June 26, 2023

For Chef Lizzie Stewart, the decision to return to her passion of cooking after spending 14 years in her family’s business in finance is starting to come together.

She’s busy teaching cooking classes at Plum’s Cooking Co.

She’s catering weddings and other events.

She’s running a food truck at A Homestead Brew this summer and looking to buy her own.

And she’s kicking off the Sioux Falls Supper Club, putting her own spin on the supper club dining experience she grew up with in northwest Wisconsin.

Stewart earned a culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu in Portland, Oregon, in 2007, and returned to Wisconsin to work briefly as a chef before switching careers. Seven years ago, she transferred to Sioux Falls, but she started to grow dissatisfied with her work.

“I wasn’t feeling joy; I wasn’t getting to be creative.”

She quit her job in February 2020.

“Then, the world shut down. The universe gave me time to figure this out.”

A trip to get her hair cut led to the beginning of her journey.

“I told my hair stylist I have to feed people even if I’m poor. She told me, ‘You need to meet Penny.’ That was Penny Klinedinst, the owner of Plum’s Cooking Co. The two met, and “a friendship was born that night,” Stewart said.

She began teaching classes at Plum’s retail store, and Klinedinst let her use the demonstration kitchen to test recipes and record her instructional YouTube videos.

Stewart teaches two or three classes a month and also is in the midst of leading a cooking camp for kids this summer.

The exposure at Plum’s led to requests for catering, and she started doing pop-up meals at A Homestead Brew, a craft beer brewery east of Sioux Falls.

Homestead co-owner Lee Anderson also has a culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu and started a food truck last year. Keeping the brewery and family farm running has kept him busy, though, so he leased it to Stewart earlier this month.

That venture is called The Dirty Bird, and she’s already in love with the food truck life.

“After the first night, we decided we love this,” she said of working with her boyfriend, Mike Matthews. “This is something we can do together, we can support our family and have a lot of fun doing it. We started shopping for a food truck after that first night.”

The Dirty Bird serves smoked chicken wings with “a chefy spin on a classic chicken wing,” Stewart said. They’re brined for a couple of days in pickle juice, smoked, deep-fried and dusted in a salt and vinegar seasoning. She’ll typically serve four varieties for each outing. Her Stinky Wing is coated in freshly shredded Parmesan, roasted garlic aioli and fresh herbs. Orders come with homemade tater tots, ranch dressing and a fried pickle.

This past weekend, she introduced her Flip Flop Chicken, “chargrilled chicken that’s crispy and juicy and tender.” As garden produce comes into season, she’ll be incorporating tomatoes, sweet corn and more into her offerings.

She’s planning to run The Dirty Bird at the brewery most Saturdays this season from 2 to 7 p.m. or until the food runs out.

Her newest creation, the Sioux Falls Supper Club, kicks off Friday in the event space at Chef Jeni & Co.

“I’m really excited about introducing Sioux Falls and the community to what a supper club is,” Stewart said. “Growing up, every Friday was a fish fry, and Saturday was supper club.” The night started with an Old-Fashioned in the bar, progressed to the dining room for a steak dinner and wrapped up in the bar with after-dinner drinks, typically a Grasshopper. It was about conversation and seeing friends who gathered every week.

Friday’s menu includes popovers, spring pea soup, a wedge salad and a Monument Wagyu New York strip steak served with a crab cake, twice-baked potato and bacon-wrapped asparagus. For dessert, she’ll serve a classic Grasshopper.

The event space will hold up to 40 guests for “a smaller more intimate event.” The deadline to order tickets on her website, cheflizzie.com, is midnight Tuesday.

Stewart hopes to offer the Sioux Falls Supper Club every week and is working to line up additional dates at the Laurel Ridge Barn northeast of the city.

Someday, she’d love to open her own brick-and-mortar supper club, but until then, she’s enjoying the variety of her career.

“I can see where it takes me and see where it goes. Things have been coming together really to make that happen.”