Meet Sophie Hollingsworth: Igniting A New Kind of Catering
What do you get when you combine fire, food, travel and adventure?
In my years writing about travel, I’ve come to learn a lot about cuisine and how it relates to different cultures and new destinations. I familiarized myself with foraging, indigenous ingredients and sustainable cooking techniques, but it wasn’t until recently that the term ‘adventure cooking’ was brought to my attention by Sophie Hollingsworth.
Hollingsworth runs a company with this term at its core, thus aptly named, Taste For Adventure.
“I light fires and build spits in some highly unusual places to bring a taste of adventure to people's own backyards for dining experiences of a lifetime,” she tells me. “Imagine if Indiana Jones and Martha Stewart teamed up to throw a dinner party outside.”
The concept was somewhat of a longtime coming for Hollingsworth, who traces her motivation back to an early obsession with travel. “I devoured articles in National Geographic about deforestation and tribes disappearing at alarming rates. I was mesmerized by photos of the Amazon and cultures whose names I couldn’t pronounce,” she shares. “I remember feeling this immense sense of urgency along with the realization that we could be a part of the last generation to live in a world where such places even exist. So I decided to set off in places that others had written off as too remote, too wet, or too dangerous, in an attempt to see them before they disappeared.”
These adventures led Hollingsworth to work on a private super-yacht, beginning as a stewardess and working her way up to become the world’s youngest female to obtain a 200-ton captain’s license. After seven seasons onboard, Hollingsworth realized, “I wanted to do more.” And that’s what led her to Australia, where she planned to conduct a multi-year Fulbright research study on bio-terrorism. “Much of this work could be done remotely and there were vast parts of Australia that I wanted to see but were only accessible by helicopter or four-wheel drive. Never one to ease into things, I bought an old Toyota Land Cruiser without any four-wheel driving experience, learned how to drive it, and then set off to cross Australia East to West all without using any paved roads; essentially crossing some of the world’s most remote desserts.”
During her cross-country, dessert adventure, Hollingsworth refused to sacrifice her health and food quality, so she began relying on the land and cooking over fires. This is when the foundations for Taste For Adventure were accidentally laid. I chatted with Hollingsworth who shares the twist of fate that led her to where she is now—cooking over fire everywhere from backyard parties in Florida to private islands in the Caribbean.
What was one of the first meals you cooked on fire in the outback? What about the most memorable?
Many of my most creative and memorable meals in the outback stemmed from the need to be resourceful (I had a limited “kitchen” in the back of my Land Cruiser) and the need to be flexible to the produce and food available. For instance in regional Northern Territory there were a limited selection of vegetables for sale, and by that I mean there were pumpkins or beef available.
So I bought pumpkins and thought I would roast the entire pumpkin over the fire. When I finally had roasted the pumpkin long enough over the embers, I realized I didn’t have a knife that was large enough to make a dent into carving the pumpkin. So I got resourceful and utilized the next best thing: an axe and four-wheel drive recovery shovel to theatrically smash the whole pumpkin. After smashing it, the pumpkin was in small enough bits for my pocket knife and this turned into one of my signature party tricks that my clients consistently request at their own events (even though I have a complete set of knives now).
Tell me more about the bacon photo that you posted on Instagram, which ultimately sparked the concept of your business. How did you decide to run with the idea?
Just outside of Oodnadatta, South Australia I built a tiny spit with sticks and hung bacon over the fire to cook it for breakfast, all without using any pots or pans. I posted the photograph on Instagram mainly so my mom would know I was alive and eating—and got a shockingly wide response.
This evocative, fire, meat, outback image resonated with everyone from Walmart greeters in the deep South to finance execs in Manhattan, and I realized I had accidentally struck a chord with what was just my breakfast.
Initially I didn’t intend for it to turn into a business (or even a side hustle for that matter). However, I decided to run with the idea because I realized it was a unique way to get people outside and interacting with nature and food. I knew that I cared about conservation and the environment in some of the most remote places in the world because...
I had the opportunity to travel and spend time in these awe-inspiring remote locations. But I recognize that is a luxury that not everyone has nor would want to embrace. But what if I could bring elements of those adventures and conversations about the environment into people's own backyards? What if I could turn my survival skills, that I have developed through adventuring in remote and exotic lands into the dinner party of a lifetime?
What has been one of the biggest learning experiences of starting your own business rooted in cuisine and travel?
You can’t please everyone, and learning to say 'no' more to opportunities that are not in line with my business' true north.
What kind of experiences do you currently curate and do you have any exciting opportunities we can get involved with on the horizon?
I bring food experiences such as whole fish, sustainably speared from local water, nailed to a tree stump nestled atop a bed of herbs and onions served with homemade bread cooked around a stick that crumbles into break-apart bites; all food elements sharing a broader story of the ecosystem around us.
Creating food experiences that snap people out of their everyday routine and inspire deeper connections with the surrounding environment, ranging in events from corporate activations, private celebrations such as birthdays and weddings, content creation events for brands, and of course classes in over-the-fire cooking.
Food and wine are hopefully delicious, but I like to think that my guests have been touched by a lifestyle experience. I want to inspire people to think outside of the box, to embrace possibilities beyond a kitchen or BBQ and see nature with potential.
Can you explain more about the process of foraging and working with invasive or indigenous ingredients?
I believe a healthy relationship with food is about awareness and responsibility; a commitment to understanding what it takes to get that food to your plate. So part and parcel to that is foraging, harvesting, hunting our own foods whenever possible and also integrating invasive species into our diets and menus because we’ve got to eat ‘em to beat ‘em.
In terms of indigenous ingredients, I always love working with traditional flavors and learning traditional cooking practices. I got my start working on water access with some of the world’s most remote communities (the San Bushmen in Namibia, the female chiefs in Vanuatu, and Miskit Indians in Nicaragua and some of the remote communities in Madagascar) the women were always so generous in teaching me their cooking practices and traditional ingredients. So now, whenever possible I like to integrate some of these techniques or spices into my own cooking and events as a way of ensuring the traditional knowledge continues to live on.
Do you work with locals to ensure you’re sourcing the freshest ingredients or do you take on the brunt of the research?
To ensure I am sourcing the freshest most sustainable ingredients there is typically a mix between my personal internet/book research and talking to the local farmers, fishermen, and hunters. Google could never compare to the local wisdom and boots on the ground.
What is one of the most bizarre foods you’ve worked with?
Fish scales (inspired by Josh Niland’s Saint Peter in Sydney, Australia).
Xo,
J