Chef to Farmer and Private Chef: How Becoming My Own Boss Changed My Life Part 1.
The end of 2019 marks the end of my first year as a private chef in Steamboat Springs.
In the following couple of posts, I’m excited to share how all of this came to be, how much I have learned and grown, and what I see for the future of Wilderbean Provisions!
Almost my entire career thus far had been climbing the ladder of chef-dom in the restaurant world. As a young and eager chef, I happily gave up nights, weekends, and holidays to work 60, 80, even 100 hour weeks to prove that I could “make it”. I was so proud of the food I was making and so excited to share it with the people who came to the restaurant. I hardly saw my friends, husband, or family but this was the price I was going to pay to become a true chef!
Working the longest hours and most days in a row in addition to putting out the most beautiful dishes was a badge of honor that I proudly wore on my sleeve. I was happy…I really was! But the lifestyle slowly started wearing me down. As I rose from line cook to sous chef to head chef, the glass began to shatter around me. I was so passionate and cared so much, but I began to realize that this was not a sustainable life. For a time, the passion and pride made the “chef” life worth while. But as years went by, that pride began to wane. I slowly realized that I valued a lifestyle over a career. I was multi-passionate and wanted to explore other ventures. It also became clear that I was burned out.
I needed to make a change.
After 10 years of working in restaurants, I decided to quit my job, leave the restaurant world behind, and start working at a small local farm.
As a chef, I had always been passionate about local food and farm-to-table cooking and had always wanted to learn more about the farming side of food. It was amazing working outside with my hands in the dirt and learning about how to grow food. I also helped to start a culinary department on the farm. The idea was to start teaching on-farm cooking classes and host farm-to-table lunches where we could share the beautiful facility with the public, and show how amazing eating locally and seasonally was! I’ve always been a strong proponent of “food doesn’t have to be complicated to be delicious”. After spending much of my career fine tuning my fine dining skills, I discovered that my true food passions lay in the rustic, country style dishes that someone’s great- great-grandmother had passed down for centuries. Those were the dishes that sprouted out of necessity. They were inherently local, seasonal, and farm-to-table because that is all that they had. These dishes were simple, but boy did they have a lot of soul!
During my first season out of the restaurant, I got to explore a whole different side of food. It was such a good feeling to make and serve dishes that used ingredients I had helped to grow, nurture, and harvest! Slowly, old regulars from the restaurants I had worked in began to ask how they could have my food again. At one point, one asked if they could hire me to do a private event for them, and
Wilderbean Provisions was born!
To be continued…