Dim sum. Slavic languages. Prom night in Tucson.
Taken individually, these three ingredients don’t seem compatible. When mixed together, however, they are key components in the recipe of Devon Sanner’s life.
The executive chef at The Carriage House downtown has worked with Janos Wilder for 11 years, but his initial introduction to the James Beard award-winning chef came when Sanner took his prom date to a Wilder-owned restaurant. In that one meal, Sanner said he recognized the whimsy, playfulness and passion he later would strive to incorporate into his own cooking. Sanner did not follow a direct route to the kitchen, however.
“This is a career change for me. Previously I had another life as an aspiring academic,” he said. Sanner studied Russian, political science and Slavic languages in graduate school. However, “I’m a lot more playful than that résumé would suggest.”
When he realized academia wasn’t for him, Sanner “threw himself into cooking.” Friends had gifted him with a few cooking classes, and that introduction to a commercial kitchen had Sanner hooked. He studied at Scottsdale Culinary Institute, then accepted an apprenticeship with Wilder.
“I enjoyed cooking for friends with whatever was growing in the garden. I had a very adventurous palate, but not a very trained palate at that point. All that, I had to learn,” Sanner said.
When Wilder opened The Carriage House earlier this year, he tapped his protégé to run the combination cooking school, events space and Sunday dim sum parlor where brunch features a globally-oriented menu along with traditional Cantonese style favorites and classic brunch fare. (Think French toast and braised chicken feet, roasted pork buns and eggs Benedict, not to mention, cocktails.)
Over the summer, The Carriage House partnered with another Wilder-owned restaurant, Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails in presenting global cooking classes and “pop-up” dinners to celebrate Tucson’s designation as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy.
Will you offer more global-cooking classes?
“I’m very optimistic about the opportunities to connect with our sister cities. That’s one of the things Janos and I are exploring now, hopefully doing professional exchanges with sister cities. Scandinavian, Brazilian, a lot of those things I’d like to explore in a lot more depth. That’s the next pet project, to connect with the other creative cities in the network, the other Cities of Gastronomy.”
Did you cook as a kid?
“As a young kid, a tradition of ours was doing family pizza night. My dad was a physician. He had very long hours, so our Fridays were our sacred night. My brother and I were in the kitchen making the dough along with my dad, mixing the dough and putting the fresh sauce on the pizza. That shared time in the kitchen, that is always something I carry with me, a shared meal like that.
“My mother, bless her, she would cook and we had a lot of home-cooked meals, but she had a sensitive palate so we had a lot of food that was woefully under seasoned.”
For people who are not adventurous eaters, do you suggest they slowly start trying new foods or dive in face-first?
“I embrace that whole plunge and encourage others to do so and try everything twice just to make sure the first time wasn’t a fluke if they didn’t like it. Life is too short to eat timidly. I recommend doing a little shopping at the Grantstone Supermarket or Lee Lee Oriental Supermarket and starting with some of the less commonplace pork ears. It’s still delicious, it’s a good place to start and a little bit adventurous. Ears you can braise … a nice slow braise with some aromatics and julienne them for a salad.
“I think we are seeing a very changing landscape here and we are encountering a lot of adventurous eaters and I am delighted by that. There are a lot more people doing a lot better food and we are getting a lot of makers, too. We are getting people making artisanal goat cheese and making artisanal honey and growing native seed crops.
“I am very excited about the food scene here and where it is going in Tucson. I am delighted by it.”
