Flourishing Together | Juli Y Juan's Kitchen
/By Dani Hart // Photos by: John Robson Photography
All PHotos by John Robson
From the moment Juli & Juan enter a room, their energy is absolutely captivating. These two shine with love - for each other, for food, and for creating community. Working with them has been an absolute pleasure. If you ever have the opportunity to meet them, do not pass it up. And if you ever have the opportunity to try their delicious food, forget whatever diet you’re on, and dig in.
Learn a little bit more about what fuels their inspiring catering business below.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself + what you do!
We are just a couple of romantic & hard-working fools who are completely submerged in the idea of creating a better world through our actions. At this moment we do that through our culinary arts and hospitality ideology. Both Juli and I have a fascination for nature as she holds and creates all the ingredients the rest of us need to survive. So we hold her very high in our lives. We came to Fort Collins 5 years ago, and with the help of some friends we completely fell in love with the surroundings and with its people. We have been in the food industry for almost two decades. We have had a restaurant together, managed a boutique hotel, and open our own Chef’s Table in Colombia. We both believe that food is one of the most important sources of healing and preventing illness. We both love to study, to learn and to apply that knowledge into our everyday lives. In our spiritual life, we study the I-Ching and practice it on a daily basis. Juli studied culinary school in Mexico and was the first of her class, while I studied in Connecticut in communications, graphic design, photography and advertising, and graduated Summa Cum Laude…yes we are nerds! I happened to grow in a family of foodies and chefs and developed my early love for the Culinary Arts with them, but it was not until Juli and I started dating that I have truly submerged into it. We both run our little, but fun, company from home under a huge 150-year-old cottonwood tree, with three chickens, a dog and a cat… not to mention bees and all the birds and squirrels that live in the tree… We love freedom of speech, and believe in collaboration rather than competition. We see everyone as equal, and will always support taking care of nature in our personal, as well as our business, ethics. We believe that happiness & respect are the keys for an everlasting world community.
2. How did you get started?
We were living in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. A good old friend decided to fly us over to do his rehearsal dinner near Fort Collins. While we started to plan, many of our friends from the boutique hotel started to book us for events during that time in the summer, so we decided to do a road trip instead of taking a flight. Before we knew it, we had events booked for 4 months in 13 states near the Midwest. It was crazy fun!! After that amazing experience, our friends in Fort Collins suggested that we should stay. We took their advice and started our catering company. We were broke and only had $700.00 for the first month of rent. Then we’d have another event, and we’d pay our second month, and then two events, and three, four… today we create over 80 events per year. From private chefs, cooking in open-fire, donating dinners to raise money for charity, we have given classes and more… it has been an incredible adventure so far… but mostly we are in love with creating weddings food experiences.
3. What is your favorite part about catering weddings?
The magic of believing and expressing love. Weddings have given us the opportunity to be as creative as possible. Every wedding is different + unique. We create personalized menus, get to know the couple; it is a ton of fun to sit and help them dream together, and get as close as possible to their ideas. It is a pleasure to see how great they are when they understand that we are sincerely here to help. Their heart opens and we can really dream together. Another part that we enjoy are the logistics, preparing, assembling the space, and delivering one year of planning; it is something we really enjoy. You have to get there with the out-most flexibility expecting that anything can happen and be willing to fix it and adapt to the changes. This is something we love, as it helps us practice the artistry of how to be more patient, how to react upon a situation and give a solution almost without the event guests realizing… it is quite the mental, emotional and spiritual challenge!! But it is in trying times that we get the opportunity to become better.
4. What is your favorite thing to cook and why?
Open-Fire Cooking is definitely our favorite because there is something embedded in our roots when we cook on open flames with wood on a fire ring. It is hard to explain, but it is something we humans have been doing for thousands of years. It is very pleasing to our souls. It allows us be outdoors, and play with fire, and create cooking toys, and be with nature. We would love if we could do our weddings this way all the time!! Haha. Maybe one day when Colorado laws become less harsh we would be able to open this possibility in certain venues. For now it is only in private events that we are allowed to do this. Our second most favorite is Family Style, because it is the best way to practice sharing and the best way to keep all of the guests at the table talking and having a blast instead of having to get up and make a line. It is also the best way to not create food waste and the fastest to serve. We are all about becoming more efficient and taking care of our natural resources. We intend to adapt our business to what is fair to nature first, and then us. It is because of a simple reason: without nature we will not survive.
5. Any favorite wedding food trends for this summer season or upcoming fall season?
Since we create unique menus for each event, we have the opportunity to collaborate with nature better. So we have our harvest seasonal map for Colorado and surrounding areas and we create our menus according to the seasons. More salads in the summer and more meat in the winter. We are very particular with trends as we normally do not pay attention to them. We go with what we feel. If you look into trends you never create trends. I guess our trends would be the fusion of flavors from all over the world, and creating the experience of a great service. We love to verbally present our menus to the guests in the event, and that is something you do not see in the catering industry as much as we would love to. To see the artist who created your food, to present your food, to deliver your food, and to be there with you at all times during your event is something special.
6. Favorite hobby other than cooking?
We love to work on our home. Do-It-Yourself kind of projects. We love to create, so when we have free time we focus our creative minds into something new and different. We installed a beehive at home in our backyard and we are harvesting honey this summer and we are also creating an irrigation system for our raised beds and plants in our front yard. We are also writing a Culinary Book. We love to travel, to get to know more cultures and other gorgeous places on earth. Obviously food is our main reason for traveling…haha. We also love spending time with our animals. We have three chickens, a chocolate lab and a cat. So we love to sit in our backyard and just enjoy some good music and the tranquility of listening to the wind and being still and enjoy the times we can all be a family. We love photography and helping our community in any possible way we can. We are truly in favor for our world to be a more peaceful and kind-loving place for all of us to be able to experience happiness.
7. What is one tip you have for engaged couples planning their wedding?
We normally give them this tip: “Remember that every time we plan something there are two ways we function; We have expectations (control) and then, there is reality (acceptance). Our advice to you is to have a vision and then flow with reality. Everything between your expectation and reality, all that gap, turns into stress. If you get rid of expectations, then you will just meet with reality and it will be easier to accept the outcome of your vision. With expectations we are practicing control, and when things get out of our control, we stress. There is nothing worse for your wedding planning adventure than stress. It can destroy the entire atmosphere of your event, which is what makes an event successful or not. Just flow, adapt and accept. Do your best and let life be life. Remember planning should be fun and adventurous, not stressful.”
8. What tips do you have for couples choosing their caterer and menu for their wedding, and when should a couple begin contacting a caterer in their planning process?
I think we can only speak from our experience. We take “saved the dates” in our calendar all year round, but we do not begin planning until October for the following year. Which gives you plenty of time to plan for your next year’s wedding. Our advice in choosing your caterer would be to find someone that you matter to them. One of the aspects we encounter more in this industry is the lack of personal intention from the business side. So I would say do not sign anything in fear of not getting a caterer. Also, make the time and get to meet the artist behind your food preparation. For us it is very important to know who we are cooking for, it makes all the difference. We all have different energies and you want to find someone that your energy really vibrates in the same way. About choosing your menu; it all depends what you are looking for & like. We always say not to worry about your guests, just worry about you, what do you want to eat in your wedding?. The mentality of the couple normally is to please everyone, which let me tell you by experience, is impossible. The best approach is to be a little selfish here. For us what you choose to offer should speak about who the couple is. So make sure food brings that personality, and make sure the food is made with love, intention for the two of you. When should you contact the catering? Well it all depends, I would say one year in advance, we have been booked even two years in advance… but mostly one year should be ok. It really depends what you want and the company you like. Corporate companies have more availability, and personal culinary artists have more demand and quality, but have less availability.
9. Any other advice you have for engaged couples?
Yes. During your process of organizing a crazy love party where you will want to have plenty of family and friends, please make sure that you are having fun at all times. We all tend to somehow get ourselves into corners where we stop enjoying and it becomes more about money than everything else. We are not all lucky to have endless piles of cash sitting waiting to be spent in our dreams, so make sure you are honest to what you can create, and love what you can do. If you have all the means, then go all crazy into creating everything you want, but for most if us who do not have all the means, there are two ways you could approach. You have to choose either if you want to have tons of guests, or quality of performing artists. What is more important to you is for you to decide. But please when you do decide, always be honest to both of you. Remember that you have an entire life ahead of you, make it fun all the time, collaborate and do not get into a financial corner, it is not worth it. Your love is the only thing worth it, and the guests-count, or the meal, or the music, or the ambiance should never change what you two feel for each other. Love should be unconditional. So have fun and let us know if we can help in any possible way.