“There were absolutely no women in the kitchen until three months into our first year.”
Dahl is the executive chef and owner of six internationally acclaimed restaurants: Dahl & DiLuca Ristorante Italiano, Cucina Rustica Rustic Tuscan Grill, Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill, Butterfly Burger and Pisa Lisa Pizzeria Autentico, which has two locations. “You don’t get a lifetime achievement award unless a good number of people somehow know how you went through thick and thin and didn’t give up. I know I couldn’t have done much without the help of so many people and it has really affected me deeply. I don’t want anyone, whether they’re here or passed, to ever think they weren’t a huge part of my journey.”
In the beginning, she says, she was a minority in Sedona’s culinary scene. “There were absolutely no women in the kitchen until three months into our first year.”
That’s when she met Elena Jaimes at a catering event and asked her to work with her. “I began teaching her my recipes and we cooked together with love. To this day, she puts the love she has for me into every soup, sauce, meatball and so much more. Elena has raised eight children. I am proud to have helped her and her children become naturalized U.S. citizens.”
One of Jaimes’ daughters is named after Dahl. “I am her Godmother. She is now a sous chef at Butterfly Burger and is becoming an excellent chef in her own right. Everyone calls her ‘Little Lisa.’”
The Lifetime Achievement Leadership Award has caused Dahl to take a rare pause to absorb the recognition and reflect upon how a restaurant can be so much more than just a place to eat.
“As I stand here today on International Women’s Day, I am proud to see the contrast of women working in the restaurants compared to 1995, when it was only Elena and myself,” she told the group. “When women come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for being a role model as a woman entrepreneur,’ or tell me they researched my restaurants and say they want to support woman-owned businesses or introduce me to their daughters, I can’t begin to tell you how much that means.” FBN
By Bonnie Stevens, FBN
Courtesy Photo: Chef Lisa Dahl reflected on her nearly three decades as a restaurateur last month when she received the Women’s Lifetime Achievement Leadership Award from the Sedona Chamber of Commerce. “I’m still on cloud nine from this recognition,” she said. Gathered around Dahl (in white holding the award) are Sedona Chamber Board Chair Jennifer Perry, Chamber President and CEO Michelle Conway and Women’s International Day Board of Directors member Shondra Jepperson.
