< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Let’s journey into Tucson’s fascinating food, glorious food – Inside Tucson Business: Meals And Entertainment

Let’s journey into Tucson’s fascinating food, glorious food – Inside Tucson Business: Meals And Entertainment

86°

Clear

Inside Tucson Business

Home

ON THE MENU Let’s journey into Tucson’s fascinating food, glorious food

Matt Russell

Posted: Friday, November 30, 2012 6:00 am | Updated: 10:04 am, Wed Jan 2, 2013.

Let’s journey into Tucson’s fascinating food, glorious food By Matt Russell Inside Tucson Business

Editor’s note: Tucson foodie Matt Russell takes over the food column effective this week.

Surely you’ll remember the opening scene in the classic 1968 movie “Oliver!” that featured young children singing, somewhat dreamily, about “food, glorious food.” While slaving in a British workhouse, these tired, hungry and overworked kids collectively fantasized about “a great big steak; fried, roasted or stewed; oh food, wonderful food, marvelous food, glorious food,” while standing in line for a small serving of the tasteless and colorless meal of the day, gruel. The word “foodie” can mean different things to different people, but one thing we foodies all have in common is a passion for the possible, much like those kids in “Oliver!” and how the art of the possible may be transformed into a memorable culinary experience.

Southern Arizona is home to a great many chefs, mixologists, sommeliers and restaurateurs, each bringing the art of the possible to their business and their craft. Some of these individuals have helped to usher Tucson to a place of prominence on the national food and cocktail map, others are little known beyond their own neighborhoods. But they all share a passion for how something on a plate, or in a glass, can actually start a conversation on its own.

That is what this new column is about, and if it can effectively start a conversation, we have done our job.

Each week I’ll be telling real stories, about real people, who are doing fascinating things — in the kitchen, behind the bar and on their menus. I’ll be on the lookout for the kinds of things that invoke a sense of culinary curiosity, and celebrating those very things that keep the tradition of wonder alive on the local food scene. This is not a restaurant review column, nor is it the source for information on happy hour specials and summer discounts. Rather, it is part of the bigger story, the story that so many of us love to tell, about Tucson’s vibrant food and beverage landscape.

From our perspective, we celebrate the fact that this landscape is wide. The story of iconic Tucson chef Janos Wilder’s foie gras bon-bons is equally as fascinating as why the ghost pepper chicken wings at Risky Business have earned a cult following. While Casino Del Sol’s mixologist Aaron DeFeo rocked the beverage world when he lovingly laid a blanket of Thai basil foam atop a gin cocktail with chai tea pineapple syrup, Tucson brewer Dennis Arnold raised some eyebrows when he aged one of his craft beers in wet bourbon barrels at Barrio Brewing Company.

It’s the story that drives our discovery, and that’s where you come in.

I want you to be part of this journey, and invite you to keep me informed of anything that fascinates you on the local food and beverage scene. Chances are, if it got your attention, there’s a great story behind it, and those are the stories I want to tell.

Our delicious pursuit of food, glorious food, continues.

Contact Matt Russell, whose day job is CEO of Russell Public Communications, at mrussell@russellpublic.com. Russell is also the host of “On the Menu Live” that airs 4-5 p.m. Saturdays on KNST 97.1-FM/790-AM.