Meet Chef Joe

Who is Joe?

Joseph Sutliff: the chef behind Chef Joe at Roadhouse, co-owner of Mimi’s Sweet Treats, and owner of Vivere Colorado. Smash burgers and triple-cook tallow fries, cooked to order Sunday to Wednesday at his food trailer in the Delta Roadhouse courtyard, 215 Ute Street, Delta. Fifteen seconds from the courtyard: tap play for sound.

Who’s Chef Joe? The trailer, the smash and the sauce.

Flat-top to tray.

Joe Sutliff in the window of the Chef Joe food trailer, smiling in a cap and apron and giving a shaka. — Joe, at the window.

Joe’s story

A Delta local, back home

Joe grew up here. He was class president at Delta High School all four years, and played football, basketball and his biggest passion, baseball, on more club teams than he can count. That was never what he cared about most. It was always friends, family and living life. Now he’s back home in Delta.

Cooking, and gathering friends and family to make memories, has always been my passion. Smash burgers and tallow fries are just the beginning. It comes down to serving quality food, made with local ingredients, at a fair price.

Too often people skimp on the seasoning, the ingredients, the effort. When it all comes together, a meal becomes more than food. The smells, the flavors and the people you share it with turn it into a memory.

— Joe Sutliff

Joe has been dreaming up and building this menu for more than 20 years.

Let’s go to Joe’s.

How Joe cooks

People ask me why it matters. Why that technique, that seasoning, that pan, that plate. My answer is simple: I care.

Food is where my family gathered. Most of my best memories happened around a table: the grill going, everyone talking over each other, a plate passed down the line. Somewhere along the way, everyday food went cookie-cutter: fast, the same everywhere, made to be forgotten. I cook the other way.

A real patty, smashed hard so the edges lace and crisp. Real seasoning, on both sides. A bun toasted in butter. Fries cooked three times, because twice isn’t the same. None of it is for show. It’s what turns a burger into something you remember.

Once you’ve had food done right, it’s hard to explain how much was missing from everything before it. That’s the point. A real burger, real fries, and real friends at the table.

Memento vivere. Memento mori.

Remember to live. Remember you will die.

Memento mori, “remember that you will die,” is a Latin reminder that has been passed down for centuries: our time here is short. Memento vivere, “remember to live,” is the other half of it. Because the time is short, spend it well.

My company is Vivere Colorado. Vivere is Latin for “to live.” People read the motto a lot of ways. To me it means this: we must live, and we must die. What we fill that with is up to us. I fill mine with a table full of people I love, and food worth gathering around.

— Joe Sutliff

One bite, and you’re a believer.

The smash

American Wagyu, smashed

3 oz of American Wagyu smashed on the flat-top with Joe’s own rub and sweet onions. The onions go on before the smash, so they cook into the crust.

The sauce

Bang bang sauce

Sriracha, Kewpie mayo and Mae Ploy sweet chili, very mild, standard on every smash burger, on a sourdough potato brioche bun. Lettuce and tomato on request, no charge.

The fries

Three cooks, one chip

Simmered, chilled, fried low, chilled again, then fried hot in tallow the moment you order — the method Heston Blumenthal worked out for The Fat Duck.

The onions go on before the smash, so they cook into the crust rather than sit on top of it.

Read the whole method →

Order Ahead See the menu

Order ahead and pick up at the Chef Joe food trailer, 215 Ute Street. Prefer to pay now? Order & pay online through Delta Roadhouse. Order ahead by phone: (970) 500-1640.