CHEF, RESTAURATEUR, AND AUTHOR LISA DAHL ON HER LIFELONG ROMANCE WITH FOOD
story by Marci Symington / photos by Grace Stufkosky
Lisa Dahl is not only a successful chef and restaurateur but also a skilled storyteller. Dahl was critical in establishing the dining scene in Sedona—a town of 10,000 in the stunning Red Rock Country of northern Arizona—as executive chef and CEO of Dahl Restaurant Group, which includes five concepts: Dahl & Di Luca Ristorante Italiano, Cucina Rustica, Pisa Lisa, Butterfly Burger, and Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill. Voted “Top Chef of Arizona” and “Food Pioneer” in 2018 and 2019 by the Arizona Restaurant Association’s Foodist Awards, Dahl has appeared on both the Travel Channel and the Food Network and has cooked twice at the James Beard House in New York City.
This level of success is no small feat, but to understand the path by which she got here is to gain an even greater appreciation of her achievements. Through each of her concepts as well as her two cookbooks, she relates her story as a girl growing up in the Midwest with a love of cooking, a grieving mother working through the loss of her only child, and a self-taught chef–turned–restaurant pioneer with a deep respect for the land equal to her belief in its stewardship.
Dahl was raised in Indiana before moving to the Bay Area, where she spent 20 years working in the fashion business. Following the untimely death of her son, Justin, she relocated to Sedona in 1995, a renowned spiritual center. As she and Justin had loved to cook together, cooking became a medium by which she connected with her “angel.” This motivated her to fulfill the lifelong dream of opening a restaurant, Dahl & Di Luca, naming it for herself and her then-partner Andrea Di Luca. “The opening of my first restaurant will always be my greatest glory as a chef,” explains Dahl, “as a way of finding inspiration and peace.”
with blanco tequila, chile liqueur, mango puree, and fresh lime juice.
The success of her flagship opened doors to more business opportunities, including the launch of a Mediterranean concept, Cucina Rustica, in 2003 and the publication of her first cookbook, The Elixir of Life: Finding Love and Joy in the Passionate Pursuit of Food, in 2010. While the book contains recipes based on her popular restaurant dishes, Dahl explains that it “reads like a memoir, detailing my independence as a chef and my journey in finding salvation.”
Dahl then opened Pisa Lisa, a woodfired pizzeria, in 2012 and Butterfly Burger in 2019, whose menu stars burgers that have claimed awards at the Scottsdale Burger Battle. And in between came Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill, a 6,500-square-foot restaurant with unparalleled views of the Sedona landscape and a menu that focuses on wood-fired meat, seafood, and vegetables. As Dahl explains, Mariposa, which opened in 2015, added “another wonderful layer [to my portfolio] for guests to enjoy. But most of all, I felt that Sedona needed a unique kind of steakhouse.”
While childhood memories of barbecues in the backyard and a passion for what she calls “the exotic, earthy, sensual spices of the Southwest” partly inspired Mariposa, Dahl and her husband, photographer Scott Yates, also spent three months in 2014 traveling around Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay for research. There, the idea for her second cookbook, A Romance With Food: Latin Fusion Cooking, took root.
Released on February 1, A Romance With Food reveals Dahl’s playful personality through chapters such as “Sumptuous Salads,” “Sultry Soups,” “Tantalizing Tapas,” “Platos Principales,” and “Sweets to Savor.” The “Spirit Realm” chapter features some of her outstanding cocktails, including the Rosé Grapefruit Strawberry Sangria, the Pisco Sour Primitivo, and Lisa’s Luscious Skinny Margarita with Azuñia Reposado, whose distributor told Dahl that her version is the top-selling Margarita in Arizona.
In the appetizer chapter, readers will find ceviche; Dahl’s signature grilled octopus; and empanadas, a staple of both Chile and Argentina, to which she adds her own twist: “I interpret classic items like beef empanadas a bit differently,” Dahl explains. “I use olives and currants and potatoes instead of the traditional hard-boiled egg. I play around and make it my own.” That’s also true of soups like veggie pozole and her personal favorite, sopa de Justino; named for her son, it’s made with roasted chicken, vegetables, quinoa, and homemade chicken stock.
Many of the main dishes are grilled, including the lamb costeletas and the flores del mar, a seafood dish inspired by a camping trip. The recipe calls for prawns, scallops, and lobster (though Dahl encourages readers to use their own favorite seafood) wrapped in tinfoil with vegetables, herbs, and a saffron broth. Rounding out the book are several Latin-fusion desserts like prickly pear cheesecake, an ode to her desert surroundings.
As with her first book, Dahl explains that A Romance With Food is “more than just a cookbook. The stories are what set it apart.” Perhaps it is also a continuation of her spiritual transformation in recognizing cooking as a path to healing, highlighting the bridge it has created between her and her son. “I do feel [he] has guided this experience,” she acknowledges, noting that “he plucked the [word] ‘butterfly’ in Spanish into my thoughts” when she was deciding on a name for Mariposa. “And this is what I have done with it.”
