Since transferring to the Flathead Valley in 2019 to work as a sous chef at Beargrass Bistro in Lakeside and to ski the area’s snowcapped peaks, 32-year-old Keefe Carvelli has moved up within the culinary ranks all through his profession to deliver his basic Italian and French taste to Kalispell.
Carvelli initially hails from Aspen, Colorado, the place he began working within the restaurant trade as a youngster. After school, Carvelli helped open RARE Italian in Fort Collins the place he discovered a lot of his Italian model from Alex Feldman for a number of years. He additionally labored with Thomas Keller, a famend chef primarily based out of California who makes a speciality of French delicacies. Finally, he traveled to Oregon the place he labored as a head chef at Chops Bistro.
“I discovered the whole lot by trial and error,” Carvelli mentioned. “I labored below quite a lot of wonderful cooks.”
Now, Carvelli works as the pinnacle chef on the new Alchemy Lounge on First Avenue West in Kalispell, the place he’s been experimenting with menu objects because the restaurant opened final yr.
The Alchemy Lounge could have a very new menu this summer time as Carvelli continues to remodel the delicacies, which will likely be centered round recent seafood sourced from Flathead Fish and Seafood and regionally sourced greens which are ready for shared plates. Handmade pasta and distinctive dishes like Bagna càuda will likely be on future menus.
“These are dishes you’ll not discover anyplace else within the valley,” he mentioned. “We’re not seeking to compete with what different eating places are doing, we are attempting to carve a brand new area of interest.”
Carvelli sat down with Flathead Residing to debate his profession and culinary philosophies. The next is an edited excerpt from that dialog.
How did you get into the restaurant trade?
It began as a summer time job in Colorado after I was 15 or 16 and I acquired a job as a dishwasher, simply as one thing to do. It sort of snowballed from there into line cooking. I saved cooking by school as a result of I used to be good at it, and it was a job. It wasn’t till I used to be 4 years into college that I noticed I ought to have simply gone to culinary college. So I caught with it and right here I’m.
After rising up in Aspen, I lived in Grand Junction and Fort Collins and I studied political science in class. After school, I used to be capable of concentrate on being a chef and after I moved to Fort Collins, I helped to open RARE Italian. All of our pastas had been handmade, and we had a dry getting old room the place we hung our personal meat. From there, I needed to journey and expertise extra than simply Italian meals and I ended up in Oregon for just a few years working a restaurant.
How would you describe your strategy to cooking?
My strategy is an easy help. I like utilizing recent, uncooked substances and I am going again to the roots of the dish. I focus extra on the presentation and the standard of what’s within the meals.
Our idea right here performs nicely into my Italian background, which is a household meal the place everybody comes collectively and shared plates are excellent. I don’t particularly stick to at least one delicacies and we’ve got dishes from everywhere in the world. I like utilizing seafood loads and we get all of ours flown in from Flathead Fish and Seafood.
Utilizing fish is like having a clean canvas – you’re not restricted. Should you suppose exterior the field, you’re not restricted to a basic scallop dish.
I’ve an entire new menu within the works for Alchemy, it’s totally totally different than the one we had. It’s elevated in comparison with what we had. I got here into this and adjusted it into what it was to what it’s now and I wish to deliver it as much as that subsequent stage.
What suggestions do you’ve got for residence cooks?
Don’t be afraid to fail. I feel the most important drawback folks have is once they learn recipes and so they suppose they need to have the whole lot precisely how the recipe says. You possibly can mess around and mess with substances and it often finally ends up fairly good. If it doesn’t, then you definitely be taught one thing new.
