Expanding The Palate
Chef Jorge de la Torre Dishes On Food Trends, Peaches & Corn, and Park Hill’s Culinary Delights
By Cara DeGette, Editor, GPHN
July is National Culinary Arts Month, designed to promote the awareness for professional chefs and cooks – and their contributions to new culinary trends.
In honor of the 31 days designed to honor all things food, this month we highlight many of the changes in the Park Hill restaurant scene. On page 10 we check in on what’s opened, what’s closed, who’s moved, who is winning awards – and who is currently serving up a meal of fried baby artichokes, soft-shell crab and strawberry Pavlova that is so beyond this world that neighborhood foodies are being instructed to Run, Not Walk to get some before it’s all gone.
We also sat down with Chef Jorge de la Torre, who since 2005 has been the dean of culinary education at Johnson & Wales University in Park Hill. Over the course of his culinary career, de la Torre has also worked in San Francisco, Hawaii and Vail.
In a free-ranging interview, de la Torre dished up his take on the rapidly-evolving food landscape, the next big trends, being good stewards of the earth, and his own favorite Park Hill dishes.
Greater Park Hill News: Lets talk about national culinary arts month. Is this a real thing?
Jorge de la Torre: It is a real thing. It was developed so that people would appreciate and look into the professional chef world and see what they bring to culinary innovation. A lot of things that you see once they become mainstream – say a dish that ends up on the menu at TGI Fridays. Maybe X amount of years ago some chef was toying around with that innovation, and it was exclusive and then there was a lot of hype, and and then suddenly it becomes the mainstream. For example, take Caesar salad. Once upon a time it was made tableside, at the finest dining restaurants. Now, where can you not find a Caesar salad? I mean everywhere, at a convenience store. These are innovations that affect our lives, thanks to some chef who developed that.
GPHN: So what is this year’s culinary innovation, which will soon be coming to a 7-11 store near you?
Jorge de la Torre: Well, I think it’s not so much an innovation, but the trends are going to be more Hawaiian. We’re going to see a lot of Hawaiian style – the types of fish that we typically get, the preparations will be becoming very popular, like poke, plate lunches. Plus the flavors, tropical flavors.
GPHN: Why is that?
Jorge de la Torre: Who knows? That is what people sometimes latch onto and people are enjoying it. Also every year because of celebrity chefs and television and cooking shows that are all the rage, people are trying more types of food. Fifteen years ago people were not as adventurous as they are now. They are checking out the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show, and watching the travel channel featuring 50 places in the world to eat next, and they plan their trip around that. They say, hey, we’re going to this town. And were going to this place because so-and-so said it was great. And that’s phenomenal!
GPHN: Yelp and social media are huge driving forces, right?
Jorge de la Torre: Absolutely. People taking pictures of every meal they’ve eaten. You know I was just in Seattle and I can show you pictures of three things I ate there.
GPHN: So you do that too.
Jorge de la Torre: I’m not obsessive about it but for me, it’s fun. You go on Pinterest, you go on Instagram, I mean it is out there, all the time. People are really interested in food and food preparation.
GPHN: How do you predict food trends, that something really big is going to happen next?
Jorge de la Torre: I tend to look at the blogs, and I look toward some of the more cosmopolitan, avant-garde cities like Barcelona, New York, San Francisco, Singapore. I go to conventions where all these chefs are talking about new innovations and new concerns. So it’s not just, what’s a new trend? It’s not just asking, is it going to be Filipino – which I think is going to be a big one, by the way. It’s also, how are we going to be good stewards? If we’re going to say this is going to be the new trend, then is that going to be good for the earth? Is that sustainable? We learned from years ago, from [Chef] Paul Prudhomme, and his blackened redfish. Back then redfish was a trash fish, no one was eating it. Blackened redfish started at K-Paul’s, at this little restaurant in New Orleans, and now, where can’t you get blackened? But it absolutely crushed redfish. It made it an endangered species because it became so popular. So now we have to think, wait a minute. Before I do anything, am I doing the right thing? Yes I can make a mint off of it, but is it sustainable? Is it good for the earth? Is it good for people? Is it good for the farmer or the fisherman? So that’s where I think the trends truly are going – being responsible and sustainable.
GPHN: How do you translate that to your students when they are innovating?
Jorge de la Torre: That’s what is beautiful about Johnson & Wales University, it’s not just a trade school saying, this is how you cook the fish. There are a lot of schools that do that, and do it well. But as a university we are giving the business classes, the ethics classes, saying, OK, you know how to cook that fish, now how are you going to be profitable? How are you going to be socially conscious? How are you going to market this? What is the business of that fish you just made? As a university we’re making students think beyond just making a delicious fish. Because quite frankly, a lot of people can make delicious fish.
GPHN: Do you think we as a society need to move back to eating more seasonally, like only eating salmon during peak salmon time, or not trying to fly in tomatoes from Florida or South America?
Jorge de la Torre: For two reasons it will be better. Quite frankly, people will remember that seasonal food is just better, more delicious. When I think of peaches, or the Olathe corn, that are coming in next month, I mean I can wait for that, right? I don’t need to buy corn in February and go, Wow! That was a waste of money. Not only was it expensive, but it tastes like horse feed. Whereas in a month, it is going to be six for a dollar because it’s in harvest, it’s in season, it’s delicious. Now, do I go 100 percent on that? No, because then in February we’d be eating onions in Colorado, all root cellar things, because nothing grows then in Colorado. So you have to find a balance.
GPHN: What’s your favorite Park Hill restaurant?
Jorge de la Torre: That I go with my kids? I love South Philly Cheesesteak. Cake Crumbs has Johnson & Wales pastry students [working there]. I like Oblio’s – they are super nice to us. But the Philly cheesesteak I love, man. I used to live in Philadelphia and teach in Philadelphia and they are the real deal. I’m not a big pizza fan, but I’ve heard Allegra’s is great. Desmond. [Chef and owner] Sean Kelly is a legend. I could go on.
GPHN: It would be fun to have you critique all the restaurants in Park Hill.
Jorge de la Torre: No way.
GPHN: OK, let’s talk about having a global approach, a global perspective, to food. Of course in Park Hill there is so much diversity. You have Desmond, and Tables and those establishments, but then you head over to say, Colfax and there are some pretty interesting Ethiopian places, there’s Phoenician Kebab for Mediterranean, there’s Mataam Fez, which has been there forever…
Jorge de la Torre: When you talk about Tables or Bistro Barbés, or the Plimoth [in North City Park], I go to those places once in awhile, when I have guests in town. But if I am going to go to something day-to-day with my kids, for something to expand their palates and something affordable, then I want ethnic every time. I want my kids to break away from Noodles & Company. That’s an important part about global food. Kids should learn to enjoy and appreciate where it came from, and not waste food, not to wince at food.
I mean, food is good. Don’t tell me you don’t like this, or you don’t like that. I don’t accept that. You have to try it, and if you don’t like it, that’s OK. But some people have such a small world of eating, and you should enjoy going out to eat and trying something new. Some people eat the same thing every day, eat for fuel, the same baloney sandwich every day. And, now I am getting ready to get on my soapbox … Then they go to somebody else’s house and it becomes an issue: ‘Oh, I don’t eat that, and I don’t eat that.’ And that’s crazy.
GPHN: Is there anything you won’t eat?
Jorge de la Torre: Yeah, I don’t like avocados. I don’t like anything about avocados. The flavor, the texture…
GPHN: Really, no kind of avocado?
Jorge de la Torre: I was making guacamole for a group on [a recent] Sunday, for a party and it just made me shiver. I know, I know. It’s the proper fat and everything. But I was force fed avocados growing up by my parents, so now I’m like (shakes head), hmmm mmm.
GPHN: Not even guacamole?
Jorge de la Torre: No guacamole, no!
What Chef Jorge Dreams About
A Few Of His Favorite Park Hill Menu Offerings
Chef Jorge de la Torre is dean of the culinary arts college at Johnson & Wales, in Park Hill at Montview and Quebec. That makes for some tasty forays in and around the neighborhood. Without a doubt, there are some delectable menu items that de la Torre finds himself returning to again, and again. Here are a few of his favorites:
Basil Fried Rice at Spicy Thai II; 2235 Oneida
The Mushroom Philly Cheese Steak at Famous Philly Cheese Steak & Beer Garden; 2200 Oneida St.
The Hot Wings at Oblio’s Pizzeria; 6115 E. 22nd Ave.
Jerry’s Classic Italian Sub at Spinelli’s Market; 4621 E. 23rd Ave.
Fried Gizzards at Buffalo Bill’s Wings & Things; Colfax and Quebec
Meat Combos at Queen of Sheba Ethiopian; 7225 E. Colfax
Short Ribs and any of the Salads at the Chop Shop ; 4990 E. Colfax
Any of the Sandwiches at Marczyk Fine Foods; 5100 E. Colfax Ave.
Fried Chicken at Cora Faye’s; (Which is moving from 2861 Colorado Blvd. to Aurora this month)
Breakfast at Four Friends Kitchen; 2893 Roslyn St.
Steak and Frites at The Plimoth; 2335 E. 28th Ave. (in North City Park)
— Cara DeGette