Tag: Catering

  • Chefs For You

    Chefs For You

    Kade Mislinski is your go to personal chef and meal prep maestro

    Behold the workings of your new personal chef

    You know one of my favorite things to write about are my friends doing awesome things. Now that I have the total freedom to do that with this website, that’s what I’m going to do. Well, I mean, I’m going to do other stuff as well, but promoting pals and their cool endeavors will be a big part of it. Because its super fun. And because I can. So there.

    This salmon was slammin’

    Kade Mislinski and I go back well over a decade. If not longer. Not exactly sure the exact time and moment when we did become acquainted but I have a feeling it had something to do with food.

    It was probably his time as co-owner of Café Passe down on 4th Ave. It had to have been. If I was ever on the avenue I’d usually pop in for an iced coffee or some kind of delectable nibble. Although if my cloudy cognizance will allow, I’m pretty sure I was at Café Passe one night because they had advertised an evening of drum n bass.

    Drum n Bass and I got acquainted in the mid-90s back in San Francisco at some club called Liquid or Spackle or whatever. I had never heard anything like that before. Kinetic beats, sonic basslines, yet twinged with reggae chillness. Didn’t take long for me to get hooked on that sound. Ever since moving to Tucson in 2006, I had yet to find a space that played that line of frantic dance music.

    But there it was. Café Passe. And none other than Kade Mislinski was behind the decks. Very cool.

    Fresh from his kitchen to yours

    During my time with the Weekly, I got to write about Kade when he operated a steamed burger concept on Grant Ave. It was delicious and an ode to two hamburger stands located in Connecticut. One being Ted’s Restaurant, in Meriden, CT, which has been said to originate the steamed burger concept. The other is Louis’ Lunch, in New Haven, which holds court as the oldest hamburger stand in the US. So it goes.

    Now the line between oldest and steamed burg gets bleary in the greasy throes of American history. Some say Louis’ invented the steamed burger while others say “No! Louis just threw a meatball on the grill, smashed it up and served it to an impatient customer between bread.” Now as a mostly food writer, I don’t even know the case of the steamed burger. Its sort of like the original chimichanga. But that’s a dispute I need to put to rest because I do not want to get into some local trouble.

    For some reason Kade’s steamed burger place just didn’t make it. I totally thought it would.

    Then Covid hit and everything went ker-plunk.

    Kade and I sort of lost contact with one another, except for the occasional social media like or comment. Then quite recently, here in late-early 2025, Kade hits me up and says he is now a personal chef doing meal prep and home delivery.

    Kade is a one man culinary tour de force my friends!

    My man puttin’ in the work

    We hung out one afternoon while he was cooking and prepping for a client and all I could do was gaze in hungry eyed wonder. Every dish he prepared was cooked juuuuust to order as the customer has to heat it up. So easy. So very very good.

    Kade being a Tucson chef and restauranteur for many years now, knows exactly what he is doing. First thing is sourcing small and local. Our bountiful desert agronomy is basically like living in a farmers market, so the pickin’s are plentiful and the products near perfection. Kade will work with you to provide the meals you want with a knowledge of farms and facilities that earned Tucson the first city of gastronomy nod from UNESCO.

    Vegan? He’s got you. Love you some steaks and seafood? Dude, Kade is so on it. Allergies, restrictions or Kosher? C’mon man! Yeah. You’re good.

    Prices range depending on the level of difficulty or how exotic you want those meals to ascribe to. But know this! Its all about making you happy, easing up time on your end and providing healthy sumptuous repasts made with care by a well-seasoned Tucson chef.

    Best thing is, Kade will deliver your fares to you, right to your door, when you want them and when you need them. Forget those premade “dinners” you find at the store. Even the ones you see in mom and pop health food shops are loaded with sodium and still contain ingredients you didn’t know existed. No thank you.

    Farm to face is more like it

    As Kade was packing up a weekly meal plan for a client, he set out a sample of the goods for me to try…that were left over! Gosh. You think he’d rob some bits of a paying customer to feed a food blogging dork like me? Yeah, no.   

    Absolute perfection. Real chicken from a real farm tastes really different in comparison to those that sit in Styrofoam trays sitting just a few clicks down from greeting cards and automotive lubricant.

    The veggies were cooked and seasoned meticulously, as was the rice, the potatoes, the… Look. The man can cook. Let’s just put it that way and leave it there.

    Kade is also available for private parties, catering and personal chef services.

    You want to support local? You want to eat local? You want to eat food that is supported by local, like, everything? My man Kade Mislinski is your go to guy in the pressed chef’s coat. Have skillet will travel!

    Sure Kade is a friend of mine but if I thought his food and service was subpar I would not take a chunk out my day to chat him up on this here website.

    But he is a good man that serves up suburb food and provides an avail that goes above and beyond.

    And he still DJs!

    Thanks for reading, now lets eat

    To hit up Kade, you can contact him via email:

    kmislinski@gmail.com

    Call/Text:

    520-488-9339

    Or better yet, to see him in action, follow Kade’s social media:

    https://www.instagram.com/personalchef_kademislinski/

    https://www.threads.net/@personalchef_kademislinski

    Cheers!

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  • The Savor culinary festival: good food, good drinks, good times

    The Savor culinary festival: good food, good drinks, good times

    Since 2017, I have been fortunate enough to attend the annual bacchanalia of eating and drinking. It is a festival filled with overall merriment. This is the Savor Festival.

    Savor is held every late January at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. It is a celebration of not just food and drink, but also of art and sense of community.

    Sponsored by SAACA (Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance), Savor is an all-day event that pleases, and even teases, almost all senses. Everyone should experience it at least once. Trust me here.

    Here are some highlights of this year’s Savor!

    …or at least what we got our hungry hands on.

    Plenty of good food at every corner
    Spicy lamb meatballs from Dante’s Fire
    Chef Maria Mazon of Boca Tacos, always a good sport

    This year was special for me because it was the first Savor I got to experience with my wife. We were gifted two VIP tickets and she got to experience a little bit of what I do as a freelance writer, food being the main objective here.

    She was a bit overwhelmed. There are so many food vendors from all over Southern Arizona that she got a bit spun from the array of plated goodness. These range from high-end, chef-driven white coat kitchens to your local mobile comfort grub units. And everything in-between.

    This was the first year I noticed a large influx of catering services. That was really nice to see. Post 2020 really wrangled those willing to serve the masses en mass and all of their offerings were extremely delightful.

    Cookinwitcort had the best mac n’ cheese I have had in quite a while
    The chefs at Cielos Kitchen dishing up the goodness
    Pazole and smoked meat madness

    Live music permeates throughout, including a mariachi outfit serenading us all in line waiting to get in. DJs keeping it lively boomed various alcoves, one of which was playing 70s AM gold (aka Yacht Rock) syncopated to lively dance beats. Very clever.

    Not to mention artists set up and painting, sculpting, cartooning right in front of our vary eyes all throughout the grounds.

    Vineyards and breweries had tables set up with samples of their heady wares. I, of course, if you know me, enjoy a drink now and then. Usually now. But that drink(s) is normally set around the proper happy hour hour. So, the wife and I meandered the festival in full clarity that afternoon. Having been to a few Savors before and sometimes not getting there til late afternoon, the wine and craft beer sipping crowd were dizzy in a fuzzy smiling wonder, which always makes for a welcome chuckling spectacle.

    Real artists making real art in the gardens
    I’m getting the meat sweats just thinking about this
    Let’s see, stout or red ale…uh, yes please

    Here are some tips for those that plan to attend Savor in the future:

    1. Go big and go VIP. If you are lucky enough to be gifted a VIP ticket, or as I have as a member of the press, that extra cash you spend goes a long way. You get in an hour early, there is always plenty of food, plenty of hooch, plenty of room and when they open the flood gates at noon for the cheap seats you’ll be glad you stretched your festival going budget by a few threads.
    2. DO NOT TRY TO PARK IN THE BOTANICAL GARDENS PARKING AREA! Every year I see the poor souls that have to tell people that this is a huge event and the tight parking that is normally available is filled with tents and trucks constantly loading in and loading out. The best and closest parking is right up a ways at Grant and Alvernon in the Vasa mega gym lot. Like I said, get that VIP and you get parking.
    3. Pace yourself. There is so much to eat, drink, sink in and do that if you storm the flowery gates of the gardens with stomach and liver a blazin’, you might burn out too quick. Stay a while. Have a bite now and then. Take a sip here and there. Dance some of it off. But remember to stay hydrated. Luckily there are large tubs of bottled water everywhere, provided free for your benefit. Thank you SAACA!
    I’m just going to call this cups of joy
    Smiles everyone, smiles
    Davia of Purple Tree Acai gives her approval

    Best thing is, outside of all things edible and quaffable, you’re at the Tucson Botanical Gardens! You can totally tour the butterfly pavilion. If the crowds are closing in on you, step aside and take a path walk to admire the beautiful local flora. Sit and watch the hummingbirds and bees do their thing. Heck there’s even a whole space set up with train tracks and miniature structural landmarks built to scale by students of architecture. So very cool.

    Do yourself a favor and check out Savor. Shake off the post holiday blues by stuffing yourself silly and running into a friend or two. If you play your social cards right, you might even make a few new ones.

    Cheers!

    A beautiful day for a beautiful event

    Words and Pictures

    Mark Whittaker, late January 2025

    yeahwritemark@gmail.com

    Please visit:

    https://www.saaca.org/

    https://tucsonbotanical.org/