The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Tables still available for Feast in the Field August 6
[ By Cassandra Pence ]
Mountain Roots Food Project will honor local chef Dana Zobs with the Inspiration Award for her commitment to sourcing local food for her catering business, Crested Butte’s Personal Chefs, and for her dedication to Mountain Roots over the past 10 years as a volunteer and as a board member. Mountain Roots will award Zobs during its annual farm-to-table fundraiser, Feast in the Field, Saturday August 6.
“Talk about passion and dedication, Dana started the valley’s first CSA out of her ‘garage’ in 2007 just to bring more local food into the valley,” Mountain Roots executive director Holly Conn said. “She lives her values in her culinary practices and business practices, supporting local first. She raises the standards for other restaurants, sets the bar high.”
Before farm-to-table was even a trend, chef Zobs met the only farmer from Paonia delivering to Crested Butte, Enormous Brontosaurus Farm, at the Four-way to buy fruits and vegetables for her personal chef businesses. For Zobs and her passionate team at Crested Butte’s Personal Chefs, local and organic is the only way to cook. It’s just the way they do it. That was more than a decade ago, and Zobs is still leading the charge in farm-focused food.
“I believe that we are what we eat. Good, healthy food is the food that we know where it came from. The farther away it is from, the less we know about it,” Zobs said. “Local food in the Gunnison Valley was almost impossible to find 15 years ago, and now it is becoming more and more abundant. Mountain Roots has done a lot to make this happen.”
Zobs has worked in the food industry for over 24 years. She began by cooking at home for her family when she was only 7. Her signature dish at 7 was an apple pie. Beginning her career working in a gourmet market in Washington D.C., she learned right away how important quality ingredients were in making delicious food. Zobs went on to receive an undergraduate degree from the University of Denver in hospitality and tourism management.
Zobs first lived in Crested Butte in 1992, and worked in many of the popular restaurants. This included 7 years managing the sushi bar at Lil’s and working as their pastry chef. In search of more culinary inspiration, in 2002 she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. The excitement of the food industry was limitless there, and in one year she learned what 10 years in Crested Butte could offer. She received an associate degree from the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. She worked as a chef for Whole Foods Market, and developed and tested recipes in the corporate offices of Williams-Sonoma. In 2007, she moved back to Crested Butte and began working as a personal chef for part-time residents, visitors, and locals.
Zobs first came to Mountain Roots as a volunteer for the local food non-profit’s farm-to-school program.
“It was a class called healthy breakfasts. We made crepes for third-graders,” Zobs said. “To this day, people still tell me they make crepes and think of me. Volunteering was always a lot of work, but really rewarding, and still is.”
From the farm-to-school classroom, Zobs moved into a board seat at Mountain Roots where she’s helped shape this grassroots non-profit into a “healthy, strong” organization doing big things in the local food world for this little valley.
“I am so proud of the growth that Mountain Roots has had, and I am especially proud of the food security work we do,” Zobs said.
Mountain Roots helps feed everyone in the community with local, nutritious food, Zobs explains, and it became clear how much the non-profit is needed during COVID, when people lost jobs and could no longer afford life’s essentials, like food and rent.
One way Mountain Roots improves food security is with its Backyard Harvest Food Box program, a food rescue and relief program that connects fresh produce from backyard gardens and farms to food-insecure residents. Families sign up to receive a free box of fresh food every week that can either be picked up at a central location in Gunnison and Crested Butte, or delivered right to their door.
In addition to food security, Mountain Roots’ programming focuses on education, food production and food economy, helping to train young farmers and uplift existing local farmers by giving them a market to sell.
Celebration for Zobs and support for Mountain Roots all comes together on Saturday, August 6, for Mountain Roots annual farm-to-table fundraiser Feast in Field, held open air at Red Dog Ranch in Crested Butte.
Feast in the Field is a true farm-to-table meal showcasing locally raised meat, vegetables and fruits picked at the peak of summer. There’s a “Makers’ Tasting” during appetizers, where guests mingle with the craftsman behind artisan beverages, spirits, wines and beer. This year, Buckel Family Wines, Distillery 291, Deerhammer, Mountain Spirits Liquors, Crested Bucha kombucha and fruit shrubs by Big B’s and Delicious Orchards will join the party.
The dinner is not only a celebration of local food, but seeks to tell the story of the people who grow it and the land that sustains it. Farmers and ranchers break away from busy harvests to sit down to dinner. Zobs usually chefs for Feast in the Field, and while she’ll still have her hands in the kitchen, she too will sit and enjoy the bounty of local food, something she not only supports but cherishes, as well.
Tables are still available. Visit www.mountainrootsfoodproject.org or email Rachel Branham at rachel@mountainrootsfoodproject.org to reserve your spot today.
