If you've ever attended a Devour Phoenix culinary event, you have experienced Kimber Lanning's work firsthand. Devour Culinary Classic is the largest culinary festival in the state, celebrating Arizona restaurants that deserve national attention. "It's always sold out," she said. What makes the festival different from other food festivals in metro Phoenix is its exclusive focus on local talent rather than on inviting nationally known chefs.
Celebrating local is what started it all for Lanning, the CEO of Local First Arizona, who built her career promoting the Arizona restaurant scene. Her interest in restaurants came from a belief that restaurants are a litmus test of "is your city cool or not," she said.
"When in the 1990s, Eater published a list
of states based on restaurants, and we ranked 49, I was like, 'I'm not having it,'" Lanning said. She rallied some of the Valley's top chefs, like Mark Tarbell, to make a change.
From record store art events to the largest culinary festival in the state
She said it all began with her record store, Stinkweeds Records, where she featured local art exhibitions. When the current location of Local First became available, she opened a live music and gallery space.
"That opened the door for me to understand the city and made me launch Local First in 2003," Lanning said.
In 2009, she pitched Devour Culinary Festival to the Phoenix Art Museum, asking to host the event in the courtyard. They said yes and it sold out.
Lanning flew in journalists from major papers in Washington, Seattle and Chicago for the event, even bringing writers from Condé Nast one year.
"They were shocked," she said. "They said, 'It's not like you have one or two good restaurants and the rest is mid. You have great restaurants.' So we kept getting these crazy reviews and changing people's perceptions."
In 2018, Devour Phoenix was moved to the Desert Botanical Gardens to allow more room for more attendees.
It continues to be one the biggest and most prestigious food festivals of the year, drawing 3,600 attendees over two days, 38 restaurants and 100 vendors, including beverage and chocolate vendors.
But Local First does a lot more.
Celebrating local from chefs to farmers
"Supporting locally owned businesses gives small businesses a seat at the table — and those businesses are what give Arizona its unique culture and character," she said.
In 2016, Lanning launched Good Food Finder, which connects consumers with local producers like farmers, ranchers, dairy farmers and food artisans across Arizona. Through Good Food Forum, an annual networking event, Local First connects food industry members, such as ranchers, farmers, educators and chefs.
Local First also offers 50 community gardens to adults and children for personal development, hands-on gardening, and nutrition education. Through the Tribal Community Connection, Local First supports entrepreneurship, workforce development and food systems in Indigenous communities.
Today, Local First has five incubator kitchens. "Currently, we are trying to develop a pipeline for them to source locally," she said, adding that she's secured a grant to subsidize the new businesses' purchases.
Local First offers a Good Food Bootcamp, a six-week course that, according to the website, is "designed to help scale a local food business from ideation to marketplace." Graduates can stay on for up to two extra years to use their community kitchen.
"Incubator kitchens are $25-$35 an hour and ours is only $8 per hour," Lanning said. "We help them if they want to start a food truck or restaurant or with packaging." Some of the graduates include the owners of Latha (which is now listed in the Michelin Guide), Nella's Custom Creations, Fun on a Bun (formerly Chicago Hot Dogs) and Bagel Daddies.
Local First's Dining for Dreams is a biannual event that features a three-course prix fixe menu from Bootcamp graduates, with one young chef preparing each course. The goal is to show people what Local First is about.
All the programs come back to celebrating local food culture from every angle.
Supporting the businesses that give Phoenix its cool factor
Another part of Lanning's work involves trying to better the city by changing policies. She's working on policies to support small businesses, revoke monopolies and prevent discrimination.
"It's taken too long for the economic developers to recognize the important role that connection to place plays in economic development," Lanning said. "I think that how people feel about their restaurants and coffee shops plays a role in how they feel about their place."
Local First also focuses on the spaces that house restaurants and cafes. "Our work in adaptive reuse has also helped shape the physical landscape of our communities by preserving older buildings and giving them new life."
So far, Local First has played a key role in "stopping municipalities from paying corporate subsidies for chain restaurants and retailers," she said. "We also played a key role in requiring Amazon to collect sales taxes for Arizona. We just recently coordinated a campaign against the Restaurant Depot-Sysco merger, which will limit purchasing choices for our restaurateurs and drive up costs."
Local restaurants offer 'a sense of belonging'
Since Lanning began her work, Phoenix has come a long way. Nineteen Arizona restaurants were included in the inaugural Michelin Guide Southwest. Phoenix restaurants have received more national attention from The New York Times, Bon Appetit and Food and Wine and, yes, Eater.
"I’m proud that so much of this work has been about creating places and opportunities where people can build a life, a business and a sense of belonging," Lanning told The Republic.
"When I look back, I think my proudest accomplishment is that the work has been sustained for nearly 40 years. It has evolved from music and the arts, to entrepreneurship and local economies, to statewide economic development — and I believe its impact will continue long after I’m done."
Reach the restaurant critic at BAnooshahr@azcentral.com. Follow @baharcreative on Instagram.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona was ranked among worst food cities. She was 'not having it'
