Finding a Passion Romance and Purposein Glorious Food and Sedona

By: Lisa Dahl | Apr 26 2012 | 606 words | 978 hits

If you were to travel northwest from Phoenix, Arizona metro area about 75-90 minutes or so, you will find yourself winding into one of the U.S.'s most landscape-gorgeous areas - Sedona, Arizona.

Sedona is one of those magical places that draws into its midst creative dreamers, rich cowboys and social energizers. Mix them all together and you start to understand why this small city has a certain sort of emotional richness and social glue to convert outsiders into insiders. Consider the story of restaurateur Lisa Dahl, who moved to Sedona after twenty years of living in Marin County, CA.

In 1995, Lisa Dahl, with a partner, set up her namesake Italian restaurant in Sedona, Dahl & Di Luca RistoranteItaliano to bring together magical Tuscany-inspired flavors and the passion of food she always enjoyed creating for friends.

Sedona's beautiful scenery helped bring about a nurturing base of customers for the restaurant during those early days, and Lisa's joyful and passionate approach to cooking helped bring tremendous word of mouth and a steady flow of customers over the years.

Ââ€ÅFor me, cooking is a sense of accomplishment, it's so rewarding and is the best feeling there is,” says Lisa Dahl recently as she's preparing menu items and appetizers in the kitchen of Dahl & Di Luca. Ââ€ÅI like to say ‘When you cook with love, you feed the soul'. I hope that same sense of love and accomplishment we gain in the kitchen translates into wonderful sensations and unforgettable flavors for our customers.”

Lisa Dahl shares her passion for delicious Italian food with startling fresh flavors at Dahl & Di Luca RistoranteItaliano and her sister restaurant CucinaRustica, which opened in 2003. Lisa has a knack for taking traditional Italian cuisine like Calamari and creating her own flavor sensations with inspired combinations. For instance, in all of the seafood dishes, she uses Tuscan Extra Version organic olive oil in their preparation to help create wonderful, unforgettable flavors.

Lisa uses only the finest ingredients with some imports from Italy. One of the restaurant's signature dishes is Pollo al Rosmarino (Rosemary Chicken), which is prepared with fresh boneless chicken breasts sautéed with pancetta, mushrooms and onions and simmered in a fragrant and heavenly light rosemary marsala wine sauce.

As Executive chef for the restaurants, Lisa makes sure that there is one key ingredient in every dish – love. The food speaks of fresh ingredients, simplicity and care in preparation. This extra special attention has raised Dahl & Di Luca's profile as the best Italian restaurant in Sedona.

Lisa Dahl cheerfully admits to a romance with food! In the past few years, Lisa has taken to broadening her own personal brand by launching a variety of products that overlap and enhance her passion for food. Her award-winning cookbook Ââ€ÅThe Elixir of Life” is a glossy, gorgeous collection of stories and recipes about the wonderful foods she creates. Ââ€ÅKnowing that my customers love the cookbook,” Lisa says, Ââ€Åhas given me the drive to create more passionista items for them.”

Ââ€ÅIt's part of my essence, to provide friends, family and Sedona visitors with an unforgettable dining experience,” she says, and adds that these experiences have helped nurture her own growth forward with her Living Dahl online store. Here, Lisa offers to friends and fans her take on a romance with food with special oils, music and more to help inspire others to nourish themselves with life's magical elixirs.

It's a trip well taking through the winding Arizona hills to seek out her amazing Italian restaurants in Sedona, Arizona. Both restaurants receive top awards every year, including Wine Spectator awards and are a testament to Lisa's dedication to signature culinary creations and the dining experience.