We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Colton Wagner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Colton below.
Colton, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
The Colorado Cache- Personal Chef services started on a random day years after I had left the restaurant business. I actually changed paths completely. After spending 13 years in the industry and roughly 8 years working for the same restaurant group, I was ready for change. At that time, I was traveling around the country opening new restaurants, things were really good, but I had very limited creativity or personal freedom. I made the decision to try something new.
I was offered a job in the cannabis industry to using my culinary skills to make edibles. The timing was interesting because one year later Covid hit, and the restaurant industry (and world) was thrown into complete turmoil. Getting out of restaurants at that time was sort of a blessing because I don’t know if I would have maintained my job. I spent the next 2 years like many people simply trying to keep myself and family above water. I spent a lot of time alone. I spent a lot of time thinking about food.
Eventually things started to mellow out a bit with the pandemic. A close friend and I started getting requests to cook upscale private dinners in homes. This was becoming more and more popular because people felt more comfortable celebrating occasions with close friends in their own home, rather than in public establishments. Over the next year or so we cooked so many private dinners that it started to become very familiar to me. It also became my absolute favorite thing to do. We had no limits; we could cook anything we wanted and that was amazing. I was doing this through my friend’s connections and still didn’t feel like “my own” thing. One random night, I just started building a website. I wanted to have my own outlet for cooking private dinners and I wasn’t necessarily in a hurry to do it because I was still working full time during the day. I decided I would spend my evenings working on my new project. I wanted to take my time and educate myself on all of the different items that would need to be put into place before booking my first official event. I wanted to start a brand that could potentially scale, not just use my name as the DBA. Colorado Cache was a cookbook that was given to me as a gift. It’s a cookbook that celebrates Colorado cuisine going back 50 years. The name really stuck with me. After a few months of putting everything together I started pushing my service to the public. After only a few weeks the first email finally came through. It was a request to cook a small wedding. This was the day The Colorado Cache was born.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a Colorado kid all the way to the core. My grandfather was born in Colorado in the 1930s and my family’s roots are deeply embedded in the state. I grew up in Durango, Colorado going to rodeos, elk hunting and riding horses in the mountains. Farming and agriculture were always a big part of my life. I learned how to respect food at a very young age. I started off in kitchens at young age simply because I needed money to get a car. I had no clue this would be my career path for the next decade plus. What started as a part time dishwashing job quickly became my passion. I was always a creative kid growing up. I loved art of all kinds, but I had no clue what I would want to do as a career. I was working in a well-known steakhouse and one day a sauté cook asked me to come over to his station. I was hesitant because the kitchens I started in were pretty intimidating places. I was hesitant to say the least. When I walked over, he slid me a beautiful plate of squab risotto and asked me if I knew what it was. I paused and said “rice?” He just smiled at me and sort of chuckled. He told me to eat it. I then scurried off to my dish station and devoured the entire plate in about 30 seconds. That dish changed my entire perception of food. I had no clue something could look and taste so incredible. I wanted to know how he did that.
As I look back on my career it’s a blend of these types of experiences that formed the cook I am today. My business The Colorado Cache is about bringing these types of life changing moments into people’s lives through unique dining experiences. We want to represent the highest quality food and hospitality. Maybe everyone at the table has had a peach in their life. But have they had a Palisade Peach at perfect ripeness served in a way they could never imagine? We don’t want to just cook a good meal and be on our way. We want our clients to look back on the experience as something that they will take with them forever. Something that can never be taken away.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
When I was young chef cookbooks were everything if you wanted to learn about new ingredients and techniques. Many chefs take pride in their cookbook collection, and I am no different. Times have changed though via there is so much information on social media and the internet. I advocate for all young chefs to read as many cookbooks as they can to sharpen thier craft. However, when my mind really started to shift was when I started reading books that weren’t about cooking, but about entrepreneurship and investing. Cooking has never been the highest paying profession, the opposite in fact. Often times we live paycheck to paycheck in a dangerous financial situation. I now advocate for cooks to learn about financial literacy. A book that really changed my mind set is called “The Simple Path to Wealth” by JL Collins. He has a very simple formula that I believe everyone should adopt to become more financially secure, “live below your means, invest the rest.” This is easier said than done for sure but absolutely possible. It so important to understand that to be a “chef” you have to be much more than just a “cook.” You have to be a great cook, mentor, businessperson, entrepreneur, leader. To accomplish this, it takes educating yourself on more than just cooking.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
The Colorado Cache is a 100% self-funded. I honestly used the tactics I learned from reading about entrepreneurship to get to where I am today. I started my business while working full time. I was only working days, so I spent the evenings building my business. Many days I would go to work at 7am and work until 10-11pm at night building my business. It’s a grind and you have to really want it. Luckily starting a personal chef business doesn’t necessarily take a huge amount of capital up front and can be broken into pieces over time. I was able to get everything I needed to get started for under about $1k. As I booked clients and began to have revenue, I would simply reinvest my profits back into the business to continue to grow it. I’m still doing this. As I invest more and more, I’m lucky to get to a point where I have all of the “start-up” equipment that I need so it’s much easier to make a profit. One of the most important things I’ve learned is, focus on offering the highest quality service or product and the profits will come. Always remember why you started.
Contact Info:
- Website: thecoloradocache.com
- Instagram: @thecoloradocache
- Facebook: thecoloradocache
Image Credits
Nina Reed