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Daily Camera
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Up close and personal with some of Boulder's best chefs
Know any good chefs?
If you're familiar with Boulder, you can name quite a few restaurants with great food, but you probably don't know the people who cook it.
Becky Creighton, owner of Culinary Connectors, hopes to change that by offering restaurant tours. She and a partner started the business in Denver with tours of gourmet markets and Denver restaurants, and recently expanded it to include Boulder. The tours, which are capped at 10 people and generally take place on weekend afternoons, visit three restaurants where the chef talks to the group while they sample restaurant offerings and wine or beer. The three-hour event includes three restaurants and costs $99.
Creigton says the tours, which typically sell out two to three weeks in advance, are popular because they offer access regular restaurant patrons don't often get.
"You could be the best customer and go to (a restaurant) every night, but (the chef) is not going to have time to sit down and talk to you," she says.
The tours also offer a guide for those unfamiliar with an area.
Carrie Warren, who lives in Lakewood, attended a Boulder tour last month that visited the Kitchen, Bacaro and Colterra. After a good experience on a previous Culinary Connectors gourmet market tour, Warren chose the Boulder tour because she wanted to become more familiar with Boulder restaurants, since her daughter will be starting at the University of Colorado in the fall.
" This was really a personalized approach where the chef came over (and talked.) You really knew where they were coming from in the selection of foods, products and services, and the type of work ethic they have, " she says.
She liked all three restaurants and hopes to go back. She particularly liked the Kitchen Upstairs for a casual meal and hopes to return to both Bacaro and Colterra for special occasions.
Warren's reaction helps explain why restaurateurs like the tours.
"For us, it's good P.R. We can introduce the restaurant to folks who come from Denver," says Fabio Flagiello, chef at Bacaro.
Creighton surveys her customers, and has found that 67 percent were exposed to a restaurant for the first time. Among those 67 percent, 83 percent planned to return.
Flagiello says that when he is choosing what to serve tour-goers, he likes to make something that would likely show up as a special at the restaurant.
"Something a little different and more creative to give them a little more incentive to come back," he says.
Creighton says Mateo, Arugula and L'Atelier have signed on to participate in future tours in Boulder. Creighton is also expanding her Denver tours and hopes to offer tours in Aspen later in the year.
Warren says the tour is a good way to get to know restaurants and to enjoy a certain camaraderie with the other people on the tour, as well..
"(You become) familiar with other people who care about not just the quality of food, but the whole art of eating," she says.
Read more: Up close and personal with some of Boulder's best chefs - Boulder Daily Camera http://www.dailycamera.com/lifestyles/ci_14881891#ixzz0l7LBUyMC
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