Breakfast chef turns to Lebanese food for comfort
Chefs can be both informative and entertaining.
Chef Q&A offers a peek into the kitchens and minds of top Valley chefs.
Chef: Rick Moses of Scramble — A Breakfast Joint.
Who are your influences? My main influence would have to be my mother, who is a wonderful cook. She never cooked professionally, but that didn’t matter. She never did anything too complex, just simple and delicious, which can be hard for many cooks to pull off. My other is my uncle Chuck Labash, who owns a restaurant in metro Detroit. His same focus on simple, fresh ingredients has done wonders for my methods.
What’s your new favorite ingredient? It’s nothing new, but garlic.
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Best tip for the home cook? Keep it simple. Don’t do anything overly complex. Just stick to flavors and combinations you know taste good and will complement each other.
Why did you become a chef? Honestly, it began with me not really knowing what I was going to do with my life. Having cooked since I was 14 at my uncle’s restaurant, it just seemed the natural choice.
What’s your favorite cooking tool and why? A chef’s knife, of course. The most useful tool in the kitchen.
What’s your favorite childhood meal? My mom’s pot roast and garlic mashed potatoes.
What are a few of your favorite local eateries? Dick’s Hideaway, Scott’s Generations Restaurant and Delicatessen, the Parlor, Otro Cafe.
What’s your guilty pleasure? I’m not ashamed to say I don’t feel guilty about a single thing I eat. There’s no guilt for me in a pleasurable meal.
What’s your favorite comfort food? Anything Lebanese. Preferably kibbe nayeh, which is ground raw lamb meat, mixed with cracked wheat, ground onion and allspice. You drizzle olive oil on it and scoop it up with pita bread like you would hummus.
Is there anything you would never eat? I like to think I would try anything at least once, but there are some wicked things out there that people eat. It would have to be pretty offensive for me to turn it down.
What is your favorite quote or saying about food? K.I.S.S. — Keep it simple, stupid.
What is your favorite food personality? Anthony Bourdain. Reading his book, “Kitchen Confidential,” was the final push I needed on the road toward making a career in food.
What’s the meal you dream about? Kibbe nayeh, with stuffed grape leaves and homemade hummus.
What’s your least favorite food? Canned tuna.
What’s the most overused food ingredient or food term? I hate to say this, as a chef in a breakfast joint and an avid fan myself, but it’s got to be bacon. The trend recently has been to inject bacon into every aspect of food and drink possible. Not knocking it, but it seems everybody is on this bacon bandwagon lately.
Which flavor profile do you prefer? Salty, spicy or sweet? I can’t truly say that I can narrow it down to just one, but my own personal taste tends to trend to a combination of salty and spice, and less on the sweet.
Which Valley chef do you most admire in metro Phoenix? I admire anyone who can run their own place and put themselves on the line for what they believe is a good product. This is not an easy business to survive in, and the survival itself is quite admirable.
What’s the oddest thing you’ve ever eaten? Once again, I don’t think it’s odd, but most would probably think it’s strange that I enjoy eating raw lamb meat.
What’s the best city in the world for food? I’m not sure, having a somewhat limited scope, but classically, I would have to go with Paris. It has influenced nearly every aspect of modern cooking, even if only slightly.
What’s your favorite cookbook? “The Joy of Cooking.” It is a food bible, and I have a very messy copy.
Details: Scramble — A Breakfast Joint, 6590 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. 480-404-7264. Also, 9832 N. Seventh St., Phoenix. 602-374-2294, azscramble.com.