Professional Chef Natalie Allesee is classically trained, with 15 years of restaurant experience. She spent 4 years as the Senior Sous Chef of the former James Beard nominated Heartland Restaurant, where she fell in love with creating daily changing menus, and working exclusively with local products. She has run kitchens in Duluth, Portland Maine, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and was most recently the Executive Chef of The Lynhall before leaving to start her own private dining & event focused personal chef organization. Natalie founded Rowan & Dough on the principals of working with the best products possible. She enjoys creating menus that are low waste and showcase Northern inspired cuisine.
As climate change progresses, and ingredients get more difficult to source & grow, it is paramount that as an industry we start to adapt to an ever changing world. It has to go beyond sourcing locally when it's convenient. We believe that through education & compassion, we can usher in a new era in our industry. This era begins with beyond livable wages & positive cultural influences for staff, food that can be approachable to guests on different economic levels, sourcing well & limiting waste. We aren't perfect, but we do the best we can, and are committed to learning and always striving towards doing better. We all do better when we all do better, so let's all do better.
We source our ingredients from Minneapolis & Saint Paul farmers markets, local food co-operatives, & a large range of local farmers What we don't purchase locally, we make sure follows our ethos as an organization.
We are honored to take part in your lives. We exist to help you create memories. We custom curate our experiences to fit your needs. Whether it's cooking a familiar dish, or wowing people with elevated menus, our goal is curate joy & connection through the experience of a meal.