Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Unchu Littlefield. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
UnChu, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
To be honest, this current path in life was a bit of an accident.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
When our daughter started kindergarten and I was volunteering In her classroom every day it just sort of morphed in to me doing art with all the kinder kids, and then the next grade and the next and so on. Then the school created a position for me to do art with all the elementary grades and now here we still are. I now make and teach art with all students in grades TK-6 and hold two after school Art classes a week.
The year our daughter started kindergarten was also the year I started doing pop up dinners in our backyard and really growing my catering business. Again, now here we are. I just finished another amazing season of Tate’s Kitchen dinners and am moving on to the next few events I have scheduled for the Holidays.
Food or Art has always been my hobby, or love, or sanctuary or whatever you want to call it. It’s exhausting but I am not sure I could give up one or the other.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
A life filled with food and art on the daily – how can I complain about that?
I am so driven by the kids. Seeing one of them so excited about an art piece they made, or seeing a student so proud of their art hanging in the school hallway. Having students travel over breaks and their parents sending me photos of the student in an art museum – they recognized a piece a piece of art and begged the parent “Please take a photo of me here and send it to Ms. UnChu!” Most of the kids know I also wear a chef hat so I am always receiving meal reviews and food questions. Have I tried this restaurant? Did I taste a particular dish? Do I have a favorite food? Are we making desserts in clay this week? Did you bake us cookies this weekend?( LoL – I get that question the most)
And clients that call every year or several times a year. Being part of all their special events and landmark moments. I love that. I love the trust they have in me to make the food and settings delicious and beautiful.
We have said many times ‘There is the job that feeds your belly and then theres the job that feeds your soul, hopefully these are the same’
I am in the strangest situation where all the things I love are what I do everyday.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When we found out I was pregnant we had some serious conversations and did a whole lot of number crunching. I was working as a manager for a large retailer, usually 60+ hours a week and monthly travel. I wanted to be that mom that could do ALL of it but my gut said I needed to slow my roll. I Left that job and we struggled financially for years. But we made it work. My husband and I now always say I was present for every moment of our daughters life and we have no regrets for the decision we made. And from this I was available to be in her kinder classroom and start the madness that is my current life.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: tates_kitchen
- Facebook: UnChu Littlefield
