Best Prices on Spices.

Olivia Eckert

Velvet Buffalo

Modern Italian 500 Public Ave

Beloit, WI 53511

Birthplace: Janesville, Wisconsin

Current Position:

Executive Chef

First Foodservice Job:

I was an intern at A Pig in a Fur Coat in Madison, Wisc.

Favorite Food: Pâté I love pâté.

Awards/Honors: (I) helped open Lark, in Janesville, Wisconsin. It won best new restaurant.

Proprietary

Memorable Customers: When my restaurant shut down during the pandemic, some of my regular customers asked if I could cater meals for them. I ended up catering all summer once or twice a week for them and a lot of others. It wasn’t even about the money I was making, it was honestly just so nice to still cook. Plus they let me create my own menus each week so that was really fun.

Worst Part of Job: Breakfast events. I love eating eggs, hate cooking eggs

Most Humorous Kitchen Mishap: My first month being a sous chef at Velvet Buffalo, I was rolling out pasta sheets and I had my hand up too high. I ended up bumping some silpats we had hanging on a hook above the machine, and they slid right down into the pasta machine. We had to cut them out.

Favorite Food to prepare: Making sauces is definitely my favorite thing to do. I like finding an ingredient I want to use and just getting to play with the flavors and create something! Pasta would be my second favorite, hand rolling out and creating fun shapes is really fun. We have Caramelles on the menu right now, like look like the shape of jolly rancher candies!

What part of the job gives the most pleasure? Plating. Creating food and making it taste good is sometimes the easy part. Plating something beautiful definitely seals the deal. In the summer with all the green produce it's easier, making a dark stew look bright and clean can be a little more challenging!

If you couldn’t be a chef, what would you be and why? I always joked I would open a power washing business, I find power washing very satisfying.

Best advice you ever got was...Slow down and taste everything. Where do you like to vacation? Any foodie places. I've traveled a lot by myself just to go eat everything. Charleston was my favorite, it was like a chill New Orleans. Full of culture, history and food without the smell of pee. I got the chance to study abroad in Ireland and learning about the culture over there was really amazing. I'd like to go overseas again soon, Greece and Peru are on the top of my list.

Who was your greatest culinary influence? I watch a lot of Top Chef, I’ve re-watched a lot of the seasons. Their creativity on a clock is so cool to me, I don’t ever want to go on the show but I love watching it. It was my mom that made me become a chef though, I went to school to be an art therapist at first, failed one of my core classes; she convinced me to take a semester off and go to culinary school. So very thankful for her.

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