A cook in many kitchens

By Mike Mitchelson


Restaurant chefs might earn all the attention (good and bad), but there are many paths to earn a living cooking food. Maureen Brandt is walking at least two of them. At the fork in the road, Brandt has a gig as the private chef for culinary-focused vacations in Italy, and for the down time, she started last September her personal chef and catering business, Cook In The Kitchen.

Not that Brandt, 29, would be opposed to working in a restaurant—or owning one. But not yet. “No restaurant would keep me on if I had to leave for a week or two at a time, at any given time,” she said. “I needed to do something that would allow me flexibility.”

It appears a flexible mindset is a trait of Brandt. After completing her culinary education at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, Brandt seized opportunities to become a teacher’s assistant and test for level 2 and 3 ProChef certification, equal to American Culinary Federation sous chef and executive chef certifications, respectively. During that time as a teaching assistant, Brandt grabbed a chance to head to Italy for a week. The owner of the Val di Chiana tour company leading the group, Giorgio Dell’Artino, wound up hiring Brandt to cook promotional dinners in Shanghai and Beijing after her contract with the CIA was up.

Following that, Brandt went to Manhattan to cook at Café Boulud under executive chef (and former Minnesotan) Gavin Kaysen.

Not a bad track record for someone who initially went to school thinking about a medical career. Brandt went to college at Colorado University in Boulder, earning a degree in psychology and a minor in chemistry, thinking she might follow her parents into the medical field (her father is an ER doctor, her mother a nurse). She worked in restaurants during high school, more front-of-the-house, and continued through college. But, when graduation came, it was hospitality that felt more natural to Brandt. “At the time—and still all I do—I basically read cookbooks, food magazines, et cetera,” she said. “And I spend my free time in the kitchen, and it became pretty apparent that maybe I should ditch the medical school idea.”


Career track

So, back in Stillwater for about a year, Brandt has stayed busy co-founding that Italian vacation business, Flavors of Italia with her mother (whose career shifted to travel agent) and Dell’Artino, leading demonstration classes at both Cooks of Crocus Hill locations and at the Chefs Gallery in Stillwater.

And then there’s the Cook In The Kitchen personal chef and catering business. “I like to do small, in-house dinner parties, hors d’oeuvres parties, that sort of thing, but I will do larger events,” she said.

The personal chef aspect is “pretty basic,” she said, consisting of going into homes and cooking three-to five meals for them, pack them for fridge or freezer and writing detailed preparation instructions. “Everything I do is from scratch,” she said. “If I write a recipe and it calls for ketchup, I’ll make my own ketchup. I don’t use bottled, jarred, canned or anything. My clients are guaranteed no preservatives and a fresh concept every time.”

Constantly adjusting to personal—and sometimes demanding—tastes for the catering and personal chefing business require a different mindset than in the restaurant, Brandt said. “I am forced to make something different all the time when it’s according to somebody else’s wants and desires,” she said.

One way she stays limber in mind and menu is through competitions. Since her ProChef certification is recognized by the American Culinary Federation and qualifies her within that organization as a Certified Executive Chef, Brandt has joined the Minneapolis chapter and competed—and won—in a professional category event this past January. “For me it was really important to compete and step outside the box, so I’m constantly creating new things and thinking of new things,” she said. “It’s all just reinventing the wheel—nothing I’ve done is something that nobody else has done, in a sense, but a different presentation.”

With all that Brandt has going on, the restaurant idea still percolates. But all in good time. “When you’re starting from the ground up, with no investors, no capital and no PR agent, you’ve got to do what you have to do,” she said. “I’m just doing the best I know how to do. I know how to cook, and so I’m trying to get my name out there with competitions and as many organizations as I can, and then build my capital from there, and hopefully find investors.”

See Maureen Brandt's Lobster Soup and Sandwich recipe in the recipe archives.