Growing up, my mom made everything from scratch - while our meals may not have been fancy or intricate, they were always done well and with love. That's the idea that I carry with me every day into The Majestic - do what we do, classic American food, well, and with love.

I started in my first restaurant job at 21, learning the basics of a commercial kitchen: from baking, to breakfast, to catering and dinner service. Throughout my career I have had the opportunity to work with some talented individuals that taught me a lot! In 1993 I was hired by Chef Lil Miller of Passport Restaurant fame in Everett. I learned much of my cooking style from her and am very appreciative. After Passport closed I took a couple of interim jobs that gave me the connections that earned me the Sous Chef position at 22 Fountain Court Restaurant in Bellevue. While I was working there, I met my future business partner, Scott Simpson (current owner of Fork Restaurant in Seattle).

In December of 2000, Scott Simpson and I opened the Blue Onion Bistro, in Seattle's U-district. During our 4 year tenure at the Blue Onion we garnered great reviews from the Seattle newspapers, a couple of mentions in Bon Appetit, and a lengthy article in Sunset magazine. We sold Blue Onion Bistro in May of 2004 and I took some much needed time off!

In early 2005, I met the owners of The Majestic Café, Scott Lord and Sean Foerst. Initially they were looking for someone to consult with on opening their own place. After a brief “courtship,” they enticed me to become their chef. It's been a great partnership because they gave me the guidelines of what they wanted and let me create the dishes and recipes to suit our styles and tastes.

When we were looking for a chef for the restaurant we went to Lil and Nan, former owners of The Passport Restaurant, and current owners of Pavé Bakery, in Everett. Scott had also worked at Passport, many years before, and was enamored with their style of food and the quality they presented (especially their buttermilk fried chicken!). They recommended Susan as a potential consultant and possible chef. After meeting her and talking to her about our ideas and her ideas about food we were in complete harmony, and we “stole” her away…

Our experience with Susan as our chef has been the best we could possibly imagine and more…we ask for classic American dishes, like Mac n Cheese, Meatloaf, Fried Chicken, etc., and she creates dishes that make our guests not only stop in their tracks, but sing our praises! We created the idea and the concept of The Majestic, but Chef Susan has truly created the food, and for that we sing her praises, too!