Dinner Girl: Joy of cooking becomes career track
By BILL SCHWANKE of Missoula.com
Tired of working all day? Not ready to cook the family a full meal every night of the week? Not really excited about ordering fast food?
Then The Dinner Girl just might be the answer.
The Dinner Girl is Elizabeth Rowe who, at the urging of several friends, has turned her love of cooking into a business that has the potential to answer the above questions for a lot of area residents in a positive way.
"I started this business to create a service for families who are increasingly so busy that they're looking for any option that will allow them to minimize their stress and increase time to spend together," Rowe summarized.
After a busy day or series of days Rowe thinks cooking can become a "point of angst" for some families, especially larger ones with both parents working.
"I get such joy out of cooking that I'm just happy to be that person to step in and help make people's lives a little bit easier," Rowe said, "by providing meals that are (made) from scratch, completed and delivered on the same day."
Rowe said she incorporates a lot of ethnic foods into her cooking while paying close attention to increasing dietary restrictions and needs.
Among the six entrees she offers each week, Rowe tries to offer something for everyone - one vegetarian meal, one vegan, one ultra-low fat, one gluten free, one spicy and one non-spicy - while having something available that both adults and kids will like.
Rowe's training has been completely informal. Cooking is something she has always done and enjoyed.
"When I was a teenager, I became vegetarian and . . . started incorporating a lot of vegetarian cuisine into my day-to-day (life)," she said, "and I had to learn that, and that's a little more challenging than traditional cuisine."
When she reached her 20s Rowe, who is now 31, started eating meat again and began exploring red meat and chicken-based foods. She also did quite a bit of traveling which expanded her interest in different types of foods from throughout the world.
Rowe has grown especially fond of foods from Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Prior to becoming The Dinner Girl, Rowe had done a little catering for a few years and through that received encouragement and support from friends to "do a little more with my cooking than just offering dinner parties here and there and just cooking on a social basis," she said.
It was about six months ago that she started considering seriously what other options she might have that did not include owning, or working in, a restaurant.
"Initially it's been such a strong reception," Rowe said of The Dinner Girl concept, "that I'm really pleased with the growth that I think is gonna take place now."
On her Web site Rowe refers to "gourmet comfort food."
"It's cozy food," Rowe explained. "Generally comfort food is pretty simple in its composition, but if you consider different world cuisines everyone's got their form of comfort food.
"For example, when I make Indian food, it's usually full of spice but it's . . . simple," she added. "It's not nouvelle cuisine. It's not hard to pinpoint what's in it or how to eat it. It's just pretty straightforward but really, really flavorful."
Elizabeth Rowe: became The Dinner Girl in Missoula at the urging of friends who thought she should take her cooking to a new level. BILL SCHWANKE/Missoula.com
Rowe uses a commercial kitchen to do her cooking but has added more refrigeration and burners to increase her capacity to produce meals.
So far she's working by herself, including the delivery part.
Rowe updates the menu weekly online and delivers two days a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, offering three entrees on each day. She says her regular customers know the routine but get a notification e-mail from her early every week about any changes.
Customers must order the day before they want the food delivered.
She will take orders by phone but prefers it if people order online.
"Then I've got everything in writing and . . . I don't have to remember the details," she laughed.
Rowe delivers the food in containers that can be either frozen or microwaved.
"If a family really has an aversion to cooking they can order for the whole week if they want to," she said. "They can order multiple dinners (or) they can order just one."
Rowe has delivered up to 12 meals at once to a single home if someone is hosting a dinner party, for example.
The friends who urged her to do something different with her cooking are among her steadiest customers, but more importantly they're helping get the word out about The Dinner Girl.
After the first of the year, however, she plans to begin advertising her business more conventionally.
Rowe admitted that trying to offer something for virtually every taste creates a major challenge.
"I have to put so much thought and planning into different tastes and . . . needs," she said. "The dietary restrictions . . . are growing."
The most popular menu item so far has been her Thai foods. Rowe has found Missoula to be an excellent place to offer a variety of world foods. Besides those mentioned earlier she offers North African, Latin American and North American food.
Rowe goes online and reads a lot of magazines looking for inspiration. Now that she's settled in a bit she plans to ask customers to list their favorites for her as well.
While the growth of her business hasn't been dramatic, Rowe said it's been consistent. She currently cooks regularly for 10 families, and hopes to raise that number to 40 or 50.
While she will take individual orders out of the blue Rowe said she's happiest knowing she's having an impact on families.
She offers a punch card so clients can purchase 10 dinners at a time and receive a discount.
"Then all they have to do is tell me which meals they want and when (and) the rest is taken care of," Rowe said. "So I really have geared that toward families."
The rate for every meal is $15 delivered. Rowe said the meals are big enough to provide enough food for more than one person.
She also hasn't been very restrictive with her delivery area.
"I have delivered to the very end of Grant Creek, out to Linda Vista, up to the top of the South Hills, (the) Rattlesnake," Rowe said. "I do not currently charge any sort of delivery fee."
If things really take off after the first of the year, Rowe said she will be looking to hire some help, probably in the food prep area so she doesn't have to back away from cooking the meals herself. She said prep takes up most of her time now.
"I'm thrilled about the prospect of growth," she said. "It's been received so well and continually people come to me and say, 'It's such a great idea. I can't believe somebody hasn't thought of this before.'"
Rowe also worries some about a possible burnout factor if the business gets really big.
"I have such a love for it," she mused, "and it's always a different dynamic when I'm cooking for this business versus cooking for friends and family. So as long as I've got something different I can do at home I think I'll still be inspired."
Rowe laughed when asked how she came up with the business name The Dinner Girl.
"Fundamentally I think I'm just a pretty straightforward person," she said. "So I thought, 'that's simple, the Web site's available, I'll take it.'"
Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, Rowe came to Missoula as the result of seeing a Montana visitors guide while stuck at a U.S. consulate office waiting for a passport to replace one that was stolen.
A month after returning to Alaska she jumped on the Al-Can Highway and headed for the Treasure State. She's been in Missoula for 13 years and has a political science degree from the University of Montana.
Clilck here to listen to the entire interview with The Dinner Girl.
