Wandering Kitchen Now Offers Saturday Curbside Pickup
Wandering Kitchen is a virtual restaurant serving the Twin Cities that crafts a range of organic to-go meals. Each option incorporates fresh ingredients and healthy cooking techniques. Starting this Saturday and every Saturday after, Wandering Kitchen will be offering two entrée selections in addition to a salad and soup option.
By Sara Zuehlke
March 26, 2020
“Subscriptions and memberships keep customers fed and Twin Cities restaurants in business
By rewarding their most faithful customers, subscriptions and memberships are the latest restaurant pandemic pivot that might be here to stay.
Chef Colin Murray of Wandering Kitchen catering has seen a rise in weekly subscribers to his chef’s choice meal delivery service since the beginning of the pandemic, and he’s pretty sure they’ll stick around even after things normalize.”
”I think the way we eat and do business is going to be different,” Murray said. “People have had the time to look up all these fun things during quarantine, and they want new flavors and new directions.”
North Notables: Wandering Kitchen
It’s been an exciting culinary roller-coaster ride for chef Colin Murray and hostess Jamie Compton, partners in life and in business. “We’re the prince and princess of the pivot,” she says with a laugh. Together, the Culinary Institute of America graduate and University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business alum, respectively, have a combined 30+ years of experience in the hospitality industry.
Feeling it was time for a change, the duo struck out on their own in 2012. Wandering Kitchen was born out of a vision for a different kind of catering company. “We have evolved from our first vision for the business to our second and now we’re somewhere on our fifth,” notes Murray. “Adapting is key to success in this industry.”
Those visions have led Wandering Kitchen to its current focuses: private chef services and healthy meal deliveries. And with the company’s brick-and-mortar shop at St. Paul’s Keg and Case market (a shared space with their family’s gourmet dog treat company, Barkley’s Bistro), hungry customers can grab chef-prepared breakfasts, salads, entrées and vegetarian options. Wandering Kitchen has officially found its niche in catering to the whole family.
“Our catering is really unique; we allow our clients to be in charge,” Murray says. A Wandering Kitchen event delivers an affordable, restaurant-quality experience that allows the hosts to sit back and enjoy. They also throw the dog a bone when a four-legged foodie is afoot.
While the company has landed coveted catering gigs like the NFL commissioner’s private tailgating party during the Minneapolis-hosted Super Bowl, it is increasingly being tapped for in-home entertaining, from milestone events to family gatherings. “Our menus are very custom, and we truly make everything from scratch,” explains Murray.
As if they didn’t already have enough plates spinning, the pair recently teamed up with the YMCA to provide scratch-made meals to promote children’s health across the region. They also raised more than $84,000 for charities and donated more than 200 pounds of food to the Salvation Army last year. And this may just be the most rewarding pivot for Wandering Kitchen. “As we always say, everyone deserves a seat at the chef’s table,” notes Compton.
By Katie Dohman
Photography by Spacecrafting
March 20, 2020
Wandering Kitchen Caters a VIP Tailgate Party
Combine Super Bowl LII and 2,500 of the NFL’s top VIPs and what do you get? The big game’s most exclusive tailgate party — and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a Minnesota chef. Colin Murray and his culinary team at Wandering Kitchen will be presenting the best of the North to the best of the NFL, from owners to investors to former players. He beat out several other caterers to land the gig, outlasting them in an intense process that involved interviews, tastings and menu selections.
Trained at New York City’s Culinary Institute of America, Murray honed his skills at top restaurants across the country. For this tailgate party, he plans to employ a worldly yet approachable take on gastronomy to showcase Northern cuisine and the thriving Twin Cities foodie scene. “We want to give them a little piece of what Minnesota really is,” the chef notes.
Preparations began months ago, with Murray reaching out to local farmers and producers to ensure ingredients will be available on time and in abundant quantities. The biggest challenge will come on Super Bowl Sunday, when he and his team will need to prep, store and serve the fare amid the game day madness. With a world-class cooking background, chef Colin Murray undoubtedly has what it takes to pull off a smashingly successful tailgate party for the NFL’s top VIPs.
By Kathleen Gildea
Photography by Camille Lizama
January 8, 2018