one, but I'd say Boulevard in San Francisco. The food is ... More >>

Round two with Bentley Folse, exec chef of Finley's Pub

Bentley Folse Finley's Pub 375 South Pearl Street 303-282-4790 www.finleysdenver.com Part one of my interview with Bentley Folse, exec chef of Finley's Pub, ran yesterday; this is part two. Favorite restaurant in America: Both Clancy's and Commander's Palace in New Orleans. Clancy's is a quaint ... More >>

Round two with Adam Watts, chef de cuisine at Jax Fish House Boulder

Part one of my interview with Adam Watts, chef de cuisine at Jax Boulder, ran on Wednesday; this is part two. Adam Watts Jax Fish House Boulder 928 Pearl Street, Boulder 303-444-1811 www.jaxboulder.com If you only had 24 hours in Denver/Boulder, where would you eat? I'd start out with brunch at B ... More >>

Empty your wallets! Tickets to the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen are now on sale

I'll never forget the first time I attended the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. It was the final year that Julia Child, the late, great American chef who demystified French cuisine -- and passed away in 2004 -- made an appearance at the annual Aspen culinary orgy, back when there was no Food Network, ... More >>

A food critic figures out how to lose weight without eating diet food at home

​Over the last few months, I went from the worst shape of my life to the best while continuing to eat like a food critic. Don't punch me in the face; instead, read how I did it in part eight of this series: "Just hope you got your dad's metabolism," my grandmother whispered in a tone full of ... More >>

Round two with Eric Rivera, exec chef of Cafe|Bar

Lori Midson​ Eric Rivera Cafe|Bar 295 South Pennsylvania Street 303-362-0227 www.cafebarcolorado.com This is part two of my interview with Eric Rivera exec chef of Cafe|Bar. Part one of my chat with Rivera ran yesterday. Favorite restaurant in America: Bouchon, in Napa Valley. The food an ... More >>

At Rackhouse Pub, the whiskey is fine, but the food could use fine-tuning

See a photo slideshow from Rackhouse Pub

In the kitchen with chef Mark Monette: Potato-crusted Alaskan halibut and arugula salad

​In this week's Chef and Tell interview, Mark Monette, the executive chef/partner of the Flagstaff House, sounds off on sharing kitchen space with Thomas Keller, turning fifty and doing double duty at two top drawer restaurants, which keeps him firmly entrenched in the kitchen. He took some a ... More >>

Round two with Flagstaff House executive chef Mark Monette

​ Mark Monette Flagstaff House 1138 Flagstaff Drive, Boulder 303-442-4640 www.flagstaffhouse.com This is part two of my interview with Mark Monette, executive chef of the Flagstaff House. Part one of that interview, in which Monette talks about cooking with Thomas Keller and his disdain for ... More >>

Mark Monette, executive chef of the Flagstaff House, on the woman who asked for raw elk and his disdain for duck tongues

​ Mark Monette Flagstaff House 1138 Flagstaff Drive, Boulder 303-442-4640 www.flagstaffhouse.com This is part one of my interview with Mark Monette, executive chef of the Flagstaff House. Part two of my chat with Monette will run in this space tomorrow. While Boulder today is renowned for ... More >>

Madison Street's Rob Michaels dishes on dumbing down menus, the pitfalls of parsley and pork heaven

Lori Midson​ Rob Michaels Madison Street 1222 Madison Street 303-736-2260 www.madisonstreetdenver.com Filipinos are renowned for their unwavering hospitality, for unleashing food feasts that swell the belly, for ensuring that no host allows her guests to leave hungry. "We're known for provi ... More >>

The Monette brothers keep the Flagstaff house moving forward

Review: Flagstaff House Restaurant in Boulder

Robert Bogart, executive chef of Elway's Downtown, raps on strange guest requests, one roof and how he wishes that cooks would get the respect they deserve

Lori Midson​Robert Bogart Elway's Downtown 1881 Curtis Street 303-312-3107 www.elways.com This is part one of Lori Midson's interview with Robert Bogart, executive chef of Elway's Downtown. Part two of that interview will run in this space tomorrow. Robert Bogart, a former Marine who becam ... More >>

Zengo's Clint Wangsnes on black garlic, his last meal and Denver's really bad Mexican food

Lori Midson​ Clint Wangsnes Zengo 1610 Little Raven Street 720-904-0965 www.richardsandoval.com/zengodenver This is part one of Lori Midson's Chef and Tell interview with Clint Wangsnes, chef of Zengo. To read part two of that Q&A, check back here on Friday. "I truly love food, and the high ... More >>

Would you pay $625 for a cookbook?

​A quick perusal of Amazon shows that Thomas Keller's French Laundry cookbook regularly costs $50, the same price Grant Achatz charges for Alinea at Home. Heston Blumenthal's larger volume of recipes, the Big Fat Duck, weighs in at a hefty $250. And Ferran Adria, of the soon-to-close molecular ... More >>

Flagstaff House deemed one of OpenTable's top 50 American cuisine restaurants in the country

​Time to celebrate the birth of our nation by eating barbecue until we explode, blatantly ignoring open container laws and then lighting some things on fire. Or by eating good old American food in one of OpenTable's top 50 American restaurants. The popular internet reservation site just rele ... More >>

Observations from the 2010 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen: José Andrés, Jacques Pépin, getting porked, scrambled egg mousse, Alex Seidel and a smoking gun

Lori Midson Jacques Pépin, Jean-Claude Szurdak and José Andrés​Thus ends four days of liver damage, debauchery, hangovers, embarrassments and a swollen stomach. The 2010 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen officially came to a close yesterday, and while the weekend isn't without its fuzzy moments, ... More >>

Part two: Ya Ya's Aaron Whitcomb on temper control, the phenomenon that's Alex Seidel and becoming the food critic for Westword

Lori Midson Aaron Whitcomb​ Aaron Whitcomb YaYa's Euro Bistro 8310 East Belleview Avenue, Greenwood Village 303-741-1110 www.yayasbistro.com This is part two of my interview with Aaron Whitcomb. To read part one of that interview, click here. Six words to describe your food: Playful, class ... More >>

Part Two: Chef and Tell with James Mazzio

Lori Midson ​This is part two of James Mazzio's Chef and Tell interview. To read part one, click here. What you'd like to see more of in Denver from a culinary standpoint: More chefs going out on their own and expressing their individual culinary talent rather than working for chain restaur ... More >>

Strange Sauce: The week in national food news

​ In the heat of Michael Bloomberg's quest to limit the use of salt in NYC restaurants, a recent study has found that a program aimed at reducing the nation's salt intake could shave 24 BILLION dollars from the national health-care budget. Healthy or not, we're siding with David Chang, who mak ... More >>

Cafe Society: Week in review

​What you may have missed this week on Cafe Society while you were getting your morning groove on at the new Rise & Shine Biscuit Kitchen and Cafe, which opened right around the same time as the Denver Biscuit Company. Cupcakes: out; biscuits: in. After hyping and hyping and hyping the two- ... More >>

High-roller alert: Tickets for Aspen Food & Wine Classic on sale now

​No time like now, just four days before Christmas, for those of you blessed with holiday bonuses to blow some of that wad on tickets to the annual Aspen Food & Wine Classic, one of the biggest culinary blowouts of the year.Tickets went on sale last week for the three-day feedbag, which comes ... More >>

Joel Stein on Thomas Keller and reality food shows

Thomas Keller​ While having dinner recently, I overheard a woman trying to familiarize her dining companion with Jean-Georges Vongerichten. In an attempt to jog her memory, the friend asked, "What show is he on?" It's an interesting state of affairs, more obviously a sign of the times. In a ... More >>

Ask the Critic: Worst. Idea. Ever.

photo courtesy of seriouseats.com​Want to know why food is a great beat? Because there's always someone out there who's gonna think of jamming a full serving of pasta primavera into a waffle cone and selling it on the street (as pictured above). Usually, these people are going to be coming f ... More >>

Gastro gift guide: The literary edition

Ah, the season for giving. If only it were that simple. Finding the perfect gift is like meeting your next great love -- it should just happen. But when certain consumer-driven holidays (sorry, Jesus) force you to brave the crazies at the mall, it helps to have an idea of what you want for that spe ... More >>

Chef and Tell part two: Michael Long of Opus

Opus executive chef Michael Long​This is part two of my interview with Micheal Long, executive chef of Opus. To read part one of this interview, click here. Culinary inspirations: Norman Van Aken. I'm a south Florida guy, so when I came out of CIA in 1990 and moved back to Florida, Norman wa ... More >>

Chef and Tell part two: James Rugile of Venue

Lori MidsonJames Rugile, executive chef of Venue​Culinary inspirations: Thomas Keller of the French Laundry for his pursuit of perfection and emphasis on technique, and Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns for his emphasis on sustainability. He sources most of what's on his menu directly from hi ... More >>

Part two: Chef and Tell with Lance Barto of Strings

Lori MidsonLance Barto, executive chef of Strings​ This is part two of my interview with Lance Barto, exec chef of Strings. You can read part one of my interview with Barto here. Best food city in America: Northern California. Right, I know that it's not a city, but the whole northern region of ... More >>

Chef and Tell with Lance Barto of Strings

Lori MidsonLance Barto, exectutive chef of Strings​"It wasn't supposed to happen this fast," says Lance Barto, shaking his head. The 27-year-old chef, who was promoted back in February to the chief kitchen post at Strings following the departure of Aaron Whitcomb (who's now at Yia-Yia's Euro B ... More >>

Part two: Chef and Tell with Sean Yontz of Mezcal, Sketch and Tambien

Lori MidsonSean Yontz with his wife Alexa​This is part two of Lori Midson's interview with Sean Yontz, executive chef of Mezcal, Tambien and Sketch. You can read part one here. Culinary inspirations: Ferran Adrià, the chef at El Bulli, because of the way he's completely changed people's perc ... More >>

Waxing poetic about a mangorgasm at Venue

A Flickr PhotoWhen touched by the Red Trolley, these reach unthought-of levels of deliciousness It's the explosion of flavor that's so exciting--taking an ingredient and making more than it was to begin with. This is what Thomas Keller said on page 31 of his French Laundry Cookbook. And although the ... More >>

Culinary Cruising: Menu Change

Grand Lux Cafe

What happened in Vegas should have stayed there.

Bite Me

Opening Doors

Fantasy Land

At Frasca, all foodie dreams come true.

Bite Me

The Write Stuff

The Shlock of the New

War is hell. Cafe Bisque proves that.

Bite Me

Just Enough

Bite Me

Travelin' Man

Full of Holes

A meal at La Fondue may leave you feeling forked.