Where Women Work | Chef Helene Henderson of Malibu Farm

Chef and owner of Malibu Farm Helene Henderson at her newest outpost in New York’s Seaport

Editor’s Note: At ROSE & IVY, we are very lucky that we get to cross paths with many talented individuals who have fascinating careers. Many of them have made us curious and made us ask—how do you break into something like that? We took that notion and decided to find out. In this series, Where Women Work, we explore a range of creative fields and tap into those who are pursuing certain paths by asking how they did it, what they have learned and advice on how to break into various fields.

For more in this series, click here

Helene Henderson opened Malibu Farm in 2013, as a pop-up restaurant on the Malibu Pier, and it was an instant success. She quickly gained many loyal customers, who flocked to savor cuisine that focused on local and organic ingredients. Today, she has expanded her restaurant empire with more locations in Southern California, in addition to Cabo, Miami, Tokyo and now New York. City dwellers can now savor California-inspired cuisine, in their own backyard, at their newest outpost in the South Street Seaport at Pier 17. Designed by Alexander Design, the space has a Scandinavian flare with elements of light wood, concrete sheepskin rugs slung over benches. The menu is rooted in their signature dishes like cauliflower crust pizza and vegan chop salad to healthy juices and coffee. We caught up with Helene, when she was recently in New York, to find out how she did various jobs until she discovered her passion and to get a glimpse into the inner workings of running a restaurant.

Meet Helene Henderson

Founder of Malibu Farm

Official Job Title:

I am the chef and owner of Malibu Farm, although I usually call myself a “cooler” lady rather than a “chef”. I spent decades dragging a cooler around for catering and private chef work so I don’t really identify as a chef.

You’re at a cocktail party and someone asks what you do. What’s your answer?

Sometimes, often or rather daily, my life becomes consumed with restaurant talk and when I go out, unless it is a work function, I try to get away from talking about the restaurant—that said, if they insist, I will say I work in a restaurant and quickly try to shift the conversation back to what they do.

Lunch is served, cauliflower pizza served alongside a vegan chopped salad and a green juice.

“ I never had any real culinary training, but the kitchen
was always my favorite place to be and I spent
a lot of time watching, observing and practicing. ”

The Scandinavian inspired interior at the New York outpost of Malibu Farm

What inspired you to become a chef?

I barely graduated from high school, and I didn't know what I wanted to do in life, being a chef was never even on my horizon. I worked in retail, in graphic design, and all sorts of random professions searching for my professional path. I never had any real culinary training, but the kitchen was always my favorite place to be and I spent a lot of time watching, observing and practicing. 

What was your first job?  

My mother was a single mom and a waitress, and I started to go to work with her at a young age, working where she worked. I preferred to be in the back with the cooks, but my jobs were always front of house positions. Although I pretty much grew up in a restaurant, I never once thought I would be a chef or owner of restaurants. It wasn’t something women did, at that time and place. Although I was always interested in cooking, nobody ever suggested that I would go to culinary school, those were not options available to me in the town where I grew up. 

How did you go about starting your company? 

I had always been cooking but never professionally. One day back in the mid 90’s I helped my friend Donna cook a company dinner for her husband's production company, Palomar Films. He then subsequently hired me to do more events, and before I knew it, I was operating my own catering company, coincidentally called Lavender Farms catering. I ran my catering company, which was fairly successful for about 15 years, but I didn’t know how or who I wanted to be, or what food I wanted to cook. I stopped catering and went into private chef work for about three years to clear my mind.

During my private chef years, I started teaching cooking classes out of my house, which were mostly for self-amusement. I started a blog to post the class recipes and started hosting dinners in my backyard.  Once my underground non-permitted restaurant outgrew the backyard, I looked for commercial locations, which is how I ended up on the pier, also more accidental than planned. 

What’s usually the first thing you do when you get into the office/restaurant in the morning?

Drink coffee!

What does a typical day look like for you? 

I wake up pretty early, usually by 5:30 am, I play on my phone for a bit, trying not to wake anyone else in the house. As soon as the sun is up, I feed all the animals, the pig, chickens, goats, dogs and the cat. I try to work out, either go to the gym or for a quick run. I usually head to the pier by 10 am and have coffee. I love coffee, but only drink one cup per day, or I get really bad caffeine headaches. Every day as a restaurant owner has something broken which needs repair, there is someone sick, missing, quitting, starting, vendors calling about skipped or missing invoices, and so on. Most of the day is spent problem solving. And then there is the emails, which never end. Every now and then, I get to make a special, but less often than I wish. 

What would you say is one misconception about your job?

In the beginning, you are super involved in the kitchen and cooking, and then as your business grows for better or worse, you are a less hands-on participator in the kitchen. Your job becomes very much a managing of people job, which isn’t a natural strength of mine. As fun it is to see your business grow, I miss that intimacy and hands-on experience in the beginning. I have had to grow a lot in my weak areas, which is dealing with people, public speaking, trying to be a fair boss and follow all labor laws and regulations. Restaurants are as much about people as they are about food. You can have the best food, but if you don’t have committed people, making your restaurant a daily reality, you really have nothing. We have had great staff retention at Malibu Farm, something I am very proud of. 

How do you navigate the highs and lows of running your business? 

All of our locations are waterfront, so we have very distinctive high and low seasons. It is very challenging to create jobs that span the entire year when the business fluctuates. We are only as good as the strength of our crew, and we can only succeed when we create real full-time jobs, but managing labor costs through slow season is definitely very difficult. 

What is the most valuable career advice you have ever been given? 

I was really operating in my own universe and did not receive that much advice. The best advice I can give on the other hand, is that sometimes when you think you are learning nothing you may be learning more than you think. When I was doing my private chef work, I was really in an emotional and career slump. Although my job was cooking for an amazing family, I was often making pasta with butter for two kids. I had been catering big events before then, and I felt I was totally overqualified for my position, I still tried to always deliver the best meal I could, even if it was just for the kids. At my low point, I imagined myself being a sixty-year-old still dragging a cooler to work.

In retrospect, I really learned a lot during those years, but I couldn’t see it at the time. If I had not endured the private chef years, I don’t think the pop-up café would have been as successful, as that time really made me understand how to build a menu that was accessible and healthy. If grandma or the kids could not eat the food I made as a private chef, that meal was a failure, which is a lesson I still live by. 

Have you had a mentor to look up to to help you navigate your industry? 

I never did in my early years. When I was catering, and I wanted to expand my repertoire of knowledge I applied to many restaurants, but I could never get hired anywhere, by anyone, which is why I went into private chef work. I never had a chef who took me under their wing and taught me the way. Everything I learned I had to sort out on my own. 

That said, once I opened the pier short-term pop-up café, one of my first customers who just randomly came in, was Meir Teper from the Nobu group. He came for breakfast almost every day and we started talking, and he has been instrumental in mentoring me and guiding the growth of my business. 

What’s your advice to those looking to run a successful restaurant?

You need a clear vision of what your restaurant is going to be and how you will differentiate from other similar restaurants, and although you want to serve “everyone” you also need a clear understanding of who your core customer base is, and always stay focused on them. Labor has gotten more and more hard to find, everyone wants to be a chef, but nobody wants to be a cook, and without cooks you don’t have a restaurant, staff retention, especially in the back of house is probably the most important key to success.  There is always something broken in a restaurant, so sometimes I think coming from a construction background can be more beneficial than being from a culinary background. 

Photography by Alison Engstrom