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EVENT TIMES10:30am-1:30pm
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EVENT LOCATIONVentana Canyon Club & Lodge
6200 N Club House Ln Tucson, AZ 85750 |
ADMISSION$100 Each
Limited Tickets |
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VENTANA CANYON CLUB & LODGE6200 N Club House Ln, Tucson, AZ 85750
On the outskirts of Tucson in the Santa Catalina foothills lives Ventana Canyon in its 600 acres of native beauty. The breathtaking nature engulfing our property is the true glory of our desert hideaway. Here, you’ll find a sanctuary of flowering desert, rolling hills, winding dry riverbeds, craggy canyons and pine-topped peaks. A beautifully secluded getaway with 50 guest suites and 36 holes of championship golf, The Lodge at Ventana Canyon is an award-winning retreat that’s been rated as one of America’s top five golf resorts. The amenities are lavish and the landscape is lush – so let the views around you ease your mind and soothe your spirit. |
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JANOS WILDER
James Beard Foundation 2000 Winner: Best Chef: Southwest Janos Wilder began cooking as a teenager in a local pizza parlor and continued cooking throughout high school and college in numerous restaurants in Northern California, Nashville, Tennessee and Boulder, Colorado. Initially his foray into the restaurant world was fueled equally by an interest in food that developed into a full-fledged passion and the practical need to find a job. Working his way up through restaurants came easily to Wilder and he used his experience as a means to support himself while attending the University of Colorado and later while getting a degree in political science from UC Berkeley. After graduation, Janos’ culinary odyssey included a stop in the high mountains of Colorado in the late 1970′s where his three-year stint as chef at the historic Gold Hill Inn sparked a respect for local ingredients. His changing menus were informed by the ingredients of the regions including herbs and vegetables from neighborhood gardens, foraged mushrooms and suckling pig from small farms on the plains. A short stop cooking French food at a small restaurant in Santa Fe led to more in depth study of French cooking in Bordeaux where Wilder traveled in 1982. He worked along side the chefs at La Reserve, a Michelin two star Relais et Chateaux and Le Duberne, a one star fine dining restaurant and bistro. At these restaurants he was exposed first hand to the techniques of French classical and nouvelle cuisine. In learning more about French cooking he came to appreciate the French chef and his relationship to his gardeners. Janos returned to the states determined to cook French food. After locating in Tucson he realized the local gardens yielded chilies, beans, squash, cilantro and more chilies and beans. Resolving this culinary conundrum was the key to success that has propelled Janos to national prominence as a trendsetter and originator in Southwest Cuisine. Rather than being limited by what at first appeared to be a rather meager array of ingredients with which to cook, Wilder began exploring. Soon he discovered the Southwest to be a treasure of ingredients including the fruit from the Prickly Pear cactus, mesquite flour, blue corn meal, tropical fruits and produce from Mexico and seafood from the Sea of Cortez. In 1983, before advertising for staff, Wilder advertised for gardeners to begin planting seeds for the foods that he would soon serve. On Halloween, 1983, Janos opened its doors in a landmark adobe home in Barrio Viejo on the grounds of the Tucson Museum of Art. The opening menu was a marriage of French technique and local ingredients that quickly caught the imagination of local diners and national critics. Within months the restaurant was written up in the New York Times and in 1984 was named one of the nation’s top regional restaurants by Playboy. In 1990 wrote Janos: Recipes and Tales from a Southwest Restaurant published by Berkeley’s Ten Speed Press. In 1998 the restaurant relocated to its present home in a free standing building on the grounds of the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa overlooking the entire Tucson Valley. In 1999, under the same roof as Janos, J BAR was opened as a casual, less expensive alternative featuring the foods of Southern Arizona, Latin America, Mexico and The Caribbean in a style which emphasizes the conviviality of the shared table. Working as a consultant for the Gila River Community, Wilder opened KAI Restaurant at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort and Spa in October, 2002. The menu at KAI is based on traditional crops grown on the Gila River. At KAI, Wilder has created a very modern menu using ingredients that have been grown by the Pima and Maricopa Indians for hundreds of years. The restaurant is set in a beautiful dining room overlooking the Estrella Mountains south of Phoenix off Maricopa Road. The Arizona Republic gave KAI 5 Stars and named it Phoenix’s Best Southwest Restaurant. |
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EL CHARRO
James Beard Foundation 2019 Award Nominee: Outstanding Restaurant Established in 1922 by our beloved Tia Monica Flin, El Charro Café of Tucson, Arizona is The Nation’s Oldest Mexican Restaurant in continuous operation by the same family. Our Tia Monica, a true entrepreneur and burgeoning chef, came to Tucson via France in the 1800’s when her father Jules, a famous stone-mason, was commissioned to build the city’s pristine St. Augustine Cathedral. Jules, whose signature work can be seen throughout Tucson’s Historic District, also built the families residence in 1896. This same building is now home to the Original Downtown El Charro Café location on Court Avenue. Back in those days, a woman owned business was rare enough, but El Charro was even more unique as it was truly a one woman operation, with Monica acting as hostess, waitress and chef all at the same time! Today, Carlotta Flores, our chef-author and great grandniece of Monica, carries on the tradition of Tia Monica! And while no longer a one woman operation, under her guidance El Charro has become one of the most critically acclaimed restaurant brands in the USA with features in Bon Appétit, Gourmet Magazine, USA Today, The NBC Today Show, Parade Magazine, the NY and LA Times and most recently; The NY Post. Featuring Sonoran and innovative Tucson-style Mexican food, El Charro has won the Tucson Lifestyle Reader’s Poll Gold Medal as Best Mexican Restaurant nine years in a row or since the award was began in the local lifestyle magazine and was named in 2010 as one of America’s Top 50 Restaurant Icons by Nation’s Restaurant News. Chef Carlotta and family currently own and operate five Tucson-area locations, a full service catering division, and are the Official Mexican Food Restaurants of the UofA Wildcats. They are involved in countless charitable and non-profit efforts and believe that a business is only as good as what it gives back to its community. |
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EL GUERO CANELO
James Beard Foundation 2018 Winner: America's Classics Awards Born in Magdalena, Sonora in 1961, Daniel Contreras opened his first hot dog stand in Tucson in 1993. As a boy he ate, slept and breathed baseball (he was nearly a champion at 12), now he puts that same drive into Sonoran food. He owns and operates three El Guero Canelo restaurants, a meat market in Tucson, a bakery and tortilla factory in Magdalena (he had to be sure the quality was just right). In 2018 the restaurant was named one of America's Classics by the James Beard Foundation. In 2021 Travel Magazine named them to their list of the country's ten best hot dogs. The restaurant focusses on Sonoran hot dogs, a Tucson specialty that the Beard Foundation said "evinces the flow of culinary and cultural influences from the U.S. to Mexico and back (after) decades ago, elaborately dressed hot dogs began to appear as novelty imports on the streets of Hermosillo". |
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DON GUERRA
James Beard Foundation 2019 Winner: Outstanding Baker Don grew up in the Phoenix area and enjoyed baking with his mother and eating his nana’s tortillas. He attended the University of Arizona to study anthropology and then headed to Flagstaff, Arizona. Don worked in several bakeries before opening The Village Baker of Flagstaff in 1995. A few years later, he moved to Ashland, Oregon to open The Village Baker of Ashland. After returning to Tucson, Don completed a degree in education and taught K-12 grade students for seven years. As time passed, he yearned to return to the artistry and passion of his baking days and started experimenting with new recipes. A “garage bakery “remodel yielded Barrio Bread in 2009 and the Community Supported Baker was born. Barrio is Spanish for neighborhood, a name he chose since his neighbors were the lucky recipients of his first Tucson loaves. This sense of community is embedded in every aspect of the business. Don is committed to working with local farmers, chefs, and other food producers to strengthen the local grain economy and grow the local food network. In 2015 he was awarded a USDA Local Food Promotion Grant that significantly helped him to increase collaboration with others and expand production with a new bakery. He has taught a variety of baking classes and presented at conferences and workshops, highlighting his business model and work with heritage grains. Don has consulted in Mexico, Taiwan and throughout the United States. In 2016 Don was named one of the Top Ten Bakers in America by Dessert Professionals magazine. He also received the Leveraging Your Localness award from Bite Magazine, Good Food Finder USA and Local First Arizona. |
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MARIA MAZON
James Beard Foundation 2022 Semifinalist: Best Chef: Southwest Executive Chef/Owner BOCA Tacos y Tequila, SONA Tortillas De Maiz y Bodega Born in Tucson but raised in Sonora, Mexico, Chef Maria’s cuisine is inspired by both sides of her borderland home. Using the unique flavors and ingredients of the Sonoran Desert, her experimental take on classic Mexican fare have earned her local and national accolades including The New York Times, National Geographic, USA Today and The Washington Post since opening her restaurant in 2010. In 2021, she appeared on Season 18 of Bravo TV’s “Top Chef” and won the coveted Restaurant Wars challenge. In 2020 and 2022, she became a James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best Chef in the Southwest Region. She has been on the Food Network’s “Chopped,” “Gnormous Food” and “You Gotta Eat Here!” and Cooking Channel’s “Man v. Food.” She has been pushing the boundaries for years, introducing to people unique flavors and exotic ingredients. When not at the restaurant, Maria loves cooking for her wife, Lilly, and their 12-year-old son. |
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JOHN MARTINEZ
TITO & PEP James Beard Foundation 2022 Semifinalist: Best Chef: Southwest Chef John Martinez comes from a large family in Tucson, Arizona. As a family that loved to eat, food was centric to any family gathering, and his Grandmother was more than happy to put out a full spread for any birthday, holiday or special occasion. It was at her table that his love for food grew, and as a young cook he moved east to NYC to pursue his passion. He found guidance and mentorship at the Mercer Kitchen under Jean-Georges Vongerichten and soon worked his way up into a role of Chef trainer for new projects worldwide. After nearly a decade with the world-renowned chef, he took time to work on a few projects in NY, as well as consulting across the U.S., before returning to the desert that he calls home. Since 2018, he has been chef/owner of the acclaimed restaurant Tito and Pep in Tucson, Arizona. |
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WENDY GARCIA
TUMERICO / LA CHATERIA James Beard Foundation 2023 Semifinalist: Best Chef: Southwest Owner and chef Wendy Garcia from Tumerico is a master of feel-good comfort food. Garcia grew up on a farm in Hermosillo, Mexico, then moved to Tucson during her teenage years. After working in joints such as Feast and Primo Tucson, she opened Tumerico. The energy makes its way to the dishes, which are especially revitalizing when paired with the free coffee she rotates from Exo Roast Co., Yellow Brick Coffee, and Presta Coffee Roasters. |