In The Show's Chef Talk series, we sit down with a chef each month — from fine dining rooms to nightclub kitchens — and find out what makes them tick.
Today, meet longtime Arizona Chef Bernie Kantak.
You might know his name from Peter Kaperski’s Cowboy Ciao, Citizen Public House or The Gladly. His new concept is Beginner’s Luck: a brunch, lunch and dinner spot in an almost hidden historic building in the heart of Old Town Scottsdale.
Kantak has spent his entire culinary career here in the Valley — but he isn’t from here, and he didn’t start out in the food world. He was an art student from upstate New York. His grandfather was a butcher who owned a meat market right next to his brother’s restaurant. And on the other side of the family, his grandmother ran a reception hall in Ohio at a Hungarian Church.
Full conversation
BERNIE KANTAK: They made all Hungarian food. Chicken paprikash, lots of stuffed cabbage. I would spend summers with her, or whenever I was there, they would have bingo nights like most churches. If I smell Fritos, it literally transports me there. It’s crazy. They always had little bags of chips, and I would always have Fritos and Pepsi.
LAUREN GILGER: I understand, though, you didn’t want to go into restaurants. This was not the direction you thought you would go?
KANTAK: I didn’t. I started working in restaurants when I was 14. I’d wash dishes, bus tables, prep cook, line cook, served a little bit, bartended a little bit. I've done pretty much everything you can do. The places I worked, people always seemed miserable, to be perfectly honest, and I didn’t want that for myself. Like who would?
So I went to college and was kind of lost. Didn’t really know what I wanted to do. My advisor my freshman year — this super hippie dude, Alan Mooney — he was like, “Dude, you should take, like, an easy class. You’re taking all these crazy classes. Take something easy. You’re gonna have to take some kind of art class or something.” And he was actually the sculpture professor, talked me into taking a ceramics class.
He was always talking about food. Always had wine. Literally, I would go into his office and he was drinking wine. And we would always talk about food throughout my time at Cortland — that’s where I went, SUNY Cortland. He asked if I ever thought about expressing myself in a kitchen instead of a studio.
I don’t really know what that says about my art ability, but he knew it was something that — I was passionate about food, and I like that it connects with people like art does. But I’m not one of those people that think that food is an art. I think they’re two separate things.
GILGER: That’s interesting, I was going to ask that because you came from the art world. Okay.
So, you go to culinary school, you do, in fact, become a chef, and you’ve worked in the Valley for a really long time. Worked your way up, became really well known — what, two decades ago maybe — for Citizen Public House, The Gladly, some of these big name restaurants that we all know.
We’re sitting in your newest restaurant now, Beginner’s Luck, we should say. Talk a little bit about working your way up through the scene here after graduating culinary school in Scottsdale. Why did you stay?
KANTAK: I had every intention of moving back to New York. I have one sister in Brooklyn. One was in Manhattan at the time. That’s where you go to cook. There, Chicago, San Francisco or go abroad.
I was super broke. I needed to make a little bit of money, so I was like, “All right, I’m gonna work for a year and then I'll move back to New York.” I interviewed at Cowboy Ciao. Peter — who did not want to hire me, but luckily, his partners, Tanya and Marianne, really liked me.
They brought me on just for a stage for a little while. And Marianne was in the kitchen at the time, and she’s like, “I hate the kitchen. I don't know what I'm doing. Take it, I’m going out front.” I was like, “I have no idea what I’m doing, either!”
So, lots of learning as I went. Peter was amazing to work for. He instilled a lot of the philosophies that we carry on. Like, he was always about knowing your neighbor and making people happy, and doing whatever it takes to really make everybody feel at home. And that’s super important. That’s what it's about. Yeah.
GILGER: So, you got into Cowboy Ciao and just never left this part of the world?
KANTAK: I was there for 12 years. Yeah. Opened up Kazimierz, which was open — God, I think Kaz Bar is still open. Saw lots and lots of changes here. When I first started at Ciao, there was really nothing in downtown Scottsdale except for bars. But yeah, I’ve seen it go from all really tiny buildings into all these high rises.
GILGER: I wonder what you make of the changes in Old Town for one thing, but also just in the Valley in general. Like, having stayed here and become one of the best known chefs in this part of the country. Do you think that we are on the map in a way that we deserve now? Or is this still not New York, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, like you meant to go back to initially.
KANTAK: I don’t think we get the credit for what we do. I think some of it is due to the weird, spread out nature of Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale. I think that’s probably our biggest issue here, because the talent's definitely here. We’re still kind of in our — I wouldn’t say infancy. Like, we’re probably in our early 20s.
GILGER: I thought you were gonna say teen years, but fair enough.
KANTAK: Chicago, New York, San Francisco, have been around for a while.
GILGER: So, let me ask you a little bit about the restaurant we’re at now and the inspiration here. You’re known for comfort food of a certain kind, right? Like maybe something that’s a little bit unique on comfort food, a twist on it, something that’s upscale, etc.
Tell us about the inspiration here, and sort of what it’s like to be able to have the freedom as a chef, after so many years, to be able to open a new place and say, “I want it like this.”
KANTAK: I like to think of the food here as being even more inviting. You have those friends that give you those huge bear hugs where you just don’t want to let go. That’s what I’m trying to do with food here.
Like, there’s a bowl of cereal with blue corn mush and chia pudding with granola and blue corn flour berries. I never thought in a million years that I’d be pushing cereal, but it’s like my favorite thing. Whenever I see a new face, I’ll make a tiny little bowl for them and bring it over.
GILGER: OK, so a couple of quick questions at the end here that I always ask every chef in this series.
What is your favorite dish on this menu, in this restaurant here, where we’re sitting, Beginner's Luck? And talk a little bit about, like, the reason why — like the process of making it. Give us the nitty gritty on what this dish is.
KANTAK: I don’t —
GILGER: Can you choose a favorite?
KANTAK: I don’t think I can. We have a sausage and aligot at night with eggplant. Aligot is like a potato fondue. I don’t know. Like, I find myself saying, “Oh, that's my favorite,” every time I have something in front of me. Whether it’s the burrata with pea leaf oil and Chinese almonds, I can't pick a favorite.
GILGER: Like choosing a favorite child. Fair enough. OK, final question, then: What is it that is in your refrigerator at home? Do you cook for yourself at home? Most chefs do not.
KANTAK: I do. I actually made — I’m all about noodles and soup, and I made beef shank stew yesterday with noodles and lots of kimchi.
GILGER: That sounds amazing. So you’re cooking at home, even though you cook all day at work?
KANTAK: Yes.
GILGER: That’s the sign of true love, right there. All right, Chef, thank you so much for having me out. I appreciate it.
