BAR: PARALLEL SEVENTEEN
Parallel Seventeen celebrates its sixth year in business this month at 1600 E. 17th Ave. — an accomplishment of some note for owner/ chef Mary Nguyen. It’s French/Vietnamese, with a bar that seats 12, a patio for 65 and a dining room for another 65. Nguyen does a big neighborhood business here, and people come from around town for the unique and tasty cuisine. Parallel Seventeen’s motto is from the Buddha, “Drink Deeply — Live in Serenity and Joy,” and this is the perfect place to do it. Open for lunch and dinner daily, they close up “when people go home,” says Nguyen. In January she opened a second restaurant at the Denver Tech Center, Street Kitchen Asian Bistro. A busy woman.
GRILLED: JON EMANUEL
Jon Emanuel, 43, is the amiable executive chef for Project Angel Heart, a Denver nonprofit that delivers meals to 800 of the city’s residents coping with life-threatening illnesses. He teaches cooking at Metropolitan State College. And he’s the founder of Denver’s Adventurous Eaters Club — and adventurous is putting it mildly. Emanuel was born in New Jersey — but his dad was an early adopter of computers before there was such a phrase. The family moved to Silicon Valley when Emanuel was 10. At San Francisco State, he went for a communications degree, ended up as an unhappy sound guy for bands, then went to the California Culinary Academy, and he’s been cooking ever since. He shuffled around the Bay Area for a while, got married and divorced, and then headed north to Alaska to cook at a remote fishing resort. He orders Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, rocks.
BH: Was Alaska lonely?
Emanuel: It was fantastic, a life-changing experience for me. There were only 200 in the town when I moved there. I was just divorced, I wanted to get away from California, I was afraid to be the new guy in town. But it ended up everyone in town had a similar story, so I was among friends right away. I really took to small- town living. I like that and I like urban living — and I am not really a fan of the in-between. It was seasonal work. I’d be there for six months and then go somewhere else. First I went to Palm Springs, California, which is the weirdest job I’ve ever had. I was in Sedona for six months. Then I get a call hiring me as the sous chef on the South Pole, and I did that for three years. Alaska, Antarctica, Alaska, Antarctica, Alaska, Antarctica.
BH: When does Colorado figure into this?
Emanuel: I got the job as executive chef in Antarctica and the headquarters are in Centennial, so I quit the Alaska job and moved to Colorado. And I also volunteered for Cooking Matters here, a nonprofit that teaches low-income people how to cook. I did it kind of selfishly. I wanted to get some teaching experience and I wanted to have something nice to put on my resume. And then I kinda got hooked on it and I ended up at Project Angel Heart.
BH: What was your job in Denver?
Emanuel: I had to put together one food order for the year, which took months. They would send it down in eight Hercules aircraft to the site. And I had to do all the hiring and training.
BH: When did you go to Project Angel Heart full time?
Emanuel: In November 2005. Almost six years.
BH: You told me this was one of the great chef jobs.
Emanuel: Well, I am doing what I love to do, working with food, I am hopefully making a difference in my community, which is an important thing for me to do, and I have fairly regular hours and I get most of my weekends off.
BH: Is it tough to work with volunteers?
Emanuel: Oh, no. We have about 3,000 volunteers and it’s one of the best parts of the whole thing. We couldn’t do what we do without volunteers. And being able to work alongside people in a kitchen who are there for no other reason than it’s the right thing to do, I mean, that brings a whole other attitude to the kitchen.
BH: Some people think volunteers don’t work hard because they are not paid.
Emanuel: That is completely, completely false.
BH: Tell me about the Denver Adventurous Eaters Club.
Emanuel: I thought that maybe I could get a group together that was interested in and dedicated to eating stuff and cooking stuff that’s not normally on the menu.
BH: Where do you go to eat this food?
Emanuel: Restaurants, potluck dinners. We had a goat roast in the park one time.
BH: And you had one here at Parallel Seventeen.
Emanuel: We had ant larva salad and silkworm stir fry. We had a pork-brain lettuce wrap and Mary did a balut egg. It’s popular in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. It’s a duck egg that’s half developed and parboiled.
BH: What’s the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?
Emanuel: I would have to say it’s the balud egg. That’s the Mount Everest of adventurous eating.
BH: What about live monkey brains?
Emanuel: Oh, yeah. I can’t say I have ever eaten that.
BH: What wouldn’t you eat, even to be polite?
Emanuel: I would have a hard time with dog. I love my dogs so much.
BH: What would you have for your last meal?
Emanuel: Handfuls and handfuls of duck confit.
BH: What’s your greatest fear?
Emanuel: Dying hungry.
BH: What trait don’t you like in yourself?
Emanuel: I am bad with names.
BH: What’s your greatest extravagance?
Emanuel: Fine cigars and good whiskey.
BH: Favorite movies?
Emanuel: “Big Night” and “Tampopo.”
BH: Would you eat the last surviving member of a species? Like the last cow?
Emanuel: No. But I would probably eat the last pig.
BH: What’s your current state of mind?
Emanuel: Cruisin’.
BH: What do you consider an overrated virtue?
Emanuel: Reverence.
BH: On what occasion do you lie?
Emanuel: When I pretend to know peoples’ names.
BH: What don’t you like about your appearance?
Emanuel: I don’t have nearly enough tattoos. I have five, but that’s not enough.
BH: Where would you most like to live?
Emanuel: If I won the lottery today I would be in Alaska tomorrow.
BH: Why do people work in kitchens?
Emanuel: Kitchens are places for people to go because they are fanatic about food. Or they need a fresh start. Kitchens are welcoming places for people who are a little rough-and-tumble, people who need a little bit of a hand up. Life is rough. It’s rough for all of us sometimes. We say, “Come in. We’ll take you.” Cooks are fantastic people.
BH: Are you well paid?
Emanuel: They call it a nonprofit for a reason. You work here, it’s more than just about the money. But don’t get me wrong. I do fine. I can afford my cigars and my whiskey. And I’m not an extravagant guy.
BH: What talent would you like to have?
Emanuel: I’d like to play the guitar like Brian May.
BH: Who are your favorite writers?
Emanuel: Hunter S. Thompson, Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Moore, Mark Kurlansky.
BH: How would you like to die?
Emanuel: Face-down in a plate of food.
Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Bill Husted: 303-954-1486 or bhusted@denverpost.com.
