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If you’re longing for your favorite deli-style chopped cheese sandwich or fine-dining venison dish but your wallet might protest another meal out, you can learn to cook some of your favorite Front Range restaurant meals at home thanks to Chef’n It, a new YouTube series that premiered on September 10.
“We’re asking chefs to teach how to make a modified version of one of their restaurant dishes,” Chef’n It co-creator and host Tarah Runco says. “It introduces us to their culinary philosophy and lets people get to know them on a deeper level. And we’re filming it all right in my home kitchen.”
Runco’s love affair with Denver’s food scene sparked during the pandemic, when she began spotlighting local, independent eateries on her Instagram account, @thebainmarie. What started as a passion project soon led to her co-founding Behind the Apron Media, a boutique creative agency focusing on Colorado’s culinary scene, with Emerson Killion, who is also Chef’n It’s director and cinematographer.
The connections Runco has made through @thebainmarie are now coming full circle, with many of the chefs she once spotlighted on Instagram now sharing the screen with her on Chef’n It.
Each episode follows a rhythm: First, Runco sits down with the chef at their restaurant to try the dish as it’s normally served. Then, cameras shift to Runco’s home kitchen where the chef adapts the dish for everyday cooks. Season one of the series comprises nine episodes that will be released on the second Thursday of each month.
Chris Royster, executive chef and co-owner of Boulder’s Flagstaff House (and one of Behind the Apron’s clients) appears on the premiere episode, in which he creates a venison osso buco-style stew. Royster often prepares the dish at home using venison that he has hunted and broken down himself. At the Flagstaff House, he offers a refined version of the dish, transforming the hearty stew into three crispy, bite-size portions with the meticulous and artful plating the restaurant is known for. For Chef’n It, he returns to his roots, sharing a rustic, homestyle recipe that doesn’t require restaurant-level plating (or even game meat, since beef works well if you can’t source venison).
“I hope viewers realize braises with so-called fancy cuts aren’t that hard,” Royster says. “It’s really easy and a great way to use an underused meat to get a really flavorful meal.”
Runco notes Royster’s episode is a great example of adaptation for the home chef. “Chef Royster is big into foraging, fishing, and hunting, and you’ll always find some variation of a venison dish on his menu,” she says. “For a home cook to make anything at Flagstaff House, they would need years to learn some of these dishes. So we chose an element that was representative of who he was and his cuisine at Flagstaff.”
Cliff Blauvelt, co-owner of hip-hop-themed sandwich shop Odie B’s and the soon-to-open Boombots Pasta Shop, is also featured on the series. “[Runco] first found us at the restaurant, but she really connected with our sobriety story—how that shaped our business model, how we show up for our staff, how we take care of our team, and how we take care of ourselves,” Blauvelt says.
On his episode of Chef’n It, Blauvelt will show viewers how to make Odie B’s breakfast chopped cheese, a playful twist on the New York bodega classic made with house-ground breakfast sausage, American cheese, shredded lettuce, candied Fresnos, and dill-pickled onions.
Another acclaimed Denver chef appearing on the show is Erasmo Casiano of Uptown Mexican eatery Xiquita. He echoes Blauvelt’s sentiments about making restaurant-quality dishes accessible for cooks of all skill levels. “I want people to understand that some of these things can be made at home, [and] the effort that’s put in for making homemade tortillas or one of these sauces is definitely worth it,” Casiano says. His contribution to the series will be a homestyle Mexican meal.
Additional dishes viewers can expect include a “fancy” tuna salad by Carrie Baird, chef/partner of Fox and the Hen (she’ll also demonstrate how to break down an entire tuna loin, which you won’t have to do for the recipe); pizza with homemade dough, mozzarella, and tomato sauce by Luke Miller, executive chef at the Greenwich; and tagliatelle by John Wilson, founder and executive chef of Bella Colibri in Golden.
Kenta Kamo, founder and executive chef of Temaki Den, Emily Thompson, executive pastry chef of the Wolf’s Tailor, and Lon Symensma, founder and executive chef of ChoLon, are also slated to appear on the show.
“I hope this series helps to bring visibility to Colorado’s culinary scene and encourages people to actually dine at these restaurants, [helps them] develop deeper relationships with the chefs, and introduces them to self-cooking,” Runco says. “Chef’n It isn’t about [me and Emerson]. It’s about the chefs, the restaurateurs, the purveyors, the people who make Colorado’s food scene so special.”
Watch the premiere episode of Chef’n It on Behind the Apron’s YouTube channel. New episodes air on the second Thursday of each month. Find recipes, chef bios, and behind-the-scenes extras at behindtheapronmedia.com and @chefn_it.
