Meet Stefanie McLaughlin, Promotions, and Building X
Welcome Stefanie McLaughlin, our new Talent & Operations Partner, joining the LR team Monday, June 26th!
Stefanie will be adding to both our team member resources and operations team by fulfilling an adjusted role that was just vacated by Meagan when she moved to Chief of Staff. She will be learning the ropes with Meagan and TMR for a couple of weeks. From there she will dive headfirst into talent sourcing and coordination training with Brandon on our recruitment efforts. Please welcome her when you see her around and in meetings as she gets to know us and our program! Welcome to the team, Stefanie!
A Little About Stefanie:
Stefanie was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington. During her time here she has amassed 24 years of experience in various roles throughout the food and beverage industry. Known for always having a positive attitude and willingness to help wherever she is needed. In her free time, you will find Stefanie and her husband, Todd, enjoying golfing, hiking, and being outdoors with their dog, Jameson.
Congratulations, Chef Delaney Marshall! 🎉 Moving from Sous Chef At Rad to SR. Sous Chef at The Grail/Building X.
From a very young age being able to create something from seemingly random ingredients always interested Delaney. Whenever visiting her grandmother, they would bake together based off recipes they would find from cooking shows. This fueled her interest in cooking and led her to start working in kitchens directly after High School while also attending Culinary School. Her passion grew along with her knowledge, and She began working at Salish Lodge in the Dining Room while also competing in Jeunes Chefs Rôtisseurs Competitions - placing 2nd Regionally on two separate occasions.
In 2019, Delaney began working at Lavish Roots Catering and started at RAD Commissary kitchen upon its opening as a Line Cook. She helped with creating systems within our organization to help better our large-scale production processes. This helped her to grow within her leadership and mentorship role within the company. I am more than excited for this opportunity to help bring my current skills to a different environment and continue to learn within my new role.
Congratulations, Chef Ernest Waldrop! 🎉 Moving from PM Sous Chef for the Dinner program splitting his time between Rad and Dinner Cafes to Senior Sous Chef of Rad Production.
Ernest got his start in the South in the city of Pensacola, Florida. He began in a small French Restaurant. Shortly after this he made his way to New Orleans and got the opportunity to work at one of the oldest and most famous restaurants in New Orleans called Commander’s Palace. It’s known as a “Boot Camp for Chefs” and certainly taught him to hold a high standard in all aspects of food preparation and cooking. After Hurricane Katrina, he was forced to move on and continue his career elsewhere in the Fine Dining Restaurant scene. Being young and wanting to see a variety of regional cuisines he moved around the country and worked in multiple cities including: Asheville, Denver, Nashville, Portland, and now Seattle.
When he first came to Seattle he joined up with chef Jason Wilson and worked in Downtown at his newest restaurant Miller’s Guild, later moving on to work at his small tasting menu restaurant named Crush. After this he opened a Food Truck in Seattle which he will tell you was a very fun and exciting experience! Before beginning with Lavish Roots he was running a Korean/Hawaiian Fusion Restaurant. Coming from a strictly Restaurant background it has been a refreshing learning experience for him to now be involved in Corporate Catering.
Congratulations, Chef Martin Orlino! 🎉 Moving from Jr. Sous Chef overseeing Firefly Cafe to Sous Chef at The Grail/Building X.
Martin was born and raised in Manila, Philippines. He and his family moved to California in his teenage years. Martin's background is in graphic design, and he did freelance work for a couple years out of college, which left him feeling unfulfilled. This led him to follow his true passion – working with food. Martin started out in the industry as a dishwasher and moved his way up in restaurants and different types of food service establishments across different states. Martin now has 2 beautiful children and a loving wife. Family inspires him to work hard and helps him to enjoy doing what he does every day.
Martin was part of our post lockdown hires for Lavish Roots. He staged at our home office in Burien, and once he was hired, really enjoyed the vibe and environment of the company. Martin has run 3 different cafes in Redmond for Meta under Lavish Roots post RTO and has moved up each time into busier cafes – Nevermind, Wildstar, then Firefly. Martin also worked at Rad when he first joined the team, learning the ins and outs of large-scale cooking. Martin continues to appreciate the processes that he learned at Rad from the culinary program there and how to apply them to the cafe level. There are so many logistical challenges and how we pull off serving amazing food across all the cafes across the campus.
Martin is always after a good challenge and is pumped for the next one – Building X!
