The Chefs View

🤩 LIFE UPDATE

On my way to cook for six guests today, and honestly, this is one of my favorite size events.

Six people gives me the opportunity to really slow down, get creative, focus on every plate, and make the experience personal. After all these years of cooking, that part still excites me. Creating something memorable for people around a table never gets old.

But driving through Ozark, Missouri today got me thinking about something else.

There used to be this little restaurant down by the river that everybody went to for prime rib. It was one of those local places people just knew. And now it has been gone for years.

It reminded me how easy it is to say, “We need to go try that place sometime.”

Then sometime never comes.

So here is your reminder. Go eat at that local restaurant you keep talking about. Support the chef who is putting everything they have into creating great food. Support the restaurant sourcing ingredients from local farmers. Support the family taking the risk and trying to build something special in your community.

If somebody is doing something amazing, show up while they are still there.

Restaurants do not survive on compliments, shares, or people saying they have been meaning to come in. They survive because people walk through the door, sit down at the table, order the food, and come back.

Support local. Support chefs. Support farmers. Support the people who are actually out there creating something.

And today, I get to do exactly what I love.

Six guests. Six plates at a time. Six opportunities to create an experience they WILL remember.

That is what this life is about. Find what you love. Get damn good at it. Keep creating. Keep growing. Keep showing up. And never lose the excitement that made you fall in love with it in the first place.

Do work that matters. Create experiences people remember. Leave your mark. ❤️👨‍🍳🔥

🔥 PRIVATE CHEFS, YOUR BACK WILL THANK YOU FOR THIS ONE. 🔥

After 25 years as a Private Chef, I’ve hauled my share of heavy equipment, and one of the BEST switches I’ve made is going to Metro® Mightylite™ insulated food carriers.

I used to haul around heavy duty coolers that could weigh over 50 pounds BEFORE I even put anything inside. Add food, ice, and supplies, and you’re basically getting a workout before you even arrive at the event. 😂

The Metro Mightylite ML300 weighs only 9.1 pounds, and don’t mistake lightweight for fragile. These things are TOUGH.

I’ve stood on them. I’ve watched them take some serious abuse. You could practically roll one down a hill and it would ask you, “Is that all you’ve got?” 😂💪

They are impact resistant, incredibly easy to carry, have handles everywhere you need them, and can keep hot or cold food at safe temperatures for 5 plus hours.

For Private Chefs, caterers, and anyone constantly transporting food, equipment weight matters. When you’re loading and unloading multiple times a day, every pound you DON’T have to carry makes your job easier.

I used to be a heavy cooler guy.

Not anymore.

Metro Mightylite has made transporting food SO much easier, and I’m not going back.

If you’re a Private Chef still breaking your back carrying those massive heavy coolers, do yourself a favor.

MAKE THE SWITCH Metro Foodservice Solutions

🌿 Three years in the making… and we’re just getting started. ❤️

For the past 2½ years, our family has poured our hearts, hands, and countless hours into transforming 7 beautiful acres in the heart of Ozark, Missouri into something we’re incredibly proud to share The Allen Family Farm.

What started as a piece of land and a dream is becoming a place where people can slow down, reconnect, celebrate, and make memories.

We’ve planted more than an acre with fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, and perennial crops: figs, pawpaws, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, goji berries, seaberries, honeyberries, Reliance grapes, peaches, pears, apples, elderberries, asparagus, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil, sage and so much more. 🍇🍑🫐🍅🌻

Every season, it grows a little more.

And so do we.

At the center of it all is our 2,500-square-foot Victorian farmhouse, available for nightly stays and special gatherings. Whether it’s a weekend getaway, birthday, family reunion, celebration, or wedding, we want The Farm to be a place where people come together and leave with memories they’ll carry home with them.

As we approach our three-year anniversary, I sometimes look around and think about how much this land has changed.

But what really gets me is how much we’ve changed with it.

There is still so much we want to build, plant, create, and experience here. This dream is nowhere near finished.

If you’ve followed our journey, supported us, stayed with us, celebrated here, or simply encouraged us along the way, thank you. ❤️

And if you’d like to experience the Farm for yourself, come stay with us:

🏡 https://www.airbnb.com/h/gatsbyfarm

Here’s to family, hard work, fertile ground, big dreams, and the next chapter at The Farm. 🌿

DREAM BIG. 🔥🌊👨‍🍳

Not the kind of dreams that feel comfortable. Dream so damn big they scare you a little.

Because somewhere between the long days, the sacrifices, the failures, the lessons, and the moments when nobody was watching… you’re becoming the person capable of living the life you once only imagined.

Right now, I’m cooking my way up the East Coast on a superyacht, doing what I love, seeing places I’ve never seen, and creating experiences one plate at a time. 🛥️⚓️🔥

But this isn’t just about where I am today.

It’s about every day it took to get here.

Keep showing up. Keep sharpening your craft. Keep betting on yourself. And NEVER let someone else’s small thinking put a ceiling on your BIG dreams.

Your current chapter is not your final destination.

Dream it.
Work for it.
Believe in it.
Then GO GET IT. 💪🔥

The world is waiting to see what happens when you stop playing small.

LEGGGGGOOOO!!! 🚀🌊👨‍🍳⚓️

🦀🧄🔥 GARLIC. BUTTER. CRAB. CLAWS. 🔥🧄🦀

When the recipe says “add a little garlic”… I take that personally. 😂

Fresh little crab claws getting absolutely DRENCHED in melted garlic butter with enough garlic to make a vampire leave the ZIP CODE. 🧛‍♂️💨

Butter bubbling. Garlic flying. Crab soaking up every damn drop.

Simple ingredients. Proper technique. BIG flavor.

And with “Viral” by Snoop Dogg rolling in the background… yeah, we’re trying to live up to the name. 😎🔥

Food doesn’t always need to be complicated.

Sometimes you just need crab, butter, an irresponsible amount of garlic, and a little Snoop. 😂🧄🦀

Who’s smashing a whole plate of these?!