Pioneering chef Kevin Taylor weighs in on getting one shot with the media, drunk chefs and what it takes to be a success in the restaurant business

Lori Midson

This is part one of my interview with Kevin Taylor, executive chef of Restaurant Kevin Taylor, Prima Ristorante, Limelight, Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House, Palettes at the Denver Art Museum, and Rouge, in the Teller House in Central City. You can read part two of my chat with Taylor tomorrow.

Ask anyone who's lived through Denver's restaurant revolution to name the city's pioneering chef -- the guy who put the Mile High City on the culinary map -- and they're likely to answer Kevin Taylor. The Colorado native opened Zenith American Grill back in 1987, and his restaurant empire currently stands at a cool half-dozen: Restaurant Kevin Taylor, Prima Ristorante, Limelight, Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House, Palettes at the Denver Art Museum, and Rouge, in the Teller House in Central City.

But Taylor, who prefers to spend time with his family rather than in the spotlight, wasn't remotely interested in food while he was growing up. "I'm from a family of six kids, and we existed on lots of white bread and macaroni and cheese," he remembers. And at fourteen, when he took a dish-monkey gig at Green Gables Country Club, he didn't do it because he was an aspiring chef. "At the time, I didn't care about food," he says. "I just needed a job."

His attitude changed, though, and after a year of doing the dirty work, Taylor found himself working pantry. "I eventually got the bug," he says. "The longer I was there, the more interested I became in cooking, in the excitement of learning something new every day, in the adrenaline and fun of it all." Three years later, when he left, he was the top line cook.

The rest "is history," says Taylor, clasping his hands and casting his gaze to the floor. Thirty-five years of history, which is how long Taylor's been behind the line, watching a slew of Denver chefs come through his kitchens, many of whom went on to open restaurants of their own. When Zenith first opened in the Tivoli, it was the darling of the Denver food scene. Three years later, after it relocated to downtown Denver, Zenith -- and Taylor -- were the talk of the country. "Within nine months of opening at the Tivoli, we were pretty much the top-rated restaurant in the city, and when we moved downtown, then everything just hit," he recalls. "We were in something like forty different magazines and newspapers across the country, we cooked at the James Beard House and at the Taste of the NFL, and we did events all over the place."

Needless to say, it was a good run. "I was cooking Southwestern food, which was already happening in Texas and Santa Fe, but it wasn't happening here, and I believed that it belonged here; it was the kind of food that I wanted to do," says Taylor.