Best Chef
Jasper Mirabile Jr.
Even as he prepares for the launch of his first cookbook (The Jasper's Cookbook: Recipes From Kansas City's Legendary Italian Restaurant), 33-year-old J.J. Mirabile rarely gets a moment away from the kitchen of the restaurant named for his late father, the original Jasper. The elder Mirabile was a tough, no-nonsense restaurateur who turned a neighborhood spaghetti joint into Kansas City's first four-star Italian dining room. At age eight, the younger Mirabile was cutting bread in the kitchen of the old place at 75th Street and Wornall Road. A few years later, he was making salads and learning how to sauté. After college, J.J. returned home to take over the kitchen as head chef. He shares his father's passion for sophisticated food while adding his own vision. "I honor his legacy by doing the old and the new -- the traditional dishes, like spaghetti and lasagna, and more elegant recipes, too," he says. Mirabile is one of just a few Kansas City chefs to have shown his stuff at the James Beard House in New York, and he's no less obsessive about the quality of the fare from his own restaurant's kitchen.
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