Janos and The J-Bar
Tucson AZ
http://www.janos.com
Janos Wilder thought he was paying his way through college as he tossed pizzas, worked in various restaurants, and studied political science at UC Berkeley. Then he thought he’d just put his academic interests on hold and cook for a while.
Returning to Boulder, Colorado, where he’d spent his undergraduate days, he worked his way up from cook to sous chef and then chef. As the chef at Gold Hill in Colorado, he began using the best of what was available locally, starting with herbs and rhubarb, then mountain trout, foraged mushrooms, buffalo, antelope, even rattlesnake. His daily changing menu was informed by the lifestyle of the Rocky Mountains.
After three years, he spent a season as chef at Le Mirage in Santa Fe, sparking travels to Bordeaux in France. There he worked at La Reserve, a two-star Michelin restaurant, and Le Duberne, sporting one star. Exposed to French techniques, classic and nouvelle cuisine, and the sense of location, he returned to the States in 1982 and settled in Tucson near his wife Rebecca’s family home. Locating a vacant National Historic Landmark home on the grounds of the Tucson Museum of Art, they opened Janos on Halloween in 1983.
Inside the thick adobe walls Janos brought together southwestern ingredients and his newly won skills. He quickly gained fame, and was listed by Playboy as one of America’s top regional restaurants in 1984.
In 1990 Janos released his cookbook, Janos: Recipes and Tales from a Southwest Restaurant. He was named a Rising Star chef by the James Beard Foundation that year, and has since been named Best Chef, Southwest, by the organization. Janos has received a Mobil Four Star award continuously since 1988, and the AAA Four Diamond Award every year since 1993, the same year he was the first Tucsonian inducted into the Scottsdale Culinary Hall of Fame.
In 1998 Janos moved to a building on the grounds of the Westin La Paloma, a resort in Tucson’s Santa Catalina mountains. The 8500 square foot restaurant immediately won stellar reviews, and mention as one of Travel and Holiday’s “50 Hidden Treasures.”
