Our new Monastery Chef, Brian Maki, will have his first day of work at Holy Wisdom Monastery on Tuesday, April 25. He is looking forward to serving others with you, as part of the monastery’s mission. Below is a note from him:
“Hello everyone!
My name is Brian and I’m very excited to be starting my new chapter as the Chef for Holy Wisdom Monastery in the coming weeks. I wanted to write a short note to you as an opportunity to introduce myself.
I started my career in the culinary field as a young dishwasher and instantly fell in love with the professional kitchen. I still remember looking into the kitchen on my first day and feeling struck with awe from the aromas, high energy, colors and ingredients being used. I was instantly hooked and I knew it was the beginning of my long kitchen career. I slowly worked my way up the ladder in my early years, learning from everyone I could in the kitchen. I traveled and read books in order to learn more about cuisines whenever possible during my free time.
After a lengthy stretch of time working long evening hours and early mornings, I decided to make a change and move my career into corporate dining. My son Miles was about to be welcomed into the world and I needed to find a more suitable schedule for family life.
Shortly after making this decision, I found myself serving as Sous Chef for Google’s Madison office for the next four years, leading a team of professional cooks and providing a high standard of corporate dining to our guests. I left Google’s culinary program in 2021 and began a new position as Sous Chef for Exact Sciences’ new and evolving corporate catering program where our team worked as a farm to table operation as much as possible. It was a very exciting and new challenge to feed so many with a farm to table mentality and mission.
I believe there is a great opportunity with food to share stories and traditions from other cultures and perspectives, ultimately bringing us all closer together. This is what drives and inspires me everyday.
In my free time I love to be outdoors camping, hiking, kayaking, biking and snowboarding in the winter. Reading a book, caring for my houseplants and creating art is always a great escape for me in the evenings.
I’m very much looking forward to meeting all of you. Thank you for welcoming me into your organization.”
Comments 5
Thank you for this beautiful introduction, Brian. I’m looking forward to getting to know you and can’t wait to receive the fruit of your years of labor!
Welcome, Brian. Thank you for sharing your food history. Your enthusiasm for farm to table is wonderful, since the monastery garden has such lovely produce to use. Looking forward to meeting you and enjoying your work.
Welcome Brian. It will be a pleasure to meet you and enjoy HWM together. Blessings on the transition.
Welcome, Brian. Good, nourishing food has long been an important part of Holy Wisdom’s hospitality. Blessings on your culinary efforts here.
Brian,
There are three basic needs that must be met for human health and happiness to be initiatied and to grow. Those needs are Food, Clothing, and Shelter. May your sharing with Holy Wisdom your talent and creativity to meet the first need, Food, be richly blessed.
Paul teaches in his first letter to the Corinthians that in the end only three things shall last, Faith, Hope and Love, and the greatest of these is Love. May your family be as blessed by the love offered to you by the many communities here at Holy Widsom, as you and your family’s love are a blessing to us.