Reza Setayesh doesn’t ride the wave: he stirs up his own trends. Setayesh first settled in Western North Carolina in the 1980s, to attend cooking and hospitality classes at A-B Tech. This was years before the school’s culinary program became nationally known. And decades before anyone called Asheville “Foodtopia.”
After years working as a chef in Washington, DC, he returned to the mountains when the food scene was still “sleepy,” soon deciding thereafter, in 2001, that he wanted a restaurant of his own. He met with other local restaurateurs who were supportive of more dining options, and it seemed the perfect time to make Rezaz a reality.
Fast-forward 14 years, and Setayesh’s Biltmore Village namesake is still going strong, with an upscale but friendly dining area and a newer deli/bakery, both spaces serving up a sophisticated mash-up of Mediterranean Sea cuisines. As is his second restaurant, six-year-old Piazza, a family-friendly pizzeria in East Asheville.
But “it wasn’t always glorious,” he cautions — looking back, he agrees the timing could have been better.
“I tend to open restaurants at the worst possible times,” he jokes. “I opened up Rezaz right after September 11, and I opened up Piazza right after the 2008 crash.”
Setayesh says he feels very lucky they both worked out, and fortunate to have been making a living doing what he loves the past 30 years.
Now 51, after working tirelessly for decades, he’s more concerned with time than timing. Chiefly, how to spend it: he hopes the near future holds more days and nights with his family at home—a dream house he built from the ground up in Fairview in 2007. One with, of course, covetable kitchens (yes, plural).
Carolina Home + Garden: Two kitchens?
Reza Setayesh: I have the killer kitchen in the house. And I’ve created this incredible outdoor kitchen with a grill, two-eye burner, pizza oven, refrigeration, a huge patio, and a sound system.
What’s your favorite element in each?
Outdoors: My wood-burning pizza oven. It’s what started or ignited the passion to open up a home-style Italian restaurant. Inside: My Viking range. It’s just like cooking in front of a professional stove at work. It responds the same: it responds when you want it to just be fiery and fast and hot, or when you want it to be super-slow and simmering so you don’t have to pay much attention. I can have four or five pots going at the same time, whipping up a meal for however many people really rapidly.
Other culinary tools or equipment you can’t live without—that readers should have in their kitchens?
There are no pots and pans other than Le Creuset. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to hand them down to my children, and they’ll be able to hand them down to their children. Once I bought the set and invested, I said to my wife, “We’ll never have to buy another pot; we’re set for the rest of our lives.” And so far it’s been that way.
When you cook at home, do you make dishes similar to those on the menu at Rezaz, or do you mix it up?
All my spices are pretty much the same. In fact, some of them are brought in from work, because I blend all my spices there. So I just put a little bit in a container that I bring with me home. I cook very similar food at home, because it’s what I love to eat and it’s what I love to share: food that has a traditional basis with a twist.
That’s why I think I’ve been a success. I eat everything on my menu. I don’t put something there because it has to be there or it’s something people expect. I put it there because I love to eat it. Tradition never dies; it just keeps evolving. People take a tradition and go places with it. That’s what we do at Rezaz, and even at Piazza— although, less playing at Piazza and a lot more playing at Rezaz.
And you’ve decorated your home and Rezaz similarly…
Yes. The house is very contemporary, very slick. I like uncluttered spaces. The outside may look a tad bit traditional, but when you come in there’s absolutely nothing traditional about it.
If you’re not at home or at either of your restaurants, you’re at …
Probably the beach. There’s nothing more I enjoy than just being by the water. When I get the chance, I’m taking my wife, and we’re gone. We sit on the beach and relax, sunbathe, read a book, drink champagne, and go out at night and eat.
Even though your toes aren’t in the sand now, are you reading anything?
My son just ordered me a book about the original bartender at the Paris Ritz, and I’m really looking forward to reading the story behind the creation of that bar.
Food trends you love? Hate?
The only thing I hate about eating is when there’s nothing to eat. Food trends that I love? Small plates. I’m a big-time grazer. I love going out to restaurants with my family where there’s five of us, because you get to at least have five appetizers, at least have five entrees, and who knows how many desserts—then we get to share off each others’ plates.
What’s your personal mantra?
Work hard, play hard, and love life to the max.
Rezaz Restaurant is at 28 Hendersonville Road in Asheville. Visit rezaz.com or call 828-277-1510.