Kim Moyle
Executive Chef
The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa

Kitchen Collaborative is a recipe-development initiative formed by Summit F&B and Flavor & The Menu. To fuel flavor innovation, a group of talented chefs partnered with sponsor brands and commodity boards to create recipes that showcase the passion and potential of our industry.

Kitchen Collaborative is a fitting project for Executive Chef Kim Moyle, who prizes collaboration and learning with her culinary team at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel and Spa. “I love to learn and research foods—and I also love to engage my staff in their own education and growth,” says Moyle. “This has always been important to me, because the more they grow, the better our overall team.”

Moyle lives and breathes menu mastery. “In my job, we have to write so many menus. They are all different—but all fun to do,” she notes, explaining that she makes a point to incorporate her team members in both the recipe development and the menu writing processes. This helps promote individual buy-in, as well as develop their skills. Moyle seeks to extend those learning opportunities beyond the Brown Palace through her three recipes for Kitchen Collaborative: Mango Chutney with Peppercorn-Crusted Wagyu Steak, Watermelon Soup with Crab and Ghirardelli^® Triple Chocolate Scone.

Mango Chutney with Peppercorn-Crusted Wagyu Steak

Photo: Carlos Garcia // Food Styling: Peg Blackley

When asked if her Mango Chutney with Peppercorn-Crusted Wagyu Steak is evidence that mango is having a moment, Moyle confesses that she first served this dish back in the mid-’90s. “It’s been a favorite for me for a long time,” she notes. “I think mango is an ingredient that people forget about. Sometimes, they just need a gentle reminder of what an amazing flavor it brings to so many dishes.”

To prepare the chutney, Moyle starts by sautéing minced garlic, diced onion and grated ginger in oil, introducing sugar and white wine vinegar, and then adding diced mango, golden raisins, mustard seeds, cumin and pepper flakes. She purées half of this mixture, then adds the resulting smooth blend back to the textured mix, a technique that improves the overall consistency of the saucy condiment, she says.

Moyle finds that mango makes for a particularly good complement to a premium beef cut like the Wagyu filets that she showcases in this recipe. “Mango’s sweet and tropical flavor gives steaks that surprising pop,” she explains. Indeed, the flavorful condiment can be a hero ingredient for multiple preparations. Moyle encourages chefs to make the chutney and keep it on hand to dress other proteins. “It’s so versatile. It would work with an entrée like duck or chicken,” she says, adding, “But it could also be delicious as a spread on a turkey sandwich.”

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Watermelon Soup with Crab

Photo: Carlos Garcia // Food Styling: Peg Blackley

Moyle’s Watermelon Soup with Crab flexes this fruit’s versatility in this cool, colorful build. The year-round availability of watermelon allows for innovation in any season, though Moyle sees her dish earning special attention when the crave factor is inherently high among diners.

The dish features a cold, thick soup of puréed watermelon and champagne vinegar that is topped with a crab salad (simple lump crab and a garlic herb mayonnaise) and a “garnish” of summer produce: diced yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes and watermelon. It’s a beautiful presentation imbued with seasonal spirit.

Moyle makes each of the elements separately, holding them in the refrigerator until service and then assembling the dish quickly upon order so ingredients don’t sink into the soup. Moyle credits the champagne vinegar with adding a smoothness and brightness to the flavor of the soup. As for the overall flavor build? “It’s a fresh taste, with a creamy finish from the crab salad,” she says.

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Ghirardelli^® Triple Chocolate Scone

Photo: Carlos Garcia // Food Styling: Peg Blackley

Moyle is an unabashed and unrepentant fan of chocolate. “I love chocolate the most of all flavors!” she says. “I think you have to have a delicious chocolate dish in some form on every menu.” Her Kitchen Collaborative contribution to this goal is the Ghirardelli^® Triple Chocolate Scone.

“We serve high tea at the Brown Palace,” says Moyle, explaining that the service includes two types of buttermilk scones, with one variety that changes monthly. “The chocolate scone is one that our guests just love.” And it’s no wonder, as each decadent chocolate scone is also given a generous drizzle of a glaze made with two types of chocolate chips, along with heavy cream.

Moyle goes all-in on Ghirardelli^® products for this indulgent dessert, including Cocoa Powder, 52% Chocolate Chips and 72% Chocolate Chips. The rich flavor of the scone is born of a combination of the cocoa powder and the 52% chips, along with sugar, butter and buttermilk. Finding the right flavor balance between the two varieties of chocolate chips for the creamy glaze did require a bit of experimentation, she notes. “But that was the fun part.”

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Project Management: Summit F&B
Photography: Carlos Garcia // Food Styling: Peg Blackley