Published October 14, 2015

From High School Grad to Restaurateur in 8 Years

Cara Stadler was just 16 when she graduated from high school and had to decide what to do with her life. Instead of following the traditional academic path that her siblings did, she decided to enter the culinary field, and vowed to open her own restaurant by the time she was 26. She beat that prediction by two years.

After a rocky start opening up a supper club with her mother, the chef worked through high-quality restaurant kitchens under star chefs like Gordon Ramsay and then opened the restaurant Tao Yuan in Brunswick, Maine when she was 24. The restaurant opened to nationwide acclaim and earned Stadler the 2014 Food & Wine Magazine Best Chef Award, as well as James Beard nominations.

Stadler’s story is an incredible example of how much a young person can achieve with a dream and a lot of hard work. How many of us actually ended up doing what we thought we would when we were 16?

Read the full article here: A Chef’s Decisive Odyssey

Link: https://www.fsrmagazine.com/chefs/chef-s-decisive-odyssey