Our new sous chef, Mary Ahrens
Susan Knox Wilson
Our new sous chef, Mary Ahrens, knows all about the mountains of Afghanistan; she spent a grueling 15 months there at Camp Leatherneck with the U.S. Marine Corps where she was the Casualty Watch Supervisor. Mary said the deployment was supposed to be 10 months; that was changed to 12 months, then 15 months. She was the last to leave but very relieved and excited to get back to the states.
After five years of extensive military service in the area of project management, supervision, training and coordination, Mary was honorably discharged in 2011 and decided to follow her passion – food! She enrolled in the Arizona Culinary Institute (ACI) and earned her diploma in Culinary Arts: Baking and Restaurant Management in 2012.
Mary started in the food business in high school with her first job at a sub shop; from there she went on to work in a pizza parlor while attending SUNY Brockport College and earning s B.S. in Physical Education. “I’ve always been a foodie,” confessed Mary, “I don’t know what I was thinking when I got my Phys Ed degree, except that I love sports. I spent a few months student teaching and immediately knew I was in the wrong job.”
Mary’s journey to PebbleCreek is tied to our Executive Chef, Frank Caputo. When Frank needed a sous chef at his last job, he asked a friend, one of Mary’s instructors at ACI, for a recommendation. At their very first meeting, Chef Frank was so impressed he offered Mary the job on the spot. Says Chef Frank, “Mary and I have worked together for about three years and she does a great job of running a very tight ship.” Must be a result of all that military experience!
When she’s not in the kitchen at Eagle’s Nest, Mary can be found attending sporting events (she’s an avid fan), working out at the gym or walking her two dogs, Zoey and Humper, or cooking at home. Mary says she is very into smoking and has two BBQ smoking grills at home and was thrilled to see the big smoker we’ve got at Eagle’s Nest. “I can’t wait to get that fired up,” said Mary. Neither can we!