Mission Statement:
Crafted Food Services’ Mission is to make people happy through food. From cooking lessons to private dinners to damn near anything you can think of that is food related, I aim to be the solution!
Background
When I started working as a server in a restaurant in 2007, I made a conscious decision to work hard and do my best to make people happy. If I succeeded in that, everything else would fall into place. Six months later, I started working my first kitchen prep job at Ohana Steakhouse. Thinking that being a versatile employee would make my managers happy, I offered to cover shifts as a table busser and bartender as well as my main position in the kitchen. That desire to be versatile (alongside my goal of working hard and making people happy) now coupled with an insatiable desire to learn and an unconditional love of food has made the person that I am today, and is the root of my vision for Crafted Food Services.
My work ethic and desire to learn has taken me to Denver, where I lived and worked for five years – most notably at Fruition Restaurant and Beast and Bottle. In Chicago I did stages at Sepia, L20 and the Publican; and in New York where I staged at Babbo and held a temporary butcher position at The Writing Room. In 2013, I started a self-guided internship tour to Portugal and Germany, working at two Michelin starred restaurants such as Ocean Restaurant, Villa Joya, Seven Seas at the Sullberg Hotel and finished at the three Michelin starred Aqua.
In 2015 I moved back to Iowa and got a job as a line cook at the Workiva Cafe in Ames where I worked until September of 2021. It wasn’t long after I moved back that I found myself cooking multi-course dinner parties for friends and family. The fulfilment those dinners brought and the outlet to express my creativity and personal philosophies led me realize exactly what it was I wanted to do: To help connect people and provide a top notch experience with delicious food.
Goals:
Crafted Food Services desires to:
- Provide fulfilling food experiences
- Foster lasting connections between people and their communities
- Share the boundless joy of food and cooking with others