FSR October 2022

CHEFS & INGREDI ENT S CHEF PROF I LE

my co-pilot in all of this. I feel like they are my inspiration.” The second Pisa Lisa location fea tures fan favorites like the Justino and Da Dorthy along with several newmenu items. Lisa’s Plate, for exam ple, is an antipasti sampler with fresh bocconcini mozzarella, tomatoes, fen nel slaw, mushrooms, Castelvetrano olives, and fire-roasted artichokes. New desserts include the playfully named Cookie Monster—a giant chocolate chip cookie sundae with strawberry stracciatella plant-based gelato. When Dahl was deciding where to place her second Pisa Lisa, she knew she wanted a bigger space, describing the original as a bit cramped. “It’s almost impossible to imagine what we can accomplish in that first location,” she says. “I liked the idea of having a little more elbow room.” In an unintentional throwback to her fashion days, Dahl found the per fect spot for the second Pisa Lisa in what was once a Tommy Hilfiger store in the Village of Oak Creek. e retail space had to be entirely renovated and retrofitted for commercial kitchen operations, and the chef estimates the entire project cost $1.5–$2million. “We had to install grease traps and everything else a restaurant needs that clothing stores don’t come equipped with,” she says. “ e layout of the store is incredible. It feels more like 4,500 square feet [than 3,500 square feet].” To manage her growing empire, Dahl recently hired a culinary director to help streamline operations and fine tune recipes across the five concepts. “Standardization needs to be done all the way down to the sourcing,” she says. “If you were to list things that drive me crazy, going to a kitchen and seeing people do something slightly different than another kitchen would be right up there.” With a winning business formula and the right team in place, the time may soon come for Dahl to break out of Sedona and into new markets. “I think that’s the natural progres sion,” she says.

LIKE THE ORIGINAL, THE SECOND LOCATION OF PISA LISA SERVES PIZZA, ITALIAN FARE, AND SWEETS, INCLUDING THE PISTACHIO PANNA COTTA (BELOW).

“I approach fashion and cookingwith the same mindset. My style for both has been constant. I believe in the integrity and quality of ingredients in combinationwithmethodology.”

in large part by personal tragedy. Fol lowing the death of her son, Justin, she moved to Sedona, and cooking—a pas time she’d shared with him—became part of the healing process. Indeed, family is very much at the heart of Dahl ’s business. A number of dishes on the Pisa Lisa menu can be linked to family members. e Justino, a pizza named after her son, features ricotta, provolone-moz zarella, imported prosciutto, organic arugula, and white-truffle oil. Another

popular dish, the Da Dorthy, is named after her mother. e pizza even has a “mother sauce” as its base and is topped with provolone-mozzarella, fennel sausage, picante peppers, and parme san-reggiano. Dahl says including the names makes her feel as though they’re a part of the business. “It’s a purely selfish way of keeping them with me,” she says. “I get a lot of joy seeing those names pop up on tick ets over and over again. Justin is the reason I came here, and I believe he’s

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