 Hi everybody, I'm Ginny Schuster with Who Do You Know? and we all know that life is about Who Do You Know? Today I am excited to have Ken Wybal with us and he is a chef. I met him on LinkedIn. I saw this beautiful picture of a delicious dessert and I knew I had to connect with him and I'm thinking now what took him into that field? How is it that he creates such beautiful desserts that are ipotizing as my mother would call it? So welcome Ken. Thank you for coming on. Well thank you for having me. This is quite the delight and a treat because it's outside of the normal what I do up here at the ranch. So Ken, you're at Vista Verde Guess Ranch outside of Steamboat. So do you want to tell us how you ended up getting there? What was the path that you took to get where you are? Ultimately it's it's like a 20-year journey of culinary adventure that I've had of various sorts between restaurants catering, private chef, personal chef, lessons, even kitchen cleaning I started doing last year in COVID. Just catering when I went out the window with COVID. So I was also most recently a guest chef at a restaurant I helped open two years ago in Highlands Ranch in the Denver Metro area. But ultimately I was looking for something a little more I guess all-inclusive for myself because I was so scattered doing so many different things. I started to also because I actually have a twilight goal of running and while owning and operating a bed and breakfast type of facility where I could be like a private chef for a small group of rotating people on an ongoing basis breakfast lunch and dinner type of thing because what I've discovered as the personal or private chef is that one of my favorite things to do was that those retreats that take place up in the Colorado mountains of various groups. It could be business, it could be yoga, health and wellness, family and I take the burden off of all those culinary responsibilities and come up with wonderful things and it's such a pleasant, delightful, intimate gathering when you're able to do something like that. And so I developed this sort of dream of one day and that would be my final destination would be owning and operating that bed and breakfast here in Colorado because Colorado is amazing. Yes definitely so you have a lot of things on your plate as far as should you go that route you have to think about being an entrepreneur and there are so many things that go get involved with being an entrepreneur. I'm sure you're finding that out if you don't already know. Are you going to have employees and you're accounting how do you set up the business and how do you network and get your name out there that sort of stuff. I'm sure you've thought about that but you seem to be getting your name out. Oh that's part of it too. I was essentially blessed in such a way I could never do culinary 100 percent while it was married because I found it to be harmful to the marriage you could say and so I did a lot that's why I did a lot of like small things here and there but I was very fortunate that I was able to do things like be a business and marketing consultant for the South Metro Deverechimer commerce and so I developed these skills to not only network but understand the value of people around me and their contributions and being able to either recognize or utilize the various people around me for that assistance of the things I don't want to do. I want to be in the kitchen period. Good point and so you're bringing in the connections you know it's all about who do you know and how can you network and who knows who to help you out but also I notice Ken you got to have a clear goal and it sounds to me as though you have come up with it. Well that's true and so what happened was when I was looking for more consolidated work for me to do this last year in the Denver Metro area I started to look at the job openings occurring in hospitality so that I can get more of that under my belt and I first applied to a position at the Amara resort in Sedona Arizona and that made me realize I was willing to relocate to some extent even though my kids are in the Denver Metro area but they're getting older enough where I can have some gap in between visits and that's okay but that didn't work out and then this job here at Vista Verde came up and I simply just applied not really knowing too much about it but the more I looked at the website and the blogs that people write about this place the YouTube video that people make about this place I soon understood that this was an actual dream job of its own and I could not believe that for example they have a down season here every November and April where they close okay and as the sous chef here they are giving me paid vacation on those two months oh nice and I have not had a paid vacation in over 10 years thank you he says I just I blows my mind to even just think about it so I'll be returning to the Denver Metro at the end of October and then most in November I'll be in the Denver Metro and I don't have to work it's unbelievable you get to visit with your kids and be one on one with them that's huge family is where it's at it is it is and then when my kids like uh well my my kids are 18 and 15 right my daughter is 15 I will love to spend time back in the metro area with her oh I bet for once she leaves the nest well all those november's and april's off I want to travel there you go maybe with them maybe without them so tell us a little bit more about Verde just uh you might as well brag a little bit about it it sounds like a terrific guest ranch it's it's it's amazing really um it's a uh well all inclusive guest ranch and imagine this you have the choice when you arrive of doing things like all-day horseback riding fly fishing uh hiking uh mountain biking um in the winter you can do snowshoeing you can do cross-country skiing um snowmobiles uh you name it and I'm in the summer we're doing those paddle boards on the different lakes around here up here there's like uh five state parks up here too that's how amazing it is oh my goodness so how how many acres is it well I want to say it's about a hundred acres here but it backs up to national forest so they have two trails and whatnot that go on for millions of acres it seems like so it's uh it's really amazing that's fun so being a chef do you get to choose the meals that you want or are you given a little bit of direction well um they have kind of a set menu if you will um and do a formal dinner on mondays wednesdays and fridays nice but those change up a little bit based on kind of what we can get in uh it's kind of nice that here at the ranch we still get the food truck deliveries from that uh but we have to use several to get what we need but we also are blessed by getting eggs from a nearby ranch bacon from a nearby ranch and so those types of things are uh readily available um and very nice um but uh they as a sous chef right I just kind of help with everything um and then a lot of nights it's uh hey we need an order for the happy hour that occurs which is every night and they do sometimes the same things but then I come along and now that I'm here I introduce a lot of new things and I'm I'm mainly just looking at things that probably need to get used before they go bad but at the same time um and and I think you mentioned earlier about how the the the dish I used you noticed looked good and I actually I don't have any type of culinary education but I do have a degree in graphic design I am yes definitely I can see it come out in that plate and I think you almost have to have that ability when you're a chef don't you well uh creativity is is huge yeah but also understanding that there's you know food can also be a feast for the eyes right you know and and that makes it a lot more fun and that's very important as my mother would always say as I mentioned earlier she always liked the word appetizing as well as appetizing oh that's very nice yeah she was original that's cool so you get to plan the whole meal the whole way through so you have to do the appetizers you have to do the not have to but I'm sure you enjoy the regular main menu as well as dessert every single time or is that basically the the formal dinners and then you have a lot more slack for breakfast and lunch they actually do have um I want to say a really great team approach to everything here um because not only do I work with the executive chef but the food and beverage director um is also a chef and the two of them uh do major contributions and then we have uh four different line cooks that also work with us as well as a pastry chef wow it is a robust culinary operation here um the formal dinners are extraordinary because they they offer two choices of appetizer and then three choices of entree so you might have a a fish a major protein and then a vegetarian option okay and then we can make variations from those dishes but but those formal dinners are things you would get at the nicest restaurants in denver for example and give me an idea of what size groups you have there okay like right now we have 30 guests staying in the various cabins um in the summer when the larger cabins have entire families including kids it can expand typically up to 60 people um and that's about it um average was probably 30 to 35 now is it uh different families or is it usually one full extended family oh well the cabins themselves uh will hold various families but strangely enough uh as an example um the group that's in here now is just here sunday through thursday morning okay thursday afternoon uh one man uh bought out the entire ranch and is bringing 40 of his friends oh wow to celebrate his 50th birthday no kidding how fun now that's a celebration and these cabins are really nice um are they very very well appointed and i i say all inclusive right if you tell them i i want cabernet sauvignon from a particular vineyard every day i want pellegrino i want la croix i want uh jack daniels uh for every night for my coke every night i mean that's what they put in there and then they have there's a hot tub on the patio and some of the neat youtube videos are people that are in their hot tub then they jump over the ledge into the snow and then they go back in the hot tub oh my goodness that is so fun wow that would be a memorable 50th birthday holy crow wow i can tell because he even you know requested very specific menu items for and it'll be uh thursday through sunday that his group will be here and you know and what a delight for us oh i know and are you allowed to interact with a lot of the people so you get to meet those people you know the chef get introduced to them or do you kind of lay low um what's interesting is uh as the sous chef i don't have the opportunity to do a lot but the ranch hands the wranglers the housekeepers the you know so many of the staff the guides out there right they they do and they even call it it's the it's the secret sauce here at this diverty because the guests love having these different and it's such a varied age group too that come in and work here interesting and they have their own stories uh to tell and then the people that come here just love having the people sit down enjoy happy hour with them enjoy some of the meals with them um it's a really like all inclusive i'm not kidding there's so much to do here oh that sounds wonderful i did visit the website and it looks so delightful it even shows a map of some of the different buildings and the i don't know whether you call them cottages different houses for the different people or and or the lodge that probably hold some people if they want to sleep there as well that's true the main building itself does have uh three rooms but only one of them has the hot tub oh that's for the birthday boy yeah not sure what he's staying yeah oh that's fun so if if they're hiring what kind of people are they looking for when you want to put in a should someone listening be interested in getting hired on there give us an idea of what type of people they enjoy having hands on there um i think a lot of the staff here are uh for example um i see so many different degrees so it's not a particular degree it happens to be i think people that love horses for example okay come in uh kids in college right come here in the summer and work uh kids after college come here and work for a season or two and it gives them a sort of like some ranch type experience i think um but it's also so beautiful year-round and you know even i on my day off i could go with a group to go fly fishing if i wanted to um on my day off i could go get a massage i could you know get all sorts of things and well they do massage there also oh yeah i'm i'm not kidding it is a ton of things they even have like leatherworking class photography classes um cooking classes which is i'm going to get on in the winter time wow um they have wine tastings um they literally have a wine cellar here bigger than any restaurant i've seen in Denver um full of different wines because they they do wine pairings with the formal dinners and then they offer these bottles for sale to the guest if they want and so they're able to utilize uh a the space but b really try to target the the needs and wants of the clientele in some way so do they have to when they sign up to come there do they have to know ahead of time what they want to do whether it's wine tasting or horseback riding all those different things the leather work they might have a good idea before they get here but once they get here they have the opportunity to change um sign up or whatever they wish i imagine many don't have the final decision until maybe even the day of because they probably are more descriptive and getting on site it's probably easier to decide and see what's available there sure sure but they have wonderful people like you know i mentioned 30 people right now up to 60 well there's over 70 people on staff it's a little smaller right now as a lot of kids have returned to college or other they took another job elsewhere so our staff is a little bit reduced but it seems as though there are always more staff than guests here and so it gives uh i think a really good sense of customer service that is yes top notch it sounds terrific now you told me at the beginning that you are a good storyteller do you have a good story to tell oh well um like one of my best stories is my culinary journey but also um my love of uh i think food itself is also fantastic i'm an only child but i i ended up getting as a total blessing exchange students uh to uh spend some time with me growing up and in return i went to visit them in their countries nice at the age of 16 i'm traveling to egypt by myself oh wow you spend time with an exchange student uh that had spent the year with us and and then i also basically hooked up with another group of students that was doing some traveling around uh egypt um but that's at the stage i think for the rest of my life and when i got home from egypt sitting in my kitchen was a boy from uh laspezia italy and he and i he and i became like brothers really and so not only did i go to italy after that year of high school my family came at some point and nico was our tour guide around italy i came back again in the spring break of my senior year uh basically though to just ask permission if it was okay if i spent a year with them in italy fair fair he was with us for a year can't i be with you for a year yep they they were obviously very delighted and so my first year out of high school i spent a year in italy and that really really sort of nailed down a true passion for food by totally because now was it pasta and um the italian i i have friends who go over to italy all the time and they have gotten to love the wine there and the food which mostly i believe is pasta but maybe not oh it's so many things um one of the most extraordinary things is that like like sunday afternoon family meal which has pasta is one of 30 things sitting on the table wow someone was cooking in the the kitchen yeah the italian style of cooking is not necessarily built around pasta but the italian style and i even call myself an italian style chef and that is layering flavors with the freshest possible ingredients and by doing so you can build so many extraordinary things uh lasagna is a great example of that because you're building sauces you're building components and then you build it together and it makes a beautiful thing but they do that with meats i mean the tuscan steak is extraordinary and it's so simple now is it because it's marinated or what what is the secret besides what sauces or just it's like it's just a huge delicious piece of beef that they grill uh with a little salt and pepper maybe a little olive oil and that's it and it just it's beautiful unbelievable but everywhere you go in italy you travel one mile and the food and the language starts to change really so they have um what is italian um i think of it as mostly spanish am i is there italian yes so the italian language is one of the basically romantic languages that came from latin and so it's similar but there is not a lot of crossover with spanish or french you know or portuguese for that matter they tend to have their own words for things especially the dialects that occur it all throughout italy they have their own words for different things you know so so did you learn italian i did i still actually speak italian fun nice i'm not sure how except that i did go to the university of florence in italy and they did have an oral examination they said to get entrance into the school and so i not only studied my senior year of high school i was going to the italian cultural center in san diego to take classes once i got there i took classes with a group of foreigners if you will and then once once i got down to florence i then had a private tutor so that i could nail this entrance exam and so i go into the entrance exam and it's some professor behind a bunch of books and paperwork and he just not even looking at him saying what's your name and like he's filling out a form like where are you from and he's like three or four simple questions and that was it and you were in huh but what was neat though was that by december like i had i struggled as the classes started uh but by december i was thinking in it in italian dreaming in italian wow it's like a a switch was flipped you know and boom i was good to go and i i think that's the best way to actually learn a language is by just getting right in there into the country of the language that you want i know in the beginning i'm sure that your brain is swimming with all the the words and trying to keep up with that but it's going to be faster as opposed to taking years to learn a language you know as you said a couple months and you're not only dreaming completely thinking in italian got to be tough because it hurts the brain well you're absolutely fascinating is there can people get in touch with you if they want to know more about chef life if this is something of interest how do you reach out to those people who want to follow in your tracks oh probably the best just like yourself linkedin is a fantastic communication tool where we tend to focus on business related topics um okay as opposed to the other social media channels that get a little more frivolous if you will right on content but um i'm also i call facebook my playground and i will share information with anybody that wants to reach out because they can send me a message without even connecting with me uh on facebook and i will say okay okay but linkedin um i accept all connection requests on linkedin and i'm actively uh connected with other chefs especially on linkedin perfect so that i can have that ongoing conversation in the industry but also those that are interested they can also then just reach out to me at any level and love talking about it and anyway i can see that it's your passion what a great job you have and i love i love the place you're working it just looks so super it's it's it's incredible it really is what a fascinating life and it's all about who do you know that's true and it's sort of like some of the smaller blessings that i've come across for example the HR person that i reached first reach out to that got this job set up and went through everything gave me the tour and whatnot the nicest HR person i've ever worked with no kidding the the food and beverage director his name is charlie and he is truly the nicest chef i've ever worked with by far that those personalities truly run the gamut out there well you may not you may not breach your goal because you're enjoying where you are oh yeah and i in fact i i think i will be here for good 10 years because i'm going to enjoy that lifestyle of traveling in the off season and yeah building some wealth so that i can't afford to finance my dream job in the future right and that time off to reconnect with yourself is just so important and especially as you said you've got two kids 18 and 15 this is a good time to free up and be spend some time with them exactly so you know that's an important the teen years is very important and they don't know that they need to learn so much from their dad you know they think they know it all well i really appreciate the sharing of information about who do you know and how you got into this through all your connections that's so important to share with people that really anything they do they can set their just set your mind to it and start reaching out there and connecting with people and you're a great person to connect with and thank you this is a delight