28 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | MAY 2018 MEET THE MAN BEHIND THE MENU CHEF STEPHEN TILDER KITCHEN DOORS CONTINUED A LOT OF YOUR MENU IS LOCALLY SOURCED. CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT? I try to use as many local vendors as possible, especially for produce, because if you’re buying produce from out of the country or out of the state, they want to sell it. So it sits in the warehouse for a really long time and is picked underripe. With local products, you can get fresh- picked stuff that’s pretty much right from the farm. It’s the responsible thing to do to support the local economy. Plus, there are a lot of local craftsmen that make great products. I’ve used Schreiner’s for 22 years. They’re fantastic. We sell their sausage every year at the ballpark and they do our exclusive items. You can’t find anything that’s as good as that. I use MJ Coe for most of the bread that’s not in concessions, and some of the stuff that’s in concessions. We use Mrs. Klein’s Pickles wherever we use pickles and it’s just a great-quality product. I use Arizona Cheese Co. for most of the cheese. We use so many local products! WHERE DO YOU GET INSPIRATION? It’s hard. I’ve been doing this for 33 years and I don’t like to do the same thing over again so it gets harder and harder. I keep pen and paper around. After we open the season, we’re already thinking for next season and then during the off season we go really heavy in development. When I come up with something I always do a Google search because I might think it’s my idea but somebody may have done it before. If it’s something that’s out there, then I won’t do it. DO YOU EVER TAKE FEEDBACK FROM THE FANS? I don’t really get a lot of feedback. Realistically, at the end of the year we run numbers on everything and we see the trends and we know. I might think it’s the greatest idea ever but if people don’t get the creation or understand where we’re coming from, then it might not be a big seller. Those are the ones that come off the menu and we come up with something new. WHAT’S YOUR TOP SELLER? The hot dog. We’ll sell 500,000 hot dogs — regular D-backs hot dogs. Chicken tenders come second. Nachos come third. Beer’s pretty high up there, too. DO THE DIAMONDBACKS EVER GIVE YOU CONSTRAINTS? The Diamondbacks are probably the greatest organization I’ve ever worked with because they totally trust me and they pretty much let me do whatever I want to do. I know their vision so I kind of create around that, but pretty much everything I’ve created we’ve rolled out. IF YOU WERE GOING TO ORDER ONE THING, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Depends on what day it is, because we have a concept upstairs called SOL La Terraza that’s only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’re doing a traditional Sonoran dog there with carne asada, al pastor and tortas. It’s great. It’s all locally sourced and fresh. I’d probably go there first on a weekend. Also, anything from Big Dawgs, because that’s where we have our hot dog, which is super popular. It’s kind of hard to pick one place! As executive chef, Stephen Tilder oversees food at Chase Field. Here, he talks about the food he’s presenting for the Diamondbacks’ 20 th season.

MAY 2018 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 29