Brad Toles is a perfectionist. Whether it is preparing the ultimate dinning experience for high end clientele or building a show winning classic muscle car for a discerning owner, Toles and his select team achieve stellar results through organization and experimentation. While the crossover between the two endeavors, cooking and car building, may seem to have little in common, there are key elements that each effort share very closely.
With any cooking execution, having all of your ingredients prepared and organized before beginning a dish is defined by the French terminology, mise en place. With car building, this level of care is rarely achieved, many shops appearing to be more like junkyards than precision car assembly facilities. In contrast, a chef who starts a meal without all of the ingredients ready to go to complete the dish is doomed to fail. Chasing for missing ingredients while others potions are simmering will always spell disaster. Toles believes that the same holds true with automotive executions as interruptions in assembly flow can cause things to be overlooked leading to less than perfect final results.
Mopar Mise en Place illustrates Chef Brad Toles’ passion as an award-winning Chef and classic muscle car restoration expert. Toles is a celebrated chef and Culinary Olympic champion. His custom food creations have been enjoyed by literally 10’s of thousands of patrons through his company, Savoury’s Fine Earth Cuisine.
Savoury’s has handled all of the food and beverage operations for the prestigious Palm Springs Convention Center for the past 23 years - a record run for this world renown location. But for all the fanfare surrounding Toles' food-related efforts, he also has a taste for a very different passion - classic 1960-70's Chrysler muscle cars. Increasing the degree of difficulty, replacement parts for these 50+ year old cars can be hard to come by. Toles is more than organized, his collection of original Mopar parts and classic cars is believed to be one of the largest in the country.
Mopar Mise en Place outlines the challenges and accomplishments of Toles and his hand picked team. Of particular note is that due to Palm Springs hot summer weather, the Convention Center goes dark as few events welcome these hot 110-degree climates. To keep his team employed year 'round, Toles has trained the top-level managers of his culinary team in the techniques of muscle car restoration. As illustrated in the video, these chefs welcome not only gainful full-year employment but also a change of work duties. While these same artisans may handle exotic foodstuffs during the Convention event season, they find similar satisfaction in assembling a classic Chrysler automobile from the 1970's. It is a strange change of vocation to be sure, but one that makes for a strong team and impressive final results - results that can either be consumed with gusto or driven with similar élan'.
You pick!
