Host Stand

I have always enjoyed being creative in the kitchen, I don’t remember a time where I wasn’t cooking and before I could remember I was right there on a step stool helping my parents in the kitchen with a little ponytail bobbling on top of my head as a toddler. Right before I was sixteen I took a job at a local coffee shop in my small town as a Barista. Stepping into the coffee world, is much like stepping into the world of wine … It can be nerdy, it trains your palette, you can pair it with cheese or chocolate, and there is a never ending wealth of knowledge in the industry. That job was the catalyst to almost fifteen years in food and beverage in various roles from prep, to hosting, to spending a whole lot of time on bar chatting it up with regulars. If you have worked in Food and Bev you know it’s not just the job, it’s the stories you hear, it’s the impact it has on your travels, how it opens you up to feeling and experience. The last few years have been different, I haven’t been on bar or in a commercial kitchen – but I have been in the hospitality industry specifically the wedding industry. Which leads to my second childhood passion turned career, Photography! My Grandma gave me a pink Barbie camera when I was four, and though it was off to a rocky start with a collection of knee to collarbone photos of my family members due to being too short to include faces, but the process of learning and growing landed me somewhere eventually. The last few years I have run a wedding and portrait photography business (North State Photography) with my husband Joel. It’s been great! However I’ve missed cooking, being in the kitchen, and I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that I have only been using half of my skillset. So here we are, combining passions into one, by developing recipes and hosting one dinner party at a time. I’m glad you are here for this new adventure!