Kansas City Is Known to Have Flair
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Never thought I would be on a tour bus with Food Network’s Guy Fieri and his crew. I have been on the road for almost four weeks, starting in Naples, Italy, with America’s Chefs, where I cooked for 1,000 soldiers-and got the idea for Banana Rat Wing sauce. Named after the infamous rodent at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, BRW sauce is on sale at Grinders and we’re donating a percentage of proceeds to military charities.
I flew to South Carolina where I joined the “Guy Fieri Roadshow Tour,” which is being filmed by Food Network. We’re traveling across the United States with a quick side trip jaunt into Canada.
All of these food-related projects have been an interesting turn in my career; until now I’ve primarily been a sculptor. Don’t get me wrong: I haven’t stopped making art by any means. I still start and end every day in a creative mindset. In fact, I don’t think I will ever stop creating and making things.
A logical leap from metal sculpting to cooking, I have been preparing food and working in restaurants off and on since I was young. I worked in a variety of bars and kitchens while attending art school at the Kansas City Art Institute; I would make sculpture during the day and cook at night.
The circumstance that made me a restaurant owner. When I returned to Kansas City after my stint in New York City working with Mark DiSuvero and the Socrates Sculpture Park, I missed the New York-style pizza and Philadelphia cheese steaks that I’d had at my fingertips. Grinders was born.
Guy Fieri came to Grinders to film “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” Up to that point, I had done several TV appearances as a sculptor on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Monster House.” But now my two disciplines have merged, and I have landed my own show on the Spike cable network. It’s called “Hungry Men at Work,” and it pairs acclaimed chefs with men working incredibly dangerous jobs around the world-from fighting forest fires to working on oil rigs.
And it’s through this TV-box that I am hoping to bring the arts to the masses everywhere.
Speaking of art, when I think back to the early years of “plowing the fields of the Crossroads” to create an arts district in Kansas City, I can’t help but remember how wild the area was back then. I rented a 5000-square-foot studio for incredibly cheap. My art gallery, Zone, was the third gallery to move into the area-right after Leedy-Voulkos and the Dolphin Gallery.
A new arts scene without the help of sponsorship or city funding. Now, the Crossroads Arts District is a thriving area that brings thousands to downtown each year. With the addition of Grinders West (my deli located directly next door to Grinders) and the collaboration with CrossroadsKC at Grinders music venue, I have been able to foster an arena where food, art and music converge. That’s what I hope to continue doing on the national stage.
The important thing is that we always learn from others and aren’t afraid to make mistakes. We have to evolve, but we can’t forget where we came from. And we have to have integrity. The paths I’ve chosen have taken me on great journeys, and I have never regretted them.
I’ve just had to keep an open mind and follow my heart.
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