About Me

I love food. I grew up with a culinarily adventurous mom who was always cooking foods from other countries and cultures. When I started guiding in 1989, I gravitated toward cheffing trips, satisfying clients with fresh, comforting and filling food, cooked on an open fire. Once I settled in Bend, I began throwing dinner parties, started a super club and cooked for friends and family. I reviewed restaurants for a local newspaper and wrote profiles on the burgeoning Bend restaurant scene. When I became a middle school teacher in 2010, a colleague saw my lunches and asked if I could make them for her. Soon, I was preparing lunches for 8 teachers 5 days a week. That led to folks asking if I could do dinners. I was cooking for 5 families on the weekends, delivering meals for the week on Sunday evenings. I gladly became the de facto chef for our private raft trips, cooking for up to 30 people for multiple day trips. I have created sit down dinners for 50, hosted buffets and coordinated special event dinners for birthdays and weddings. Now that I have retired from teaching, I have decided to take my love of cooking and feeding people to a new level.