Chef's Bio

Jessica Sequoia Stutz, Chef/Proprietress

My approach to cooking and food is this,

Use the best product available, cook with your heart and soul, present it in an understated elegant fashion and always keep whom you are cooking for in mind.

My childhood was spent in the Santa Cruz Mountains with my mother raising goats, chickens, ducks and rabbits. I had the responsibility of collecting the eggs, milking the goats and feeding the animals. Many fond memories of grazing though the garden nibbling on tomatoes and sugar peas while my mother happily pulled weeds. My father "Daddio" was a renowned commercial and big game fisherman working in the waters of the Pacific Northwest, Caribbean, the coast of Africa and South America. He would often send for me allowing me to tag along on his "Hemingway" like adventures. From an early age I understood how to grow, catch and prepare food respecting the bounty that comes from land and sea.

Childhood summers were spent picking blackberries, making jam, cobblers, pies and fishing for King Salmon on the Klamath and Rogue rivers. I learned to bake by watching my grandmother turn croissant pastry by hand. She was a real beast in the kitchen but always had time to show me her techniques. My grandfather would can, cure and smoke his own catch. He was a trained chef, who when I was 19, gave me his 1920 copy of The Epicurean and his old school carbon steal chefs knifes. With a wink and smile he said, "You want to be a chef? Learn the basics Jess".

I went to the "Culinary School of Hard Knocks", jumping right into the thick of it with my Grandfather's wisdom always in mind. My first professional culinary experience started at Gayle's in Capitola in 1990 serving hundreds upon hundreds of patrons any given weekend. Since then I have been fortunate in working with some of the areas best chefs and restaurateurs. Michael's on Main, Café Gabriella, Kelly's French Bakery, Pearl Alley Bistro and Convivio are a few.

I now have over 20 years real world culinary experience that I apply every day at Coastal Catering. I go to the farmer market and hand select the finest local produce myself, Ill haggle with the fish monger for the freshest catch of the day and I over see every single dish that we serve. Yes, your meal is that important to me and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Jessica, age 7, trout fishing

Mark, Jessica's father, fishing off the coast of Africa