Newcomer Spotlight: Chef Richard
Finding a Home [6500 miles] Away From Home
Richard Morris was born and raised in South Africa and his passion for cooking grew out of time spent alongside his parents in his family kitchen. After completing school, he enrolled in a vocational school, City and Guilds, to further hone his skillset under classically-trained chefs.
At 21 years old, with a few years’ experience as a chef under his belt, he enrolled in a six-month work and travel program that brought him to Florida. He worked as a chef in a country club there and was able to extend his work visa five times, working at a lake resort in Arizona and ski resorts in Colorado and Utah over the following two and a half years.
Richard, now 24, returned home to South Africa where he was approached with a business opportunity. With a large German population in Capetown, an investor was looking for a chef to run a local franchise of the popular German restaurant chain, Extrablatt. Richard accepted and was at the helm there until he returned to the U.S. three years later.
Under the same work and travel program as before, Richard worked in North Palm Beach, Florida and then extended his visa to accept a position at the Rough Rider Hotel, a fine dining establishment in Medora, North Dakota. He enjoyed working with the 150 other internationals who were part of this program from all over the world, and more importantly, he found the woman he would eventually marry.
Fast forward a few years, and Richard and his wife were living in Fargo, North Dakota. He was working at a meal prep company called Power Plate Meals when a connection through his wife’s family brought Warroad into his sights. With the initial intent of opening a restaurant, Richard ended up crossing paths with Chuck Lindner, the owner of local grocery store, Doug’s Supermarket. “I quickly saw an opportunity for our business and Richard benefiting together,” recalls Lindner. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Richard soon took the reins of the deli as Department Manager. “I was a bit nervous about how it would be to translate my skills into the grocery store realm,” Richard recalled, but he soon found he liked the change of pace. “I really like the socializing of a grocery store! Normally chefs are back in the kitchen, and there are now so many people I have come to know in the community because of the grocery store.” The timing with the onset of the COVID pandemic also proved serendipitous. “If I would have opened a restaurant, I would have been closed down for months!”
“Richard is a friend. He brings a lot of life, laughter, and variety into the supermarket and the community of Warroad, who doesn’t want to be friends with someone like that?”
Now a few years in, Richard has thrived in his role. “There is a lot of variety with outdoor events like YetiFest, Taste of Warroad, and Friluftfest, and I have the freedom to source my own business and am able to do what I want.” He has been catered private and public events both large and small, with everything from omelet bars, to ethnic cuisine, to five-course fine dining, and more. One of the more notable orders of late was to prepare and package 1750 pounds of chili for a local employer! The autonomy Richard has enjoyed was by design. “Doug’s department managers have always had the ability to manage their department like their own little business. Richard brought his skills and experiences to our deli to create what we have today,” said Lindner.
Doug’s Supermarket has been a community staple for 31 years, relocating to its current site in 1994. Since then, it has grown and evolved continuously. An expansion in 2001 increased the footprint of the store, and 2013, with companies like RedBox, Netflix, and other streaming services coming to the forefront, Doug’s recaptured its movie rental space to open a Caribou Coffee shop. “We were the first to make a major investment with a sit-down coffee shop in a supermarket,” said Lindner. And with the recent renovations to the storefront, you can even sit down for a nice cup of joe outside. Now, with a thriving deli department, Linder is eyeing up new investments in that area as the next project to tackle.
Richard and his wife now have two children and have spent the last three years settling into life here in Warroad. As an outdoorsy guy, his advice to newcomers is to be positive.
“Make the best of it, it is what you make it! Winters are harsh, but there is ice fishing, Beltrami forest, camping, and so much more!”
He has appreciated the tight knit community as well, “You get to know everyone and they look out for your family. We even ended up with a close friend as the teacher for our daughter!”
You can catch Chef Richard in action at this weekend’s YetiFest event alongside Lake of the Woods Brewery, where he will be behind a fajita action station from 5-8 pm!