When you meet Kevin Barthelemy you will quickly find out that he is extremely passionate about life… and food. I had the opportunity to chat with Kevin and talk to him about his experience as a chef. What was evident, even over the phone, was that Kevin has an exuberant attitude towards life and has a desire to put his all into everything he does - including being Sifted’s Denver head chef!
From a young age, Kevin loved food and loved to cook. “I have been passionate about cooking since the first time I made scrambled eggs for my family as a little kid,” Kevin told me.
Since then Kevin has been busy working and cooking in every avenue he could find. “I really honed my cooking skills and learned from working for others,” Kevin said of his experience working in the culinary industry. “I’ve encountered every position possible in the scope of catering - restaurants, hotels, personal chef…”
But catering is where Kevin fell in love and really found his niche. He founded Elevated Catering in Denver, a company that he ran for 6 years. The idea behind his company was to make specialty, custom cuisine for everyone. A lofty goal, but Kevin told me that his goal was to swing for the fences and see how high quality he could make his food.
“We were creating food that was on the level of Denver's best restaurants if not better,” Kevin said. “After Elevated, I took a much needed hiatus. I guess I had what we call ‘chef burn out.’” Kevin said. Kevin then worked in sales at a local brewery and kept his nose to the ground until one day he ran into Sifted.
“What I was most excited about when I found Sifted was autonomy as a chef. Sifted wasn’t like ‘this is the way that it is and you have to go with it, no exceptions.’ There is freedom to elevate the product and make it better - that’s really cool.”
Since becoming the Denver head chef Kevin has dedicated a lot of creative energy to revamping existing Sifted menus and elevating them. Just as Kevin was dedicated to elevating food in his own catering business he told me that this been his most important contribution to the Sifted menus. “All of the Sifted chef teams are constantly re-editing the menus - to keep them current with the times - always adding even more level of detail,” Kevin told me.
Another thing that drew Kevin to Sifted was the quality of life that Sifted values. Because of the product that Sifted offers - catered lunch - it gives chefs and cooks the opportunity to have weekends and evenings off; this is a schedule unheard of in the culinary world. “That idea is really foreign to chefs. People accept that your life as a chef is going to be this way - no weekends no evenings, and you just get used to it.” Kevin told me. “But having that time off makes you want to work even harder when you are clocked in - it's been nice to get used to.”
Kevin lives in Denver with his wife. When he’s not creating your Sifted lunches he enjoys bowling, disc-golf, and of course skiing - which is what brought him to Denver in the first place. He has been with Sifted for coming up on one year and we are so lucky to have him as a part of the Sifted family.