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Listen to the Food

Chef Daniel Patino is on a quest to show salads can be craveable and healthy food can be for all!

The first Salad & Go was opened in Gilbert, where was it located? How is that going?

Our first Salad and Go opened on the corner of Gilbert and Guadalupe, and is still widely successful today.  I make it a point to visit that location often. It reminds me of what it took to start this adventure and how much work has been put in to get it to where it is today.

Salads are not usually considered a main course for a fast-casual restaurant, where did the inspiration come from?

This concept came to life inside a fine-dining restaurant. The original founders contacted me to help develop the menu, and my intent was to do only that. However, after becoming involved in the menu development process, I really discovered my passion for the Salad and Go concept and I knew I wanted to do it full-time. From the very beginning, I’ve been involved every step of the way - from the restaurant layout to purchasing produce. However, my passion is in developing recipes to keep our menu craveable and delicious. The rest is history!

You have a stellar background working in the hospitality industry, how did you start?

I have always loved to cook, and food has made me happy all my life. After serving in the United States Marine Corps, I knew that I wanted to try working in a kitchen. I interned for two years in the U.S. Grant Hotel, I washed dishes and slowly worked my way up to the sauce station. After two years, the head chef shook my hand and handed me a check (the only time I got paid in two years). He told me: “You have it. Go to culinary school or travel the world and see the food.” I took that advice and went to the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco while working at the famous Stars under chef Chris Fernandez. I learned so much from him, like how to layer flavors and that seemingly simple foods can be hard to execute. Likewise, I traveled to Europe to spend some time eating and discovering the flavors of Italy, and I fell in love with the culture and people there. This influenced me to cook the way that I do and led me here to Salad and Go.

You've mentioned how your experiences in Europe/Italy influenced how you cook the way you do. Can you expand on what your way is? What makes it distinct?

Cooking in Italy was life-changing for me. I learned to appreciate how people grow and make the ingredients. It’s a labor of love - growing everything from basil to raising animals the right way. When I had the chance to walk the fields and see it for myself, it made a huge impact on the way I cook. I treat my food with more respect. I cook with all the elements of the earth and not from a recipe.

Did anyone in your family inspire you to follow this path?

Without a doubt my grandmother. As a child, I was always in the kitchen with her, and she used to push me out of the kitchen as I got in the way. One day, she finally asked me to help. The first thing I learned was the difference between sugar and salt - mainly, the importance of not mixing them up - and how to cook an egg. From there, it was the smells that came from the kitchen. I would wake up and know what she was making by the smells. She also showed me how to listen to the food when it was cooking and taught me that this was just as important as seasoning it correctly.

Is this similar to a sculptor letting the medium speak to them, or literally the sound of the sizzle of the steak on the grill?

Both literally and figuratively, if you listen to your food when you are cooking, it will let you know what it needs. The sound of a sizzling pan means it’s hot, which is what you need to get a great sear on meat. When you want to slow cook something like pork shoulder, you want to listen for the slow bubbles coming from the side of the pot. If you hear constant bubbles, the heat is too high, and it will dry out your meat. Next time you are cooking in the kitchen, close your eyes and listen… your food will speak to you. You will become a better cook by paying attention to the sounds in the kitchen!

You've collaborated with Michael Mina throughout your career, what would be your best takeaway from the experience?

You have to be organized; I cannot say that enough! Your mise en place is the most important ingredient you will ever have. Everything depends on that. Michael is a great organizer and chef. Every day started with a detailed list of what needed to get done, from first to last to what time they needed to be done. I also learned about textures from him. He is a genius when it comes to how to transform simple ingredients to incredible memories using different techniques and the use of mouth feel. He is a people's chef and has a great way of talking to everyone and making them understand food.

Is there anyone that when you were preparing their meal that made you excessively nervous for them to taste what you had prepared?

I would say the most nerve-racking occasion for me was cooking at the James Beard Foundation in New York. For chefs, this is a huge deal and a great honor. I was serving scallops that evening, and they never arrived. I had to call some chef friends in New York and thankfully, I was lucky enough to find a local scallop guy that was able to help me out. He saved my life as far as I’m concerned, and we are still good friends to this day. The dinner went great, and I was happy with the results. For me, this was a night to remember, Chef Daniel Bolud took us out after the dinner to all his favorite spots to eat and have some drinks. He even went behind the bar at some point and started making us some beverages. We ended up somewhere in Chinatown by 6:00 am. It was absolutely epic for me.

Your favorite item on the Salad & Go menu is?

My go-to is the Cobb salad. It has everything I love. I'm a big blue cheese fan, and would put our blue cheese dressing up against anyone else's. It's rich and creamy with the perfect amount of blue cheese flavor. You combine that with the bacon and avocado, and you get a fantastic texture, acid, and fatty ratio. I add extra crumbles as well because I just love the flavor of it.

Pull Quote

The sound of a sizzling pan means it’s hot, which is what you need to get a great sear on meat. When you want to slow cook something like pork shoulder, you want to listen for the slow bubbles coming from the side of the pot. If you hear constant bubbles, the heat is too high, and it will dry out your meat. Next time you are cooking in the kitchen, close your eyes and listen… your food will speak to you.

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