Today we’d like to introduce you to Mariah Ford.
Hi Mariah, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have a story that usually makes people gasp and say, “WOW.”
I lost my mom in a car accident when I was 16. I was raised by a single father with his own incredible-and sometimes rough- story. I learned pretty young that life doesn’t always go according to plan.
Today, I have three sons, the most supportive partner I could ask for, and the BEST group of friends, family, and staff. They show up for me in ways I didn’t even know I needed, and they’re a huge part of how I got here.
I have a long history in sales and customer service, but probably the most memorable career choice I ever made was driving a 1966 Kenworth log truck behind my grandfather in his 1985 Mack Superliner. Together, we were a team of log haulers that people all over the Pacific Northwest knew as The Princess and Her Papa. We went places other people wouldn’t. We hauled in conditions other drivers were scared of. We put our blood, sweat, and many, many tears into those years trucking across Oregon and Washington. I raised two of my sons in the front seat of my trucks over those years, teaching them what hard work and long hours really looked like. I still run into people who remember hearing about The Princess and Her Papa out there. It was an amazing time in my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
But that’s not why you’re here.
You’re here to read about how I ended up owning and operating Mom’s Kitchen Catering Co. in Redmond, Oregon.
And here’s the funny part: I’m not a chef.
Well, not a trained one…
The first culinary school I ever attended was my family home, standing side-by-side with my dad and learning how to do it all together. We learned to smoke meats. We learned to make crème brûlée. We experimented, messed things up, tried again, and eventually got pretty damn good at some of it.
We also learned that neither one of us knew the proper way to pronounce mignonette.
Today, we smoke meats for 200 people at a time, we’ve mastered crème brûlée in more flavors than I can count, and we still can’t pronounce mignonette, but we know how to make Pacific Northwest oysters taste even better with it.
After my years in logging, my road into the hospitality industry really started when I bought a food truck.
During COVID.
Because apparently I enjoy doing things the hard way.
The hospitality industry was being completely turned upside down, and for some reason I decided that was a great time to jump into it.
But we survived!
That food truck taught me speed, volume, food costs, logistics, customer service, adaptability, and just how quickly Plan A can become Plan Q. It also taught me something I’ve carried with me ever since: there probably isn’t ever going to be a perfect time to build something. Sometimes you start with what you have, figure it out as you go, and refuse to quit.
From the food truck came an opportunity to launch a restaurant inside someone else’s bar in Redmond.
I built the food operation, staffed it, trained employees, developed systems, and learned what it actually takes to keep a restaurant running day after day. I learned inventory, consistency, leadership, staffing, and all the completely unglamorous things happening behind the scenes while everyone else is simply enjoying their dinner.
That chapter also brought some incredible people into my life. I had the opportunity to work alongside and learn from some of the best chefs—and I mean real chefs—in Central Oregon. They taught me techniques. They shared recipes. They corrected me. They showed me tips and tricks that you don’t get from reading a recipe online. More importantly, they were my friends.
I don’t get to work side-by-side with some of those dear friends anymore, and I miss them every time I make one of their recipes and remember exactly how they taught me to do it.
My education has come from a lot of places like that.
It’s come from my dad’s kitchen. A food truck. A restaurant. Professional kitchens. Friends who knew more than I did and were willing to teach me. And it’s come from traveling.
I’ve been fortunate enough to experience places like Bali, Tahiti, Thailand, and beyond. Food is a huge part of travel for me. I want to know what people are eating, how they’re preparing it, what grows there, what flavors they put together, and why. I bring pieces of those experiences home with me, and eventually they find their way into something I’m creating.
Eventually, though, I knew I was ready to take everything I’d learned and build something that was truly mine, and that’s where Mom’s Kitchen Catering Co. really began to grow.
Small catering jobs became bigger ones. Then came weddings, private dinners, corporate events, retreats, festivals, celebrations, and events I never would have imagined myself producing when I started.
There wasn’t a perfectly mapped-out business plan. I just kept learning! I said yes to things that scared me a little (a lot). I surrounded myself with people who knew things I didn’t. I tried things. I screwed things up. I figured them out. And then I did them better the next time.
As Mom’s Kitchen grew, I realized something else about myself. I didn’t just love feeding people. I loved creating the whole experience.
Of course I care about what’s on the plate. But I also care about the flowers on the table. The linens. The lighting. The room. The music. The way guests are welcomed. The tiny details nobody notices individually but somehow make everything feel right when they’re put together.
I was already doing those things for my catering clients, so eventually I stopped treating that part of what I do as an “extra.”
I created Cedar & Sage Collective, my event planning and lifestyle design company.
Today, my two businesses hold hands.
Mom’s Kitchen feeds people. Cedar & Sage creates the world around the table.
Sometimes someone just needs really great food. Sometimes they come to me with a picture in their head and need someone who can figure out how to make the whole thing real—food, florals, rentals, styling, coordination, travel, hospitality, and all those little details they didn’t even know they needed to think about.
I love that I get to do both.
And when I look back, the strangest thing is that none of my careers are actually as disconnected as they sound.
Log trucking taught me how to work when I was exhausted, solve problems when there wasn’t an easy answer, stay calm when everything went sideways, and go places other people weren’t willing to go.
Sales and customer service taught me how to listen to people and figure out what they actually wanted.
The food truck taught me to adapt. The restaurant taught me how to operate. Great chefs taught me how much I still had to learn. Travel made me curious. Mom’s Kitchen taught me hospitality. And Cedar & Sage gave all of my creativity somewhere to go. Today, I get invited into some of the biggest moments of people’s lives.
Sometimes we’re feeding hundreds of people at a wedding. Sometimes I’m designing an intimate dinner around one beautiful table. It might be a corporate retreat, a celebration of life, a festival, a family gathering, or dinner somewhere beautiful on the Oregon Coast.
People trust me with days they’re going to remember forever.
That’s pretty damn special.
But the thing I’m probably most proud of is what all of this has allowed me to do for my boys.
I’ve been able to provide for them in ways I never dreamed I would.
They’ve grown up watching me build this. They’ve seen the early mornings and very late nights. They’ve watched things go horribly wrong and watched me figure them out. They’ve seen the wins, the failures, the ridiculous ideas, and all the work that happens in between.
And plenty of times, they’ve been right there working beside me, even when they didn’t want to be.
I’m really proud of that.
I’m also very aware that none of this has ever been a one-woman story. My dad is still beside me. My boys are part of it. I have a partner who supports me and believes in what I’m building. My friends have shown up when I’ve needed an extra set of hands—or ten. And I have an incredible staff who somehow continue to hear me say, “Okay, I have an idea…” and agree to come along for the ride.
I’ve lost people I loved.
I’ve started over.
I’ve raised babies in the passenger seat of a used log truck.
I’ve driven roads most people wouldn’t attempt.
I’ve bought a food truck during a pandemic.
I’ve launched a restaurant.
I’ve learned from incredible chefs, that I miss all the time.
I’ve traveled the world.
I’ve built two businesses.
I’ve made plenty of mistakes.
I’ve fed thousands of people.
And I’ve built a life that allows me to take care of my boys in a way I once couldn’t have imagined…
It’s been messy, hard, hilarious, exhausting, beautiful, and completely unconventional.
Somehow, all those roads led me back to the kitchen…And it turns out, the kitchen was only the beginning.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Was this a smooth process? Absolutely not.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions about owning a business is that once it starts looking successful from the outside, things must have gotten easier behind the scenes.
They haven’t. The problems just get bigger and usually more expensive.
I’ve built businesses while raising three boys. I’ve survived COVID in the hospitality industry. I’ve taken financial risks without knowing for certain that they would work. I’ve had employees quit, equipment fail, vendors fall through, clients change plans, weather destroy events, food costs skyrocket, and days where I’ve worked an unbelievable number of hours only to get home and wonder if I actually made any money.
I’ve cried in walk-in coolers. I’ve cried in the Costco parking lot.
Then I wiped my face and went back to work.
One of my biggest challenges has been learning that being good at what you do and being good at running a business doing it are two completely different things.
I’m naturally a giver. I want to make things beautiful. I want to add the extra thing. I want my client to be happy. I want my staff to make good money. If there’s a problem, my first instinct is to fix it—even when fixing it costs me.
I’ve had to learn that generosity and profitability have to exist together, because eventually there won’t be a business left to be generous with.
I’ve learned about contracts because I needed better ones. I’ve learned about food costs because I’ve underpriced things. I’ve learned about staffing because I’ve made staffing mistakes. I’ve learned to set boundaries because I’ve answered clients at ridiculous hours. I’ve learned that saying “yes” helped me build my business, but knowing when to say “no” is helping me protect it.
And then there’s motherhood.
There isn’t a clean line between being a mom and being a business owner for me. My boys have been in trucks, kitchens, grocery stores, venues, loading docks, and event spaces. I’ve carried a lot of guilt wondering whether I work too much, only to remind myself that so much of the reason I work this hard is because of them.
I’m still figuring that one out.
Probably one of the hardest lessons for me personally has been accepting that being capable doesn’t mean I have to do everything myself.
I have incredible people around me. Learning to trust them, delegate, ask for help, and occasionally admit, “I cannot do all of this today,” has been harder than it probably should have been.
There have absolutely been moments when I’ve wondered what in the hell I was doing.
But I come from log trucking…
When you’re loaded on the side of a mountain and the road gets ugly, you don’t get to sit there wishing you’d picked a prettier road. You look at what you’ve got, make a decision, and keep moving.
Business has felt a lot like that!!
Some roads have been beautiful. Some have scared the hell out of me. Some have cost me money. And some have taught me lessons I really wish I could have learned a cheaper way.
But I haven’t found one yet that I couldn’t figure out how to drive.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Mom’s Kitchen Catering Co. ?
Mom’s Kitchen Catering Co. is a full-service catering and hospitality company based in Redmond, Oregon, serving Central Oregon and beyond.
We cater weddings, corporate events, retreats, private dinners, celebrations, festivals, and everything in between. Our style is approachable, generous, creative food built around the people we’re feeding—not preset packages.
I think what sets us apart is that **we aren’t afraid of complicated.**
Different location? We’ll figure it out. Dietary restrictions? We’ll make something they actually want to eat. Feeding 200 people without an ideal kitchen? Now you have my attention.
Our food is influenced by the Pacific Northwest, places I’ve traveled, and the incredible chefs and people I’ve learned from along the way. I love seasonal ingredients, smoked meats, beautiful presentation, familiar food done really well, and adding something unexpected when it makes sense.
But hospitality is just as important to me as the food. I notice whether Grandma has been served, whether the bride has eaten, whether the dietary-restricted guest received something just as thoughtful as everyone else’s meal, and whether my client is actually enjoying their event.
That same love for the entire experience eventually grew into Cedar & Sage Collective, my event planning and lifestyle design company. The businesses work independently or together—Mom’s Kitchen feeds people, and Cedar & Sage creates the world around the table.
What I’m most proud of is the trust we’ve earned. So much of our business comes from referrals and clients who come back again.
I don’t necessarily want to be the biggest catering company in Oregon.
I want to be the company people call and say, **”Okay, I have this idea…”**
Those are my favorite calls.
How do you think about happiness?
My boys. My people. Good food. Traveling somewhere I’ve never been. Being outside. A beautiful table. A ridiculous idea that somehow works.
I’m happiest when the people I love are all in the same place—usually eating something.
I love feeding people, but I also love being fed by other people. I love sitting at a table where I didn’t cook a single thing and getting to experience someone else’s creativity. I love traveling and discovering a flavor, place, or experience that makes me think differently.
I love watching my boys grow into their own people. I love my partner. I love my friends who have become family. I love having my dad heavily involved in my life and businesses, even when we’re all driving each other crazy.
And I really love creating things. Food, events, businesses, spaces, memories—it doesn’t matter much. Give me an idea and room to run with it, and I’m happy.
I think, after everything, happiness for me is pretty simple:
**Good people, good food, somewhere beautiful, and something to look forward to.**
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.momskitchencateringco.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefmariah541
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/momskitchen541
- Other: https://www.cedarsagepnw.com
