Our Culinary Team

Chef Jessica’s first culinary-related job came when she was 18, cooking out of a little chuckwagon and over an open fire for a northern Idaho summer camp’s horsemanship program. While attending university in the newly emerging wine country of the Walla Walla valley, she worked at a local bakery and café where she continued to learn new techniques and tips. When she was unable to get a job in her planned career field after graduation, she fell back on the food service industry as a way to pay the bills. But eventually it dawned on her that the culinary world could be her career!

She attended a two-year vegetarian and vegan culinary arts program for some “official” training and went on to positions that included managing a large family retreat center kitchen where she oversaw the production of food for up to 400 people per meal, heading up a private catering team, and serving for several summers as a line cook or “pantry” cook at various San Juan Island restaurants.

In her down time, she has traveled to 11 different countries. Three of her trips involved doing mission work and one was to spend a year in Italy going to school. Locally, she enjoys hiking, beach-combing, and enjoying the beautiful nature of the great PNW. In the evenings, she snuggles up with her cat, Wesley, and escapes into the pages of a good novel.