We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Abigail Schmitt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Abigail below.
Abigail, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you’re open to it, can you talk to us about the best (or worst) investment you’ve made. What’s the backstory and the relevant context behind why you made the investment
As a chef, the best investment I’ve ever made was in my Vitamix blender! The tools that I use are so important to create efficiency in my workflow. The Vitamix is something that I use every single day, for every single dish that I create for my menus. Sauces, soups, blended oils, aioli or dressings are all common recipes for me and help to create every rounded and delicious dish.
Abigail, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Primarily, I am a private chef, which means that I curate dining experiences for groups of people for special events! This can be anything from elopement dinners on the beach, to week-long, daily nourishment for groups on vacation or on retreats. I was a restaurant chef in MN, NYC and CDMX for many years before I decided to fully transition to creating my own business. This takes me all over the world, in North America, Europe and Japan – which allows me to combine all of my passions for lifestyle and business: creativity, wellness and cultural exploration! I am the most proud of my work in creating a sustainable workflow, reducing waste, utilizing whole ingredients, and minimizing my carbon footprint in the industry as a whole. This began at the beginning of my career in the food industry, and I have always made these practices a priority.
Foraging for wild edibles and sourcing farm-fresh ingredients serve as constant inspirations for my menu development and curriculum. While I specialize in working with fire, fish and seafood, pasta, and various methods of preservation, my culinary journey spans the globe, and I am always seeking to learn and create dishes from diverse cultures and ingredients.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
We all have our stories from the time of Covid, but let me take you back a little further back. It is New York City, mid summer of 2019. Some of us are at home when we get the notifications from that next door app, and then the calls come in from our neighbors in the Lower East Side that there is a fire on the block our restaurant is on. No one was hurt, but it turned out that the bodega next door had a grease fire that started in the ventilation system…long story short, the gas pipes were turned off on the whole block until proper inspection, which meant that we didn’t have natural gas in the restaurant for over 6 months. We were cooking on induction burners, instapots, and Japanese charcoal grills which we put on overturned metal trays right on the stove. I still have a video of when we finally got the gas turned back on, and feeling the relief at how much easier things were finally going to be. During that time, we also sustained the upstairs apartments flooding on multiple occasions, which made it literally pour water into our restaurant from above. You know those scenes in TV where there are pots and pans all over collecting water? It was like that. Then came covid of course, and we all went through many of the same things together. Masks on the line. Shortages of gloves. Massive single use plastic waste. Protests. Plywood covering all the windows. Still working because people needed to be fed.
Combining restaurants and reducing staff, which made all the more work for those of us left – cooking meals for 200-500 and still trying to make it delicious. Giving people on the street meals in boxes for free, just to see them smashed on our sidewalk later. Needless to say, it was a time of extreme resilience, for all of us, me included. I stayed for as long as I could, but in March of 2021, I left the city on a one way ticket, bags packed. I don’t want the lesson of this story to be one of running away, but one of priority realization. My priorities are about self and community health + wellness: which essentially means maintaining a better work/life balance for myself first and foremost. It has taken me a long time to sort out how to make it all work, and it is always a learning experience. Creating experiences for people, and enjoying each step of the process, is what I truly want and need.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The lessons that I will never cease to learn, is that you will never know everything. There is always someone else who knows more than you, and someone who knows less than you about certain subjects. If you open yourself up to new ways of thinking or new techniques (like how to cut a pomegranate, or ways to butcher a fish) you will only give yourself new set of tools or methods of problem solving. Being humble and confidant may seem like contradictions, but this is what I strive for.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ginkgofinedining.com/
- Instagram: @ginkgofinedining
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Abigail-Schmitt/100067970246331/?mibextid=WC7FNe&rdid=L3XGc2KgF0FhMLtn&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F3TDsA6zpWSaHmbiJ%2F%3Fmibextid%3DWC7FNe
- Linkedin: Abigail Schmitt
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ginkgo-fine-dining-experiences-bellingham-2
Image Credits
Emily Sims