Exploring Life & Business with Jenny Levasseur of The Happy Cuisiniere

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Jenny Levasseur.

Hi Jenny, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My love for cooking definitely started with playing pretend. My toy kitchen set wasn’t even cute as a child. It was a metal, squeaky, ugly green oven and fridge my mom picked up from a yard sale. I didn’t care, though; it was my size, and I would open and close the squeaky oven door for hours, making “amazing” meals for my stuffed animals. My Barbie had a nicer kitchen than I did. A combination of that plus a TV show at the time called “Great Chefs, Great Cities,” and I knew what my calling was.

I wanted to head straight to culinary school after high school, but I was told I needed to get a “real degree first”. Back then, and still maybe a little bit now, the restaurant industry is a tough one and my dad insisted on a backup plan. I got sidetracked for a few years in the professional business field, but then I remembered where I felt the most fulfilled: cooking. At 27, I enrolled in Houston Community College’s culinary and pastry degree program and had the most fun 3 years of school in my whole life.

I got a restaurant job! That’s where it looked like all the fun happened. I worked hard, I got yelled at, and I still loved every minute. I had to fight for a position on the line because they always wanted to put me on salad or prep. I love working the line at a restaurant- it’s intense, it’s having a mental to-do list with like 30 different things on it with only two hands and one foot to open and close the oven door with. Soon I didn’t get yelled at anymore, I was a saute cook and I was awesome at it.

But then yet, in the last job I was in, I got fired. Looking back, it had to happen that way, or I would have never decided to make a change, and the change led to growth, which immediately led to me opening my own cheffing business – The Happy Cuisiniere.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Overall, yes! I built a website and menu and got a part-time (noncooking) job in the morning to pay rent. It was very much a smooth transition that my business grew and I was able to go full-time with my business when I was ready. I made it more of an experiment for myself rather than leaping straight in and hoping for the best.

The struggle is going from a commercial kitchen to a 4 burner home kitchen stovetop. We cook on high heat in restaurants, and we create steam and smoke, but the exhaust can handle it- not the house kitchens. During my first year in business, the fire dept came so much that they were like it’s you again!!! Sometimes the oven stinks, and it throws the whole timing off the meal, and you are literally having an oh crap moment mentally, but on the outside, people are like, wow, you are so calm. I’m like, yup, that’s the restaurant experience part.

The biggest challenge in the past few years has been bringing on new chefs trusting them with my brand, and giving our clients the same experience that I want to provide every time. I have an awesome team that loves what we do, and my clients enjoy it, too. It can be really uncomfortable still!

I appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Happy Cuisiniere?
We are a personal chef company located in the mountains in Summit County Co. We cook and serve restaurant-quality meals from start to finish in clients’ homes. A lot of the time, our clients rent a house on vacation, and we are treated as a treat during the trip. The chefs that I choose to be a part of the team and all personable and not intimidating, we fit seamlessly into whatever!

We don’t steal the show. We just add to the enjoyment of the evening. Although we are the main event sometimes, haha. I love our menus, I want them just to be delicious but maybe a little familiar, but done a different way. We just do comfort food with a twist, really well. We also want to provide a mountain experience, so we provide dishes like our Elk Nachos.

Last summer, we brought some fun and nostalgia back by having a dessert of apple cider funnel cakes with caramel, warm blackberries, ice cream, and powdered sugar, of course!

Alright, before we go, can you talk to us a bit about how people can work, collaborate, or support you?
Refer us to a friend or book us for dinner next time you are up in the mountains!

Pricing:

• Around $105- 115 per person, including gratuity for average-sized groups.
• Larger groups/buffet styles can be around $90-100 per person, if it a casual home style dinner we’ve gotten down to 75 people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thehappycuisiniere.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehappycuisiniere/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHappyCuisiniere
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-happy-cuisiniere-breckenridge