JANUARY 202 In the Kitchen with Ivan Jacobo, Chef & Owner of Anhelo 7007 E. 1st Ave., Scottsdale • anhelorestaurant.com In the Kitchen W hat started as a slow, unexpected love for cooking eventually grew into a passion- driven career defined by creativity, perseverance, and a strong commitment to hospitality. Chef Ivan Jacobo has called Arizona home since childhood, shaping his path from construction job sites with his father to the finely tuned kitchen of Anhelo in Old Town Scottsdale. Give us some insight into your background. I’ve been living in Arizona since I was three, and before that was California, where my dad’s family is from. My mom worked in warehouses. My dad worked in construction and retired two years ago, but that man doesn’t stop! He helped build this restaurant by hand. Growing up, family time was him taking my siblings and I to do side jobs. I hated it! When we built the restaurant, we did the walls, the lighting… looking back, I can appreciate that we went to those jobs with dad. Did you always know you wanted to be a chef? No, and to be honest, I tried getting out of the industry several times. I fell more in love with the food aspect because of the possibilities and opportunities for something else. It was a slow love, and I don’t see myself doing anything else. Growing up, I wanted to be a mechanic. In my senior year of high school, I started watching Food Network and remember thinking it was pretty cool. I asked all the girls in my class who they’d rather date – a chef or a mechanic – and not one of them said mechanic [ laughs ]. That’s literally how I decided on the industry. I knew I could fall back on mechanics if culinary didn’t work out. Is that how you met your wife? I came to realize that no one wants to date a chef because they work nonstop. I got my first sous chef position when I was 21, the days when you want to go out and party, but I was constantly working. I’d get there at 7 and get out at 1 a.m. I used to do pop-up dinners, and I did one at the Bentley Art Gallery where I gave two seats out for free. Each person was able to bring a plus one; I gave one to a designer whose plus one was a board member for Heritage Square, which is how I ended up with my first restaurant. The second was a friend who brought her cousin… and that cousin is now my wife. Did you go to culinary school? I did, and I dropped out – it’s still my biggest regret. I had two classes left and I was offered a full-time job and thought, ‘Why finish school if I’m already working?’ A lot of the techniques I use were self- taught. There was a cafeteria at school and the chef that worked there told me to buy ingredients and during his 15-minute break between classes, he would come to the cafeteria and show me how to make things. I would watch a lot of videos to learn techniques and recipes. Where did you work before opening Anhelo? I worked all over the Valley. There was never a specific place that was the goal to work at. My entire experience was, ‘Where can I work to earn the funds to pursue opening my own place?’ Where have your food adventures taken you? Everywhere! I had a food truck for a while and that was the most fun I’ve ever had as a cook, but also the most miserable… we would get tipped out with the most random stuff, some I can’t even mention here [ laughs ], and I’ll never forget it. It was super inconsistent. The first time I made $1,000, my tire popped and the generator blew. It was a disaster! But the truck evolved into a catering company where I got to work in some of the most luxurious homes. So in a sense, this industry has taken me everywhere. What do you use as inspiration for menu items? It’s my team and I playing around with a bunch of flavors. This restaurant is tricky because it’s smaller. I’d say the inspiration comes from the staff, and my brother – who runs the restaurant – is going crazy with trying all kinds of different stuff. Let’s try this, let’s try that, kind of thing; it’s been a learning experience. For example, I completely ruined a $4,000 piece of wagyu once because we let it go in the dry-age machine for too long. Wagyu and dry age doesn’t mix well. What’s the craziest dish you’ve ever made? We had a party where a diner pre- purchased a pound of white truffles and a pound of black truffles. To put that into perspective, white truffles right now are $4,800 a pound. He also ordered a pound of caviar ($1,200) and he had me bring in king crab. What we did was steamed the crab and served it in a butter sauce with chives, truffles and the caviar. It was gnarly, and so popular that it evolved to be on the menu now, but with poached snow crab instead and half an ounce of caviar. The menu changes frequently? Yes – another learning experience. We launched a petit tasting to give people four or five options per course. As far as the menu changing, it’s mostly once we get bored of cooking something, we swap it out. The big one for me is I cannot stay with the same dish for too long, and I don’t want the staff to start feeling that way, too. It’s cool that we don’t have to ask permission to do so! What happened with Anhelo’s downtown location? Crazy story. I opened at Heritage Square as Hidden Kitchen – but in culinary school, they don’t teach you anything about trademarks. We were working with LoveIAM, a nonprofit that works with kids with heart defects, and I wanted to create a house wine for the restaurant that also sponsored the nonprofit. We found Bokisch Vineyards in Lodi, California and they invited us to come and check out the vineyard – all this to say the name was already in use, so then came Anhelo. And THEN came the pandemic. We shut down for a year and the city told us to wait six months to fix all the issues; by then I was over it and we relocated in 2021… I don’t know – I don’t remember what I did last week [ laughs ]. As soon as I found out about the current building, I bought it. What’s the most popular item on the menu? We’re rolling out a beef wellington that I’m excited about, even though it feels like it’s on a lot of menus these days. People really love our steak tartare, we got a lot of backlash when we removed that, so we put it back. It’s tricky for a tasting menu restaurant because our dishes don’t stay on the menu that long. I’m known for creating a menu day-of and just letting it ride. I won’t taste my dishes either, I let the staff do that and let me know what needs changing. We have someone who’s a vegetarian, and he won’t taste anything but he’ll smell it and he is so insane with pairing wines with the dishes just by the smell. It’s crazy.

NUARY 2026 Tell us about the wine and cocktail programs. My thing is this: when you’re younger and you’re at the club, you spend $400 on a bottle of liquor. It feels awesome at the time, but the next day you’re thinking, ‘Why did I spend that kind of money?’ Especially after seeing the same bottle for $30 at the grocery store. That’s something I don’t want my guests to feel. We don’t price our wine with restaurant pricing so guests can enjoy themselves without worrying about spending all of their money on wine. It goes back to taking care of our guests and making them feel good. Azalea, our bar manager, has never run a program – and her cocktails are amazing. Almost all of the cocktails can be done N/A. That was big for me, because we realized that those who can’t drink or aren’t drinking don’t have many options. I want inclusion for all of our guests. What is one item you find yourself using all the time? Chives! If you ask anyone who’s worked with me, they’ll tell you I put chives on everything. Have you ever seen those TikToks with the chopped cheese guy and he goes ‘never, never, never’? No? That’s how my staff clowns on me [ laughs ]. They say, ‘Don’t forget the chives, never, never, never!’ As far as equipment goes, I’d say the clock. We have one of those fancy ovens that we can program for all the dishes that go in there. Makes life so much easier. What’s a big red flag in the restaurant industry? When you look at a resume and it says the person worked in one spot for six to eight months. You ask them why they left so early and their response is, ‘I was able to learn and get as much out of the job as I could and decided to move forward.’ That’s the worst answer, because I know you’re not learning as much as you can in the industry in six months. If I see you left a place within a year, and you’re bouncing around, you’re not going to work out here. Working in the restaurant industry isn’t just learning how to cook a dish. It’s learning how to keep the dining room clean, how to deal with health inspectors, what to do if the oven light goes out, etc. I don’t believe in luck – it all depends on how much work you put into it. What do you focus on most within your position? The thing I’m proudest about with Anhelo is the service. Growing up, I of course wanted to be the best chef. What I learned eventually and what took the restaurant to the next level was me realizing that food is a small portion of the dining experience. If you eat at a restaurant and the food is good, but the service is horrible, chances are you won’t go back. If you go to a restaurant and the server makes you feel amazing and shows you a good time even if your meal wasn’t the greatest, chances are you’ll go back and try them again. For the front of house, I want them to chime in and suggest to me how we can make the dining experience better. When you’re not working, what are you doing? I like to spend as much time as I can with my daughter. During the buildout of the restaurant, she got used to me being home a lot and now, I drop her off at school, and those are the best 20 minutes of the day. Mondays and Sundays are my days off, so we’ll find fun things to do. What restaurants would you recommend to someone new to the Valley? Wrong person to ask [ laughs ] – to me, Café Monarch is the most romantic but I’d only go once in a blue moon. Christopher’s is the most stunning restaurant in Arizona. As far as casual goes, I don’t have a suggestion, because I’m big on checking out restaurants but it’s hard to do with a five-year-old. My favorite restaurant is Oceans 44, but I’d also rather eat at home. What’s next for Chef Jacobo? I want to continue our work with the scholarship program I created, as well as raising money for Arizona nonprofits. I want to see and pursue ways I can help the youth in the Valley. I want to spend more time with my family, and there are several projects in the works but that’s all I can tell you about that! What took the restaurant to the next level was me realizing that food is a small portion of the dining experience.