By Sharon Verbreten
Tracy Darling’s path to the kitchen might sound familiar — she grew up on a farm raising her own vegetables and dairy cows. She learned cooking with both of her grandmothers, who used old-fashioned methods. “That was my orientation to cooking.”
While she grew up around food and has been a chef for several decades, Darling taught herself enough about business to launch Heirloom Kitchen Co. in Kaukauna six years ago. She accumulated equipment over the years and funded her business on her own. As a result, her business has remained debt free. “Know who you are and what you are doing so you equip properly,” she says.
“Our focus is on skilled hands rather than expensive equipment,” Darling says of her catering business, which spotlights seasonal fresh produce and meat from local farms throughout Northeast Wisconsin. “A lot of our menus are solely based on what we have from our suppliers. We use simpler ingredients with bigger impact.”
That impact has been notable. Darling says her business doubled from 2017 to 2018 and then again the following year.
A strong 2019 set up Heirloom Kitchen to survive the pandemic shutdowns — and event cancellations — that took place last year. “When we faced the news in March 2020, we were so uncertain what would happen,” she says, but the previous year “gave us a little bit of ability to weather that.”
Heirloom Kitchen shut down its operations for a week, did a massive cleaning, and provided some curbside meals and smaller-scale offerings. “We just adapted at every turn,” Darling says.
With weddings and big events rescheduled and returning, Heirloom Kitchen is now busier than ever.
“I’m grateful that we had creative staff,” Darling says.
heirloomkitchencompany.com
