We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeff Rossi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeff, what matters most to you?
We value hard work, dedication, utilizing the best local ingredients as possible, and a passion for making our clients happy!

It matters to us because customer satisfaction, and the quality of product is our top priority! We take pride in our work and strive to provide the best possible guest experience.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
What sets us apart from others is we have a great team and we strive to provide an unforgettable experience. Our team of chefs work hard to make a perfect menu, specific for each client, and rarely do we ever serve the same menu more than once. This kind of service definitely requires a lot of time and effort, but it sets us apart from other companies. We continuously strive to explore and create unique menus and food items specific to each event. We want each client to have the best possible experience, by creating menus that surpass their expectations in the quality, presentation and creativity of food items.

I have always had this dream of starting this business since high school, I just didn’t know exactly where I wanted to live and what would be the best location demographically. I moved to Telluride in 2008 to finish my externship for culinary school at Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte, NC. I immediately fell in love with this area, the mountains, and way of life. I knew I needed more experience (and money) before I could make my dream become a reality. I worked with a variety of chefs in Telluride over the next 5 years before deciding to travel to other parts of the country and learn different cuisines from various chefs. In 2016 I found myself with an opportunity to move to Charleston, SC and work at the James Beard Award winning restaurant “Husk”. This experience really opened my eyes to farm to table cuisine and the value of quality ingredients. I knew after a year of working at “Husk” I was ready to move back to the mountains and pursue my dream.

In 2018, after returning back to Telluride, my wife and I decided to purchase some property to build our commercial kitchen on. My best friend and fellow chef Brian Batten and I competed in the “Telluride Top Chef Completion” in 2019, and won first place. This absolutely helped us get the exposure we needed and we did our first event under Backcountry Catering in February of 2020. A couple of weeks later the whole world shut down with the COVID-19 pandemic which definitely threw a curve ball in our plans. We worked through the hard times and ended up purchasing a small farm and house on 40 acres down the road from our original property. In 2021, we designed a mobile commercial kitchen that we could bring with us to any large event we do so we can prepare the best, freshest food possible. After a busy 2021, in 2022 we started building a 2100 square foot prep kitchen and storage building on our land. In November 2022, we passed our final building inspection and now officially have two very vital tools that help us provide the top notch service we strive for, prep kitchen and storage building.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We are so privileged to live in such an amazing place! We live an hour and a half from the desert (Moab, UT) and 45 minutes from the mountains (Telluride, CO). We love to take anyone that comes to visit us, both of those destination locations. In Moab we like to visit Arches, Canyonlands, all of the different hiking trails, and four-wheel drive trails this area has to offer. In Telluride, we really enjoy skiing and snowmobiling in the winter. In the summer we enjoy going on hikes, taking people over the different mountain passes in our side by side, and going on the gondola to show them all the beautiful views of Telluride. As far as dining goes we really enjoy a bunch of the Telluride restaurants including the New Sheridan Chop House, The National, Siam, Brown Dog Pizza, among many others. Telluride has a fantastic food scene and we love the fact that we get to live and work in such an amazing place!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have to thank my wife and business partner Stefanie Rossi. Without her we would not be where we are right now! We also need to thank one of our best friends and a fellow entrepreneur, Mark Krasic. He was like family and he encouraged us and did so much to help us make our dream become a reality. Of course, we also need to thank all of our friends, family and everyone that has supported us in our pursuit of building an amazing business.

Website: backcountrycateringllc.com

Instagram: @backcountrycateringllc

Facebook: Backcountry Catering LLC

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