Shimano’s latest film project, Food I Think About When I Think About Cycling, features celebrity chef Chris Cosentino. In the film, Chris talks of the Bay Area’s melding of food and bicycles. The Bay Area provides the perfect climate and a long growing season, which provide the chef with limitless possibilities.
Using inspiration that comes to him while riding the hundreds of miles of roads and trails north of San Francisco in the Marin headlands, chef Chris finds himself experimenting with new, exciting, and sometimes strange ingredients daily.
Cycling is fundamental to Chris’ creative process. And it’s intertwined with his approach to cooking. “Whether he’s looping through Chinatown, brushing past wild fennel on Mount Tamalpais singletrack, or getting lost in the grassy hills above Point Reyes, Chris soaks it all in, registers what’s in season, and plugs this knowledge in back in the kitchen, creating mouth-watering dishes that reflect the season and Chris’ vibrant sense of living“.
More on Chris Cosentino
A passionate chef, author, cyclist, and philanthropist, Chris is also a graduate of the culinary program at Rhode Island’s Johnson & Wales University. Getting his professional start in some of the country’s favorite restaurants, first in Washington, D.C., and then in the Bay Area. He has earned critical acclaim for his innovative Italian and whole-animal cooking. He’s also mastered the art of hand-crafted cured meats and helps raise awareness about sustainability and utilizing the entire animal.
He penned a James Beard Award-nominated cookbook, Offal Good: Cooking from the Heart with Guts. This book became the seminal cookbook on offal. For those that don’t know (I surely didn’t), offal is defined as “entrails and internal organs of an animal used as food.”
Consentino also gives back. He won BRAVO’s “Top Chef Masters” which earned $140,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. He’s a member of Chefs Cycle, an annual bicycle event that raises funds and awareness for No Kid Hungry. He also founded CampoVelo, an annual weekend-long cycling event that raises funds for Chefs Cycle and World Bicycle Relief.
