People
2022 Oklahoma Creativity Ambassadors Inducted Following are the 2022 Oklahoma Creativity Ambassadors and their biographies. Elizabeth Frame Ellison CEO, Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation & Founder, Kitchen 66 and Mother Road Market As CEO of LTFF, Elizabeth Ellison seeks to build equity in the community by reducing barriers for small business entrepreneurs. In 2016, Ellison created the first program in Tulsa to teach food entrepreneurs the business side of food with a sincere belief that business and testing opportunities would decrease the incredibly high failure rate of food businesses. The program, called Kitchen 66, is Tulsa’s kick-start kitchen and a food incubator that has helped more than 200 culinary entrepreneurs go from idea to market in the city’s growing food industry. It offers a 3,000 square foot, stateof-the-art commercial kitchen and provides food entrepreneurs the resources to establish culinary production plus, open test restaurants. Kitchen 66 members also benefit from the Launch Program where they receive restaurant advice and business wisdom offered by seasoned mentors. In 2021, Kitchen 66 expanded its reach and curriculum to assist Spanish-speaking food entrepreneurs with the Cocina 66 program. In addition, Kitchen 66 runs a retail General Store allowing entrepreneurs the ability to pilot test their latest concepts within the innovative Mother Road Market, Oklahoma’s only nonprofit food hall, also founded by Ellison. Within a year following its grand opening in November 2018, Mother Road Market surpassed $7.5 million in overall sales and created 250+ new jobs. Entrepreneurs in MRM are offered short-term lease opportunities for Kitchen 66 grads, 84 ion Oklahoma March/April 2022
plus pop up spaces with low risk. There is no other concept in the country that combines training and retail scaling opportunities for culinary entrepreneurs like Kitchen 66 and Mother Road Market. To learn more about Kitchen 66 and Mother Road Market founder, Elizabeth Frame Ellison, visit www.elizabethframeellison.com.
Chef Kurt Fleischfresser Executive Chef, VAST, and partner Western Concepts Restaurant Group At age 20, Chef Kurt Fleischfresser began his career at Le Vichyssoise in Chicago under Chef Bernard Cretier. He went on to perfect his culinary skills at some of the finest restaurants in the nation. Chef Kurt has twice been invited to the world-renown James Beard House in New York City as part of the Great Regional Chefs Program and is a two-time finalist in the prestigious American Culinary Gold Cup Competition which