About Me
March 16, 2009 · 12 comments

Portrait

My name is Gareth Mark, and I live in Asheville, North Carolina. I have a checkered past. My first career, as a musician, included a Command Performance before H.R.H. Charles, Prince of Wales, and performances for King Hussein and Queen Alia of Jordan. My second career, as a pastry chef, featured four years at The Winchester Inn in Ashland, Oregon, and the appearance of one of my recipes in a Burt Wolf segment on CNN; the chef did the spot but completely blew the recipe. For my third career, I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and devoted a decade to genealogical research and writing. As the Internet bubble neared its peak, I began my fourth career in the high-tech industry as a database administrator with Egghead in Vancouver, Washington. After riding it into bankruptcy, I worked at a couple of start-ups that also went into bankruptcy and rendered my patent worthless. Deciding that the high-tech world was a bit too risky, I turned to the world of retail for my current career, returned to cooking as a teacher, and now bake artisanal pastries and breads for a living. Interspersed throughout, I attended various colleges for some length of time, never managing to complete a single degree program, and studied eleven languages, never managing to become fluent in any of them.

Contact me via email at Gareth (at) Stumptown Savoury (dot) com  for further information.

Categories:

  • Suzan

    Nice looking site!

  • glmark

    Thanks! Thanks to Cristoph it’s getting better.

  • dan

    hey gareth, i think i saw you yesterday getting on a bus down at 5th and davis…you reading heat? that book changed my life..keep fighting the good fight!

  • Gareth Mark

    That was me alright, coming off giving a couple of tours at the Portland Classical Chinese Garden. Heat is a lot of fun to read. Reminds me of some good (and not so good) times in restaurant kitchens.

  • http://powderate.blogspot.com Lee Ann Foster

    Hello Gareth,

    I’ve just jumped into the fray and am finding this community of people a welcoming group and feel privileged to be able to intersect with such a broad and dynamic field of articulate and capable foodies. Your background is encompassing, and now food is all the better for it. Lee Ann.

  • http://hummingbirdhollowraedi@hotmail.com Rachael

    A fellow Northwestern-er! You may not have a degree on paper, but you do have one on life, you have walked in all directions, not everyone can say they have….RaeDi

  • Marlene Botkin

    Hello Gareth

    I found your site and was glad to know you were still around. I had lost contact with you years ago. Are you still doing any genealogy?

    Your distant cousin

  • http://agirlandhercarrot.wordpress.com Jen (A Girl and Her Carrot)

    Inspiring. Coming from someone who is now following what inspires her…I love the path you’ve endured. I relate to the musician and chef in you. I have only found pleasure in the people I’ve met through the foodbuzz community! Happy cooking!

  • Hisperson

    It appears you love to play with bread recipes. I recently was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, an auto immune disease. Basically this means I cannot eat anything that contains wheat, barley or rye. I so miss eating good breads, sweet rolls, etc.

    I have several recipes that are supposed to produce breads that “taste just the same, and you can’t tell the difference.” I even bought a bread machine that is supposed to handle making gluten free bread. So far, only the corn bread I have made comes even close to the taste and texture of wheat based breads.

    Would you like a challenge? I would love to see you develop a recipe for delicious bread that is safe to eat for a person with Celiac. Care to give it a try?

  • http://stumptownsavoury.com Gareth @ Stumptown Savoury

    A good gluten-free bread is on my to-do list. I’m not making much progress,
    but I’ll keep trying.

  • Anonymous

    Very interesting life!  You sound like a doer and not just a dreamer.  And you paint?

  • http://stumptownsavoury.com Gareth @ Stumptown Savoury

    I *have* painted, but I don’t paint, and it’s probably for the best, because I don’t think I was any good. But I’ve been tempted to try again.

top