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Meet Kayla Ferguson of The Same Plate in Denver Metro

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayla Ferguson.

Kayla, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
In 2015, I left my corporate Hollywood job to travel the world. From 2015-2016, I visited 26 countries from Tokyo, Japan to Macchu Picchu, Peru, ultimately landing back in Denver, my hometown. In January 2019, I was really missing immersion into different cultures and was really wanting to connect with the Denver community, so I started bringing friends together over cultural food experiences and The Same Plate was born.

The company name is a tribute to a memorable discussion I had with the owner’s daughter at The Ethiopian Restaurant, the first restaurant friends gathered at. The woman said:

“Our food is really reflective of our people. We all eat off of the same plate when we are together.”

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
All things considered, I’ve been incredibly blessed. By the third month of putting cultural dinners together (March of 2019), I had 30 people showing up, just via a post on my Facebook page. It was so humbling to have so many people showing up for something I was so excited about with admittedly not much effort. It was about that time that I said to myself “maybe I have a really great concept here, I should see what I can do with it.”

Any struggles I’ve faced have just come with being new to business. I have a creative, liberal arts background and I have no shortage of ideas, but not a whole lot of experience building and executing a sustainable business. So there have been a lot of lessons learned along the way, but I’ve found that if I just embrace them as fun learning experiences, there isn’t a single day that isn’t the most exciting one yet.

And I know that business doesn’t exist without struggle, so I’m ready!

We’d love to hear more about your work.
The tagline I use for The Same Plate is “curated cultural food experiences.” I specialize in building relationships with restaurants around Denver and curating a food experience for people who want to “travel locally” right here in our backyard. The other thing I like to mention about The Same Plate that is really important to me is that we only go to restaurants where the owners are from the same place as the food we are eating. That’s not to say that some of these hip new fusion restaurants popping up around Denver aren’t enjoyable, but with this initiative, I really want to give people as authentic of an experience as possible and support the immigrant populations around Denver.

For the most part I’ve put on large group dinners, however, I’ve also started recently doing private 2-4 person events that are curated specifically for the people who request it. What I’m most proud of and what sets me apart go hand in hand with each other. I’m really proud of my story (traveling around the world for a year after leaving corporate Hollywood) and how this business was born out of that and how it adds an authenticity to the business idea; I really can’t think of things I love much more than connecting with other cultures.

What were you like growing up?
I think most people would describe me both then and now as endlessly energetic. I generally have more energy than I know what to do with, so growing up I was always running around outside, playing sports, and as I got older was always bouncing from idea to idea. As my mom says: “not much grass grows under your feet.”

I have a really wide range of interests – in early 2019 I also published a children’s book, and I run 100-mile races in my free time – and one thing that I love about The Same Plate is how it brings so many things that I love under one umbrella and gives me a focus and direction that I haven’t really experienced before now.

Other interests that still remain strong in my life: scuba diving, my cats, running/hiking/backpacking, travel (of course), I love to read and write and have various art projects sitting in the basement I’ll get around to finishing someday (maybe). This year I’m taking Spanish and French lessons and in 2021 I want to learn the violin. I also am very passionate about sustainability and keeping our planet around for as long as possible.

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