Chef to Farmer and Private Chef: How Becoming My Own Boss Changed My Life Part 2.

In the Spring of 2018, I left my restaurant job to work on a small local farm. I had no idea that in 2 short years, I would be self employed and have two businesses that I was passionate about!

This is part 2 In this 3 part series of posts.Here, I am sharing my journey from restaurant chef to being a farmer, private chef, and knitwear business owner. If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, click here!

At this point, almost my entire career had been in restaurants. Taking this leap was a huge step and I was as excited as I was terrified! The main focus of my job at the farm was to help start and create a culinary department. The idea was to offer cooking classes, farm to table lunches, and other special events at the farm that would help educate and share our love of local food. I also assisted with making value added products such as pickles, jams, and shrubs among other things and was able to help with the harvesting as well.

My first season in this new life was incredible.

It was a total change of pace and I thoroughly loved being able to view food and cooking in a whole new way. I loved being able to work outside and watch and learn how the difference plants grew. I loved sharing this local fresh food in our cooking classes, and loved showing how amazing the flavors of this local food was. It felt like my culinary mindset was expanding and my burnout from restaurant life was beginning to fade as I began channeling my passion for food in this new way.

Throughout that summer, I fell in love with farming. It was a side of food that I had always been on the periphery of, but had never gotten a chance to pursue. I had always worked with local farms and incorporated local ingredients into my menus, but now I was able to actually work with my hands in the dirt and reap the literal fruits of my labor! Cooking with this food was such a powerful feeling and I deeply wanted to share it.

At this point, I had my first private chef gig in the calendar. It was exciting to look forward to, but I was so nervous about making sure it was perfect! As I continued to hone in on my chef identity and the brand of my new business, I knew that sticking to my guns and being as local and seasonal as possible needed to be at the forefront.

I wanted to show people that farm-to-table didn’t just mean the Napa style California spread that everyone envisions.

It could also mean ethnic cuisine, and could be as simple as it was delicious. I wanted to encourage people to think of local and seasonal alternatives to things like seafood or tropical fruits. Throughout the summer with the help of a friend, I spent hours working on my website and building sample menu ideas that I felt would reflect my repertoire as well as be easily changeable with the seasons. I drew on my travels and favorite dishes to eat and make. I decided that I would only offer rustic style dishes as these were the foods that I loved the most and felt would be the most able to highlight the farm fresh ingredients. I wanted to be able to be as excited to make the food as my clients were to eat it!

…to be continued