WhiteWave Foods veteran Mike Fogarty has long canvassed the country for work and play, and about five years ago, over the course of those travels, he realized the convenience store was long overdue for an update. “As you stop at various convenience stores, you get the sense that the products…

Kyle Mendenhall spent nearly a decade helming the burners at the Kitchen, expanding the restaurant’s farm-to-table mission from one dining room in Boulder to cities across the country. “And then that came to an end,” he says, which sent the chef into an abrupt spiral of self-reflection. He decided to…

No. 6: Masa Dumplings at Arcana The inspiration for Arcana’s masa dumplings, explains chef Kyle Mendenhall, comes partly from gnocchi, partly from tamales and partly from the fact that the kitchen can procure house-ground masa from neighboring restaurant T/ACO. Taste the dish, and that’ll all make sense: The masa forms…

No. 7: Dry-aged New York steak at Colt & Gray No matter your personal preference on cut and cooking specs for steak, you should head to Colt & Gray to taste what dry-aging can do to beef. This is one of the few restaurants in Denver dry-aging in house; here…

No. 8: Singapore Curry Laksa at Jaya Asian Grill Singapore’s hawker markets teem with hungry patrons who line up for a little satay, chili crab or samosa. Just about every center hosts at least one laksa stall, where an owner ladles spicy coconut milk-based broth pooled with chile oil over…

Seoul, South Korea is one of the best eating cities in the world: Women hawk spicy rice cakes from teeming market stalls, tiny parlors put out tasty fried dumplings at breath-taking speed, and restaurants are often laser-focused on serving a perfect version of just one or two dishes, be that…

Brothers Jason and Kris Wallenta started talking about opening a restaurant together before they were of legal drinking age. For a long time, they imagined that their eatery would be a pizzeria, but they first went with a taco joint: Dos Santos. Now they’re about to open White Pie.

Sae Jong Kwan was a mainstay of Korean barbecue in Aurora for more than a decade; when Jason Sheehan first reviewed it ten years ago, he remarked on its bright vibrancy and its crowds, and loved especially the restaurant’s oxtail soup. By the time I got to it four years…

Forever on the hunt for my favorite Chinese dishes in this town, I was overjoyed when Hop Alley and Uncle owner Tommy Lee pointed me toward Little Chengdu, the DTC strip mall haunt with a sizable traditional Chinese menu that includes fiery hot pot, Sichuan wontons pooled with chili oil and…

After a decade at Elway’s in Cherry Creek, chef Aniedra Nichols has gone fishin’…at Fish N Beer, the restaurant that opened in late 2016 in RiNo.

No. 12: Tallow Candle at Il Posto Here’s a fun thing to do next time you’re at Il Posto: Order the tallow candle, and once it’s delivered, watch as tables around you follow suit. What looks like a table centerpiece melts down slowly, forming an edible pool of seasoned beef…

Less than two weeks into its run at the Halcyon Hotel in Cherry Creek North, Quality Italian has parted ways with executive chef Franz Hueber. Before moving to Colorado, Hueber cooked in several storied New York kitchens, beginning with a stint at the prolific Sullivan Street Bakery and continuing through…

If you’ve feasted on galbi or bulgogi at Seoul BBQ, you’ve likely marveled at the restaurant’s array of banchan (those little side dishes of pickled vegetables and salads you get for free in many Korean restaurants). We’ve got good news for you: you can now get them in bulk —…

When Hong Lee first contemplated bringing a Japanese restaurant to Lower Highland, he envisioned a fine-dining concept — but he soon realized that white tablecloths weren’t quite the right vibe. “I picked this neighborhood and changed my concept,” he says. The result? Mizu Izakaya.

Jeffrey Wall was looking for a reason to come to Denver when the executive-chef position at Hearth & Dram popped up on his computer screen. It was a perfect match: The restaurant’s concept called for an ambitious whiskey collection, one he could match with a menu piled high with charcuterie, wood-fired proteins and unusual vegetables, as well as whole-beast feasts. We sat down with Wall to chat about whittling potatoes, why it pays to put in time as a line cook, and why French chef Alain Passard’s life is the gold standard for a chef.

Toni Tipton-Martin’s James Beard Award-winning book The Jemima Code (University of Texas Press, 2015) examines 150 cookbooks written by black women, starting in 1827. She’ll be speaking about her work at the Community College of Aurora on Wednesday, February 22; in advance of that appearance, she sat down with us to talk about the question that prompted her project, the bro-izing of the modern kitchen, and why it’s important that we broaden the definition of African-American cooking.

Tending bar first tickled Brian Rossi’s interest in tequila, but a trip to Mexico — and then several trips after that — fueled a raging passion for all booze distilled from agave plants. Four years ago, Rossi opened Adelitas Cocina y Cantina to share that passion with the Mile High City, establishing a haven where adventurous drinkers could learn more about mezcal, tequila and other agave spirits. And last year he unveiled Palenque, his homage to Oaxacan mezcalerias, behind Adelitas on South Broadway. What’s next? Ice cream!

Denver-based vertical farm Infinite Harvest has big plans to take its produce-growing capabilities to outer space. In the meantime, it could help a lot of people here on earth – and you can now buy its produce at a local market as well as the farm itself.

A few months back, fresh off my return from Beijing to the States, I explored Denver for Chinese food like that I’d eaten across the Pacific, coming up with a short list of places that offer tastes of iconic dishes. It was mostly limited to Taiwanese and Cantonese food, with…

Caroline Glover just opened Annette, a snug restaurant in the Stanley Marketplace, where she hopes to give diners a taste of what she likes feeding people in her own home. Annette is a very personal project for Glover, and to pull it off, she’s drawing on lessons learned at New York City’s Spotted Pig, Acorn in Denver, and various American farms. In the run-up to the opening, we caught up with the young chef to talk about the lessons she learned from farming, why opening a marketplace restaurant is like going to group therapy, and why chefs must continue to pursue sustainable sourcing, even if the novelty of phrases like “farm to table” has worn off.