(Owner Brandy Salazar has ten years of experience in the food industry | Photo courtesy of Andrea Hine)
“I fell in love with the chaos of cooking in culinary school,” said Brandy Salazar, “when students were warned that ‘if you don’t love it, get out.’ But even juggling subsequent jobs such as preparing meals in a community college cafeteria, teaching students how to bake, working in a sushi restaurant, and helping with banquets at a local casino, “didn’t break me. And I didn’t have a car at the time to get from one place to another.”
Now with ten years of experience in the food industry, Salazar met her boyfriend while both were culinary students. “It’s a real love story,” she said. After the couple moved to La Pine, Salazar’s brother-in-law — “God bless him” — built the food truck that subsequently became The Chubby Duck.
Salazar’s boyfriend, who had previously worked at a “high-end, fancy Italian restaurant, and became an expert in pasta, helped me with the logistics and the menu,” she said, “but I made it my own. Everything goes with everything.”
At The Chubby Duck, located behind Badlands Artisan Distillery in La Pine, customers follow four steps: 1) pick your base (pasta, gnocchi, or dinner salad); 2) sauce it up (house-made marinara, alfredo sauce, pesto cream sauce, or butter wine sauce); 2) toss in vegetables (multiple options range from asparagus to zucchini); and 4) add a protein (chicken, meatballs, shrimp, or steak).
All the produce is locally sourced, and everything on the menu is homemade, Salazar said — except the pasta — including house focaccia (a classic Italian bread), the sauces, and gluten-free gnocchi (potato-based dumplings). Also featured in a rotating list of Chef Duck’s Favorites such as Marinara and Meatballs, Chicken Alfredo, and Pesto Steak.
Business at The Chubby Duck, which opened in January 2023, is “doing much better than expected,” Salazar said, “even though it’s just me here.”
She has found the experience of owning her own business “humbling” when customers compliment the experience of eating there as “very enjoyable, with a pleasant atmosphere,” describe the pasta as “absolutely delicious,” and characterize her as “a great person to be around.”
“Thank you for the praise,” Salazar typically responds, “but I’m just a cook.” She will admit, however, that “the customers’ enjoyment inspires me to be more creative.”
