COOKING WITH COLEMAN FAMILY FARM
The secret behind Carpinteria’s most popular restaurant is Brent Monsour. The Cordon Bleu trained chef is responsible for Zookers innovative menu, the rotating nightly specials and the establishment’s commitment to cooking with the freshest local ingredients available.
He describes Zookers’ fare as “Carpinterian Cuisine.” Influences from his mother, Jeanne Sykes, who owns the restaurant, friends, and parents of friends whose ethnicities offer a smorgasbord of tastes: Korean, Mexican, Filipino, to name a few, shape the menu at the always busy bistro.
Monsour traces part of his passion for food and demand for excellent quality to the Coleman family, who were among the first people he met when, as a young boy, he moved to Carpinteria 27 years ago. Older brother Beano was his soccer coach, he went to school with Santiago, Rizal was in his wedding and he considers Romeo an older brother.
“My mom is a good cook, and I had a developed palate for a kid, but I remember going over there to play and loving the food. It was good, fresh and a lot of it,” said the father of three. “It’s cool to eat somewhere where they take so much pride in what they are growing. To this day, if I have the chance to go up there to have dinner, I always do.”
Now their relationship includes the Coleman farm supplying the freshest ingredients possible to create the most delicious entrees that make the line at Zookers the longest one in town.
“The town has shaped this restaurant,” offered the modest restaurateur. “It’s cool to offer stuff that’s been grown in town and have Carpinterians eat it.”
—Amy Orozco 20 CARPINTERIAMAGAZINE Brent Monsour.
Photos by FRAN COLLIN
20 CARPINTERIAMAGAZINE
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