Chef Tamara Stanger relies on local, foraged and indigenous ingredients to create her menu at Cotton & Copper

You may think nothing really grows in the desert, but you’d be wrong. At Cotton & Copper in Tempe, Arizona, chef Tamara Stanger is well-known for working with local farms as well as ingredients she’s foraged from the urban landscape in and around Tempe.

Ramona Farms was actually the first farm she ever collaborated with and her tepary bean spread topped with desert ingredients like peppers, cholla buds and pepitas is one of the most popular dishes on the menu at this must-stop restaurant and bar. Ramona Farms’ Kalvash, or garbanzo beans, are used as a garnish on a rich bison carpaccio. She also serves bison medallions, seared in an iron skillet, with perfectly crisp-cooked local veg atop white tepary beans with a Cheddar jus. Spectacular.

And Ramona Farms’ dried milk-stage corn is simmered into a luxurious pudding, topped with impossibly thick whipped cream. Chef Stanger is known for her desserts, and anything on her always-changing sweets menu is recommended, but if you see this corn pudding available when you visit, do not miss the opportunity to taste this unusual preparation that will heighten your perception of what “corn” tastes like.

Cotton & Copper
1006 E Warner Rd #113, Tempe, AZ 85284
480.629.4270