Executive Chef Ed Curtindale, Aspen Glen Club, Carbondale, Colorado
Photography by Jackie Daly
What food reminds you of childhood?
Pasta with tomato sauce.
Who or what influenced your decision to become a professional chef?
My parents encouraged me to go into the hospitality business. My first job was at a neighborhood pizzeria and I loved the work.
Who would you invite to your fantasy dinner party?
My family, John Lennon, President John Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King. Imagine the conversation.
What is your favorite international cuisine?
Thai.
What is always in your refrigerator at home?
Cheeses — usually Caraway Havarti, cave-aged Emmentaler, and Grafton Four Star Cheddar.
What is your favorite kitchen gadget?
A foodmill.
What is your most used cookbook?
Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts by Alice Medrich.
Do you have a favorite food indulgence?
Chocolate and wine.
What is your favorite food and wine pairing?
Oysters and Chablis.
Do you cook at home? If so, what’s your favorite food to cook at home?
My wife and I are always cooking something. We like slow braises, like green chili pork.
What is your go-to ingredient that you use time and time again?
Pork shoulder. It has so many uses and applications.
What do you think will be, or should be, the next trend in fine cuisine?
I hope that we can get back to the basics of cuisine. That is, taking a basic set of ingredients (real food) and creating something extraordinary by displaying the proper cooking methods and a strict adherence to the classical methods.
If you weren’t a chef, what might you be?
I would probably be a bartender. I did that for a few years in Las Vegas and had a great time.
When you’re not cooking, what are your favorite pastimes?
I love hiking, foraging for edibles in the forest, and drinking a bottle of wine with my wife.
What is a cooking tip that most novices don’t know?
The difference between the amateur and the professional is in the ability to season food properly. For example, each ingredient has a threshold for salt. The professional will season right up to that threshold; the amateur throws some salt at an item, hoping that they get it right.