MEET: CHEF CHRIS SHAFTEN FROM TASTE FIRST
We are so excited to be sharing our first MEET Q&A with you today featuring one of our GIVR folks, Chef Chris Shaften. Have you ever heard of a freelance chef? Well, you are about to meet one! This guy was on Top Chef Canada, you can see him all over town participating in foodie events and he will even come to your home and cook you dinner. For a fee, of course. Anyways, we caught up with this super busy guy to find out what a day in the life of Chef Shaften is like. Bon appetit!
GIVR: What does a day in your daily work life look like?
CS: I wake up, remove my cat from his sleeping spot on my face. Shower up, pick out a stylish outfit and head to one of my favourite cafes to return emails, do any admin and/or work on whatever new project I am working on. If I have an event that night, the rest of the day will be spent either getting all the best products from various purveyors and markets around the city, or playing with food! If I don't have to cook, I will usually spend the day working on a new event or venture and meeting with cool partners, like Let's Givr.
GIVR: What inspired you to start your company?
CS: After 10 years of cooking my little ass off, I started to crave something that would enable me to make my own schedule and connect more deeply with the land and my customers. That, and how painful it is to try and staff a kitchen in Calgary led me into a business that provides me much more flexibility personally and professionally.
GIVR: What makes your business unique to Calgary?
CS: Taste First is unique in that we are a premier private chef service, specializing in connecting our customers to the land, the farmer, the community and each other. We only do small groups, to maintain quality and intimacy, the menus are not posted on-line, but rather crafted the week of the event based upon the freshest, seasonal produce and responsibly raised and processed proteins. That world saving philosophy is applied to absolutely everything we do. It is truly a dining experience that cannot be replicated anywhere else, because it is all about Alberta, and together we are changing the world, one bite at a time.
GIVR: Where is your favourite place to shop local?
CS: HMMMMMMM…… Well, I have a big problem with plastic around produce at farmers markets. I am sure anyone who has travelled in 3rd world countries would agree a Farmers market full of fresh local product doesn't need to be individually pre-packaged…..I love the Hillhurst/Sunnyside market on Wednesdays through the summer, as it is closer to what a farmers market should be. Also you will find some stuff there you cannot find at the "boutique" markets, which small purveyors cannot afford to sell in. My favourite goods come from urban farming,
that is the way we have to start moving as a community and culture, if we are going to reduce energy needs enough to combat the major environmental changes coming our way.
GIVR: What can GIVR folks expect to see from your company this coming spring? Any new releases, workshops etc?
CS: This spring:
Working with a local nutritionalist and yoga instructor, I am organizing gourmet whole foods, yoga retreats.
We are adding on Bachelor and Bachelorette party packages, featuring one of the cities brightest young bartenders.
Free Range events will be our service offering unique event concept food and drink development, where we organize and execute themed menus for different partys or galas. e.g.. 1950's themed staff party, we would do time period inspired food and drink.
Free Range Tours - Perhaps my largest and most unique venture. FRT will provide flavour focused weekend getaways for the adventurous. More to come soon, but I don't want to spoil anything just yet.
Anyone who wants to be the first to know about these great new ventures should sign up to my newsletter here.
http://www.tastefirst.ca/Newsletter.html