Farming for Health Podcast #29: Chef Zane Holmquist

Lasagna and pickled herrings . . . taco night with pickled beets on the side . . . Chef Zane Holmquist has Swedish ancestry on both sides, so he grew up with American meals that had plenty of Scandinavian input. His mom was an “amazing cook” who managed multiple restaurants, so he grew up in a food-centric family and environment.

His mom would make a deal with her kids, including Zane. Stay out of trouble, and you won’t have to wash dishes in a restaurant. Zane’s siblings took that route whereas he found himself in trouble enough that he spent a significant amount of dish washing in the 1970s. Fortunately, the chef there kept him out of trouble. 

Throughout high school, Zane cooked. He didn’t enjoy academic pursuits, dealing with dyslexia and other challenges. Education simply wasn’t his thing. He didn’t enjoy classroom structure, which is true of many people living with dyslexia; it just wasn’t his happy place. 

After his school, a chef got Zane into a culinary apprenticeship program at the Salt Lake Community College, which helped him to transition from being a cook to a chef. He learned about the business side of the restaurant industry and health and nutrition information. 

Next up was the Culinary Industry of America (CIA) in New York. He graduated in 1991 and gained experience as a chef in Manhattan, Hawaii, Palm Springs, and Utah where he worked in a large brewery. Then, he and his wife moved on the mountain where he ran a small hotel for six years. Then, for the past twenty-three and a half years, he’s remained on the mountain, working for the Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley. Initially, he served as the executive chef; he’s now the vice president of food and beverage.

To hear the rest of Zane’s amazing journey—and there’s plenty more!—you can listen to our Farming for Health podcast: Triathlons, Eat to Nourish, and Be Bold With Your Cooking.

Past Episodes of our Farming for Health Podcast

If you’ve missed any of our previous episodes, you can find them here:

• Episode One: Keto, Cruciferous Vegetables, Salt and Your Mindset
• Episode Two: Cooking, Conviviality, and Preserving the Harvest
• Episode Three: Ferments, Food Insecurity, and Wasted Food
• Episode Four: Anti-Cancer Diet, Food as Medicine, and Vegetables
• Episode Five: Plants, Happiness and Mindful Neglect.
• Episode Six: Whole 30, Sustainable Habits, and Loving Vegetables
• Episode Seven: Iodine, Egg Yolk Enzymes, and Miso
• Episode Eight: Fungi, Bitter Foods, and Food Extinction
• Episode Nine: Understanding Food, Nutritional Healing and Farming
• Episode Ten: Enjoying the Process, Connection and Soup
• Episode Eleven: Monica Geller, Community and Limiting Salads 
• Episode Twelve: Nourishment, Creativity, and Full-Spectrum Health
• Episode Thirteen: The Joy of Cooking, Fermentation, and Seasonality 
• Episode Fourteen: Cauliflower, Potlucks, and the Joy of Food
• Episode Fifteen: Time Savers, Pickled Raisins and Cooking With Creativity
• Episode Sixteen: Romanticizing Food, Seasonal Eating, and Shamed Spinach
• Episode Seventeen: Being Present, The Eat In Method and Food as Fuel
• Episode Eighteen: Regenerative Grazing, Monarchs and Voting with Your Dollar 
• Episode Nineteen: Childhood Injustice, Soil Health, and Relationship with Nature
• Episode Twenty: Yoga, Climate Changes, and Creating a Livable Future
• Episode Twenty-One: Understanding the Soul, Flow State, and Finding Your Purpose
• Episode Twenty-Two: Regenerative Food Systems, Food Sheds, and Resiliency 
• Episode Twenty-Three: Leaning In: Culinary Trends and the Power of Teaching
• Episode Twenty-Four: Mentorship, Self-Care, and Hospitality
• Episode Twenty-Five: Community, Self-Care, and Mindset Tools
• Episode Twenty-Six: Sustainability, Koji Coffee, Being Intentional 
• Episode Twenty-Seven: Finding Your Passion, Picky Eaters, and Cooking for Levi
• Episode Twenty-Eight: Creativity. Brining Vegetables and Family Pasta Night