We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashley Odom a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?

I love vacations! And yes, I think it is necessary to balance the “work hard, then take some personal time” game. It’s necessary in this industry that you take a step back from the grind and decompress a bit. That being said, most of my vacations are always food and/or wine focused. I’m super curious about global cuisine, so I can justify going to foreign countries all in the name of R&D.

Ashley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a self-taught chef that began in the restaurant industry at age 15. I began working front of house as a hostess, then upgraded to serving and cocktail waitressing and eventually preferring bartending through college. I moved in to a more permanent role of event planning in Austin, TX after graduating from UT and working for high-end catering companies in the area for 8 years before moving to Crested Butte, CO to start my own company. My love for cooking stemmed from my grandmothers influence on me at a young age in the kitchen. They were both restaurant owners in rural Louisiana, and their kitchens were always alive and kickin’.

I owned my business in Colorado for 9 years, specializing in off-the-grid catering on mountain tops, secluded yurts accessible only by skis or snow shoe, exclusive fishing camps and river valleys throughout the Rocky Mountains.

After deciding to that I wanted to raise my daughter back in the Lone Star State, I bought my land in Texas and relocated in 2015 to build my commercial kitchen and event space under the Big Texas Sky. I now cater out of house for weddings, corporate and private events, and hold supper clubs and intimate gatherings at my event space over looking rolling hills and grape vines. Best decision I’ve ever made!

Starting a business always has its challenges, but mine bled from my personal life to professional. I had a baby, got divorced, and started my own business all in one year. It was stressful and challenging in the sense of juggling a new family life and trying to grow a business, as well as transition from front of house to back of house and allow time for menu creation and testing. I wanted financial freedom and a schedule that allowed me to bring my daughter with me and to manage my time accordingly between home and work. I was so fortunate to raise her up to age five in a one of the most beautiful natural playgrounds in the world.

I also took on a role contracting as a head chef for a multimillion dollar luxury/adventure based company, Eleven, while also trying to grow my business name Feast and Merriment. My clients ranged from Bentley and Aston Martin to CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies. It was an amazing experience and I was given creative freedom to customize my food to fit each specific clients need. I always enjoyed introducing Colorado wild game to the table for my east coast high rollers to enhance their Colorado vacation experience.

I’ve always been interested in the arts and being creative. I am a jewelry designer and learned silver smithing in college and started my jewelry company, Modo Designs, in 1998. I love working with my hands, so cooking was a natural fit and I was always very comfortable in the kitchen.

Feast and Merriment was created based on providing a unique experience that entices all of the senses, intertwining the culinary aspect with a corresponding overall theme or feeling. It’s giving our clients an experience that will hopefully be memorable of a specific time and place. It’s about sharing time and a meal with new and old friends, and the commonality that can be enjoyed around good food, drink and atmosphere.

These events can vary anywhere from an intimate wedding to one of our monthly supper clubs like our Oaxacan inspired Dia de Los Muertos dinner with sugar skull adorned wait staff, an elaborate ofrenda to remember our loved ones that have passed on, and local mezcal libations.

I have an innate drive to keep creating, researching and envisioning unique gatherings for my business. I. must have a fear of residing in a mundane existence! The challenge keeps me fueled. Having the opportunity to own an event space where there are endless possibilities and future events that are just a daydream away is exactly what I was put here to do!

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Catering is difficult to advertise. And by advertise, I mean in a magazine or newspaper. You can’t touch the picture of the food, smell it, taste or devour it. So it is hard to convey what you are selling to the consumer with just a picture of a plate of food. You have to fully experience it to truly appreciate it. This gives you more context to decide if you want to hire (or not hire) the company responsible. You have to get your five senses involved.

Knowing this first hand (I actually majored in Advertising at UT Austin), I have taken a different approach with my business. In order to get the clientele that I want as regulars in front of my food, I decided to do a form of indirect advertising. By this I mean that I would donate or highly discount my food for non-profits that I supported in my area in order to get my cuisine in front of donors for these non-profits that would frequent these types of events and were also very likely to entertain in their own homes. This way I was supporting my favorite charities and causes, while at the same time showing off what my team was capable of first hand to my focused demographic. It was a win-win!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Consistency paired with promptly responding to inquires or calls for services. Hands down. When I moved to Crested Butte 15 years ago and started Feast and Merriment, I was planning my own wedding and I could not get people to call me back or hold set appointments. It was more than frustrating because it was a very remote area and it seemed almost impossible to get an event planned. So I moved there with the main focus of starting my company because of this lack of response. I was working as an event planner in Austin and you had to be fast, diligent, and responsive to get the gig as there was (is) a ton of competent competition. So I was used to a city life style of planning. It proved to be what I was known for, and the events that were being planned by folks from out of town knew that it was going to be handled effectively and efficiently. That kind of peace of mind is worth a mint! This business has as much to do with the calming of peoples nerves when they are about to pull of one of the biggest events they will ever be a part of in their life just as much as the food presentation and service at the event are. So if you can help console the anxiety around this, you will be rewarded with trust and respect.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.feastandmerriment.net
• Instagram: Feast_and_Merriment
• Facebook: Feast and Merriment

Image Credits
Leo Aguirre