Q&AEat Beat Interrogation with Esther Boado
Marilyn HawkesDecember 26, 2025
Sushi was not on Esther Boado’s brain when she first worked in restaurants to cover expenses in college.
In 2022, The New York Times named Kabob Grill N’ Go one of the 50 best restaurants in America, and in 2024, Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives stopped by for a visit.
Eater recognized her as one of five pastry chefs nationally who are defining restaurant desserts.
DiningEat Beat Interrogation with Chef Russell LaCasce of ZuZu at Hotel Valley Ho
Marilyn HawkesNovember 1, 2023
LaCasce is proud of the positive culture he’s created at the iconic hotel’s signature restaurant, ZuZu, where he says teamwork, learning and creativity thrive.
Desert DigestQ&AChef Lee Hillson Returns to T. Cook’s at Royal Palms Resort
Marilyn HawkesDecember 9, 2019
Chef Lee Hillson recently returned to T. Cooks at Royal Palms Resort and Spa as executive chef and he couldn’t be happier. He spent 12 years at the iconic resort in the early 2000s as executive sous chef and then as executive chef. Hillson, a James Beard House featured chef and a participant on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America, has also graced the kitchens of The Phoenician Resort and the Sheraton Grand at Wild...
Desert DigestQ&AQ & A with Phoenix Public Market Cafe Chef Aaron Chamberlin
Marilyn HawkesAugust 28, 2019
Q: What’s behind the decision to reinvent Phoenix Public Market Café? A: In the past six months I split with my business partner, so my business shrunk in half, which is a good thing. The last couple of years I’ve had a lot of growth in my business and I’ve decided that I miss being in the kitchen and spending time there and creating new menu items. Phoenix Public Market Café is my main restaurant...
We catch up with the black-belt point guard.
We caught up with Wes Gullett of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
We catch up with Nick LaRosa, who faced the firing squad of celebrity chef judges on Food Network’s Chopped.
We catch up with Jeff Mastro, restaurateur extraordinaire, about what makes a good restaurant tick.
We caught up with the director of Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, the controversial drama about Ted Bundy, while he was at the Phoenix Film Festival.
People7 Questions with Olivia Mehaffey
Christianna SilvaMarch 13, 2019
We catch up with Arizona State University golfer Olivia Mehaffey.
You spent about two years making your latest album. How did you know when it was finished? It definitely feels like a long time. I think there’s a little bit of an intangible feeling when something feels complete. On this record I wrote a lot more than I have in the past. I had a lot more options in terms of trying to craft what I thought would be the best story and best collection...
LiteraryQ&A with Chilean Writer Alejandro Zambra, in Phoenix for Residency
Ofelia MontelongoOctober 4, 2017
Award-winning author Alejandro Zambra, one of Chile’s most celebrated writers, is visiting Phoenix this week for a bilingual literary residency organized by CALA Alliance in collaboration with Palabras Bilingual Bookstore, Cardboard House Press and Changing Hands Bookstore. Zambra's avant-garde narrative and storytelling has made him into one of the latest Latin American literary stars. In 2010, he was named one of Granta's Best Young Spanish-Language Novelists.
This week, he has already made a surprise visit to a book club discussing Bonsái, his first book, and started his bilingual workshop “How to Forget How to Write Fiction” at Palabras.
Zambra will be at Changing Hands Phoenix, on Thursday at 7 p.m., when he’ll read from his acclaimed novels Multiple Choice, Bonsai, The Private Lives of Trees, Ways of Going Home and My Documents. He will also be the guest of honor at Palabra’s Micro-Mania event (tagged as a night of readings from micro fictions, micro food – aka tapas – and jazz) this First Friday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The author, who has been named the "the most talked-about writer to come out of Chile since [Roberto] Bolaño” by the New York Times Book Review, feels the comparison a little off. “I’m probably taller than him,” Zambra jokes of his Chilean compatriot, who died from liver failure at the age of 50 in 2003. “He was a much better writer than I ever will be.”
PHOENIX magazine interviewed Zambra ahead of his book reading and signing this Thursday, and chatted about his experimental writing. (Responses have been translated from Spanish, and edited for clarity.)