University of Arizona alumna Marianne Banes has always loved to cook. But it wasn’t until she worked part-time at B. Dalton Bookstores that she dropped her archaeology and anthropology textbooks for cooking ones.
“I just started inhaling these cookbooks and magazines,” she said, recognizing Julia Childs, Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower as some of her favorite chefs. “I could read any one that I wanted, any day of the week. I just fell in love with the profession.”
Banes is the corporate pastry chef for Kingfisher Bar and Grill, 2564 E. Grant Road, and Bluefin Seafood Bistro, 7053 N. Oracle Road (which closes in May). She has been cooking for 35 years, including 18 in her current position. She is responsible for the dessert menus at both restaurants.
Banes got her start working for friends as a line cook at Blue Willow in 1979. That was succeeded by stops at Garland’s Lodge in Sedona, the Good Earth Restaurant, Janos, Jerome’s and Cafe Terra Cotta in Tucson, and Stars and Square One in San Francisco, among other restaurants. She also taught cooking and baking for 14 years locally at Culinary Concepts and Pima Community College.
“I have never been to a formal culinary school,” she said. “As a line cook, that’s when I really cut my teeth.”
Banes said she was in California right at the beginning of the local food movement in the 1980s, which inspired her current cuisine. Dishes on the menu include Jack Daniel’s Pecan Pie, Chocolate Mocha Raspberry Cake and her award-winning Goat Cheese Souffle Cake.
“It was such an incredibly exciting time to be (in California),” she said. “It was the beginning of new American cuisine.”
As for her future in the profession, Banes said she’s already achieved her goals.
“I’m working in one of the best restaurants in Tucson; I work with wonderful people; I love what I do; I’m allowed to do almost anything I want all the time; they trust me,” she said. “You really can’t ask for more than that.”
Banes took some time to answer a few questions for us:
What is one unique ingredient you can’t cook without?
“I like cooking with dried chilies. Chilies have the same flavor profiles as wine and chocolate, so they go very well this those things. I also have been working with mesquite flour.”
What is in your dream kitchen?
“There would be a really wonderful convection oven; a really huge wooden work table; at least a 20-quart Hobart stand mixer; and then also a little tabletop mixer; a food processor; and then I have to have a marble, and a really awesome refrigerator.”
Is there one food you can’t bring yourself to eat?
“I went to China at one point. The only thing that I just could not bring myself to eat was pig’s ears (in a broth of some kind.) I tried everything else, but I couldn’t do that.”
