Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain’s award-winning Lunch & Learn series returns for its 15th season. This summer’s lineup, featuring some of the country’s top culinary experts, will leave guests star struck (and asking for seconds) as celebrity chefs and Food Network Stars dish out recipes and behind-the-scenes insight.
On Saturdays throughout July and August, top chefs will join Sanctuary’s Executive Chef Beau MacMillan for interactive cooking demonstrations including a three-course meal with wine, Q&A opportunities and take-home recipes. Held in The Views Ballroom, all lunch events are $75 per person and start at 12 p.m. Dinner events are $125 per person and start at 6 p.m. All prices exclude tax and gratuity. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 480-607-2300.
For those who wish to stay the night, a special rate of $199 with an upgrade to a Mountain Suite is offered following each Saturday event (based on availability, excluding tax and resort fee) with the purchase of a Lunch & Learn ticket.
The 2016 Lineup:
July 16 – Chef Curtis Cameron and Chef Russell LaCasce (lunch): Chefs Cameron and LaCasce will each display their individual styles during this lunch event.
Chef Cameron focused on traditional Japanese cuisine early in his career, but transitioned to pastries and has since honed his skills at The Arizona Biltmore and the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah. He joined The Little Nell in 2014 as Executive Pastry Chef.
As Executive Sous Chef at Sanctuary and its signature restaurant, elements, Chef LaCasce brings years of culinary skill and a genuine passion for food to elements’ team. An advocate of farm-to-table dining, Chef LaCasce takes pride in knowing where his ingredients are sourced.
July 23 – Chef Allen Susser (lunch): Chef Susser is a James Beard award-winning artisan who has a passionate commitment to local, fresh ingredients. The New York Times named Susser the “Ponce de Leon of New Floridian cooking,” touting his New World Cuisine culinary style. He demonstrated this unique style of cooking in his popular restaurant in Miami, Chef Allen, for 25 years. Today, Susser heads up Chef Allen’s Consulting, a boutique sustainable restaurant and hospitality consulting firm. He also is a spokesman for the National Mango Board and a Culinary Ambassador for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Aug. 6 – Chef Jeff Mauro (dinner): Celebrity Chef Jeff Mauro is the host of Food Network’s Emmy-nominated “Sandwich King” and the wildly successful talk show, “The Kitchen.” He is also the co-founder and executive chef of Chicago’s very first slow-smoked sandwich shop, Pork & Mindy’s. Chef Mauro put his passion for sandwiches on display during his Season 7 win of Food Network’s “Food Network Star.”
Aug. 13 – Chef Cullen Campbell (dinner): A master of “crudo” Italian and Mediterranean dishes, Chef Campbell offers a unique cooking style to Phoenix diners. Inspired by the traditions of Southern cooking, Campbell is the chef/co-owner of Okra Cookhouse & Cocktails as well as Crudo/Bar Crudo in Phoenix. Since opening in 2012, Crudo has won rave reviews from USA Today, The Los Angeles Times and Sunset Magazine, while Campbell’s refined take on coastal Italian cuisine has been personally lauded by Saveur and earned him an invite to cook at the James Beard House in New York. Campbell’s new restaurant, Okra, serves Italian-accented twists on classic Southern dishes like Tennessee Hot Chicken and Pig Cheek Pot Pie.
Aug. 20 – Marc Summers and Chef Beau MacMillan (lunch): Watch as Food Network personalities Marc Summers and Sanctuary’s own Executive Chef Beau MacMillan tag team for a lively lunch that is sure to entertain. Summers is currently hosting the longest running show on Food Network, “Unwrapped,” and he is also Executive Producer of “Dinner: Impossible,” “Food Feuds” and “Restaurant: Impossible.”
Chef MacMillan is no stranger to Food Network programming, with appearances on “Iron Chef America,” “Worst Cooks in America,” The Next Iron Chef,” and “Guy’s Grocery Games,” among other shows. Back at Sanctuary, Chef MacMillan’s culinary philosophy is evident in the resort’s innovative seasonal menus that focus on fresh, local ingredients procured from a network of artisans and organic farmers.
Aug. 27 – Chef Ryan Clark (dinner): A Tucson native, Chef Clark has worked in both New York and Arizona extensively, including a post at Sanctuary under Chef MacMillan. Chef Clark opened Agustin Kitchen in 2012, a popular French bistro. Now Chef Clark serves as Chef de Cuisine at PY Steakhouse at Casino del Sol Resort in Tucson.
