More than he likes to cook, chef Jack Strong likes to find stories. Strong has spent most of his career captivated by specific ingredients, sharing their history tableside as dishes landed in front of diners.
When he was working at Kai — the restaurant within the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa in Chandler, Arizona — that story came in the form of a squash soup. The soup, made with gourds grown by the Gila River tribes, arrived with a puree of Rio Zape beans, beans cultivated by Indigenous populations within northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, particularly the Hopi and Zuni tribes. It arrived
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