If you’re lucky — and a bit patient — Chef Kellie Joe might just let you into her backyard for an invite-only dinner at her custom-built venue, the Patio Oasis.
After decades of working to make it a reality, the Pleasant Hill chef and former culinary educator says she’s finally living her dream: offering fully legal food experiences from her backyard, where she cooks up fresh pizzas topped with eggs from her chickens and basil harvested from her herb garden.
The former Monte Vista High School culinary teacher pivoted to entrepreneurship around 12 years ago, but struggled with the overhead costs associated with running her online pizza store Queen of Crusts and her private pizza chef program Chicks and Love Pizza. At the time, the law mandated that she could only cook in a commercial kitchen, which was costly to rent. And even with a cottage food permit, she was allowed to prepare pizza dough to sell, but couldn’t cook or slice the toppings.
“Having a small food business is not for the faint of heart,” she says…