82 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM injury led to surgery on not one, but both knees, he found himself sidelined on the couch. During recovery, Chad watched lots of Food Network and consumed countless episodes of Iron Chef. “The competitor in me loved that,” he notes. Rather than return to the dojo, he set his sights on the kitchen. Do cooking and martial arts have anything in common? “The repetitiveness,” Chad shares with a chuckle. “So much of a chef‘s job is Groundhog Day. … Yes, it changes every season, but from the day-to-day standpoint, it's a lot of the same tasks, and staying focused on those and still doing them with your all, still trying to do better every single day.” Another early influence came from cooking alongside his moth- {food coloring} er, a health-conscious devotee of Cooking Light magazine. “My mom was a bit famous—or a bit notorious, depending how you look at it—for never cooking the same thing twice,” he laughs. “I’m pretty sure dinner on Monday night was page one. Dinner on Tuesday night was page two. She would just work her way through Cooking Light.” He adds, “My dad would be like, ‘Wow, this is really good. Too bad we'll never eat it again.’” By contrast, Chad refreshes his menu twice a year with springsummer and fall-winter offerings. “There will be some signature dishes that will stick around,” he promises. This includes the gambas al ajillo (sautéed shrimp mildly sweetened by white wine and grounded with smoky paprika) as well as albóndigas (lamb meatballs served in an herbaceous mojo verde sauce and brightened
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