Still looking for the perfect father’s day gift for dad? Bring him to our sister restaurant, Rickenbacker’s bistro. We’ll be serving a BBQ lunch buffet from 11am to 4pm, Sunday June 20. Can’t wait to see you there!

Rickenbacker’s by Andrea Hanks Photography:

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

Pistachio Crusted Halibut

Grilled Tenderloin

Cheesecake

As the Executive Chef of Sonora Grill, I have been very fortunate to have the great honor of simultaneously working as the Executive Chef at Rickenbacker’s restaurant at the Ogden Airport. In between dining trips to Sonora Grill, I strongly suggest you go try us out at Rickenbackers. It’s very good. We’re very proud of it.

We have a very talented assistant at Rickenbacker’s, Chef Ryan Sleeter, and I have another young talent, Chef Courtney Larsen, doing the good work at Sonora Grill. My heart really goes out to these poor guys…it’s great to be number one, but it’s tough to be number two.

People have often asked, “How can you just cook, mix up all these ingredients and just come up with dishes of food and be confident enough to serve it?”
I guess there are about a million answers to that question. But if you open up your refrigerator and you happen to have… let’s say, a bag of lettuce mix, some blue cheese, a can of olives, roasted red peppers, grilled yellow zucchini, sunflower sprouts, grilled radicchio, shaved fennel, sherry vinegar/extra virgin olive oil dressing… that’s got springtime salad written all over it… I can recognize any type of dish just from a few ingredients. Why? Because when I was young, it was drilled into my head by an unrelentingly meticulous chef who spared no insult to get me to make nice salads. I had to do it well or lose my job. Eat or die, right?

Know what I really like on a salad? For lack of a better title lets call it:

Pink Peppercorn Salad Sprinkle

2 Tbsp. pink peppercorns
2 Tbsp. sesame seeds
1 tsp. Kosher salt

Put all of these ingredients in a dry saute pan over medium low heat, toast them for 5 minutes, shaking the pan periodically.
Remove it from the heat. When the ingredients have cooled down, put them in your spice grinder. Grind it. Sprinkle on your salad. It’s delicious.

Now, what’s up with pink peppercorns? Look online, you can probably find everything you really need to know on wikipedia. You should be able to purchase them at Sur La Table in the mall or ordering online.

As for a spice grinder? Get a coffee grinder, Braun, Krups, Cuisinart, whichever brand; you can get them for $19.99 at any department store. Go to Ross Dress for Less and you can get a strange colored one from last season for even less.

Then go home and cook. Get a slice of nice bread to go with your salad, put olive oil on it, rub it with a bit of minced fresh garlic and grill it over a wood fire and turn it over… lots of nice kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper… I never got by on my good looks. I had to work hard… I’m not really elitist. I was simply hungry, you know, literally and figuratively. And the bread with the garlic… it’s pretty tasty too…

Must tries include Chicken & Waffles, Grilled Chicken Alfredo, Pot Roast, Halibut & Shrimp.