Kennedy brings food philosophy to Denver
Winner of “The Taste” cooking at festival
When Gabe Kennedy won ABC’s cooking competition “The Taste” earlier this year, viewers knew the Boulder native as a humble guy with tousled good looks, a compassionate heart and serious culinary talent — he won the most gold stars ever on that show. But few had tasted his food. Now, in Denver, fans will get that chance.
He’s part of the Denver Food & Wine festival this year, where he’ll be cooking at two of the events and will be attending all events, soaking up the scene.
He’s also taking time to do some other events while in town with his friend Kelly Whitaker, co-owner of Cart-Driver.
“I’ve been doing a lot of fun projects on healthy eating and a lot of traveling,” Kennedy, 24, said in a phone interview from his home in Brooklyn, talking about his life since he won “The Taste.”
“I’m just continuing the path of learning that’s essential at this point in my career, because I still am really young.”
So far, he has served as a visiting executive chef for Bon Appetit magazine and made food videos for Tasting Table.
He’s working on a cookbook, fundraising to start his own restaurant, and is busy with lots of pop-up events, like his farm-fresh dinners at North Brooklyn Farms and Burpee’s historic Fordhook Farm in Pennsylvania.
He’s also teamed up with the Irish relief organization Concern Worldwide, becoming their ambassador to Haiti where, at a small culinary school in Portau-Prince — with one pot, no running water and a stove lit by a match — he taught a basic cooking skills class, and then enjoyed some traditional Haitian rice dishes they made for him.
And in the village of Sant d’Eau, he visited a market with a local family — they buy sweet potatos, spinach, watercress, some limes, sour oranges and bell peppers for less then $9 — and at their home, he demonstrated how to make a traditional coconut chicken curry for the