Recipes and Rambles That Made Adele's a Nevada Hot Spot

Award-winning chef Charlie Abowd shares a flavorful memoir blending Nevada politics, history, music, and beloved recipes.

Nevada politics, history, and fabulous recipes combine for an entertaining, informative memoir by renowned Chef Charlie Abowd. This “James Beard Award” winning chef has spent his life immersed in his three passions— cuisine, music, and politics. Growing up in the tumult of the 1960s San Francisco music scene mixed with Vietnam War protests and activism, while learning the art of cooking at his parents’ Bay Area restaurants, informed Charlie’s future. He promoted concerts and provided stage lighting for the biggest bands of the time, while living in the Santa Cruz mountains. This passion continued throughout his life. During its iconic forty-year run, Adele’s Restaurant, and later, Café at Adele’s in Carson City, became legendary for fine dining, musicians, and celebrities that visited, and where Nevada’s movers and shakers gathered. Around its tables and over delicious cuisine, business people and elected representatives made deals and negotiated legislation. Adele’s played a pivotal role in bringing people together to benefit the greater Nevada good. Charlie has seen it all and now shares his stories interspersed with his patrons’ favorite recipes.

Chef Charlie Abowd began cooking at thirteen, wearing his mother's apron. Early on, he worked construction, and under the banner "Captain Little Trip Productions," produced staging light shows for legends of the San Francisco, Bay Area, and Santa Cruz music scenes. Charlie and his wife, Karen, moved to Carson City, Nevada, in 1980 to help operate the family restaurant "Adele's," the state legislators' home away from home. They assumed ownership in 1998. Charlie is one of the America's top chefs and was honored to cook at The James Beard House, New York City, in 2005 where his inspiration, Julia Childs, had cooked.
Karel C. Ancona began writing at an early age and went on to a more than thirty-year, award-winning career in news as both an editor and journalist. She has been honored to tell many stories throughout her life and began collaborating with Charlie on his food column that he wrote and published in the Nevada Appeal , the Silver State's longest continually operating business, somewhere in the mid-2000s. She has written and published other titles and currently serves as public relations coordinator for Reliable Blends, a CBD wellness product company in which she is a partner.