We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dalton Campbell . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dalton below.

Dalton, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

I believe we need a major reform of our current educational system. We need to teach our children financial literacy, balancing a budget, healthy nutrition, sustainable living, tax preparation, small business generation, tradesmanship, how to deal with emotions, communication skills, energy balancing, work life balance, mental health and much more real world fundamental knowledge.

As well I believe there needs to be a different perspective taught around college. Yes you can be whatever you want in life, although its not going to be easy. A college degree is just a piece of paper at the end of the day and is not going to guarantee any sort of work, we need to teach our children that its all how they apply themselves and that its going to be a struggle. In the meanwhile teaching them more valuable life skills and more foresight into the harsh reality of the real world. I see so many fresh college graduates totally lost with no direction and passion in their work life as they assumed it would just be handed to them. I believe trade schools should be more advocated as an option for a sustainable career and with a much more successful hiring rate can be more of a stable option for career paths for some. As well as urging children and illustrating how to be connected with their passions within their work to live a more fulling lifestyle.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always had a passion for food, I started cooking around 8 years old. I have been in the food and beverage industry for the last 17 years. Starting out as a dishwasher at 13 and rapidly moving up to be a prep and line cook I have been in food and beverage ever since.

I have had two executive chef jobs in the catering industry running food and beverage operations at a large scale. In January 2016, I quit my executive chef job as the stress and demand were overwhelming and it was diminishing my passion for great food and cooking. I was just about to get out of the food and beverage industry when I began picking up small personal chef jobs on the side out of the blue. It was as if the universe was pushing me back into the food service world into a much more enjoyable sector.

I realized this was a great knitch to the market these small intimate dinners were and it brought back the fun and creativity of cooking which I had always enjoyed. In April 2016, I started my business Park City Elite Private Chefs geared to put together a team of elite private chefs conducting high-end intimate dinner parties focused in the Park City area.

We offer everything from casual back yard summer BBQ’s to fine dining 7 course small plate tasting and wine pairing dinners and a little bit of everything in-between. Most of our groups we work with are between 6-20 which is the perfect size to keep food quality top notch and create amazing memorable dining experiences. We will do events up to 50 guests.

Over the years I have put together a team of 5 excellent executive chefs and we are all excited to have the opportunity to share our culinary creations with you! I let my chefs be creative and express their own creativity with menus which makes it fun for everyone. My modo in the kitchen with my chefs has always been “as long as it tastes amazing and is beautiful its fine by me!” I believe its important to allow my team to express their own style’s of cooking and passion to create a successful business model.

Our services allow our clients to host amazing memorable events and at the same time be a guest at their own party. It is a lot of work putting these events together, we take the guess work out of it so our clients can relax and really enjoy their events.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I put together the initial capitol for my busines with blood, sweat, tears, refinanced auto loans and credit cards. I had looked into small business loans which were almost impossible to get without any collateral as well as other independent options which interest rates were through the roof so I buckled down and worked harder with my current auto detailing business to gain the capitol necessary to start my business. ‘
At one point in the initial start up phase I was a combined 60 k in debt between refinanced auto loans for capital and credit card debt. Although I was not going to let that stop me. I was bound and determined to make this work and with determination and a positive outlook I created a very successful business.

I almost gave up several times along the way but I knew deep down I could make this work. As soon as I fully committed to myself and released the fear of failure and financial distress the pieces seamed to stitch themselves together and everything fell in line. If there’s a will there is a way. I always tell people not to give up on their passions and business ideas due to fear of failure and insufficient capitol.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

I had a very successful detailing business, Superior Mobile Auto Detailing, that I managed and ran for 10 years in Park City, which I sold a few years back as I was too busy to manage both business. I learned a lot of very valuable business knowledge and communication skills running my detailing business which set up a solid foundation for my current operation and assisted with capitol for the start up of Park City Elite Private Chefs.

Contact Info:

• Website: parkcityeliteprivatechefs.com
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/park-city-elite-private-chefs-park-city?osq=private+chef