Food for thought

There's ink covering roughly 75 percent of Jared Porter's skin, something you need to take his word about, since he's not showing off any more than any fully-dressed chef in any kitchen might.

All that ink might just be the only outward indication that Chef Porter is one fierce dude in his work and work ethic.

A C-CAP grad who won a full scholarship to the Art Institute of Phoenix, his resume includes stints at Vincent's (while he was still in school), Michael's at the Citadel, and LGO.  He followed Patrick Fegan from Michael's to Fiamma Trattoria at Scottsdale's former James Hotel, staying there through the restaurant's incarnation as Asia de Cuba.

Two years later, he was just starting as chef de cuisine with Fegan at Olive & Ivy when pal Aaron Chamberlin introduced him to Aric Mei. 

Mei, whose family founded the Valley's Nello's, was opening what he called "an upscale pizza joint."

Jared was executive chef with The Parlor for five years. 

"I've been cooking for 17 years now," he observes, "and was managing for like six or seven.  And you know, five years at the same place is a long time in this business."

It seemed like the right time to do something else, described succinctly as "trading comfort for chaos."

Along with partners Joe Absolor, Joshua James and Nick Campisano, he opened Central Avenue's Clever Koi just about a year ago.

Jared's the first to point out that, while Clever Koi opened to acclaim and high anticipation, it's been not necessarily rough or rocky, but an interesting work in progress.

"This was one of those times…we really had to learn the hard way, downshift and revisit - and admit we didn't have it all figured out," Jared says.

Nonetheless, he's assured the restaurant is gaining a more secure spot within its neighborhood and its guests. 

He and his partners have spent time and energy rethinking and reworking the menu - and the food itself.  It's tricky, finding the line between thoughtful food - and food that makes you think about how it's done.

For Jared, some of that rethinking meant getting to a new understanding about all he'd absorbed about kitchens, restaurants and the food business.

"I was always paying close attention in every job I had," he says, "trying to figure out the puzzle of running a business and a kitchen. 

"Eventually, the business will show you your weaknesses, and you find out you need to learn to look for the weaknesses in order to overcome.

"But then, you know, you really have to grow with the process, in the end."

He's quick to note, too, that as a C-CAP graduate, he's been fortunate not just in securing the scholarship that made culinary school possible, but also in recognizing the greater opportunity it presented.

It's that sense of opportunity he'd like to pass along to budding chefs in C-CAP, he says.

He points out that helping younger chefs learn the ropes helps put the right ones into kitchens where they can not only grow themselves but also work to make the overall business - and the industry - stronger, more flexible and more innovative.

"We need more community in the business itself," he adds, "and we need people willing to make the effort to develop that community."

He's been doing his part through his work as a C-CAP competition judge and mentor; this fall, he's also taking an active lead in working with a key C-CAP fundraising event, the November 6 Harvest Moon dinner (learn more about this event on the C-CAP Arizona blog - see below).

"Jared's volunteered (well, maybe I talked it up a little) to help us present our first course for the dinner," says C-CAP Arizona's director, Jill Smith.

"He'll be working with Chef Frank Caputo at Cancer Treatment Centers of America.  Frank has a large organic garden, and we'll have a first course that really is 'farm to table' in just about every sense of the term." 

This means there's no determining specifics of that first course - the chefs won't know what's cooking until they know what's ready to harvest.

That's just fine with the chef.  After all, Jared Porter's not just concerned with getting food on the plate - he'd like you to find the same creative rush in tasting it as he and his kitchen have in putting it in front of you.