City of Gastronomy sends chefs around the globe to champion Tucson's food scene

Tucson City of Gastronomy sent seven Chef Ambassadors around the globe last year, spreading the gospel of Tucson’s food and food heritage to other UNESCO Cities of Gastronomy.

On Jan. 26, chefs that were part of Tucson’s first cohort of trained Chef Ambassadors will finish their two-year terms when the Tucson COG resurrects its pre-pandemic fundraiser “Chefs on a Global Stage.” The event raises money for the Chef Exchange Fund that covers chefs’ travel expenses.

The event also will feature two of the 10 incoming Chef Ambassadors — Mat Cable, chef-owner of Fresco Pizzeria and Zio Peppe, who helped ambassador Devon Sanner in Parma, Italy, last fall; and Pablo Valencia, chef-owner of Scratching the Plate catering, who accompanied Travis Peters, formerly of The Parish, in Macao, China, last June.

The China trip for the International Gastronomy Forum was the farthest the ambassadors traveled and it was the second time since Tucson landed the UNESCO designation in 2015 that Tucson COG had been invited. Only 30 of the world’s 56 Cities of Gastronomy make the cut, said Tucson COG Executive Director Jonathan Mabry.

Tucson stood out, Mabry said, because it is “one of only a few Cities of Gastronomy that really lean into food heritage.”

“It makes a difference,” he said.

Tucson’s food heritage, going back thousands of years and borrowing from our Mexican and Native American roots, is central to the six- to eight-week Chef Ambassador training program that Mabry launched just before the pandemic. The COG had been sending chefs to sister COGs since year two or three of the designation, when they started getting requests from around the globe.

The chefs had some informal training, but the idea was to equip them to be able to represent Tucson and tell its story, said longtime Tucson chef Janos Wilder, president of the Tucson COG board and the architect of the training program. Mabry said he thinks the Tucson program emphasizing the food heritage and history is unique among UNESCO-designated cities.

Chefs, sous chefs and pastry chefs are selected based on leadership skills, culinary excellence and creativity, and a demonstrated support for Southern Arizona food producers. They then go through weeks of kitchen demonstrations, taught by Wilder, and classroom instruction on Tucson’s food heritage products, practices and modern-day uses, led by Mabry.

“Everything we do is to prepare them to take this on the road and represent us well,” said Wilder, a longtime Tucson restaurateur and champion of Tucson’s heritage ingredients.

The goal is that the chefs will be able to talk about Tucson’s food history and heritage ingredients and convey how that history plays out on today’s plate. In addition to the kitchen demos, Wilder advises chefs on the practicalities of international travel: what to pack and ship ahead including what things — from foodstuffs and spices to kitchen equipment — are likely to be scrutinized by customs officials. Chefs also learn to investigate what ingredients they will need that won’t be readily available when they land.

Wilder leads the kitchen demonstrations at his downtown Studio Janos that he opened in fall 2023. Chefs are given 15 minutes to prepare the dish, explaining along the way what they are doing and sprinkling in tidbits about Tucson’s food heritage and scene.

Training is wrapping up in the coming days for the second cohort of Chef Ambassadors: In addition to Cable and Valencia, Adolfo “Aris” Cabrera of Quail Creek Country Club; Mateo Cancio of Hacienda del Sol; Susan Fulton and Mary Steiger of Gourmet Girls Gluten Free Bakery/Bistro; Angela Garcia of Chulas Cocina; Jenna Grigalauski of A Culinary Inheritance; Robert Kowalske of Sunrise Senior Living; and Shuka Parker of Casino del Sol.

Over the past couple of weeks, Wilder and Mabry have been conducting the final kitchen demonstrations with the incoming Chef Ambassadors. At the studio last week, Cancio, chef de cuisine at Hacienda del Sol Resort, and Parker, a baker and pastry chef at Casino del Sol, made their final presentations while the cameras rolled.

Cancio came with colorful produce from the resort’s garden, including peppers, greens and citrus. In a clay bowl, he poured flour and water for the scratch-made blue and white corn tortillas; a plate next to the bowl had a dozen or so balls of dough ready to be pressed and a plate of pre-pressed tortillas in parchment paper. Several of the tortillas stuck to the paper when he went to demonstrate how to cook them in a preheated pan.

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Lesson learned: Pressing tortillas takes so little time that there’s no need to prepare in advance unless you are cooking for a large group, the veteran James Beard Award-winning Wilder advised him.

During his presentation, Cancio consulted notes outside of the camera’s view to pepper his presentation with details of Tucson’s food heritage and Hacienda del Sol’s on-site garden.

In their post-demonstration observations, Wilder and Mabry advised Cancio to put more emphasis on Tucson’s heritage ingredients and offered tips on addressing an audience while cooking.

Parker, who moved to the U.S. from her native Japan around 20 years ago, brought a bowl of small dates, a small bag of White Sonoran Wheat flour and ramekins filled with other ingredients she uses to make date empanadas. She also brought a half dozen golden brown empanadas.

Her discussion included personal details about discovering heritage ingredients, including the flour, which she said is her favorite for making breads and pastries.

In their comments afterward, Mabry and Wilder emphasized the need to incorporate more details about Tucson’s food history and culture and offered advice on how she could demonstrate the baking process in the allotted time.

Parker took notes as they spoke and nodded at their suggestions, and when they were finished, she passed the bowl of treats around the room.

Lesson learned: Parker’s date empanadas were impeccable.

‘Chefs on a Global Stage’ menu

Sarah Lamberth dished up street corn fritters with a chiltepín and chile-lime aioli for San Antonians in October. Obadiah Hindman made charred beef tostaditas last fall to welcome Bergamo, Italy, into the Pueblos del Maiz festival celebrated annually in San Antonio, Tucson and Merida, Mexico. Ryan Clark crafted a savory corn parfait with pork belly jam and fresh crab at the Merida festival.

Chefs Travis Peters and Pablo Valencia traveled the farthest last year, serving carne seca tacos at the International Gastronomy Forum in Macao, China, last June. Chefs Devon Sanner and Mat Cable closed out the year in Italy, giving folks in Parma their first taste of tacos and tortillas.

On Jan. 26, the Chef Ambassadors are going to recreate those dishes for the “Chefs on a Global Stage” event, from 6-8 p.m. at 6400 E. El Dorado Circle.

The dinner is a farewell event for TCOG’s first cohort of Chef Ambassadors, who served from 2022-24. Here’s what’s on the menu:

• Welcome cocktail feature with Whiskey del Bac spirits.
• Chorizo salad with spiced sausage, heritage squash, grilled corn, local tomatoes and okra with toasted pecans and baby pumpkin seeds, dressed in a tamarind vinaigrette; created by Peters, formerly of The Parish/currently of Transplant Pizza.
• Savory corn parfait, made with fresh-milled corn grits, pork belly jam, masa miso and corn espuma, with cilantro oil and fresh crab in warm butter; created by Clark, Loews Ventana Canyon.
• Charred b
• eef tostadita, with charred bee pico, chiles toreados, corn crema, chiltepín corn macha crumble and fermented Fresno chile hot sauce; created by Hindman, Mountain Oyster Club.
• Street corn fritter, a fresh fried grilled corn fritter served with chiltepíns and chile-lime aioli; created by Lamberth, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base executive chef.
• Tres leches cake, a vanilla sponge cake soaked in heavy cream, condensed milk and half and half, topped with Whiskey del Bac-infused whipped cream and fresh fruit; created by Sanner, Ventana Canyon Club and Lodge (formerly Zio Peppe) and Cable, Zio Peppe/Fresco Pizzeria.

Local red and white wines also will be served. Tickets are $75 in advance through eventbrite.com.

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