Today we’d like to introduce you to Sibby Barrett.
Hi Sibby, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have been in the floral, event planning, bakery, restaurant, and cooking instructor businesses for 45+ years, through managing a floral company, owning a bakery and restaurant and running a cooking school, bed and breakfast and event venue.
I relocated from Dallas 25 years ago to the Hill Country to start Onion Creek Kitchens at Juniper Hills Farm. Four years ago I sold the property where my commercial kitchen and event venue was and moved to a smaller property to concentrate on teaching smaller private classes, cooking for small private dinner parties as well as continuing to teach at my previous space for the new owners. I also cook for non profit events and recently helped our local community center upgrade their kitchen to commercial standards to enable them to serve the community in a larger way.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’d say nothing seems smooth until it’s in your rear view. Taking on new projects and pivoting, especially as you get older (more experienced!), is always a challenge. But I have no regrets for all the many experiences I have been fortunate enough to try. Running retail businesses is hard with so many variables to deal with. I love the simplicity of my recent ventures, focusing on what I truly love to do, cook and teach.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I ran a retail florist for about 11 years. I started the day it opened and it became a high volume store . We were doing about 12-18 weddings a week when I left. I got so much experience in retail and events.
I then started my bakery-restaurant, Dallas Affaires Cake Company. The bakery is still in operation today. We also did high volume baking, mostly highly decorated layer cakes and baked goods. Again, lots of learning on the retail and employee side, lots of back of the house for the little restaurant, coffee bar, breakfast, lunch and dinner. So much of all of that isn’t about the joy of cooking, baking or hosting.
These many years prepared me for so much of what I do today with teaching people how to cook and entertain with ease and a “no worries” approach. Cooking for entertaining and for your family should come from a relaxed and loving place without feeling like you are doing something wrong.
I love my cooking classes so much, it feels like a bunch of friends cooking together.
How do you define success?
Being happy with what you do and being able to make sense of your effort vs the rewards.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sibbybarrett.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sibbybarrett/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juniperhillsfarm
