2018 The BBK Team
Back to Basics Kitchen (BBK) is a culmination of the formative experiences of owner Susanna Minichiello and ever evolving as our team grows and learns.
Founded in its current form in 2011, BBK has allowed Susanna to alchemize her wide variety of education, nutritional trainings and cooking styles into a comprehensive whole.
She recognizes how food choices and life can get quickly complicated. She and the team always adhere to the basics—quality ingredients as the roots of nutrition and flavor, adding love to that simple formula for guaranteed eating pleasure that is also convenient.
Current Owner and Co-Founder with Chelsea Jowell Souza (now full time mom)
Susanna’s love of cooking began in an outdoors program in high school; food prepared on
a tiny back country stove tasted impossibly delicious.
She finds food that comes from healthy, respected land and animals as the most nourishing and most tasty. She loves the sense of connection in knowing where her food comes from and who grows it.
Susanna is a graduate of the Natural Chef Program at Bauman College, a course that specialized in cooking to support health.
Other sources of inspiration include her work with Weston A. Price based Three Stone Hearth Community Supported Kitchen in Berkeley, California and the Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant in Boulder, CO (yes, for those familiar with both, it’s quite a range of nutritional philosophy and cooking styles- which is why the experiences are so valuable!).
Developing recipes that her mother, diagnosed with Celiac disease, can enjoy with family and friends without anyone noticing they are gluten-free has been some of Susanna’s most enjoyable training.
She then took this to the next level when she herself was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Using a combination of the SCD and GAPS diets and going to the root of her distress in psychotherapy, Susanna has kept her symptoms at bay for seven years.
When not cooking, you can find Susanna leading kirtan and playing harmonium for yoga classes with Love As Music, rock climbing, camping in her favorite high deserts, blues dancing, and practicing yoga.
Bri - Head Chef and In Kitchen Entertainment
With BBK since early 2013, Bri started as our first culinary student extern from Escoffier Culinary School and has since become the center of the kitchen. With menus that change every week and recipes that change every season and with every different batch of local produce, she's a master at thinking on her feet and using her kitchen intuition to make every meal consistently delicious.
Her conversation skills are second to none, and her enthusiastic story telling keeps us rolling every day. And there's no lack of subject matter with her two dogs, two cats, chickens and garden to keep her on her toes.
And she's proved herself an amazing baker despite her cake aversion since she's taken over our Paleo bakery.
Recently she's also stepped into another role and is a local source of produce from her amazing home garden. She can no longer eat store bought eggs after becoming a chicken mama.
Chef Steve - Chef, Recipe Tester and Pickle Master
Chef Steve started with us as an intern from the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in 2015. He fit in so well he, like all of our interns!, stayed on. And he's still here, with one brief leave for internship at America's Test Kitchen.
We're glad he came back and armed with lots of new recipe ideas and testing options at that. He keeps things snarky, humorous and fun in the kitchen, as well as tasty. And we're so grateful that his husband, Brian, also pitches in when we slammed.
Chef Steve helps with all our main meal preparation and cooking AND is also the owner and creator of the most delicious pickled things. Get his pickles with your next order on our menu! Learn more about his business Briste Foods here.
Amy - Badass Office Manager (the BOM) and Delivery Magician
Amy has blessed our crew since 2012 and taken on many roles, not the least of which is ensuring that no morsel of dessert is wasted.
She's also the author of the entertaining and insightful blog, Teaching Amy, about her healing journey toward self empowerment after a difficult divorce. Learn how our food and her work are helping to support her.
Chef Tim - Eyes of the Kitchen
Tim has made himself indispensible at the kitchen. Also starting as an extern from the 
Escoffier culinary school in Boulder, he's stayed on since 2014.
Whenever the rest of the ladies get distracted with other tasks, Tim inevitably rescues whatever has then been forgotten on the stove at the perfect time. He always knows where various kitchen equipment pieces have been left, and he's responsible for the perfectly golden brown crust on all your favorite vegetable patties and burgers.
He keeps the whole system running smoothly by always guessing what's needed next and being aware of all the details. And his years of restaurant work and culinary education give him a consistency and skill in his work on which we can all depend.
When he's not at the kitchen he's into gaming and trying to convince his dad of the correct way to cook pasta.
