About Stephanie

From a young age Stephanie has shown a great passion for the culinary arts. Her mother and grandmother both lived for bringing joy to others through filling their stomachs with delicious food. Her mother walking into the kitchen to see a mess of ingredients and equipment spread out in the kitchen started at the age of 5. Stephanie decorated her first cake with a Halloween theme for a cake walk in first grade. After that she was always trying to be in the kitchen to learn everything she could from her mother. At the age of 13 she ran her first wedding reception and fell in love with weddings.

After high school, attending the country’s premier culinary school seemed like the best course of action. Stephanie packed her bags and left for The Culinary Institute of America in New York. The school proved to be everything she had hoped and provided the skills and knowledge necessary to embark out into the world. In the middle of the first and second year of school she completed her externship at The Williamsburg Inn in Williamsburg, Virginia. The externship provided a great amount of experience in dessert service and catered events as well as the opportunity to work under Chef Travis Brust who is now the Executive Chef and making a great impact on the food scene. She graduated with a degree in the baking and pastry arts.

Stephanie returned to Portland right as the food scene started to explode. Sweets by Stephanie was started in the fall of 2007 as a way for her to create beautiful cakes and delicious catering on the side. She has worked in multiple restaurants and bakeries throughout Portland and the Willamette Valley gaining experience and learning skills from lots of talented people. Stephanie landed at Reedville Catering in May of 2013 and created a fast growing and successful dessert and cake program. Her cakes were featured in Portland Bride and Groom and on Oregon Bride Magazine Blog. Stephanie saw an opportunity to branch out on her own and rebrand Sweets by Stephanie into Just a Dash in 2015. After 5 successful years focused on cakes and dessert tables for weddings and other special events it was time to pivot due to Covid-19. Stephanie decided to turn more to her savory background to make up for all of the canceled events. Within a week of shutdown she had a program up called Food in a Frenzy with the goal of bringing meals into your home through pickup and delivery. That exploded and after a year of exploring new opportunities for what she can offer and falling even more in love with cooking she moved into her commercial kitchen. Stephanie is so excited for this new chapter and can’t wait to continue to evolve and bring delicious meals and treats to the community.