kendra anderson is chef + co-owner + sommelier of flavor catering + event planning
 kendra’s story:
food, wine, and entertaining are my life, and have been pretty much for as long as i can remember.
my family and i are all native New Yorkers, but when i was very young my dad’s job transferred him to California Bay Area, where i grew up. since my father worked for an airline he and my mother traveled often to Europe and other exotic destinations, while all of us spent summers, and holiday vacations in New York City or on Long Island, with my paternal grandparents and extended family. my bi-coastal and travel-heavy upbringing meant that by the age of 8 or 9, i had knew not only what lox, pierogies, chateaubriand, Dijon mustard, and tempura were, but that they were special and delicious foods.
with both parents working full-time, dinner was often something my sister and i found ourselves in charge of. i can remember creating all manner of dishes, some tastier than others….but i can never remember a time where i didn’t just enjoy the process – a feeling that remains with me even today.
my very first job at the age of 16 was working as a waitress on the graveyard shift at Denny’s. from there i began what is now a 20 year-long love affair with this industry, including stints at over a dozen restaurants. throughout college, i gradually worked my way up to head server at some of Denver’s fine dining establishments, where i developed my appreciation for ensuring that the smallest detail of every dining experience is flawless. somehow in spite of my continued interest in food i convinced myself that working in restaurants didn’t constitute a “real job”. so after college, i dutifully started work in corporate America.
four years later i found myself waiting tables part-time (in addition to my full-time corporate day job) because i just couldn’t stop thinking about food and wine. by that time i had also become passionate about entertaining, hosting friends and family for any event i could think of an excuse to cook for. in 2001 i conceived of and established the original flavor catering + event planning concept in after planning every aspect of a close friend’s engagement party. their words of encouragement, as well as my family’s support convinced me to believe in my ability to combine my restaurant service background with my love of home cooking and entertaining and turn it into a business.
from that moment on, everything just fell into place: i graduated from the Cook Street School of Fine Cooking in 2003 and went on to earn my Advanced Sommelier Certification from the International Wine Guild in 2006. owning and operating flavor has always been just one facet of my culinary journey – over the past four years, i staged with Adega Food + Wine, sold wine for Baroness Wines and Marczyk Fine Wines, and worked as a sommelier at the Black Pearl. i also created and authored a food, wine, and entertaining column for Colorado Homes & Lifestyle magazine and spent three years as a member and then the Chair of Colorado’s chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food. in late 2007 David and i became business partners, and things just continue to get better every single day.
each of these unique experiences has brought something special to what i do for each and every of our flavor clients. for me, food is love. it’s just that simple.
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