She first dipped her toe in the foodservice and hospitality industry while managing the house at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre — or The ‘Cultch, as it’s more locally known — and selling hand-made Nanaimo bars, carrot cake and cheesecake during intermissions as a side gig to help pay her tuition at UBC.
Little did she know it at the time, but she was sowing the seeds for The Lazy Gourmet.
She started catering opening-night parties at The Cultch where guests quickly took note of her culinary creativity. After a recommendation from one of them to apply for a Local Initiative Program grant and learn the ins and outs of the catering business, she landed her first big assignment — providing the food for a Children’s Festival that hosted more than 350 performers and thousands of guests in the summer of 1979.
“By the end of the week, I was completely exhausted but had found my calling,” she says.
From there, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind.
中文 catering@lazygourmet.ca