Hats Off To Female Chefs In Western Colorado
An old proverb quips that a women’s place is in the kitchen, but most professional chefs are men. Still, there are plenty of females cooking up a storm in restaurants, bakeries and catering services throughout the nation. Here are just a few in Western Colorado who bring home the bacon — and fry it up in a pan.
French Pastries
Growing up, all Clémentine Bouton wanted was to get away from her family-owned restaurants in France, which she had worked at since age 7. She finished law school but discovered she “really found pleasure in baking and creating.”
So, she decided to integrate her French pastry heritage into American culture. She follows French traditions like low sugar and no food coloring while making her tarts, eclairs and other pastries — just a little larger for Americans. She began baking three years ago as a hobby, selling pastries at local shops. About six months ago, she started posting on Instagram, and now her followers line up every Sunday morning at The Cirque Boutique in Paonia to savor her sweets.
“That’s where living in a small town can be beautiful. It’s all word of mouth,” she says. She joined Lea Petmezas (below), who needed help keeping up with orders and catering, and the pair now offer weekly community dinners.
“My family’s business taught me that if you choose to go into the food business, you have to go in 100%,” she says. “My dad was a chef, and I’ve kept his memory alive by going into baking. He gave me the creativity; he was one of the first in France to do fish with chocolate. I try to mix flavors that might not work in the mind, like pastries with local goat cheese, or tequila or salted caramel with miso and chocolate. I love to create and just go a little crazy.”
Guilt-Free Snacking + Catering
Petmezas launched Citizen Raw in Los Angeles 10 years ago; she worked with actors and television producers, noticing the need for healthier snacks on sets. At the time, she was a bit of a pioneer, especially when it came to selling raw and sprouted snacks at a decent price.
“It’s important to me to make raw, healthy snacks mainstream and more affordable,” she says. “I think health is finally coming around and people are starting to care.”
Citizen Raw’s organic, vegan, gluten-free crackers, crispy onions and apple slices are made from fresh vegetables, herbs, seeds and nuts prepared at temperatures under 120 degrees to preserve live enzymes. She sells her guilt-free snacks online and at 13 regional stores. Her dad had owned three restaurants, so the food industry was “in her blood.”
“I have no formal education. I have an instinct and know-how that came through my dad, to me,” she adds.
Eight years ago, the small town of Paonia attracted this single mom raising four kids. There, she started offering soups and salads at Edesia Community Kitchen. That led to Thursday night dinners where she and Bouton serve about 65 people a week with menus ranging from Greek, Indian and Lebanese to American and French.
“We definitely have a very, very strong following,” she says. “It just fills me up to see a whole community of people coming together.”
She’ll be losing the space in March, but she trusts things will develop. “I get really quiet and something magic always happens,” she shares. “Something will appear. The community is so behind us.”
Grab n’ Go + Catering
Lauren McElroy has been passionate about cooking her whole life. “Ever since I was a little girl growing up, I would raid the pantry and come up with different concoctions that I would test out on my little brother — some good, some, not so much,” she recalls, adding that her grandma gave her hints about what might blend well.
But, McElroy took a circuitous route to becoming a chef. She initially studied business marketing at Colorado State University and marketed insurance, real estate and pharmaceuticals but eventually decided she didn’t like “being worked to death.” So, she earned a degree in culinary arts and worked as a pantry chef, hot line cook and caterer, until she moved back to her “happy place,” Vail, where she met a personal chef who taught her the ropes.
Since 2018, she has been serving fresh food and seasonal ingredients cooked from the heart at Lauren’s Kitchen in Edwards. She loves accommodating dietary restrictions, and her grab-and-go concept, which was unique to the area when she opened, has become immensely popular since the pandemic.
Chef, Farmer, Brewer
It all started in fifth grade, when Colorado native Camille Shoemaker wrote an essay about how she wanted to be a pastry chef. The essay earned her a student internship in Johnson and Wales University’s pastry program in Denver where she made Oreo truffles, wearing a chef’s coat and hat. She returned to the university as an adult to earn her Bachelor’s in baking and pastry arts and food service management, then moved to New York City to get her Master’s in food studies. There, she learned how women were the first brewers.
She returned to Colorado to be a professional brewer, but after two years, her love for both farming and food called her back. About three years ago, she became a private chef and head baker for Mountain Dweller Coffee Roasters in Frisco.
“Being a pastry chef really brings me the most passion,” she shares. “I love that I never stop learning in pastry; there are so many ways to grow. You never hit a stagnant point.”
From Pastries To Chef
In her early 20s, Stephanie Reece met a mentor in Houston who encouraged her to build an experience for people through food, which is exactly what she wanted to do.
She began as a pastry chef at Bistro Italiano, where owner Brunella Gualerzi — another spectacular female chef — “gave me the wings to get out there and see what I could do.”
Reece’s midnight shifts spilled into the early morning, so she took the opportunity to ask the prep cooks questions about cooking.
“I didn’t even cook well at home,” she admits, but the guys taught her. “There’s more respect for pastry chefs in the kitchen, because you can create things that line cooks can’t. Being a pastry chef requires a Type A personality. You really have to follow recipes, or you jack it all up.”
Her high-achieving nature has served her well. She now creates intimately curated three- to six-course menus for private dinning parties through Glorious Fig in Grand Junction. She balances being a mom and a chef with help from her supportive husband.
“Glorious Fig’s scheduled events help me manage my time at home,” she says, explaining how she’s more intentional about cooking when she’s home, in addition to helping her kids with homework and making sure they’re emotionally okay. “I try to be very present, and that’s a hard thing to do — to turn work off and be all mom and all wife. I’m segmenting my life a lot.”
Catering With A Twist
Emily Oyer considers herself an “everything chef.” Anything her catering clients want, she creates. For example, she makes a twice-cooked chicken, first searing the drumsticks, then removing the meat, blending it with corn, potatoes, cheddar cheese and corn flour, then molding the mix around the bone and frying it.
“My goal is to make the person’s vision come to life,” she says. “One of my favorite things to see is the pure joy on people’s faces when they try the food I create.”
As a banquet chef in Virginia, she catered a lot of specialties for weddings, and now she caters in Aspen for both big-name celebrities and people who only splurge once a year. Last summer, she began incorporating cannabis into her catered parties, dosing or micro-dosing people individually with cannabis-infused finishing oils. She also uses terrapin flavors, like citrus, to complement dishes like salmon. She explains all of the culinary flavors to guests, and how getting high can heighten a dining experience.
“It enhances the food you’re eating, makes you more creative and kinder,” she believes, adding that it’s helped her with depression, anxiety and ADHD.
Her nontraditional approach has led Food Network to feature her. She also won Chopped 420’s second episode.
“With or without infusions,” she says, “I can create any food your mind is craving.”
Being a Woman in a Male-dominated Biz
Female chefs have had all kinds of experiences making their way into professional kitchens, from feeling ignored and blocked to being helped and supported. Here are just a few remarks on the subject:
Lauren McElroy: “Honestly, it never bothered me; yes, mainly guys teaching me and leading, but it never was an issue to climb the ladder and advance. Thankfully, by the time I was in the business, men were generally more accepting of females in the industry.”
Camille Shoemaker: “As a brewer, I worked unpaid a lot. I dated a brewer and wouldn’t get acknowledged. The industry is thankfully changing, but we still have to do a lot (in terms of proving ourselves).”
Stephanie Reece: “I felt more supported by the men. Maybe because I started in the pastry world; it’s easier to be a cook after being a pastry chef. There’s a mutual respect between the two.”
Lea Petmezas: “I’ve always just worked for myself. No male chef ever belittled me. There was some arrogance, and sure, if I were in LA there would be (issues), but it’s never been an impediment. In fact, it’s been an empowerment. That’s what’s really lucky about the North Fork Valley: they’re just really open to good food. (Respect) is based on what you serve.”
Clémentine Bouton: “The French culinary world is very masculine. It’s very complicated and there’s a stigma that women should be home in the kitchen cooking and not at work. I’m sure it’s changing, but it’s still very male-driven. I fit more into American culture. They’re very openminded, and they take you in without a preconceived notion of who you could be or who you should be. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Emily Oyer (pictured): “I feel like I have to try harder than men. I’ve felt gaslighted … I’ve learned from men what not to do.”
Originally published in the Spring 2022 of Spoke+Blossom.