16 MAY 2021 What is your inspiration in regards to coming up with new menu items? It’s an evolving menu. I’m learning what works and what the customers want. I felt like the menu was all over the place when I first started here, so now I’m working on getting fun, shareable items for people. There’s inspiration there. Getting local producers and supporting them is what I like to do, so growing with that, as well. What is the most challenging dish you’ve had to cook? There have been a few. When we opened the steakhouse at the Wynn, the chef wanted to do a foie gras pastrami. At the time, I hadn’t worked with foie gras much, so there was a lot of learning. We did a pastrami brine, smoked it, and it just turned to mush. So we had to roll it, rub it in honey mustard. It was just a huge, drawn-out process. Opening the Wynn was challenging in itself. I had seven years at the Phoenician, and I thought I knew quite a bit, but I opened the menu and didn’t know half the dishes, so it was like, okay, a new education, which was a cool opportunity. But it was so busy – the entire experience was challenging. What is your signature dish? The salt rock tuna – ahi tuna that’s seared on a Himalayan salt rock with yuzu-soy sauce, pickled onions and jicama wraps – has been following me for a while now. Do you have a favorite memory from your time working as a chef? Most of them are probably not good for publication, but there’s a story that I always tell at Christmas that some of my chefs have heard several times. I have a cranberry sauce recipe that uses half peeled and half unpeeled oranges. You grind it, so it’s all fresh. I gave a case of oranges to the sous chef and told him to peel half of them and leave the other half whole. So, he took the case and peeled half of the actual orange. By Mallory Gleich F rom the cotton and wheat fields in Tucson to the flashing lights of Las Vegas, native Arizonan Chef Jeremy Pacheco has had his fair share of experience in the food industry. Pacheco started working in the kitchen as a teen – to save money to buy a car – and his career evolved into multiple positions throughout the Southwest. Now, his plate is full as the executive chef and culinary director for Genuine Concepts, which operates five locations of The Vig, Ladera Taverna y Cocina, The Womack, The Little Woody and The McMillan. How long have you been a chef? I got my first sous chef position at the Phoenician in 1999 after graduating from culinary school. So how many years is that? That’s why I cook – because I can’t do math. I’ve worked at The Vig for almost a year now. I rotate through each location. I’m kind of all over the place. Where did you grow up? I am a ninth-generation from Tucson and moved to Phoenix in 1997. I’ve always lived in the south Scottsdale area. Where did you work before Genuine Concepts? I moved to Scottsdale to go to the Scottsdale Culinary School. While there, I worked full-time at The Phoenician, and I was there for around seven years. At one point, I was looking for something new, and a position opened up at the brand-new Wynn Resort in Las Vegas. It was the biggest and best thing happening at the time. I worked at the SW Steakhouse, opened Encore and the Society Café. Then a position opened up at the Hermosa Inn here in Phoenix, so I jumped on that and spent three years there before the chef at Wynn talked me into going back to Vegas. It didn’t take long for me to remember why I left, so two more years there and then back to Hermosa Inn for four years, and now, I’m here at The Vig. What was it like working for a large Las Vegas resort? It’s interesting because it’s more similar to the multiple outlets (like the five Vig locations). The experience I had between the Phoenician and the Wynn and running multiple outlets – 24-hour room service, three meals a day – is like running three- That’s one I tell every year when we make the cranberry sauce, and I have a chef who has been with me for four years, and he says, “Oh, we have to hear this story again?” What are your hobbies outside of the kitchen? I like to golf. I don’t get a whole lot of free time. I have two boys, age seven and ten, so right now I’m keeping them going at school and taking care of the house. I got a small pizza oven for the backyard, so we’ve been playing around with different doughs and stuff. What or who inspires you? A lot of times, I motivate myself. With new challenges at this restaurant, especially. But I’ve always set my own goals – so like, getting the executive chef position at Hermosa. What’s the next step? I push myself. Inspiration comes from the environment I’m in. How do you overcome challenges in your life and the kitchen? In the kitchen, there’s always stuff to solve – figuring out how to make things better. My past experiences have helped me a lot operationally. Working at the Wynn was a mess for a while until operational changes were made – learning the operation from the current chef there helped me a lot. The first week I started working for The Vig, I visited all the kitchens and decided to change the setup at three locations. Being a chef is about problem-solving and what will make the most sense and be the most efficient, and I think that carries into my home life, too. What does the future look like for Chef Pacheco? I’m excited to continue growing and grooming the menu at The Vig and continuing to look for new opportunities of growth. In the Kitchen with Jeremy Pacheco, Executive Chef for Genuine Concepts plus restaurants at a time. At one point at the Wynn, I was circling through all 20 outlets. I move around a lot and try to keep everything running as smoothly as possible. The Vig is not on a grander scale like the Wynn, but I hope to bring some of the same excitement to the menu. Did you always know you wanted to be a chef? No. My family is in the farming industry – they grow cotton and wheat in Tucson. So my very first job was pulling weeds in the cotton fields, and I knew I hated that. The first real job I got when I was 16 was because I wanted money to buy a car. I got a dishwashing job at The Sheraton for a year or so. I tried bussing for a while but discovered I didn’t like to be out on the floor, so the chef asked me to go back to the kitchen, and I ended up becoming the lead cook there at 18 years old. I didn’t even know culinary school was a thing at that time, but I researched it and found Scottsdale Culinary. After starting school, I bugged the chef at the Phoenician to give me a part-time job, which they didn’t normally do, but I kept calling until he finally hired me. Being a chef kind of fell into my lap, I guess. Once it’s in your blood, you’re screwed. Who taught you how to cook? My grandmother is an awesome cook. We had Sunday suppers and tamales for Christmas, so I’ve always had an appreciation for food. My mom learned how to cook traditional Mexican dishes from my dad’s grandmothers, so it was part of growing up. I remember always liking to bake cookies – probably because I liked cookie dough more than anything else – but we had a recipe that used Rice Krispies. I asked my mom if we could make some, and she told me to measure and see if we had enough Rice Krispies, so I got a ruler out, stuck it in the box and said, ‘We’ve got about two inches of Rice Krispies, is that enough?’ That’s a fun memory. What were some of the first dishes you cooked? I started as a fry cook, so onion loaves, potato skins. From there, I was doing banquets for several hundred people, and we cooked T-bone steaks over open wood fires. I also remember diving into my culinary school textbook and learning how to cook various dishes – some of those seem silly now. 4041 N. 40th St. Phoenix • thevig.us

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