Tucson chef to bring local flavors to prestigious culinary stage in Manhattan

Being mentioned in the New York Times in 2024 and getting a James Beard Award nomination in 2025 were the biggest, but nearly nightly when he sees the dining rooms full at both Amelia’s locations — the flagship at 5553 E. Grant Road and at 5851 N. Oracle Road, which opened in 2024 — Contreras can hardly believe his good fortune.

On Aug. 11, he’ll probably be pinching himself black and blue when he takes the kitchen stage at the James Beard Foundation’s Platform in New York City.

“I was so happy, almost crying because I cannot believe it,” Contreras said of getting the call to collaborate with Washington, D.C.-area chef Alam Méndez in the “Masa and Mar: Foods from the Mexican Pacific” dinner. “I’m surprised because it’s hard to be there on Platform.”

Contreras is the first Tucson chef invited to cook at the prestigious state-of-the-art show kitchen inside Manhattan’s Market 57 food hall at Pier 57. The Platform brings in notable chefs from around the country for a one-night-only, intimate culinary event.

Contreras is bringing quintessential borderlands ingredients with him, including chiltepín chiles, the definitive hot pepper that grows wild in Southern Arizona, nopales and White Sonoran Wheat that traces its origin to the 17th century.

"I’m trying to show some Sonoran desert ingredients,” he said, adding that the foundation is giving him “the opportunity to share about Tucson, about Sonora, about Mexico, about what we do here and what ingredients we have here in Tucson.”

His recipes will lean into those he watched his grandmother make when he was a kid, like flour tortillas; for the dinner, he’s featuring the tortillas with scallop seared in brown butter infused with squid ink, a limón real emulsion and chiltepín oil.

He’s also preparing a bluefin tostada that will set the stage for Méndez’s blue crab tamal. While Contreras focuses on his native Hermosillo, Méndez, chef-owner of Washington, D.C.’s acclaimed Apapacho Taqueria, will be exploring his native Oaxacan fare.

Contreras said the evening will play out like two friends sharing memories and cultures from back home.

“This is a collab . . . more like sharing from Sonora and Tucson and he's sharing from Washington and Oaxaca,” he said. “We’re sharing memories and culture from him, from me, from where I come from, from where he comes from.”

“You know he built Amelia's Mexican Kitchen on his grandmother's recipes that she taught him before he ever cooked professionally, and he's taking that traditional family knowledge to the James Beard Foundation in Manhattan,” said Jonathan Mabry, executive director of the Tucson City of Gastronomy. “That's a home kitchen in Hermosillo reaching a national stage, and that happened because he recognized that his grandmother's recipes were worth preserving, and adding his creative touch to them.”

Mabry and Contreras said his appearance on the prestigious James Beard Foundation stage will shine another spotlight on Tucson’s food culture.

“I’m very proud of Tucson,” said the chef, who plans to open a fine dining restaurant called Carrizal Molino + Cocina at 119 E. Speedway in late August. “They’re gonna hear something about Tucson in New York.”