John Lee had been our chef since we opened in 2004. He and Ellen created the menu, updated it along the way, and managed every aspect of the cuisine and operations of the Bistro as it grew. But the hours John was putting in increased right along with the business.

In 2011, we decided to bring in a short-term consulting chef to give John a break, help upgrade the kitchen, and generally improve our organization. This was really successful, and late in the same year we invited Mary Kay Bader, an experienced chef and trainer from the United States, to see what she could do to help us develop things even further.

Wow, what luck to have found her! Mary Kay quickly grasped our concept of “tropical comfort food” and started working with our all-Belizean kitchen crew on new specials and eventually new menu items that fit brilliantly within our menu.  Creative fish and shellfish specials have been flowing out of the kitchen.  New menu favorites have emerged. Our wait staff have it super easy – everybody’s happy!

“Mary Kay has more experience as a chef than I have,” John says. “Plus, she has so many skills and creative talents. Our kitchen crew are like sponges, learning so many new ways to use the fantastic local ingredients that we have.  Mary Kay has a way of teaching by doing and they all have a lot of respect for her. So do I.”

While Mary Kay has trained at cooking schools in the USA and abroad, like John, she didn’t decide to pursue a career as a chef right away. After attending University she took a position as a social worker. Of course that’s a skill that comes in handy at the Bistro too…but we won’t go in to that right now.

As a trained chef working in Denver, Colorado, she gained some teaching experience at a culinary school in the city and also spent nearly 10 years at one of the consistently best restaurants in Denver — Potager. There, she was one of the key members of the team of chefs, putting her creativity and sense of taste (in more ways than one) in to every dish.

While Mary Kay missed out on the Bistro’s first Restaurant of the Year award, she was certainly a major contributor to our second award and all the accolades ever since. 

Besides her work, Mary Kay also runs an annual half marathon and volunteers in youth sports programs.

All hail Mary Kay, queen of fish specials. And bananas.