Valley native Swanson is no stranger to destination dining, having trained at Vincent’s on Camelback before rising to fame as chef de cuisine at Native dining hot spot Kai. After a short stint on the East Coast, Swanson returned to Arizona last year to take over the esteemed flagship restaurant at L’Auberge de Sedona – yet another great reason to hunker down in red rock country this summer.
You steeped yourself in Indigenous cooking traditions at Kai… so what kind of steeping are you doing up in Sedona?
Now that I’m at L’Auberge, I can blow the lid off and explore in any direction. Arizona cuisine, mainly. What we’re doing right now is creating a bread program around mesquite flour… using the mesquite bean in the bread or using it in desserts. It’s so good in desserts.
How much of the old menu did you leave intact vs. your new additions?
Ultimately, 100 percent of the menu will be new. But I wouldn’t call it “mine.” I’d call it “ours,” because we’re utilizing everybody, all the talent in the kitchen to change everything, from breakfast and banquets to dinner.
What’s a distinctive Ryan Swanson dish that’s currently on the menu?
Probably the lobster with spaghetti, which I brought with me from New England. It’s definitely a crowd pleaser… basically, butter-poached lobster with spaghetti we make in-house. It’s a great dish, very elegant, and the plates always come back to the kitchen wiped clean.
Will the menu change during the summer?
Yes, we’ll definitely shift for summer. It’s about what is growing in the garden. And one of my chefs, Red Hauska [formerly of FLINT by Baltaire] just came up with a terrific Chilean sea bass dish that will be on the summer menu… done in an onion soubise cream sauce with minced tarragon and chervil and other things. We’re R&Ding it now, just waiting for the asparagus to come in.
