CJ Kahley started college in Michigan as a journalism major. His dream was to travel the world like Anthony Bourdain and write about different cultures, but his culinary knowledge was lacking. He “put the books on hold,” worked in a few kitchens and then went to culinary school in Las Vegas, cooking in restaurants up and down the Las Vegas strip. Relocating to the Valley, he spent time in kitchens at The Mission, Geordie’s at the Wrigley Mansion and The Americano – and now runs the show at Wayward in Old Town Scottsdale, guiding the gastropub’s lively global cuisine as it rebranded this summer from Liquor Pig due to an ownership shakeup. We gave the young chef the Bourdain treatment.
What’s your favorite dish on the menu?
The birria kushiyaki, a Japanese beef skewer that takes on the flavors of birria tacos. It’s one of our menu highlights. It’s familiar, but with a completely different take that gives a head nod to Arizona. Also, the short rib board and the crispy pork taco board.
Who inspires you in the culinary world?
Any chef who has a story. It could be the guy selling bagels down the street. If he has a cool story about why he got into it, that’s what inspires me. Also, Sean Brock, a chef who has struggled with sobriety and who finds as much pleasure in the people who produce the food as the people who create the food.
What’s the best cooking advice you’ve ever been given?
Matt Seeber, a chef at Craftsteak MGM Grand Las Vegas, once told me that the higher up you go in the kitchen, the more you tend to steer away from what got you started. Don’t lose that. Stay true to your craft even if other things pull you away from it. That was at the start of my career and it was good advice for a 21-year-old.
What’s your guilty pleasure food?
I can’t steer away from American cheese. I know it’s not even cheese, but there’s something about the texture and the fake flavor that draws me in. American cheese is the melting cheese, the glue cheese. It’s perfect for a burger. Velveeta? Yes, of course.
