Hello! I’m Chef Carly! And as you can see, I’m great at writing about food, but not so great about writing about myself, and that’s ok! I feel like all of my food speaks for me, and that’s really why we’re all here isn’t it?
I’ve always wanted to be a chef, more specifically a cake decorator. The obsession started young, with physical documentation at 5 years old. Not many people get to say they grew up to what they wanted to be when they were younger (thank goodness I wasn’t the crossing guard I also hoped to be am I right?) and I am extremely proud to say I did. Over the past 10+ years I’ve been exploring the culinary realm cooking on lines, tackling a short-lived executive chef position, being the pastry chef of a new restaurant, serving, bartending, baking, writing for a local magazine, and most recently, starting my own baking business and blogging!
I’ve always shied away from the question, “what’s your favorite thing to make/bake” because it seems so limiting. I don’t have a favorite. I use food as my artistic medium, and put a little piece of my heart into every dish I make. I think it’s the love for me that makes me excited to cook. Being able to share the experiences of flavors, textures, happiness, and newness in food is my love language.
I decided to start sharing my love language with others in a print format in 2016 with Appleton Monthly Magazine. If you’re in the Fox Valley area of Wisconsin, check it out! From there I launched my small baking business in 2020, thanks to the shut down of the restaurant I was working at. From there I started sharing my recipes on my instagram, and now I’ve started transitioning to this blog, Chef Carly!
I hope all of these recipes bring you joy and happiness with all you chose to share them with, even if it’s just yourself. I purposefully try to leave out all the mumbo-jumbo personal stories to get you straight to the point. As a proud introvert, I invite you to join me in my life motto, “I’m just here for the food.”
Happy cooking, and happy eating!
Chef Carly