Less than 100 years ago, it was considered inappropriate for women to dine in restaurants — let alone run them. But much has changed. This series is a tribute to the women who dedicate their time, energy and talents to making the food world a better – and more delicious – place. Check out the full "Women in Food" series.

“I’ve always loved food,” notes Mary Kastman, Chef and Owner of the forthcoming Purslane. “My family was into food. But my parents worked full time and we frequently ate on the go. So, I didn’t really discover food as a passion until later in life.” 

Kastman took on her first job in the hospitality industry at the University Club in Madison during her senior year as an English major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Impressed by the level of camaraderie she found there, she pursued a managerial role there, eventually making the decision to pursue culinary school.

“At the time, I was considering going to graduate school to pursue a career in higher education,” she says. “But I loved the tactile part of cooking. I liked the immediate gratification that it provided. I loved the flexibility of creating things on my own terms and using food to push out love into the world. In the end, cooking was more appealing than being bound to publishing scholarly work on someone else’s schedule.”

Finding a way in food

She enrolled in the culinary arts program at Madison Area Technical College.

“I had a really wonderful experience there,” she recalls. “There was never a false pretense about what you’d get out of the program. For me, it was more a matter of learning the rules before breaking them.”

When it came time to complete her internship, she chose to apply at Restaurant Morimoto where her teaching assistant, Dan Almquist worked as a pastry chef.

“I was 23 or so at the time and really was not sure how it was going to go. I was so nervous that when I dropped off my resume, I couldn’t even make eye contact with Chef Justin Carlisle.”

But as she warmed up to the work, she began to understand the purpose behind the often repetitive tasks.

“I remember washing rice for three weeks. And then I moved on to cutting peppers… it was about mastering each element. And that led up to the culmination of my internship. On the last day, Justin [Carlisle] plopped a whole black cod down on my station. It was my job to break it down.”

With a new sense of confidence, she moved on to her first job at Carlisle’s 43 North, where she tackled more modern Japanese American fare and learned the art of finding and utilizing locally grown produce and proteins that mimicked what they grew and used in Japan. She says she also developed a greater sense of tenacity when it came to approaching culinary work.

“In the game of life, men have already won,” she says. “But as a woman, you’re often walking in at a deficit. One of the things that Justin [Carlisle] taught me was that I should never apologize for taking up space. That really gave me the confidence to move forward and pursue some of the amazing opportunities that shaped my career.” 

Falling in love

The first of those opportunities came when she moved to Boston with her husband who was pursuing his studies in Philosophy and Neuroscience. As she began looking for work, she found a job at Chef Ana Sortun’s Oleana, a small plates restaurant specializing in Turkish and Middle Eastern cuisine.

“We lived in Sommerville, within walking distance of the restaurant. I’d read about her work and was intrigued. So, I dropped off a resume and they invited me to stage. After three weeks, they hired me as garde mangier. The job literally changed my life.

“The food was bold, spice forward… there was olive oil and yogurt… it turned my classical training upside down. Ana’s husband ran a farm that supplied local food to the restaurant, so  the work was a great introduction to local food. It was also where I began to develop my palate as a chef.”

After four years at Oleana, she took a five-month hiatus to work for Matthew Jennings at Townsman. Kastman says he was wonderful, but she could feel her soul drawing her back to Turkish cuisine. Sortun had opened Sarma, a tavern focused on Turkish-style meze, with Chef Cassie Piuma. So, she pursued work there.

“Working with Cassie [Piuma] was so amazing. I’ve never met a chef so whimsical in her approach, so innovative in her thinking and not pretentious at all. Her menu at Sarma was crazy. It had like 45 dishes on it that she’d change out seasonally. And she also had a separate menu of offerings that were passed around dim sum style during dinner service. I was given such a great gift to be able to work with her. It made me very organized and it really brought me to a place where I understood the value of teamwork.”

During her tenure at Sarma, Kastman worked her way up to the role of sous chef, a position that allowed her to dip her toes into teaching and culinary mentorship, skills which would prepare her for both her future role at Driftless Cafe in Viroqua and her leap years later to open her own restaurant in Milwaukee.

Making her own way

“When I had my daughter, I knew I had to make some decisions about how I wanted to approach motherhood and raising a family,” Kastman says, noting that she and her husband had discussed moving back to the Midwest.

In August of 2018, they made their move to Viroqua, Wisconsin.  

“I didn’t think I’d go back to restaurants,” Kastman says. “But I think I made it six months before I felt the draw and went back. I knew Luke [Zahm] through mutual friends. I saw him one day at the co-op and introduced myself. He invited me to come by and have coffee [at Driftless Cafe]. 

“At the time he was considering the logistics needed to transition from running Driftless Cafe to taking on the role of host for “Wisconsin Foodie”. As we talked, he inquired about my interest in taking over as executive chef.”

Kastman couldn’t refuse.

“I was there for five and a half years, and it was wonderful,” she recalls. “I had full control over the menu, and I was surrounded by local food. The whole experience made me realize that a restaurant was more than just a restaurant. It’s a means to make a social statement. It allowed me to teach people about various ingredients, techniques and show them how to enact the critical thinking necessary to make adjustments as needed and correct any mistakes that came up along the way. 

“It was also a place where farmers could come and showcase what they grew,” Kastman pauses. “That was a big one. And it helped me to establish my main goal with food: establishing a sense of place. It raised the question in my mind: How can we use what we grow right here to give people a sense of place and maybe even allow them to travel a bit… through food.”

The soul of Purslane

It’s a goal she’s taken forward into her vision for Purslane, an Eastern Mediterranean concept that she hopes to use to empower our local farming community and create connections between locally grown food and the cuisine she creates.

“Purslane is an edible and highly nutritious plant used widely in cuisines throughout the world,” she said in a December interview about the new restaurant. “It’s a plant that pops up everywhere – from farm fields and gardens to cracks in the sidewalk. It’s resilient and persistent and it’s something we see often but don’t necessarily recognize as important. For me it represents the promise of creating something extraordinary from the ordinary and a connection beyond borders.”

And connection forms the heart of both Purslane and Kastman’s philosophical approach to the culinary world.

“What I love so much about what I do is that the food is so intimate, but in a very different way from fine dining. It’s about sharing plates, ripping bread apart and really engaging with one another. It’s a really special experience, and it’s what I want to to share with people here in Milwaukee.”

Kastman recently returned from a trip to Turkey where she revisited numerous places that have inspired her in terms of both cuisine and culture.  Not only did she bring home items that will assist in shaping the overall aesthetic of the restaurant, but she also returned with a reinforced sense of purpose.

"As I come down from the high of the trip, I feel so grounded and certain about the beauty of this cuisine. What resonates for me is its ties to a sense of place. It is quintessentially what it is, and yet it is borderless.  

"I think as chefs, food lovers and humans this is an emotion we all share and strive to capture in our work. It's cuisine that utilizes all aspects of the life it represents – a melting pot that is 600 years ahead of our time. Pretty cool shit."