About Me

My name is Gareth Mark, and I live in Portland, Oregon. I have a checkered past. My first career, as a musician, included a Command Performance before H.R.H. Charles, Prince of Wales, and performances for King Hussein and Queen Alia of Jordan. My second career, as a pastry chef, featured four years at The Winchester Inn in Ashland, Oregon, and the appearance of one of my recipes in a Burt Wolf segment on CNN; the chef did the spot but completely blew the recipe. For my third career, I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and devoted a decade to genealogical research and writing. As the Internet bubble neared its peak, I began my fourth career in the high-tech industry as a database administrator with Egghead in Vancouver, Washington. After riding it into bankruptcy, I worked at a couple of start-ups that also went into bankruptcy and rendered my patent worthless. Deciding that the high-tech world was a bit too risky, I turned to the world of retail for my current career, and returned to cooking as a teacher. Interspersed throughout, I attended various colleges for some length of time, never managing to complete a single degree program, and studied eleven languages, never managing to become fluent in any of them.

I offer private and small-group instruction as well as personalized in-home catering services. Contact me via email at Gareth (at) Stumptown Savoury (dot) com  for further information.