Culinary Interlude with Chef Jamey Fader
Culinary Interlude with Chef Jamey Fader, food director of Denver’s Marczyk Fine Foods sits down to discuss his new role, his writings for Westword aptly named “Stirring the Pot,” and looks back on his days starting out in the Denver food scene, creating top restaurant spot Lola, that earned himself Denver Chef of the Year, and discusses the importance of finding a work-life balance.
Join us~ as we sit down to hear from not only a well-respected chef and sensei to many, but also a captivating storyteller that helped expose the city of Denver as being a lead contender for top food city in America~
I’ve learned many useful things throughout my time spent cooking in restaurants across this country. I’ve learned how to best prepare for service (or battle as we like to say), how to keep my ego and hyper-critical perfectionist tendencies at bay. I’ve learned how much oil is too much or not enough to perfectly sear each particular cut, size, and make of fish and meat, how much heat I need on the pan at each stage of its cooking, how to touch and cradle each piece of flesh… to honor it in every manner of which I treat and prepare it until it goes to the table to be eaten and devoured. I’ve learned how to be a better cook, a better manager, better at handling knives, at creating dishes and writing menus… but the one thing that I learned that is the most valuable bit of information, that I have reminded myself throughout my years in the industry and as I’ve aged and attempted to grow into a better person, I indirectly learned from Chef Jamey Fader.
It was my own brother, a fellow chef that I learned under in my early days who in turn had studied under Chef Jamey Fader that passed this bit of important knowledge on to him.. and him to me.. one busy, hectic night on the line amidst my youthful frustration and short-fuse temper and it was this…
“There are few things that happen in life to get truly upset over… and none of them will happen here.”
While I had met Jamey a few times through my brother and his time working for him at Denver’s Lola Mexican Fish House (both the original location on Pearl Street and it’s current home on Boulder Street), I knew I needed to one day sit down and truly thank him face-to-face for his teachings, for his knowledge, for his passion and his good nature because he needed to know how effective he was at reaching others, at shaping other chefs and their own paths, such as myself.
I was able to find him, sit with him, and thank him… but this interview is more a conversation between like-minded, cognitively affective and passionate people rather than an exposé on Chef Fader’s accomplishments… which are many and all with deserved praise.
Who is Chef Jamey Fader?
He was born and raised in the D.C. metro area, received his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from West Virginia University, but moved to Colorado in 1996 to pursue the culinary world in Denver. He worked his way, energetically and unabashedly until he became head chef at Jax Fish House, still a notable gem and hotspot of the city, to then partnering with Dave Query to create LOLA Mexican Fish House which earned him many awards such as: 5280 Magazine’s BEST NEW RESTAURANTS, Food and Wine Magazine’s TOP FIVE TEQUILA BARS in the country, and DENVER’S CHEF OF THE YEAR by 5280 Magazine in December 2004 and January 2005. In 2010 Jamey took on the role of Culinary Director for the Big Red F restaurant group, overseeing some of Colorado’s finest and most notable kitchens. He was the OG of Denver becoming recognized and top food city in America and he created that space for recognition of the region with “The Original Denver 5.”
CI- Tell us about “The Original Denver 5” in charge of promoting food for the city and why you care how the public feels about the food scene that Denver has to offer?
JF- When I moved to Denver, I committed fully to not only my career but to this place. At the time, when I first moved out here from the east coast, I remember prepping downtown looking out the window and seeing cows walk up 17th street… it ended up being from the National Western Stock Show. I really dug the idea of a city with a very rounded small town feel… synonymous with myself because I am a big family guy, I love community.. and so to be out here in a very urban feeling setting, but have that tie to the community and roots, felt right.
Shortly after that Leigh Sullivan, who comes from a long line of restauranteurs, was very emphatic about showcasing the talent in Denver. What we had that I felt was special wasn’t just this burgeoning scene, but a lot of young minds working together willing to share the wealth. When I opened Lola, I knew very little about Mexican food growing up on the east coast in the 70s and 80s, there was not much of a Mexican population; Filipinos and Koreans yes, but not a Mexican population. ChiChi’s was my first exposure of cheap tacos and margaritas. Over time as I had real exposure to the cuisine, I fell in love with Mexican food and started taking surf trips down to Baja and fishing trips, and I remember when we opened, a buddy of mine, Sean Yonst, chef of Timayo modern Mexican restaurant, he made sublime tamales that just hovered on the plate and I just couldn’t get mine right. I called him and he came over with his tamale pots, his masa, and showed me his jam and he showed me his technique and I still have the pot to this day…
That “esprit de corps” is still what is present here.. and that is what the “Denver 5” wanted to showcase, was not just that they were more than steak and rocky mountain oysters and those stereotypical things that you think of, we have this great community of chefs that are really pushing the envelope… and so we would go to different food and wine festivals including Aspen Food and Wine and the year would culminate in a trip to the James Beard House. We were just crusading, just out there all passion all heart out there, no brains, and cooking. It was a really great special time…
“The Denver 5” was meant to be a way of showing the country what we’re doing out here, and also show fellow Coloradans what we’re capable of, that we can do this. We may not have the longest growing season, but we have great produce, we have great proteins that are being farmed, we have great foraging, that has been around but wasn’t receiving any press and we wanted to shed a light on them.
“I think there is a better understanding now that we are not really inventing as much as we are articulating our old voice culinarily, and in order to do that.. one needs a lot of input and collaboration.”
~ Chef Jamey
CI- Do you find the modern restaurant/kitchen/culinary scene is more competitive or collaborative?
JF- Denver wholly the answer is collaborative. There are groups and FB pages now and there’s always been a sense of throwing it… the heady days of 90s, flipping the script here in Denver, you just made a phone call and said hey I want to do this charity or I want to do this dinner and I need 5 buddies to come by and cook… and it was, “I got you dude, no problem.” It was reciprocated… us trying to cook together and give back and raise money and that’s how it started.
Nationally I think it is very different, in my experience, but I do get a sense that that’s changing. I think people are letting their guard down. At the end of the day, the wheel is still round, you don’t need to change the shape of it and if you do change the shape of it, then it doesn’t work as well… so I think there is a better understanding now that we are not really inventing as much as we are articulating our old voice culinarily, and in order to do that, one needs a lot of input and collaboration
Cooking to me shouldn’t be about competition, it should be about internal struggle, internal competition, of how can I improve what I am doing today, tomorrow and how can I create a better environment for those that are dining and those that work with me rather than, “Am I better than someone else?” The reality show competitions and faux romanticized versions airing on American television of what it means to be a chef, it sets up the next generation for disappointment because cooking is a craft, not an art. What we create can be beautiful but it’s hammer and nails, it’s brick and rocks… You’ve got to go in, repetitive motions, muscle memory, and to intimately get to know the product you’re preparing and serving… not just create pretty food and put it on instagram.
“The repetitive and, at times, menial tasks foster an all-encompassing learning process that produces a well-rounded professional… You gain skill over time and work on your technique via that repetition with diligence and vigilance, until you've mastered your craft and are well-prepared to strike out on your own” ~JF
Instead of, “How fancy of a dish can I make?… How fancy can I make a dish sound?…” It almost sounds, some of the time, a lot of times perhaps, that a chef is writing a menu so that another chef that peruses menus thinks, “Wow! That is cool..,” but this is a business and you got to make money… so the pork chop and the grilled cheese sandwich and the burger need to be represented just as much as the fancy stuff.
CI- How much do you balance what you want with what you believe the public wants?
JF- I’d say I have less and less of an agenda as a chef, because.. it’s not a defeating sentiment either... that one understands as one grows in their profession how the equation really works. I feel that if I can speak more to the demand of the guest than to the demand of my agenda, then I can build up a business that is strong enough to then support whatever hair brained idea that I have.
I do believe that adults don’t want to be taught when they’re dining and making food related decisions. I do believe that the segment of people that want to learn about food is a lot smaller. Here at the Market (Marczyk Fine Foods) we’re known for meatballs and bolognese and Mac’n’cheese and some of these iconic things… now I’ve added Poke bowls and Oysters Rockefeller, things that still fit in with the mindset but maybe break us away from pasta, meat and cheese a little more.
Do I have an agenda? Yes, but I’m not forcing it down peoples throats. I will say conversely one of the things that I think has changed, when I wrote, “Stirring the Pot: Diners, Put Down Your Phones,” (Westword Publications, 'Stirring the Pot’ Articles with Jamey Fader) is that diners don’t understand I think as much that they have a responsibility in this dance as well… and so if you go to an independent restaurant and if my whole thing is I want to do local game, well no I don’t have a beef burger for you… you can’t go and Yelp about how shitty it was because I didn’t have the one thing you wanted. I didn’t build this restaurant for you, I built this restaurant for me and whether that’s a smart or a dumb business decision that’s a whole other conversation. You come and partake and you are welcome, but no I am not catering to your every whim. I can’t go to a vegan restaurant and expect to order a steak...
CI- Local Chefs often have an unrecognized influence on their community, on how food is perceived, oftentimes deeming what is important and setting trends. Tell us in what ways do you feel you influence your community through your current role?
JF- In my current role, sourcing has become even more parameter driven. I’ve learned a lot about the sustainability of say Niman Ranch, which we are a direct distributer of, and I got to go to the hog farmer awards in Des Moines IOWA. We got to go and see these folks and listen to them speak passionately about raising their stocks and to see these animals being raised well. What I encountered was real. Real people. Real animals. Real practices. Good people who care about their legacy and the animals they raise. Yes, these hogs are food; that's their purpose. But that does not negate their daily reality and, in my opinion, their right to lead a darn good life free from harm. I do not want to put something in my body nor serve it to others that has not been ethically and morally treated well. Inhumane conditions and mistreatment of living creatures are unacceptable to me. I refuse to support those practices and have not purchased commodity meats in more than a decade and a half because of this.
Another big piece, is the opportunity to start up and bring on a big internship program with Johnson and Wales University. Right now we have three interns for a staff of 60 and I’m looking to do even more. Showing folks how to use the market, coming up with recipes that anyone can bang out for dinner, meeting with young people and talking and helping them find their way is where I feel my energy and influence lies right now.
A TOUR THROUGH MARCZYK FINE FOODS
with CHEF FADER
JF- At the Market, we are very eager to grow our ready-made foods program. We aim to expand the program and make it chef-y, not chef-driven. We make great sandwiches, great salads, great soups and we are introducing more great new ideas. I love developing programming…There’s an opportunity for us to come up with ideas to showcase ice cream, seafood, and other products. Pitching ideas like mad — it’s one of the things I love to do.
Marczyk Fine Foods Website includes links for:
Cooking instructions for their ready made foods
Food and wine pairings
Stew Pot of Know-how~ like “How to prepare your live lobster” and “Dem bones” by Bill St. John Denver food writer
Chef Meg and Chef Jamey @ Marczyk Fine Foods Market
CI- Describe your perfect outdoor setup for entertaining guests?
JF- For me, I love cooking with fire… there’s something very intrinsic…say at the family cabin in southwest Colorado- fire up the grill, using wood as opposed to charcoal~ that smell, that crackling, that is very temperamental with a lot of maintenance over that heat level of where to cook and when to cook… and I like juxtaposing the chaos of nature with some real formalized table setting. My perfect experience would be a float trip down river fishing, with people expecting grab-and-go sandwiches and you pull out a spread with morel stuffed quail and some brandy sauce and something just ridiculous for that setting with white linen tablecloths and waiters while you’re just covered in muck!
We went this past fall, up Chinn’s Lake, high up on the continental divide, and my daughter has my love for all things in a tin- sardines and mussels and bacalao and I had this tin luncheon with my daughter… howling winds and rain came in and we made a little shelter... just let the nature be nature, but frame it… that’s the juice.
Many moons ago, we used to do this 50 Top event. Then the next dinner, those 50 had to derive the next 50 guest list, and so on. We cooked in some really funky places... we were in the mezzanine in Union Station, and they had never turned on these chandeliers in 60 years, but they turned them on for us… we cooked in Stranahans where they’re making whiskey, we cooked at Burtons Warehouse we cooked on Pete’s front porch (the owner of the market).
Stirring the Pot
Chef Fader has been writing articles for Westword, a leading free digital and print media publication based in Denver, Colorado. The articles are poignant, they’re hilariously honest, cerebrally stimulating, and in my opinion an extremely accurate reflection of the mind of a chef who has spent years in the culinary industry.
“I’m a born-again skeptic and lean heavily towards cynicism. My perspective is neither derogatory nor malicious. I simply need proof. I gotta see that pudding and give it a taste.” ~JF
“Stirring the Pot: Are There Too Many Restaurants in Denver?” Draws the question— Is the current scene what critical mass looks like in the restaurant industry or is it the new-age high-pressure competition that facilitates innovation?
An excerpt from his most recent article, “Choose Your Words as Carefully as Your Ingredients,”— “For me, perfection in menu writing is akin to a great movie trailer: It shows the best of the offering while leaving you wanting more. Instead, too many chefs blow this real opportunity with blunders ranging from over-narration to under-reporting.” ~JF
Fader is a true hospitalitarian at heart and has a distinct voice that leaves you constantly nodding your head in agreement with a smile on your face. Give one, or all, of his articles a read and I promise you will be left with a craving to hear what he’s thinking of next. Finally, “one of us” in the industry who has a real voice and a real platform!
“Cooking to me shouldn’t be about competition it should be about internal struggle, internal competition, of how can I improve what I am doing today, tomorrow” ~Chef Fader
CI- If you could have a table at any restaurant in the world for a dinner reservation tonight, which one would it be?
JF- I don’t dream of a restaurant any more than I don’t dream of meeting a celeb. I dream of flavors and context. I’d love to slurp ramen noodles from a bowl of fatty broth from Hokkaido, Japan after snowboarding deep pow all day. Or grilled fish with fresh fruit after surfing. Piles of ceviche in Baja. Loved ones. Great food. Don’t care if it’s from a truck or made with love in someone’s home.
~Parting words from Chef Fader
JF- This industry, we’re coming to a head and we’ve got some things to figure out…How do we manage the growing disparity between the desire of the chef and the needs of a cook? We want our cooks to stick around, we want them to learn and grow with us, but we have a very well established equation for the economics behind the business. And so I’d love to start paying everyone $5 or $10 more an hour, but then we would go out of business and so the greatest thing that we can do, the most sustainable practice is making money… and if you make money then you can keep pushing your agenda and you can keep hiring people and taking care of them.
The other side of that is on the Chef and GM’s viewpoint and that is the un-sustainability of the grind of the business. The folks I know who are doing really well are winning James Beard Awards or opening more restaurants while having a family and they are in perpetual motion. And so maybe it’s more of a personality trait than it is a thing that needs to change, but that is just not me. I don’t want to be sedentary but I also don’t want to go from this event in this state to working an 80-hour week to then vacation to the development of this and that and so on. So this next 10 years in restaurant life is going to be interesting because, as we were talking about the millennials they care less about others parameters for success; they’re wanting to live life more than just working, while still being passionate about facets of what they turn to. I’m really curious to see what they bring and what gets injected by the next generation into the business and how it helps us find our way because we are all a little bit lost.
Still curious about Chef Jamey Fader?
Fader’s Top Ingredient Picks to bring with him on a deserted island…
Bones- to make stocks and broths
Mielie- corn, manioc (cassava) or yucca to make a vessel to put food into
Nuts- to make butters, spreads, and mexican moles
Chilis- a broad range
Apples- my favorite living water
Seafood- I can’t live without it, anything from the sea
Salt- I crave balance of flavors more than craving salt itself, and when used deftly, it levels the dish and brings everything together.
