Chef Rachel's Story
Rachel has loved cooking ever since she was a little girl- while other kids were watching cartoons on Saturday mornings she was watching the Food Network being inspired by famous chefs. Gordon Ramsay, Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, Ming Tsai, Jamie Oliver, and so many others shaped who she is and inspired her to have a culinary themed Bat Mitzvah even, creating centerpeices with recipes and ingredients for people to win. Rachel dreamed of learning French and attending the Cordeon Bleu in France one day, and although she spent 4 years of highschool learning French, the dream of attending culinary school was pushed from her reality thinking it wasn't a likely career since it was a little less traditional. She grew up helping her mother in the kitchen and would always try new concoctions and combine different ingredients and have her parents get new foods at the store to try.
After attending college and getting a Bachelor's in teaching, Rachel attended bartending school which ignited her passion for creating and made her realize how much she really wanted to cook professionally and her passion drew her towards culinary school where the magic happened. Upon graduating from culinary school, Rachel began working at a small catering company throwing intimate dinner parties in Beverly Hills and soon after began working in some of the best country clubs in Southern California. She worked her way up in multiple restaurants, theaters and upscale gastropubs eventually realizing she wanted more out of work.
She met her husband and everything changed- they wanted to cook and travel the world and figured out a way to make it happen. They dropped everything and headed to Europe to embark on a year long adventure of a lifetime. They traveled all over Europe staying on farms learning about sustainability, composting, cooking with farm fresh ingredients and learning so many amazing skills along the way. The plan was to be gone for a year however things changed when Rachel found out she was pregnant one month into their trip. After travelling through France, Monaco, Switzerland, Italy and Crotaia for almost 8 months they decided to go back home to California to set down roots.
After having a beautiful daughter over 6 years ago Chef Rachel went on a health and wellness journey of her own diving into looking at what went into our foods- primarily the packaged convenient meals we all knew and loved growing up. She had the hardest time finding wholesome food that actually tasted good but was convenient in ordering and preparing in a timely manner. She tried various meal services, prepped kits and although some were convenient, the mass amount of wasteful packaging, time it would still take to make meals and many of the tastes just didn't impress her. She realized the homemade food she made was better than any service she could get and the idea of Ray2ZCooking was born.
Rachel's main goal is to provide a service for moms and busy professionals alike who want good quality food that is also convenient and affordable! Rachel's mission is to help as many people as she can providing healthy, scratch made meals and bringing that restaurant experience right into their homes. Her and her husband currently live in the heart of the Wine Valley with their two children in Newberg, OR and business is expanding quickly. With 3 years in business they are so excited to be helping out so many people averaging over 450 meals every week!