Tucson’s reigning Iron Chef Kenneth Foy knows he’s got a fight on his hands if he wants to retain his title on Saturday, July 22.
“This one is going to be a tougher battle than it was last year,” said Foy, chef-owner of the popular midtown restaurant Dante’s Fire, who faces Zio Peppe chef-owner Devon Sanner in Saturday’s Iron Chef Tucson competition at Casino del Sol. “I’ve known Devon quite a few years. ... I thoroughly respect his culinary chops and I know it’s going to take an all-out effort to retain the title.”
Sanner isn’t expecting a cakewalk, either.
Zio Peppe chef-owner Devon Sanner, serving a guest at the Meet the Chefs competition in late May, hopes he can unseat Kenneth Foy and add Tucson Iron Chef to his growing list of accolades at his 2-year-old east-side restaurant.
He and his sous chefs, Brian Hagan and Dan Heady, have been doing trial runs since he won the Meet The Chefs semifinal round in late May.
Zio Peppe co-owner Mat Cable has been coaching the team several times a week, throwing out different “secret ingredients” to help them perfect their timing and consider various scenarios that could force them to rethink strategies right up to the competition’s start time.
“We’re just going to bring our palates and our diverse backgrounds in cooking,” Sanner said.
Sanner’s background includes graduating from the Scottsdale Culinary Institute and working for 15 years under James Beard Award-winning Tucson chef Janos Wilder before opening Zio Peppe with Cable two years ago.
Hagen worked under Sanner at Wilder’s Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails, and Heady has worked in a number of Tucson restaurants, including Café à La C’Art and The Parish.
Foy is also doing trial runs with his team, taking some cues from the items Sanner has requested for the pantry that the chefs will use to create their dishes. The chefs also will have to work with a secret ingredient that must be incorporated into each of the four dishes they will have to make in the one-hour contest timeframe. The chefs will get a heads-up the night before about four potential secret ingredients, but they won’t know which one it is until the cooking begins.
Reigning Tucson Iron Chef Kenneth Foy said winning the title in 2022 gave him the name recognition to double the business at his midtown restaurant. He's hoping for a repeat on Saturday, July 22.
“Our camp is working on a matrix of seafood, red meat and vegetable base,” Foy said. “We’re kind of building our flavor profiles hoping that one of those land in there pretty well. This is a flavor competition more than anything else.”
Last year’s secret ingredient was cherries; it was peaches the year before, so Sanner and Foy are confident they won’t be dealing with fruit in the 2023 competition.
The chefs also have to incorporate Blue Moon beer in one of their dishes, said Nathan Lanham-Baird, marketing and promotions director for Iron Chef Tucson coordinator Arizona Lotus Corp. Arizona Lotus has seven radio stations in Tucson, including 94.9 MIXfm, 96.1 KLPX and La Caliente 92.1 KCMT.
“We like to be a part of the community and we are very active in the community, not just in big events like this,” Lanham-Baird said. “This event is a real hallmark of that.”
A win on Saturday would make Foy only the third chef in Iron Chef Tucson’s 15-year history to retain his title. Ryan Clark, executive chef of Casino del Sol, won three times and Albert Hall, chef-owner of the long-closed Acacia, won twice.
“We think if we win successive years, that is a real statement,” said Foy, who said his win last year doubled business at Dante’s Fire. “The cream of the crop has repeated. The ability to win two years in a row and proving to ourselves that we are as good as we think we are is getting to that repeat status.”
This is Sanner’s first time competing in the Iron Chef Tucson finals after being eliminated in last year’s qualifying rounds. But Sanner has racked up several Tucson culinary awards, including back-to-back wins in Tucson Originals’ Pizza Throwdown in 2022 and this year.
“I’m absolutely thrilled. It’s fun to get in the public and show people what we do,” he said. “It’s little bit of a different beast when it’s a surprise and you’ve got elements you can’t control.”
Saturday’s 15th annual Iron Chef Tucson kicks off with the Culinary Experience from 1 to 4 p.m. The competition is from 5-7 p.m., and all events will be held in Casino del Sol’s Grand Ballroom, 5655 W. Valencia Road.
No one under 21 will be admitted, and tickets are $35 for the culinary experience or $55 for the culinary experience and competition. VIP packages also are available for $99 through ironcheftucson.com.
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