The Steamboat Food and Wine Festival featured a mentorship program designed to support longevity and mental health in hospitality industry.
Steamboat is known as a world class location for dining due a wide variety of high-quality restaurants ranging from breakfast nooks to award-winning gourmet establishments.
Owing to that fact, in addition to high expectations and long working hours, it is also a place where hospitality workers need support to meet the challenges of the profession.
Chef Maggie DeMarco used the Steamboat Food and Wine Festival, which was held October 3rd through October 5th, to provide strategies and support to hospitality professionals.
DeMarco’s journey in the food industry began when she, as a child, would wake early in the morning and take breakfast orders, even noting the “color” of toast that her “patrons” wanted.
Courtesy Photo/Maggie DeMarco
As she grew, so did her love for the culinary arts.
In high school, she participated in cooking competitions through the Virginia Beach Technical and Career Education Center, where she was concurrently enrolled. A nation-wide program called C-CAP (Careers Through Culinary Arts) played a key role in her development as a chef.
It was at this time she was exposed to the power of mentorship in culinary pathways.
DeMarco earned a scholarship from C-CAP to the Culinary Institute of America. She became the class valedictorian and served as a peer tutor, cohort leader, and mentor. After graduating, she worked in several high-end and Michelin star restaurants throughout the world.
During her education and employment, she witnessed first-hand what stress, long working hours, and high pressure could do to workers in the culinary industry.
While working at La Marmotte in Telluride, she met Nicole Jarman, organizer of the Steamboat Food and Wine Festival and the Telluride Reserve. Shared values led to a collaboration surrounding a program of mentorship for chefs in mountain towns throughout Colorado, including Steamboat Springs.
Courtesy Photo/Jessie Jacobson
Mountain towns are “unique and special” according to DeMarco. The nature of connection within the community provides a unique opportunity to address the underlying trials that are prevalent within the hospitality industry as a whole.
“The industry has a lot of challenges unique to the profession of being a chef,” said DeMarco. “To have someone who has walked the path that you have walked really fosters the ability to tackle those challenges with someone who has also tackled them already. Also, the profession as a whole is always evolving.”
One of those evolutions involves increased mental health challenges for restaurant workers,
“For so long it has been such a stigmatized and taboo subject in our profession,” she explained. “Chefs are starting to speak up about it. We are changing the profession as a whole and are becoming better leaders within ourselves while making a difference.”
Mental health challenges in the industry can include depression, anxiety, burnout, and the development of unhealthy coping mechanisms, including addiction.
“It’s a lot of stress working in such a fast-paced and sometimes cut-throat environment,” explained DeMarco. “It’s not necessarily about removing the factors that contribute to the stress…but equipping ourselves with more education and healthier coping mechanisms. When we better take care of ourselves, we can also take better care of each other through mentorship.”
Workers being vulnerable, with empathetic support towards one another, leads to people becoming resources, ultimately overcoming what DeMarco describes as the “go cry in the walk-in” mentality.
“For me, it’s a two way street,” said DeMarco. “As much as I am teaching them, they are also teaching me. Through the experience of guiding them, I am developing myself.”
Pioneering this change results in healthy and long careers in the hospitality industry.
DeMarco believes that it is just as important as knowing the basics of cooking. By ensuring that students and workers are knowledgeable about industry pressures, while knowing how they can promote self-care and a healthier life balance, they can enjoy their profession and focus on their careers.
The Steamboat Food and Wine Festival featured mentees working alongside professional chefs in almost each event, which provided first-hand experience regarding the pressures of a high-end gourmet festival and how to handle it in a positive and proactive manner. DeMarco regularly checked in with mentees as they prepared for the festival, replacing anxious mental scripts with harnessed positive energy based on success and excitement.
DeMarco also monitored mentees during the festival to make it a full experience in mental health aligning with the mentorship component.
She noted that programs like this are especially important in areas like Steamboat Springs where the hospitality industry is a large sector of the workforce.
“We are accustomed to self-sacrifice and abandoning our own needs for the sake of delivering the highest level of hospitality for other people’s experiences,” closed DeMarco. “It comes down to having a compassionate approach and not teaching people to suppress what they are feeling, but to harness it and step into their own power and be in control of their body and mind.”
In October, Steamboat Locals’ writer John Camponeschi will be presenting you a four-part series of stories about the culinary arts in Routt County and the people who continually push the boundaries of our local offerings.
Read: Meat Bar – Centered on Community
Read: Rex’s Family – A Spirit of Community
This series of stories is proudly presented to you by Jon Wade and The Steamboat Group as a continuation of their commitment to “Keep Steamboat Special” by supporting non-profits and events that promote a healthy Steamboat lifestyle! You can also support their efforts simply by making a request on the Steamboat Locals Choice for Music. For every song request made in the month of October, The Steamboat Group will donate $2 to LiftUp, up to $500 total!