Chef Kyle Foster of Colt & Gray Joins Rebel Restaurant

Kyle Foster, chef de cuisine at Colt & Gray, has taken on a new challenge at Rebel Restaurant, which opened earlier this summer in RiNo. While he's still in charge of the charcuterie program at Colt & Gray, he approached Rebel owners Dan Lasiy and Bo Porytko asking for more culinary adventure — and joined their team just last week. He'll be cooking at Rebel every Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Foster's inspirations include Thomas Keller, Frank and Andrea-Curto Randazzo, Hiroshi Shigitomi and his grandmother, and he's known for bringing a creative edge to every project he's been a part of in the city. Foster was recently celebrated as one of the unsung heroes of the kitchen in Denver; Eater Denver also voted him one of the hottest chefs. 

Since he started at Rebel, he's created the tako-yaki bowl, based on an octopus-filled doughnut with black garlic aioli with benito flakes, a traditional Asian street dish. He's also introduced a tasso biscuit, which features a tasso-smoked ham made in-house, on a traditional buttermilk biscuit with housemade pimento cheese. The Rebel team is doing a pig's head as well — or at least half a pig's head. Rebel will have a new menu at the end of next week, Porytko says, with even more dishes in the lineup. 

"He's absolutely fun to work with. He's very quirky and really creative," Porytko says of Foster. "It's definitely awesome to work with him. As much as Dan and I know, to have another really smart and really creative chef — it just keeps pushing you. It's fun collaborating. That's part of the reason we were so excited when he said he would work with us: to go through the creative process together."

Since Rebel changes its menu every couple of weeks, this next rendition will feature even more gastronomic creations from Foster, still with some summer ingredients. Porytko hints at a melon dish, and a lot of corn and tomatoes, especially with the warm fall weather in Denver. "Summer doesn't really end until the end of September," he points out.