Take-Away Gourmet
Every morning, USU student Trina Foster gets up at 5:30 a.m. to attend school until 1:30 p.m., before going straight to work and not getting home to her children until 9:00 p.m.
After 17 years of being a housewife, Foster found herself the sole supporter of her children without a job, so she became a student at USU and decided to open a restaurant to be able to support her family.
Foster said the most difficult part of the changes in her life was learning to juggle her family, work and school again.
“The biggest transition was going from being a housewife with a very dependable life style to finding myself the sole supporting parent,” Foster said. “Going back to work was not difficult, but taking on going to school, providing and raising my kids by myself was. It takes some pretty amazing strength sometimes to get through the days, but it is all for the good fight.”
Foster and her business partner, Eric Burlile, decided a few months ago to open up their own restaurant, Take-Away Gourmet, to support themselves.
“I have been doing food service since the 1970s when I was 15,” Foster said. “It just made more sense getting a job doing what I want to do and what I grew up doing, and I just had the opportunity and I knew that together Eric and I had the power to pull off something pretty amazing.”
Foster said it was the most logical choice for her to go back to school and work toward a degree in culinary arts, something that if she hadn’t done, she said she would never have had the opportunity to start this restaurant.
“I needed a career, and getting a bachelor’s degree was the most logical choice, or else I would be flipping burgers somewhere,” Foster said. “I wanted more for my children. I wanted them to see that sometimes bad things happen to good people, but you have to stand up on your own and even though sometimes the most noble route is the hardest route, it is worth it in the end.”
Foster said she and Burlile were lucky because they were able to lease a building that had previously been a restaurant, so they didn’t have to purchase as many of the culinary supplies they would need. Even with most of the equipment in place, Foster said it still took her and Burlile two months to get the business up and going.
“It took us two months from the time we walked in the door and until we were ready to open the restaurant,” Foster said. “We already had our recipes and our costing and our accounting done in order to make sure we could make things work. Everything was already solid on the menu. When we walked in, it was just getting everything physically in place. We did most of the work ourselves. We painted, we cleaned windows, but we took it all on.”
Foster said when Take-Away Gourmet finally opened, she and Burlile put in 60 hours a week to keep everything fresh and inviting.
“Everything is fresh, nothing comes in frozen,” Foster said. “We make our own bread and we make our own pastries. We have both been in food service for a really long time. I have worked at the low end of food service and the high end. I have been exposed to some pretty awesome dining experience, and we wanted to create that kind of experience and to serve the kind of food we like to make.”
Foster said she and Burlile routinely go through their menu and take off things and add different items, while being sure to keep the most popular items.
“We make everything by hand,” Foster said. “Everything is delivered hot to their door. Most everybody comes to pick up their food. We are not an in-house restaurant, we do strictly take out and deliver. It is chef-prepared cuisine and it is seasonally cuisine. As the seasons change, we get in what is freshest. We also get choice pickings on wonderful produces, all kinds of items that are not normally available.”
Foster said with all of the chef cuisine she prepares for the restaurant, she herself can’t pick a favorite food because she thinks every item on the menu is good.
“I never have one item that sticks with me,” Foster said. “I love so many different foods, but I have to be careful because some of those foods are so good but they can go straight to your hips if you eat to much of it.”
Foster said even though the business and going back to school has been hard, they have been some of the most rewarding things she has ever done.
“My son is in college with me, and he is so proud of me in his own way,” Foster said. “He isn’t embarrassed his mom is in college at the same time as him. Going to school has been wonderful because it has given me a feeling of independence. I have the luxury of working in the field I study. I love what I do, and that makes a big difference.
“It is insanely risky and the hours are crazy, but with that said, I can tell you that compared to what I have been through, this is nothing. My kids are making this worth it. They always come up to me and hug me and tell me how proud they are for me, and they tell me they appreciate how hard I work. That is more meaningful to me than just about anything I can think of.”
-debrajoy.h@aggiemail.usu.edu