Profile: Ms. Haagen’s past as a gourmet chef

By Walter C.

When Kimberly Haagen was younger, she proved to be quite mischievous towards her parents which got her grounded pretty often. 

“Um, I think when I was about 12, I was still getting grounded. Especially for kicking the ball in the house,” she said.

A rule in her house for whenever someone was grounded, they had to take care of preparing the food for three days minimum.

“I was grounded a lot. So I became great at cooking,” she said.

As her skills improved, she had an incredible idea, “So about 12 I started making you know gourmet meals ‘cus I figured if I made gourmet meals then maybe mom would shorten my grounding.” 

Her experience at a young age would allow her to create job opportunities for herself. 

When asked about jobs related to Haagen’s gourmet cooking skills, she responded with her experience in working with her brother in her catering business and time as a personal chef, “We would get really, um, eclectic like requests,” she said. 

She further explained, “Someone’s like, ‘hey, we want it to be all like this, we have a theme,’ or they would want something, you know, unique!”

Her catering business and time as a personal chef allowed her to further expand her knowledge on gourmet cooking. 

Haagens’ jobs forced her to experiment, like shucking an oyster which can be only done in a specific way or “you’ll hurt yourself!,” she exclaimed. 

“There were a lot of times you had to get outside your comfort level and try something new,” she said, which is true and made her into the great cook that she is.

But staying in one place wouldn’t allow her to fully expand her genre of gourmet cooking, she had to get out, and learn new ways of cooking.

According to Haagen, she eventually did travel again to learn more recipes and other ways of cooking. 

“Right before the pandemic, I was in, uh, Crete” — an island in Greece — “taking cooking classes from this little old Greek woman,” she said. 

During her time in different countries, Haagen tended to learn traditional gourmet meals straight from the source.

“Any time I’m on vacation I’m always trying to take cooking classes from like the little old ladies in the villages, because they are the best cooks,” she said. 

It was only a matter of time before Haagen would eventually pick up their skills and become a much better cook, but it took years of traveling to learn many other gourmet recipes.