Exploring Life & Business with Colton Wagner

Today we’d like to introduce you to Colton Wagner.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am chef Colton Wagner the owner and founder of The Colorado Cache, LLC- Personal Chef Services I was born and raised in Durango, Colorado and I am a multi-generation Coloradoan. Growing up my family taught me the importance of working hard. I grew up in a very classic western family going to rodeos and doing cowboy things. We have a small ranch and when I was a kid you could find me hunting for rabbits or hanging out with my grandmother. We’d often be harvesting fresh vegetables or making elk sausage from our hunt that winter. My grandfather who started the ranch grew up in the farmland of Colorado during the 1930s. This was a very difficult time to survive in Colorado. It was important to know how to grow and hunt for your food. Continuing to embrace my family’s traditions is important to me and one of my biggest values. For many years I asked myself what type of career I could have and still embrace these traditions.

When I was 15 years old, I had to get a job. Like many cooks, I started off washing dishes and doing prep at a well-known steakhouse in downtown Durango. After a couple of years of peeling potatoes and shucking thousands of oysters, I slowly worked my way up the kitchen ranks. This was when my love for the culinary world began. After high school, I moved to Beaver Creek Resort in the Vail Valley. For the next two years, I attended a small culinary school. I was able to work on multiple restaurant concepts in a short period of time. I was learning classic French techniques one day and rolling pasta the next. I was cooking under some of the toughest and most prestigious chefs in mountains. Cooking was life. Period.

It was time to head to the city. I was offered a sous chef position at a Gastro Pub in Cherry Creek, Denver. Here I was able to express my full view of culinary creativity. I took my experience going back to childhood and started to apply it to the fine-dining world. I was young and ambitious. In 2012 I moved to Boulder, CO, and fell in love. This is where I currently reside with my lovely wife and daughter. At the age of 23, I was humbled to be offered my first executive chef position working for the famous farm-to-table concept, The Kitchen. I spent the next 6 years as the head chef running my own kitchen. During my tenure working for The Kitchen Restaurant Group was recognized for many incredible local and National awards. I eventually became the National Training Chef and had the opportunity to travel the country and help open new restaurants.

I wanted more so I began to take my culinary research global. I spent time staging in Michelin-starred restaurants in New York City. I traveled to Peru, Spain, and France to eat and study. These incredible places drove my passion and love for science and gastronomy. I was able to explore the Michelin star world. These moments opened my eyes to the endless possibilities that can be created in the culinary world.

In 2019 I took a break from restaurants and took my knowledge and experience to the cannabis industry. I became a scientific formulator extracting and cooking with cannabis. I have done everything from fine-dining cannabis tasting menus to making edibles for several award-winning cannabis companies. In 2022 I began to follow my dream by starting my own small business, The Colorado Cache. This is now my own personal outlet to show the world everything I’ve learned in my career and put it into dining experiences for our community.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The hospitality industry is one of the most challenging industries to work in. That’s exactly why I’ve loved it my whole life. Hard work is in my blood and the feeling of accomplishment after a 15-hour day, there is no better feeling.

However, the industry has seen some major changes in the last 5 years. The pandemic really exposed some of the large issues that are only sort of being addressed now. I spent many of my younger years working in environments where verbal abuse, insane hours, and hostile work environments were acceptable. This isn’t the case as much anymore. The younger generation of chefs wants to have more of a work-life balance. I feel it too. I’m a father now and so having some flexibility is important to me.

We’ve been impressed with The Colorado Cache, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The Colorado Cache, LLC is a personal chef company focusing on upscale and casual dining experiences in Colorado.

We focus on elopements, micro weddings, and unique dining events. We are a small team of very seasoned hospitality professionals that continue to work on bettering ourselves every day. We also focus on not only providing exceptional food but also incredible hospitality. As the chef-owner, I believe the difference between a good dining experience and an exceptional dining experience is having hospitality be in line with the chef’s food. Many chefs can cook incredible food, but having the full package takes it to another level.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
The Colorado Cache is new and growing! We would like to continue to focus on becoming the “go-to” company for elopements & micro-weddings. There are so many incredible photographers in Colorado, and we are starting a program this year to incentives photographers that want to work with us! We love to travel around the state and these types of events have been such a success for us in the past.

Sourcing is so important to us, so I am always on the hunt for new incredible ingredients to work with! And most importantly we can’t wait to add more clients to our list!

Contact Info:

• Website: thecoloradocache.com
• Instagram: @thecoloradocache

Image Credits
Nina Larsen Reed