ELEVATED CUISINE

Ben Davis’s journey to becoming a chef began as a child in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “I think I was about 11 or 12, and I was complaining about being hungry,” says Davis, a Sub-Zero Corporate Chef in Denver, Colorado, “and my mother looked at me and said, if you’re hungry, just cook yourself something.”

Davis felt this was a good answer to his pre-teen petulance and decided to aim high. “I chose lasagna, which was probably a bit of an overreach.” Once that challenge was met, Davis discovered how much he enjoyed the process. “I always liked creating things; cooking was very similar,” he says. Davis happily pursued it throughout his teenage years. “I was having a lot of fun.”

His culinary endeavors continued even as he studied history at college in Colorado, where a familial connection deepened (his mother is originally from Denver, so he visited often). “I felt like a native,” says Davis. “The Rockies have always been my home.”

After graduation, he took a job in sports media relations. “But I kept cooking because it was a nice activity to participate in,” he says. “And eventually, I realized that doing that sort of desk work wasn’t something I was cut out for.”

He took the plunge and returned to New Mexico to work for a friend who was a chef at an Albuquerque restaurant. A few months later, he was accepted at culinary school and headed west. “I moved to San Francisco, and that’s when I started my career in cooking,” says Davis.

Embroiled in the excitement of the Northern California restaurant scene, Davis spent a dozen years in the area. “San Francisco was a great place from a culinary point of view, as there was so much going on there in the late 1980s all the way through the 1990s,” he says. He and his wife (an architect whom he met in Colorado) started a family there, as Davis worked at various restaurants throughout the Bay Area. “I worked in San Francisco proper and then took a job with a couple of companies, opening restaurants on the peninsula where there were many bedroom communities for the city.”

Ultimately, however, the lure of the beloved Rocky Mountain region drew Davis and his family back to Colorado. “Our kids were growing up, and it was a crossroads of my wife’s and my careers,” he says. “We were at a point where it was an opportune time to move, so I reached out to some restaurant contacts in Denver, and we’ve been here ever since.”

Once back in Colorado, Davis worked at various restaurants and high-end grocery stores before discovering a niche that suited him well: culinary education. “I had done a lot of avocational cooking classes through the stores, and I saw an opportunity. So, in 2003, I launched a small private cooking school.”

His cooking school used all Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, so he appreciated the quality of the products and had a great connection with the local distributor. “For eight years, we used those appliances harder than the average home chef because we had a constant turnover of students,” says Davis. “And we never had an issue. We never had a service call. We never had any problems whatsoever.”

So it seemed rather fortuitous when, after his cooking school closed (and a brief return to the restaurant industry), he found an ideal job as a Corporate Chef at the Denver location of Roth Living, an official regional supplier and showroom of Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove. “I like to joke that it took me about 35 years to find the right job; better late than never!”

He says his favorite part of his role is his time with the customers. “I don’t know if that’s the teacher in me since I come from a long line of educators, but I like to take a lot of time going over everything about the products,” he says. “I want to make sure they have a deep understanding.”

“I feel the customer will get more enjoyment out of their appliances when they have an in-depth knowledge of all features and aspects,” he continues. “Hopefully, I’m giving them the same passion I feel for food in general and Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove products in particular.” Davis wants customers to wake up on a Sunday morning, for example, and say, “I get to cook all day!” He hopes they will look forward to exploring ingredients and discovering new cooking methods.

Davis himself attributes a lot of his inspiration to his work in Northern California. “The abundance and quality of products there was overwhelming,” he says. “So, my culinary style is based on the ingredients.” Davis favors ethnic flavors and fresh produce. “I plan the rhythm of my cooking by what’s in season,” he says. “It’s also a European approach to go to the market every morning and see what there is, then come home and cook.”

When he is not in the kitchen, Davis embraces the seasons differently. “I love to hike,” he says. “That’s part of why I feel like I belong in this part of the world.” While he often would take his son on outdoor adventures, now, with the younger Davis grown, the chef tends to hike solo. “There is a sort of oneness with nature when you are out there on your own,” he says. “I like to begin my hikes pre-dawn. It’s quiet then, and I can just be in my head for that period of time.”

“What I love about that time of day is seeing the sunrise and the first birds of the morning,” says Davis. “There is an epic stillness and it is remarkably peaceful.” His excursions to the higher elevations fit perfectly into his love of Colorado. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else. It feels like this is where I was always supposed to be.”