Brittany Figel
Chef & Sommelier

It all begins with an idea. The Gold Pan didn’t start as a business venture, it started with a passion for food and creativity. Since I was a child, I’ve enjoyed creating my own recipes and watching my parents cook in the kitchen. I’ve always felt that knowing how to feed yourself and having a few basic recipes in your back pocket was a vital skill. As I came into my adulthood this skill began to develop further. I realized that cooking never felt like a chore for me, it felt like therapy. I love improvising in the kitchen and going off instinct. It’s how I’ve come up with some of my best recipes. Once I had a solid base of knowledge to make most simple-advanced weeknight recipes, I decided I wanted to push myself further, to see where my ambition could take me. Recently, I bought a home and had a real kitchen for the first time where I could fully dive into my passion. I set out on a personal journey to try making the toughest dishes in the world, at home. I’ve ticked off several from the list, including chocolate souffle, which has become one of my favorite recipes to make. An interest about what I was doing began to grow amongst my community with many asking if they could try the dishes I was making and thus, The Gold Pan was born.

As a certified sommelier and a food lover, I’ve realized that there tends to be a disconnect in knowledge about wine, food, and how they interact. I want to bridge that gap. For The Gold Pan, I decided that I would create multi-course meals with a wine pairing. The menu is created around a note from the wine pairing (flowers, smoke, blackberries, etc.) and that note is incorporated into each course of the meal, sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle. At the beginning of dinner service, a tasting activity is conducted to allow guests to see firsthand how the food and wine will interact and how they might experience it throughout their meal. The Gold Pan dinners are small and intimate, with only six seats per dinner, allowing guests to expand their community as often no one knows who will be at the table.

As I continue to grow in my culinary journey, I hope to feed and inspire my community while further developing my skills and taking my meals to the next level. I hope to see you at the table!