There’s really no such thing as overnight success. Sometimes the hardest thing is to just keep plugging along and wait for things to happen. We’ve been out here in Colorado for 31 months. We came out here to open Keyah Grande, and everything took longer than we thought it would. We weren’t even the first chefs; they had someone else before us, but it still took eight months after our arrival just to finish the construction and get our certificate of occupancy. That was just the first major step in getting to opening day. Although our Grand Opening was just this past January, we’re on our fourth PR firm, our second general manager, our second ranch manager, and our umpteenth reincarnation of everyone else. To say that getting to today has been a long haul would be an understatement. Things are finally starting to shift into gear. This week so far has been a particularly good one.
We were recently approached by the Holland America Cruise Line to be a part of their Guest Chef program. We have been working out the details, and it looks like we will be joining them for a cruise to Hawaii from March 22-April 6, 2005, on the Amsterdam. We’ll do four cooking lessons and two cooking demonstrations while on board. Depending on how things work out, we may be able to get some of our dishes featured in one of the restaurants on board. It’s a very exciting opportunity for us to get out there and reach new audiences for the property and for our food.
The second good thing happened this morning. We were forwarded the newest issue of Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report, which features a write-up about Keyah Grande. Here’s what they said about the food:
“An excellent staff and two exceptionally talented chefs (the husband-and-wife team of Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot) further enhance the patrician ambience of the property. It would be no exaggeration to say that during our brief visit, we enjoyed some of the finest, most imaginative, and passionate cooking that we have experienced anywhere in the world. This is food for foodies (roasted duck ham with calamansi lime mustard fruit, foie gras dumplings, and shiso-marcona almond pesto) relying for effect on innovative combinations of flavors and exquisite presentation in the manner of Thomas Keller, the über-chef of Napa’s French Laundry and Manhattan’s Per Se. A 3,000-bottle wine cellar complements the cuisine and may be browsed prior to dinner.”
What more could we ask for in a review of our food? Thank you to Andrew Harper and his team of professionals. Frankly, at this point in the summer, we could use both the mental boost and the inspiration that we received from both of these events.
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