Chef Kaylee

I fell in love with cooking beside my mom and grandma. My mom and I spent years perfecting something as simple as mango salsa—adding pickled jalapeños, grilled pineapple, cumin, candied nuts, always convinced the next version could be better. By high school, I had a binder full of recipes and a nightly dinner plan that usually involved both of us shopping, cooking, and plating for our family. Some meals were beautiful. Others we still laugh about. Those kitchens taught me to experiment, care about every ingredient, and keep refining a dish until it becomes something special.

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I went to Michigan State to study aerospace engineering because I wanted to build rockets. A few semesters later, I traded engineering for culinary school, with a new plan: cook for astronauts. At the Art Institute of Michigan, I found the creative work I had been looking for—the precision, the beauty, and the possibility of making food that nourishes people as thoughtfully as it delights them. Before graduation, I started my first catering business. I wanted to build something of my own around that feeling.

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Catering led me into restaurants and then contract dining, where I managed dining programs for several business facilities. It taught me how to run a kitchen, lead a team, and deliver consistently. But over time, I missed the creativity that had drawn me to cooking. I moved to Washington, D.C., and became executive sous chef at a new Italian restaurant under James Beard Award–winning Chef Michael Schlow. Making pasta and pizza, running the line, and helping open a restaurant brought that energy back. I loved the work, even as I knew I wanted a different pace of life.

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When my partner, Kelsi, received orders to Sicily, we married and moved there together. For three years, I explored weekly markets, cooked with ingredients I had never encountered, and experienced a culture where meals were given time and recipes carried generations of history. I started a meal prep business serving military members and their families. Sicily changed how I cooked and how I lived: I slowed down, paid closer attention to where ingredients came from, and learned to let beautiful food speak for itself.

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Back in Traverse City, Michigan, I co-founded Fuel Your Tomorrow, our first brick-and-mortar meal prep business. We cooked for hundreds of clients and families, and I began foraging and exploring more deeply how food could support their well-being. One client, recovering from a stroke, left a lasting impression. Over a year, alongside rehabilitation and the support of those around her, she began writing, speaking, and walking again. She told us our meals had been an important part of her recovery. Being trusted with that part of her life gave my work a deeper purpose.

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I became a NASM Certified Nutrition Coach and pursued an opportunity to cook for a professional athlete. Breaking into private service took persistence, but my understanding of nutrition helped open the door. I accepted a position in New Orleans and spent three years learning how to balance an athlete’s performance needs with their tastes, routines, and life at home. Every meal needed to serve a purpose and still be something they looked forward to eating.

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That experience brought me to Cleveland, where I managed a four-chef kitchen for a private household. It also helped shape what I wanted to build next. I founded Chef Kaylee in 2024, bringing together thoughtful nutrition, personal service, and the kind of cooking that first made me love this work.

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Today, our chefs work closely with clients and their dietitians and trainers to bring individual nutrition goals to the table. Our rotating team gives households consistent support and our chefs the time and space to sustain their craft. We learn the details that make a meal feel personal, and we treat the privacy of every household as part of the trust placed in us.

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What began beside my mom and grandma still guides me: care about the ingredients, keep refining, and make something worth sharing. That’s what we bring to your kitchen.