We are bringing back the Member Profile! Once a quarter, we will feature an interview with a PCA member so you can learn more about our membership and build our Portland network!
If you are interested in participating in a future interview, please email to us.
This quarter’s profile features Chloe Fennell of Eat Your Heart Out Catering. She is also on the PCA Board as the Program Chair. So thank Chloe for all of her hard work making our great events possible!
If you are interested in participating in a future interview, please email to us.
This quarter’s profile features Chloe Fennell of Eat Your Heart Out Catering. She is also on the PCA Board as the Program Chair. So thank Chloe for all of her hard work making our great events possible!
- Tell us more about your catering business Eat Your Heart Out and your role in the company. I run my mom’s catering business with her that she started almost 40 years ago! From the very beginning as a child I was chief cookie maker, then dishwasher, to server, to chef and now her and I both run sales and menu creation. We also wear many other hats as is necessary in a small business. We do event planning, we go to and run events, we do marketing, Research and Development, Accounting, Human Resources, and on and on!
- What are your favorite type of events to cater? I really enjoy planning large scale events where we create an evening that unfolds from beginning to end. Perhaps the cocktail hour starts in one area, and then dinner moves to another styled area, and then dancing and ending the night with campfires and s’mores bar or movie screening and house popcorn bar.
- What inspired you to join the PCA? My mom, one of the PCA founding members! [Monica Grinnell] She thought it would be a great idea and she was right!
- As the Program chair for PCA, what are you excited about for the 2014 events? I love the craft artisan producers or micro-producers happening now in our Portland scene. So events that include these, like we just had Damien Magista from Bee Local Honey as a part of our Whole Grains Baking Program (not to mention Tabor Bread who mills and SELLS their own flours). In our city we have urban wineries (Clay Pigeon), micro coffee roasters, tea producers, liquors, bitters, candy, salt, so many ideas to play around with for programs.
- What is a memorable PCA program that you have attended in the past? I loved the Dungeness Crab Program that we had a few years back where we had courses of amazing crab dishes and then were educated about our local Dungeness Crab business.
- What do you think is the most interesting thing happening in Portland’s culinary scene right now? I think it’s interesting to see what some well established business in Portland are starting to branch out and do or evolve to… like St. Cupcake’s owner doing candy now, Quin; like Stumptown’s founder doing Roman Candle Baking; like BeeLocal bringing Free Trade Honey to us soon!
