Dustin Cooke grew up in Temecula, a now-thriving culinary destination and bustling wine country in Southern California.
“It’s funny both my hometown and I got into food and wine, because back in the early 1990s, neither of us was on that track,” says Cooke, whose first job was as a delivery driver (at just 15 –with his learner’s permit!) for his parent’s furniture business. “Back then, we were both all about Chili’s and Applebee’s versus true epicurean experiences.”
A gifted athlete in his teens, when not driving for his parents Cooke competed in most sports, including as a starter on a traveling a traveling hockey team. He also got a second job washing dishes at a fast food restaurant. Upon graduating high school in 2003, Cooke moved to Colorado for college.
“Let’s just say I excelled at the college experience more than the actual college classes,” says Cooke. “And once winter hit, this Southern California native was rethinking his entire life plan.”
The bone-chilling cold, combined with Cooke’s indecision at a specific field of study, led him to move back to Southern California, where he started working in kitchens again.
“This time, I had the opportunity to cook versus just wash dishes,” says Cooke. “And it turned out I had a knack for it.”
He so impressed the executive chef at the restaurant where he worked that they encouraged Cooke to look into culinary school.
“It was something I never considered previously, but when he asked me, it just felt right,” says Cooke, who met with a professor at the Culinary Food and Management program at the Art Institute of San Diego and enrolled two weeks later.
During his final year of study, Cooke’s parents relocated to Phoenix, a city that he had always loved as well. Interested in making the same move, Cooke worked with the Art Institute’s sister campus in the Valley to transfer his credits, moving here in 2006 and eventually finishing his formal studies in 2007.
When working at a small restaurant soon after graduation, Cooke was given a piece of advice that changed his life.
“Wade Phillips, the then-executive chef for the Paradise Valley Country Club and a great mentor to me, told me that I needed to decide if I was going to follow the money or follow the passion as it relates to cooking. If it was passion, I needed to spend as much time in different kitchens as possible to develop my own culinary point of view, as well as to better understand others at venues of every shape and size,” says Cooke.
Choosing passion, Cooke spent the next several years honing his craft in more than 20 kitchens across the Valley, including Olive & Ivy, Arrogant Butcher, Culinary Dropout, Three Tomatoes and a Mozzarella, and more. He would earn his first executive chef position at Gordon Biersch in Glendale in 2011, and then a leadership role with MG Fresh Concepts in 2015. While at MG, Cooke had the opportunity to visit Blue Sky Farms in West Phoenix.
“The family-run farm is Certified Organic,” says Cooke. “They use organic, non-GMO, and untreated seed, and their produce is cultivated in accordance to the federal standards set by the USDA National Organic Program. One taste of their harvest, and I found my culinary point of view in incorporating local and sustainable ingredients into playful, creative recipes accessible to all.”
Cooke would take his point of view to The Vig at McDowell Mountain Ranch just prior to the onset of Covid-19, and then in June 2021 accepted the role of culinary director at Riot Hospitality Group. The position allows him to incorporate local and sustainable ingredients in menu across five distinct concepts: Farm & Craft, which offers healthy and sustainable food in a community-style atmosphere, notably a wellness menu with four culinary paths to optimal health; Hand Cut Burgers + Chophouse, one of Scottsdale’s hippest culinary destinations focused on local, responsibly sourced elements and high-end cuts of meat as well as hand-crafted cocktails; Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row, which through its two locations in Arizona offers such a celebrated party atmosphere that you might not even notice the care used in choosing local menu ingredients (but they are there!); El Hefe, a raucous Mexican restaurant and nightclub concept with a “see-and-be-seen” brunch on the weekends; and Riot House, which is the Valley’s official University of Notre Dame bar during the college football season and a year-round party bar with surprisingly elevated martinis and a sneaky impressive menu.
Cooke has worked to bring in everything from Sweet Chili Cauliflower and Maple Almond Salmon to Truffle Cheeseburgers and Hawaiian Pork Chops onto the menus at the various concepts. After completing a successful restaurant week in late September at all of the concepts, he is also about to debut a series of fall offerings in coming weeks as well.
As busy at home as he is “at the office,” Cooke is happily married with four kids, three of whom are only 11 months apart, and is an active youth sports coach.
“My oldest is 12, and then we have twins who are 11, and our youngest is 5,” says Cooke. “We are a full, happy house. Now if we should just find someone to cook for all of us because daddy is tired, that would be great!” RIOTHG.com